SIKKIM: Rethink plea on skywalk, plant – fresh proposals ready

FROM THE TELEGRAPH


Baleydhunga, where the skywalk is proposed; Picture by Prabin Khaling
Gangtok, Dec. 17: The Sikkim government is planning to request the Centre to reconsider the Rs 750 crore skywalk project in Maenam wildlife sanctuary and the proposal for a 96mw Lethang hydro power plant in Yuksom.

The standing committee of the National Board of Wildlife under the ministry of forest and environment had struck down both the proposals in October.

The Sikkim government had sought approval for a survey for the skywalk as Baleydhunga — where the Rs 750 crore project was proposed — falls under Maenam wildlife sanctuary in South Sikkim. The 13th finance commission had already awarded Rs 200 crore for the project.

The Union environment and forests minister, Jairam Ramesh, is the chairperson of the standing committee of the wildlife board.

Sources said although no reasons had been cited by the committee for striking down the proposal for the skywalk, the Sikkim forest department has reworked the project and submitted a report to the state government for the approval.

“In the report, the cost of the project has been scaled down to Rs 750 crore from Rs 1,200 crore. The requirement of forestland has also been cut down from six hectares to 2.5 hectares,” said a source.

A senior forest officer said if the government approved the revised project, the draft would be sent to the Union forest ministry with a request that the proposal be placed at the next meeting of the standing committee.

The skywalk was proposed by an international consultancy last year in a rocky spur of Baleydhunga hilltop at an altitude of 10,102 feet.
The firm mooted the construction of three finger-shaped glass skywalks, which will be connected by a tunnel and accessible through a ropeway from the nearby town of Yangyang, 70km from Gangtok.

The forest department has also reworked the proposal for the power plant on the Rathung Chu. If the government approves the new draft, the proposal will be again forwarded to the Union forest ministry with a request for reconsideration at the next meeting of the wildlife board.

According to the sources, the standing committee of the wildlife board had rejected the proposal without considering the merits and demerits of the project.

“Instead of considering the project from the wildlife angle and the full support given by the local people during a public hearing at Yuksom, the committee rejected the proposal on religious and cultural grounds,” said a forest officer.

The standing committee had reportedly taken into account the concerns raised by the Sikkim Bhutia Lepcha, a non-political organisation, and a section of monks. Their grouse was that the project would hurt the sentiments of the Buddhists in Sikkim as the Rathong Chu is considered a sacred river by the believers.

The best way to secure future happiness is to be as happy as is rightfully possible today.

Charles W. Eliot (1834-1926)
Educator

HH Dalai Lama on spiritual retreat in Sikkim

 December 17th, 2010
 DHARAMSHALA: His Holiness has begun a two-day spiritual retreat at the 17th century Tashiding monastery, one of the most sacred and holiest Buddhist monasteries in Sikkim.
It lies nestled on the top of a hill that looms up between the Rathong river and the Rangit river and is surrounded by a profusion of Prayer flags that flutter in the air.
The monastery was built in 1641by Ngadak Sempa Chembo who belonged to Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Ngadak was one of the three wise men who held the consecration ceremony crowning the first King of Sikkim at Yuksom. It was extended and renovated in 1717 during the reign of the third Chogyal Chakdor Namgyal. The sacred ceremony of Bumchu is held here at midnight of the 14th & 15th of the first Tibetan month.
Prior to going into the two-day retreat, His Holiness paid a visit to Tashiding Monastery’s Chogyal Temple, following which he attended a ceremony. The monastic community and local Indian lawmakers presented Mendrel Tensum (auspicious prayer offerings) to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
His Holiness also gave oral transmissions of sacred texts to over 300 people gathered to receive his blessings. He told them about the importance to undertake study of Buddha’s teachings. He also gave audience to two senior leaders of the state government and other local officials.
This is His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s sixth visit to India’s north eastern state of Sikkim. The first visit was made in 1956 on his way to attend the 2500th birth anniversary of Lord Buddha in India and at that time due to heavy snowfall on the way to Tibet he had stayed in Sikkim for nearly a month. He paid his second visit from 16-17 October 1981 during which he gave teachings and visited Pemayangste and Tashiding monastery. At the invitation of Sikkim government, His Holiness paid his third visit to the region in 1992 during which he gave the 18th Kalachakra teachings. The fourth visit was made from 21 – 24 October 1997. His Holiness paid his fifth visit to Sikkim from 20 – 27 April 2005 during which he took him to Gangtok, Rawangla and Namtse.
Following his two-day retreat on 16 and 17 December, His Holiness will visit Rawangla and  Gangtok.

Source: Bloomberg (2010 data till Dec 9) Recent correction notwithstanding, silver has been on a tear in 2010. While gold has also given good returns, silver has handily beaten its precious metal counterpart. However, will the trend repeat itself in 2011? Maybe not if the data for the past 20 years is any indication. Today's chart of the day plots the average gold/silver ratio. As the chart shows, the two decade long average stands at around 67. In other words, same quantity of gold is 67 times more expensive than silver. As of now though, the ratio stands in the region of 50. In other words, if the ratio were to go back to long term average of 67, gold will have to rise at a faster rate than silver. However, investors take the data seriously at their own peril. A lot more detailed study is perhaps required before one considers playing the two precious metals. What can be said with certainty though is the fact that with paper currency losing value day by day, both of these metals are likely to outperform cash in the long term.

Data source: IMF

GOING BEYOND TRADE- HINDU EDITORIAL

  

The dramatic surge in bilateral trade is the biggest story on the India-China front in the past decade. But persistent imbalances are threatening to erode the consensus on the Indian side that the two countries can simply buy their way to a better relationship. What makes the visit this week of Wen Jiabao especially significant is the message the Chinese Premier sent out that he understood India's concerns on the question of market access and would try to find ways of resolving them. Other positives on the economic side to flow from Mr. Wen's visit were the announcements on a Strategic Economic Dialogue, the creation of a CEOs' forum, and the agreement between banking regulators, which will hopefully allow better synergy between the commercial operations and the financial requirements of Indian and Chinese companies doing business across the border. If China is able to unlock its markets for Indian goods and services, especially in the pharma and IT sectors, the new trade target of $100 billion can easily be achieved before 2015. If not, trade will continue to grow but the ballooning deficit will be like an albatross around the neck of the India-China partnership.

