| President of India’s Ram Navami Greetings |
| The President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil in her message on the occasion of Ram Navami which falls tomorrow has said: “On the festive occasion of Ram Navami, I offer my greetings and good wishes to all fellow citizens. May this festival inspire all of us to serve humanity with dedication and devotion.” |
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Visit to Shangri-La
by Ajai Shukla / Mar 31, 2012, 00:24 ISTsource: Business Standard
Remote and mystical, Menchuka on the McMahon Line in Arunachal Pradesh is as difficult to get to as a hidden paradise ought to be. Ajai Shukla visits, and finds in its medicinal traditions a promise for the future.
My first glimpse of Shangri-La blows away the fatigue. After eight gruelling hours of bumping along the mountain road from Along (itself a full day’s drive from the Assam plains), the Bolero rounds a corner and the thickly-forested gorge opens into a wide valley. Here is Menchuka, the remote, mystical valley through which meanders the medicinal Yar Gyap Chu river. (In Tibetan, men is “medicinal”, chu is “water”, and ka is “alongside”.) It is a crystal-clear day, rare on the rainy, 17,000 ft-high Himalayan watershed which is the McMahon Line, the disputed border between India and Tibet in Arunachal Pradesh. Steep mountain walls enclose the valley on either side with snow-clad ramparts.
Such is the geography of Arunachal Pradesh, our north-eastern version of the Land of the Five Rivers. Five major rivers flow from the eastern Himalayas to the Brahmaputra in Assam, their valleys separated by 16,000 ft-high ridges. These are not rivulets but mighty torrents — the Lohit, Dibang, Siang, Subansiri and Kameng — which meet to form the Brahmaputra, the soul of Assam. A mere handful of roads connects these river valleys to one another. For the most part, the only way to travel from one valley to the next is to drive down the valley for a day or more to Assam, then drive along the Brahmaputra on National Highway 52, and then do the long drive upriver to one’s destination in the other valley. This downriver-upriver layout sometimes requires a three-day road journey to a destination that is just 70 km away on the map.
Near the river, at the entrance to Menchuka, a town of 10,000 people, is a spot marked by a sea of Buddhist prayer flags. This commemorates what used to be the rock seal of Guru Rimpoche, which marked Menchuka as one of the “hidden valleys” of Tibetan lore. According to legend, the 8th-century Guru Padmasambhava — since he carried Buddhism from India to Tibet and founded the Nyingma sect, Tibetans regard Guru Rimpoche as second only to the Buddha himself — guarded against the inevitable moral degeneration of his followers by secreting a number of hidden sanctuaries, each a remote, beautiful, unpopulated paradise, to which the faithful could migrate when life became unbearable.
Guru Rimpoche hid the keys to these sanctuaries. It required an exceptional person, known as a terton, endowed with high moral qualities, to decode the location of a hidden valley through a set of clues called a terma. In Guru Rimpoche’s great plan, the terton would then guide his followers to one of these Shangri-Las which would be marked by a sign, such as a rock shaped in a certain way or stamped with a seal. Legend has it that Sikkim was the first of these hidden treasures to which paradise-seekers migrated in the 14th century. That initial foothold was followed by full-scale Tibetan colonisation in the 17th century and the establishment of a dynasty by the Chogyals, who ruled Sikkim until India annexed it in 1975
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In the early 18th century, a terton from Kongpo, the rugged yet beautiful area around the Tsangpo bend in Tibet, led his paradise-seeking followers away from the depredations of the invading Mongols into what is today Menchuka. Paradise, however, was short-lived. By the 19th century, Menchuka became a lucrative addition to the Gachak estate in Kongpo and its wealth of agricultural produce, livestock and medicinal plants was heavily taxed. Even after India’s independence, the local Buddhist Memba people continued to pay tribute to the masters in Tibet. That relationship ended with the arrival of India, when a platoon of 2nd Assam Rifles marched into Menchuka in 1948.
* * * * *
The Indians brought in strange ideas, recounts 70-year-old Pema Phelye, including the abolition of slavery, a tradition by which Tagin tribesmen from Subansiri were purchased by Membas for domestic and agricultural work. A cadre of competent and sensitive administrators from the pioneering Indian Frontier Administrative Service ended slavery and the rule of the local Tibetan chieftains, one of whom was Deb Pema. But what made India unquestionably welcome in Menchuka was an end to the punishing tax payments to the overlords in Kongpo.
Menchuka today, like Tawang, and the neighbouring valley of Manigong, remains a Buddhist enclave in an area that was historically home to the tribal Lhobas, or “savages”, as the Tibetans saw them. The people of the Brahmaputra valley saw these remote hill tribes the same way; the Assamese called them Abors or “uncontrolled”. These masters of the forest are today the Adi tribe, as cultured and sophisticated as any people in the country, who have long played a dominant role in the politics of Arunachal Pradesh.
The old links with Tibet made Menchuka a key Chinese objective in the 1962 war, along with Tawang and Walong. A handful of Indian defenders from the 2 Madras and 2/8 Gorkha Rifles were ordered to withdraw in the face of a Chinese advance and join a larger force at Taliha in the neighbouring Subansiri valley. Harried by fast-moving patrols from the People’s Liberation Army, most of them perished in the retreat. An entire Gurkha platoon (36 soldiers), led by four officers, disappeared without trace in the thickly forested mountains while attempting a suicidal cross-country move to Taliha. Locals still recount tales about the month that they spent under PLA occupation, after Beijing’s unilateral ceasefire of November 21, 1962. Chinese soldiers did everything they could to win local loyalty, but the Membas, with memories of the Tibet revolt of 1959 fresh in their minds, saw through the opportunism in their overtures.
