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Saturday, September 1, 2012
"By improving yourself, improve the world."
Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda: "By improving yourself, improve the world."
By Anirudh Koka
Contributor
Chinmaya Mission graces the hearts and homes of hundreds in Phoenix, Arizona. Families from around the Valley meet on Sunday mornings to study the timeless values found in the Hindu heritage. Here, children are taught to integrate the universal values of the scriptures of the East into their daily lives in the West. Chinmaya Mission Phoenix continues to spread the ageless wisdom of Vedanta and Hindu Culture to youths and adults alike in its age-appropriate form. The following programs are currently being offered at the Phoenix Center: Bala Vihar Classes, Adult Vedanta Study Groups, Language Classes (Tamil, Telegu, Hindi), Community Service Opportunities, Jnana Yagnas, and much more.
Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda was born in Kerala, India. Then known as Balakrishnan Menon, he acquired degrees in Law and English Literature. As a journalist, Balakrishnan wished to travel to the Himalayan region to write an expose on the “bluffs” of the monks. He travelled to Rishikesh to visit Swami Sivananda’s Ahsram. However, by listening to the teachings of Swami Sivananda, his quest to expose the monks actually exposed himself to Vedanta. After spending some time at the ashram, the skeptic became a renunciate himself, and was given the name Swami Chinmayananda.
To further deepen his learning and sadhana, Swami Chinmayananda travelled to the hut of Swami Tapovanam, a renowned Vedanta master. There Swami Chinmayananda lived an austere life while studying the Vedantic texts under the guidance of his master. It was then that he decided that the knowledge that he had received must not remain with the few austere saints in the Himalayas, but rather should be brought out to the masses. And so, just as the river Ganga rushes down the mountains of the Himalayas flourishing the land as it goes, so too Swami Chinmayananda came down from the mountains spreading the knowledge of the ancients and revealing the true meaning of Vedanta - the science of life - which had not before been reaching the common people.
Swami Chinmayananda spread the knowledge by holding lectures which he called Jnana Yagnas. In these yagnas, he transformed the lives of tens of thousands of people that came to listen to him. Both of my grandparents went to his lectures and said that they were something special as they recollected his talks even today. It is said that Swamiji was extremely eloquent, and roared like a lion to the masses till the end.
Under the guidance of Swamiji, Chinmaya Balavihars were started. Swamiji proclaimed that “Children are not vessels to be filled, but lamps to be lit.” The goal of the Bala Vihar program is to "wake up the sleeping giant" within and inspire the children to reach their maximum potential in whatever path they chose to walk in life. This is achieved by imparting a value-based education through a specially designed, age appropriate curriculum that has been carefully developed by expert Chinmaya Acharyas. Through inspiring stories, projects, role-playing, and songs, the mind is awakened to the higher. So, while secular school has taught me about life, Chinmaya Mission has taught me how to lead it.
Chinmaya Mission is a movement that continues to touch and transform all aspects of human life. Today there are 300 centers worldwide, teaching the wisdom of the Advaita Vedanta, and providing the tools for one to realize this wisdom in his or her life. To date, millions worldwide have benefited directly or indirectly from Chinmaya Mission’s numerous centers, classes, events, services and projects.
His legacy left in the form of books, audios, videos, seviks/sevikas and acharyas continue to work and spread the wisdom of Vedanta - the cause to which Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda dedicated his life. With his boundless love and dedication, he left an imprint on the hearts of millions around the world, and his footprints on the foundation of each of his service projects.
In line with this vision, Chinmaya Mission Phoenix continues to steadily expand its scope of activities in the Valley with the love and dedication of its seviks and sevikas. That being said, Chinmaya Mission Phoenix extends a warm welcome to new members as it is now offering new member orientations on a monthly basis.
Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda: “Whatever the person of Realization does constitutes the moral code for us to follow. The qualities of His actions are the standards by which the world determines its sense of righteousness, its concept of dharma.”
Chinmaya Mission Phoenix is now enrolling members for Session 2012-2013.
(Anirudh Koka is a student at the 10th grade Bala Vihar class of Chinmaya Mission, Phoenix Chapter (www.chinmayaphoenix.org). He wrote this article as part of his Bala Vihar curriculum. Chinmaya Mission Bala Vihar classes are conducted every Sunday in South Scottsdale).
Hope on China's next leader for Tibet issue
By Benjamin Kang Lim and Frank Jack Daniel
BEIJING/DHARAMSALA | Sat Sep 1, 2012 11:55am IST
(Reuters) - For decades, Beijing has maintained that the Dalai Lama is a separatist, but Tibet's exiled spiritual leader once had a special relationship with the father of Xi Jinping, the man in line to become China's next president.
Few people know what Xi, whose ascent to the leadership is likely to be approved at a Communist Party congress later this year, thinks of Tibet or the Dalai Lama.
But his late father, Xi Zhongxun, a liberal-minded former vice premier, had a close bond with the Tibetan leader who once gave the elder Xi an expensive watch in the 1950s, a gift that the senior party official was still wearing decades later.
The Dalai Lama, 77, recalls the elder Xi as "very friendly, comparatively more open-minded, very nice" and says he only gave watches back then to those Chinese officials he felt close to.
"We Tibetans, we get these different varieties of watch easily from India. So we take advantage of that, and brought some watches to some people when we feel some sort of close feeling, as a gift like that," the Dalai Lama said in an interview in the Indian town of Dharamsala, a capital for Tibetan exiles in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The Dalai Lama gave the watch to the elder Xi in 1954 during an extended visit to Beijing. Xi was one of the officials who spent time with the young Dalai Lama in the capital where he spent five to six months studying Chinese and Marxism.
The Dalai Lama fled to India five years later, after a failed uprising against Communist rule, but as late as 1979, Xi senior was still wearing the watch, the make and style of which the Dalai Lama can no longer remember.
Xi senior was a dove in the party, championing the rights of Tibetans, Uighurs and other ethnic minorities. He also opposed the army crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen student protests and was alone in criticising the sacking of liberal party chief Hu Yaobang by the Old Guard in 1987. Xi senior died in 2002.
The Dalai Lama has never met Xi junior but his fondness for the father is, for some, a sign that China's next leader may adopt a more reformist approach to Tibet once he formally succeeds President Hu Jintao next March. Some expect him to be more tolerant of Muslim Uighurs in the western region of Xinjiang, and also of Taiwan, the independently ruled island that China has vowed to take back, by force if necessary.
"To understand what kind of leader Xi Jinping will be, one must study his father's (policies)," said Bao Tong, one-time top aide to purged party chief Zhao Ziyang. Bao was jailed for seven years for sympathising with student-led demonstrations for democracy centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.
"No (Chinese) Communist will betray his father," he added.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON?
Xi senior is looked on favourably by China's leaders with plans already made to commemorate his 100th birth anniversary in mid-October next year with a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People and editorials and commentaries in state media eulogising him, sources with ties to the leadership said.
But even if Xi junior wants to pursue a reform agenda, he is likely to bide his time.