On the political front, the Chinese side failed to ‘unstaple' the issue of distinctive visas it grants to Indian citizens from Jammu and Kashmir who wish to travel to China. India has been complaining about this Chinese policy — which it regards as an affront to Indian sovereignty and territorial integrity — for more than a year, to no avail. “Our policy on Kashmir has not changed” is the only thing the Chinese side would say. This time, however, Premier Wen went a small step further and acknowledged this was an issue that needed resolution through “consultations.” Since China unilaterally adopted the stapled-visa policy, the ball is in its court. In consequence, the Indian side held back from the joint statement this time the standard formulations on Tibet and ‘One China.' It is not as if India's policy towards the territorial integrity of China has changed. But the point has been made, more or less in public, that respect for core national concerns must be mutual. This prickly issue apart, the Wen visit produced several new positives on the strategic front, most notably the decision to meet more often at the summit level and an agreement to work together against piracy in the Gulf of Aden. India and China should lose no time in implementing this aspect of the joint statement, and use it as a stepping stone for a full-fledged dialogue on the broader issue of maritime security and freedom of navigation. It is vital that the momentum achieved in the relationship between the two neighbours, the world's most talked-about rising powers, is sustained.

7 lakh tourists flow to Sikkim in 2010

FROM HAALKHABAR.NET

Gangtok, Dec 17: Even as the state oppositions continue to hammer the state government regarding the improper infrastructure of tourism in the state, the sector is still hitting the pinnacle in the tourist flow in the state.

As per the statistical data on tourist arrival in the state till the month of October, this year has been recorded to 597154 in case of domestic and 16485 internationals, which records the highest flow since 2005, informed the state tourism secretary SBS Bhaduria.

“The flow of tourist in the state has increased by many folds and by forthcoming years, we are hopeful that the momentum will be the same and much more as the department has in store the various programmes and projects in order to promote the existing tourism”, he underlined.

With the statistical data of the tourist in-flow in the state during the last two months, the department is optimistic that the inflow will be around 7 lakh, recording the highest.

As per the information gathered from the department, the international tourists venturing the state are mostly from United Kingdom, USA, Germany, France, Australia, Thailand and Japan, whereas the domestic wanderers are mostly from West Bengal, Maharastra, Gujarat, Delhi, UP, Rajasthan, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand.

Furthermore, apart form mobilizing tourist to the hot spots, the tourism department, travel associations and hotel and restaurant associations have been putting every efforts to elevate tourism sector of the state and have been working on introducing various new concepts on tourism sector in the state like village tourism, pilgrimage tourism, home stay, eco-tourism, adventure tourism and many more.

SIKKIM CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE, SPIRITUALITY AND EDUCATION

To learn of Buddha’s science, be at Chintan Bhawan this Tuesday

GANGTOK, 17 Dec, 2010:

Session-2 of the international conference on “Science, Spirituality and Education”, scheduled for next Tuesday, 21 December, will take participants on a journey of discovery, covering the scientific core of Buddha’s discovery, introducing them to the role of science in the dissemination of Buddhism and sharing how Theravada Buddhism perceive the human mind.

This session, themed “Understanding our Mind”, will be chaired by Prof. B. Alan Wallace, Director and Chairman, Phuket International Academy Mind Centre, Thailand, who will also be delivering the key-note address on the inaugural day of the conference a day earlier, on 20 Dec.

The three speakers for this session are ranked among the leading academic minds on Buddhist thought: Prof. Robert AF ‘Tenzin’ Thurman, Prof. JL Garfield and Prof Asanga Tilakaratne.

Prof. Thurman, the Jey Tsong Khapa professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University and President and co-founder of Tibet House US, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization, will deliberate on how, when the Buddha made a scientific discovery and not just a religious belief when discovered that “the mind” (citta) is the CPU of sentient experience, and the main determiner of the quality of the life of a being.

An abstract of his paper for the conference points out that Buddha also “discovered that it is free of any non-relational core (svabhava) or soul-essence (atma). This was a scientific discovery, not a religious belief. Through his discovery of the absolute truth of voidness, he founded a tradition of empirical science, asserting that ultimate reality transcends anyone’s relative description.”

Prof Thurman, who is also Editor-in-Chief of the Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences, a long-term translation and publication project of the Tibetan Tengyur canon, and a personal friend of the Dalai Lama, adds that “there are various levels of analysis, Abhidharmic, Sastric, and Tantric, which last has the most subtle schemas. Its fine analysis of conscious and unconscious mind is specially germane today, to bring Buddhist “Inner Science” into fruitful dialogue with physics, neuroscience, and psychology.”

Prof. Thurman is also the first American to have been ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk.

Prof. Garfield, will be following up on this address with a meditation on the “value of cognitive theory for developing Buddhist insights in the 21^st Century, and the role of science in the dissemination of Buddhism in the world”.

He will be detailing this aspect, emphasising the importance of recent research for understanding the “deep phenomenology of human experience which is also the target of much Busshist psychology and philosophy of mind”.

A Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Five College Tibetan Studies in India Program and Director of the Logic Program at Smith College, adds in his abstract: “Enthusiasts for the scientific character of Buddhism wax eloquent regarding the insights that the Buddhist tradition can deliver to Cognitive Science, and the contributions that meditative technique can make to understanding cognitive and affective processes. To be sure, there are contributions in this direction, though their significance may be overestimated. Less attention is paid to the value of cognitive theory for developing Buddhist insights in the 21st Century, and the role of science in the dissemination of Buddhism in the modern world. I will pay some attention to that value, emphasizing the importance of recent research for understanding the deep phenomenology of human experience which is also the target of much Buddhist psychology and philosophy of mind. I conclude with some remarks on the potential value of Buddhist psychology to the development of moral psychology, an area in which Buddhism has a great deal to contribute.”

The third paper for this session will be presented by Prof Asanga Tilakaratne from Sri Lanka who will speak on what is mind from the Theravada perspective. “A way to approach this question is to examine some key terms used in the early discourses of the Buddha to refer to mind,” explains the Professor who completed his Doctorate from the University of Hawaii in Comparative Philosophy writing his thesis on the problem of ineffability of religious experience.

In 2004, with a group of academics and professionals, he formed Damrivi Foundation, a Buddhist organization for spiritual, social and economic development, and functions as the chairman of its board of trustees.

This intense session will definitely benefit from Prof Wallace on the chair. Prof. Wallace is respected the world over as a a dynamic lecturer, progressive scholar and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.

Prof. Wallace is respected in academic and spiritual circles for his consistent pursuit of innovative ways to integrate Eastern contemplative practices with Western science to advance the study of the mind. A scholar and practitioner of Buddhism since 1970, Prof Wallace has been teaching Buddhist theory and meditation since 1976 and is himself a Tibetan Buddhist monk, ordained by the Dalai Lama. He holds an undergraduate degree in physics and the philosophy of science from Amherst College and a doctorate in religious studies from Stanford.

Refining the arguments presented by the three speakers will be an impressive panel of respondents: Prof. Sundar Sarukkai, Geshe Dorji Damdul, Dr. Tseten Dorji Sadulsthang and Prof Laurent Nottale.

