PM’s speech at the Foundation stone laying ceremony of the Assam Centre of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology
The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh has addressed the gathering at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Assam Centre of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology in Assam today.
Following is the text of the Prime Minister’s address on the occasion:
“I am very happy to participate in the Foundation Stone laying ceremony of the Assam Centre of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology. During my last visit to Assam, I had announced the intention of our Government to set up this Centre. I believe the establishment of the Centre would be a testimony to our continuing commitment to the development of the North-Eastern region.
The main campus of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology is coming up at Rai Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. It is only befitting that the institute is named after late Shri Rajiv Gandhi, our beloved leader and former Prime Minister of India. His contribution to modernization and development of our country was immense. He believed that the application of Science and Technology was critical to our development processes.
The Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum will be of world class standards and will produce technical personnel capable of serving as leaders and innovators in the fields of petroleum technology, engineering and management, covering the entire hydrocarbon value chain.
As is well known, oil and gas will continue to provide the major portion of our energy requirements for quite some time to come. Appropriate utilization of advanced oil and gas exploration and production technologies, modern refining technologies and efficient distribution of petroleum products to the citizens of our country will, therefore, continue to be of great importance in the coming years. All these areas will need qualified and skilled personnel in increasing numbers. The few existing institutes are not in a position to meet this increasing requirement of technical man-power in the petroleum sector. The proposed Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology is intended to reduce this gap between demand and supply of skilled personnel in the future.
The North-East region of India is richly endowed with hydrocarbons. During the last fiscal year, the region contributed to around 15% of the country's domestic production of crude oil and produced 3.38 billion cubic meters of natural gas. In 8 rounds of the New Exploration Licensing Policy, 25 exploration blocks covering 42,000 sq. km. have been awarded so far in the States of the North East. Of these, 15 are in Assam. So far, hydrocarbon discoveries have been made in 4 of the wells drilled in the North East. Our government has undertaken studies for assessing Shale Gas potential in the country, including in the North-East. Many areas in the North East are being assessed for Shale Gas resource mapping. It is in this background that the establishment of this Centre in Assam would be especially beneficial.
The UPA Government guided by the Chairperson Smt Sonia Gandhi has an enduring commitment to the development of Assam and the North East. A long cherished dream of this state in the petrochemical sector is the Assam Gas Cracker Project. I had the opportunity to lay the foundation stone of this prestigious project in April 2007 at Dibrugarh. The Government of India will make more than Rs. 5500 crore investment in this project. We are making every effort to see that the project is commissioned next year. Once completed, it will help a large number of downstream industries in the petrochemicals and plastics sector come up, thereby creating a substantial number of jobs for the local youth. This new centre of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology will help the local youth to gain the knowledge and skills to exploit the opportunities created by new projects like the Assam Gas Cracker Project and the resultant downstream industries
I understand that the Centre will offer programs at the certificate, diploma and degree levels in various areas of specialization in the petroleum sector. It will also offer certificate courses that have been specifically designed with a view to enable the local youth of the region to upgrade their skills in different streams. I am happy to note that the Centre will start its first academic session from September this year.
Let me end by wishing this Centre of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum all success. It is my wish that it will greatly benefit the local people. I also hope to see the Centre setting new standards and benchmarks for education in the petroleum sector in the years to come.”
Saturday, February 19, 2011
It's time to get down to business
BY Siddharth Varadarajan
Manmohan Singh's second term has seen huge scams but also action against crony capitalism of a kind India has never experienced.
Anyone trying to predict the outcome of our polity's life and death struggle with crony capitalism will have to make sense of two contradictory sets of images.
On the one hand is the obfuscation and prevarication that senior Ministers have served up when confronted with the reality of the 2G spectrum scam and other unprecedented instances of corporate and political robbery. The most recent display of this was by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself, who needlessly played down the scale and significance of the revenue loss that the 2G scam had caused. But, on the other, are the pace and scope of the current investigation, which has also been unrivalled by anything India has witnessed so far. The same Prime Minister whose silence and ambivalence on 2G was seen by the Opposition and the public at large as weakness and even complicity has pushed the Central Bureau of Investigation into summoning and questioning top industrialists like Anil Ambani, raiding Kalaingar TV, the business arm of a key political ally, the DMK, and sending A. Raja, who was Telecom Minister till some time ago, to the unwholesome confines of Tihar Jail.
These are extraordinary developments by any yardstick and government managers have let it be known that there is further excitement in the offing. In the days and weeks ahead, more iconic businessmen are likely to be questioned for their involvement in the spectrum allocation scam. Nor will Shahid Balva be the only high net worth individual to be packed off to judicial remand.
When the leaked Radia tapes exposed a small part of the inner workings of the India establishment, our crony capitalists banded together to plead privacy and complain loudly about a “witch hunt.” Top corporate figures and even some politicians spoke about the danger of India becoming a “banana republic” and issued dark warnings in serial interviews about how the investment climate in the country was being adversely affected by the absurd suggestion that respectable businessmen might actually be involved in scams. The purpose of that fully scripted campaign was to ensure that the media, the investigating agencies and the courts all back off. Fortunately for our body politic, that has not happened. Public disaffection is so high that none of the estates of our system can afford to be seen as slackening. And that includes the executive too, notwithstanding the ‘zero loss' logic it foolishly put out. In his testimony to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, the CBI director was at pains to distance himself from that arithmetic of denial. Though the agency was painfully slow in getting off the block, nobody can really fault its current approach. And the credit for that must be shared equally by the media, the courts but also, ironically, Dr. Singh.
Yes, the Supreme Court is monitoring the functioning of the CBI but there are scores of cases where similar monitoring has produced nothing even remotely so dramatic. The Mulayam Singh disproportionate assets case, for one. When you are in government service, individual acts of bravery without the requisite air cover can be risky. As the police officers who raided the offices of Reliance Industries in New Delhi 13 years ago when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister discovered, taking on the biggest captains of industry is not exactly a career advancing move. If today, the younger Ambani is answering questions about his role in Swan Telecom, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the agency has received pretty direct encouragement from the highest levels of the government.
The question, of course, is whether or not the CBI will persist in its endeavours. Are we being treated to an elaborate dog-and-pony show? Or does the agency's current activism represent a fundamental course correction for a system which has tolerated and thrived on corruption? If yes, does the Prime Minister have the political clout to see things through?
Rent seeking and money making have been fellow travellers of the Indian political system for more than four decades but this is arguably the first time that a Minister has been run out of office and sent to jail as part of a criminal investigation. Never before has the role of big business come under the scanner like this either. When the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at the Centre in 1998, it promised clean governance. What the country got instead was sweetheart deals in the form of privatisation of hotels and other public sector assets, the petrol pump scam, the coffin scam and other crooked ventures. As the Justice Shivraj Patil report has catalogued, the rot in telecom policy and spectrum allocation also started then. But nothing was ever probed.
The United Progressive Alliance inherited this corrupt system and presided over its unprecedented expansion. Thanks to whistleblowers, upright auditors, a vigilant media and a fair bit of corporate rivalry, however, the truth about 2G, the Commonwealth Games and other money-making enterprises has slowly come trickling out. There are, of course, scores of other fishy deals that need probing too, especially those involving land grants and mining concessions.
What explains the schizophrenic attitude of the United Progressive Alliance government towards the 2G scam? Why does the Prime Minister peddle the fiction that companies like Swan or Unitech did not resell their spectrum (for a profit) but only expanded their equity base, when the sale of equity for a company which has no assets other than spectrum amounts to the same thing? Why does he persist in comparing the loot of public money via the sale of cheap spectrum to the cost of providing food subsidies for the poor — even as the CBI is pounding on the doors of the companies that benefited from the 2G allocation?
As an economist and a man of unquestionable integrity, Dr. Singh knew full well the revenue consequences of forgoing an auction for the allocation of 2G spectrum and recorded his unhappiness with the decision. Even if he is right in saying that he could not have been expected to get into the minutiae of decisions in all Ministries, this can at best explain why he allowed the January 2008 spectrum allocation to take place. What it does not explain is the delay of 20 months in the registration of the first FIR by the CBI. In the intervening period, there was ample material in the press for the Prime Minister to realise something wrong had happened. His argument that the compulsions of coalition came in the way doesn't cut much ice. For one, the DMK, with which the Congress has an alliance in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, would have been bound by the same compulsions and would have been hard placed to rock the boat at the national level. For another, why wasn't safeguarding the public exchequer considered as good a reason for putting the fate of the government on the line as the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal? Finally, ‘coalition dharma' cannot explain the persistence of Congress politicians with questionable credentials in the Union Cabinet, men such as Vilasrao Deshmukh, for example, against whom the Supreme Court has passed embarrassing strictures.
If the Prime Minister were anyone other than Dr. Singh, one might be justified in treating his belated intervention in the 2G matter as an indication of his own involvement. In reality, the delay was the product of both his individual political weakness and his party's failure to understand the political implications of the scam. Today, it is obvious that vigorously pursuing the case is in the best interest of the government, the ruling party and the coalition. Such is the level of public disenchantment that if the Congress fails to punish the officials, politicians and businessmen involved, it will take a beating at the next elections. But there is also a wider, systemic opportunity the 2G investigation provides for the Indian polity. Capitalism needs rules. In mature capitalist economies, those rules are designed to allow businessmen to make “normal” profit and to use (or loot) the resources of the state as a collective. The growth of monopoly power, and thus supernormal profit, is also a “natural” part of the process of accumulation. When individual corporate houses attempt a short-cut, however, they invariably corrupt the wider political edifice. Corrupt politicians come and go. But unless the crony capitalists who use them are punished, Indian democracy will continue to corrode.
BY Siddharth Varadarajan
Manmohan Singh's second term has seen huge scams but also action against crony capitalism of a kind India has never experienced.
Anyone trying to predict the outcome of our polity's life and death struggle with crony capitalism will have to make sense of two contradictory sets of images.
On the one hand is the obfuscation and prevarication that senior Ministers have served up when confronted with the reality of the 2G spectrum scam and other unprecedented instances of corporate and political robbery. The most recent display of this was by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself, who needlessly played down the scale and significance of the revenue loss that the 2G scam had caused. But, on the other, are the pace and scope of the current investigation, which has also been unrivalled by anything India has witnessed so far. The same Prime Minister whose silence and ambivalence on 2G was seen by the Opposition and the public at large as weakness and even complicity has pushed the Central Bureau of Investigation into summoning and questioning top industrialists like Anil Ambani, raiding Kalaingar TV, the business arm of a key political ally, the DMK, and sending A. Raja, who was Telecom Minister till some time ago, to the unwholesome confines of Tihar Jail.
These are extraordinary developments by any yardstick and government managers have let it be known that there is further excitement in the offing. In the days and weeks ahead, more iconic businessmen are likely to be questioned for their involvement in the spectrum allocation scam. Nor will Shahid Balva be the only high net worth individual to be packed off to judicial remand.
When the leaked Radia tapes exposed a small part of the inner workings of the India establishment, our crony capitalists banded together to plead privacy and complain loudly about a “witch hunt.” Top corporate figures and even some politicians spoke about the danger of India becoming a “banana republic” and issued dark warnings in serial interviews about how the investment climate in the country was being adversely affected by the absurd suggestion that respectable businessmen might actually be involved in scams. The purpose of that fully scripted campaign was to ensure that the media, the investigating agencies and the courts all back off. Fortunately for our body politic, that has not happened. Public disaffection is so high that none of the estates of our system can afford to be seen as slackening. And that includes the executive too, notwithstanding the ‘zero loss' logic it foolishly put out. In his testimony to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, the CBI director was at pains to distance himself from that arithmetic of denial. Though the agency was painfully slow in getting off the block, nobody can really fault its current approach. And the credit for that must be shared equally by the media, the courts but also, ironically, Dr. Singh.