Today, the Chinese would face an immeasurably more difficult task if they attacked Menchuka. It is strongly defended by the army’s Red Devils. The army presence can hardly be missed, whether in the form of heavy vehicles growling along the roads, a very visible army encampment, military signposts everywhere (sample: “After a hard day’s work and sweat we, the Red Devils, love to have Chinese for supper”), or the AN-32 transport aircraft that roar in and out of the airfield in the middle of Menchuka town, bringing in the supplies that keep the army going. On their way back to Assam, the AN-32s give lifts to locals who need to move out in a hurry.
The actual border with China is at the Lola Pass, some 45 km from Menchuka. The Line of Actual Control (as the border is called) is not disputed here, as it is in other sectors like Longju. But Tibetan civilians have been apprehended in Indian territory while gathering the medicinal plants that this valley has always been famous for. Locals tell us that the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which physically guards the border, arrested a large group of Tibetans some six years ago when they intruded into India.
Intrigued, I go to the sub-division headquarters, where I meet Additional Deputy Commissioner Gepak Poyum, an Adi from Along. A small-framed man in a tiny office, with a photograph of Subhas Chandra Bose hanging on the wall, Poyum is kept warm by a wood-burning bukhari that crackles comfortingly. With not a file on his desk, he is happy to chat with a visitor from Delhi. Yes, the Tibetans did come, and were kept by ITBP for about a month, he tells us. They must have been collecting yartsa gunbu, the magical plant that grows in high mountain pastures, transforming into a caterpillar in winter and a fungus in summer. China loves yartsa gunbu, I learn; it is reputedly a potent aphrodisiac. It is sent to Tibet for the equivalent of Rs 80,000 per kg; the street value in Menchuka of 1 kg of yartsa gunbu is Rs 30,000. What happened to the Tibetans, I ask? Poyum tells me that release orders came from New Delhi because they had strayed across by accident. In early 2007, they were repatriated across Lola. Clearly things on the ground between India and China are not as bad as many imagine!
* * * * *
Menchuka’s long tradition of medicinal herbs, which formed a sizeable component of the tax payments to Kongpo, is now being commercialised. Pasang Sona, the MLA from Menchuka, has leased a large tract of land to Pronaali Agro-Tech, a company run by former tea planter Giri Sodhi. Perched on a hillside with a spectacular view of Menchuka, Sodhi has converted this into a plantation for Taxus bacata, an evergreen conifer long known as the yew. The toxic component of Taxus Bacata, known as taxol, is a powerful chemotherapeutic drug for treating breast and cervical cancer.
Sodhi has tied up with German pharmaceutical company Fresenius Kabi Oncology (it acquired Dabur Pharma some years ago) which will process Menchuka’s Taxus bacata in its laboratories in Sahibabad and Kalyani into anti-cancer medicines. Fresenius Kabi currently imports Taxus bacata from Europe and South America; it hopes to cut costs to one third by sourcing it from Menchuka.
For Sodhi, this is a high-stakes, high-risk game, with a strong element of adventure. He says, “My expenditure on 70 hectares of Taxus bacata, over 20 years, on field development, planting, irrigation and labour will work out to about Rs 25 crore. And my income flow will only begin after six or seven years. But Fresenius-Kabi is supporting this strongly.” He adds: “This is hard work, 20 hours’ driving time from Assam in a very remote area. But it is very enjoyable, and I take satisfaction in being able to cut treatment costs for cancer patients in the future.”
The Arunachal Government is watching and waiting. Poyum says, “We are watching to see how this works. If it is a success, other locals will also start growing. And definitely, we will support [it] because the tradition in Menchuka of growing medicinal herbs stopped due to medicines coming from Kolkata and Mumbai.” We look out at Menchuka from Sodhi’s fields, where lovely Memba women tend to the plants. The Yar Gyap Chu flows placidly, an island in midstream shaped exactly like India. An army patrol climbs the hill slowly, familiarising itself with the area they are tasked to defend.
A few years ago, when the road to Menchuka was being completed, the Border Roads Organisation was blasting Guru Rimpoche’s rock seal which was in the way. But nobody from Menchuka protested. In traditional Tibetan Buddhist belief, paradise had already been desecrated when armed forces entered it and a war was fought there in 1962. Menchuka has moved on from its legendary past.
Dar Yasin/Associated Press
Tibetan
exiles carry the coffin containing the body of Jamphel Yeshi at the Tsuglagkhang
temple in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh. More than 3000 Tibetan exiles paid
homage to 27-year-old Yeshi, who self-immolated in New Delhi Monday to protest
against China’s policies in Tibet.
China achieves sweet orange genome breakthrough-Sikkim too can learn
March 30th, 2012
Chinese scientists have pinpointed the sweet orange genome sequence, opening the door to achieving better quality and crop yields, website News.xinhuanet.com reported.
Central China Agricultural University researchers spent a year assembling and annotating the genome sequence of the plant, marking the first time Chinese scientists have independently determined the genome sequence of a fruit crop.
Research team leader Deng Xiuxin, said the discovery offered an ideal research platform for biotechnology and genetic engineering in China.