Prof. Sarukkai, trained in physics and philosophy, has an MSc from IIT, Madras, and a PhD from Purdue University, USA. His research interests include philosophy of science and mathematics, phenomenology and philosophy of language, drawing on both Indian and Western philosophical traditions. He has been a Homi Bhabha Fellow, Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies at Shimla and PHISPC Associate Fellow. Other than numerous papers, he is the author of the following books: Translating the World: Science and Language (University Press of America, 2002), Philosophy of Symmetry (IIAS, 2004) and Indian Philosophy and Philosophy of Science (CSC/Motilal Banarsidass, 2005). Presently, he is the Director of the Manipal Centre for Philosophy & Humanities, Manipal University.

Dr. Tsetan Dorji Sadutshang was born in Tibet in 1952 and holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Pondichery. He was appointed Chief Medical Officer at Tibetan Delek Hospital, Dharamsala, India (1983-87) and Junior Personal Physician to the Dalai Lama in 1988. He is currently the Chief Medical Officer, Tibetan Delek Hospital.

Dr. Nottale is Director of Research at CNRS (French National Centre of Scientific Research). Laboratory: LUTH (Laboratory 'Universe and Theories'), Paris-Meudon Observatory, France. His research interests are in astrophysics: cosmology, gravitational lensing, planetology; Theoretical physics: relativity theories, quantum mechanics. Theory of Scale relativity and Fractal space-time: applications to various sciences.

The conference, it may be recalled, is the Government of Sikkim’s initiative to infuse formal education in the State with refined ethics for the new millennium and grooming a generation of responsible citizens who are compassionate at heart and resolutely ethics-driven towards their universal responsibility.

The effort to harmonise science with spirituality for adoption as a curriculum for school education in Sikkim is inspired from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s leading role in encouraging a dialogue between science and religious philosophy to fashion a life science in which the two are not in conflict and in fact collaborate to deliver intelligence with compassion. This alliance has already made substantial strides and will, with the international conference coming up in Sikkim, mark the first substantial crossover from deliberations in conferences to actual on-ground implementation with inclusion as part of school curriculum.

Pema Wangchuk Dorjee

Media Consultant to Namgyal Institute of Tibetology for the “Brain and Mind, Our Potential for Change: Modern Cognitive Sciences and Eastern Contemplative Traditions” Conference.

Corruption and India-The misuse of power, position and privilege is widespread

Bhutan where GDP is replaced with Gross National Happiness (GNH) should be emulated by nations.

Sea level rise to continue for centuries: Pachauri

PTI

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The Hindu IPCC Chief Dr. R.K. Pachauri has asked the coastal states to fix their infrastructure and programmes to meet the sea level rise, a phenomenon that he says is likely to continue for centuries. File Photo

Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chief Dr. R.K. Pachauri has asked the coastal states to fix their infrastructure and programmes to meet the sea level rise, a phenomenon that he says is likely to continue for centuries.

Dr. Pachauri said the sea level rise cannot be controlled now with the measures like reduction in emission of green house because the inertia has set in the climate change.

“Inertia in the system will let sea level rise to continue not only for decades but for centuries,” Dr. Pachauri said on Wednesday addressing a lecture in the memory of renowned Goan industrialist Vasudeva V Sinai Dempo.

IPCC chief, who also is a Director General on The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), said the states like Goa should pull up their sleeves to face the after effects of climate change.

He said the state needs to work out modalities to protect ’low lying and fragile areas’, which are likely to get affected due to sea level rise.

Insisting that the ‘zoning laws’ needs to be properly enforced, Dr. Pachauri said this will help to save lives and properties of the people.

Dr. Pachauri said that excessive tourism, mining and shipping industry has left its footprints on state like Goa.

He claimed that these kinds of industries have lot of externalities.

“Goa having a fragile environment is subjected to large amount of tourism. Therefore anything can happen over the years,” he said adding that state government needs to look at impact of this industry in totality.

IPCC chief said that Goa needs to do detailed assessment of what sea level rise can do for the state, which is geographically small.

Citing the floods that hit state’s southernmost Canacona taluka in October last year, Pachauri said that climate changes has resulted in the extreme events.

“The frequency of floods and droughts is going to be increased in the years to come,” he said adding the states should be ready to face the crucial issue of water management.

The internationally famed scientist appealed the governments to have a re-look at their economic growths.

He said the model like Bhutan where GDP is replaced with Gross National Happiness (GNH) should be emulated by nations.

source; The Hindu

Invest in a portfolio that suits your needs

Recipe for the perfect dish

Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity, DSPBR Opportunities, UTI Equity or Tata Pure Equity and a few more are all roughly equivalent.

There is a portfolio to meet every investor’s unique requirements

If it were up to me, I’d rather that none of you ever need to read this month’s cover story. I know it sounds like a strange thing for a magazine’s editor to say, but the reason for this goes very deeply into the Value Research philosophy. We believe in the old saying “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.

The headline ‘Portfolios to Go’ is a phrase about food. ‘To go’ means (especially in the world of Americanised fast food), something pre-cooked and ready to eat that you can just pick up and eat on the move. However, Value Research doesn’t want to provide readers with fast food, or even pre-cooked food. We aren’t a restaurant of investment ideas. Instead, we would like to show you how to cook and then give you the ingredients.

Unlike a lot of other investment magazines, books and websites that are available, our focus has always been educational. Our goal is that our readers should learn the principals behind fund selection instead of depending on us telling them which fund to invest in. Ideally, our readers should depend on us for reliable and accurate data, ratings, fund news, fund manager interviews and other such things that are inputs for constructing their own investment portfolios.

Keeping this in mind, the headline notwithstanding, our ‘Portfolios to Go’ are not really ready-to-eat fast food. The most important part of our cover story is not the actual portfolios we suggest, but the thought behind the design of the portfolios and the reasoning behind the choice of funds. Regardless of what fund marketers would have you believe, there’s no such thing as a unique, irreplaceable fund. In all the categories of funds that we have, there are more than one (in most cases, a whole lot more than one).

If you are looking for a large- & mid-cap fund to be the core holding of your portfolio, then Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity, DSPBR Opportunities, UTI Equity or Tata Pure Equity and a few more are all roughly equivalent. On a given day, one might look better than the others, but that’s mostly in hindsight. What is more important is that you as an investor understand the role that such a fund plays in the portfolio and the basis on which we say some funds are better than others. If you understand that, the job is done. On the other hand if you just copy any set of recommendations and execute them precisely without thinking about why you are doing what you are doing; you still have a long way to go.

In fact, there’s a stage even before you get down to cooking and that is to choose which dish to cook. Many investors will have the right funds in their portfolio, but may go wrong in choosing what kind of portfolio they should invest in. Readers will find it just as useful, if not more, to carefully read and evaluate the article where we describe the logic for each portfolio and the kind of investor profile who should need it.

A good cook may need a recipe, but he chooses the one that will produce the dish he’ll find tasty, and he knows what each ingredient does and adjusts each to his or her own taste. As another year approaches an end, it is a good time for you to re-look at your investments.

