Text of Kamal Nath’s Speech on Reviving Global Economic Growth
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31 Jan 2009
Following is the full text of speech of Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry’, on “Reviving Global Economic Growth” at World Economic Forum in Davos today:
“The global economic crisis started impacting India from the beginning of last year. Rising crude prices, along with the global food grain shortage, caused a spillover into the real economy. As inflation rose, India was forced to repeatedly tighten credit and money supply.
By the middle of September 2008, it became apparent that the global credit crisis had deepened and key financial institutions were in need of help. Governments and central banks across the world started intervening to cut interest rates, inject liquidity and recapitalize weakening banks and financial institutions.
The scale of intervention — through the various bailouts and other fiscal and monetary measures — has been unparalleled in the history of the global financial system.
Of course, the priority now is to ensure financial stability and lessen turmoil in the capital and money markets. But once a certain amount of stability in financial markets is achieved, there are bound to be long-lasting changes in the way financial, commodity and consumer markets are regulated.
In the new framework, there will be calls for much greater transparency required from banks and other financial institutions, restrictions on the extent of leverage, restrictions on the use of complex financial products and a mandate to build reserves when times are good.
The issues of government and corporate accountability have taken centre stage once again. There can be no other way forward but for increasing the ethical standards of corporate and capitalist behavior. It is important to start an international movement for identifying a core set of ethical values that will be expected to become the operating norm for capitalism as we go forward.
Another question facing us today, specially after the financial crisis, is that often the national regulatory process is found wanting and this can result in collateral damage far beyond the geographic borders of the country where the errant firms/corporations are based and under whose national regulatory jurisdiction they operate. With corporates becoming truly global and without borders, should we not try and move towards a global regulatory mechanism? This is not a call for creating a ‘supra international regulator’ which some may find desirable, but for designing a system of regulatory norms that are then followed in all national jurisdictions, or it could, for example, alert national regulators of risks building in the financial system, have influence over the alignment of exchange rates or oversee global financial institutions whose activities spill across borders.
For such an institution to have credibility and political legitimacy, it must have representation not only from advanced economies but also from emerging ones, which have so far not had a fair say in the Bretton Woods institutions.
The G-20 is the best forum to discuss the setting up of such a body. The G-20 has already shown that it is a voice to reckon with. It has issued a joint statement demanding a bigger role in shaping the new global financial architecture. It has called for wholesale reform of global financial institutions, affording them stronger representation within the World Bank and the IMF.
Already, the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) have secured a greater voice for emerging economies at the recent G-20 summit in Washington. The final communiqué stated that emerging and developing economies “should have a greater voice and representation” and called for an urgent expansion of the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) to allow “a broader membership of emerging economies”. Finally at this critical juncture in the global economic history we must guard against protectionism. Trade has grown spectacularly over the last two decades bringing prosperity to the world. History is witness that whenever countries try to prop up protectionism, it intensifies depression. The Great Depression of 1930’s is a case in point; economists think that America’s Smoot – Hawley tariff, which increased nearly 900 import duties is regarded as one of the major contributors of the Great Depression. The world needs to ensure that protectionist tendencies are avoided.”
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Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
sikkim and garden of five senses
nEW dELHI 11 jAN 2009
A trip to the Garden of Five Senses this weekend for the Sikkim Festival jointly organised by the state government and the Times of India group made
me think of one of life's most essential luxuries: flowers.
Whether it's a simple buttercup on a sylvan meadow or an anthurium's red curves livening up a minimalist room, there's no indulgence quite as delicately ephemeral and yet so strongly uplifting as a flower! And among them, since we are talking about luxuries, the orchid has to be the queen of flowers, as it requires careful rearing and handling.
Why Sikkim? Well, because I have never seen such gorgeous orchids before! Nodding in the winter Delhi breeze like the more usual gladioli, chrysanthemum and dahlia, the orchids exuded a mesmeric charm that most flowers would be hard-pressed to match.
Glistening with moisture, its velvetty sheen burnished by the mild winter sun, they looked so perfect as to seem unreal. It's easy to understand why these flowers command such prices around the world!
Which wedding decor is complete without flowers? Even if the humble by-the-weight saffron marigold can cut a dash, there is nothing quite like orchids to emphasise both rarity and breeding. That orchids have caught the imagination is evident as now the 'ordinary' ones are available for even Rs 30 per stalk, imported by the plane load from Thailand, in the usual shades of white, violet or yellow. And then there are the ones dyed turquoise to catch the eye!
Actually the sheer variety of orchids boggles the mind, both in its natural and hybrid avatars. Would it surprise you to learn that orchids are among the largest species of flowering plants? It is believed that orchids outnumber mammals as a species four-to-one, and they are more than double the number of bird species? Even so, they are rare because they either flourish deep in the rainforests and temperate wildernesses or in horticultural gardens. They aren't found in the average park or nursery!
Many a chic New York apartment has an orchid plant — usually a plain black pot with the almost bare, leafless stalk crowned by a magnificent spray of flowers. As a statement, it speaks far louder than even a barrel-ful of less exotic flowers. Increasingly India has also woken up to the orchids' less-is-more appeal, even if they don't know that some of the most beautiful species are grown right here in India.
Sadly, they are pretty difficult to maintain in the usual environment of our cities — which are either too hot, too cold or too dry for this moisture and temperate humidity loving flower! Ah, but that's precisely what makes it an essential luxury!
( sOURCE: ET)
A trip to the Garden of Five Senses this weekend for the Sikkim Festival jointly organised by the state government and the Times of India group made
me think of one of life's most essential luxuries: flowers.
Whether it's a simple buttercup on a sylvan meadow or an anthurium's red curves livening up a minimalist room, there's no indulgence quite as delicately ephemeral and yet so strongly uplifting as a flower! And among them, since we are talking about luxuries, the orchid has to be the queen of flowers, as it requires careful rearing and handling.
Why Sikkim? Well, because I have never seen such gorgeous orchids before! Nodding in the winter Delhi breeze like the more usual gladioli, chrysanthemum and dahlia, the orchids exuded a mesmeric charm that most flowers would be hard-pressed to match.
Glistening with moisture, its velvetty sheen burnished by the mild winter sun, they looked so perfect as to seem unreal. It's easy to understand why these flowers command such prices around the world!
Which wedding decor is complete without flowers? Even if the humble by-the-weight saffron marigold can cut a dash, there is nothing quite like orchids to emphasise both rarity and breeding. That orchids have caught the imagination is evident as now the 'ordinary' ones are available for even Rs 30 per stalk, imported by the plane load from Thailand, in the usual shades of white, violet or yellow. And then there are the ones dyed turquoise to catch the eye!
Actually the sheer variety of orchids boggles the mind, both in its natural and hybrid avatars. Would it surprise you to learn that orchids are among the largest species of flowering plants? It is believed that orchids outnumber mammals as a species four-to-one, and they are more than double the number of bird species? Even so, they are rare because they either flourish deep in the rainforests and temperate wildernesses or in horticultural gardens. They aren't found in the average park or nursery!
Many a chic New York apartment has an orchid plant — usually a plain black pot with the almost bare, leafless stalk crowned by a magnificent spray of flowers. As a statement, it speaks far louder than even a barrel-ful of less exotic flowers. Increasingly India has also woken up to the orchids' less-is-more appeal, even if they don't know that some of the most beautiful species are grown right here in India.
Sadly, they are pretty difficult to maintain in the usual environment of our cities — which are either too hot, too cold or too dry for this moisture and temperate humidity loving flower! Ah, but that's precisely what makes it an essential luxury!
( sOURCE: ET)
BANGLADESH MAY OFFER PORT TRANSIT FACILTIY TO SIKKIM AND NE STATES
11 Jan 2008
Dhaka: Bangladesh’s new government led by Premier Sheikh Hasina has said it is considering offering port transit facilities to India’s seven landlocked northeastern states.
“The matter of giving port transit to seven-sister states of India as well as to China is under consideration of the government,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hasan Mahmud told reporters in northeastern port city of Chittagong Saturday night.
India has for long requested such a facility for its northeastern states of Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim.”(But) the government will take any decision in this regard after considering the country’s interest and sovereignty,” Mahmud was quoted as saying by the private UNB news agency.He said the government would take steps on emergency basis to resolve the maritime boundary issues with India and Myanmar and on enhancing trade co-operation with eastern countries.About another Indian demand for return of ULFA militants, he said a decision on ULFA operatives in this country and Bangladeshi terrorists arrested in India would be taken “on the basis of bilateral discussion.”
Source: Asia news
Dhaka: Bangladesh’s new government led by Premier Sheikh Hasina has said it is considering offering port transit facilities to India’s seven landlocked northeastern states.
“The matter of giving port transit to seven-sister states of India as well as to China is under consideration of the government,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hasan Mahmud told reporters in northeastern port city of Chittagong Saturday night.
India has for long requested such a facility for its northeastern states of Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim.”(But) the government will take any decision in this regard after considering the country’s interest and sovereignty,” Mahmud was quoted as saying by the private UNB news agency.He said the government would take steps on emergency basis to resolve the maritime boundary issues with India and Myanmar and on enhancing trade co-operation with eastern countries.About another Indian demand for return of ULFA militants, he said a decision on ULFA operatives in this country and Bangladeshi terrorists arrested in India would be taken “on the basis of bilateral discussion.”
Source: Asia news
Sunday, January 11, 2009
SIKKIM COMES ALIVE IN NEW DELHI
11.jAN 2009
NEW DELHI: It's hard to imagine that Gangtok is nearly 1600 km from Delhi. It seems just next door....With the sound of drums wafting on the cool
winter breeze, traditionally dressed youngsters wreathed in welcoming smiles, thousands of richly-hued orchids nodding along the pathways and a pair of energetic `snow lions' cavorting amid the greenery, Sikkim is truly holidaying in Delhi's Garden of Five Senses for a brief weekend !
The Sikkim Festival, presented by the state government in association with the Times of India Group, is bringing more than a whiff of the magical mountain paradise to frenetic Delhi. It's showcasing the ethos and philosophy of a unique little Himalayan niche which its native Lepcha people call Nyemae-el or Abode of the Gods. And it seems an apt name, given the sheer beauty of the land, its aura of tranquility and harmony amid the turmoil of the north east, and the unshakeable good humour on the faces of its people.
Even as eyes widen at the sight of rows and rows of gloriously-coloured, shiny orchids, and the piles of mandarin oranges, kiwi fruit and plump ginger tubers, it's not difficult to nod in affirmation of Chief Minister Pawan Chamling's pen picture of an idyllic, ancient region devoted to the new mantra of the 21st century, sustainable development. Even the dances presented by the Lepchas, Bhutias, Limbus and Nepalis, underline each community's deep attachment to nature and Sikkim's rooted culture.
Opening the two-day event in the presence of state Governor BP Singh, the three-term CM eloquently evoked not only Sikkim's commitment to taking the organic path to prosperity, but also its multifaceted attractions for the modern traveller, from natural beauty and adrenalin-pumping sports to spiritual solace and healing solitudes. From handicrafts to flowers, traditional food and music to tourist attractions, the best of Sikkim is on show. Delhiwallas have to travel only as far as Said ul Ajab on Sunday to experience it and then plan a trip to that paradise at the foot of the Kanchenjunga...
( Source:TOI)
NEW DELHI: It's hard to imagine that Gangtok is nearly 1600 km from Delhi. It seems just next door....With the sound of drums wafting on the cool
winter breeze, traditionally dressed youngsters wreathed in welcoming smiles, thousands of richly-hued orchids nodding along the pathways and a pair of energetic `snow lions' cavorting amid the greenery, Sikkim is truly holidaying in Delhi's Garden of Five Senses for a brief weekend !
The Sikkim Festival, presented by the state government in association with the Times of India Group, is bringing more than a whiff of the magical mountain paradise to frenetic Delhi. It's showcasing the ethos and philosophy of a unique little Himalayan niche which its native Lepcha people call Nyemae-el or Abode of the Gods. And it seems an apt name, given the sheer beauty of the land, its aura of tranquility and harmony amid the turmoil of the north east, and the unshakeable good humour on the faces of its people.
Even as eyes widen at the sight of rows and rows of gloriously-coloured, shiny orchids, and the piles of mandarin oranges, kiwi fruit and plump ginger tubers, it's not difficult to nod in affirmation of Chief Minister Pawan Chamling's pen picture of an idyllic, ancient region devoted to the new mantra of the 21st century, sustainable development. Even the dances presented by the Lepchas, Bhutias, Limbus and Nepalis, underline each community's deep attachment to nature and Sikkim's rooted culture.
Opening the two-day event in the presence of state Governor BP Singh, the three-term CM eloquently evoked not only Sikkim's commitment to taking the organic path to prosperity, but also its multifaceted attractions for the modern traveller, from natural beauty and adrenalin-pumping sports to spiritual solace and healing solitudes. From handicrafts to flowers, traditional food and music to tourist attractions, the best of Sikkim is on show. Delhiwallas have to travel only as far as Said ul Ajab on Sunday to experience it and then plan a trip to that paradise at the foot of the Kanchenjunga...
( Source:TOI)
Saturday, January 10, 2009
SIKKIM CM ADDRESSES 57TH NEC MEET
8th January 2009
57th Plenary Meeting of the North Eastern Council was held today which was presided by Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region and Chairman, North Eastern Council. Shri. Aiyar welcomed the Members from eight States to the 57th Plenary Meeting of Council. The meeting began with confirmation of the proceeding of the 56th Meeting of the NEC and of the Action Taken Report of that meeting. Thereafter the Governors of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura spoke. This was followed by the Chief Ministers of these States giving their presentation excepting the Chief Minister of Manipur.
The Chief Minister, Dr. Pawan Chamling began his address by inviting one and all those present at the Plenary meeting of the Council to the Sikkim Festival being held on 10th and 11th January 2009 at the Garden of Five Senses, New Delhi. He reminded everyone that Sikkim through the latest entrant was firmly integrated in the NEC fraternity. The State with its socio- cultural diversity possessing rich nature with flora and fauna has much to offer in eco-tourism, adventure tourism, Hydel power generation, floriculture, hospitality service, agro-based industries and eco-friendly clean industrial sectors. Dr. Chamling spoke on the adoption of organic farming by State to become a totally organic state by 2015 and sought for support of NEC in this area as well as in big cardamom, mandarin orange, passion fruit, tea and ginger for marketing support so that the people of Sikkim could get competitive price for their produce. The Chief Minister spoke at length about the effort of the Government in the empowerment of women and that of the village people in the sustainable management of local resources for overall development of the State. Dr. Chamling drew the attention towards the locational disadvantage of the State with hundred percent dependency on the national Highway 31A wherein the support of the NEC for taking up Sikkim’s case for completing the upgradation of this only link with the Country, early completion of Airport at Pakyong and construction of an alternative road to NH 31A as well as upgradation of the road from Gangtok to Nathula vigorously with the Government of India on behalf of Sikkim. Sikkim would well become a model state in the Country with its objectives and targets fulfilled if viable communication links are always assured. Dr. Chamling aptly reflected on the observation of the Hon’ble Prime Minister that the sun must shine and that too shine brightly in the North East for realizing the Vision 2020.
In the area of capacity building, Sikkim had taken the lead not only in the North East but in the entire Country by setting up a Directorate of Capacity Building for sending the educated unemployed youths for pilot training, IT training, training in Mass Communication, in the hospitality sector etc. In fact, by the next year, an Institute on Capacity Building would be set up in the State for developing a highly skilled work forces as these are critical in the development of each Sikkimese individual for the overall success of the Sikkimese society. Unless our youth are skilled and smart, only then they would then be able to fulfill their aspiration in the modern world where there is cut-throat competition. Dr. Chamling made a specific request to the Chairman, NEC for early sanction and release of funds as the time frame of the working period in the Hills is limited. Finally, the Chief Minister thanked Hon’ble Shri Aiyar for his proactive role in developing the North Eastern States. As per report received from Principal Secretary to HCM.