The sweet orange, which originated in China, is the most commonly grown fruit tree in the world, and its production accounts for about 60% of total citrus production.
The sweet orange, mostly poly-embryonic, is highly heterozygous, which means it has dissimilar pairs of genes for any hereditary characteristic, and suffers from sterility.
China is the world’s largest grower of citrus, and Chinese people have been cultivating citrus crops for 4,000 years. Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture show that China produced 26.45 million tonnes of citrus across 2.21 million hectares in 2010.
Out of the more than 80 types of citrus species grown in China, 40% are not native to China, and half of the country’s fruit production is generated from foreign breeds.
The country has been eager to see breakthroughs in the genetic research of citrus to speed up the improvement of its own citrus breeds.
Deng compared sequencing the genome of the sweet orange to opening the “black box” of the crop’s life activities, a move that could help improve the fruit’s traits, including color, taste, yields and disease resistance.
India is darling of global defense firms
India's military spending plan has arms merchants jockeying for a deal. Their only obstacles are political infighting, corruption and bureaucracy.
By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
March 30, 2012, 7:31 p.m.
NEW DELHI — Sailor-suited Russian models touted their nation's submarines. Indian officers posed for pictures atop foreign-made armor-plated vehicles.
And working the room at New Delhi's aging exhibition center were French, British and American arms merchants from global defense giants, elbowing each other aside in the search for a deal at Defexpo India 2012, the country's biggest-ever weapons trade show.
Fueled by superpower ambitions and rivalry with China but hampered by a creaky domestic defense industry, India is on a military buying spree that's made it the belle-of-the-global-military ball.
"India's a little yokel with pockets full of cash and everyone's trying to mug it," said Ajai Shukla, a defense analyst and former army colonel.
India's long shopping list calls for $20 billion in fighter jets, $1.5 billion worth of refueling aircraft and billions of dollars in submarines, tanks and artillery, among other equipment, all part of an estimated $80 billion spending spree over the next five years.
Pakistan once kept Indian generals awake at night. But increasingly that mantle goes to China, with its growing economic and military might and festering territorial disputes along its shared 2,800-mile-long border with India. Adding to India's insecurity are memories of its defeat by Beijing in a 1962 border war.
The situation leaves India increasingly bracing for the possibility of a two-front war given close Sino-Pakistani relations. Its armed forces already battle civil unrest and border incursions in the disputed region of Kashmir, a homegrown Maoist insurgency and threat of terrorists breaching its thinly patrolled coast, as seen during the 2008 Mumbai attack.
The country was the world's largest weapons importer for the 2007-11 period, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think tank, followed by South Korea, Pakistan and China. Although the Middle Kingdom's annual military budget of $106 billion is nearly three times India's, the rapid expansion of its homegrown defense industry means it produces an estimated 90% of its weapon systems domestically, compared with 30% for India.
A measure of India's unease is seen in plans to add three army divisions totaling 90,000 soldiers along the border. This anxiety isn't shared, however, with Beijing largely focused on what the American military, not India's, is up to, analysts said.
China holds the high ground given the altitude of the Tibet plateau — key in any land conflict — in part because of its superior hardware and better rail and road links. By some estimates, China could deploy troops within a week, whereas India would need three weeks.
"India must at all costs avoid land competition with China," said Endre Lunde, a consultant with IHS Jane's, a defense consultancy. "It just can't end well."
India has some advantages though. Its aircraft take off at lower altitudes, allowing them to carry greater payloads. And India would probably enjoy stronger global diplomatic support in any conflict.
Increasingly, however, Delhi must also contend withChina'snavy, poised to start challenging its neighbor's primacy in the Indian Ocean. Beijing's first aircraft carrier started sea trials in August, and three more carriers are expected in quick succession. And despite its traditional focus on the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, China is financing port construction in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Pakistan and Bangladesh and flexing its muscle with antipiracy missions off Somalia.
India has sought a Russian-built carrier for at least four years, but the cost has now reportedly doubled to $2.3 billion after repeated squabbles with Moscow. Two more carrier purchases are planned by 2017. For now, however, India has to make do with a 1950s-era British-built carrier that's on its last legs.
Beyond perceived threats, India is also hoping its military spending will help modernize its design, engineering and assembly industries, project greater regional clout befitting an emerging superpower and help reverse its record of failed indigenous weapon production, cost overruns and delays.
Although waste and cost overruns beset defense industries worldwide, India stands out, analysts said. Lumbering state-owned defense contractors have a monopoly on domestic production. Deadlines are repeatedly blown. Middlemen extract huge fees. Weapons underperform or don't perform at all.
"India's tried since the 1950s to produce most of what it needs indigenously but has failed miserably," said Siemon T. Wezeman, a senior fellow with the Stockholm think tank. "If you're a bright engineer and you want to make a good name, you go elsewhere. "
After recent trials on its Arjun tank, commissioned in 1974, India proudly announced it had outperformed the Russian T-90. "But the T-90 is from the late 1980s, early 1990s," Lunde said. "That's not a very flattering comparison. And China's version has moved well beyond the classic T-90."
India's homegrown light Tejas aircraft still isn't operational after 29 years of development, one of several such "black hole" projects.
As procurement and production delays drag on, hardware already in service creaks along, or doesn't, well past its due date. Between 2008 and 2012, India, among the few countries still flying MIG fighter planes, lost 27 of them in crashes, prompting local media to dub them "flying coffins."