-- Dhirendra Kumar

Modification of Central Capital Investment Subsidy Schemes for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) of Jammu & Kashmir and the North Eastern Region

The Cabinet has approved modifications in the Central Capital Investment Subsidy Schemes under the industrial packages available to J&K and the North Eastern Region (NER) in so far as they apply to MSME sector. Under the modified scheme, the Capital Investment subsidy for the MSME units in J&K will be enhanced to 30% of the investment on Plant & Machinery against 15% available at present, at par with the units in the NER.

In addition, the MSME units in both J&K and NER will now be eligible to claim subsidy each time they undertake expansion so long as the total investment on Plant & Machinery does not exceed the ceilings prescribed for MSME units i.e. Rs.10 crore in case of the units in the manufacturing sector and Rs. 5 crore for the units in the Services sector.

These modifications have been made as per the recommendations of a Task Force, set up under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary to PM, to consider various issues raised by the associations representing the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The Central Capital Investment Subsidy Scheme is one of the components of the Industrial Packages announced for J&K in June 2002 and for NER in April 2007 for boosting industrialisation in these States. The other components of the industrial incentives are 100% excise duty exemption, income tax exemption, interest subsidy of 3% on working capital loan and reimbursement of comprehensive insurance premium on capital. These incentives are available to all new units for ten years from the date of commencement of commercial production and also to the existing units on undertaking substantial expansion as defined. The measures have yielded appreciable results and there has been consistent progress in investment in these areas.

“India-China Boundary Problems, 1846 to 1947

Vice President Releases “India-China Boundary Problems, 1846 to 1947”
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari released a book titled “India – China Boundary Problems, 1846 to 1947” written by Shri A.G. Noorani, an eminent lawyer, historian and political commentator, here today.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Ansari said, the book is based on serious study of a substantive subject that is much talked about. Describing the concept of border as a complex one, the Vice President stressed on the need for continuous discussions to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution to contentious issues. Referring to negotiations framework between the two countries, he said, India and China are very seriously addressing the issue.

The book traces the roots of India China border issue giving a well researched account of the relevant historical, political and legal documents.

SB/SH/RS
(Release ID :68545)

The dragon’s teeth

 

Shankari Sundararaman

 

Even as the applause at the Nobel awards ceremony begins to fade, one major question that it has triggered will continue to be debated and discussed for a while — where does China find itself vis-à-vis its neighbours. The Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 was awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who is currently serving an 11-year jail sentence. Mr Liu, who played a leading role in the Tiananmen Square uprising of June 1989, is best known for his scathing criticism of the Chinese massacre at Tiananmen Square, where nearly 3,000 pro-democracy supporters were gunned down by the Chinese government. Moreover, he repeatedly voiced demands for democracy, which led to his imprisonment on charges of sedition and treason.
The Nobel Peace Prize to Mr Liu and China’s demands for all countries, especially its Asian neighbours, to boycott the award ceremony indicate a new phase of Chinese diplomacy. China’s claims that attending the ceremony would be tantamount to interfering in China’s internal affairs suggests a very defiant diplomatic posturing.
While there is no reason to believe that the Peace Prize to Mr Liu will bring any change in terms of human rights issues within China, it is interesting to look at the manner in which neighbours have responded to China’s insistence on boycotting the award ceremony is Oslo. Within the region four countries defied this — Japan, South Korea, Thailand and India. For both Japan and South Korea, members of the East Asian trio, the rise of China has been the most serious challenge. For Thailand, which is a member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), China has always represented an ambiguous relationship. And finally for India, given how bilateral ties with China are poised, this was an event to further its own diplomatic counterpoint to the Chinese policy.
For the four countries the circumstances of their response may differ based on the domestic and foreign policy compulsions, but the end result highlights a shift that is critical for the region, especially if seen as a contagion.
Both Japan and South Korea look at China as the major challenge in the region. The issues relating to China’s rise have been felt mostly in relation with its two closest neighbours. Sino-Japanese ties have had its highs and lows for several decades now. In fact, since the 1990s Japan has been playing a more proactive role within the region and its attempt to emerge as a “normal power” has led to significant changes in its foreign and economic policies. For South Korea, Chinese support to the North Korean regime remains a crucial factor. Moreover, for both these countries the United States plays a vital role because they still remain critical allies of the US in the wider Asia-Pacific region.
For Thailand, which is a member of the Asean and a close ally of the United States, the China factor has always been critical. In fact, most of the Asean players tend to differ in their view of China — some believe that China is a threat, while others believe that greater engagement with China will reduce the possibility of open hostility and lead to more cooperation in the region. For Asean itself there has been an increasing need to re-engage with the US because of the China factor. Even during last month’s Asean Summit in Hanoi, reaffirmation of the US’ role in the region was seen as a counterweight to the inroads which China has made in the region.
India’s own position emerges from the compulsions of its bilateral relations with China and, in some senses, from the role that China is playing within the South Asian region. The ties between the two countries have been very rough in the past few years. Chinese position on the issues of stapled visas to people from the Kashmir Valley, its disregard for India’s domestic compulsions vis-à-vis cross-border terror and its support to Pakistan have all been critical issues for India. Moreover, the unresolved border issue remains an irritant in the relations between the two countries.
As India expands its ties with Southeast and East Asia, the impact on China will be significant. There has always been a debate as to whether India and China will be competitors or play a complementary role in the region. In many senses both these roles will be visible. India’s attempts to find a place within the UN Security Council will meet with resistance from China.
All these issues and India’s presence at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony will be on top of the agenda during Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India that begins today.
What the Nobel Peace Prize issue signifies is that the matrix of East Asian interstate relations is constantly evolving and shifting. Despite the rhetoric of China’s claim to “peaceful rise”, there is growing concern within the region over the manner in which China’s rise will affect regional calculations and security dynamics. The re-engagement of the US within Asia-Pacific also indicates that the predicament of China’s rise is not being looked at as benevolently as the Chinese may hope.
While China has since the 1990s adopted a foreign policy espousing multipolarity and multilateralism, its assertions in the region have been somewhat contrary to this proclamation. Though its economic engagement with the region has led to growing interdependence, this does not minimise the shadow of China’s looming assertions over the region. A case in point would be the Spratly Islands dispute where China is pitted against claimants from Southeast Asia and Taiwan. In 2002, the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties was initiated for settling this dispute, but it has not really taken shape. The meeting of the claimants is to take place this month and will hopefully bring clarity on the role that China intends to play. China agreed to acknowledge that it would not claim any special rights over Spratly on grounds of being the larger player — this was, however, modified and its assertions on the issue have been critical in reshaping the regional response.
Scholars of international relations have often contended between the status quo and revisionist approach of China after its rise. This debate, simply put, means that China will remain status quo in its ambitions and the flip side is that it would revise its imperial designs and will, more likely, show hegemonistic tendencies. The recent responses, both from the region and India, are indicative of the latter where regional players may integrate with China economically, but will remain vary given that the dragon is rising in their own backyard.