"The key is whether Xi Jinping feels confident of his power consolidation," said Lin Chong-Pin, a former Taiwan defence minister and China policy-maker who now teaches at Taipei's Tamkang University.
Lin added, however: "There will be a more tolerant policy not only (towards) Tibet, but also Xinjiang."
Taiwan, the democratic island Beijing claims as its own, may be the model for reconciliation with Tibet.
"Every generation of (Chinese) leaders must resolve problems left over from the previous generation," a source with leadership ties said.
"For Hu, it was Taiwan," the source added, referring to Hu mending fences with the island after his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, threatened it with war games in the run-up to its first direct presidential elections in 1996.
"For Xi, it's Tibet," the source said.
Asked if Xi might take a different tack on Tibet, a retired party official who used to work in Tibet said: "There has to be new thinking ... He (Xi) is surely aware of the problems."
"More and more government spending, more and more security, is not going to buy enduring stability in Tibet," the official said, referring to China pouring billions of yuan to develop Tibet, including opening a railway in 2006 linking it with the rest of China, and a crackdown in the wake of the unrest.
"The high-pressure policies can't continue forever," the official said, asking not to be identified and adding that these were his personal views.
CARDS HELD CLOSE
Xi has played his cards close to his chest and little is publicly known about his policies. Like Hu, he will be no political strongman, and will have to rule by consensus as the first among equals.
If Hu stays on as military chief, Hu may continue to hold sway over major policies, but is unlikely to oppose detente.
"Hu will not be an obstacle to (any) reconciliation" moves, a second source with leadership ties said.
Initially, Hu sought to make up for his decision to crush riots in Tibet in 1989 by issuing a decree to "protect Tibetan culture" in the early 2000s, but was taken aback when the Dalai Lama accused China of "cultural genocide".
China has defended its iron-fisted rule in Tibet, saying the region suffered from dire poverty, brutal exploitation of serfs and economic stagnation until 1950 when Communist troops "peacefully liberated" it and introduced "democratic reforms" in 1959.
Tensions over the issue are at their highest in years after a spate of protests and self-immolations by Tibetan activists, which have led to an intensified security crackdown. Fifty-one Tibetans have set themselves alight since 2009.
In the event the Dalai Lama dies in exile, it could radicalise exiled Tibetan youth who have clamoured for independence and are frustrated with his "middle way" approach that advocates autonomy within China.
It could create a rallying point for Tibetans disgruntled with Communist rule and leave a destabilising leadership vacuum.
"They (Chinese government) hope Tibet's political problem can be basically resolved once the Dalai Lama passes away," said Wang Lixiong, an author and expert on Tibet who has met the Dalai Lama several times.
Instead, Wang added, "the Dalai Lama's death could spark massive protests and even rioting."
"NORMAL HEARTS"
The outbreak of rioting in Tibet in 2008 ahead of the Beijing Olympics and a subsequent crackdown, which in turn sparked the self-immolations, may have prevented Hu from carrying out any reversal of China's hardline policy on Tibet.
At the time of the riots, Xi commented: "We should have normal hearts" - a remark that was in stark contrast to insults rained on the Dalai Lama by the region's then Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, who called the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner a "jackal in Buddhist monk's robes" with "the face of a human and the heart of a beast".
Zhang was not alone. Many Chinese party, government and military officials and many ordinary Chinese are convinced the 2008 unrest was a Western plot to demonise Beijing before the Games and try to split Tibet from China.
But tempers appear to have cooled a bit.
Hu is manoeuvring to promote one of his closest allies - Inner Mongolia party boss Hu Chunhua who speaks Tibetan, a rarity among Chinese officials - to the party's inner sanctum, two independent sources said, in a bid to retain clout after retiring. The two Hus are not related.
In a sign the party may at times be willing to reverse bad decisions or policies, it backed down recently after liberal intellectuals slammed it for forcing Tibetan Buddhist monasteries to put up portraits of Mao and other leaders, Columbia University Tibetologist Robbie Barnett said, adding that local officials now say this is voluntary.
Xi may have more to gain than lose from resuming talks with the Dalai Lama's envoys, but this may not happen anytime soon.
"They probably will take very small, incremental steps. They cannot take big steps," said Lin, the Taiwan-based academic.
Many challenges lie ahead.
"The talks process could start again at any point, we don't know. We shouldn't rule it out even though it looks very negative at the moment," Robbie Barnett, a Tibetologist at Columbia University, said in a telephone interview.
"He may have to prove that he's very tough ... so it could make it quite difficult for Xi. He could risk heavy attack from hardliners. It's quite complicated for him."
But Robert Lawrence Kuhn, author of "How China's Leaders Think", was more optimistic.
"He is a very practical, pragmatic, very down-to-earth kind of person," said Kuhn who has met Xi half a dozen times. "I don't think he has an overblown sense of his own person, which to me is very important. People could rally around him."
The Dalai Lama has said he hopes Xi will usher in a "realistic" and more open approach to Tibet, in the same way Deng Xiaoping introduced market reforms in the late 1970s that turned China into an economic powerhouse from a backwater.
After more than 50 years of confrontation with Beijing, the Dalai Lama is cautious but hopeful.
"I can't say for definite, but according to many Chinese friends, they say the new, coming leadership seems more lenient," he said in an interview in his audience room which was decorated with Buddhist paintings and a bust of Mahatma Gandhi.
He said there had been a stream of visitors to Dharamsala from China, including people who told him they had connections with senior Communist Party leaders. "These are very, very encouraging signs," he said. "No formal talks, but there are sort of signs among the Chinese officials or top leaders."
Tibetan exiles see other small signs that Xi could take a softer line on Tibet - his wife is a Buddhist, and Xi went out of his way in 2006, while party boss of Zhejiang province, to host the first World Buddhist Forum in the provincial capital.
A batch of U.S. diplomatic cables obtained and published by WikiLeaks last year said the Dalai Lama had "great affection" for Xi senior, and that Xi junior was quite taken with Buddhist mysticism at one point early in his career.
In July last year, Xi visited Tibet and pledged to crack down on the separatist "Dalai clique" and "completely smash any plot to destroy stability in Tibet and jeopardise national unity".
But a Western diplomat in Beijing cautioned that this was standard language and should not be construed to be hardline. "No one wins prizes for saying the Dalai is ok," he said.
But many exiles are skeptical.
"I do not expect Xi junior to be like his father because he is facing a completely different situation, but I hope he can be different (from Hu Jintao)," said Khedroob Thondup, a nephew of the Dalai Lama who visited China more than 10 times with his father, Gyalo Thondup, as unofficial envoys of the Dalai Lama.
Another nephew, Tenzin Taklha, who is also a secretary to the Dalai Lama, said: "Even if it does happen it won't be substantial, just to show the world the door is open again."
The Dalai Lama, too, has yet to be convinced that Beijing will soften its stance on Tibet - even if Xi turns out to have the same moderate inclination as his father - and says political reformers sometimes do not last long in the Communist Party.
"These realistic people sometime live a very short life."