IPR News Service
IPR No 194/IPR/08-09
57th Plenary Meeting of the North Eastern Council was held today which was presided by Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region and Chairman, North Eastern Council. Shri. Aiyar welcomed the Members from eight States to the 57th Plenary Meeting of Council. The meeting began with confirmation of the proceeding of the 56th Meeting of the NEC and of the Action Taken Report of that meeting. Thereafter the Governors of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura spoke. This was followed by the Chief Ministers of these States giving their presentation excepting the Chief Minister of Manipur.
The Chief Minister, Dr. Pawan Chamling began his address by inviting one and all those present at the Plenary meeting of the Council to the Sikkim Festival being held on 10th and 11th January 2009 at the Garden of Five Senses, New Delhi. He reminded everyone that Sikkim through the latest entrant was firmly integrated in the NEC fraternity. The State with its socio- cultural diversity possessing rich nature with flora and fauna has much to offer in eco-tourism, adventure tourism, Hydel power generation, floriculture, hospitality service, agro-based industries and eco-friendly clean industrial sectors. Dr. Chamling spoke on the adoption of organic farming by State to become a totally organic state by 2015 and sought for support of NEC in this area as well as in big cardamom, mandarin orange, passion fruit, tea and ginger for marketing support so that the people of Sikkim could get competitive price for their produce. The Chief Minister spoke at length about the effort of the Government in the empowerment of women and that of the village people in the sustainable management of local resources for overall development of the State. Dr. Chamling drew the attention towards the locational disadvantage of the State with hundred percent dependency on the national Highway 31A wherein the support of the NEC for taking up Sikkim’s case for completing the upgradation of this only link with the Country, early completion of Airport at Pakyong and construction of an alternative road to NH 31A as well as upgradation of the road from Gangtok to Nathula vigorously with the Government of India on behalf of Sikkim. Sikkim would well become a model state in the Country with its objectives and targets fulfilled if viable communication links are always assured. Dr. Chamling aptly reflected on the observation of the Hon’ble Prime Minister that the sun must shine and that too shine brightly in the North East for realizing the Vision 2020.
In the area of capacity building, Sikkim had taken the lead not only in the North East but in the entire Country by setting up a Directorate of Capacity Building for sending the educated unemployed youths for pilot training, IT training, training in Mass Communication, in the hospitality sector etc. In fact, by the next year, an Institute on Capacity Building would be set up in the State for developing a highly skilled work forces as these are critical in the development of each Sikkimese individual for the overall success of the Sikkimese society. Unless our youth are skilled and smart, only then they would then be able to fulfill their aspiration in the modern world where there is cut-throat competition. Dr. Chamling made a specific request to the Chairman, NEC for early sanction and release of funds as the time frame of the working period in the Hills is limited. Finally, the Chief Minister thanked Hon’ble Shri Aiyar for his proactive role in developing the North Eastern States. As per report received from Principal Secretary to HCM.
IPR News Service
IPR No 194/IPR/08-09
LARGE CARDAMOM- MONEY SPINNER
Large Cardamom is as synonymous to Sikkim as Tea is to Darjeeling. It is the main cash crop of the State. Sikkim is one of the major producer and exporter of this crop. Till recent time, Sikkim was the only player in the global production and export of large cardamom. Official figures indicate that the production and export had surpassed a record of five thousand Metric tons of which bulk was exported to Gulf and Central Asian countries and Pakistan. However, the production has declined almost to half, though the areas under cultivation have increased substantially. The guiding factors underlining the decrease has been attributed to outbreak of viral diseases Chirkey and Furkey that destroy the plant.
A member of Zingiberaceae family, large cardamom is generally used as a spice and in several medicinal preparations. The crop is grown under the shade of forest trees in the sub-Himalayan Mountains at an altitude ranging from 1000 to 2000 metres above the sea level with rainfall of 3000 to 3500 mm distributed in about 200 days a year. Cultivars suited to higher altitudes can tolerate lower temperatures also, while deep, well drained soils with loamy texture is best suited. Presently, there are five species or cultivars viz. Ramsey, Sawney, Golsey, Varlangey and Seremna that are grown in Sikkim.
Being the major cash crop of Sikkim, the cardamom cultivation has been incorporated in the component of Technology Mission under the program of the Government of India, which aims at ensuring adequate, appropriate, timely and current attention to all the links and achieve horizontal and vertical integration of these programs. The mission also aims to promote ecologically sustainable intensification, economically desirable diversification to maximize economic and sociological benefits. Apart from this, the mission intends to promote development and dissemination of eco-technologies based on the blending of traditional wisdom and technology with frontier knowledge such as bio-technology, information technology.
Presently there are approximately sixteen thousand growers of large cardamom among which thirty percent are totally dependent on this crop. It covers around 26 thousand hectares of land under cultivation.
The Technology Mission for cardamom in Sikkim focuses on area expansion along with increase in production and productivity of this cash crop. After its initiation, the mission has been successful in establishing over 150 nurseries to provide certified seedlings to the cardamom growers. So far it has achieved an additional increase of nearly five thousand hectares under the area expansion program. Besides providing regular training to the growers for better management of the field, it has also undertaken a task of baseline survey to ascertain the exact area of healthy plants and those destroyed by the disease.
Strategies for improvement of production has been chalked out under the mission and trainings are being imparted to the growers towards better management of the crop along with introduction of high yielding varieties, mass replanting and controlling of disease and pests.
Similarly, improved curing or drying techniques are being made available to the growers with substantial subsidy to ensure better quality and appearance. The Spices Board of India under the Ministry of Commerce which has been working closely with the cardamom growers for past several decades has also been regulating the market and price factors. Growers are being encouraged through remunerative prices for cardamom cured and dried in improved bhatti or drying methods, which has better appearance and oil content than that dried through traditional method.
by: Journalist Shri Khagendra Mani Pradhan
sOURC: pib/nD
A member of Zingiberaceae family, large cardamom is generally used as a spice and in several medicinal preparations. The crop is grown under the shade of forest trees in the sub-Himalayan Mountains at an altitude ranging from 1000 to 2000 metres above the sea level with rainfall of 3000 to 3500 mm distributed in about 200 days a year. Cultivars suited to higher altitudes can tolerate lower temperatures also, while deep, well drained soils with loamy texture is best suited. Presently, there are five species or cultivars viz. Ramsey, Sawney, Golsey, Varlangey and Seremna that are grown in Sikkim.
Being the major cash crop of Sikkim, the cardamom cultivation has been incorporated in the component of Technology Mission under the program of the Government of India, which aims at ensuring adequate, appropriate, timely and current attention to all the links and achieve horizontal and vertical integration of these programs. The mission also aims to promote ecologically sustainable intensification, economically desirable diversification to maximize economic and sociological benefits. Apart from this, the mission intends to promote development and dissemination of eco-technologies based on the blending of traditional wisdom and technology with frontier knowledge such as bio-technology, information technology.
Presently there are approximately sixteen thousand growers of large cardamom among which thirty percent are totally dependent on this crop. It covers around 26 thousand hectares of land under cultivation.
The Technology Mission for cardamom in Sikkim focuses on area expansion along with increase in production and productivity of this cash crop. After its initiation, the mission has been successful in establishing over 150 nurseries to provide certified seedlings to the cardamom growers. So far it has achieved an additional increase of nearly five thousand hectares under the area expansion program. Besides providing regular training to the growers for better management of the field, it has also undertaken a task of baseline survey to ascertain the exact area of healthy plants and those destroyed by the disease.
Strategies for improvement of production has been chalked out under the mission and trainings are being imparted to the growers towards better management of the crop along with introduction of high yielding varieties, mass replanting and controlling of disease and pests.
Similarly, improved curing or drying techniques are being made available to the growers with substantial subsidy to ensure better quality and appearance. The Spices Board of India under the Ministry of Commerce which has been working closely with the cardamom growers for past several decades has also been regulating the market and price factors. Growers are being encouraged through remunerative prices for cardamom cured and dried in improved bhatti or drying methods, which has better appearance and oil content than that dried through traditional method.
by: Journalist Shri Khagendra Mani Pradhan
sOURC: pib/nD
4th J.R.D Tata Memorial to Sikkim
Vice President Presents 4th JRD Tata Memorial Awards for Population & Reproductive Health Programme
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Delhi DT 9.1.2009
The Vice-President of India Mohd. Hamid Ansari presented the 4th J.R.D Tata Memorial Awards at a function organized by Population Foundation of India (PFI) here today. The State of Chhattisgarh has been selected among the category of bigger States and State of Sikkim has been selected among the category smaller states for the awards. The Chief Minister of Health and Family Welfare Shri Amar Agarwal, Chhattisgarh and the Chief Minister of Sikkim Shri P.K Chamling received the awards on behalf of these states.
The states were selected on the basis of 14 indicators representing reproductive health, gender, fertility, socio-economic development, education and state government’s commitment to the social sector. The indicators have been drawn from various renowned secondary sources (National Family Health Surveys, Census and Sample Registration System). A major criterion for selection of states has been the ‘change factor’ (improvement in indicators over a decade).
Following is the text of the Vice President’s address on the occasion:
“It is my privilege to be the Chief Guest at the presentation ceremony of the 4th JRD Tata Awards for the best performing States on Population and Reproductive Health Programmes.
The Population Foundation and its work stand as a tribute to the vision, initiative and tireless work of J.R.D. Tata to address the population problem of the country and its impact on the prospects of our development and progress.
This distinguished audience today bears testimony to the success of the Foundation in fashioning an alternative paradigm to address of population question, by doing it through the civil society. It is the affirmation of an equitable, decentralised, rights-based and participative approach to human development, one aspect of which is population stabilization. Its concomitants are access to affordable health care, education, sanitation, safe drinking water, and empowerment of women.
I take this opportunity to congratulate the Chief Minister of Sikkim and the Health Minister of Chhattisgarh for receiving the 4th JRD Tata Award for Population and Reproductive Health Programmes for the year 2008. Their performance proves that political will, and a determination to bring about change, is as important as resources.
The website of the Foundation displays the population clock. Just before I left for this venue, it read 1,279,906,779. It also indicates that there are 29 births in India every minute. This amounts to 41,760 births a day. Of these 2380 die every day amounting to a mortality rate of 57 per thousand live births.
Such high infant mortality feeds into high wanted fertility, demolishing all efforts at reducing the total fertility rate.
Confronted with these figures, one is propelled to re-visit the National Population Policy 2000 and its layered targets.
The immediate objective of NPP was to address the unmet needs for contraception, health care infrastructure, and health personnel, and provide integrated service delivery for basic reproductive and child health care.
The medium-term objective was to bring the TFR to replacement levels by 2010, through vigorous implementation of inter-sectoral operational strategies. The long-term objective was to achieve a stable population by 2045, at a level consistent with the requirements of sustainable economic growth, social development, and environmental protection.
In pursuance of these objectives, a set of seven National Socio-Demographic Goals, to be achieved by 2010, were set out:
>> Address the unmet needs for basic reproductive and child health services, supplies and infrastructure.
>> Make school education up to age 14 free and compulsory, and reduce drop outs at primary and secondary school levels to below 20 percent for both boys and girls.
>> Reduce infant mortality rate to below 30 per 1000 live births.
>> Reduce maternal mortality ratio to below 100 per 100,000 live births.
>> Achieve universal immunization of children against all vaccine preventable diseases.
>> Achieve 80 percent institutional deliveries and 100 percent deliveries by trained persons.
>> Achieve 100 per cent registration of births, deaths, marriage and pregnancy.
Available data indicates that almost none of the objectives of the National Population Policy 2000 and the targets for the year 2010 are likely to be achieved.
The total fertility rate is unlikely to reach replacement level before 2015, while some of the laggard and big states would reach that level only after 2021. The infant mortality rate is unlikely to reach the target of 30 per 1000 live births even by 2025. The accompanying legislation for making the right to education the fundamental right is still a work in progress, and more than 50 per cent of our children are yet to be fully immunized. The statistics on maternal healthcare are also not encouraging with over 50 per cent of births not being either institutional deliveries or deliveries by trained persons.
This is not to deny our significant achievements. Since Independence, we have drastically improved overall literacy and female literacy and enhanced life expectancy for our citizens. Our efforts, nevertheless, have fallen short of the targets we set for ourselves.
How is this gap to be covered? As a lay person, I wish to offer two themes for consideration.
First, the demographic map of India is extremely diverse and heterogeneous. There are significant differences between states in the achievement of basic demographic indices, resulting in disparities population size and growth trends. There are wide inter-state, male-female and rural-urban disparities in outcomes and impacts.
Over 10 States and Union Territories have achieved replacement levels of fertility. The growth rates continue to be high in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Here we see a striking confluence of high fertility rates with low literacy and low health indicators and lower levels of socio-economic development. These states accounts for 40 per cent of our population and expected to contribute half of our future population growth.
We thus need to focus on these states with renewed vigour, with full coordination between Central and State governments, and active involvement of civil society institutions.
Secondly, more emphasis should be paid to ‘demographic decentralization’ through devolution of responsibilities and resources to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in formulating and implementing area specific policies and programmes relevant for population stabilization. They need to be involved in micro-planning and monitoring at local level to improve implementation of the programme and ensure effective community participation.
So far service deliveries under Family Welfare Programmes have been administered entirely through official agencies. These have achieved sub-optimal results and necessitate a search for alternative modes of service delivery.
The answer lies in the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments that created a meaningful role for local self-governance. The time has come for activating the third tier of government to address the population problem through speedy devolution of financial and human resources and powers.
We live in an era where a nation is judged by the human development level of its people – standards of health care, nutrition and level of education; by the human rights and fundamental freedoms enjoyed by its citizens; by the access to development and progress for all the vulnerable and disadvantaged sections of its society.
It is here that we must prove to ourselves that we have succeeded as a nation; and thereafter, prove in the comity of nations that we are a great and a responsible nation.
We need to note that without timely and effective public policy interventions, the demographic asset could turn into an enormous liability. Demographic stabilisation must therefore become a policy imperative and converted into a national movement.
I once again congratulate the Chhattisgarh and Sikkim for their performance and urge other states to emulate them.
I thank the Population Foundation of India for inviting me as the Chief Guest today”.
SK/BS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Delhi DT 9.1.2009
The Vice-President of India Mohd. Hamid Ansari presented the 4th J.R.D Tata Memorial Awards at a function organized by Population Foundation of India (PFI) here today. The State of Chhattisgarh has been selected among the category of bigger States and State of Sikkim has been selected among the category smaller states for the awards. The Chief Minister of Health and Family Welfare Shri Amar Agarwal, Chhattisgarh and the Chief Minister of Sikkim Shri P.K Chamling received the awards on behalf of these states.
The states were selected on the basis of 14 indicators representing reproductive health, gender, fertility, socio-economic development, education and state government’s commitment to the social sector. The indicators have been drawn from various renowned secondary sources (National Family Health Surveys, Census and Sample Registration System). A major criterion for selection of states has been the ‘change factor’ (improvement in indicators over a decade).
Following is the text of the Vice President’s address on the occasion:
“It is my privilege to be the Chief Guest at the presentation ceremony of the 4th JRD Tata Awards for the best performing States on Population and Reproductive Health Programmes.