Yes, the Supreme Court is monitoring the functioning of the CBI but there are scores of cases where similar monitoring has produced nothing even remotely so dramatic. The Mulayam Singh disproportionate assets case, for one. When you are in government service, individual acts of bravery without the requisite air cover can be risky. As the police officers who raided the offices of Reliance Industries in New Delhi 13 years ago when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister discovered, taking on the biggest captains of industry is not exactly a career advancing move. If today, the younger Ambani is answering questions about his role in Swan Telecom, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the agency has received pretty direct encouragement from the highest levels of the government.
The question, of course, is whether or not the CBI will persist in its endeavours. Are we being treated to an elaborate dog-and-pony show? Or does the agency's current activism represent a fundamental course correction for a system which has tolerated and thrived on corruption? If yes, does the Prime Minister have the political clout to see things through?
Rent seeking and money making have been fellow travellers of the Indian political system for more than four decades but this is arguably the first time that a Minister has been run out of office and sent to jail as part of a criminal investigation. Never before has the role of big business come under the scanner like this either. When the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at the Centre in 1998, it promised clean governance. What the country got instead was sweetheart deals in the form of privatisation of hotels and other public sector assets, the petrol pump scam, the coffin scam and other crooked ventures. As the Justice Shivraj Patil report has catalogued, the rot in telecom policy and spectrum allocation also started then. But nothing was ever probed.
The United Progressive Alliance inherited this corrupt system and presided over its unprecedented expansion. Thanks to whistleblowers, upright auditors, a vigilant media and a fair bit of corporate rivalry, however, the truth about 2G, the Commonwealth Games and other money-making enterprises has slowly come trickling out. There are, of course, scores of other fishy deals that need probing too, especially those involving land grants and mining concessions.
What explains the schizophrenic attitude of the United Progressive Alliance government towards the 2G scam? Why does the Prime Minister peddle the fiction that companies like Swan or Unitech did not resell their spectrum (for a profit) but only expanded their equity base, when the sale of equity for a company which has no assets other than spectrum amounts to the same thing? Why does he persist in comparing the loot of public money via the sale of cheap spectrum to the cost of providing food subsidies for the poor — even as the CBI is pounding on the doors of the companies that benefited from the 2G allocation?
As an economist and a man of unquestionable integrity, Dr. Singh knew full well the revenue consequences of forgoing an auction for the allocation of 2G spectrum and recorded his unhappiness with the decision. Even if he is right in saying that he could not have been expected to get into the minutiae of decisions in all Ministries, this can at best explain why he allowed the January 2008 spectrum allocation to take place. What it does not explain is the delay of 20 months in the registration of the first FIR by the CBI. In the intervening period, there was ample material in the press for the Prime Minister to realise something wrong had happened. His argument that the compulsions of coalition came in the way doesn't cut much ice. For one, the DMK, with which the Congress has an alliance in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, would have been bound by the same compulsions and would have been hard placed to rock the boat at the national level. For another, why wasn't safeguarding the public exchequer considered as good a reason for putting the fate of the government on the line as the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal? Finally, ‘coalition dharma' cannot explain the persistence of Congress politicians with questionable credentials in the Union Cabinet, men such as Vilasrao Deshmukh, for example, against whom the Supreme Court has passed embarrassing strictures.
If the Prime Minister were anyone other than Dr. Singh, one might be justified in treating his belated intervention in the 2G matter as an indication of his own involvement. In reality, the delay was the product of both his individual political weakness and his party's failure to understand the political implications of the scam. Today, it is obvious that vigorously pursuing the case is in the best interest of the government, the ruling party and the coalition. Such is the level of public disenchantment that if the Congress fails to punish the officials, politicians and businessmen involved, it will take a beating at the next elections. But there is also a wider, systemic opportunity the 2G investigation provides for the Indian polity. Capitalism needs rules. In mature capitalist economies, those rules are designed to allow businessmen to make “normal” profit and to use (or loot) the resources of the state as a collective. The growth of monopoly power, and thus supernormal profit, is also a “natural” part of the process of accumulation. When individual corporate houses attempt a short-cut, however, they invariably corrupt the wider political edifice. Corrupt politicians come and go. But unless the crony capitalists who use them are punished, Indian democracy will continue to corrode.
India must apologise to the Karmapa Lama
18 February 2011, 12:25 AM IST
BY Shobhan Saxena
In the age of 24x7 TV channels facts are not sacrosanct and the only things that matter are screaming headlines, half-baked theories and silly opinions. The Karmapa affair is a good example of this malaise. Now the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has given a clean chit to the Karmapa Lama in the case involving seizure of foreign currency from ‘his’ monastery. But HP chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has refused to comment on the clean chit to the Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorje, from the Central agencies which looked into the alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act by the Tibetan leader.
However, while speaking to some Tibetan reporters at Dharamsala on Thursday, Dhumal sang a diiferent tune. "Karmapa's name in any way is not involved in any land related cases. Neither there are any cases against some particular monastery person,” said Dhumal. This is the same chief minister who has been going hammer and tongs at the Karmapa and the Dalai Lama and the entire Tibetan community in exile, making all kinds of wild allegations. To push his case, Dhumal even went to the extent of asking the Centre to reimburse the “entire amount of money spent by the Himachal government on the security of the Dalai Lama and Karmapa Lama”. Now, it seems he has lost faith in his police but he won't admit it because the lies about the Karmapa have been repeated too many times.
Since lies spread faster than truth, these bizarre allegations against the Karmapa appeared in the media as the gospel truth. Stories coming from unnamed, anonymous sources were played on prime-time TV and splashed across the newspapers, leaving no doubt in some minds that the Karmapa was upto some mischief. First they blew smoke in the air and then began looking for the fire. With the state government and media hunting in pair, the Karmapa had no chance to prove his innocence. The Tibetan spiritual guru had already been declared guilty by suspicion. The entire Tibetan community in India had been put under the scanner.
The day the police raided the Gyuto Tantric Monastery in Dharamsala and allegedly found Rs 6 crore in possession of a resident of the monastery, TV screens were swarmed by conspiracy theories. Nothing was backed by facts. Truth was drowned in the cacophony of mindless allegations. If anything has been exposed by this unfortunate drama, it’s the ignorance and gullibility of the Indian police and media.
Here is a look at some 'facts and evidence' which were either ignored or deliberately twisted by the media and their “invisible” sources to prove that the Karmapa was indeed a Chinese spy who had come to India to grab land across the Himalayan range on behalf of the Chinese government:
In his only interview to media on the eve of his first and only visit to the US in May 2008, the Karmapa spoke to me about a wide-ranging issues, including human rights, environmental degradation and religious freedom in Tibet
Chinese currency found at the monastery: It was alleged that the Karmapa is a Chinese spy because 1.1 million Chinese Yuan were found at the monastery. The police and media forgot to report that currencies of 25 other countries, including Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, UK, US, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, were part of the cash found. Also, they ignored the fact that some travellers cheques were also found. They ignored this fact because it could prove that the money had come from hundreds of devotees from dozens of countries who visit the Karmapa every day, unless the police meant to accuse the Karmapa of working as a spy for all the 25 countries.
And it didn’t occur to any reporter and investigator that the Chinese have to be very stupid to send their currency to the Karmapa. As it’s not an international currency, the Yuan is just a piece of paper in India. One can’t even buy a loaf of bread with it, forget using it for espionage. It’s like sending an Indian spy to China with bundles of rupees. Plain stupid.
The Karmapa monastery is illegal: The DGP of Himachal alleged that the land deal for the Karmapa monastery proved that it was a ‘benami property’. The allegation was parroted by the media without anyone pointing out that the Gyuto Tantric Monastery is neither owned nor constructed by the Karmapa. This monastery came up in the late 90s, years before Karmapa arrived in India. In fact, parts of the complex were still under construction when the Karmapa moved there in 2000. He lives in a small apartment on the top floor of this monastery and has nothing to do with the affairs of this institute. It’s absolutely wrong to call it Karmapa’s monastery. The Karmapa’s monastery, Rumtek, is in Sikkim and he has been waiting for permission from the government of India to go there. Also, his application for building a monastery in HP is pending with the government.
He was sent to India by China: In 2000, when the Karmapa escaped to India, the Chinese claimed that he had gone to India to “collect some books and musical instruments”. If he was their spy and his escape was stage-managed by Beijing, why would the Chinese be defensive on the issue and claim that he would come back to Tibet. It beats all logic. In fact, the Karmapa’s escape was a huge embarrassment for China. It was the biggest escape from Tibet since 1959, when the Dalai Lama fled to India. It was the single biggest failure of China’s policy in Tibet. To control the damage the Chinese floated a bizarre theory and we swallowed it hook, line and sinker . The Himachal police, which accused him of being a spy, hasn’t produced a single piece of evidence, not even telephone call records, to prove that the Karmapa is in touch with someone in China.
Karmapa owns huge properties: One of the allegations made against the Karmapa was that he owns properties worth $1.5 million, including the Gyuto Tantric Monastery where he is staying at present. The fact that this monastery is not owned or built by the Karmapa was completely ignored. Also the fact that it was the Dalai Lama who had made arrangements for the Karmpapa to stay in two rooms at the top of Gyuto monastery was completely ignored. I have interviewed the Karmapaa at his residence a few times. It is a very small house with a small balcony. The police hasn’t produced any evidence so far which suggests that the Karmapa owns properties worth $1.5 million in India. But this lie was flashed on TV screens as breaking news for days. And now Himachal CM says there's no case against the Karmapa.
He doesn’t speak against China: One strong “evidence” against the Karmapa, according to his detractors, is that he hasn’t said anything against China since he came to India. Again a total lie. In his first meeting with the press in 2000, the Karmapa had categorically said that he escaped to India because there was “no freedom in Tibet”. In my interviews with him in the years 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2008, he spoke about issues of religious freedom and human rights in China. Of late, he has been repeatedly talking about environmental degradation in Tibet. As recently as December 8, 2010, I, along with some other journalists met the Karmapa at Bodhgaya and he again spoke about the problems in China-controlled Tibet. Also, his detractors forget a simple fact that the Karmapa is not a political leader but head of one of the four sects of Tibetan Buddhism, the Karma Kagyu sect. He is a spiritual leader. In the 1000 years of their history, the Karmapas have been entirely spiritual. The Karmapa is not supposed to talk about political issues. That role is reserved for the Dalai Lama who is the political leader of all Tibetans irrespective of their sects. We also never hear political comments from the heads of two other Tibetan sects, Nyingma and Sakya, but no one accuses them of being Chinese spies. So why single out the Karmapa?
The Himachal government has committed a Himalayan blunder by casting aspersions on the Karmapa in particular and the Tibetans in exile in general. Suddenly, there is a feeling among the Tibetans that they can’t take their freedom in India for granted. This witch-hunt has rattled the community. So vicious were the attacks against the Tibetans that even the Dalai Lama, the most popular person in the world and India’s best global ambassador, was accused by a nitwit of land grabbing. It was preposterous and stupid.
India should reassure the Tibetans that they are safe in this country and no political party will cut a deal with China for short-term gains at the expense of Tibetan refugees in India.
To begin with, the government must apologise to the Karmapa Lama.
18 February 2011, 12:25 AM IST
BY Shobhan Saxena
In the age of 24x7 TV channels facts are not sacrosanct and the only things that matter are screaming headlines, half-baked theories and silly opinions. The Karmapa affair is a good example of this malaise. Now the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has given a clean chit to the Karmapa Lama in the case involving seizure of foreign currency from ‘his’ monastery. But HP chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has refused to comment on the clean chit to the Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorje, from the Central agencies which looked into the alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act by the Tibetan leader.