(Additional reporting by John Chalmers in DHARAMSALA and Chris Buckley in BEIJING; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Mark Bendeich)
'All north-eastern states should unite for development'
TNN | Sep 1, 2012,
SHILLONG: Union minister of state for development of north eastern region (DoNER) Paban Singh Ghatowar said the North Eastern Region Vision-2020 document released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July, 2008, continues to be a template for promoting development in the North-East.
"Assessment of requirement of infrastructural projects in north eastern states is a continuously evolving planning and policy formulation exercise and requires consultation and participation of state governments, Centre and other stakeholders," he said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
According to an official release, the minister informed that 17 thematic groups were constituted by the Doner minister to work out an action plan to operationalize the vision based on different disciplines and sectors outlined in the Vision-2020 document. These groups presented their findings for working out detailed action plan for development of North-Eastern region in the meeting held in Shillong on December 3 and 4, 2008.
"The views of thematic groups were put together for implementation by ministries concerned and those ministries are being pursued by Doner and North Eastern Council (NEC) to implement the action plan in relevant fields," Ghatowar said. He informed that ministries are invited to spell out their development plans and ongoing activities in North Eastern Region in NEC meetings.
Ghatowar said Vision 2020 sets a target of additional investment of around Rs 13,29,891 crore at 2006-07 prices in the North East from 2007-08 to 2019-20 to bring growth rates in the region at par with overall national growth rates.
"Estimated investment is placed at Rs 2, 11,613 crore during 11th Plan; Rs 505,499 crore during 12th Plan and Rs 612,779 crore during first three years of 13th Plan period. During 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12) actual plan outlay for NER through sources of funding works out to Rs 184,155 crore, which does not include private sector investment," an official release stated. The projected requirement for 12th Five Year Plan of (NEC) is Rs 21,507 crore, the release quoted the Union Doner minister.
From today, big dip in mobile tower radiation
source; The Hindubusinessline
-
Business Line Getting tougher: Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Communications and IT, and R. Chandrashekhar, Telecom Secretary, at a press conference in the Capital on Friday. — Photo: Kamal Narang -
India to have stringent Electromagnetic Frequency Radiation Standards established in the interest of public health.
New Delhi, Aug. 31:
With the Government’s new norms for mobile towers coming into
effect from Saturday, India will be among the few countries in the world to have
stringent Electromagnetic Frequency (EMF) Radiation Standards, established in
the interest of public health.
The US, New Zealand and Canada have already adopted similar norms.
Indian standards are now 10 times more stringent than over 90 per cent of the
countries, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said here on Friday.
The EMF exposure limit for Base Station Emissions has been lowered
to one tenth of the existing level, he said.
“Health of the people should not be compromised at any cost.
Technology must be embraced but ultimately public health should not be
compromised,” he said.
Telecom Enforcement Resource & Monitoring (TERM) Cells under
the Department of Telecom (DoT) will conduct random audits of the self
certification furnished by the service providers.
TERM, which also monitors illegal telecom operations, will carry
out test audit of 10 per cent of the base transceiver station (BTS) site on a
random basis and in all cases where there is a public complaint, the Minister
said.
Another agency under the DoT, the Telecom Engineering Centre has
revised the test procedure for measurement of Electromagnetic Frequency in
accordance with new standards.
A penalty of Rs 5 lakh is liable to be levied per BTS per service
provider on non-compliance with the EMF standards, Sibal said.
According to DoT, 95 per cent of the towers are already complying
with the new emission norms.
On handsets, the Minister said all new designs of mobile handsets
shall comply with the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) values of 1.6 watt/kg
averaged over 1 gram of human tissue from Saturday.
The mobile handsets with existing designs which are compliant with
2W/kg averaged over 10 gram of human tissue, will continue to co-exist up to
August 2013. Mobile handsets with revised SAR value of 1.6 watt/kg would be
permitted to be manufactured or imported in India from September 2013.
Arnaud Christmann/OHM, via Associated Press, Source:NYTIMES
The diplomatic bag reading “Diplomatic mail, Ministry of External
Affairs” is believed to be part of the wreckage of the Air India plane that
crashed in the French Alps in 1966. The packet was discovered recently by French
mountain guide Arnaud Christmann on the Mont Blanc
mountain.
Gangtok August 31st:
source:IPR
Conveying his
greetings to the people of Sikkim on the occasion of Pang Lhabsol, the Speaker
SLA, Mr. K.T. Gyaltsen expressed that Pang Lhabsol is unique in Sikkim , where
the festival is celebrated as unity and brotherhood. The Speaker, who attended
the function as the Chief Guest at M.G. Marg today, traced the history of
earlier celebration which was popularized by the third Chogyal of Sikkim,
Chakdor Namgyal. In this festival, the snowy range of Mt. Khangchendzonga is
worshipped for peace, unity, prosperity and brotherhood in the state, he added.
The Chief Guest
also expressed his gratitude to the organizing Committee for undaunted spirit in
keeping this important aspect of the Sikkimese culture alive.
While presenting his welcome address Mr. N.K. Pradhan Minister for HRDD who was also the Chairman of organizing committee stated that Pang Lhabsol is one of its kind which represents peace, unity and brotherhood in the State.
While presenting his welcome address Mr. N.K. Pradhan Minister for HRDD who was also the Chairman of organizing committee stated that Pang Lhabsol is one of its kind which represents peace, unity and brotherhood in the State.
Mr Thukchuk
Lachungpa, President of Pang Lhabsol Celebration Committee, informed the
gathering that this year’s celebration was dedicated to the Sikkimese talents
wherein a healthy completion amongst the participants was kept. He also called
upon everyone to promote the peace, unity and brotherhood in the
state.
Earlier, the Chief
Guest also attended and offered prayers at the Statue of Unity where the prayers
were performed by the religious leaders for the well being of the Sikkimese
society.
The daylong
celebration was focused on cultural extravaganza from the local artists whereby
the trophies, certificates and cash were being presented to them by the Chief
Guest.
Yangang August 31:
Source:IPR
On the auspicious occasion
of Pang Labsol, the indegeneous festival of Sikkimese people, Chief Minister Mr.
Pawan Chamling today inaugurated a newly built Gyen Tashi Palding Monastery in
Yangang.
History suggests that in the year 1787 a
place of worship was first established and a full fledged monastery was
established in Yaangang in the year 1841.
The monastery which the Chief Minister Mr.
Chamling inaugurated today is the new Gyen Tashi Palding
Monastery.
Addressing the gathering in the compound of
the newly built monastery Mr. Chamling stated that the festival of Pang labsol
is not only the festival of Buddhist people, but it’s the festival which depicts
the unity in diversity in Sikkim therefore it’s the festival of all the people
of Sikkim and for the people of all faith and religion.
He also informed that due to lack of exposure
the people of Sikkim may be taking some of the things for granted, but if they
compare the overall developmental work that’s been going on in the state and
kind of good governance that his government has been providing the people of
Sikkim, from the world outside, then they’ll realize, how the state has
flourished and has been striving towards the path of
prosperity.