The Population Foundation and its work stand as a tribute to the vision, initiative and tireless work of J.R.D. Tata to address the population problem of the country and its impact on the prospects of our development and progress.
This distinguished audience today bears testimony to the success of the Foundation in fashioning an alternative paradigm to address of population question, by doing it through the civil society. It is the affirmation of an equitable, decentralised, rights-based and participative approach to human development, one aspect of which is population stabilization. Its concomitants are access to affordable health care, education, sanitation, safe drinking water, and empowerment of women.
I take this opportunity to congratulate the Chief Minister of Sikkim and the Health Minister of Chhattisgarh for receiving the 4th JRD Tata Award for Population and Reproductive Health Programmes for the year 2008. Their performance proves that political will, and a determination to bring about change, is as important as resources.
The website of the Foundation displays the population clock. Just before I left for this venue, it read 1,279,906,779. It also indicates that there are 29 births in India every minute. This amounts to 41,760 births a day. Of these 2380 die every day amounting to a mortality rate of 57 per thousand live births.
Such high infant mortality feeds into high wanted fertility, demolishing all efforts at reducing the total fertility rate.
Confronted with these figures, one is propelled to re-visit the National Population Policy 2000 and its layered targets.
The immediate objective of NPP was to address the unmet needs for contraception, health care infrastructure, and health personnel, and provide integrated service delivery for basic reproductive and child health care.
The medium-term objective was to bring the TFR to replacement levels by 2010, through vigorous implementation of inter-sectoral operational strategies. The long-term objective was to achieve a stable population by 2045, at a level consistent with the requirements of sustainable economic growth, social development, and environmental protection.
In pursuance of these objectives, a set of seven National Socio-Demographic Goals, to be achieved by 2010, were set out:
>> Address the unmet needs for basic reproductive and child health services, supplies and infrastructure.
>> Make school education up to age 14 free and compulsory, and reduce drop outs at primary and secondary school levels to below 20 percent for both boys and girls.
>> Reduce infant mortality rate to below 30 per 1000 live births.
>> Reduce maternal mortality ratio to below 100 per 100,000 live births.
>> Achieve universal immunization of children against all vaccine preventable diseases.
>> Achieve 80 percent institutional deliveries and 100 percent deliveries by trained persons.
>> Achieve 100 per cent registration of births, deaths, marriage and pregnancy.
Available data indicates that almost none of the objectives of the National Population Policy 2000 and the targets for the year 2010 are likely to be achieved.
The total fertility rate is unlikely to reach replacement level before 2015, while some of the laggard and big states would reach that level only after 2021. The infant mortality rate is unlikely to reach the target of 30 per 1000 live births even by 2025. The accompanying legislation for making the right to education the fundamental right is still a work in progress, and more than 50 per cent of our children are yet to be fully immunized. The statistics on maternal healthcare are also not encouraging with over 50 per cent of births not being either institutional deliveries or deliveries by trained persons.
This is not to deny our significant achievements. Since Independence, we have drastically improved overall literacy and female literacy and enhanced life expectancy for our citizens. Our efforts, nevertheless, have fallen short of the targets we set for ourselves.
How is this gap to be covered? As a lay person, I wish to offer two themes for consideration.
First, the demographic map of India is extremely diverse and heterogeneous. There are significant differences between states in the achievement of basic demographic indices, resulting in disparities population size and growth trends. There are wide inter-state, male-female and rural-urban disparities in outcomes and impacts.
Over 10 States and Union Territories have achieved replacement levels of fertility. The growth rates continue to be high in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Here we see a striking confluence of high fertility rates with low literacy and low health indicators and lower levels of socio-economic development. These states accounts for 40 per cent of our population and expected to contribute half of our future population growth.
We thus need to focus on these states with renewed vigour, with full coordination between Central and State governments, and active involvement of civil society institutions.
Secondly, more emphasis should be paid to ‘demographic decentralization’ through devolution of responsibilities and resources to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in formulating and implementing area specific policies and programmes relevant for population stabilization. They need to be involved in micro-planning and monitoring at local level to improve implementation of the programme and ensure effective community participation.
So far service deliveries under Family Welfare Programmes have been administered entirely through official agencies. These have achieved sub-optimal results and necessitate a search for alternative modes of service delivery.
The answer lies in the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments that created a meaningful role for local self-governance. The time has come for activating the third tier of government to address the population problem through speedy devolution of financial and human resources and powers.
We live in an era where a nation is judged by the human development level of its people – standards of health care, nutrition and level of education; by the human rights and fundamental freedoms enjoyed by its citizens; by the access to development and progress for all the vulnerable and disadvantaged sections of its society.
It is here that we must prove to ourselves that we have succeeded as a nation; and thereafter, prove in the comity of nations that we are a great and a responsible nation.
We need to note that without timely and effective public policy interventions, the demographic asset could turn into an enormous liability. Demographic stabilisation must therefore become a policy imperative and converted into a national movement.
I once again congratulate the Chhattisgarh and Sikkim for their performance and urge other states to emulate them.
I thank the Population Foundation of India for inviting me as the Chief Guest today”.
SK/BS
Friday, January 9, 2009
Punj Lloyd bags Sikkim first Greenfield airport project
News Friday, 09 Jan, 2009
Punj Lloyd bags Sikkim first Greenfield airport project
Punj Lloyd Ltd announced that it has secured a contract for civil works for approximately INR 264 crore from Airports Authority of India in connection with construction of new airport at Pakyong, Sikkim. The new airport will make a significant contribution to the tourism infrastructure of the state.
Mr Atul Punj chairman of Punj Lloyd Group said that "Punj Lloyd is proud to be building Sikkim's first Greenfield Airport, Building tourism infrastructure is the prime call of Indian tourism industry, especially for a state like Sikkim that is yet unexplored and has the potential to become a preferred tourism destination for families, adventure sports, village and eco tourism. This airport will ensure better connectivity of Sikkim with rest of the country."
Building an airport in the hilly terrain of Sikkim will be an interesting challenge. The airport will be built at a height of 1404 meter above mean sea level. The scope of work shall involve excavation of 100 meter depth and earth filling of slopes of 80 meter height, stabilized with Geogrid Reinforced Retaining Wall. A large volume of earthwork, 6.5 million m3, shall involve blasting in hard rock apart from excavation in soft rock and soil. To protect the environment, excavated slopes of 100 meter height will be planted with local species of flora.
Although a challenge, work in the hilly region will not daunt Punj Lloyd, which has a history of executing projects successfully in difficult terrain. From the Caucasian rocky mountains were Punj Lloyd laid sections of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to the deserts of Oman. Punj Lloyd is confident of successfully completing this Greenfield airport project.
Punj Lloyd bags Sikkim first Greenfield airport project
Punj Lloyd Ltd announced that it has secured a contract for civil works for approximately INR 264 crore from Airports Authority of India in connection with construction of new airport at Pakyong, Sikkim. The new airport will make a significant contribution to the tourism infrastructure of the state.
Mr Atul Punj chairman of Punj Lloyd Group said that "Punj Lloyd is proud to be building Sikkim's first Greenfield Airport, Building tourism infrastructure is the prime call of Indian tourism industry, especially for a state like Sikkim that is yet unexplored and has the potential to become a preferred tourism destination for families, adventure sports, village and eco tourism. This airport will ensure better connectivity of Sikkim with rest of the country."
Building an airport in the hilly terrain of Sikkim will be an interesting challenge. The airport will be built at a height of 1404 meter above mean sea level. The scope of work shall involve excavation of 100 meter depth and earth filling of slopes of 80 meter height, stabilized with Geogrid Reinforced Retaining Wall. A large volume of earthwork, 6.5 million m3, shall involve blasting in hard rock apart from excavation in soft rock and soil. To protect the environment, excavated slopes of 100 meter height will be planted with local species of flora.
Although a challenge, work in the hilly region will not daunt Punj Lloyd, which has a history of executing projects successfully in difficult terrain. From the Caucasian rocky mountains were Punj Lloyd laid sections of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to the deserts of Oman. Punj Lloyd is confident of successfully completing this Greenfield airport project.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
PAKYONG AIRPORT UPDATE
Punj Llyod bags Pakyong airport contract
Rs.264 crores project to be completed in 24 months
SE Report
GANGTOK, January 6: Over a decade after the Centre gave a nod for an airport to Sikkim, construction for the State’s first Greenfield airport at Pakyong is expected to commence from the second week of January after Punj Llyod Group was awarded the contract by Airports Authority of India (AAI) today.
Punj Llyod, a diversified engineering, procurement and construction conglomerate, announced the winning of Pakyong airpot project for Rs.264 crore and the project is to be completed in 24 months.
The scope of the project includes construction of 30-m wide runway of 1.7 km length, taxiway, apron drainage system and electrical work for the airport.
According to reports, Punj Lloyd Group said that it is a challenge to build an airport in the hilly terrain. According to the company the airport will have a height of 1404 m above mean sea level. The scope of work shall involve excavation of 100 m depth and earth filling of slopes of 80 m height, stabilised with Geogrid Reinforced Retaining Wall.
A large volume of earthwork, 65 lac m3, shall involve blasting in hard rock apart from excavation in soft rock and soil. To protect the environment, excavated slopes of 100 m height will be planted with local species of flora.
A long pending demand of the State government, the air link of a landlocked Sikkim is now finally set in the right direction. Sikkim has only a national highway which is frequently subject to political and natural disturbances as evident in 2008.
The air link is will also give a boost to the tourism potential of Sikkim. More than 5 lakhs tourists visited Sikkim last year and the State is targeting to attract 7 lakhs tourists by the next 3 years.
On October 16 last year, the Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had given its approval for construction of the Greenfield Airport at Pakyong.
“Sikkim has substantial tourism potential due to its scenic and natural beauty. As such, direct air connectivity to Sikkim is essential from socio-economic and strategic considerations. Besides, direct air connectivity would also promote tourism and other economic activities in the State”, the committee had stated while approving the project.
sOURCE: sIKKIM eXPRESS)
Rs.264 crores project to be completed in 24 months
SE Report
GANGTOK, January 6: Over a decade after the Centre gave a nod for an airport to Sikkim, construction for the State’s first Greenfield airport at Pakyong is expected to commence from the second week of January after Punj Llyod Group was awarded the contract by Airports Authority of India (AAI) today.
Punj Llyod, a diversified engineering, procurement and construction conglomerate, announced the winning of Pakyong airpot project for Rs.264 crore and the project is to be completed in 24 months.
The scope of the project includes construction of 30-m wide runway of 1.7 km length, taxiway, apron drainage system and electrical work for the airport.
According to reports, Punj Lloyd Group said that it is a challenge to build an airport in the hilly terrain. According to the company the airport will have a height of 1404 m above mean sea level. The scope of work shall involve excavation of 100 m depth and earth filling of slopes of 80 m height, stabilised with Geogrid Reinforced Retaining Wall.
A large volume of earthwork, 65 lac m3, shall involve blasting in hard rock apart from excavation in soft rock and soil. To protect the environment, excavated slopes of 100 m height will be planted with local species of flora.
A long pending demand of the State government, the air link of a landlocked Sikkim is now finally set in the right direction. Sikkim has only a national highway which is frequently subject to political and natural disturbances as evident in 2008.
The air link is will also give a boost to the tourism potential of Sikkim. More than 5 lakhs tourists visited Sikkim last year and the State is targeting to attract 7 lakhs tourists by the next 3 years.
On October 16 last year, the Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had given its approval for construction of the Greenfield Airport at Pakyong.
“Sikkim has substantial tourism potential due to its scenic and natural beauty. As such, direct air connectivity to Sikkim is essential from socio-economic and strategic considerations. Besides, direct air connectivity would also promote tourism and other economic activities in the State”, the committee had stated while approving the project.
sOURCE: sIKKIM eXPRESS)
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Global Political Risk Index
Global Political Risk Index
New Delhi 6 JAN 2009
India’s position in the Global Political Risk Index (GPRI), which measures a country’s ability to absorb political shocks, edged up one point in the past year to 63 and its outlook remains neutral. The late November Mumbai attacks will push India to keep up the pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militant groups, according to Eurasia Group, which compiles the index.
Mint has partnered with Eurasia Group, a political and economic risk analysis firm, for GPRI, a composite measure of the state of a country’s government, security, society and economy. All indicators are scored on a scale of 0 to 100, and the higher the number, the greater the country’s ability to withstand external or internal political shocks.
The biggest gainers in 2008 were Algeria and Brazil, which saw their scores increase by five points and four points, respectively, while the biggest losers were Nigeria and China, down six points and four points. China, which had been the biggest gainer for 2007, and Nigeria are both battling significant political challenges amid an economic downturn.
“Political risks are on the rise. The ongoing global economic crisis is precipitating a range of policy responses from leaders,” Eurasia Group commented in a report on its findings. “Investors should closely watch country-specific responses to gauge whether these policy efforts are properly targeted.” In India’s immediate neighbourhood, Pakistan’s score remained unchanged at 43, and its outlook neutral. The country faces the risk of domestic political tension centred on the supreme court, according to the report.
Breaking down the index into its components, government-specific scores for the 24 economies covered were relatively stable in 2008, but with significant variation at the country level.
Government stability suffered the biggest declines in Thailand (-8), Nigeria (-7), Argentina (-6), Iran (-6) and Hungary (-5). The Philippines (+6), Algeria (+6) and Brazil (+5) had the most gains.
The global financial crisis contributed to declining economic scores in 2008, although concerns over inflation have passed. This year, the focus is “on the economic slowdown and the risk of deflation—although this is of greater concern in the developed economies that have experienced significant asset inflation in recent years,” Eurasia Group said.
Those countries that relied on exports to power growth may suffer as consumer demand declines.
“China in particular will be at risk, due to its substantial excess productive capacity stemming from extraordinarily high rates of investment in recent years,” according to the report.
Safer investments in 2009 will include emerging markets that are better placed to weather the economic crisis and those with stable governments that will implement “fiscal policies to stabilize their economies”.
Winners from the oil price decline include India, which relies on imports for much of its needs.
India’s national oil companies “now face less risk of getting priced out of competitive international upstream acquisitions”, according to an analysis by Eurasia Group.
Mint has partnered with Eurasia Group for GPRI and will run this every month. The index is a composite measure of the state of a country's government, society, security and economy. Mint carried last GPRI on 16 December. To view all editions of the index, go to www.livemint.com/gpri Your reactions and comments are welcome at feedback@livemint.com
Source:livemint.
New Delhi 6 JAN 2009
India’s position in the Global Political Risk Index (GPRI), which measures a country’s ability to absorb political shocks, edged up one point in the past year to 63 and its outlook remains neutral. The late November Mumbai attacks will push India to keep up the pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militant groups, according to Eurasia Group, which compiles the index.
Mint has partnered with Eurasia Group, a political and economic risk analysis firm, for GPRI, a composite measure of the state of a country’s government, security, society and economy. All indicators are scored on a scale of 0 to 100, and the higher the number, the greater the country’s ability to withstand external or internal political shocks.
The biggest gainers in 2008 were Algeria and Brazil, which saw their scores increase by five points and four points, respectively, while the biggest losers were Nigeria and China, down six points and four points. China, which had been the biggest gainer for 2007, and Nigeria are both battling significant political challenges amid an economic downturn.
“Political risks are on the rise. The ongoing global economic crisis is precipitating a range of policy responses from leaders,” Eurasia Group commented in a report on its findings. “Investors should closely watch country-specific responses to gauge whether these policy efforts are properly targeted.” In India’s immediate neighbourhood, Pakistan’s score remained unchanged at 43, and its outlook neutral. The country faces the risk of domestic political tension centred on the supreme court, according to the report.