However, while speaking to some Tibetan reporters at Dharamsala on Thursday, Dhumal sang a diiferent tune. "Karmapa's name in any way is not involved in any land related cases. Neither there are any cases against some particular monastery person,” said Dhumal. This is the same chief minister who has been going hammer and tongs at the Karmapa and the Dalai Lama and the entire Tibetan community in exile, making all kinds of wild allegations. To push his case, Dhumal even went to the extent of asking the Centre to reimburse the “entire amount of money spent by the Himachal government on the security of the Dalai Lama and Karmapa Lama”. Now, it seems he has lost faith in his police but he won't admit it because the lies about the Karmapa have been repeated too many times.
Since lies spread faster than truth, these bizarre allegations against the Karmapa appeared in the media as the gospel truth. Stories coming from unnamed, anonymous sources were played on prime-time TV and splashed across the newspapers, leaving no doubt in some minds that the Karmapa was upto some mischief. First they blew smoke in the air and then began looking for the fire. With the state government and media hunting in pair, the Karmapa had no chance to prove his innocence. The Tibetan spiritual guru had already been declared guilty by suspicion. The entire Tibetan community in India had been put under the scanner.
The day the police raided the Gyuto Tantric Monastery in Dharamsala and allegedly found Rs 6 crore in possession of a resident of the monastery, TV screens were swarmed by conspiracy theories. Nothing was backed by facts. Truth was drowned in the cacophony of mindless allegations. If anything has been exposed by this unfortunate drama, it’s the ignorance and gullibility of the Indian police and media.
Here is a look at some 'facts and evidence' which were either ignored or deliberately twisted by the media and their “invisible” sources to prove that the Karmapa was indeed a Chinese spy who had come to India to grab land across the Himalayan range on behalf of the Chinese government:
In his only interview to media on the eve of his first and only visit to the US in May 2008, the Karmapa spoke to me about a wide-ranging issues, including human rights, environmental degradation and religious freedom in Tibet
Chinese currency found at the monastery: It was alleged that the Karmapa is a Chinese spy because 1.1 million Chinese Yuan were found at the monastery. The police and media forgot to report that currencies of 25 other countries, including Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, UK, US, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, were part of the cash found. Also, they ignored the fact that some travellers cheques were also found. They ignored this fact because it could prove that the money had come from hundreds of devotees from dozens of countries who visit the Karmapa every day, unless the police meant to accuse the Karmapa of working as a spy for all the 25 countries.
And it didn’t occur to any reporter and investigator that the Chinese have to be very stupid to send their currency to the Karmapa. As it’s not an international currency, the Yuan is just a piece of paper in India. One can’t even buy a loaf of bread with it, forget using it for espionage. It’s like sending an Indian spy to China with bundles of rupees. Plain stupid.
The Karmapa monastery is illegal: The DGP of Himachal alleged that the land deal for the Karmapa monastery proved that it was a ‘benami property’. The allegation was parroted by the media without anyone pointing out that the Gyuto Tantric Monastery is neither owned nor constructed by the Karmapa. This monastery came up in the late 90s, years before Karmapa arrived in India. In fact, parts of the complex were still under construction when the Karmapa moved there in 2000. He lives in a small apartment on the top floor of this monastery and has nothing to do with the affairs of this institute. It’s absolutely wrong to call it Karmapa’s monastery. The Karmapa’s monastery, Rumtek, is in Sikkim and he has been waiting for permission from the government of India to go there. Also, his application for building a monastery in HP is pending with the government.
He was sent to India by China: In 2000, when the Karmapa escaped to India, the Chinese claimed that he had gone to India to “collect some books and musical instruments”. If he was their spy and his escape was stage-managed by Beijing, why would the Chinese be defensive on the issue and claim that he would come back to Tibet. It beats all logic. In fact, the Karmapa’s escape was a huge embarrassment for China. It was the biggest escape from Tibet since 1959, when the Dalai Lama fled to India. It was the single biggest failure of China’s policy in Tibet. To control the damage the Chinese floated a bizarre theory and we swallowed it hook, line and sinker . The Himachal police, which accused him of being a spy, hasn’t produced a single piece of evidence, not even telephone call records, to prove that the Karmapa is in touch with someone in China.
Karmapa owns huge properties: One of the allegations made against the Karmapa was that he owns properties worth $1.5 million, including the Gyuto Tantric Monastery where he is staying at present. The fact that this monastery is not owned or built by the Karmapa was completely ignored. Also the fact that it was the Dalai Lama who had made arrangements for the Karmpapa to stay in two rooms at the top of Gyuto monastery was completely ignored. I have interviewed the Karmapaa at his residence a few times. It is a very small house with a small balcony. The police hasn’t produced any evidence so far which suggests that the Karmapa owns properties worth $1.5 million in India. But this lie was flashed on TV screens as breaking news for days. And now Himachal CM says there's no case against the Karmapa.
He doesn’t speak against China: One strong “evidence” against the Karmapa, according to his detractors, is that he hasn’t said anything against China since he came to India. Again a total lie. In his first meeting with the press in 2000, the Karmapa had categorically said that he escaped to India because there was “no freedom in Tibet”. In my interviews with him in the years 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2008, he spoke about issues of religious freedom and human rights in China. Of late, he has been repeatedly talking about environmental degradation in Tibet. As recently as December 8, 2010, I, along with some other journalists met the Karmapa at Bodhgaya and he again spoke about the problems in China-controlled Tibet. Also, his detractors forget a simple fact that the Karmapa is not a political leader but head of one of the four sects of Tibetan Buddhism, the Karma Kagyu sect. He is a spiritual leader. In the 1000 years of their history, the Karmapas have been entirely spiritual. The Karmapa is not supposed to talk about political issues. That role is reserved for the Dalai Lama who is the political leader of all Tibetans irrespective of their sects. We also never hear political comments from the heads of two other Tibetan sects, Nyingma and Sakya, but no one accuses them of being Chinese spies. So why single out the Karmapa?
The Himachal government has committed a Himalayan blunder by casting aspersions on the Karmapa in particular and the Tibetans in exile in general. Suddenly, there is a feeling among the Tibetans that they can’t take their freedom in India for granted. This witch-hunt has rattled the community. So vicious were the attacks against the Tibetans that even the Dalai Lama, the most popular person in the world and India’s best global ambassador, was accused by a nitwit of land grabbing. It was preposterous and stupid.
India should reassure the Tibetans that they are safe in this country and no political party will cut a deal with China for short-term gains at the expense of Tibetan refugees in India.
To begin with, the government must apologise to the Karmapa Lama.
High Court stay directing Income Tax Office to desist proceedings against two local companies to continue
I.T.O. SEEKS FOUR MORE WEEKS TO FILE COUNTER-AFFIDAVIT TO LOCAL ENTREPRENEUR’S CHALLENGE TO ITS JURISDICTION
SUBASH RAI
SUBASH RAI
Sikkim Now
GANGTOK, 18 Feb: The stay order of the High Court of Sikkim, directing the Income Tax Office to desist from any further proceedings against two local enterprises, Teesta Rangit Pvt Ltd and Envision Pvt Ltd [which had been “surveyed” by the ITO on 23 December 2010], will continue until further orders. This continuation was ordered by the High Court on 16 Feb when the petition filed by Teesta Rangit Pvt Ltd had come up for its second hearing.
The respondents in the case, the ITO, sought four weeks time to file a counter affidavit, which was granted by the Court and another four weeks granted to the petitioner to file the rejoinder. The case has been listed for its next hearing on 18 May 2011.
Teesta Rangit Pvt Ltd and Envision Pvt Ltd, it may be recalled, had secured an interim stay order from the High Court on 24 January. The interim stay was issued on a writ petition filed by the Director of the two companies, Naresh Subba, against the IT Office on 21 January. This, in follow-up to the 35-hour “survey” carried out by the Income Tax Office, Siliguri, at the offices of the two companies on 23 Dec 2010 in the absence of Mr. Subba.
Mr. Subba has asserted that he was taking this stand with the larger interest of the Sikkimese, especially the future generation of entrepreneurs, in mind.
“The issue of Central Income Tax and how it applies to companies registered under the Sikkim Companies Registration Act and owned by Sikkim Subjects, who are exempted from Income Tax, has still not been clearly explained. This being a Central matter, is for the authorities there to explain to the satisfaction and understanding of local entrepreneurs. Being an entrepreneur myself, I can vouch that this area has been left vague,” Mr. Subba had explained after winning the stay order last month.
He has stressed that now that the matter has been taken to the Court, the “vagueness” in respect of companies registered in Sikkim and owned by Sikkim Subjects, will be addressed and a clearer explanation presented in the public domain.
He has also complained against the manner in which IT “survey” was carried out, how the two companies were “misinformed and misdirected” and also the manner in which the IT officials seized books and documents of the company, including Mr. Subba’s personal records.
He has also challenged the damaging statements ascribed to IT officials following the survey at his establishments and also questioned the ITO’s jurisdiction to have undertaken such a survey.
The ITO’s over-exuberance is also manifested by the fact that the “survey” was carried out before the 30-day period given to company to file its returns by the ITO, Sikkim Circle, had lapsed.
The respondents in the case, the ITO, sought four weeks time to file a counter affidavit, which was granted by the Court and another four weeks granted to the petitioner to file the rejoinder. The case has been listed for its next hearing on 18 May 2011.
Teesta Rangit Pvt Ltd and Envision Pvt Ltd, it may be recalled, had secured an interim stay order from the High Court on 24 January. The interim stay was issued on a writ petition filed by the Director of the two companies, Naresh Subba, against the IT Office on 21 January. This, in follow-up to the 35-hour “survey” carried out by the Income Tax Office, Siliguri, at the offices of the two companies on 23 Dec 2010 in the absence of Mr. Subba.
Mr. Subba has asserted that he was taking this stand with the larger interest of the Sikkimese, especially the future generation of entrepreneurs, in mind.
“The issue of Central Income Tax and how it applies to companies registered under the Sikkim Companies Registration Act and owned by Sikkim Subjects, who are exempted from Income Tax, has still not been clearly explained. This being a Central matter, is for the authorities there to explain to the satisfaction and understanding of local entrepreneurs. Being an entrepreneur myself, I can vouch that this area has been left vague,” Mr. Subba had explained after winning the stay order last month.
He has stressed that now that the matter has been taken to the Court, the “vagueness” in respect of companies registered in Sikkim and owned by Sikkim Subjects, will be addressed and a clearer explanation presented in the public domain.
He has also complained against the manner in which IT “survey” was carried out, how the two companies were “misinformed and misdirected” and also the manner in which the IT officials seized books and documents of the company, including Mr. Subba’s personal records.
He has also challenged the damaging statements ascribed to IT officials following the survey at his establishments and also questioned the ITO’s jurisdiction to have undertaken such a survey.
The ITO’s over-exuberance is also manifested by the fact that the “survey” was carried out before the 30-day period given to company to file its returns by the ITO, Sikkim Circle, had lapsed.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Raja has jail food, sleeps on floor
Former telecom minister A. Raja had jail food, slept on the floor last night in Tihar prisons and was up at 6 a.m. on Friday to attend the roll call like any other prisoner.
The 47-year-old high-profile inmate of Jail No.1, arrested for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, is mostly keeping to himself, a senior jail official said.
“The former minister did not hesitate to eat food cooked inside the prison kitchens. He ate rice, dal, rajma and vegetables [for] dinner. He was provided seven blankets to make his bed on the floor and did not throw any tantrums,” he said, adding Mr. Raja was not given any special treatment.