Mr. Chamling in his address also appealed to
the students who had gathered in numbers, to be positive and face the
challenges thrown to them by life and not to shy
away from hard work and struggle.
Life is beautiful and it should be lived to
the fullest with positive mindset and students and younger generations should
always try and strive forward, and also learn from their mistakes to make
themselves strong and successful individuals, and tirelessly work towards their
goals and continue with their endeavors, Mr. Chamling added.
The Chief Minister further added that the
path of nonviolence should always be followed by everyone which is also the
teachings of Lord Buddha, he also suggested that people should cleanse all the
negative traits in them, which is also a form of violence and always have a
positive mindset towards life and work towards the betterment of
Sikkim.
The Chief Minister further added that the people of
Yangyang should tap the opportunities which have been brought to their doorsteps
by the government. In three years time Central university and sky walk at
Bhaleydhunga in Yangyang will be a reality therefore the people especially the
youngsters should prepare themselves to all the opportunities which will be
brought to them in the tourism, serivce sector and many other sectors, Mr.
Chamling stressed.
Earlier Mr. Chamling was also felicitated by
the committee members of the monastery and presented him with a citation
letter.
During the function the contractor Mr. T.T
Bhutia who had constructed the newly built monastery was also given a letter of
appreciation by the Chief Minister.
Earlier the function began with the
welcome speech which was proposed by Shanga MLA Mr. Phituk Tshering Bhuita
.
The function was attended by the area MLA and
Minister for IPR and RMDD Mr. C.B Karki, along with MLAs
Friday, August 31, 2012
No breakthrough in Tibet talks until Dalai changes stand: China
Agencies : Beijing, Fri Aug 31 2012, 15:03 hrs
Rebuffing the Dalai Lama's remarks that there were "encouraging signs" about China changing its attitude towards Tibet, a top Chinese official has said there would be no breakthrough in talks until the Tibetan spiritual leader changed his stand on "some fundamental issues".
Playing down expectations of any "new approach," Xu Zhitao, an official with the United Front Work Department of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Central Committee, denied any recent official visits to hold talks with the Dalai in his exile.
There would not be any negotiations at least until the end of the year, state-run Global Times quoted Xu as saying in response to reports on the Dalai's comments that there were encouraging signs about shifting of attitude of China towards
Tibet as the CPC geared up to elect a new leadership. He was apparently indicating that the talks were possible only after the new leadership of CPC assumes office, likely from next year.
Xu said "China will continue to be flexible with the Dalai Lama but it seems that no result will come out if he does not change his attitude toward some fundamental issues."
The central government has insisted that the Dalai Lama or his "Tibet government-in-exile" cannot represent the Tibetan people.
There can only be discussions on how the Dalai Lama should "stop his separatist speeches and win the trust of the central government as well as the forgiveness of the Chinese people," Xu said.
According to Xu, the Dalai Lama seeks to control everything in the Tibet Autonomous Region except foreign affairs and national defence, just as it was in Tibet before 1959.
"The so-called autonomy of Tibet the Dalai Lama claims to be seeking is actually the independence of Tibet, which is definitely forbidden," Xu said.
Since 2002, the Chinese government has negotiated with representatives of the Dalai Lama on 10 occasions, including the latest in 2010, but no breakthroughs were reached because of "sharply divided" views, according to an earlier report by state-run Xinhua news agency.
Global Times, in its report today, quoted the Dalai as saying in a media interview that some Chinese officials seemed to agree that a new approach needed to be adopted to deal with the issue of Tibet in the face of over 50 self-immolations in the Tibetan-held areas.
The "Tibet government-in-exile" is "ready for full cooperation with them" if they are "thinking more realistically," the Dalai was quoted as saying, adding that he based his presumptions on views expressed by some of the "Chinese friends" who met him.
"I can't say for definite, but according to many Chinese friends, they say the new, coming leadership seems more lenient," the Tibetan spiritual leader was quoted as saying.
He based his expectations on the change of the decade- long CPC leadership led by President Hu Jintao who, critics say, has followed a hardline approach towards Tibet, focussing only on its material development while cracking down hard on dissent, leaving a spiritual void in the Himalayan region where Buddhism played central part in people's lives.
Hu and his generation of leaders are set to retire late this year after the key CPC Congress, which is expected to be held either next month or little later to elect a new
leadership.
Vice President Xi Jinping is widely expected to succeed Hu.
The Dalai is apparently banking his hopes on Xi, as he knew his father Xi Zhongxun in early 1950s.
Xi Zhongxun, who was regarded as a liberal CPC leader, was jailed by Mao Zedong in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution.
The Dalai was quoted as saying in the interview that he was sure China would, sooner or later, realise that "using force for 60 years completely failed" and its revolutionary leader Mao Zedong's idea that power came from the barrel of a
gun was "outdated".
Xiong Kunxin, a professor of ethnic studies at the Minzu University of China, told the daily that the Dalai Lama seemed to have softened his speeches in a bid to draw some attention to the Tibet issue, while China has recently been occupied with territorial issues in the East China Sea and the South China Sea.
From 2004 onwards, the Indian leadership has neglected the foundations of economic growth. The economic policy reforms of previous years, coupled with benign global conditions, gave effortless growth, and the focus of the UPA was on spending. Now we need to re-evaluate our growth model, and ask how to rebuild the confidence of private investors so as to obtain growth even when global conditions are adverse.
SU VC to head delegation at China-India Forum
Gangtok, Aug 30 (PTI) Sikkim University Vice Chancellor Prof Mahendra P Lama will lead a delegation of the heads of Indian educational institutions to China at the 3rd China-India Forum.
Organised by Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the forum brings together the heads of the public and private higher education institutions from India and China, a release said today
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Let’s not squabble with Bangladesh
(The author is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan.)
August 29, 2012:
The Assam problem should be viewed in the context of
India-Bangladesh ties, which have fortunately taken a turn for the better. It
would be instructive to go back in time in this regard.
After having agreed to demarcate the land boundary between India
and Bangladesh to fulfil commitments made by the then Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi in 1974, New Delhi is now being told by political parties in West Bengal
and Assam that as 35,000 people in Indian enclaves, who have no passports or
identity papers and have no great wish to leave their homes, will face problems,
any Constitutional amendments to implement the border agreement, will be
opposed.
It is important for national parties to agree to ensure that this
Constitutional amendment is passed, especially as there is a national consensus
on improving relations with Bangladesh. L.K. Advani had observed that the BJP’s
campaign against illegal immigration from Bangladesh in no way detracts from its
oft-stated desire “to see friendly and cooperative relations as befits two
countries whose shared past far outweighs certain differences created in recent
times”.
WINDS OF CHANGE
Ever since the Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina was swept to
power in December 2008, winning 230 out of 299 Parliamentary seats, the
Bangladesh leader has spared no effort to improve ties with India.
The 2008 electoral victory was all the more creditable as she had
faced persecution and trumped-up criminal charges by her political rivals.