Breaking down the index into its components, government-specific scores for the 24 economies covered were relatively stable in 2008, but with significant variation at the country level.
Government stability suffered the biggest declines in Thailand (-8), Nigeria (-7), Argentina (-6), Iran (-6) and Hungary (-5). The Philippines (+6), Algeria (+6) and Brazil (+5) had the most gains.
The global financial crisis contributed to declining economic scores in 2008, although concerns over inflation have passed. This year, the focus is “on the economic slowdown and the risk of deflation—although this is of greater concern in the developed economies that have experienced significant asset inflation in recent years,” Eurasia Group said.
Those countries that relied on exports to power growth may suffer as consumer demand declines.
“China in particular will be at risk, due to its substantial excess productive capacity stemming from extraordinarily high rates of investment in recent years,” according to the report.
Safer investments in 2009 will include emerging markets that are better placed to weather the economic crisis and those with stable governments that will implement “fiscal policies to stabilize their economies”.
Winners from the oil price decline include India, which relies on imports for much of its needs.
India’s national oil companies “now face less risk of getting priced out of competitive international upstream acquisitions”, according to an analysis by Eurasia Group.
Mint has partnered with Eurasia Group for GPRI and will run this every month. The index is a composite measure of the state of a country's government, society, security and economy. Mint carried last GPRI on 16 December. To view all editions of the index, go to www.livemint.com/gpri Your reactions and comments are welcome at feedback@livemint.com
Source:livemint.
Sorry, Corruption puts India on 18 places in innovation index
India falls 18 places in innovation index
Curruption the big culprit
New Delhi 6 Jan 2009
India, a country that sees itself as a key player in the knowledge economy, is not as innovative as Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, and the Czech Republic.
That’s the finding of the second edition of the Global Innovation Index, or GII, that was released on Tuesday and which ranks India 41 among 130 countries. The index has been created by Soumitra Dutta, a professor at French business school Insead, in association with industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The US has been ranked first, Germany second and Sweden third in the index.
India was ranked 23 in last year’s index but the two editions aren’t strictly comparable because only 107 countries were ranked last year. “Rather than India falling, other smaller countries have made significant improvements. We have included more countries this time around and that has affected India’s overall position,” said Dutta, whose index lists “regulatory hurdles, corruption and labour issues” as factors hindering innovation in India.
While indices such as this one are a good measure of how a country compares with others on a specific parameter (in this case, innovativeness), they are unlikely to significantly influence decisions by companies to invest in research and development. In the past few years, several multinational firms have made substantial investments in research centres in India.
This report comes at a time when India has launched several efforts to push the cause of scientific research and innovation. The government is set to table the National Innovation Bill in Parliament in its next session; the Bill makes it easier for private investment to flow into research and develop ment. The government also plans to launch a $183 million World Bank-funded programme to accelerate innovation.
The report puts China at 37, eight places down from last year but four places ahead of India. Last year, China was ranked 29 and India 23. Also last year, global research and advisory firm Economist Intelligence Unit ranked India 58 on its list of innovative countries, one rank above China.
Indian policymakers and scientists frequently compare their research and innovation output with China’s, which in the past two decades has overtaken India on several indices that measure scientific prowess of countries.
Though most innovation indices rank countries on their research and development criteria, such as research spends as a proportion of the gross domestic product, or GDP, number of scientific publications and their patent output, newer parameters such as the ones employed by Dutta include soundness of banks, ease of doing business and the number of Internet users in a coun try.
According to Dutta, innovation is far more broad based and not necessarily confined to laboratories. “Innovation is a horizontal exercise. (US President-elect) Barack Obama’s innovative use of the Internet in the recent elections must also count in the country’s (US) metrics as it has a significant long-term impact,” he added.
For ranking purposes, each factor is categorized as input or output. Input factors reflect how conducive a country is to innovation and output factors to how effectively a country translates innovation into knowledge, competitiveness and wealth.
“These results are averaged and on the basis of that, global ranks are calculated,” Dutta said.
He added that China came ahead of India thanks to “the strength” of its foreign direct investment, or FDI, inflows; the report also lists China’s ease of accessing credit and the “wide variety of its manufacture imports and exports”.
Dutta said all significant inputs for this report were collected in early 2008. “This was before the financial crisis kicked in and I expect significant changes in the top 10 when we prepare the next report.” An expert said he wouldn’t try to read too much into the rankings.
Sujit Bhattacharya, professor at the school of social sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, said: “Innovation is now a very broad term and rankings are extremely relative. It’s more useful to look at the input variables, see how India fares on individual ones, and then implement measures to address them. Giving equal weightage to all variables, and averaging them out doesn’t help much.”
Source: Livemint.com
Curruption the big culprit
New Delhi 6 Jan 2009
India, a country that sees itself as a key player in the knowledge economy, is not as innovative as Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, and the Czech Republic.
That’s the finding of the second edition of the Global Innovation Index, or GII, that was released on Tuesday and which ranks India 41 among 130 countries. The index has been created by Soumitra Dutta, a professor at French business school Insead, in association with industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The US has been ranked first, Germany second and Sweden third in the index.
India was ranked 23 in last year’s index but the two editions aren’t strictly comparable because only 107 countries were ranked last year. “Rather than India falling, other smaller countries have made significant improvements. We have included more countries this time around and that has affected India’s overall position,” said Dutta, whose index lists “regulatory hurdles, corruption and labour issues” as factors hindering innovation in India.
While indices such as this one are a good measure of how a country compares with others on a specific parameter (in this case, innovativeness), they are unlikely to significantly influence decisions by companies to invest in research and development. In the past few years, several multinational firms have made substantial investments in research centres in India.
This report comes at a time when India has launched several efforts to push the cause of scientific research and innovation. The government is set to table the National Innovation Bill in Parliament in its next session; the Bill makes it easier for private investment to flow into research and develop ment. The government also plans to launch a $183 million World Bank-funded programme to accelerate innovation.
The report puts China at 37, eight places down from last year but four places ahead of India. Last year, China was ranked 29 and India 23. Also last year, global research and advisory firm Economist Intelligence Unit ranked India 58 on its list of innovative countries, one rank above China.
Indian policymakers and scientists frequently compare their research and innovation output with China’s, which in the past two decades has overtaken India on several indices that measure scientific prowess of countries.
Though most innovation indices rank countries on their research and development criteria, such as research spends as a proportion of the gross domestic product, or GDP, number of scientific publications and their patent output, newer parameters such as the ones employed by Dutta include soundness of banks, ease of doing business and the number of Internet users in a coun try.
According to Dutta, innovation is far more broad based and not necessarily confined to laboratories. “Innovation is a horizontal exercise. (US President-elect) Barack Obama’s innovative use of the Internet in the recent elections must also count in the country’s (US) metrics as it has a significant long-term impact,” he added.
For ranking purposes, each factor is categorized as input or output. Input factors reflect how conducive a country is to innovation and output factors to how effectively a country translates innovation into knowledge, competitiveness and wealth.
“These results are averaged and on the basis of that, global ranks are calculated,” Dutta said.
He added that China came ahead of India thanks to “the strength” of its foreign direct investment, or FDI, inflows; the report also lists China’s ease of accessing credit and the “wide variety of its manufacture imports and exports”.
Dutta said all significant inputs for this report were collected in early 2008. “This was before the financial crisis kicked in and I expect significant changes in the top 10 when we prepare the next report.” An expert said he wouldn’t try to read too much into the rankings.
Sujit Bhattacharya, professor at the school of social sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, said: “Innovation is now a very broad term and rankings are extremely relative. It’s more useful to look at the input variables, see how India fares on individual ones, and then implement measures to address them. Giving equal weightage to all variables, and averaging them out doesn’t help much.”
Source: Livemint.com
Monday, January 5, 2009
REASONS TO CHEER 2009
REASONS TO CHEER 2009
BY S NARAYAN
T he year 2008 has been traumatic for the nation and its economy: Some of the scars and bruises will take a long time to heal, and the media has been full of stories of the difficulties the year has brought to various sections of the people, be they employees, exporters, investors or manufacturers. The government is doing its best, and its actions recall what Churchill once said: “Governments will eventually do the right thing, after having first exhausted all other alternatives.”
The new stimulus package announced on Friday is likely to cost the government at least Rs40,000 crore, and provides opportunities for greater liquidity for the manufacturing sector, especially commercial vehicles. I had written several weeks ago about the difficulties faced by non-banking finance companies, and the new special-purpose vehicle mechanism announced is likely to mitigate these to some extent. The reduction in repo rates and the cash reserve ratio is likely to enable banks to provide easier credit and greater liquidity to business. Exporters and small and medium enterprises would have wished for something more, and the anxiety that the available liquidity should find its way into productive businesses will remain for some time, but the steps announced are all welcome ones.
In fact, there are several signs that 2009 will be considerably better than 2008.
First, one has only to visit average shopping centres in the metropolis and the shopping areas in tier II and tier III cities to see that that the consumer is still buying, and indeed, with little let-up. At one end, imported luxury brands are seeing their India sales up over 25%, and at the other end, the Sarojini markets, GK markets and indeed, all the places you and I go to, are fairly full. Off metropolitan cities, middle-class residential housing continues to grow, with little let-up in prices in Chennai, Pune, Coimbatore and most of the “middle-class” cities.
It is true that malls have lower footfalls, that tourist arrivals are lower, that upper-end residences have no takers and commercial space is in oversupply—but these are bubbles of the last four years, and the fundamentals of the average consumer have not changed. FMCG companies continue to grow very well, and the sales of electronic goods have not slackened perceptibly.
There has been a good winter harvest, the paddy procurement is very good and the support prices have been higher than before, thus leaving the farmer with a good disposable surplus. There is also no shortage of savings—banks have had a good receipt of fixed deposits, the new schemes from Nabard and LIC have elicited excellent responses and people, in short, are sitting on cash. It is true that investments have moved out of mutual funds and equity and debt markets, and that investment capital is hard to find.
But it is also true that people are spending more carefully, weighing returns and risks better than they did in the earlier years. In short, the speculative urge has been dampened, but not the entrepreneurship or the drive for self-improvement. Doctors and chartered accountants, hospitals and educational institutions, lawyers and the judicial system, bureaucrats and the government and indeed, all sectors that provide the vaguely defined “public services” continue to do as well as in the previous years, and form the bedrock of basic growth that one would see in 2009.
Second, the anxious people who occupy a lot of English-speaking space are the big corporate houses, the large real estate developers, exporters, automobile manufacturers and, indeed, the large companies that figure in the stock markets.
These are the faces of the country’s integration with the rest of the world. But this is only a part of the Indian economy, and the steps taken by the government are likely to provide relief and opportunity to this group. And the companies are analysing their capex and growth plans more carefully, and investments are getting better focused and monitored.
In the last few years, the heady growth in valuation and leveraging had even the most conservative householder dabbling in risk. Now that he has lost some money, he is back to being what he has been all his life—a prudent spender, saver and investor in himself and his family. In fact, we are back to our core and basic values, at levels of income, consumption and living that is considerably higher than a decade ago, and therefore there is little doubt that the lessons of 2008 will form a springboard for growth.
Of course, this will not happen all at once, nor by itself. The government needs to infuse confidence in the growth story and not in the credit markets alone.
If it is prepared to invest in projects, others will, and yet the list of proposals recently approved by the cabinet, including universal secondary schooling, appears to focus on social rather than economic initiatives. Announcements for some metro rail projects or large power projects including nuclear power, expansion of the rail system and the like, are likely to charge entrepreneurs into participating together with the government. Like Tennyson’s Ulysses, it is the time for the government to “push off, and sitting well in order smite the sounding furrows, for my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset”.
We can do it.
S. Narayan is a former finance secretary and economic adviser to the prime minister.
BY S NARAYAN
T he year 2008 has been traumatic for the nation and its economy: Some of the scars and bruises will take a long time to heal, and the media has been full of stories of the difficulties the year has brought to various sections of the people, be they employees, exporters, investors or manufacturers. The government is doing its best, and its actions recall what Churchill once said: “Governments will eventually do the right thing, after having first exhausted all other alternatives.”
The new stimulus package announced on Friday is likely to cost the government at least Rs40,000 crore, and provides opportunities for greater liquidity for the manufacturing sector, especially commercial vehicles. I had written several weeks ago about the difficulties faced by non-banking finance companies, and the new special-purpose vehicle mechanism announced is likely to mitigate these to some extent. The reduction in repo rates and the cash reserve ratio is likely to enable banks to provide easier credit and greater liquidity to business. Exporters and small and medium enterprises would have wished for something more, and the anxiety that the available liquidity should find its way into productive businesses will remain for some time, but the steps announced are all welcome ones.
In fact, there are several signs that 2009 will be considerably better than 2008.
First, one has only to visit average shopping centres in the metropolis and the shopping areas in tier II and tier III cities to see that that the consumer is still buying, and indeed, with little let-up. At one end, imported luxury brands are seeing their India sales up over 25%, and at the other end, the Sarojini markets, GK markets and indeed, all the places you and I go to, are fairly full. Off metropolitan cities, middle-class residential housing continues to grow, with little let-up in prices in Chennai, Pune, Coimbatore and most of the “middle-class” cities.
It is true that malls have lower footfalls, that tourist arrivals are lower, that upper-end residences have no takers and commercial space is in oversupply—but these are bubbles of the last four years, and the fundamentals of the average consumer have not changed. FMCG companies continue to grow very well, and the sales of electronic goods have not slackened perceptibly.
There has been a good winter harvest, the paddy procurement is very good and the support prices have been higher than before, thus leaving the farmer with a good disposable surplus. There is also no shortage of savings—banks have had a good receipt of fixed deposits, the new schemes from Nabard and LIC have elicited excellent responses and people, in short, are sitting on cash. It is true that investments have moved out of mutual funds and equity and debt markets, and that investment capital is hard to find.
But it is also true that people are spending more carefully, weighing returns and risks better than they did in the earlier years. In short, the speculative urge has been dampened, but not the entrepreneurship or the drive for self-improvement. Doctors and chartered accountants, hospitals and educational institutions, lawyers and the judicial system, bureaucrats and the government and indeed, all sectors that provide the vaguely defined “public services” continue to do as well as in the previous years, and form the bedrock of basic growth that one would see in 2009.
Second, the anxious people who occupy a lot of English-speaking space are the big corporate houses, the large real estate developers, exporters, automobile manufacturers and, indeed, the large companies that figure in the stock markets.
These are the faces of the country’s integration with the rest of the world. But this is only a part of the Indian economy, and the steps taken by the government are likely to provide relief and opportunity to this group. And the companies are analysing their capex and growth plans more carefully, and investments are getting better focused and monitored.
In the last few years, the heady growth in valuation and leveraging had even the most conservative householder dabbling in risk. Now that he has lost some money, he is back to being what he has been all his life—a prudent spender, saver and investor in himself and his family. In fact, we are back to our core and basic values, at levels of income, consumption and living that is considerably higher than a decade ago, and therefore there is little doubt that the lessons of 2008 will form a springboard for growth.
Of course, this will not happen all at once, nor by itself. The government needs to infuse confidence in the growth story and not in the credit markets alone.
If it is prepared to invest in projects, others will, and yet the list of proposals recently approved by the cabinet, including universal secondary schooling, appears to focus on social rather than economic initiatives. Announcements for some metro rail projects or large power projects including nuclear power, expansion of the rail system and the like, are likely to charge entrepreneurs into participating together with the government. Like Tennyson’s Ulysses, it is the time for the government to “push off, and sitting well in order smite the sounding furrows, for my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset”.