(Dr Shankari Sundararaman is an associate professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the School of International Studies, JNU)

source;the asian age

WEN IN INDIA-TIME FOR BUSINESS

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is visiting India after five years. While this is a stand-alone state visit, many have failed to notice that the Chinese Premier and President have met the Indian Prime Minister on ten occasions this year. This rather startling statistic points to the high frequency of interaction between the top strata of the Chinese and Indian political leadership. It also underlines the increasing number of common global and regional forums featuring both countries.
Premier Wen’s visit is expected to focus on both the gloomy and bright sides of the bilateral relationship.
The former features the irritants, primarily the border and Tibet. While Tibet may not feature prominently in the talks, borders are expected to be discussed and debated. The core component of the visit, however, will be trade and economic engagement.
Bilateral trade has touched $50 billion from a mere $3 billion a decade ago. Analysts have been at a loss to explain why trade has grown at such a fast pace, despite lingering disputes and a pronounced trust deficit. The only explanation seems to be the enthusiastic responses of market forces, from either side, to growing opportunities. It is worth speculating that if trade has risen to the level it has despite irritants, to what level can it rise under more enabling circumstances?
That trade and economic engagement will be at the forefront of Premier Wen’s visit is obvious from the composition of his delegation. More than 400 leading Chinese businesses are accompanying the Premier as part of the largest Chinese business team to ever visit India. The varied composition of the delegation reflects an across-the-board interest of Chinese businesses in the Indian economy. While assessing the potential of new exports in the Indian market will be a priority for some of the accompanying businesses, others will be keen on exploring the feasibility of setting up long-term commercial operations in India. This explains the presence of several real estate and construction firms in the delegation. Chinese electricity firms figure prominently in the delegation—as they are expected to—given the already firm imprints they have etched in India’s power sector. One of the high points of Premier Wen’s visit is the expected formalisation of an agreement between the Shanghai Electric Group and Reliance Power, involving the sale of thirty-six 660MW thermal generators. Interestingly, the delegation also includes representatives from the banking industry, which might signal the beginning of active Chinese interest in India’s financial sector.
India might feel elated by the fact that, from a Chinese perspective, it has begun receiving the same treatment that China has been extending to a select group of countries. This involves the separation of economic priorities from political differences and disputes. China has serious political differences with most of its major trading partners, such as the US, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. But such differences have not prevented China from growing robust trade and investment ties with these countries. Indeed, strong economic associations have probably helped in marginalising prickly issues on certain occasions. China has always been quick to spot economic returns and has never been held hostage by political baggage. It appears to be deploying the same approach towards India— putting a firm foot forward to harness India’s exciting economic potential, notwithstanding the persistence of historical disputes.
On its part, India will do well to take note of a few issues. No economic relationship can be approached with the primary objective of generating a trade surplus. Trade is a two-way, market-driven traffic. China’s trade imbalance with India is simply an outcome of the relative state of comparative advantages of the two countries, where Indian manufacturers find it more efficient to import capital goods and intermediates from China rather than purchasing them at home. Thus, India should look forward to Premier Wen’s visit not as an occasion for harping on correcting the imbalance but as an opportunity for developing meaningful synergies with an economy that is expected to become the world’s largest in a decade.
India will also do well to note that China views all its relationships through a pragmatic prism. Pragmatism encourages China to contemplate unexpected change. Less than four months ago, at Shenzhen, hardly anybody expected Premier Wen to talk of political reforms in the same breath as economic reforms. Similarly, not many expected him to lead the largest ever business delegation to India at a time when stapled visas are staple fodder in the Indo-China discourse. Both instances are examples of China’s pragmatic response to evolving realities—at home and in the neighbourhood. India may be better off emulating this posture and approaching Premier Wen’s visit in a business-like manner, both literally and metaphorically.

The author is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies in the National University of Singapore (NUS). These are his personal views

source;the financial express

Beyond the great wall

The news trickling in from Brussels that Beijing would relent its stand on the issue of stapled visas, which had recently cast a shadow over Sino-Indian relations, augurs well for the three-day India visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that commences today. Beijing had reiterated its stand on the

issue when it was raised last month after an artiste from Jammu and Kashmir was given a proper visa to visit Guangzhou to perform at the Asian Games ceremony. But the move also suggested that Beijing would eventually change its position on issuing stapled visas to people from Jammu and Kashmir. China maintains that the issue is more administrative than political.

The issue gained momentum when Lt Gen BS Jaswal was issued a stapled visa to visit China to participate in a military exchange programme on the grounds that he commanded an allegedly disputed part of India. This was not acceptable to India. Subsequently, scheduled military exchanges were kept on hold. Now it appears that during Wen's visit, one of the deliverables to the media would be the dispensing of the stapled visa. It will cost China nothing, but will show to the world Beijing's accommodative spirit and help it earn India's goodwill.

Another related development during the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Premier Wen Jiabao could be a declaration on the restoration of defence cooperation and military exchanges between the two countries. The upward swing on the two fronts was given a further impetus during Jiabao's April 2005 India visit in the protocol between the Indian and Chinese governments on the modalities of the implementation of Confidence-Building Measures in military engagements, the line of actual control and the India-China border.

At a time when India's bid for a permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has acquired importance — with all P5 nations, except China, supporting India's nomination — China should recalibrate its stated position. In ‘A Shared Vision for the 21st Century of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of India', signed between Singh and Wen in January 2008, both sides supported a comprehensive reformation of the UNSC. Referring to India's aspiration for a permanent membership, the Chinese side attached "great importance to India's position as a major developing country in international affairs". The statement further mentions. "... the Chinese side understands and supports India's aspiration to play a greater role in the UN, including in the Security Council."

Today, two years later, the situation has perceptively improved in India's favour. In the joint-statement issued after the conclusion of the Russia-China-India trilateral, held in Wuhan, China, on November 14-15 2010, it was mentioned that the three participating nations looked forward to "deepening cooperation with India within the UN Security Council". If India's membership to the UNSC is inevitable, it won't cost China anything to extend its full support and, in turn, earn India's gratitude. Even if India's aspiration remains unfulfilled, Beijing can still bargain for another deal as a quid pro quo for its gesture of being supportive of India's bid.

Finally, the two sides should also make sincere efforts towards taking concrete measures to solve the long-pending border problem. For a long time, both India and China have treated the vexed border dispute as a secondary issue. A great deal of progress has been made in other areas, particularly in bilateral trade that has increased from a meagre $3 billion a decade ago to about $45 billion today. It's expected to rise to $60 billion by the end of the year. There have been regular political interactions, both bilateral and at multilateral fora, at various levels. People-to-people contact has also been on the upswing. The two countries hope to make progress in other sectors. For this, the border dispute should be resolved at the earliest. Though there has been peace and tranquillity on the Indo-China border, with the only exception of the 1987 Sino-Indian skirmish at Sumdorong Chu Valley, the non-settlement of border issue remains an irritant in the bilateral relations.