Interestingly, the judiciary in Bangladesh showed far greater maturity than its
counterpart in Pakistan, in dealing with politically motivated charges.
Significantly, when Bangladesh was under emergency rule from January 11, 2007,
the army chose not to impose martial law and the de facto military ruler,
General Moeen U. Ahmed, presided over elections that were largely free and fair.
The minds of the present generation of Bangladeshi military officers have not
been poisoned by the venom and hate that are integral to the mindset of
Pakistani army officers. This is a factor that India will have to bear in mind.
The chasm between the ruling dispensations in Bangladesh — the
Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League and the Khaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist
Party (BNP) — is very wide. While the Awami league has an abiding commitment to
secularism, it was General Zia Ur Rehman, the founder of the BNP, who removed
the secular provisions of the country’s first constitution.
Moreover, Khaleda Zia has a known propensity for encouraging the
use of Bangladeshi territory for separatist and Islamist violence against India
and for giving the ISI a free hand to operate against India. Sheikh Hasina,
however, has been a regular target of extremist anti-Indian groups. There is
evidence confirming that the 2004 assassination attempt against her involved the
Al Qaeda and members of the BNP who were linked to the Bangladesh chapter of the
Lashkar e Taiba and the Harkat ul Jihad ul Islami (HUJI).
Sheikh Hasina has faced a virulent propaganda, because of
allegedly “selling out” to India. Pro-Pakistani elements in the country have not
been pleased by the manner in which she has firmly dealt with cadres of
separatist Indian insurgent groups such as ULFA and taken on Islamist terror
outfits such as the HUJI. India, in turn, has reciprocated, stressing cultural
affinities in language, music, art, poetry and literature.
ECONOMIC TIES
The India-Bangladesh relationship gained momentum with the visit
of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Dhaka last year.
Tariff barriers on imports from Bangladesh, including most
importantly on textiles, have been removed, border-management procedures
streamlined and a credit of $1 billion extended for development and
infrastructure projects in Bangladesh.
An important aim has been to create an environment wherein
Bangladesh becomes an active partner in promoting access to our North-Eastern
States. Like elsewhere in the world, Indian economic assistance projects in
Bangladesh are implemented more slowly than projects undertaken by China. This
needs to be addressed. India should ensure that as promised, 500 MW of
electricity is transmitted to Bangladesh by the summer of 2013.
DISPUTED AREAS
The two most sensitive issues in Bangladesh are those involving
sharing of river waters and demarcation and administration of the common land
borders.
In April 1977, Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram visited Dhaka for
finalising an interim accord for sharing of Farakka waters. Ram, who spoke
fluent Bengali, stopped en route in Kolkata to consult West Bengal Chief
Minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray, before he inked the accord in Dhaka.
This accord was later approved by the Union Cabinet, despite
objections from Charan Singh. Similarly, Prime Minister Inder Gujral held
extensive discussions and even directly involved West Bengal Chief Minister
Jyoti Basu in finalising the Farakka Accord of 1997.
But one of the most embarrassing diplomatic fiascos that India has
faced arose when the current West Bengal Chief Minister torpedoed an agreement
that New Delhi and Dhaka had finalised on the sharing of the Teesta waters last
year. It is difficult to apportion blame for this fiasco, as there are differing
versions about the extent of consultations between New Delhi and Kolkata. But
ways have to be found to address this issue.
Has anyone examined the implications of not fulfilling our
commitments on the political standing and stability of a friendly Government
headed by Sheikh Hasina that has acted courageously against terrorist groups
waging war against India?
It is imperative for the Union Government to fulfil commitments
made to Bangladesh, rather than succumb to the “compulsions of coalition
politics”. source: The Hindu businessline
Dr Batra’s to raise Rs 100 cr
Business Line Mukesh
Batra, CMD of Dr Batra’s Positive HealthClinic Pvt Ltd, in Hyderabad. — P.V.
Sivakumar
Hyderabad, Aug. 29:
Dr Batra’s, the homoeo clinic chain, will be raising Rs 100 crore
from private equity players. Most of the funds raised will be spent on the
expansion of its new line of business B-Perfect. Part of the funds will also be
used for mergers and acquisitions.
“We are in talks with a few private equity funds. We will sign a
deal with more than one player to raise the funds. We don’t require any
assistance for our regular business of homoeo clinics,” said Mukesh Batra,
Chairman and Managing Director of Dr Batra’s Positive Health Clinic Pvt Ltd.
The company, which runs 96 clinics across the country, will be
adding 25 more by the end of the financial year. As it cross the 100-clinic
mark, it has decided to start franchisee model this year to expand to tier-II
and tier-III cities. “We have received 90 applications. We will be opening 35
clinics in this model by March next year,” said Mukesh Batra, Chairman and
Managing Director of Dr Batra’s Positive Health Clinic Private Limited.
For the next three years, the company would be adding 80 clinics,
including 50 in the franchisee model. On the merger and acquisitions, he said
the company was looking at buying small chains with 4-5 clinics in a city or in
a State.
In the Rs 2,760-crore homoeo care market in the country, Dr
Batra’s has a share of Rs 100 crore in 2011-12. The other two ventures (products
and B-Perfect) contributed another Rs 13 crore. “The industry association
Assocham has projected that the homoeo market size would go up to Rs 5,900 crore
in 2017,” Mukesh Batra said.
The firm recently tied up with Big Bazaar group to sell its
product in the country. “To begin with, we will be putting up our products at
its Mumbai stores,” he said.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
China defence chief plans rare India trip
Trade between them is soaring but they compete for resources and influence in Asia.
China is also suspicious that India's blossoming ties with the United States are part of a strategy to contain China's rise on the world stage.
Tue 28 Aug, 2012NEW DELHI (Reuters) - China's defence minister is due to visit India next week to seek deeper military ties, in a rare trip seen as a sign Beijing wants to stabilise its heavily fortified Himalayan border as it deals with growing friction in the South China Sea.
General Liang Guanglie will be the first Chinese defence minister to visit neighbouring India in six years, a period that has seen a build up of infrastructure and weapons in disputed regions on both sides of the border.
Guanglie will arrive in New Delhi on September 2 and leave on September 6, the Indian government said in a statement. Measures to increase "peace and tranquillity" along the border are on the agenda.
"The two sides will also discuss measures to promote defence cooperation between their armed forces," the Indian government said.
India and China fought a brief war in 1962 over the Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh regions, parts of which both countries claim. Trade between them is soaring but they compete for resources and influence in Asia.
China is also suspicious that India's blossoming ties with the United States are part of a strategy to contain China's rise on the world stage.
Despite numerous rounds of talks in recent years, the nuclear-armed giants still disagree about large stretches of the border and are spending billions of dollars on beefing up defences in disputed areas, as well as extending road and rail links.
Zhang Li, a professor of South Asian studies at China's Sichuan University, said the visit signalled a desire for stability on the Indian border at a time when China is facing rising tension off its coasts.
"China and India have not made any progress at all in talks about their territorial dispute. China hopes to have a stable relationship with India, including having military exchanges.