We can do it.
S. Narayan is a former finance secretary and economic adviser to the prime minister.
CHINESE IS THE LANGUAGE OF THE FUTURE
Learning to learn Chinese
VR NARAYANASWAMI
Tomorrow belongs to China”, and “Chinese is the language of the future.” These are statements we hear from people returning after business visits to China. Be ready for tomorrow; don’t get left behind. Heeding these recommendations, I decided to go in for lessons in Chinese.
My first shock came when I heard that Chinese is a tonal language. The same word spoken in different tones can have different meanings. The classic example is the common word “ma”, which has four meanings when uttered with a high tone, a rising tone, a falling-rising tone and a falling tone. The pitfalls are many. I intend to say, “Your mother is a wonderful lady,” and end up saying “Your horse is a wonderful lady.” In course of time, however, I found that my fears were misplaced. In continuous speech, the tone variations get merged in the flow of speech.
When uttering single words, the tones become prominent.
The several names given to the country and to the language were confusing. In English literature, the country was known as Cathay, a name that survives in Cathay-Pacific. The Chinese name for the country is Zhongguo (sounds like Chung Kuo), and means “middle kingdom”. The name of the language then is Zhongwen, which refers to writing in particular. Another widely used name is Hanyu, the language of the Han people of China. In Taiwan it is called Guoyu, national language. In Singapore and South Asian countries it is Huayu, language of the Chinese. In the mainland, Left-leaning intellectuals wanted to put people at the centre, and preferred the name Putonghua, the speech of the common people. In 1956 the government adopted the term to describe standard Mandarin.
When we learn a new language, we start with the alphabet. Chinese is not an alphabet-based language; you cannot ask someone to spell the word pingguo (apple) in Chinese. Learner’s dictionaries for foreign learners transliterate Chinese words in the Romanized script known as “pinyin” and arrange the words alphabetically. After a short struggle with Chinese characters, I decided to stick to pinyin.
A unique feature of Chinese is the use of what is called measure words. They are words placed between numerals and nouns. In English we say “one book”, and in Chinese we place a measure word between numeral and noun.
The most common measure word is “ge”: We have “san ge pingguo” (three apples); “yi ge didi” (one younger brother).
The measure word is often dependent on the quantity or shape of the referent. For example, we use “zhi” for sticklike things, as in “yi zhi bi”, a pen. For a long narrow shape, we use “tiao”, as in “yi tiao he”, a river. Measure words do not contribute to the meaning of the expression, but learners have to spend some time learning their use.
When we begin learning Chinese, we expect it to have a grammatical structure like that of English, with tense, number, case, gender and other categories. But Chinese grammar is much simpler.
The verb has only one form for present, past and future. A single form, for example, “lai” which means “come”, can be used for simple or continuous, past, present or future, and singular or plural. Word order is also different. “I jog every day” becomes “wo meitian dou paobu” (I every day jog).
“Youju li zher luan bu luan?” (Post office from here distant not distant): “Is the post office far from here?” As in other languages, English words are increasingly being used in Chinese speech.
“Nan-peng-you” and “nupeng-you” are now considered old-fashioned and young Chinese prefer to say BF and GF for boyfriend and girlfriend.
Coca-Cola is “ke kou ke le”; beer is “pijiu”, “pi” as a semitransliteration of “beer” and “jiu” for alcoholic drink.
Names of the days of the week and names of the months in European languages are associated with the history and legend of Greece and Rome. In Chinese they are labelled with numerals: Monday to Saturday are weekdayone, weekday-two, weekdaythree and so on. Similarly, there are numerals with the common noun for month, “yue”. The names are monthone, month-two up to month-twelve. Note that October means the eighth month by etymology; but in Chinese it is called month-ten, or “shi yue”.
The final stage in learning Chinese is getting to know the cultural nuances of language in context. How do you address a married woman and a single woman? Can a foreigner be addressed as “tongzhi” or comrade? The normal way of opening a telephone conversation is to say “Wei”; but the same expression is considered rude in any other context. Besides learning grammatical structures, we have to learn to use the language in a socially acceptable way.
V.R. Narayanaswami, a former professor of English, has written several books and articles on the usage of the language. He looks at the peculiarities of business and popular English usage in his fortnightly column.
Comments can be sent toplainspeaking@livemint.com
VR NARAYANASWAMI
Tomorrow belongs to China”, and “Chinese is the language of the future.” These are statements we hear from people returning after business visits to China. Be ready for tomorrow; don’t get left behind. Heeding these recommendations, I decided to go in for lessons in Chinese.
My first shock came when I heard that Chinese is a tonal language. The same word spoken in different tones can have different meanings. The classic example is the common word “ma”, which has four meanings when uttered with a high tone, a rising tone, a falling-rising tone and a falling tone. The pitfalls are many. I intend to say, “Your mother is a wonderful lady,” and end up saying “Your horse is a wonderful lady.” In course of time, however, I found that my fears were misplaced. In continuous speech, the tone variations get merged in the flow of speech.
When uttering single words, the tones become prominent.
The several names given to the country and to the language were confusing. In English literature, the country was known as Cathay, a name that survives in Cathay-Pacific. The Chinese name for the country is Zhongguo (sounds like Chung Kuo), and means “middle kingdom”. The name of the language then is Zhongwen, which refers to writing in particular. Another widely used name is Hanyu, the language of the Han people of China. In Taiwan it is called Guoyu, national language. In Singapore and South Asian countries it is Huayu, language of the Chinese. In the mainland, Left-leaning intellectuals wanted to put people at the centre, and preferred the name Putonghua, the speech of the common people. In 1956 the government adopted the term to describe standard Mandarin.
When we learn a new language, we start with the alphabet. Chinese is not an alphabet-based language; you cannot ask someone to spell the word pingguo (apple) in Chinese. Learner’s dictionaries for foreign learners transliterate Chinese words in the Romanized script known as “pinyin” and arrange the words alphabetically. After a short struggle with Chinese characters, I decided to stick to pinyin.
A unique feature of Chinese is the use of what is called measure words. They are words placed between numerals and nouns. In English we say “one book”, and in Chinese we place a measure word between numeral and noun.
The most common measure word is “ge”: We have “san ge pingguo” (three apples); “yi ge didi” (one younger brother).
The measure word is often dependent on the quantity or shape of the referent. For example, we use “zhi” for sticklike things, as in “yi zhi bi”, a pen. For a long narrow shape, we use “tiao”, as in “yi tiao he”, a river. Measure words do not contribute to the meaning of the expression, but learners have to spend some time learning their use.
When we begin learning Chinese, we expect it to have a grammatical structure like that of English, with tense, number, case, gender and other categories. But Chinese grammar is much simpler.
The verb has only one form for present, past and future. A single form, for example, “lai” which means “come”, can be used for simple or continuous, past, present or future, and singular or plural. Word order is also different. “I jog every day” becomes “wo meitian dou paobu” (I every day jog).
“Youju li zher luan bu luan?” (Post office from here distant not distant): “Is the post office far from here?” As in other languages, English words are increasingly being used in Chinese speech.
“Nan-peng-you” and “nupeng-you” are now considered old-fashioned and young Chinese prefer to say BF and GF for boyfriend and girlfriend.
Coca-Cola is “ke kou ke le”; beer is “pijiu”, “pi” as a semitransliteration of “beer” and “jiu” for alcoholic drink.
Names of the days of the week and names of the months in European languages are associated with the history and legend of Greece and Rome. In Chinese they are labelled with numerals: Monday to Saturday are weekdayone, weekday-two, weekdaythree and so on. Similarly, there are numerals with the common noun for month, “yue”. The names are monthone, month-two up to month-twelve. Note that October means the eighth month by etymology; but in Chinese it is called month-ten, or “shi yue”.
The final stage in learning Chinese is getting to know the cultural nuances of language in context. How do you address a married woman and a single woman? Can a foreigner be addressed as “tongzhi” or comrade? The normal way of opening a telephone conversation is to say “Wei”; but the same expression is considered rude in any other context. Besides learning grammatical structures, we have to learn to use the language in a socially acceptable way.
V.R. Narayanaswami, a former professor of English, has written several books and articles on the usage of the language. He looks at the peculiarities of business and popular English usage in his fortnightly column.
Comments can be sent toplainspeaking@livemint.com
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Smash terror hideouts inside and outside India: Kalam
Smash terror hideouts inside and outside India: Kalam
Agencies
Posted: Jan 03, 2009 at 1852 hrs IST
Hamirpur, HP.
Former President A P J Abdul Kalam on Saturday advocated a three-pronged strategy to combat terror which included raiding and smashing militant hideouts both inside and outside the country.
Firstly, a vigorous national campaign, involving every citizen, should be launched to tackle the terror menace, he said interacting with students in Hamirpur.
Secondly, Kalam advocated carrying out raids to destroy terror hideouts both inside and outside the country.
"Terror can be eliminated by raiding and smashing militant hideouts both inside and outside the country," he said.
Lastly, there was need for speedy trial of cases relating to terrorism to punish perpetrators of such crimes, he said.
The ‘Missile Man’ voiced concern over rising incidents of terror in the country which, he said, were posing a ‘big threat’ to the country.
Agencies
Posted: Jan 03, 2009 at 1852 hrs IST
Hamirpur, HP.
Former President A P J Abdul Kalam on Saturday advocated a three-pronged strategy to combat terror which included raiding and smashing militant hideouts both inside and outside the country.
Firstly, a vigorous national campaign, involving every citizen, should be launched to tackle the terror menace, he said interacting with students in Hamirpur.
Secondly, Kalam advocated carrying out raids to destroy terror hideouts both inside and outside the country.
"Terror can be eliminated by raiding and smashing militant hideouts both inside and outside the country," he said.
Lastly, there was need for speedy trial of cases relating to terrorism to punish perpetrators of such crimes, he said.
The ‘Missile Man’ voiced concern over rising incidents of terror in the country which, he said, were posing a ‘big threat’ to the country.
THE SIKKIM INITIATIVE & NATHU LA
The Sikkim Initiative
By:KP Vasudevan Nair
OVER the past six weeks four international conferences were held on issues directly concerning regionalism and sub-regionalism in the contemporary Asian context.
The first, in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, on how the Asian regions should face the challenges posed by globalisation was indeed the most international of all of these, with high-level participation by ministers and congressmen from several Asian countries, scholars from Europe, Asia and Australia and, adding to its weight and glory, even Lord George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury.
The second, at the Chinese heritage city of Dali in Yunnan, deliberated on the prospects of socio-economic cooperation between southwest China and eastern India with special focus on West Bengal and Yunnan. It received wide media attention from within China and even Hong Kong and was followed by a high profile visit of a 30-member delegation headed by the governor of Yunnan to Kolkata to work out details of cooperation in various fields.
The third, a low-profile but meaningful exercise, was held at the Asiatic Society, Kolkata, with an India-China Interface in the aftermath of opening Nathu-la for border trade that was to have been inaugurated by Union external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee but he could not attend. Chinese Consul General Mao Siwei was chief guest and there were a number of specialists from Delhi and Canada. A new sub-regional Silk Route from Nathu-la to Namyung was conceived among other things.
The fourth, the immediate reason for this article, concluded on 21 December at Sikkim University, Gangtok. Titled “International Conference on Sub-regionalism Approach to Regional Integration in South Asia”, this was also to have been inaugurated by Pranab Mukherjee but again he could not make it under circumstances understandable to Indians. Sikkim governor BP Singh delivered the presidential address. Pranab Mukherjee’s speech was read out and it contained significant messages to Pakistan on the issue of terrorism, reflecting the prevailing mood.
That his message found prominent place in the regular newscast from Delhi made it clear that it was not meant only for those at “Chintan Bhawan” of the University. The need for a peaceful periphery which Mukherjee often emphasises during his speeches is, it seems, not different from “the need for a rise in harmony” that Chinese leaders also seek in their neighbourhood. That the foreign minister dealt with policy aspects of India’s current relations with almost every country in the region indicates his approval of the concept on which the conference was held, the first of its kind in a North-eastern border state.
A quick look at the concept note prepared by vice-chancellor Mahendra Lama with emphasis on the urgent need for a new sub-regional approach, has enormous logic behind it, for no one can dispute that in effect the regional approach in the shape of Saarc has not brought about the expected gains to the region. Boastful claims made at Saarc summits made the region almost a laughing stock in the eyes of even small Asean countries.
Have we forgotten the assurance our leaders gave at the Colombo meet in 1999 that poverty would be totally eradicated from the region within three years? Leaders of the same countries at the last summit in the same city this year sheepishly admitted over 25 per cent of the region still survived on less than a dollar a day! The major share of the responsibility for this pathetic situation rests with the two larger countries, India and Pakistan. India’s literacy rate is lower than that of most of the countries and so is the human development index. More alarming, there is still no serious attempt to correct the situation. No wonder the smaller members do not find Saarc a sustainable mechanism and are resorting to multilateralism, following, interestingly, India and Pakistan!
In the field of tourism, the recent gains look impressive only because of the low base which it rose from. Small Cambodia, with 12 million population, receives two million tourists a year, and India with a population nearly 100 times larger still has not reached five million!
From an Indian perspective, a new sub-regional approach seems necessary since the existing ones, some of them like Mekong Ganga, have been week-kneed reactions to successful initiatives like the Greater Mekong Sub-regional Cooperation and the gains, if any, have been negligible. New geographical configuration cannot be avoided when a fresh effort is being made and this justifies the Sikkim Initiative’s inclusion of Bhutan and the whole of southwest China, including Tibet, although there is scepticism among some observers about effectively including Bangladesh and Nepal. This view is endorsed by the fact that official representation was absent at the conference from these two countries, unlike Bhutan which sent an official.
As it happened at the Margherita (Assam) conference three years ago, two important officials, one from the Yunnan Development Research Centre and the other from Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, could not attend due to a procedural delay in receiving their visas, but an academic from Sichuan made it to Gangtok, perhaps the first Chinese national to be present at an international conference there.
Among the participants were some who could not help wondering whether this Sikkim Initiative was anything more than “Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar Plus Two” — the plus two being Bhutan and Nepal. Having been a participant at the last few BCIM meetings, this writer is not too optimistic of the BCIM, at least in the short term. For instance, a Kunming-Kolkata car rally, which was agreed upon at the 2007 Dhaka meeting, has not yet materialised due to problems now linked to Bangladesh.
Even in its eighth year, the BCIM remains non-institutionalised with a poor progress report. Coming from India as it does, the new Sikkim Initiative will have a freshness of its own and could convert Sikkim with its unique location into a new and commonly acceptable economic and cultural hub. Only those who spend some time in Sikkim and closely interact with its people will know how great its attractions are. Participants from “mainland” India were also astonished at the high intellectual level of the young professors and the cool efficiency of the executives of the university which is not even two years old. One major omission noticed at the seminars was the apparent absence of participants with adequate practical experience, especially in the case of trade and tourism. The involvement of the chambers of commerce may be considered in future deliberations.
Detailed presentations on forests and other bioresources by the Sikkim forest department officials brought to light the immense natural wealth waiting to be exploited. From an academic angle, it may not be out of place to suggest that Sikkim University, with its sub-regional aspirations, joins the trilateral academic projects initiated by the New York-based India-China Institute involving New School University, Yunnan University and Calcutta University, the details of which will soon be finalised in Kunming, capital of Yunnan.
(The author is Director, Asia Centre, and Honorary Fellow, Maulana Abul Kalam Institute of Asian Studies. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at kpv@asiacentre.org)
By:KP Vasudevan Nair
OVER the past six weeks four international conferences were held on issues directly concerning regionalism and sub-regionalism in the contemporary Asian context.