The minister is sharing the ward with former Delhi ACP S.S. Rathi, convicted in the 1997 Connaught Place shootout case, and other prisoners.
Rathi is serving life term following his conviction by a Delhi trial court on October 24, 2007 in the case of killing of two businessmen.
“Raja followed the prison rules and woke up at 6 a.m. today. He went through all the English dailies before having his morning tea. He did not interact with any prisoner after entering his ward and kept reading,” the official said.
But on Friday, he went out of his cell for a stroll inside the prison premises. He spoke to Ravi Kant Sharma, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar, the official said.
After sustained custodial interrogation for 14 days at the CBI headquarters, Mr. Raja was on Thursday sent to Tihar Jail under judicial custody by a Delhi court till March 3.
Mr. Raja, who resigned in November last year following uproar over the scam, was arrested on February 2 along with former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and his former personal secretary R.K. Chandolia for their alleged role in 2G spectrum allocation scam, which, as per CBI, has caused a pecuniary loss of Rs 22,000 crore to the state exchequer.
The former minister is alleged to have manipulated rules to favour some telecom companies, including Swan Telecom and Unitech Private Limited, in allocation of the spectrum at throwaway prices.
PM evades real problem
By Rajinder Puri
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has held his much awaited Press conference. What he conveyed was that he will not quit despite the criticism levelled against him; that there have been shortcomings in governance which need to be rectified; that there has been corruption which is being probed; that despite the slow progress due to following correct legal procedure the guilty will not escape; and that the admitted shortcomings in the performance of his government may be traced to the compulsions of coalition politics that sometimes necessitate compromises.
In other words, it is business as usual. The biggest systemic flaw of the UPA government was ignored by the PM and his questioners alike. The government cannot credibly blame only coalition partners for the corruption or the compromises that have slowed down the efforts to nail it. The Commonwealth Games scam does not relate to coalition partners, It involves questionable decisions by Congress leaders. It was the Congress political secretary who met Hassan Ali. The progress of investigation in these scams has been even more dilatory than it is in the other scams. A PM need not be as inhibited in dealing with coalition partners as the present incumbent is. The heart of the problem lies elsewhere. Unless it is addressed, the performance of the UPA government will continue to flounder.
The problem is the systemic flaw under which this government functions. An extra-Constitutional centre of power exists that is more powerful than the Prime Minister. Such diarchy renders confused and self-contradictory governance. The relationship between the government and the party organisation in any democratic system works well because the lines of responsibility are clearly demarcated. The party is responsible for adhering to its agenda and to the government performing within the parameters set by it. The government is solely responsible for executing policy within those parameters. This arrangement does not obtain within the UPA setup.
Mrs Sonia Gandhi is not only the president of the Congress party. She is not only the chairperson of the National Advisory Council specially established against precedent to advise the government on all policy. She is also the head of a dynasty that is so powerful within the party that she could single-handedly appoint the Prime Minister before ascertaining the views of the party. And she achieved that because Dr Manmohan Singh accepted the post of PM in these humiliating and undemocratic circumstances. As a result, the entire Congress membership as well as its UPA coalition partners are aware where real power resides. It is Mrs Gandhi who is approached for approval of all key decisions while the PM remains a passive standerby. The PM seems content to aspire for a global Indian role while he remains marginalised as a nonentity in all matters of governance. Because of this monumental compromise that allowed him to become a PM, he is accountable for decisions not made by him. Because of the enormous power wielded by Mrs Gandhi, she can exercise power for which she is not answerable. This arrangement is unnatural, undemocratic and unworkable. Either Mrs Sonia Gandhi should become the PM, or Dr Manmohan Singh must behave as a PM should. Either the PM must call the shots. Or Mrs Gandhi must face the heat. Unless power is accompanied by accountability, the democratic process does not work. The present patchwork arrangement is tattered beyond repair. It has to be discarded. Otherwise the drift will continue. The debate will continue. And, the decline will continue. That is the bald truth Congress leaders must recognise.
source;The Statesman
The rich get richer
The rich get richer
surce:Business Standard | 2011-02-17 01:11:00
The Business Standard (Rupee) billionaires club (BS, 16/2/2011) has 106 new members joining it in 2010, taking the number of "super-rich" in India to 657. India’s dollar billionaires are still in double digits, having increased from 33 to 45 last year (way below the numbers for China and Russia). The total net worth of India’s 657 Rupee billionaires was estimated at Rs 16 lakh crore, accounting for a fifth of the collective market value of all listed companies in India. While this is the narrow tip of a pyramid of highly unequal wealth, it gets even narrower at the very top with India’s top five billionaires — Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Azim Premji, Anil Agarwal and Anil Ambani — accounting for 30 per cent of the total net worth of the 657 super-rich. While the celebration of wealth and enterprise has been an integral part of rising India’s new entrepreneurial culture, this year the billionaires’ list will be viewed by most through two prisms. First, how many of India’s billionaires are in businesses where oligopolistic access to scarce resources has been a far more important driver of wealth creation than entrepreneurship in a competitive market or leadership in new technologies, markets and products.
Second, the list will also be scrutinised to see how many of the new entrants are genuine first generation business leaders and how many have political godfathers. Sun TV’s Kalanithi Maran (rank 16 in 2010 as opposed to 23 in 2009) is a good example of a billionaire who has made good use of his family’s political connections. On both counts, the list is not inspiring.
One of the exciting aspects of the rise of the rich in India in the post-liberalisation era was that many of them, like N R Narayana Murthy (rank 31) and Nandan Nilekani (rank 40) became wealthy through genuine enterprise (though one must account for the help from land subsidies and tax exemptions in IT) in highly competitive markets. It would appear that the pace of change at the top has slowed down. While there are some new entrants to the list, and not all of them have benefited from the cornering of scare resources or their political connections, there have been fewer dramatic entrants to the ranks of India’s highly successful entrepreneurs in the past few years compared to the decade of 1990-2000. Perhaps, as India sustains its growth story and enters new markets, it will continue to produce new entrepreneurs.
The wealth and success of India’s billionaires, and the fact that many of them are increasingly going global (taking their business away from India), would suggest that the time may have come for the country’s political leadership to demand increased plough-back of this wealth within India. Equally important, India’s social leaders and conscience-keepers must urge the super-rich to share their wealth more liberally and be less ostentatious in their lifestyles in the interests of social and political stability.
surce:Business Standard | 2011-02-17 01:11:00
The Business Standard (Rupee) billionaires club (BS, 16/2/2011) has 106 new members joining it in 2010, taking the number of "super-rich" in India to 657. India’s dollar billionaires are still in double digits, having increased from 33 to 45 last year (way below the numbers for China and Russia). The total net worth of India’s 657 Rupee billionaires was estimated at Rs 16 lakh crore, accounting for a fifth of the collective market value of all listed companies in India. While this is the narrow tip of a pyramid of highly unequal wealth, it gets even narrower at the very top with India’s top five billionaires — Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Azim Premji, Anil Agarwal and Anil Ambani — accounting for 30 per cent of the total net worth of the 657 super-rich. While the celebration of wealth and enterprise has been an integral part of rising India’s new entrepreneurial culture, this year the billionaires’ list will be viewed by most through two prisms. First, how many of India’s billionaires are in businesses where oligopolistic access to scarce resources has been a far more important driver of wealth creation than entrepreneurship in a competitive market or leadership in new technologies, markets and products.
Second, the list will also be scrutinised to see how many of the new entrants are genuine first generation business leaders and how many have political godfathers. Sun TV’s Kalanithi Maran (rank 16 in 2010 as opposed to 23 in 2009) is a good example of a billionaire who has made good use of his family’s political connections. On both counts, the list is not inspiring.
One of the exciting aspects of the rise of the rich in India in the post-liberalisation era was that many of them, like N R Narayana Murthy (rank 31) and Nandan Nilekani (rank 40) became wealthy through genuine enterprise (though one must account for the help from land subsidies and tax exemptions in IT) in highly competitive markets. It would appear that the pace of change at the top has slowed down. While there are some new entrants to the list, and not all of them have benefited from the cornering of scare resources or their political connections, there have been fewer dramatic entrants to the ranks of India’s highly successful entrepreneurs in the past few years compared to the decade of 1990-2000. Perhaps, as India sustains its growth story and enters new markets, it will continue to produce new entrepreneurs.
The wealth and success of India’s billionaires, and the fact that many of them are increasingly going global (taking their business away from India), would suggest that the time may have come for the country’s political leadership to demand increased plough-back of this wealth within India. Equally important, India’s social leaders and conscience-keepers must urge the super-rich to share their wealth more liberally and be less ostentatious in their lifestyles in the interests of social and political stability.
No shortcuts to losing weight
The Hindu Visitors have a look at the posters during a campaign on "Prevention of Childhood Obesity and Diabetes" in Chennai. Children should be taught to eat healthy and exercise, says Dr. Reddy . File Photo: M. Karunakaran
Sheela (name changed) was 40, rather short, and stout. Since she delivered nearly two decades ago, she began putting on weight until the weighing scales groaned at 145 kg.
With a Body Mass Index of 49, she was ‘morbidly obese'. She also had the attendant problems – diabetes, high blood pressure, and thyroid abnormalities. However, she ignored her problem until doctors said it could cost her, her life. At a BMI of 49, exercise and dieting was not going to help her.
“Sheela is a classic case – her meals were fat and carbohydrate-rich, and she had literally no exercise. In fact, she would not move out of home. When she came to us, she was morbidly obese, but we still set her on a diet and exercise pattern,” says Deepak Subramanian, consultant laparoscopic and bariatric surgeon, Fortis Malar Hospital. Predictably, it did not help her at all.
“The problem was that she did not bother about gaining weight until her BP hit the roof. As she came to us, the only option we could provide her was bariatric surgery,” Dr. Subramanian explains. For anyone with a BMI of over 35, and with obesity-related medical conditions, the chances of getting back to normal weight are low.
By reducing the size of the stomach through bariatric surgery, the patient's ability to consume large volumes is curtailed, explains Prasanna Kumar Reddy, senior consultant laparoscopic surgeon, Apollo Hospitals. The weight loss is over a period of time. However, he makes it clear that the process is not automatic.
“After surgery, the patient has to follow lifestyle modifications that we recommend. They have to drop habits that tend to lead to weight gain. In order that they follow the protocols, especially diet, we ask them to report to the dietician once every three months,” he adds. Even after surgery, the stomach pouch can expand, leading to weight gain.
J.S.Rajkumar, bariatric surgeon, and chairman, Lifeline Hospitals, says, “The human being has a natural tendency to fall back on starchy and sweet food. Aerated drinks are a strict no-no. They can cause havoc in a patient who has had bariatric surgery.” While the procedure itself can turn out to be the only help for the morbidly obese, Dr. Rajkumar makes it clear that ‘we do not yet have a procedure that can circumvent the need to follow a diet and exercise pattern'.
Dr. Subramanian cautions again that bariatric surgery is not for every one. “We get a lot of enquiries from people, specially from north India and abroad, who want to get rid of abdominal fat. But we turn them down. If you can lose fat by other means, it must be done. “There is no lazy way to lose weight. Ideally, do not get obese,” he adds.
According to Dr. Reddy, one needs to start with the young. Children should be taught to eat healthy and exercise. Parents and schools should be involved in these activities for them to be effective.source;The Hindu
Pelling at heartstrings
Pelling
It is Sikkim's best window to the mighty Kangchendzonga, besides offering quick getaways to the spectacularly beautiful surrounding regions.
Dense fog surrounds us as we wend our way from Gangtok to Pelling in West Sikkim. Longfu, the genial local who has been chauffeuring us for a week now across this mystical landscape, appears unperturbed by the thick white veil as he manoeuvres the car deftly through winding roads, hairpin bends and sharp curves.