"The visit is also about the situation on its other borders, the maritime disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea," Zhang said.
(Reporting By Frank Jack Daniel and Ben Blanchard in Beijing)
National Meet on “India at the Large Hadron Collider”
| The Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India organized a National Meet on ‘India at LHC’ in which experts involved in construction of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, in various experiments and discovery of Higgs Boson interacted with the Scientists, Researchers, Students, Media and enthusiasts etc. The interaction of experts with audience was very informative. India’s role in CERN with future direction of high energy experiments was talked. Dr. T Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology (DST), in his welcome address, said that role of India in the discovery of Higgs Boson is significant. Out of about 4000 plus scientific workers there were about 120 Indian scientists directly involved in the LHC experiment on Higgs. DST as a custodian of research in the country across institutions and disciplines provided nourishment in terms of funding to various Scientists, Researchers etc. Dr. R K Sinha, Chairman, AEC and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) talked about India’s involvement in LHC constructions and various experiments. He informed that India’s role started from the very beginning i.e. at the stage of concept and design. The agreement between CERN and DAE, India was signed way back in 1991. The experiment is a team work of great scientists all over the world. India provided its expertise from ‘Precision Magnetic Positioning System’ to Data Collection and Simulation with Computing Grid. Prof. VS Ramamurthy, Director, NIAS, Bangalore emphasized the need of such ‘High Energy Experiments’. He informed that the discovery of Higgs Boson is of high prominence to the high energy physicists providing them valuable inputs. Also, it is of immense importance to modeling and computer control of RF devices and Grid Computing people. The role of Manas Chip developed and provided by India played a great role. He said High Technology Projects have a High risk of failure but provide us valuable data. Dr. R Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India, said that for big scientific steps we have to take risks. He informed that India is having ‘Observer Status’ in CERN from 1996 and is in international partnership role by providing its expertise and hardware support. India would soon be an Associate Member at CERN. Prof Bikash Sinha, Homi Bhabha Professor, DAE speaking on ‘Why Mega Science’? Informed the role of various agencies and research institutes including IOP, Punjab University, Rajasthan University, Jammu University, VECC, IITB and RRCAT etc. He informed about the Indian Based Neutrino Observatory coming up at Theni which will be leading experimental setup for the study of fundamental particles. Along the lines of European nations coming together to establish CERN, he opined that the SAARC countries could also think of jointly establishing research facilities in this part of the world. Prof. Atul Gutru, in his special address said that Indian scientific community played a major role in LHC experiment. From a mere Observer, India was in the process of becoming an Associate Member of CERN. It will provide Indian scientists right to participate in the CERN projects and Indian industry to participate in bids. By taking up work of CERN, Indian industry would be able to achieve technical excellence and modern capabilities. He said that this would provide impetus to Indian science. Dr. Purushottam Shrivastava, RRCAT, Indore, Shri BS Jagadeesh, BARC, Mumbai, Prof. Kajari Mazumdar, TIFR, Mumbai, Dr. Tapan Nayak, VECC, Kolkata, Prof. BK Nandi, IIT-Bombay, Mumbai, Shri PS Dhekne, BARC, Mumbai, Prof. Gobinda Majumder, TIFR, Mumbai, Dr. Vikas Singhal, VECC, Kolkata spoke on the specific role India played in construction of LHC, development of GRID software and detectors that made the discovery of Higgs particle possible. These developments have also helped in obtaining important results on Quark Gluon Plasma. In a separate Session, research students who have worked at CERN shared their excitement of working at such an international Mega Science facility. MC/sk (Release ID :86974) |
Report of Forest Survey of India in Forest Cover
| The details of the India State of Forest Report, 2011 (ISFR) published by Dehradun –based Forest Survey of India is as follows:- • India State of Forest Report 2011 is the twelfth such report. The first report was published in 1987. • Forest and tree cover of the country is 78.29 million hectare, which is 23.81% of the geographical area. This includes 2.76% of tree cover. • The forest and tree cover would work out to 25.22% after exclusion of 183135 square kilometre above the altitude 4000 m from the total geographical area of the country as these areas do not support tree growth. • In the hill and tribal districts of the country, a decrease in forest cover of 548 square kilometre and 679 square kilometre respectively has been reported as compared to the previous assessment. • The north eastern States of the India account for one-forth of the country’s forest cover. There is a net decline of 549 square kilometre in forest cover as compared to the previous assessment. • Mangrove cover has increased by 23.34 square kilometre during the same period. • The total growing stock of India’s forest and tree outside forests is estimated as 6047.15 million cum which comprises 4498.73 million cum inside the forests and 1548.42 million cum outside the forests. • The total bamboo bearing area in the country is estimated to be 13.96 million hectare. • The total carbon stock in the country’s forests is estimated to the 6663 million tones. As per the assessments of 2011 (data period 2008-09) as published in ISFR-2011and the assessment of ISFR-2009 (data period 2006-07) there has been a marginal decrease of 367 sq. km in the forest cover of the country. The forest cover in the northeast between these two assessments has declined by 549 sq. km. The loss of forest cover to the extent of 549 sq km in the seven northeastern States has been primarily due to prevailing socio-cultural practice of shifting cultivation in these states. Loss in other states like Andhra Pradesh (281 sq. km) and Kerala (24 sq. km) is reported due to harvesting of short rotation plantations like Eucalyptus, Acacia mangium, rubber etc. 15 States have reported cumulative gain of 500 sq. km which is mainly due to afforestation and conservation activities undertaken in these States. The above information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan to the Parliament. |
Sperm 'grown' from skin offers hope to infertile men
Agencies : London, Wed Aug 29 2012, 13:34 hrs
Scientists claim to have successfully created early-stage sperms from human skin that could potentially help infertile men, including survivors of childhood cancer, fulfill their dream of fatherhood.
The breakthrough, which came by unlocking the intricacies of male reproduction, could also lead to new contraceptives and a 'miracle pill' to treat infertility, they say.
For the study, the American scientists used a cocktail of chemicals to wind back the 'biological clock' in skin cells, turning them into cells with the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem-cells, the 'Daily Mail' reported.
They then used a combination of nutrients to coax them to develope into round cells which were just a few steps away from mature sperms and appeared genetically normal.
The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine team, led by Dr James Easley, believe they have cracked the most difficult part of sperm development.
This means that by altering the procedure it should now be relatively easy to get to the next stage - elongated cells that, while yet to grow tails, should be able to fertilise eggs.
The technique is still many years away from use in clinics, however, the science is fraught with moral and ethical concerns.
Critics argue that it is wrong to meddle with the building blocks of life and warn of a future in which babies are created through entirely artificial means.
Scientists have already succeeded in coaxing embryonic stem cells, which are master cells plucked from embryos in their first days of life, turning them into sperms.
China set to take over reins of strategic Gwadar port in Pakistan
Agencies : Islamabad, Wed Aug 29 2012, 14:29 hrs
China appears all set to take over the reins of Pakistan's strategic Gwadar port in Balochistan with the Singapore Port Authority (SPA) and its partners intending to pull out of a 40-year management and development contract.