The first, in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, on how the Asian regions should face the challenges posed by globalisation was indeed the most international of all of these, with high-level participation by ministers and congressmen from several Asian countries, scholars from Europe, Asia and Australia and, adding to its weight and glory, even Lord George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury.
The second, at the Chinese heritage city of Dali in Yunnan, deliberated on the prospects of socio-economic cooperation between southwest China and eastern India with special focus on West Bengal and Yunnan. It received wide media attention from within China and even Hong Kong and was followed by a high profile visit of a 30-member delegation headed by the governor of Yunnan to Kolkata to work out details of cooperation in various fields.
The third, a low-profile but meaningful exercise, was held at the Asiatic Society, Kolkata, with an India-China Interface in the aftermath of opening Nathu-la for border trade that was to have been inaugurated by Union external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee but he could not attend. Chinese Consul General Mao Siwei was chief guest and there were a number of specialists from Delhi and Canada. A new sub-regional Silk Route from Nathu-la to Namyung was conceived among other things.
The fourth, the immediate reason for this article, concluded on 21 December at Sikkim University, Gangtok. Titled “International Conference on Sub-regionalism Approach to Regional Integration in South Asia”, this was also to have been inaugurated by Pranab Mukherjee but again he could not make it under circumstances understandable to Indians. Sikkim governor BP Singh delivered the presidential address. Pranab Mukherjee’s speech was read out and it contained significant messages to Pakistan on the issue of terrorism, reflecting the prevailing mood.
That his message found prominent place in the regular newscast from Delhi made it clear that it was not meant only for those at “Chintan Bhawan” of the University. The need for a peaceful periphery which Mukherjee often emphasises during his speeches is, it seems, not different from “the need for a rise in harmony” that Chinese leaders also seek in their neighbourhood. That the foreign minister dealt with policy aspects of India’s current relations with almost every country in the region indicates his approval of the concept on which the conference was held, the first of its kind in a North-eastern border state.
A quick look at the concept note prepared by vice-chancellor Mahendra Lama with emphasis on the urgent need for a new sub-regional approach, has enormous logic behind it, for no one can dispute that in effect the regional approach in the shape of Saarc has not brought about the expected gains to the region. Boastful claims made at Saarc summits made the region almost a laughing stock in the eyes of even small Asean countries.
Have we forgotten the assurance our leaders gave at the Colombo meet in 1999 that poverty would be totally eradicated from the region within three years? Leaders of the same countries at the last summit in the same city this year sheepishly admitted over 25 per cent of the region still survived on less than a dollar a day! The major share of the responsibility for this pathetic situation rests with the two larger countries, India and Pakistan. India’s literacy rate is lower than that of most of the countries and so is the human development index. More alarming, there is still no serious attempt to correct the situation. No wonder the smaller members do not find Saarc a sustainable mechanism and are resorting to multilateralism, following, interestingly, India and Pakistan!
In the field of tourism, the recent gains look impressive only because of the low base which it rose from. Small Cambodia, with 12 million population, receives two million tourists a year, and India with a population nearly 100 times larger still has not reached five million!
From an Indian perspective, a new sub-regional approach seems necessary since the existing ones, some of them like Mekong Ganga, have been week-kneed reactions to successful initiatives like the Greater Mekong Sub-regional Cooperation and the gains, if any, have been negligible. New geographical configuration cannot be avoided when a fresh effort is being made and this justifies the Sikkim Initiative’s inclusion of Bhutan and the whole of southwest China, including Tibet, although there is scepticism among some observers about effectively including Bangladesh and Nepal. This view is endorsed by the fact that official representation was absent at the conference from these two countries, unlike Bhutan which sent an official.
As it happened at the Margherita (Assam) conference three years ago, two important officials, one from the Yunnan Development Research Centre and the other from Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, could not attend due to a procedural delay in receiving their visas, but an academic from Sichuan made it to Gangtok, perhaps the first Chinese national to be present at an international conference there.
Among the participants were some who could not help wondering whether this Sikkim Initiative was anything more than “Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar Plus Two” — the plus two being Bhutan and Nepal. Having been a participant at the last few BCIM meetings, this writer is not too optimistic of the BCIM, at least in the short term. For instance, a Kunming-Kolkata car rally, which was agreed upon at the 2007 Dhaka meeting, has not yet materialised due to problems now linked to Bangladesh.
Even in its eighth year, the BCIM remains non-institutionalised with a poor progress report. Coming from India as it does, the new Sikkim Initiative will have a freshness of its own and could convert Sikkim with its unique location into a new and commonly acceptable economic and cultural hub. Only those who spend some time in Sikkim and closely interact with its people will know how great its attractions are. Participants from “mainland” India were also astonished at the high intellectual level of the young professors and the cool efficiency of the executives of the university which is not even two years old. One major omission noticed at the seminars was the apparent absence of participants with adequate practical experience, especially in the case of trade and tourism. The involvement of the chambers of commerce may be considered in future deliberations.
Detailed presentations on forests and other bioresources by the Sikkim forest department officials brought to light the immense natural wealth waiting to be exploited. From an academic angle, it may not be out of place to suggest that Sikkim University, with its sub-regional aspirations, joins the trilateral academic projects initiated by the New York-based India-China Institute involving New School University, Yunnan University and Calcutta University, the details of which will soon be finalised in Kunming, capital of Yunnan.
(The author is Director, Asia Centre, and Honorary Fellow, Maulana Abul Kalam Institute of Asian Studies. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at kpv@asiacentre.org)
Friday, January 2, 2009
5.5 LACS TOURISTS VISITED IN 2008 TO SIKKIM
Sikkim receive 60per cent of tourism funds from Ministry of Tourism (MoT) earmarked for NE states
Gangtok, Dec 31 : Sikkim has received a record sanction of 60 per cent of the total funds for tourism projects earmarked by the Union Ministry of Tourism (MoT) for the entire Northeastern states during 2007-08, an official report stated.
In its annual report, the state tourism department said the Union Ministry of Tourism had sanctioned 19 tourism projects for 2007-08, totalling to around Rs 75.46 crore.
Besides these MoT projects, a Rs 27.24 crore project for construction of passenger ropeway from Namchi to Samdruptse in South Sikkim has been funded by the DoNER Ministry and State plan. The project has achieved 20 per cent progress.
The department also claimed that a large number of tourism projects sanctioned during 2006-07 and 2007-08 are either completed or in progress.
''As a result of its incredible performance, Sikkim Tourism has been able to establish an excellent track record with the Union Ministry of Tourism,'' the report said, adding, this has certainly attributed to more Centrally sponsored schemes from MoT since 2002.
Many tourism proposals prioritised for 2008-09 are already under active consideration of MoT, the report states.
For 2008-09, Sikkim has been selected as the only state in the entire Northeast region for the 'Major Destination Development Project' for Gangtok. The project is being funded by MoT at a tentative cost of Rs 23.9 crore. A proposal worth Rs 14.30 crore is also pending before MoT for development of herbal medical tourism Rakdong-Tintek in East Sikkim.
Endorsing its tourism image, the hilly state has received the Northeast award of the MoT for 'Best Tourism Performing State' consecutively for the last seven years. Sikkim also shared the national award in tourism with Maharashtra in 2007-08.
As a result of large scale tourism value additions, Sikkim has witnessed a steady increase of tourist arrivals benefitting a large section of local community and tourism stakeholders. The average annual increase in tourism footfalls in Sikkim over the past five years is to the order of 22 per cent, the report states.
A record number of 5.5 lakh tourists visited Sikkim during this year and the state is targetting to attract at least seven lakh tourists by the next three years.
--- UNI
Gangtok, Dec 31 : Sikkim has received a record sanction of 60 per cent of the total funds for tourism projects earmarked by the Union Ministry of Tourism (MoT) for the entire Northeastern states during 2007-08, an official report stated.
In its annual report, the state tourism department said the Union Ministry of Tourism had sanctioned 19 tourism projects for 2007-08, totalling to around Rs 75.46 crore.
Besides these MoT projects, a Rs 27.24 crore project for construction of passenger ropeway from Namchi to Samdruptse in South Sikkim has been funded by the DoNER Ministry and State plan. The project has achieved 20 per cent progress.
The department also claimed that a large number of tourism projects sanctioned during 2006-07 and 2007-08 are either completed or in progress.
''As a result of its incredible performance, Sikkim Tourism has been able to establish an excellent track record with the Union Ministry of Tourism,'' the report said, adding, this has certainly attributed to more Centrally sponsored schemes from MoT since 2002.
Many tourism proposals prioritised for 2008-09 are already under active consideration of MoT, the report states.
For 2008-09, Sikkim has been selected as the only state in the entire Northeast region for the 'Major Destination Development Project' for Gangtok. The project is being funded by MoT at a tentative cost of Rs 23.9 crore. A proposal worth Rs 14.30 crore is also pending before MoT for development of herbal medical tourism Rakdong-Tintek in East Sikkim.
Endorsing its tourism image, the hilly state has received the Northeast award of the MoT for 'Best Tourism Performing State' consecutively for the last seven years. Sikkim also shared the national award in tourism with Maharashtra in 2007-08.
As a result of large scale tourism value additions, Sikkim has witnessed a steady increase of tourist arrivals benefitting a large section of local community and tourism stakeholders. The average annual increase in tourism footfalls in Sikkim over the past five years is to the order of 22 per cent, the report states.
A record number of 5.5 lakh tourists visited Sikkim during this year and the state is targetting to attract at least seven lakh tourists by the next three years.
--- UNI
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Army rescues 1300 stuck in Nathu-la
Army rescues 1300 stuck in Nathu-la
Rescued tourists wait for government vehicles to take them back to Gangtok.
Gangtok, Dec. 27:2008
Over a thousand tourists, stuck overnight near the India-China border at Nathu-la, returned to Gangtok today, assisted by the army.
The 1,343 people had left Gangtok for a tour of Nathu-la, Tsongo lake and Baba Mandir — located 12,500-14,000ft above sea level — last morning. Tourist vehicles generally leave the Sikkim capital by 9am and reach Nathu-la, 50km away, around 11.30am. At 3pm, Nathu-la closes for tourists.
Yesterday, 68 cars of the 277 that had gone towards Nathu-la in east Sikkim returned to Gangtok but the rest got stranded as the snowfall became heavy after noon.
“Everything was okay till afternoon. Then, suddenly, it began snowing heavily. Our vehicles got stuck and we could not move,” said Gobinda Bose, a tourist from Calcutta.
As the cars waited for help, armymen posted in the border area noticed them. “We were waiting in sub-zero temperatures when army personnel came to our rescue,” Bose said.
Jawans of the third battalion of the Bihar regiment, stationed at Nathu-la, took the tourists to four army bases at Thegu, Tsongo and the 17th Mile, sources said.
Tourists feeling unwell — less oxygen and extreme cold in mountain areas causes altitude sickness — were taken to a nearby army hospital. Others were given blankets, heaters and food. Temperature in the area drops to -15 degree Celsius after sundown in winter.
“We mobilised our vehicles and took them to our locations,” said an army officer stationed at the 17th Mile transit camp, near Tsongo.
“If the armymen had not been there, God knows what would have happened to us. They gave us a new life,” said Madan Lal Meena, who had come from Rajasthan.
This morning, around 50 army vehicles took the tourists to the Fifth Mile post, where administrative officials and members of the Travel Agents Association of Sikkim were waiting with vehicles to take them back to Gangtok.
Rescued tourists wait for government vehicles to take them back to Gangtok.
Gangtok, Dec. 27:2008
Over a thousand tourists, stuck overnight near the India-China border at Nathu-la, returned to Gangtok today, assisted by the army.
The 1,343 people had left Gangtok for a tour of Nathu-la, Tsongo lake and Baba Mandir — located 12,500-14,000ft above sea level — last morning. Tourist vehicles generally leave the Sikkim capital by 9am and reach Nathu-la, 50km away, around 11.30am. At 3pm, Nathu-la closes for tourists.
Yesterday, 68 cars of the 277 that had gone towards Nathu-la in east Sikkim returned to Gangtok but the rest got stranded as the snowfall became heavy after noon.
“Everything was okay till afternoon. Then, suddenly, it began snowing heavily. Our vehicles got stuck and we could not move,” said Gobinda Bose, a tourist from Calcutta.
As the cars waited for help, armymen posted in the border area noticed them. “We were waiting in sub-zero temperatures when army personnel came to our rescue,” Bose said.
Jawans of the third battalion of the Bihar regiment, stationed at Nathu-la, took the tourists to four army bases at Thegu, Tsongo and the 17th Mile, sources said.
Tourists feeling unwell — less oxygen and extreme cold in mountain areas causes altitude sickness — were taken to a nearby army hospital. Others were given blankets, heaters and food. Temperature in the area drops to -15 degree Celsius after sundown in winter.
“We mobilised our vehicles and took them to our locations,” said an army officer stationed at the 17th Mile transit camp, near Tsongo.
“If the armymen had not been there, God knows what would have happened to us. They gave us a new life,” said Madan Lal Meena, who had come from Rajasthan.
This morning, around 50 army vehicles took the tourists to the Fifth Mile post, where administrative officials and members of the Travel Agents Association of Sikkim were waiting with vehicles to take them back to Gangtok.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
India at the threshold of big opportunity
India at the threshold of big opportunity
[New Delhi, 20 December,2008] Young India in an aging world today stands at the doorway of a huge opportunity. This was the message delivered at the concluding session of the four-day Ideas India 2008 conference hosted by Aspen Institute India here today. The conference examined, evaluated and analyzed some of India's biggest challenges and opportunities.
Speaking at the session, Mr Nandan Nilekani, Executive Co-Chairman, Infosys Technologies, named the first of the big opportunities as the 'demographic dividend', which is that for the next 30 years the largest percentage of population in India will be of youth. But if we are not able to use this opportunity, the energy, discontent and anger of the youth can also turn it into a disaster.
The second resource we have is human capital. "A few decades back we used to think of people as burden, but now we think of them as capital", Mr Nilekani said. Other four resources that we already have are diverse entrepreneurship, technology, democracy and English language, which has today transformed from the language of the elite to the language of aspiration.
Taking a leaf out of his own latest book - Imaging India: Ideas for the New Century - Mr Nilakani said there are some areas on which we as a nation have complete agreement. Urbanization is no longer a dirty word. We are sure that we need primary education, infrastructure, and a single market.
There are certain things which we must do. The first is that we must use technology for improving governance and transparency. We have to evolve a new health model which revolves around wellness rather than cure for diseases, a pension or a social security scheme, clean environment and a new energy model. The energy model should not be based on the hydrocarbons. We should be able to show more economic growth with less emission of greenhouse gases.
For health, Mr Nilekani suggested a hub-and-spoke model for health, making full use of technology. He said, it is not feasible to have a full functioning hospital in every place.
Mr Gautam Thapar, Vice Chairman, Aspen Institute India; Chairman, Avantha Group, blamed the old labour laws for employment not keeping pace with economic growth. He said that as long as the labour laws remain the same the industry will prefer to use technology and machines rather than employ people.
Mr Jamshyd Godrej, Chairman, Aspen Institute India; Chairman and Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co Ltd, thanked the participants and assured them the Institute will take the initiative in implementing the ideas generated during this conference.
[New Delhi, 20 December,2008] Young India in an aging world today stands at the doorway of a huge opportunity. This was the message delivered at the concluding session of the four-day Ideas India 2008 conference hosted by Aspen Institute India here today. The conference examined, evaluated and analyzed some of India's biggest challenges and opportunities.