Though efforts have been made to solve the border dispute, a foolproof solution is still elusive. China has solved land border issues with most countries, including Russia with which it fought a war in 1967. Given the personal rapport between Singh and Wen, and between National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon and his Chinese counterpart, their expertise and diplomatic acumen, it's possible to make concrete progress. Both sides must cross the Rubicon before patience wears out.

Rup Narayan Das is a senior fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, Delhi. The views expressed by the author are personal.
source; hindusthan time

An Excerpt from
Leading With Passion
by John Murphy

Light a match in a dark room and watch as the light instantly overcomes the darkness. Observe the power and grace of that single, solitary flame dancing with life. Now light several candles or kindle a fire and experience the added warmth and comfort extending from that first, vulnerable flame through others. This is the heart and soul of leadership - the essence of inspiring others. It is about courageously casting off fear, doubt and limiting beliefs and giving people a sense of hope, optimism and accomplishment. It is about bringing light into a world of uncertainty and inspiring others to do the same. This is what we call passion, the fire within.

Passion is a heartfelt energy that flows through us, not from us. It fills our hearts when we allow it to and it inspires others when we share it. It is like sunlight flowing through a doorway that we have just opened. It was always there. It just needed to be accepted and embraced. Under the right conditions, this "flow" appears effortless, easy and graceful. It is doing what it is meant to do. It is reminding us that we are meant to be purposeful. We are meant to be positive. We are meant to be passionate. We feel this when we listen to and accept our calling in life. We feel it as inspiration when we open the door of resistance and let it in.

Inspiration springs forth when we allow ourselves to be "in-spirit," aligned with our true essence. Stop and think about it: When you feel truly passionate and inspired about someone or something, what frame of mind are you in? What are you willing to do? What kind of effort are you willing to put forth? How fearful are you? Chances are, you feel motivated to do whatever it takes, without fear or doubt, to turn your vision into reality. You grow in confidence. You believe you can do it. You are committed from the heart and soul.

The purpose of this book is to clarify and offer ten key factors for leading with passion and inspiring peak performance. These "essentials" serve to guide and remind leaders how they can "open the door" and facilitate flow. By practicing these essentials, you will tap the extraordinary potential in yourself and others and realize results you may never have dreamed possible. Look to any inspiring leader and you will see these key factors in action. Observe the best of the best and you will witness the power of passionate leadership. Make no mistake - leading with passion inspires world change. It is the only thing that ever really has.

Use this book - and these essentials - to:

• Clarify purpose, context and meaning
• Create a compelling vision to focus intention and attention
• Gain commitment from the heart, not just agreement from the head
• Set priorities and focus efforts on what matters most
• Recognize and accept the power of grace
• Foster more creativity and innovation
• Demonstrate integrity and build trust
• Lead by passionate example
• Generate growth in yourself and others
• Awaken the Spirit in work

The Tibetan Spiritual Leader The Dalai Lama arrived at Sikkim today on a eight day visit.

He was received by Sikkim Chief Pawan Chamling and his cabinet colleagues at the Pelling Helipad in West Sikkim.

The Sikkim government has banned slaughter of animals in the state during the eight-day stay of the Tibetan Spiritual Leader.

After his arrival at Pelling Helipad the monks from Pemayangtse Monastery in West Sikkim which is considered one of the holiest monasteries in Sikkim conducted the holy ‘Sherbang’, a traditional Buddhist ritual during which elaborate dances and prayers are offered in a procession for the Dalai Lama who is also a Nobel Peace Prize awardee.

Thousands of people had come out to see the Tibetan spiritual leader and receive his blessings.

He was then escorted to the Pemayangtse Monastery where he was welcomed by the head of the monastery which houses hundreds of Buddhist monks.

From the Pemayangtse Monastery which is also near to Rabdentse ruins which is also the Second ancient Capital of Sikkim, The Dalai Lama then flew to Tashiding Monastery where he will be staying till December 17.

On December 18, the Dalai Lama will visit the town of Ravangla in South Sikkim where he shall address a congregation of people at the Tibetan Settlement here. On the same day he is scheduled to visit the Ralong Monastery probably the oldest monastery in Sikkim built during the late 1600’s.

On December 19 he will fly to Gangtok where he is scheduled to address a seminar.

Data source: IMF
Emerging market constituent as per IMF

The President bestows the award on Durga Maya Limboo from Sikkim for her talent in Sports. Photo: V. V. Krishnan

Shashank H.G., VII, Hassan

A customer collects a drink from a robot waiter cycling inside a restaurant in Jinan, in eastern China's Shandong province. The restaurant features robots performing the tasks of waiters, receptionists and entertainers to attract customers. Photo: AP

My visit to India aims at promoting friendship: Wen

PTI

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AP Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao waves as he arrives for a three-day visit to India, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday on a three-day visit which he said was to promote friendship and expand cooperation between the two countries that have seen comprehensive and rapid progress.

Immediately after his arrival, Mr. Wen said, “My current visit is aimed at promoting friendship, expanding cooperation, building on our past achievements and opening up new dimensions for mutual benefit and common development of the two countries.”

China and India are connected by mountains and rivers and enjoy a traditional friendship dating back more than 2,000 years, said Mr. Wen, adding that this year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two neighbours.

“China-India relations face major opportunities and enjoy broad prospects,” the Chinese premier said in a statement, adding that the friendship and cooperation between the two sides have seen comprehensive and rapid progress.

As many as 45 banking and investment MoUs between Indian and Chinese banks and firms would be signed during Mr. Wen’s visit.

Those signing the MoUs include Reliance Power with Shanghai Electric, ICICI Bank with China Development Bank, Essar Group with China Development Bank, IDBI with Bank of China, Adani Power with Shandoung Tiejun Electric, Vedanta Aluminium with China Aluminium International and Lupin Ltd with China Meheco Traditional Medicines.

CEOs and senior functionaries of companies like Shandong Tiansheng Coal Mining Equipment, China International Water and Electric Corp and Taishan Construction Machinery are accompanying the Chinese Premier for exploring business opportunities in India.

Mr. Wen will address a meeting of India Inc on Thursday where the CEOs from companies with interest in China would be present.

Industry body Ficci is organising a separate sectoral meeting of the pharmaceutical companies of the two countries.

The trade imbalance for India to the extent of $19 billion in 2009-10 and $16 billion in the first 10-months of the current fiscal arises out of the composition of the country’s exports basket.