The armed services have also been mired in corruption scandals involving real estate, hardware procurement and even coffins. Anticorruption safeguards introduced in response can be so restrictive that they tie purchasing in knots, critics say, undermining Indian security.
This week, army chief Gen. V.K. Singh set off a political firestorm by disclosing that he'd been offered a $2.8-million bribe in 2010, which he said he didn't take — an investigation was never initiated — to approve a shipment of 600 substandard Czech-made trucks. The vehicles, ultimately purchased for $200,000 apiece, by some accounts, sell for half that in Eastern Europe.
A leaked letter he'd written to the prime minister described India's air defenses as "97% obsolete," artillery and infantry in an "alarming" state, and tanks without ammunition. The news broke while Chinese President Hu Jintao was in town for a global conference.
"This is hardly a surprise to the Chinese," said Manohar Thyagaraj, a partner in the New York-based Hudson Fairfax Group, a private equity firm investing in defense. "He didn't say anything that wasn't already known."
Standing beside one of his company's armored personnel carriers at the defense expo in Delhi's crumbling Pragati Maidan convention center, General Dynamics UK senior manager Andrew Boyle said India requires patience.
"It's a difficult market. They do things their own way," he said, as two Chinese attendees snapped detailed pictures of the vehicle. "And it takes them time to come to a decision. But it's a country with enormous potential."
mark.magnier@latimes.com
Tanvi Sharma in The Times' New Delhi bureau contributed to this report.
Extract from Shri P.Chidambaram MHA Report Card for March
North East
On March 24, 2012, a Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement was signed by the Government of India and the Government of Manipur with the United Tribal Liberation Army (UTLA) and the Pakan Reunification Army (PRA) [both under the umbrella of Kuki National Organisation (KNO)] for a period of six months.
During the month, a total of Rs.96.30 crore was released to States/UTs under CCTNS project of which Rs.13.42 crore was for networking and Rs.82.88 crore was for System Integrators (SI). LoIs for System Integrators were issued by the Governments of Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Tripura. As of now, 16 LoIs have been issued to SIs out of which 9 Contracts have been signed. Further, 5000 personnel have been trained until now under capacity building.
India-Bangladesh Border:
In March 2012, 7 kms of fencing and 5 kms of road works were completed under phase II of the project and 2 kms of fencing were replaced under phase III of the project. Poles for floodlighting were erected on a length of 70 kms and cables were laid on 40 kms stretch during the month.
Coastal Security: Land identification for 111 (out of 131) Coastal Police Stations has been finalized and land acquisition process in 74 cases has been initiated till March, 2012. An amount of Rs.44.37 crore has been released to the coastal States/UTs for construction of Coastal Police Stations and Jetties.
India-China Border:
Out of 27 ITBP priority roads along India-China border, construction work on one road has been completed and the work on 22 roads is in progress. No progress could be made during the month because of non working season. So far, a total of 511.69 Kms of formation works and 173.73 Kms of surfacing works have been completed.
Border Area Development Programme (BADP): The total amount released to the 17 States in the current financial year at the end of March 2012 stands at Rs.1003.22 crore [100% of the total allocation of Rs.1003.22 crore (RE)], including Rs.85.58 crore released during the month.
Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI): The Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) has been set up and notified with effect from 1.3.2012.
Immigration
Integrated on-line visa application system under the Mission Mode Project on IVFRT (Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration & Tracking) was made operational at the Indian missions at New York and San Francisco. This facility is now operational at 52 Indian Missions abroad.
Census 2011 and National Population Register (NPR)
The results of Houselisting and Housing Census phase of Population Census 2011 have been released, giving data on quality and quantity of Census House, amenities available and the assets possessed by the households across the Country. It is notable that the results have been released one year ahead of schedule.
Scanning of Population Enumeration schedules has been completed for 24.5 crore out of the total of 27 crore schedules. The data processing of more than 13.3 crore schedules has been completed.
The creation of the National Population Register (NPR) in 3331 coastal villages covering a population of 1.2 crore persons has been completed. The production of Resident Identity Cards (RIC) for this population is currently underway and 27 lakh RICs have been produced so far. The capture of biometrics for the NPR in the rest of the country is in progress and as on date, data entry of 54 crore persons and biometrics of 1.51 crore persons have been completed.
Judicial
During the month, the President gave her assent to the following bills:
(a) The Himachal Pradesh Urban Rent Control (Amendment) Bill, 2009
(b) The Gorkha land Territorial Administration Bill, 2011
· Agreement between Government of India, Government of West Bengal and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha was signed for setting up of a new Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) for the hill areas of Darjeeling district.
· Rs.350 crore was released to the North Eastern States under SRE Scheme
· On India-Bangladesh border, 79 kms of fencing and 69 kms of roads were completed. 30 kms of fencing was replaced
· On India-Pakistan border, 28 kms of fencing was completed
· On India-China border, 275 kms of formation work and 134 kms of surfacing work were completed on border roads
· For the North Eastern Police Academy, Rs.35.36 crore was released (against a sanction of Rs.82.13 crore) for augmenting infrastructure
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RS/SK
(Release ID :82029)
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Namrata Goswami
Research Fellow
Joined IDSA
April 2006
Expertise
International Relations Theory, Ethnic and Intra-State Conflicts, Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution
Education
MA (Politics and Administration), Pune University
Masters Diploma (Journalism and Communications), Symbiosis Institute of Journalism and Communication, Pune
PhD (International Organization), School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Masters Diploma (Journalism and Communications), Symbiosis Institute of Journalism and Communication, Pune
PhD (International Organization), School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Current Project
International Security Audit: Great Power Cooperation or Competition
Armed Ethnic Conflicts in Northeast India and the Indian State's Response
Armed Ethnic Conflicts in Northeast India and the Indian State's Response
Background
Submitted her doctoral thesis to Jawaharlal Nehru University titled "Just War Theory and Humanitarian Intervention: A Comparative Case Study of East Pakistan and Kosovo." She has worked as Editorial Assistant, USI Journal, at the United Service Institution of India, New Delhi; Assistant Editor, India's National Security Annual Review, 2005; Reporter for The Indian Express, Pune; Copy Editor and Writer, Creative Point, Mumbai; and Researcher in the project "Culture and Identity, Sikkim", South Asia Foundation, New Delhi.