The magic of Sikkim unfolds before us as we pass along breathtaking terrains that are a heady mixture of rolling tea gardens, luxuriantly blossom-filled valleys, ice-capped rugged mountains, deep gorges, gurgling streams and gushing waterfalls. The people in their flamboyant attire are just as charming, and hospitable to boot.
As we near Pelling, the towering Kangchendzonga (or Kanchenjunga) at 28,169 ft looms closer into view. Although this Himalayan range is visible from nearly every part of this tiny State, it is at Pelling that we get some of the best, most uninterrupted views. Of course, the mist plays hide-and-seek every few minutes, but we manage to savour the sight of the beauteous Kangchendzonga long enough without the snowy drape.
Wishing lake
While Pelling itself is a tiny, nondescript village dotted with typical mountain dwellings, hotels and fast-food outlets, it is a useful takeoff point for visits to Khecheopalri Lake, Pemayanste and Sango Choling Monasteries, Kangchendzonga and other waterfalls, Tashiding and Yoksum.
After halting for a steaming cup of ginger chai at one of the dhabas, we head towards Khecheopalri Lake, also called the Wishing Lake, about 6 km away.
The serene waters, festooned by fluttering prayer flags, is enveloped by greenery. According to legend, this was once a grazing ground filled with stinging nettle until one day, a native Lepcha couple saw a pair of conch shells plummet from the sky towards the earth at great speed. Where the shells struck the ground, water sprang up and formed the lake.
Buddhists believe the lake resembles the footprint of goddess Tara, and worship it as the abode of Tshomen Gyalmo, the chief protector-nymph of the Dharma.
Another interesting legend has it that even the birds in the area worship the lake by clearing it of all the fallen leaves and other foliage.
In this tranquil setting, we spot several colourful monastic dwellings. Tourists stroll along the walkway leading to the edge of the lake, turning the prayer wheels along the way. But for the click of cameras, there is a perfect, meditative silence all around.
We half-heartedly tear ourselves away from the magic spell cast by the lake and proceed towards Pemayanste, located nearby at an altitude of 6,840 ft. A couple of well-fed canines wag their tail in greeting as we enter the monastery.
Longfu, who also doubles as our guide, says that this monastery is the most important one for the Nyingmapa order of Buddhism and was originally built as a small temple in the late 17th century. It was later, under the ruling third Chogyal Chakdor Namgyal — Jigme Pawo — that it was expanded into a three-storey structure that houses several idols, scriptures and other antiquities.
Kangchengdzonga falls
It is a little before dusk that we reach Kangchengdzonga falls, about 15 km from Pelling. Even from a distance we could hear the thundering symphony of the tumbling waters. We thrill at the dazzling play of the frothy water against a reluctant sun; as the water cascades down the granite rocks, tiny droplets settle gently on our skin like shiny specks of pearls.
Unfortunately for us, a mild drizzle that began moments before escalates into a medium shower, forcing us to put away our camera.
As I enjoy nature's aqueous drama, I rest content with the few shots I had managed prior to the downpour, thanking the rain gods for delaying their grand entry to coincide with the fag end of our Sikkim trip.
source; The Businessline
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Central Sales tax must GO
by SATYA PODDAR PARTNER, ERNST & YOUNG
The Tiny, but Unjust, tax must go
The central sales tax (CST) is the root of many distortions and inefficiencies in the current tax system. It is a tiny tax, but inflicts pain like a chronic migraine. It is unjust, difficult to enforce and prone to evasion. The states pour vast sums of money in setting up inter-state checkposts to enforce the tax, which are a useless fixture, and serve little purpose other than to supplement the incomes of those manning them. The barriers they create are a blot on the common market of India. Being an origin-based tax, CST violates the principle of interjurisdictional equity.
It is an extra-territorial tax by the producing states on the residents of the consuming states. It is also a major contributor to tax cascading as no credit is allowed by any government for the tax paid on inter-state purchase of inputs. The enhanced costs create a competitive disadvantage for the Indian suppliers. To avoid the tax, manufacturers first stock transfer the goods to their own depots in other states and then make a local sale. But that makes the supply chain complex and expensive. In one recent study, an electrical manufacturer had set up 26 distribution centres, which could be reduced to five if CST is abolished.
Despite this, the states want to hang on to the CST only for the revenue consideration. However, the loss in CST revenues can be more than offset by a suitable adjustment in VAT rates, broadening the tax base and enhanced compliance. To illustrate, when CST was reduced from 4% to 2%, the reported inter-state sales in some states (e.g., Delhi) shot up by more than 100%!
Some states have argued that reduced CST creates much larger arbitrage opportunities for the dealers to show intra-state sales (taxable at 4% to 15%) as inter-state sales (taxable at 2%). Such activities can be controlled through ITenabled mechanisms like TINXYS (Trade Information Exchange System) that allow proper reporting and monitoring of inter-state transactions and for collection of tax on them.
TINXYS has already been developed, but it’s accumulating dust on the shelf for want of attention from state bureaucracies. GST can provide an impetus, but is not essential, for the adoption of such technologies.
The Tiny, but Unjust, tax must go
The central sales tax (CST) is the root of many distortions and inefficiencies in the current tax system. It is a tiny tax, but inflicts pain like a chronic migraine. It is unjust, difficult to enforce and prone to evasion. The states pour vast sums of money in setting up inter-state checkposts to enforce the tax, which are a useless fixture, and serve little purpose other than to supplement the incomes of those manning them. The barriers they create are a blot on the common market of India. Being an origin-based tax, CST violates the principle of interjurisdictional equity.
It is an extra-territorial tax by the producing states on the residents of the consuming states. It is also a major contributor to tax cascading as no credit is allowed by any government for the tax paid on inter-state purchase of inputs. The enhanced costs create a competitive disadvantage for the Indian suppliers. To avoid the tax, manufacturers first stock transfer the goods to their own depots in other states and then make a local sale. But that makes the supply chain complex and expensive. In one recent study, an electrical manufacturer had set up 26 distribution centres, which could be reduced to five if CST is abolished.
Despite this, the states want to hang on to the CST only for the revenue consideration. However, the loss in CST revenues can be more than offset by a suitable adjustment in VAT rates, broadening the tax base and enhanced compliance. To illustrate, when CST was reduced from 4% to 2%, the reported inter-state sales in some states (e.g., Delhi) shot up by more than 100%!
Some states have argued that reduced CST creates much larger arbitrage opportunities for the dealers to show intra-state sales (taxable at 4% to 15%) as inter-state sales (taxable at 2%). Such activities can be controlled through ITenabled mechanisms like TINXYS (Trade Information Exchange System) that allow proper reporting and monitoring of inter-state transactions and for collection of tax on them.
TINXYS has already been developed, but it’s accumulating dust on the shelf for want of attention from state bureaucracies. GST can provide an impetus, but is not essential, for the adoption of such technologies.
Centre gives clean chit to Karmapa
PTI – Wed, Feb 16, 2011 9:38 PM IST
Foreign currency haul case: Centre gives clean chit to Karmapa
The Centre is understood to have given a clean chit to Tibetan spiritual leader Karmapa Ugyen Trinely Dorji in the case relating to the huge foreign currency haul from his house, saying the money had come in the form of donations and offerings by devotees. This was the conclusion arrived by the central government, after its agencies probed the case following the recovery of foreign currency to the tune of Rs 7.5 crore from the Gyuto Monastery, the transit home of the Karmapa, in Himachal Pradesh, sources said.
“The foreign currency recovered during raids are donations and offerings from devotees and the affairs of the Trust backed by him are managed by the trustees. It happened due to the callousness of his associates and lack of knowledge of laws,” a source said, adding the Karmapa’s associates had made the mistake of keeping such a huge amount of foreign currency.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the Karmapa’s followers met Union Home secretary Gopal K Pillai on Wednesday and apprised him about various aspects of the case. The delegation pleaded for the innocence of the Karmapa and assured all cooperation from his side to the ongoing probe.
The Home secretary is learnt to have asked the delegation to advise the Karmapa and his associates about existing laws, to hire chartered accountants to manage his funds and to register the trust under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
Foreign currency belonging to 25 countries, including China, was recovered by the police from the premises of the Karmapa backed trust. In addition, in the raids that followed, the police further recovered Rs one crore from two persons on January 25 this year, allegedly drawn from a bank at Majnoo-ka-Tila in Delhi for a land deal.
PTI – Wed, Feb 16, 2011 9:38 PM IST
Foreign currency haul case: Centre gives clean chit to Karmapa
The Centre is understood to have given a clean chit to Tibetan spiritual leader Karmapa Ugyen Trinely Dorji in the case relating to the huge foreign currency haul from his house, saying the money had come in the form of donations and offerings by devotees. This was the conclusion arrived by the central government, after its agencies probed the case following the recovery of foreign currency to the tune of Rs 7.5 crore from the Gyuto Monastery, the transit home of the Karmapa, in Himachal Pradesh, sources said.
“The foreign currency recovered during raids are donations and offerings from devotees and the affairs of the Trust backed by him are managed by the trustees. It happened due to the callousness of his associates and lack of knowledge of laws,” a source said, adding the Karmapa’s associates had made the mistake of keeping such a huge amount of foreign currency.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the Karmapa’s followers met Union Home secretary Gopal K Pillai on Wednesday and apprised him about various aspects of the case. The delegation pleaded for the innocence of the Karmapa and assured all cooperation from his side to the ongoing probe.
The Home secretary is learnt to have asked the delegation to advise the Karmapa and his associates about existing laws, to hire chartered accountants to manage his funds and to register the trust under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
Foreign currency belonging to 25 countries, including China, was recovered by the police from the premises of the Karmapa backed trust. In addition, in the raids that followed, the police further recovered Rs one crore from two persons on January 25 this year, allegedly drawn from a bank at Majnoo-ka-Tila in Delhi for a land deal.
Cell phones: precautionary approach needed
by K. S. Parthasarathy
In December 2010, Matt Parker, a British mathematician, tabulated the number of mobile phone masts in each county across the United Kingdom and then matched it with the number of live births in the same counties. He discovered that the correlation was so strong that in areas above normal numbers of mobile phones, he could predict how many more births above the national average occurred.
Parker concluded that for every additional mobile phone base station in an area, the number of births goes up by an average of 17.6 babies!
In reality, mobile phone masts have absolutely no bearing on the number of births. Masts do not make people more fertile. There is no causal link between the masts and the births despite the strong correlation.
The number of mobile phone transmitters and the number of live births are linked to a third factor, the local population size. As the population of an area goes up, so do both the number of mobile phone users and the number of people giving birth. Instinctively we tend to assume that correlation means that one factor causes the other!
Parker published a phoney press release highlighting his finding to see whether media outlets would jump to the incorrect conclusion that mobile phone radiation causes pregnancies. Main-stream media ignored the hoax release after checking out the facts. Some readers reacted differently.
“There were the expected people who clearly did not actually read what I wrote before seeing the headline and getting excited about this apparent scare story, but there were also seemingly endless comments from people who understood my correlation-causality project but could not help putting forward a possible causal link anyway” Parker said.
His headline to The Guardian article “Mobile phone radiation linked to people jumping to conclusions” was apt.
Over the years, there has been differing news on the risks of radiation from mobile phones. A WHO booklet published in May 2010, stated that no adverse health effects have been established for mobile phone use. Studies are ongoing to assess potential long-term effects. WHO noted that there is an increased risk of road traffic injuries when drivers use mobile phones (either handheld or "hands-free") while driving.
According to HPA (HPA, May 17,2010), there are thousands of published scientific papers covering research about the effects of various types of radio waves on cells, tissues, animals and people. HPA's views derived from them were identical to those of the WHO.