As much as 70 per cent of India’s exports comprises raw material like iron ore, cotton and chemicals.

source; The Hindu

Time to reset the India-China relationship

By Siddharth Varadarajan

Mutual respect for each other's core concerns and a plan to enlarge the areas for common action and cooperation must be at the heart of the bilateral agenda.
When Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Jiang Zemin decided in 2003 to appoint Special Representatives (SRs) to explore and presumably accelerate “the framework of a boundary settlement” between India and China, little did they imagine that their vast but disputed borderlands would end up casting a dark shadow on the overall bilateral relationship seven years later.
The Line of Actual Control in the western and eastern sectors may be extraordinarily tranquil but the artificially speeded up prospect of a boundary settlement has increased the salience of territoriality at a time when the relationship most needs a de-territorialised agenda. China and India are confronting the same set of challenges that their spectacular rise has exposed them to, from globalisation and its imbalances to transnational security threats, environmental degradation, piracy, maritime security and political instability in various parts of Asia. As the two preeminent powers of the Asian region, India and China have an enormous responsibility to discharge — and discharge jointly. The burden they carry is too great to allow either the kind of assertive, ‘go-it-alone' strategy the Chinese seem to favour or the ‘bandwagoning with an off-shore balancer' that the Indians appear to prefer. Instead of focussing inward on their disputed border, the two countries need to look together at the wider region and its challenges and see how the pooling of equities they do so well on global issues like trade, financial rebalancing and climate change can also occur on the Asian front. But this is not happening.
Two years ago, the Chinese side implicitly started questioning the status of Jammu and Kashmir by giving Indians domiciled in the State a loose-leaf ‘stapled' visa instead of the regular visa given to Indians from elsewhere. That China regarded Arunachal Pradesh as disputed and was pressing a claim in the SRs talks for what it calls ‘Southern Tibet' was well known. But the stridency of its assertions — especially its objections to Indian leaders visiting the north-eastern State — took the Indian side by surprise. On their part, some Indian military commanders muddied the waters by making irresponsible public pronouncements which have fuelled both the jingoism and insecurity of a hyper-nationalist media and middle class. The suggestion made on background by some Indian officials that China's claims to the whole of Arunachal Pradesh violated the “political principles and parameters” governing the boundary settlement agreed to by both sides (because of the reference there to due regard being paid to the wishes of settled populations) may also have pushed Beijing into a more assertive mode. After all, from the Chinese point of view, if that were to mean all settled areas automatically belong to India then why are the SRs still negotiating? Whatever the causes, however, it is clear that the prioritised quest for a boundary settlement, far from bringing the two countries closer, has emerged as a source of irritation and even tension.
In their own way, it seems as if both countries are aware of this negative dynamic. That is why, at their 13th round of talks in 2009 and again at the 14th round in Beijing last month, the two SRs opened a door for a wider discussion on issues of political and strategic concern. Hopefully, this new discussion will help ‘de-territorialise' the relationship.
The broad contours of the way New Delhi looks at Beijing were spelt out in a remarkable speech to the Observer Research Foundation by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on December 3. Ms Rao touched on all the prickly issues from stapled visas for Kashmiris to the imbalance in trade, Chinese hydro projects on the Brahmaputra and the Sino-Pakistani relationship. But she also said the view that India and China are rivals “is an over-generalisation and over-simplification of a complex relationship which encompasses so many diverse issues.” In the wider strategic community, there are other issues which tend to get flagged such as the ‘string of pearls' thesis and the fear that China is “encircling” India by building close relations with its smaller South Asian neighbours like Nepal and Sri Lanka. But these fears are not uniformly shared within the government.
As one examines the future of the relationship, it is useful to flesh out the areas where Indian and Chinese interests may actually diverge or converge. If we divide Indian foreign policy analytically into three concentric circles encompassing South Asia, Asia and the world, then it is primarily at the Asian level that the two powers are rubbing up against each other. Within South Asia, which India would like to develop as a cohesive economic space, the primary obstacle is Pakistan. To be sure, Pakistan benefits a great deal from the military and economic help it receives from China, especially in the nuclear and missile spheres. But even in the absence of an axis with Beijing, the binding constraint in South Asia remains the role of the Pakistani military establishment in determining the fate of that country. Elsewhere in South Asia, it may hurt Indian pride to see a major infrastructure project in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, say, go to a Chinese firm, but this is because Indian companies did not bother to avail of the opportunity.
In any case, physical infrastructure of this kind is not a zero sum game. Last year, I happened to give a talk on national security to senior executives from a company with very diverse business interests. One executive asked me whether India ought to be worried by a report he had read recently of China planning to connect Nepal to Tibet by rail. Before I could answer, another executive put up his hand. He was from the clothing division and spoke about how the company's factory in Nepal imports fabric from China by sea via Kolkata. Each journey takes six to eight weeks. “If a rail link comes up from Tibet, I'll be able to bring in my shipments within ten days,” he said.
The wider point is that as China grows, Chinese companies will increase their presence in South Asia, especially India. By the same token, Indian businesses and economic interests are also getting entrenched across Asia, including South East and East Asia, where Japanese dominance has already made way for both China and South Korea. These developments would become “threatening” if they are imbued with a strategic dynamic that is powerful enough to overturn the imperatives of geography. In both South Asia and East Asia, for the foreseeable future at least, this is unlikely.
Globally, other than at the highest table — the United Nations Security Council — India and China have more in common with each other than with other big powers. True, Chinese companies have made spectacular commercial inroads in Africa but many of the infrastructure projects they have embarked on will generate multiplier effects that will create space for Indian and other companies to get involved. But it is on the question of Asia — East Asian security and the related question of maritime security in the Indian Ocean — that India and China seem, at least superficially, to be working at cross purposes.
From the Chinese point of view, preventing a U.S.-India axis in Asia is a key priority.
As New Delhi draws closer to Washington, Beijing feels it necessary to make its own overtures towards the Indians but also to take “defensive” measures of one kind or another. That is why China has alternated between criticism and negative rhetoric, on the one hand, and blandishment on the other. But this is a risky strategy. Overshoot with the negativity and you run the risk of driving India into willing American arms. Overshoot with the platitudes and the Indians may end up taking you for granted. It is my sense that the Chinese inability to deal with the dynamics of the Indo-U.S. relationship is responsible, in large measure, for the up-and-down perturbations we have seen in the bilateral trend line since 2004.
India, too, has allowed itself to be paralysed by the prospect of a Sino-American axis and has tended to retreat into a strategic shell whenever the concept of G-2 rears its unwelcome head. Today, with G-2 in retreat and the Obama administration repeating the Sino-centric overtures to India that George W. Bush did, New Delhi needs to play its cards wisely. Prime Minister Singh should explain to Premier Wen that India wants strong relations with both China and the U.S., that it does not see one as a substitute for the other and that it certainly does not intend to sacrifice one for the other. Second, that India and China need to work closely together on issues of Asian security and the emerging security architecture, and should not leave the heavy lifting that may be required to outside powers. Third, given China's critical dependence on shipping, especially energy, across the Indian Ocean, and given India's strategic location at the centre of east-west SLOCs, the two countries ought to cooperate more on broad maritime issues, including anti-piracy, marine pollution and ensuring the openness of the sea commons. Broadening the regional and global agenda is the best way to move away from the rancour that the boundary question has started to generate. Sixty years have already elapsed without it being settled. Waiting a few more years should not be a problem for either side.
Source;The Hindu