Select Publication
- Co-editor, India's North East: New Vistas for Peace (New Delhi: Manas, 2008).
- "Twilight over Guerrilla Zone: Retracing the Naga Peace Process," in Jaideep Saikia, ed., Frontier in Flames: North East India in Turmoil (New Delhi: Penguin, 2007).
- "The Naga Narrative of Conflict: Envisioning a Resolution Roadmap," Strategic Analysis, vol. 31, no. 2, March 2007.
- "Manifesto for Kantian Utopianism," Strategic Analysis, vol. 31, no. 4, July 2007.
- "The Essence of the South Asian Nuclear Debate," Strategic Analysis, vol. 30, no. 3, July-September 2006.
A Tibetan exile man, identified as Jampa Yeshi, runs engulfed in flames after self-immolating during a demonstration in New Delhi, India, Monday, March 26, 2012. Yeshi lit himself on fire and ran shouting through a protest in the Indian capital Monday, just ahead of a visit by China's president Hu Jintao and following self-immolations in the Himalayan region against Beijing's rule. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup) Photo: Manish Swarup, Associated Press / AP
Source: www.chron.com
Harvard India Conference on Look East Policy: Look East Through The Northeast
25th March 2012, Boston:
>Panelist at Harvard India Conference on Look East Policy: Look East Through The Northeast
Harvard India Conference
Look East Policy: Look East Through The Northeast
Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, USA organized the 9th annual Harvard India Conference on the 24th and 25th of March 2012 at their campus in Boston. The theme of this year's conference was "India – The Next Frontier." Among many important panels, the conference also featured a panel titled "Look East Policy: Look East Through The Northeast." The panel on the Look East Policy included Leichombam Erendro Singh, a World Bank Fellow at Harvard University, Pradyot Deb Burman, Chairman and Editor, The Northeast Today Magazine, and Binalakshmi Nepram, Writer-Activist, Founder, Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network.
THE MANIPUR INTERNATIONAL CENTER, a research and advocacy group based in Boston, USA sponsored the panel. The Center is a non-partisan, non-sectarian, and not-for-profit organization that promotes peace and development initiatives in Manipur and the Northeastern Region of India.
In 1991, coinciding with the liberalization of India's economy, Look East Policy signaled a major shift in India's foreign policy by asserting itself as an important economic, and strategic player in Asia. Connecting India to South East Asia is the North Eastern Region of India (NER). The NER is an important focal point that is tied to the achievement of many Look East Policy objectives. While the region's strategic location and untapped natural resources suggest abundant potential for India, insurgency and conflict in the region are some of India's biggest challenges today. How can India confront these challenges and realize existing opportunities? These were the backdrops of the panel discussion.
Leichombam Erendro Singh, after giving a brief background on India's Look East Policy and it's dramatic increase in the volume of trade with other Asian economies, argued that although the country's economy has picked up significant momentum since the liberalization, the NER has benefitted little "spillover effects" from this economic surge because of the region's landlocked nature, among many others. He argued that inspite of India's 10% earmark spending the abysmal state of infrastructure in the region remains one of the most difficult "binding constraints." He emphasized a "big push" spending to break the infrastructural handicap of the region rather than marginal spending that may fail to hit the "impact horizon."
He also decried the lack of focused efforts in this landlocked region from important central ministries and their "unspent funds" flowing into the Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) in the last decade or so. Erendro also called for a broad restructuring, redefinition, and greater empowerment of the Ministry of Development of the Northeastern Region ( MDoNER ) such that the department is better equipped to avoid operational inefficiency, to fix major leakages, and to incentivize the other central departments to target infrastructure development in the region with greater urgency, and coordination.
He also argued that the imposition of unconstitutional laws such as the AFSPA 1958 on a citizenry for more than half a century is not only inhumane, but is also an example of the "tyranny of the majority," that results from the absence of proper "separation of powers" in the current Indian Parliamentary System, and called for an empowered Rajya Sabha, fashioned similar to the US Senate. He also emphasized the need for the Indian government to shift its NER regional policy from that of security obsession that he termed as "anger management for provisional expediency," to a long-term sustainable approach of giving "greater political, economic, and cultural self-determination" to the people of the Northeast. Answering to a question from the audience, Erendro referred to Irom Sharmila's 11 years long hunger strike against AFSPA in Manipur and concluded "such a spirit, which epitomizes the region's resilience, can not be crushed by force."