Widespread use
Given the uncertainties and the widespread use of mobile phone technology, HPA recommended a precautionary approach.
This included a recommendation that excessive use of mobile phones by children should be discouraged. Every country must enforce international guidelines on mobile phone technology.
Some possible effect
In 2009, members of the ICNIRP (International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection; most countries have accepted the Commission's guidelines) Standing Committee on Biology noted that there is some evidence of an effect of exposure to a Global System for Mobile Telecommunication (GSM)-type signal on the spontaneous electroencephalogram (EEG).
This may be of little functional significance since they did not observe significant effects on cognitive performance in adults. They noted that the effect is small and exposure seems to improve performance.
The authors noted that symptoms such as headaches and migraine had been attributed to various radiofrequency sources both at home and at work.
“However, in provocation studies a causal relation between EMF exposure and symptoms has never been demonstrated. Psychological factors such as the conscious expectation of effect may play an important role in this condition” (HPA, May 2010).
There were suggestions that radiofrequency energy may cause brain tumours such as glioma
In May 2010, the Interphone Study the largest of its kind in which thirteen countries including UK, Sweden, France and Germany collaborated concluded that overall, no increase in risk of brain tumours was observed with the use of mobile phones.
“There were suggestions of an increased risk of glioma at the highest exposure levels, but biases and error prevent a causal interpretation. The possible effects of long-term heavy use of mobile phones require further investigation"(International J. Epidemiology, 2010)
Over all, we need not lose sleep on the potential harm of mobile phone radiation. Let us minimize mobile phone use as a precautionary measure and discourage children from using them.
K. S. Parthasarathy
Raja Ramanna Fellow, Department of Atomic Energy
(ksparth@yahoo.co.uk)
by K. S. Parthasarathy
In December 2010, Matt Parker, a British mathematician, tabulated the number of mobile phone masts in each county across the United Kingdom and then matched it with the number of live births in the same counties. He discovered that the correlation was so strong that in areas above normal numbers of mobile phones, he could predict how many more births above the national average occurred.
Parker concluded that for every additional mobile phone base station in an area, the number of births goes up by an average of 17.6 babies!
In reality, mobile phone masts have absolutely no bearing on the number of births. Masts do not make people more fertile. There is no causal link between the masts and the births despite the strong correlation.
The number of mobile phone transmitters and the number of live births are linked to a third factor, the local population size. As the population of an area goes up, so do both the number of mobile phone users and the number of people giving birth. Instinctively we tend to assume that correlation means that one factor causes the other!
Parker published a phoney press release highlighting his finding to see whether media outlets would jump to the incorrect conclusion that mobile phone radiation causes pregnancies. Main-stream media ignored the hoax release after checking out the facts. Some readers reacted differently.
“There were the expected people who clearly did not actually read what I wrote before seeing the headline and getting excited about this apparent scare story, but there were also seemingly endless comments from people who understood my correlation-causality project but could not help putting forward a possible causal link anyway” Parker said.
His headline to The Guardian article “Mobile phone radiation linked to people jumping to conclusions” was apt.
Over the years, there has been differing news on the risks of radiation from mobile phones. A WHO booklet published in May 2010, stated that no adverse health effects have been established for mobile phone use. Studies are ongoing to assess potential long-term effects. WHO noted that there is an increased risk of road traffic injuries when drivers use mobile phones (either handheld or "hands-free") while driving.
According to HPA (HPA, May 17,2010), there are thousands of published scientific papers covering research about the effects of various types of radio waves on cells, tissues, animals and people. HPA's views derived from them were identical to those of the WHO.
Widespread use
Given the uncertainties and the widespread use of mobile phone technology, HPA recommended a precautionary approach.
This included a recommendation that excessive use of mobile phones by children should be discouraged. Every country must enforce international guidelines on mobile phone technology.
Some possible effect
In 2009, members of the ICNIRP (International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection; most countries have accepted the Commission's guidelines) Standing Committee on Biology noted that there is some evidence of an effect of exposure to a Global System for Mobile Telecommunication (GSM)-type signal on the spontaneous electroencephalogram (EEG).
This may be of little functional significance since they did not observe significant effects on cognitive performance in adults. They noted that the effect is small and exposure seems to improve performance.
The authors noted that symptoms such as headaches and migraine had been attributed to various radiofrequency sources both at home and at work.
“However, in provocation studies a causal relation between EMF exposure and symptoms has never been demonstrated. Psychological factors such as the conscious expectation of effect may play an important role in this condition” (HPA, May 2010).
There were suggestions that radiofrequency energy may cause brain tumours such as glioma
In May 2010, the Interphone Study the largest of its kind in which thirteen countries including UK, Sweden, France and Germany collaborated concluded that overall, no increase in risk of brain tumours was observed with the use of mobile phones.
“There were suggestions of an increased risk of glioma at the highest exposure levels, but biases and error prevent a causal interpretation. The possible effects of long-term heavy use of mobile phones require further investigation"(International J. Epidemiology, 2010)
Over all, we need not lose sleep on the potential harm of mobile phone radiation. Let us minimize mobile phone use as a precautionary measure and discourage children from using them.
K. S. Parthasarathy
Raja Ramanna Fellow, Department of Atomic Energy
(ksparth@yahoo.co.uk)
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Entrepreurship in Sikkim- Sanitary Napkin production starts
SGH’s sanitary napkin production unit in Sikkim
Puran Tamang
source;voice of sikkim
14 Feb, Namchi: A day long program was held at sanitary napkin unit established by Jyoti Self Help Group under the esteem support of SRDA/RM&DD, South District Under SGSY Program. A team of the said SHG were sent to MS/Swaminathan Research Foundation, Pondicherry for the setup of Sanitary Napkin production unit & production process during the month of December 2009.
Later same group established a unit at Menglee, South Sikkim in a rented house and the production is being started. Today on 14th February 2011 a team from Govt. officials visited the unit Mr.L.P.Chettri Project Director SRDA/RM&DD Sikkim State, Ms.Yishey D.Yongda Deputy Secretary-Sanitation, Mr.S.Jayaraman, President Women Hygiene ExNoRa from Chennai, Mr.P.L.Basnett, Sr. Extension Officer, SRDA South District with local Panchayat Secretary Mr.Gopi D. Pokhrel & Executive members from Pacific Club, NGO meet with the Jyoti Self Help Group Members and discussed regarding the unit and appreciate the work done by a Women Self Help Group. This is the first unit for Sanitary Napkin in the State they said. During the discussion Deputy Secretary, Sanitation said that the State Govt. is providing the Vending machine to the Govt. Sr. Sec. Schools where the Sr. Girl Student can get sanitary napkin pad by paying Rs.2/pad. So the SHG may supply to the Govt. also. While talking with the production team Mr.Jayraman said that the product quality is far better than other market products he also appreciate that this type of work done by a women self help group is a really commendable job. He also said that three members can take short course training at Chennai for using latest technology for the same. And SRDA Project Director agree to send the team for training through department as early as possible.
Further a formal inauguration & product lunching program of the said unit will be held very shortly Mr. L.P. Chettri added. It is also decided by the Project Director & Sr. Extension Officer SRDA for making a resource centre to the said Unit by the Department so any interested SHGs can learn from this Unit in near future.
source;voice of sikkim.
Puran Tamang
source;voice of sikkim
14 Feb, Namchi: A day long program was held at sanitary napkin unit established by Jyoti Self Help Group under the esteem support of SRDA/RM&DD, South District Under SGSY Program. A team of the said SHG were sent to MS/Swaminathan Research Foundation, Pondicherry for the setup of Sanitary Napkin production unit & production process during the month of December 2009.
Later same group established a unit at Menglee, South Sikkim in a rented house and the production is being started. Today on 14th February 2011 a team from Govt. officials visited the unit Mr.L.P.Chettri Project Director SRDA/RM&DD Sikkim State, Ms.Yishey D.Yongda Deputy Secretary-Sanitation, Mr.S.Jayaraman, President Women Hygiene ExNoRa from Chennai, Mr.P.L.Basnett, Sr. Extension Officer, SRDA South District with local Panchayat Secretary Mr.Gopi D. Pokhrel & Executive members from Pacific Club, NGO meet with the Jyoti Self Help Group Members and discussed regarding the unit and appreciate the work done by a Women Self Help Group. This is the first unit for Sanitary Napkin in the State they said. During the discussion Deputy Secretary, Sanitation said that the State Govt. is providing the Vending machine to the Govt. Sr. Sec. Schools where the Sr. Girl Student can get sanitary napkin pad by paying Rs.2/pad. So the SHG may supply to the Govt. also. While talking with the production team Mr.Jayraman said that the product quality is far better than other market products he also appreciate that this type of work done by a women self help group is a really commendable job. He also said that three members can take short course training at Chennai for using latest technology for the same. And SRDA Project Director agree to send the team for training through department as early as possible.
Further a formal inauguration & product lunching program of the said unit will be held very shortly Mr. L.P. Chettri added. It is also decided by the Project Director & Sr. Extension Officer SRDA for making a resource centre to the said Unit by the Department so any interested SHGs can learn from this Unit in near future.
source;voice of sikkim.
Lhasa Railway Station
A 1,080 km section of the Qingzang railway has been completed from Golmud to Lhasa. The 815 km section from Xining to Golmud in Qinghai opened to traffic in 1984. The railway's highest point, the Tanggula Mountain Pass, is 5,072 m above sea level, making it the highest railway in the world. More than 960 km, or over four-fifths of the railway, is at an altitude of more than 4,000 m, and over half of it was laid on frozen earth. Because of the high altitudes, carriages are supplied with supplemental oxygen.
Linking Lhasa and Xigaze together in Tibet, the construction of a 254 km extension line of the Qingzang railway will start in 2007 with completion expected by 2010. This railway, the first feeder line for the Qingzang railway, will cost around 11 billion yuan (US$1.42 billion), said Dotub, a Tibetan legislator at a press conference held on the sidelines of the country's parliamentary session in Beijing.
China rail link to stretch to Sikkim border
China rail link to stretch to Sikkim border
Plans on track, China rail link to stretch to near Sikkim border
by PranabDhalSamanta
China is set to extend its Tibet railway network into the strategically important Chumbi valley area, next to Sikkim and the Siliguri corridor. This was confirmed by a Chinese Railways Ministry map, put out last month, showing China’s “long term railway network plan”.
Until now, these plans were being loosely speculated upon, but they now have an official stamp on it. The latest map shows the railway line extending from Lhasa to Zangmu on the Nepal border, which is going to eventually extend into Nepal and even Kathmandu.
According to the plan, another line will branch out midway from this link to Zangmu, at a place called Shigatse. This line will move east and go right up to Yadong, on the mouth of the Chumbi Valley. This town is connected to Sikkim through the Nathu La pass and is strategically located on the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan.
There are areas near Yadong which are still disputed between China and Bhutan. The area witnessed military conflict in 1962 as part of the Indian effort to defend Nathu La.
While construction on the line has not yet started, sources said, feasibility studies are already being conducted. This project is slated for completion by 2017, bringing the Tibet railway just 500 km short of the Siliguri corridor. This may raise demands from Bangladesh to provide connectivity to the Chinese market via India.
This project must be seen along with the hectic progress, further east, on a railway line connecting Kunming in China to Singapore. With the Thailand government throwing its weight behind the idea, work on this project is moving at a quick pace. Given that there already exists a trade route from the Indian border to Kunming, the understanding is that pressure will increase on India to link up with the Chinese railway network.