Sikkim poised to blend Science & Spirituality

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE, SPIRITUALITY AND EDUCATION ORGANISED BY THE NAMGYAL INSTITUTE OF TIBETOLOGY UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SIKKIM

Sikkim poised to blend Science & Spirituality to groom its young into intelligent and compassionate global citizens

GANGTOK, 14 December, 2010
The Government of Sikkim’s initiative to infuse formal education in the State with refined ethics for the new millennium and grooming a generation of responsible citizens who are compassionate at heart and resolutely ethics-driven towards their universal responsibility is coming closer to fruition with the State preparing to host a galaxy of scholars and spiritual masters from around the world for an international conference on “Science, Spirituality and Education” being organised in Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, from 20 to 23 December, by the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology under the auspices of the State Government of Sikkim. This will be a first ever effort in India to blend traditional wisdom with modern science to introduce lessons in morals and ethics with a pronounced scientific approach in schools in the State.
The effort to harmonise science with spirituality for adoption as a curriculum for school education in Sikkim follows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s leading role in encouraging a dialogue between science and religious philosophy to fashion a life science in which the two are not in conflict and in fact collaborate to deliver intelligence with compassion. This alliance has already made substantial strides and will, with the international conference coming up in Sikkim, mark the first substantial crossover from deliberations in conferences to actual on-ground implementation with inclusion as part of school curriculum.
In fact, it was this commitment made by the Chief Minister of Sikkim, Dr. Pawan Chamling, to take the findings of the international conference a step further and incorporate it into the school curriculum which convinced His Holiness the Dalai Lama to not only to inaugurate the Conference, but also participate in it. His Holiness will be delivering the inaugural address of the conference on 20 December and the participating in an interactive session on 22 December, when, after he is briefed on the deliberations of the conference with special focus on imparting moral ethics in education, he will offer advice and guidance on how moral ethics would be introduced into the modern education system. During this two hour session, he will also be in discussion with the panellists on this topic.
The conference has been divided into seven sessions to be held over three days which will witness 22 leading exponents of mind and life sciences from around the world presenting papers.
The keynote addresses, as has already been announced, will be delivered by Professor Richard J. Davidson and Professor B. Alan Wallace, the former a leading scientist and Director, Centre for Investigating Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA, and the latter a dynamic lecturer, progressive scholar and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.
Both have worked extensively with HH the Dalai Lama in cross-cultural interactions between His Holiness and Western scientists on threads reflected in the theme of the Sikkim conference, and are active members of the Mind & Life Institute which has been facilitating such exchanges since 1987.
The sessions of the conference will begin with one themed “Understanding our Brain” and will conclude on 23 December with a session themed, “Social Emotional Learning [SEL] and Education”. A session has been dedicated exclusively to “discussions on implementation of the vision: Introducing moral ethic in modern education system”. This will be Session 5 and is scheduled for the afternoon of 22 December, after interactions with the Dalai Lama.
The academic deliberations will make a case for the need for education to also warm the hearts and establish that religious philosophy and science are not necessarily in conflict and in fact share much in common with their universal appeal and significance. Introducing spirituality into school curriculum - through the ethics and morals which religious philosophies carry – and framing the curriculum informed by the scientific world’s understanding of the brain and mind could deliver an education which is more complete and prepares the new generation with less disturbed minds and more positive outlooks. This linkage is also reflected in the list of Convenors of the conference which includes two religious academics – Geshe N Samten, Vice Chancellor, Central Tibetan University, Sarnath, and Geshe Dorji Damdul of Tibet House; a medical specialist, Dr. MR Kotwal, Medical Advisor to the Govt of Sikkim and an administrator, Tashi Densapa, Director, Namgyal Institute of Tibetology.
In fact, this is the inspiration with which the Government of Sikkim came upon the idea to host the conference and bring the best minds to deliberate over Science, Spirituality and Education and then leverage their findings to build a systematic strategy to introduce moral ethics into the education system in the State of Sikkim. This, as has already been highlighted, is the first of its kind initiative in the country and is expected to spread to other parts of India as well as to the world at large. Needless to add, the task is challenging and the Convenors of the conference have put on record significance of the initiative. In an invitation to the Sikkim Conference, they remark: “We personally think it is a path breaking vision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and applaud the courage of the Chief Minister of Sikkim in being the first to implement it in India.”
Coming back to the list of sessions laid out for the conference, these are:
- Understanding Our Brain, on 20 December, from 2p.m. to 5:30p.m.
- Understanding Our Mind, 21 December, 2p.m. to 5:30p.m.
- Brain Plasticity and Mental Transformation, 22 December, 9:30a.m. to 12p.m.
- Interaction and Participation with H.H. the Dalai Lama, 22 December, 1p.m. to 3p.m.
- Discussion on Implementation of the Vision: Introducing Moral Ethics in Modern Education System, 22 December, 3:15p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
- The Art and Science of Meditation, 23 December, 9:30a.m. to 1p.m.
- Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Education, 23 December, 2p.m. to 6p.m.
All sessions of the conference will be held at Chintan Bhawan, Gangtok, Sikkim. While the inaugural session is by invitation, the rest of the sessions are open all interested.
The Sikkim Conference, it may be recalled, was mooted during deliberations over the paradox of addiction, depression and suicides which hold Sikkim in a vice grip despite an environment which would otherwise be conducive to higher happiness and satisfaction quotients. The Chief Minister of Sikkim directed that an attempt be made to blend modern understanding of mind & life sciences with traditional spiritualism to fashion a curriculum for schools which would groom the younger generation with more relaxed minds and positive outlooks.
Dr. Chamling also evinced a keen desire that the conference be inaugurated by HH the Dalai Lama, convinced that His Holiness’s keen interest in science, and His open mind and advanced understanding of theosophical matters would best syncretise Sikkim’s efforts towards making science and spiritualism collaborate to prepare its young better for the vicissitudes and challenges of modern lifestyles. When the idea was broached to HH the Dalai Lama, he was moved by the gesture and upon learning that the State Government of Sikkim was committed to follow up the Conference proceedings by introducing moral ethics in Sikkim’s schools and colleges, agreed not only to inaugurate the Conference, but also participate in it.

Pema Wangchuk Dorjee
Media Consultant to Namgyal Institute of Tibetology for the International Conference on Science, Spirituality and Education, Gangtok, 20-23 December 2010