Speaking at the session, Mr Nandan Nilekani, Executive Co-Chairman, Infosys Technologies, named the first of the big opportunities as the 'demographic dividend', which is that for the next 30 years the largest percentage of population in India will be of youth. But if we are not able to use this opportunity, the energy, discontent and anger of the youth can also turn it into a disaster.
The second resource we have is human capital. "A few decades back we used to think of people as burden, but now we think of them as capital", Mr Nilekani said. Other four resources that we already have are diverse entrepreneurship, technology, democracy and English language, which has today transformed from the language of the elite to the language of aspiration.
Taking a leaf out of his own latest book - Imaging India: Ideas for the New Century - Mr Nilakani said there are some areas on which we as a nation have complete agreement. Urbanization is no longer a dirty word. We are sure that we need primary education, infrastructure, and a single market.
There are certain things which we must do. The first is that we must use technology for improving governance and transparency. We have to evolve a new health model which revolves around wellness rather than cure for diseases, a pension or a social security scheme, clean environment and a new energy model. The energy model should not be based on the hydrocarbons. We should be able to show more economic growth with less emission of greenhouse gases.
For health, Mr Nilekani suggested a hub-and-spoke model for health, making full use of technology. He said, it is not feasible to have a full functioning hospital in every place.
Mr Gautam Thapar, Vice Chairman, Aspen Institute India; Chairman, Avantha Group, blamed the old labour laws for employment not keeping pace with economic growth. He said that as long as the labour laws remain the same the industry will prefer to use technology and machines rather than employ people.
Mr Jamshyd Godrej, Chairman, Aspen Institute India; Chairman and Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co Ltd, thanked the participants and assured them the Institute will take the initiative in implementing the ideas generated during this conference.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sikkim Ranks High on Environmental Sustainability Index
“North Eastern States have been able to sustain population pressure and environmental stress”
Gangtok, Dec 21 : Sikkim’s green initiatives have started to bear fruits and how. The State has bagged the second spot in the country’s environmental sustainability index (ESI).
The best performing state in the 2008 ranking is Manipur, followed by Sikkim and Tripura with the lowest ranking states are Punjab, Gujarat and Haryana based on study of parameters like population pressure, stress on environment, environment systems, health vulnerability and environment governance.
The index has been prepared by the Centre for Development Finance (CDF) of the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) based on the environmental performance of states in the country. The ESI shows that the state is at 22nd place in a list that ranks the ability of 28 states to protect their environment in the coming years.
At the launch function held in Chennai yesterday, CDF release the report for 28 states in the country.
The awards for Sikkim and Manipur mean that the North Eastern States have been able to sustain population pressure and environmental stress.
During the launch function, Sikkim’s environment and forest department representative Pradeep Kumar highlighted how the government’s laws like those relating to the ban on plastics, use of chemicals in farming and environment cess, had helped in conservation and bring in more money for forestry.
Chattisgarh member secretary of environment P V Narasigham Rao said the state was setting an example by finely balancing between industrialisation and ecology by strict monitoring. Meghalaya forest commissioner C D Kynjing said the Centre should create a “green fund” for north-eastern states for increasing forest cover.
Award for green states was given to five select states, who had performed well on various aspects of environmental sustainability, viz., Himachal Pradesh (government’s initiative), Manipur (people’s initiative), Chattishgarh (least polluted water), Sikkim (conservation of natural resources) and Meghalaya (air quality).
“ESI is an attempt to create a baseline of state’s relative position in a sustainable trajectory. It has a strong policy focus and is designed to advocate analytical and empirical foundation for environmental policy making,” said Jessica Wallack, director, CDF.
Studying 44 variables clustered into 15 indicators under five policy components to arrive at the ESI, the study reveals that none of the state is on a sustainable trajectory. At the same time, none of the states have performed very poor in all dimensions. Most states have done well in some areas and need to improve a lot in many other issues, the report says.
Sikkim Express
Gangtok, Dec 21 : Sikkim’s green initiatives have started to bear fruits and how. The State has bagged the second spot in the country’s environmental sustainability index (ESI).
The best performing state in the 2008 ranking is Manipur, followed by Sikkim and Tripura with the lowest ranking states are Punjab, Gujarat and Haryana based on study of parameters like population pressure, stress on environment, environment systems, health vulnerability and environment governance.
The index has been prepared by the Centre for Development Finance (CDF) of the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) based on the environmental performance of states in the country. The ESI shows that the state is at 22nd place in a list that ranks the ability of 28 states to protect their environment in the coming years.
At the launch function held in Chennai yesterday, CDF release the report for 28 states in the country.
The awards for Sikkim and Manipur mean that the North Eastern States have been able to sustain population pressure and environmental stress.
During the launch function, Sikkim’s environment and forest department representative Pradeep Kumar highlighted how the government’s laws like those relating to the ban on plastics, use of chemicals in farming and environment cess, had helped in conservation and bring in more money for forestry.
Chattisgarh member secretary of environment P V Narasigham Rao said the state was setting an example by finely balancing between industrialisation and ecology by strict monitoring. Meghalaya forest commissioner C D Kynjing said the Centre should create a “green fund” for north-eastern states for increasing forest cover.
Award for green states was given to five select states, who had performed well on various aspects of environmental sustainability, viz., Himachal Pradesh (government’s initiative), Manipur (people’s initiative), Chattishgarh (least polluted water), Sikkim (conservation of natural resources) and Meghalaya (air quality).
“ESI is an attempt to create a baseline of state’s relative position in a sustainable trajectory. It has a strong policy focus and is designed to advocate analytical and empirical foundation for environmental policy making,” said Jessica Wallack, director, CDF.
Studying 44 variables clustered into 15 indicators under five policy components to arrive at the ESI, the study reveals that none of the state is on a sustainable trajectory. At the same time, none of the states have performed very poor in all dimensions. Most states have done well in some areas and need to improve a lot in many other issues, the report says.
Sikkim Express
WAR CLOUDS HOVER ALONG INDO PAK
NEW DELHI, DEC 20
A high-level assessment of the security scenario in the light of Indo-Pak tensions was undertaken at a marathon meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Defence Ministry here tonight.
Three senior-most Ministers, Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony and P Chidambaram, besides National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, three services chiefs and intelligence chiefs attended in the meeting, which lasted around four hours. There was no media briefing on it.
Meanwhile, the army is understood to have cancelled leave to its personnel till April.
Singh drove from his residence to the South Block housing the Defence Ministry for the crucial meeting.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of a new low in ties with Pakistan, which is not seen as actively cooperating with India in bringing to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks trained from their soil.
Meanwhile, the international intelligence community believes that India will likely attack PoK or elsewhere in Pakistan to settle scores for the multiple November 26 Mumbai attacks.
Mukherjee’s statement, on Friday, at an international conference in Gangtok, Sikkim appears to have lent credence to this suspicion of the global intelligence community.
At the conference Mukherjee said, “If a country cannot keep the assurances that it has given, then it obliges us to consider the entire range of options that exist to protect our interests and people from this menace.”
The suspicion of an Indian attack on Pakistan was raised by Stratfor, a US based private intelligence service provider.
In its latest intelligence forecast, Stratfor said, “Indian military operations against targets in Pakistan have in fact been prepared and await the signal to go forward.”
Stratfor said, unlike the massive troop mobilisation after the Parliament attack in 2002, this time, India’s war preparations are clouded in secrecy and so are invisible.
A high-level assessment of the security scenario in the light of Indo-Pak tensions was undertaken at a marathon meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Defence Ministry here tonight.
Three senior-most Ministers, Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony and P Chidambaram, besides National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, three services chiefs and intelligence chiefs attended in the meeting, which lasted around four hours. There was no media briefing on it.
Meanwhile, the army is understood to have cancelled leave to its personnel till April.
Singh drove from his residence to the South Block housing the Defence Ministry for the crucial meeting.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of a new low in ties with Pakistan, which is not seen as actively cooperating with India in bringing to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks trained from their soil.
Meanwhile, the international intelligence community believes that India will likely attack PoK or elsewhere in Pakistan to settle scores for the multiple November 26 Mumbai attacks.
Mukherjee’s statement, on Friday, at an international conference in Gangtok, Sikkim appears to have lent credence to this suspicion of the global intelligence community.
At the conference Mukherjee said, “If a country cannot keep the assurances that it has given, then it obliges us to consider the entire range of options that exist to protect our interests and people from this menace.”
The suspicion of an Indian attack on Pakistan was raised by Stratfor, a US based private intelligence service provider.
In its latest intelligence forecast, Stratfor said, “Indian military operations against targets in Pakistan have in fact been prepared and await the signal to go forward.”
Stratfor said, unlike the massive troop mobilisation after the Parliament attack in 2002, this time, India’s war preparations are clouded in secrecy and so are invisible.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
POWERFUL PERSONALITIES OF 2008- NEWSWEEK
New York, 20 DEC 2008.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan have been ranked among the 50 most powerful people in the world by the prestigious US-based magazine 'Newsweek' magazine in a list topped by President- elect Barack Obama.
Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who controls the country's nuclear weapons, is placed 20th on the list of the global "power elite" at the beginning of 2009 in the magazine's January issue.
Obama, who scripted history by becoming the first black-American to be voted to the White House, is followed by Chinese President Hu Jintao, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Markel and powerful Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
A surprise inclusion in the list, which the magazine admits is subjective, is Osama bin Laden, whom the Newsweek describes as "global terrorist." North Korean dictator Jim Jong II also finds a place in the list.
Placing Sonia Gandhi at 17th spot, the magazine says though Indian political scene is riven by factions, Congress remains the strongest national force and rules unchallenged.
"In the world's largest democracy, she is the queen." The magazine describes Shahrukh Khan, who occupies 41st spot, as the 'King of Bollywood'.
On Kayani, it says, that in theory this mumbling chain-smoking Pakistan army chief answers to President Asif Ali Zardari. But Kayani and his troops remain the dominant power in what could be the most dangerous country in the world, it adds.
About 47-year-old Obama, it says the presidency of the "intensely charismatic" Democrat, who will be inaugurated on January 20, will be judged on how he handles the economic crisis that now envelops the US and the world. "For Obama to be remembered as a great President, he has to do nothing less than rescue capitalism."
For bin Laden, who finds 42nd spot, the magazine says the manhunt may not have been successful, but it has driven him far underground. Once a glutton for publicity, he has not shot a new video since September 2007, and no audio message from him has been heard since May 2008, it says.
But as the Mumbai attacks showed, bin Laden's ideology continues to inflict monstrous harm," the magazine points out.
Awarding Chinese President Hu second place after Obama, Newsweek says he is a guy "you wouldn't think twice about cautious, colourless and corporate and in the past, he has lost spotlight to other world leaders with bigger egos and sharper elbows."
"But to underestimate Hu would be a monumental error. His position as China's president makes him CEO of a financial juggernaut that's projected to post USD 280 billion trade surplus this year.
"While the rest of the world plunges deeper into recession, Hu the Humble is emerging as the one who is holding the lifeline," it says.
"Economists at Deutsche Bank forecast that the world economy will expand a meager 0.2 per cent in 2009 the worst year since at least 1950. In 2007, growth was almost 5 per cent. Without stronger growth, the slump might feed on itself and fuel economic nationalism," the magazine warns.
Others on the list include the Dalai Lama, former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, Iranian strongman Ayatollah Ali Khemenei, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, American General David Petraeus, Iraqi leader Nuri al-Maliki, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Pope Benedict XVI, Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch and popular show host Oprah Winfrey.
Source: ExpressIndia
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan have been ranked among the 50 most powerful people in the world by the prestigious US-based magazine 'Newsweek' magazine in a list topped by President- elect Barack Obama.
Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who controls the country's nuclear weapons, is placed 20th on the list of the global "power elite" at the beginning of 2009 in the magazine's January issue.
Obama, who scripted history by becoming the first black-American to be voted to the White House, is followed by Chinese President Hu Jintao, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Markel and powerful Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
A surprise inclusion in the list, which the magazine admits is subjective, is Osama bin Laden, whom the Newsweek describes as "global terrorist." North Korean dictator Jim Jong II also finds a place in the list.
Placing Sonia Gandhi at 17th spot, the magazine says though Indian political scene is riven by factions, Congress remains the strongest national force and rules unchallenged.
"In the world's largest democracy, she is the queen." The magazine describes Shahrukh Khan, who occupies 41st spot, as the 'King of Bollywood'.
On Kayani, it says, that in theory this mumbling chain-smoking Pakistan army chief answers to President Asif Ali Zardari. But Kayani and his troops remain the dominant power in what could be the most dangerous country in the world, it adds.
About 47-year-old Obama, it says the presidency of the "intensely charismatic" Democrat, who will be inaugurated on January 20, will be judged on how he handles the economic crisis that now envelops the US and the world. "For Obama to be remembered as a great President, he has to do nothing less than rescue capitalism."
For bin Laden, who finds 42nd spot, the magazine says the manhunt may not have been successful, but it has driven him far underground. Once a glutton for publicity, he has not shot a new video since September 2007, and no audio message from him has been heard since May 2008, it says.
But as the Mumbai attacks showed, bin Laden's ideology continues to inflict monstrous harm," the magazine points out.
Awarding Chinese President Hu second place after Obama, Newsweek says he is a guy "you wouldn't think twice about cautious, colourless and corporate and in the past, he has lost spotlight to other world leaders with bigger egos and sharper elbows."
"But to underestimate Hu would be a monumental error. His position as China's president makes him CEO of a financial juggernaut that's projected to post USD 280 billion trade surplus this year.
"While the rest of the world plunges deeper into recession, Hu the Humble is emerging as the one who is holding the lifeline," it says.
"Economists at Deutsche Bank forecast that the world economy will expand a meager 0.2 per cent in 2009 the worst year since at least 1950. In 2007, growth was almost 5 per cent. Without stronger growth, the slump might feed on itself and fuel economic nationalism," the magazine warns.
Others on the list include the Dalai Lama, former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, Iranian strongman Ayatollah Ali Khemenei, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, American General David Petraeus, Iraqi leader Nuri al-Maliki, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Pope Benedict XVI, Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch and popular show host Oprah Winfrey.
Source: ExpressIndia
SIKKIM POLL LIKELY TO BE ANNOUNCED IN FEB END
NEW DELHI:20 DEC 2008. With the Election Commission getting clear indications that the government wants to last the full term, the dates for the 2009 general
election are likely to be announced in the last week of February.
Highly placed sources said unlike the 2004 general election, the next poll could be in more than four phases. But a few states could have single-phased polls also.
Simultaneously, the schedule for assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Sikkim would also be announced.
Explaining the rationale for more than a four-phase election, sources said apart from logistic reasons, the EC is also taking into account delimitation, Naxal violence, insurgency and increase in election booths to eight lakh from seven lakh at present.
The next general election would also be a test for senior most election commissioner Navin Chawla who would take over from CEC N Gopalaswamy in the middle of the poll process in April.
"We would wait till the vote-on-account gets passed. The government has already said another Parliament session would be called. We have begun our preparations for an early summer election," a senior EC official said referring to the three-day meeting of state chief electoral officers that ended on Thursday. States have been told to complete revision of electoral rolls by January 5, 2009.
EC sources also said that even if the government were to dissolve the Lok Sabha, there would not be any major change in the schedule.
For the next general election, EC has already decided that for the first time every habitation with up to 300 people would have a polling booth. In preparation for the poll, EC has also decided that rules on defacement of public property should be strictly enforced.
EC has also ordered 1.8 lakh Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to deal with new booths. The new EVMs would replace the 1.5 lakh existing machines.