What is of more concern to India is that the improved technological ability in this sphere means Beijing will end up meeting its deadlines. In the last year, China added over 10,000 km of high speed railway, and in the past five years has built 70,000 km railway lines. India, on the other hand, has struggled to connect Bhutan to India by rail.
by PranabDhalSamanta
China is set to extend its Tibet railway network into the strategically important Chumbi valley area, next to Sikkim and the Siliguri corridor. This was confirmed by a Chinese Railways Ministry map, put out last month, showing China’s “long term railway network plan”.
Until now, these plans were being loosely speculated upon, but they now have an official stamp on it. The latest map shows the railway line extending from Lhasa to Zangmu on the Nepal border, which is going to eventually extend into Nepal and even Kathmandu.
According to the plan, another line will branch out midway from this link to Zangmu, at a place called Shigatse. This line will move east and go right up to Yadong, on the mouth of the Chumbi Valley. This town is connected to Sikkim through the Nathu La pass and is strategically located on the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan.
There are areas near Yadong which are still disputed between China and Bhutan. The area witnessed military conflict in 1962 as part of the Indian effort to defend Nathu La.
While construction on the line has not yet started, sources said, feasibility studies are already being conducted. This project is slated for completion by 2017, bringing the Tibet railway just 500 km short of the Siliguri corridor. This may raise demands from Bangladesh to provide connectivity to the Chinese market via India.
This project must be seen along with the hectic progress, further east, on a railway line connecting Kunming in China to Singapore. With the Thailand government throwing its weight behind the idea, work on this project is moving at a quick pace. Given that there already exists a trade route from the Indian border to Kunming, the understanding is that pressure will increase on India to link up with the Chinese railway network.
What is of more concern to India is that the improved technological ability in this sphere means Beijing will end up meeting its deadlines. In the last year, China added over 10,000 km of high speed railway, and in the past five years has built 70,000 km railway lines. India, on the other hand, has struggled to connect Bhutan to India by rail.
China rail link to stretch to Sikkim border
Plans on track, China rail link to stretch to near Sikkim border
by PranabDhalSamanta
China is set to extend its Tibet railway network into the strategically important Chumbi valley area, next to Sikkim and the Siliguri corridor. This was confirmed by a Chinese Railways Ministry map, put out last month, showing China’s “long term railway network plan”.
Until now, these plans were being loosely speculated upon, but they now have an official stamp on it. The latest map shows the railway line extending from Lhasa to Zangmu on the Nepal border, which is going to eventually extend into Nepal and even Kathmandu.
According to the plan, another line will branch out midway from this link to Zangmu, at a place called Shigatse. This line will move east and go right up to Yadong, on the mouth of the Chumbi Valley. This town is connected to Sikkim through the Nathu La pass and is strategically located on the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan.
There are areas near Yadong which are still disputed between China and Bhutan. The area witnessed military conflict in 1962 as part of the Indian effort to defend Nathu La.
While construction on the line has not yet started, sources said, feasibility studies are already being conducted. This project is slated for completion by 2017, bringing the Tibet railway just 500 km short of the Siliguri corridor. This may raise demands from Bangladesh to provide connectivity to the Chinese market via India.
This project must be seen along with the hectic progress, further east, on a railway line connecting Kunming in China to Singapore. With the Thailand government throwing its weight behind the idea, work on this project is moving at a quick pace. Given that there already exists a trade route from the Indian border to Kunming, the understanding is that pressure will increase on India to link up with the Chinese railway network.
What is of more concern to India is that the improved technological ability in this sphere means Beijing will end up meeting its deadlines. In the last year, China added over 10,000 km of high speed railway, and in the past five years has built 70,000 km railway lines. India, on the other hand, has struggled to connect Bhutan to India by rail.
CommentsPost
By: Lewis Sooting | 14-Feb-2011 Reply | Forward
If China is going full steam ahead to ensure their Railway network reaches the border of Sikkim, the situation needs to get the Govt. by the neck and make them see the two-ends possibility of the Chinese mindset. One it could enhance free cross-border trade between the world's two fastest growing economies which is good for our the both the country's large populations, but take the other view and it will wake the Indian Govt. from its corruption slumber. The Chinese railway could pose a grave danger for the quick deployment of their troops to our borders, what with the Arunachal border issue still spewing harmful remarks from across. India must not take the scenario as just an act of business enthusiasm from our neighbour.
Good opportunity for India!
By: Surendra Barsode | 14-Feb-2011 Reply | Forward
Expanding Chinese network should be viewed as a good opportunity for extending trade and commerce amongst India,China, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. India should match China for technology and project management expertise. We should forget the fear of Chinese and should not sulk if they do better than us. We need to meet Chinese head on and improve our internal governance and politics. China is not going to stop because we keep sulking and do nothing! China plans are really showing how badly we are managing our country and our complete lack of strategic vision. May Chinese projects like this one help us to open our eyes and realise our true potential!!
Chinese Rail link.
By: Kautiliya | 14-Feb-2011 Reply | Forward
Indian politicians, the Indian Armed Forces and the whole Indian judiciary including the police and the the members of the Indian Law Society have lost out confidence to run India. The Government and the Armed forces,Judiciary,Police and the Indian Law Cociety is full of the corrupt people and criminals in all levels of the government. The people of India should look west towards Egypt appears to be the only route. The issue of proposed Chinese rail link,Indians MUST start building their own rail roads military and civilian airports and let the armed forces be stationed in that area. The common Bhaiyas better wake up and tell them enough is enough and kick them all out.
China rail to Sikkim
By: nav | 14-Feb-2011 Reply | Forward
China has been continuing hostility and can attack India in a few years.Arunachal Pradesh can be occupied .India has to decide NOW(already vey late)how it will protect Indian's and its sovereignity
China border development.
By: mskhimani | 14-Feb-2011 Reply | Forward
China need not do anything to defeat india.Our airforce is busy crashing two aircrafts per month.our naval warships get sunked by merchant vessels and our army commanders are busy making money buying sub standard equipment.
source;indian express
by PranabDhalSamanta
China is set to extend its Tibet railway network into the strategically important Chumbi valley area, next to Sikkim and the Siliguri corridor. This was confirmed by a Chinese Railways Ministry map, put out last month, showing China’s “long term railway network plan”.
Until now, these plans were being loosely speculated upon, but they now have an official stamp on it. The latest map shows the railway line extending from Lhasa to Zangmu on the Nepal border, which is going to eventually extend into Nepal and even Kathmandu.
According to the plan, another line will branch out midway from this link to Zangmu, at a place called Shigatse. This line will move east and go right up to Yadong, on the mouth of the Chumbi Valley. This town is connected to Sikkim through the Nathu La pass and is strategically located on the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan.
There are areas near Yadong which are still disputed between China and Bhutan. The area witnessed military conflict in 1962 as part of the Indian effort to defend Nathu La.
While construction on the line has not yet started, sources said, feasibility studies are already being conducted. This project is slated for completion by 2017, bringing the Tibet railway just 500 km short of the Siliguri corridor. This may raise demands from Bangladesh to provide connectivity to the Chinese market via India.
This project must be seen along with the hectic progress, further east, on a railway line connecting Kunming in China to Singapore. With the Thailand government throwing its weight behind the idea, work on this project is moving at a quick pace. Given that there already exists a trade route from the Indian border to Kunming, the understanding is that pressure will increase on India to link up with the Chinese railway network.
What is of more concern to India is that the improved technological ability in this sphere means Beijing will end up meeting its deadlines. In the last year, China added over 10,000 km of high speed railway, and in the past five years has built 70,000 km railway lines. India, on the other hand, has struggled to connect Bhutan to India by rail.
CommentsPost
By: Lewis Sooting | 14-Feb-2011 Reply | Forward
If China is going full steam ahead to ensure their Railway network reaches the border of Sikkim, the situation needs to get the Govt. by the neck and make them see the two-ends possibility of the Chinese mindset. One it could enhance free cross-border trade between the world's two fastest growing economies which is good for our the both the country's large populations, but take the other view and it will wake the Indian Govt. from its corruption slumber. The Chinese railway could pose a grave danger for the quick deployment of their troops to our borders, what with the Arunachal border issue still spewing harmful remarks from across. India must not take the scenario as just an act of business enthusiasm from our neighbour.
Good opportunity for India!
By: Surendra Barsode | 14-Feb-2011 Reply | Forward
Expanding Chinese network should be viewed as a good opportunity for extending trade and commerce amongst India,China, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. India should match China for technology and project management expertise. We should forget the fear of Chinese and should not sulk if they do better than us. We need to meet Chinese head on and improve our internal governance and politics. China is not going to stop because we keep sulking and do nothing! China plans are really showing how badly we are managing our country and our complete lack of strategic vision. May Chinese projects like this one help us to open our eyes and realise our true potential!!
Chinese Rail link.
By: Kautiliya | 14-Feb-2011 Reply | Forward
Indian politicians, the Indian Armed Forces and the whole Indian judiciary including the police and the the members of the Indian Law Society have lost out confidence to run India. The Government and the Armed forces,Judiciary,Police and the Indian Law Cociety is full of the corrupt people and criminals in all levels of the government. The people of India should look west towards Egypt appears to be the only route. The issue of proposed Chinese rail link,Indians MUST start building their own rail roads military and civilian airports and let the armed forces be stationed in that area. The common Bhaiyas better wake up and tell them enough is enough and kick them all out.
China rail to Sikkim
By: nav | 14-Feb-2011 Reply | Forward
China has been continuing hostility and can attack India in a few years.Arunachal Pradesh can be occupied .India has to decide NOW(already vey late)how it will protect Indian's and its sovereignity
China border development.
By: mskhimani | 14-Feb-2011 Reply | Forward
China need not do anything to defeat india.Our airforce is busy crashing two aircrafts per month.our naval warships get sunked by merchant vessels and our army commanders are busy making money buying sub standard equipment.
source;indian express
A map of world alcohol consumption
THE world drank the equivalent of 6.1 litres of pure alcohol per person in 2005, according to a report from the World Health Organisation published on February 11th. The biggest boozers are found in Europe and in the former Soviet states. Moldovans are the most bibulous, getting through 18.2 litres each, nearly 2 litres more than the Czechs in second place. Over 10 litres of a Moldovan's annual intake is reckoned to be 'unrecorded' home-brewed liquor, making it particularly harmful to health. Such moonshine accounts for almost 30% of the world's drinking. The WHO estimates that alcohol results in 2.5m deaths a year, more than AIDS or tuberculosis. In Russia and its former satellite states one in five male deaths is caused by drink.
THE world drank the equivalent of 6.1 litres of pure alcohol per person in 2005, according to a report from the World Health Organisation published on February 11th. The biggest boozers are found in Europe and in the former Soviet states. Moldovans are the most bibulous, getting through 18.2 litres each, nearly 2 litres more than the Czechs in second place. Over 10 litres of a Moldovan's annual intake is reckoned to be 'unrecorded' home-brewed liquor, making it particularly harmful to health. Such moonshine accounts for almost 30% of the world's drinking. The WHO estimates that alcohol results in 2.5m deaths a year, more than AIDS or tuberculosis. In Russia and its former satellite states one in five male deaths is caused by drink.
Monday, February 14, 2011
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!
LOVE is difficult to define and there may be different definitions. One definition of love is an utter, absolute and unqualified wish for the happiness of another individual. It is a heartfelt wish for other's happiness regardless of whether that person does something to injure us or even whether we like that person. Love cures people--both, the ones who give it and the ones who receive it. Love keeps no record of wrongs. The one who loves seeks only the welfare of the beloved and does not care whether he / she suffers pains and hardships thereby. You have not lived until you've found someone dying for. Love and suffering go together. No one who really loves can escape suffering. If we are spiritually alive our capacity for love and service will be ever growing. Service of others is the outer expression of the love in one's inner heart.