>Panelist at Harvard India Conference on Look East Policy: Look East Through The Northeast
Binalakshmi Nepram in her presentation revisited the origins of the Look East Policy in the early 1990s. She described the policy as an attempt by India to strengthen its relationship with ASEAN members. As a result of this effort, India-ASEAN trade has been increasing in recent years, constituting 10% of India's global trade in 2011. She argued that the Look East Policy needs re-examination, however, because it has not been able to address the economic turn around of the NER as it should have. She revisited the argument that there has been a prolonged stagnation in the region for the last four decades and cast doubt on the India's regional industrial development strategy, and lamented its inability to produce tangible results. Other challenges such as ethnic tensions, extortion, economic blockades, bandhs, large military presence, and armed insurgency further compound the problem in the region.
She also emphasized the relevance of the North Eastern Region Vision 2020 document, and threw light on the basic strengths of the region that include the presence of large natural resources, mineral deposits, and tremendous hydropower potential. She also spoke about the prospects of tourism, handicrafts, agro-based industries, and a relatively literate population in the region. Binalakshmi also highlighted the presence of community spirit, and traditional system of governance as has always existed in the NER. She also spoke about the strategic border towns of Moreh in Manipur, and Champhai in Mizoram, and their potential to be the gateways to Southeast Asia.
At the concluding section of her talk, she reiterated the importance of including women's involvement in economic development planning and activities, and gave the example of Manipur's Ema Keithel, or the women's only market in Manipur, as an effective economic, social, and political empowerment model. Doing so she drew parallels between the women led markets in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand and that of Manipur and some other parts of Northeast India. Emphasizing that such similarities between the NER and Southeast Asia can be harnessed for a more meaningful economic cooperation under the Look East Policy, Binalakshmi pointed out that these critical aspects are missing both in the document North Eastern Region Vision 2020, and Look East Policy planning and implementation.
The final speaker of the panel, Pradyot Deb Burman, stated that it is not industrialization that should be the way for Northeast India. He spoke about the need for self-sufficiency efforts, for example in food grains sector. He mentioned that "the Northeast can be the food bowl of the East." He also pointed out the misaligned incentive structure created for manufacturing industries in the Northeast. As an illustration he brought up an example of some factories infiltrating his state of Tripura that provides poor quality jobs, and deeply disturb the local economy. He decried the region's inability to attract better job producing, environment protecting, and income generating ventures.
According to him Look East Policy is flawed and the Northeast India 2020 is an "incomplete document" as it did not consult the actual stakeholders in the region. Pradyot also pointed out that some of the high potential businesses in the Northeast include tourism, hospitality industry, power generation, and cited the India's Milk Revolution as a workable model that incorporated collective planning and involvement of local communities.
The Look East Policy panel was participated and well received by a very engaging group of scholars, professionals, bureaucrats, media, and entrepreneurs from the United States, India, and around the world. Close to 800 participants attended the two-day Harvard India Conference that concluded today. It is one of the largest conferences of its kind in the US
Monday, March 26, 2012
| 891 Working Women’s Hostels Sanctioned by the Government |
Under the Scheme of Working Women Hostel, the Government of India has sanctioned 891 hostels for working women since its inception. The scheme has been revised and notified on 26-11-2010. As per the revised norms of the Scheme, financial assistance is provided to the eligible implementing organizations such as State Government agencies and Civil Society Organizations etc., to the tune of up to 75% of the cost of construction of the hostel building for working women on public land as per the prescribed area norms. There is also provision of extending financial assistance for hostels to be run in rented premises. Corporate houses or associations like CII, ASSOCHAM, FICCI etc., also can seek financial assistance for a matching grant (50:50) for hostel building construction on public land only. There is also a provision of one-time non-recurring grant @ Rs. 7500/- per inmate for purchase of furniture and furnishings.
STATE- WISE NUMBER OF WORKING WOMEN’S HOSTELS SANCTIONED IN
THE COUNTRY: SIKKIM:02
|
Why China’s Rich Are Leaving
source:Eurasia Review
Nearly half of China’s wealthiest families are planning to emigrate or are in the process of emigrating, according to a recent report.
A survey of the wealthiest private individuals in 2011 carried out by the Bank of China and the magazine Hurun found that 14 percent of the richest families are already living overseas, or at least have foreign passports.
And a total of 46 percent said they were either in the process of emigrating, or were planning to do so.
The poll surveyed 980 Chinese people in 18 major cities with assets of more than 10 million yuan (U.S. $1.6 million).
China is currently home to 960,000 people with assets of more than 10 million yuan, Hurun reported in November.
The movement overseas of wealthy Chinese is being driven by a quest for a cleaner environment, safe food and medicines, and a good education system, recent reports said
According to Hurun, 2,969 Chinese nationals applied to emigrate to the U.S. last year, a 10-fold increase compared with 2007.
Applications to emigrate to Canada meanwhile have risen seven-fold since 2009, totaling 2,567 applications.
Concern for assets
According to a report in Forbes magazine’s online edition this week, the percentage of people preparing or wishing to emigrate is even higher among the super-rich.
Seventy-four percent of families with assets of more than 100 million yuan (U.S. $16 million) report such plans, and of that group, 27 percent already live overseas, the Forbes report said.
Liao Tianqi, a Germany-based member of the writers’ group Independent Chinese PEN, said China’s rich are mostly concerned about the security of their assets.
“They are afraid that the security of their assets won’t be protected in China,” Liao said. “Chinese legislation is still far from perfect, and the political, economic, and investment environment is quite murky.”
“Other factors include the education of their children, the environment, and the high taxes they have to pay,” he said.