The SPA and its partners, the National Logistics Cell and AKD Group, have been allowed to quit the project after the government failed to transfer 584 acres at the mouth of the port that are currently in the possession of the Pakistan Navy.
"We have not been able to meet contractual obligations and resolve land issues. As a result they (SPA and its partners) have gone under duress and we issued them a no objection certificate yesterday to give up their contract," Ports and Shipping Minister Babar Khan Ghauri told a meeting of the Senate's Standing Committee on Ports and Shipping yesterday.
"Now the Chinese will take over Gwadar Port," Ghauri said.
He indicated that China will invest USD 10 billion to develop the port in Balochistan and manage its operations but did not give details.
After its development by the Chinese government at a cost of USD 288 million, Pakistan's only deep sea port was handed over to SPA under a 40-year agreement in February 2007.
The army-run National Logistics Cell and AKD Group of Karachi were party to the agreement, which covered the management, operations, maintenance and development of the port.
Ghauri said that while many people in Pakistan blamed international players for unrest in Balochistan and competing regional port operators for the lack of progress in the Gwadar port, it was "shameful" that a friendly foreign operator had to leave the port because of the navy's "changing positions" on vacating land despite a clear decision by the government.
He said the armed forces should not behave like "real estate companies" and realise that the land belonged to Pakistan.
Ghauri warned that if the 584-acre plot at Shamba Ismail was not immediately vacated by the navy and transferred to the port, even the Chinese would not be able to develop the project as a deepwater trans-shipment port.
The Chinese had turned down a request to take part in the bidding for operations of Gwadar before the agreement was signed with the SPA but they were now interested in the project, he said.
The three services had been allotted 25,000 acres to vacate land for the port but the navy had changed its position, he said.
The navy sought Rs 10 million per acre for land which it had purchased at Rs 180 and then demanded an alternative plot of 1,000 acres. It then increased the demand to 1,615 acres and finally to 2,200 acres, Ghauri said.
These demands were unacceptable and the Balochistan government is ready to provide 584 acres to the navy, he said.
The committee's chairman Fateh Mohammad Hassani said he had "reservations about the Chinese" as they had taken out white gold from the Saindak Copper-Gold Project by bribing two officials of an export processing zone.
There was no record of the extraction and the contract of the Chinese firm had been extended, he said.
A navy representative claimed the land issue was not the cause for SPA quitting the Gwadar project.
He told the committee that land at Shamba Ismail had been under the control of the navy since 1980 and it had been included in the port project without any consultation with the navy.
He said the land is important from a security point of view and its importance had increased after the recent attack on the Kamra airbase.
He said the premier had allowed the navy to retain the land in 2006 but it was ready to vacate it if it was provided 1,000 acres free of cost with an opening to the sea.
Balochistan's senior member for revenue told the committee that the navy was adopting contradictory positions and increasing its demand for land to 1,615 acres.
The committee asked the navy, the Balochistan government, the Ports and Shipping Ministry and Coast Guards to complete the transfer of 350 acres to the navy in three weeks and hand over Shamba Ismail land to Gwadar Port.
Otherwise, the committee would ensure that the land is surrendered under the Land Revenue Act to the provincial government.
846 Indian soldiers have died so far on Siachen
Defence minister
AK Antony, on a visit to Siachen, presents sweets to Indian
soldiers
by Ajai Shukla
Business Standard, 28th Aug 2012
For the first time ever, the government
has announced the number of Indian soldiers who have laid down their lives in
the Siachen sector, ever since the Indian Army made its first headlong rush to
secure that strategic area in the summer of 1984.
Defence Minister AK Antony, in a written
reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today stated, “A total number of 846 Armed
forces personnel have made supreme sacrifices on the Siachen glaciers since
1984.”
This includes deaths due to the extreme
climate and terrain conditions, which causes more casualties in that sector than
battle does. Hypoxia, high altitude pulmonary edema (or “altitude sickness” in
mountaineering lexicon), avalanches and crevasses have taken a heavy toll of
Indian lives. Early in this high-altitude war, New Delhi decided not to
differentiate between those who died in combat and those who were, say, swept to
their deaths in an avalanche.
“(Environment-related) death during the
course of duties on Siachen glaciers is treated as 'battle casualties' and
enhanced compensation is paid to the next of the kin,” Antony told the Lok Sabha
today.
“Operation Meghdoot”, the military nickname
for operations in Siachen, began on 13th April 1984, when Indian Air Force (IAF)
helicopters airlifted a platoon of hardy hillmen from the Kumaon Regiment onto
the Saltoro Ridge, which overlooks the Siachen Glacier from the west. Building
up quickly, more Indian troops moved onto the three main passes on the Saltoro
Ridge --- Bilafond La; Sia La; and Gyong La.
According to Lt Gen (Retd) VR Raghavan, a
respected Indian authority on Siachen, the Pakistan Army had planned a similar
operation to occupy the Saltoro Ridge that summer. But they arrived on the
Saltoro a month after the Indians, only to find most of the key heights on the
ridge already occupied.
For years, Pakistan has mounted bloody,
but eventually fruitless, attacks to get atop the Saltoro Ridge. But the Indian
army still controls all of Siachen, all its tributary glaciers, and all the key
passes and heights of the Saltoro Ridge. Shut out even from a view of the
Siachen Glacier, Pakistani troops suffer a severe tactical disadvantage all
along the 109-kilometer-long Actual Ground Position Line, as the frontline in
that sector is called.
Forced to fight uphill, Pakistan is
believed to have suffered the lion’s share of battle casualties on the Saltoro.
Indian troops, who hold higher positions with more difficult access, were
estimated to have initially suffered more environment-related deaths, before
better equipment, procedures and training brought casualties down to a trickle
since the mid-1990s. But on 7th April, an avalanche that slammed into
a Pakistani headquarters at Gyari swept away more than 130 soldiers. The next
day, Pakistan’s President Zardari asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to
cooperate in demilitarising Siachen.
New Delhi, however, is sticking to its
demand for authentication of ground positions on the Saltoro Ridge before any
demilitarisation could be conducted. The Indian Army says that, without
authentication on signed map sheets, its hard-won high ground on the Saltoro
Ridge could be occupied by Pakistan with impunity. As a result, the
13th Round of Siachen Talks between the two countries’ defence
secretaries in June this year adjourned without making any headway towards
settling the Siachen dispute. No dates have yet been fixed for the next round of
discussions.
Earth air conditioner is losing coolant ?
Shrinking heat shield of the planet
The reflective Arctic sea ice that serves as a heat shield for the
planet has melted to a new record low and government-backed scientists on Monday
said the Arctic may be largely ice-free as soon as 2020.
This month, up to 100,000 square miles of sea ice a day
disappeared, bringing overall shrinkage over the past three decades to 40 per
cent, according to data analysed over the weekend at the National Snow and Ice
Data Centre, located at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
The data show the area covered by sea ice shrank to 1.58 million
square miles, its lowest ebb in 32 years. That’s about 27,000 square miles less
than the previous low of 1.61 million square miles recorded Sept 18, 2007.