While attachment is conditional, LOVE is ALWAYS UNCONDITIONAL.
Just because somebody doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.
To give love is freedom, to demand loved is bondage.
Love comes unsought, unasked, from heaven.
The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved--loved for ourselves or rather loved inspite of ourselves.
May you discover PURE, UNCODITIONAL LOVE and abide in Infinite Bliss.
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!
Lots of Love,
Avadhutananda
China bans Buddhist monks in Tibet from Reincarnation
By Chris V. Thangham.
Dictatorship and totalitarianism at its worst, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. China is doing this to cut off the influence of the exiled Dalai Lama in India and his remaining followers in Tibet.
The China State Administration for Religious Affairs issued a statement stipulating the rigid procedures which one must follow to reincarnate. They gave the following reason: "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation."
The successor of Dalai Lama is chosen by the following manner. Once the current Dalai Lama dies, his monks and devotees search for the Lama’s reincarnation in and around Tibet. Dalai Lama’s reincarnation is usually found in a small child called “yangsi”. He will be tested under a variety of conditions and make him point the various belongings of the earlier Dalai Lama. If he points them correctly, he is chosen as the successor of Dalai Lama and awarded that title. The child is then taken to Lhasa in Tibet and trained.
China instead wants to go on its own way and has instituted the above set of procedures and wants to choose its own Dalai Lama. It says anyone born outside of China will not be considered as Dalai Lama, in other words it doesn’t want to give any approval to the exiled Dalai Lama.
The current Dalai Lama is 72 years old and is living in exile in India since 1959. He is beginning to plan his successor, but said he refuses to be reborn in Tibet as long it is in China’s control. Since Tibet will be in Chinese control for a long time to come as there is no opposition, it is apparent Dalai Lama will not be reborn. But only question does he have enough control not to be reborn? Dalai Lamas have been efficient so far in reincarnating for the last 600 years, so some of his followers believe his statement that he won’t be reborn again.
After the Dalai Lama dies, the situation will become chaotic; there will be two Dalai Lamas, one near in India and the other chosen by the Chinese government. Paul Harrison, a Buddhism scholar at Stanford said:
"The Dalai Lama has been the prime symbol of unity and national identity in Tibet, and so it's quite likely the battle for his incarnation will be a lot more important than the others."
Harrison and other Buddhism scholars believe the next Dalai Lama will most likely be from the 130,000 Tibetan exiles that live in India, Europe and North America. There is a chance that the next Dalai Lama may be born in America, but it all depends on the current Dalai Lama. However any chance of non-Tibetan to become a Dalai Lama is remote.
If China goes ahead and handpicks the next Dalai Lama, which is the most likely scenario it will look absurd for sure. They already own the Tibetan land, but to extend their power and influence on the religious custom and tradition is ridiculous. Since, no governments will show any opposition, China will have its say and won’t care about others opinions.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/217088/China_bans_Buddhist_monks_in_Tibet_from_Reincarnation#ixzz1DvzG2OPY
By Chris V. Thangham.
Dictatorship and totalitarianism at its worst, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. China is doing this to cut off the influence of the exiled Dalai Lama in India and his remaining followers in Tibet.
The China State Administration for Religious Affairs issued a statement stipulating the rigid procedures which one must follow to reincarnate. They gave the following reason: "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation."
The successor of Dalai Lama is chosen by the following manner. Once the current Dalai Lama dies, his monks and devotees search for the Lama’s reincarnation in and around Tibet. Dalai Lama’s reincarnation is usually found in a small child called “yangsi”. He will be tested under a variety of conditions and make him point the various belongings of the earlier Dalai Lama. If he points them correctly, he is chosen as the successor of Dalai Lama and awarded that title. The child is then taken to Lhasa in Tibet and trained.
China instead wants to go on its own way and has instituted the above set of procedures and wants to choose its own Dalai Lama. It says anyone born outside of China will not be considered as Dalai Lama, in other words it doesn’t want to give any approval to the exiled Dalai Lama.
The current Dalai Lama is 72 years old and is living in exile in India since 1959. He is beginning to plan his successor, but said he refuses to be reborn in Tibet as long it is in China’s control. Since Tibet will be in Chinese control for a long time to come as there is no opposition, it is apparent Dalai Lama will not be reborn. But only question does he have enough control not to be reborn? Dalai Lamas have been efficient so far in reincarnating for the last 600 years, so some of his followers believe his statement that he won’t be reborn again.
After the Dalai Lama dies, the situation will become chaotic; there will be two Dalai Lamas, one near in India and the other chosen by the Chinese government. Paul Harrison, a Buddhism scholar at Stanford said:
"The Dalai Lama has been the prime symbol of unity and national identity in Tibet, and so it's quite likely the battle for his incarnation will be a lot more important than the others."
Harrison and other Buddhism scholars believe the next Dalai Lama will most likely be from the 130,000 Tibetan exiles that live in India, Europe and North America. There is a chance that the next Dalai Lama may be born in America, but it all depends on the current Dalai Lama. However any chance of non-Tibetan to become a Dalai Lama is remote.
If China goes ahead and handpicks the next Dalai Lama, which is the most likely scenario it will look absurd for sure. They already own the Tibetan land, but to extend their power and influence on the religious custom and tradition is ridiculous. Since, no governments will show any opposition, China will have its say and won’t care about others opinions.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/217088/China_bans_Buddhist_monks_in_Tibet_from_Reincarnation#ixzz1DvzG2OPY
The Sunbeam Solution
The Difference Engine: The sunbeam solution
Feb 11th 2011, 11:50 by N.V. | LOS ANGELES
FOR decades, your correspondent has watched, with more than casual interest, every new twist and turn in the quest for an “artificial leaf”. His hope has been that industry might one day replicate the photosynthetic process used by plants, and thus create forests of artificial trees for making hydrocarbon fuel direct from sunlight. Apart from helping offset the emission of carbon dioxide caused by burning fossil fuels, such man-made leaves could provide an endlessly supply of energy for transport. Finally, it seems, something is stirring in the forest.In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama drew special attention to the $122m research programme on artificial photosynthesis that is underway in laboratories across California. “They’re developing a way to turn sunlight and water into fuel for our cars,” said the 44th president. He might have added that the Joint Centre for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), involving some 200 scientists and engineers from universities and research laboratories around the state, was seeking to make liquid hydrocarbons not from solar-powered electrolysis, biomass, micro-organisms or other round-about routes, but direct from sunlight—just as the chlorophyll in a leaf does.
Sunlight is the world’s largest source of carbon-neutral power. In one hour, more energy from the sun strikes the Earth than all the energy consumed by humans in a year. Yet, solar energy, in the form of sustainable biomass, provides less than 1.5% of humanity’s energy needs. Meanwhile, solar panels contribute a mere 0.1% of electricity consumption.
The problem is that the sun does not shine all the time. Night intervenes. So do clouds. If people are to rely on the sun for more of their energy, then a reliable form of storage is required. And the best way to store solar energy is to convert it into chemical fuel. That is what nature has been doing for millions of years.
Unfortunately, artificial photosynthesis is still in its infancy. Researchers reckon that, at least in the laboratory, they can make fuel direct from sunlight far more efficiently than can the fastest-growing plants. But no-one can yet do so at a cost that would make the process economic. Nor can they make it robust enough to work continuously, year in and year out, under the full glare of the sun. And they are years away from integrating the various steps—from capturing the sunlight in the first place to producing the finished fuel—into working prototypes, let alone commercial-sized factories capable of producing something resembling petrol.
Nevertheless, chlorophyll—the stuff of life—is as good a place as any to start. This large organic molecule has a magnesium ion at its core, surrounded by a ring of porphyrin. In nature, porphyrins are a group of organic pigments that give plants, corals and even animal skins their colours. One of the most common porphyrins is heme, the pigment in red blood cells. The porphyrin in chlorophyll absorbs strongly in the red and blue-violet parts of the visible spectrum, but not in the green. By reflecting such wavelengths, chlorophyll gives plants their colour.
It would be better, of course, if chlorophyll could absorb light across the whole of the visible spectrum. But plants take what they have been given. As such, chlorophyll’s job is to absorb all the energy it can from sunlight, and use it to transform carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water from the soil into carbohydrates and oxygen. The energy stored this way is what makes it possible for practically all living things to survive and thrive.
What makes chlorophyll so good at capturing sunlight is the way its ring-like structure can lose and gain electrons easily. When a leaf absorbs photons from sunlight, electrons in the chlorophyll molecules get excited from lower energy states into higher ones, allowing them to migrate to other molecules. That forms the starting point for chains of electron transfers that end with electrons being "donated" to molecules of carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, the chlorophyll molecules that gave up electrons in the first place accept electrons from elsewhere. These form the end points of transfer processes that start with the removal of electrons from water.
In this way, chlorophyll acts as a catalyst that drives the oxidation-reduction reaction between carbon dioxide and water to produce carbohydrates and oxygen. In the pursuit of the artificial leaf, then, the main task is to find catalysts that can mimic the intricate dance of electron transfers that chlorophyll makes possible.
The JCAP programme, led by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in partnership with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory near San Francisco, will run for five years. The goal is to demonstrate a working solar-fuel generator that uses no biological components and no pricy catalysts (like platinum), yet can produce hydrocarbon fuel from the sun ten times more efficiently than maize (corn), sugar cane, switch grass or any other fast-growing crop.
To do so, the JCAP team will need to perfect a host of different components—including light absorbers and catalysts, molecular linkers to couple the two together, and special membranes for selectively separating the oxygen and hydrogen produced during the process. Two different catalysts are required: one to split water into hydrogen and oxygen; another to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into hydrocarbons. The various components for doing this will then need to be engineered into a practical bench-top system for demonstrating not only that solar fuel can be made efficiently and economically, but also that the process can be scaled up for commercial application.
At present, the JCAP team uses a carpet-like structure of microfibres made of a silicon-based semiconductor similar to those employed in photovoltaic solar panels. But instead of generating electricity, the charge-carriers produced by the semiconductor drive the catalytic process for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. Special membranes vent the oxygen away, while collecting the hydrogen. Later, other catalysts will be used to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into basic fuels such as methane and methanol. Long-term, the goal is to make "drop-in" replacements for petrol, or even diesel.
Before that can happen, however, cheap catalysts will have to be found. Platinum is excellent for splitting water into storable hydrogen and oxygen, but it is far too expensive to use on a commercial scale. A more practical substitute has been developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Daniel Nocera and his colleagues have perfected cheap and durable catalysts based on cobalt and phosphate, and, more recently, on nickel and borate.
Last year, Sun Catalytix, a Massachusetts-based company founded by Dr Nocera, was awarded a $4m contract by the Department of Energy to commercialise the process. The company aims to develop solar-fuel stations for places that are off the electricity grid, and eventually for the home. Meanwhile, the JCAP team in California is working on its own light absorbers and catalysts. So far, it has released few details—though it admits it needs to develop cheaper versions of what it is currently using.
But the dark horse in the race to develop a synthetic chlorophyll could be a small group at Massey University in New Zealand. Wayne Campbell, at the university’s Nanomaterials Research Centre, has come up with a series of porphyrin dyes that work with solar cells based on titanium dioxide rather than silicon. In the laboratory, Dr Campbell’s cells are said to generate electricity for a tenth the price of conventional photovoltaic panels.
There is talk of incorporating them into roofing materials and tinted windows. But if Dr Campbell’s porphyrin dyes are as efficient as claimed, they could prove to be better catalysts for producing solar fuel for motor cars, as well as electricity for homes. Your correspondent is gratified to see that artificial leaves are sprouting everywhere—and promising to make the world a greener place.
source;The Economist
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