“China isn’t really fit for human habitation,” Liao said. “There are a lot of factors giving rise to this strange phenomenon in which everyone is desperate to live somewhere else.”
Fears for the future
U.S.-based scholar and former Macau University professor Cheng Tijie said that, more and more, many families are moving overseas because their children do not return after graduating from college.
“Some of them do want to go back to China after they graduate, but a lot of them think, ‘Well, I’ll just get a green card first.’”
Many of them are entirely motivated by job opportunities, though, he said.
“If they find it easy to make money in America, then they’ll do it in America. If it’s easier for them in China, then they’ll do it in China,” Cheng said.
But he said that China’s wealthy are clearly pessimistic about their country’s economic and financial future.
“Also, a lot of people are pretty disappointed in the Chinese education system,” Cheng said. “They don’t even think about going back to China.”
Reported by Xi Wang for RFA’s Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Chennai: Everonn Skill Development Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Everonn
Education Ltd, appointed A.M. Thimmaya as CEO, replacing T.V Jayaraman, who quit
two months ago.
Thimmiya moved to Everonn after serving as vice president of Sikkim Manipal University.
Thimmiya moved to Everonn after serving as vice president of Sikkim Manipal University.
Everonn Skill Development entered an agreement last year with National Skill Development Corp. (NSDC) to train 15 million people (10% of NSDC’s overall target of 150 million) by 2022. NSDC will invest Rs14.15 crore in ESDL for a 27% stake.
senior citizens no advance tax if no business income
If you are a senior citizen and you do not have any kind of business income, you have reasons to celebrate. The Union Budget has proposed that senior citizens, who do not have any income from a business, would be exempted from payment of advance tax.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
SOLAR POWER-Need of the hour
Need of the hour
Light from the sun is the most abundant source of energy available. And India has plentiful energy at its disposal. The government has now woken up to the fact that it can make rightful use of this renewable energy. Shyamal Asangi explains the pros
The wild oscillation in the price of oil in 2008 from $147.27 a barrel to close to $40 a barrel at the time of writing (prices went as low as $30 a barrel in late 2008) is a grim reminder of the fact that economies can be held to ransom simply by the price of oil. The International Energy Agency, Outlook 2007, estimated a significant growth in global energy use from 447 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2004 to 559 quadrillion Btu in 2015 going up to 702 quadrillion Btu in 2030. However, blatant use of energy has also come at a price: greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, depletion in the ozone layer, and climate change apart from the fact that fossil fuel sources are rapidly depleting.
To control the use of oil and in an effort to create a healthy and natural environment for future generations, governments worldwide are now turning towards generating energy from natural resources like the sun, wind, water and biofuels.
The Indian government is in the forefront of generating energy from natural and renewable sources. In 1981 it established the Commission for Additional Sources of Energy for formulating energy policy. The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (Ireda) was created to finance renewable energy projects.
According to Malini Mehra, founder and director of advocacy group, The Centre for Social Markets: “India has the distinction of the being the first country in the world to establish a ministry of non-conventional energy sources.”
During the 11th five-year plan the government aims to generate at least 14,500 MW out of the total expected capacity of 70,000 MW through renewable energy sources. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in its 2008 report said that India has generated 12.6 GW of power from renewable resources. According to the ministry the government aims to be able to generate 20% of India’s total energy needs through renewable energy in the next decade.
Let’s discuss investments
The 11th New and Renewable Energy five-year plan (2008-2012) envisages the renewable energy market to be worth US$19 billion. Approximately US$15 billion will be needed to generate 15,000 MW of renewable energy.
However, the government cannot make the entire investment and has decided on the participation of the private sector in the renewable energy sector.
To fulfill this objective, Malini Mehra says: “The government has incentivised investment into alternative energy in a number of ways — through feed-in tariffs promoting renewable energy to its staunch support for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Largely as a result of government support, India now accounts for a third of all registered CDM projects worldwide. This has been a win-win so far for the government and private sector as it has accelerated investment in renewables and clean technology in the country.”
Says Ravi Soparkar, vice-president (India), with US-based WaterSmart Environmental Inc: “India has abundant renewable energy sources and I am confident that the country will attract foreign direct investment in renewable energy business ventures in the near future.”
Private investments
• 100% accelerated depreciation for tax purposes in the first year of the installation of projects.
• No excise duty on manufacture of most finished products.
• Low import tariffs for capital equipment and most of the materials and components.
• Soft loans to manufacturers and users for commercial and near commercial technologies.
• Five-year tax holiday for power generation projects.
• Remunerative price under alternate power purchase policy by state government for the power generated through renewable energy systems, fed to the grid by private sector.
• Facility for banking and wheeling of power.
• Facility for third party sale of renewable energy power.
• Financial incentives/subsidies for devices with high initial cost.
• Involvement of women not only as beneficiaries but also for their active contribution in implementation of renewable energy programs.
• Encouragement to NGOs and small entrepreneurs.
• Special thrust for renewable energy in North-Eastern region of the country. 10% of plan funds earmarked for North-East towards enhanced and special subsidies.
• Allotment of land on long term basis at token lease rent and supply of garbage free of cost at site by state governments, in respect of projects on energy recovery from municipal waste.