Another 150,000 square miles of sea ice could melt before the
middle of next month, when refreezing typically begins, NSIDC research scientist
Walt Meier said, during a conference call with colleagues at NASA.
The past six years have brought the six lowest levels of sea ice
since 1979, when measurements began. The climate scientists said the melting
will open shipping routes for energy companies hoping to claim untapped oil and
gas, while also worsening climate change worldwide.
“The Arctic is not like Las Vegas,” Mr. Meier said. “What happens
in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic.” Arctic summers may be mostly
ice-free by 2020 to 2050, he said.
A previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report,
published in 2007, projected ice-free conditions around 2100. “The observations
show us going quicker than that,” Mr. Meier said.
NASA senior scientist Joey Comiso said some residual sea ice,
around 10 per cent, likely will remain. However, the data in recent years show
not only summertime declines, he noted, “but also quite significant declines in
the sea ice cover during winter”.
The dissolving of White Sea ice into darker open water means
reduced reflection. More sunlight is absorbed into oceans, raising water
temperatures. This ocean warming is seen by some as related to climate change,
affecting ocean currents, air currents and storm paths.
“The ocean warms when the ice cover is not there, so you get a lot
of warming within the Arctic Ocean that, from the ocean, can then feed back and
melt the ice,” Mr. Meier said.
“As far as the larger scale, when you’re heating up a region of
the world, compared to what it used to be, you’re changing the balance of the
climate system,” he said.
“Now, your air conditioner is losing coolant, so to speak. It’s
not as efficient as it used to be.”
Sea ice also is thinning, the scientists said. And this sea ice
capping the planet, as they described it, increasingly resembles slush.
The ice is more easily broken apart by storms, melted by summer
sunlight and reduced by warming waters. Climate-change modellers not involved in
the ice-observation project link the melting sea ice to global warming driven in
part by human use of fossil fuels.
The melting is working in favour of ships that haul drilling rigs
for extraction of new oil from the Arctic. U.S. Department of the Interior
officials is expected to approve exploratory drilling this year in the Chukchi
and other Arctic seas. — New York Times News Service
 Creating infrastructure, especially in remote areas such as India’s northeast, has become a mantra of Plan after Five-Year Plan, much like the removal of poverty. Though there is a considerable dent in poverty, the northeast, sadly, remains as distant today as it always was. Trains now connect Guwahati to most cities, but the northeast stretches a further 600 kilometres as the crow flies to the northeast and the southeast. Surface transport in the northeast, despite the grand uni-gauge and National Highway projects, lags far behind the rest of the country in both reach and quality. We showcase the Konkan Railway and the new Kargil highway, but roads, or what passes for them east of Kolkata, languish in limbo. Meanwhile, China builds rail and road links to Tibet and Xinjiang under far more trying conditions. Yet another lesson we have not learnt from China is the urgent need to knit the vast country together to keep it from falling apart at the seams. The geographic distance stunts commerce. The striking hand-woven fabrics of the northeast, which I bought by the box load even on my teacher’s salary, are not found even in the most ethnic-chic of boutiques. Most trade as it exists today is largely due to the hardiness of Rajasthani merchants found in the farthest of places — behind fenced walls, of course! Cultural distance, too, is magnified. Parts of the northeast, notably the various Naga tribes, have steadfastly insisted on their separateness. To them and some others as well, India is a successor power to the British, much as it was in Tibet before China moved in. Successive central regimes have done little to overcome the alienation. In my extensive travels in the northeast, I was struck by two things: the genuine warmth with which I was greeted, and that virtually any sizeable settlement had a fortified garrison overlooking it. Even as the extraordinarily polite and hospitable local population showed every courtesy to a guest – I became the honorary chief of a small Naga sub-tribe after a night of wining and dining – most people address the rest of the country as India and call the visitors Indians, as if they were not themselves Indians. For most of us west of Assam, the northeast hardly exists. A Mary Kom becomes a star, but the problems of an average Manipuri, who is a devout Vaishnav, are beyond the ken of even the more learned. What does one make of the recommendation of an eminent chair-holder in a renowned university abroad, who graces the media opinion space regularly, that people from the south should intermingle more with people from the northeast? The administrative and security overlords may not have succeeded in integrating the region into the mainstream, but they have certainly managed to make the northeast one with the seamier side of our democracy. The relatively egalitarian and non-exploitative local culture is now riven with faction-ridden politics and all the ills that follow from it. I witnessed one of the first such incidents during my early visits, as I have reported in these columns (“Triumph of the survivor,” June 20, 2012). Cupidity knows no region or ethnicity; no prizes for guessing where a large chunk of the resources meant for development in the northeast has gone.  The
region as a whole has always lagged behind the rest of India in development. No
state has ever had a per capita domestic product above the national average.
These ranged from 99 per cent of the national average (Arunachal Pradesh) to 62
per cent (Tripura) in 1990-91. The reforms of the last 20 years have not
materially altered this. In 2006-07, the range was 85 per cent to 68 per cent.
Assam, Manipur and Nagaland had become relatively worse off over this period.
The 2008-09 Economic Survey observed that even when some northeastern states
performed well in the early years of the century, that was not enough to pull
them out of the low-growth trajectory.This economic backwardness has caused the outward migration of a sizeable population of the young in search of livelihood, now much in the news. This should have been anticipated, after the experience of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar — but, until now, the poor in the northeast remained invisible to policy makers. Unlike the Gangetic states, they had no regional champions. The other consequence of the distance and the neglect is far more ominous: the anger, fed by isolation and disinterest, barely under the surface, that erupts periodically through local militancy. The Naga and Mizo uprisings are well known, but trouble elsewhere is not, and is even less understood. Tensions in Tripura between the original inhabitants and the large Bengali migrant population and problems between the Nagas and the Meitis of Manipur occasionally make it to the news, but are quickly forgotten. We do not even begin to understand what it feels to be cut off, as Manipur has been for long periods of time even as the Centre and the state play dangerous politics. These conflicts are not new. Subrata Bhowmik, revered as the saviour of Manipur, was brutally assassinated by fringe militants in his second tour of duty in the early 1980s. His crime? He was a Bengali. The present happenings are not so much a warning about the havoc that troublemakers with access to social network can cause. Significant as that is, it is nothing compared to the wages of continued neglect – and not so benign at that – of a vital region and its people. Had we lavished on the northeast even a fraction of the care and resources we do on Kashmir, things would not have come to this pass. What little attention we pay is straitjacketed in the form of “one-size-fits-all” standard programmes, without considering whether they address the issue in the first place. Mr Bhowmik’s signal achievement is that he solved the Manipur rice problem by understanding its root cause and by not getting shackled by received wisdom. The last word belongs to my wife: “What is the contribution to resolving this burning issue of the most illustrious representative of the northeast at the centre for the last two decades, Dr Manmohan Singh?”
The writer taught at the Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad, and helped set up the Institute of Rural Management, Anand
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