(Source: MNES)
Harsh V Pant: Dealing with China's big defence budget
by Harsh V Pant / Mar 25, 2012, 00:04 IST
This year China has again announced a double-digit increase in its military spending, as concerns continue to rise in the region and beyond about China’s true intentions behind its building of capabilities. Last week, Beijing announced that the total defence budget for 2012 would be increased to $106 billion, from $95.6 billion last year, an increase of 11.2 per cent. And this is when vital elements of the Chinese military build-up, including cyberwarfare and space capabilities (as well as foreign procurement) were not included in the announced budget. The bulk of the increased defence spending will go to the Chinese navy, air force and the Second Artillery Corps — which runs the strategic nuclear forces.
The spokesman of the National People’s Congress who announced the military budget suggested that the military spending increase was in line with Chinese economic development and as a percentage of gross domestic product compared with other countries, specifically the United States and Britain, the increase was relatively low. What has been causing concern in Asia and beyond is the opacity that seems to surround China’s military build-up, with an emerging consensus that Beijing’s real military spending is at least double the announced figure. Just last year, it has been estimated that China ended up spending $160 billion instead of the announced $95.6 billion!
This year’s dramatic rise comes at a time when the US has initiated its foreign policy pivot towards Asia. As the US secretary of state has already underlined, “the future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the centre of the action.” At a time when talk of American decline and retrenchment from global commitments has become de rigueur, the signals coming from Washington are that it has no intention of leaving the Asian strategic landscape. Nor will regional states allow America to lower its profile. After all, the elephant in the room, or region, is China’s faster-than-expected ascent in the global inter-state hierarchy. The new defence strategy outlined by Washington recently is explicitly geared towards tackling the emerging threat from China’s massive and rapid military build-up. It takes forward the process already-underway, of reorienting the American military might from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
With his visit to Asia last November and with a new military strategy that focuses on the region, the Obama Administration is underscoring America’s commitment to regional stability at a time when the US is wrapping up two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This new strategy is unambiguous in underlining the challenge in the Asia-Pacific and turning America’s gaze Asia-ward. “As I made clear in Australia, we’ll be strengthening our presence in the Asia-Pacific, and budget reductions will not come at the expense of this critical region,” Obama remarked at the Pentagon while releasing the new strategy. It remains to be seen how successful this strategy will be in meeting the challenges of the future, but it should give some respite to regional states, including India, which are confronted with a rapidly rising China and all its attendant consequences.
As America’s economic constraints force it to go back to an “offshore balancing” posture, it needs new arrangements in Asia if it wants to prevent China from dominating the regional strategic landscape. The US will increasingly rely on its regional allies and regional arrangements to carry more of the security burden, much as it did via its hub-and-spokes alliance system in Europe since the end of the Second World War. China, of course, remains very sensitive to this more pro-active approach in Asia and has suggested that a “Cold War mentality” is not the way forward; but the regional states have their own plans. Concerns remain that, while the US is ostensibly shifting its strategic focus on Asia, it is decreasing its military strength in the region, leading to an inevitable power vacuum in East Asia and the Pacific which China may be determined to fill.
The US has encouraged a greater role for India in East and Southeast Asia. Exhorting India to lead and look beyond its immediate neighbourhood, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to India earlier this year asked India “not just to look east, but to engage east and act east as well.” India has responded with a renewed focus on its Look East policy, which has evolved from economic and trade linkages with various regional countries to a gradual strengthening of security ties. India’s ties with Japan, in particular, have been gaining momentum, with both New Delhi and Tokyo making an effort in recent years to put Indo-Japanese ties into high gear. India’s role in East and Southeast Asia is only likely to grow in the future as China’s faster-than-expected economic and military rise forces New Delhi to reorder its strategic priorities.
Beijing’s rapidly rising defence expenditure; its expansive maritime sovereignty claims; its aggressive behaviour pursuing them; its support for states such as North Korea and Pakistan; and its non-transparent military build-up all raise questions about its willingness to act as a responsible stakeholder in the region. How to manage China’s rise and mould its behaviour will be one of the biggest diplomatic challenges facing the region and the world in the coming years.
The writer teaches at King’s College, London
Puskar Pandey makes Sikkim Proud
Student does Sikkim proud
GANGTOK, March 23 – India’s Autobotix Group comprising 10 students participated in the Global Aero Designing Competition held in Carlifonia, US, with three miniature Radio Control Aircraft projects on March 6 last.
The team qualified for the competition out of 500 universities from around the world.
“A total of 500 universities from across the globe had been selected for the competition. Out of the 500, 64 are from Aerospace Engineering.
Sikkim’s Pukar Pandey-led team of Mechatronic Engineering team from Engineering Institution of Punjab was the only team competing with aerospace engineers round the globe. They were placed in 12th position.
The competition was organised by SAE International at Van Nuys,California, from March 16-18 in collaboration with the Aero Builder giants like NASA, AIRBUS and Boeing.
GANGTOK, March 23 – India’s Autobotix Group comprising 10 students participated in the Global Aero Designing Competition held in Carlifonia, US, with three miniature Radio Control Aircraft projects on March 6 last.
The team qualified for the competition out of 500 universities from around the world.
“A total of 500 universities from across the globe had been selected for the competition. Out of the 500, 64 are from Aerospace Engineering.
Sikkim’s Pukar Pandey-led team of Mechatronic Engineering team from Engineering Institution of Punjab was the only team competing with aerospace engineers round the globe. They were placed in 12th position.
The competition was organised by SAE International at Van Nuys,California, from March 16-18 in collaboration with the Aero Builder giants like NASA, AIRBUS and Boeing.
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