As for defacement of public property, EC has prepared a detailed directive to all states. After studying defacement laws of all states, EC decided that in each state the existing law would prevail. In case a state does not have any law, EC has told it that public property should not be defaced during the election campaign. Private property can be used for writing slogans only after seeking the permission of the owner.
( Source:TOI)
election are likely to be announced in the last week of February.
Highly placed sources said unlike the 2004 general election, the next poll could be in more than four phases. But a few states could have single-phased polls also.
Simultaneously, the schedule for assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Sikkim would also be announced.
Explaining the rationale for more than a four-phase election, sources said apart from logistic reasons, the EC is also taking into account delimitation, Naxal violence, insurgency and increase in election booths to eight lakh from seven lakh at present.
The next general election would also be a test for senior most election commissioner Navin Chawla who would take over from CEC N Gopalaswamy in the middle of the poll process in April.
"We would wait till the vote-on-account gets passed. The government has already said another Parliament session would be called. We have begun our preparations for an early summer election," a senior EC official said referring to the three-day meeting of state chief electoral officers that ended on Thursday. States have been told to complete revision of electoral rolls by January 5, 2009.
EC sources also said that even if the government were to dissolve the Lok Sabha, there would not be any major change in the schedule.
For the next general election, EC has already decided that for the first time every habitation with up to 300 people would have a polling booth. In preparation for the poll, EC has also decided that rules on defacement of public property should be strictly enforced.
EC has also ordered 1.8 lakh Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to deal with new booths. The new EVMs would replace the 1.5 lakh existing machines.
As for defacement of public property, EC has prepared a detailed directive to all states. After studying defacement laws of all states, EC decided that in each state the existing law would prevail. In case a state does not have any law, EC has told it that public property should not be defaced during the election campaign. Private property can be used for writing slogans only after seeking the permission of the owner.
( Source:TOI)
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
STATES DEMAND 20% GST
India moved a step closer to a sales tax structure that promises to unify the country’s markets and reduce transaction costs with the finance ministers of all states on Tuesday proposing a 20% goods and service tax (GST), with a larger share of this going to the states.
The empowered committee of state finance ministers, the group that signs off on tax reforms in India, also protested a Union government move to lower the tax rate on aviation turbine fuel (ATF), which is currently taxed by the states at varying rates.
Analysts and experts say GST is a way to simplify India’s so-called indirect taxes. In talks that have gone on for at least a year, the Centre and the states have agreed on a dual GST model. This dual tax will include Central excise duty, service tax and value-added tax (VAT). It will have two constituents: one that will be charged uniformly across the states and the other by the Union government.
According to a minister who attended the meeting of the empowered committee and who did not want to be identified, there is consensus among states that the overall GST rate should be around 20%, with states getting more than half.
The final decision on the rate is yet to be made, he added.
“Kerala is not willing to accept less than 20% as a total GST tax rate,” said Thomas Issac, finance minister of Kerala, who attended the meeting. A person familiar with preliminary negotiations on the rate said some states and the Centre were open to a 18% GST with the two taking an even share, but only if all prevailing tax exemptions are scrapped.
Currently, manufacturers get a tax benefit if they start factories in some states.
The 20% number will still be a decrease from the current rate. S. Madhavan, executive director at audit and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, says the average incidence of aggregate indirect tax on goods in India is around 24%.
For consumers, however, the patchwork design makes the actual tax incidence opaque.
And for manufacturers, the complicated division of powers between the Centre and states sometimes results in them being taxed twice during the production process, raising the eventual price paid by consumers.
The varying tax incidence also makes uniform pricing of goods difficult.
The ministers also discussed the possibility of the Union government amending the Central Sales Tax Act to unilaterally lower the tax rate on ATF in order to help India’s beleaguered loss-making airlines.
sanjeev.s@livemint.com P.R. Sanjai and Teena Jain contributed to this story.
The empowered committee of state finance ministers, the group that signs off on tax reforms in India, also protested a Union government move to lower the tax rate on aviation turbine fuel (ATF), which is currently taxed by the states at varying rates.
Analysts and experts say GST is a way to simplify India’s so-called indirect taxes. In talks that have gone on for at least a year, the Centre and the states have agreed on a dual GST model. This dual tax will include Central excise duty, service tax and value-added tax (VAT). It will have two constituents: one that will be charged uniformly across the states and the other by the Union government.
According to a minister who attended the meeting of the empowered committee and who did not want to be identified, there is consensus among states that the overall GST rate should be around 20%, with states getting more than half.
The final decision on the rate is yet to be made, he added.
“Kerala is not willing to accept less than 20% as a total GST tax rate,” said Thomas Issac, finance minister of Kerala, who attended the meeting. A person familiar with preliminary negotiations on the rate said some states and the Centre were open to a 18% GST with the two taking an even share, but only if all prevailing tax exemptions are scrapped.
Currently, manufacturers get a tax benefit if they start factories in some states.
The 20% number will still be a decrease from the current rate. S. Madhavan, executive director at audit and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, says the average incidence of aggregate indirect tax on goods in India is around 24%.
For consumers, however, the patchwork design makes the actual tax incidence opaque.
And for manufacturers, the complicated division of powers between the Centre and states sometimes results in them being taxed twice during the production process, raising the eventual price paid by consumers.
The varying tax incidence also makes uniform pricing of goods difficult.
The ministers also discussed the possibility of the Union government amending the Central Sales Tax Act to unilaterally lower the tax rate on ATF in order to help India’s beleaguered loss-making airlines.
sanjeev.s@livemint.com P.R. Sanjai and Teena Jain contributed to this story.
NATHULA TRADE THIS SEASON
Nathu La trade concludes with Rs. 9.6 mn turnover
Nathu La (Sikkim) (IANS): Trade between India and China through the fabled Silk Road closed over the weekend for the year 2008 with business worth Rs.9.6 million (approx $192,000) done since May, officials Monday said.
"Since trade reopened May 19, the two countries did business worth about Rs.9.6 million. Indian traders did the bulk of the business estimated at about Rs.9.5 million, while Chinese traders just managed to do business worth Rs.135,000," an official of the Sikkim industry and commerce department said.
The two Asian giants in July 2006 reopened trade across the 15,000 feet Nathu La Pass, 52 km east of Sikkim's capital Gangtok, as part of a broader rapprochement.
The move marked the first direct trade link between the nuclear-armed neighbours since a bitter border war in 1962.
"Formal trade for the current year ended Thursday," the official said.
Trade would resume from May 1, 2009.
Under an agreement reached between the two countries, trade takes place four days a week - Monday to Thursday - beginning May each year and lasting until Nov 30 when snow makes the area impassable.
The sluggish border trade between the two countries is due to restrictions in tradable items - India can import 15 items from China including silk, yak pelts and horses, and export 29 goods that include textiles, tea, rice, vegetables and herbs.
Bilateral trade in 2006 through Nathu La saw business worth about Rs.2 million with Indian traders doing business worth about Rs.1.1 million. Last year, the volume of trade was to the tune of Rs 2.6 million.
"Business this year was comparatively good although we need to work out measures to boost the volume of trade by reviewing the list of tradable items on both sides," the official said.
Although two-way trade was slow in the first three seasons, about 1,900 Chinese traders crossed the border separated by a rusty barbed wire marker to the bazaar of Sherathang, five kilometres below the pass on the Indian side.
About 1,200 Indian traders headed to the Renqinggang interim market in Tibet on the Chinese side, 16 km from the border, during the first three seasons. Businesspersons from both sides of the border were also seeking a broadening of the list of items traded through the Nathu-La pass.
"The list of tradable items should be increased and include commodities like locally made beer, medicines, jam, processed food products, floriculture and horticultural products so that business grows," said S.K. Sarda, president of the Sikkim Chamber of Commerce.
"The Chinese traders have been selling just yak pelts and sheep wool. It is imperative that the two countries decide to review the present export-import list."
Beijing had in 2003 given up its territorial claim over the Indian state of Sikkim but was still holding on to its age old stand that a vast stretch of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to them.
China has never recognised the 1914 boundary, known as the McMahon Line, and claims 90,000 sq km -- nearly all of Arunachal Pradesh in India's northeast. India also accuses China of occupying 38,000 sq km in Kashmir.
(SOURCE:IANS
Nathu La (Sikkim) (IANS): Trade between India and China through the fabled Silk Road closed over the weekend for the year 2008 with business worth Rs.9.6 million (approx $192,000) done since May, officials Monday said.
"Since trade reopened May 19, the two countries did business worth about Rs.9.6 million. Indian traders did the bulk of the business estimated at about Rs.9.5 million, while Chinese traders just managed to do business worth Rs.135,000," an official of the Sikkim industry and commerce department said.
The two Asian giants in July 2006 reopened trade across the 15,000 feet Nathu La Pass, 52 km east of Sikkim's capital Gangtok, as part of a broader rapprochement.
The move marked the first direct trade link between the nuclear-armed neighbours since a bitter border war in 1962.
"Formal trade for the current year ended Thursday," the official said.
Trade would resume from May 1, 2009.
Under an agreement reached between the two countries, trade takes place four days a week - Monday to Thursday - beginning May each year and lasting until Nov 30 when snow makes the area impassable.
The sluggish border trade between the two countries is due to restrictions in tradable items - India can import 15 items from China including silk, yak pelts and horses, and export 29 goods that include textiles, tea, rice, vegetables and herbs.
Bilateral trade in 2006 through Nathu La saw business worth about Rs.2 million with Indian traders doing business worth about Rs.1.1 million. Last year, the volume of trade was to the tune of Rs 2.6 million.
"Business this year was comparatively good although we need to work out measures to boost the volume of trade by reviewing the list of tradable items on both sides," the official said.
Although two-way trade was slow in the first three seasons, about 1,900 Chinese traders crossed the border separated by a rusty barbed wire marker to the bazaar of Sherathang, five kilometres below the pass on the Indian side.
About 1,200 Indian traders headed to the Renqinggang interim market in Tibet on the Chinese side, 16 km from the border, during the first three seasons. Businesspersons from both sides of the border were also seeking a broadening of the list of items traded through the Nathu-La pass.
"The list of tradable items should be increased and include commodities like locally made beer, medicines, jam, processed food products, floriculture and horticultural products so that business grows," said S.K. Sarda, president of the Sikkim Chamber of Commerce.
"The Chinese traders have been selling just yak pelts and sheep wool. It is imperative that the two countries decide to review the present export-import list."
Beijing had in 2003 given up its territorial claim over the Indian state of Sikkim but was still holding on to its age old stand that a vast stretch of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to them.
China has never recognised the 1914 boundary, known as the McMahon Line, and claims 90,000 sq km -- nearly all of Arunachal Pradesh in India's northeast. India also accuses China of occupying 38,000 sq km in Kashmir.
(SOURCE:IANS
SIKKIM VC IN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISORY BOARD
Sikkim VC appointed as the member of National Security Advisory Board
Nanda Kirati Dewan 26 November, 2008 12:45:00
Prof Mahendra P Lama, Vice Chancellor of Sikkim University has been appointed as a Member of the prestigious National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) by the National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister. NSAB is an important element of the National Security Council system with the main function of advising the Government on security related issues. It is a multi-disciplinary body comprising a Chairman and persons of eminence from outside the Government with expertise in the fields of foreign affairs, defence, economics, science and technology, intelligence, internal security, media and related areas.
Prof Lama a development economist by profession is the youngest member of the NSAB. He has been invited to be a member of the Board in view of his long experience in dealing with issues which are critical for national security mainly from the economic and financial perspectives.
There are 28 members drawn from various professional backgrounds in the NSAB. They include Shri KS Bajpai, former Foreign Secretary (Chairman), Prof Shankar Acharya, former Chief Economic Advisor to the Govt of India, Ms Sobhana Bharatia, Chairperson, Hindustan Times, Shri Naresh Chandra, former Cabinet Secretary, Shri HK Deka, former Director General of Police, Assam, Dr Nitin Desai, former Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Organization; Shri HK Dua, Chief Editor, The Tribune; Dr Prodipto Ghose, former Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests; Prof PS Goel, Indian Space Research Organisation; Vice Admiral KK Nayyar; Shri SC Mehta, former Special Director, Intelligence Bureau; Admiral Arun Prakash, former Chief of Naval Staff; Prof V Ramamurthy, Chairman, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi; Dr P Rama Rao, Member, Atomic Energy Commission, Gen Aditya Singh formerly the GOC of Southern Command; Former Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi and Shri PKH Tharakan former Secretary (R&AW).
Source: Assam Times
Nanda Kirati Dewan 26 November, 2008 12:45:00
Prof Mahendra P Lama, Vice Chancellor of Sikkim University has been appointed as a Member of the prestigious National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) by the National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister. NSAB is an important element of the National Security Council system with the main function of advising the Government on security related issues. It is a multi-disciplinary body comprising a Chairman and persons of eminence from outside the Government with expertise in the fields of foreign affairs, defence, economics, science and technology, intelligence, internal security, media and related areas.
Prof Lama a development economist by profession is the youngest member of the NSAB. He has been invited to be a member of the Board in view of his long experience in dealing with issues which are critical for national security mainly from the economic and financial perspectives.
There are 28 members drawn from various professional backgrounds in the NSAB. They include Shri KS Bajpai, former Foreign Secretary (Chairman), Prof Shankar Acharya, former Chief Economic Advisor to the Govt of India, Ms Sobhana Bharatia, Chairperson, Hindustan Times, Shri Naresh Chandra, former Cabinet Secretary, Shri HK Deka, former Director General of Police, Assam, Dr Nitin Desai, former Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Organization; Shri HK Dua, Chief Editor, The Tribune; Dr Prodipto Ghose, former Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests; Prof PS Goel, Indian Space Research Organisation; Vice Admiral KK Nayyar; Shri SC Mehta, former Special Director, Intelligence Bureau; Admiral Arun Prakash, former Chief of Naval Staff; Prof V Ramamurthy, Chairman, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi; Dr P Rama Rao, Member, Atomic Energy Commission, Gen Aditya Singh formerly the GOC of Southern Command; Former Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi and Shri PKH Tharakan former Secretary (R&AW).
Source: Assam Times
Mumbai accounts for nearly 5% of the India’s US$ 1 trillion (Rs 49.9 trillion) GDP and contributes one-third of its direct tax colletion. However, the recent terror attacks on the city (which as we write this is still underway) has jolted the confidence in the entire nation. The city of Mumbai is not new to terror attacks and has seen eight major terrorist attacks in the past 15 years. However, what makes matters worse in the latest case is the fact that it has come at a time when the economy is withstanding a global recession.
Already reeling under the impact of the economic meltdown, domestic as well as international travel to the country is set to take a huge impact of the terrorist assault on Mumbai, particularly on two of its most popular luxury hotels. Travel companies expect businesses to fall at least 25% to 30% in December, which is otherwise the peak of the busy travel season. To put things in perspective, November to January constitutes 50% of total inbound tourist flow into the country. Making matters worse is the fact that even business and work-related travel to the country is likely to get affected with most MNCs discouraging their employees from visiting the country in the near term
Already reeling under the impact of the economic meltdown, domestic as well as international travel to the country is set to take a huge impact of the terrorist assault on Mumbai, particularly on two of its most popular luxury hotels. Travel companies expect businesses to fall at least 25% to 30% in December, which is otherwise the peak of the busy travel season. To put things in perspective, November to January constitutes 50% of total inbound tourist flow into the country. Making matters worse is the fact that even business and work-related travel to the country is likely to get affected with most MNCs discouraging their employees from visiting the country in the near term
PUNJ LLOYD LOWEST BIDDER FOR SIKKIM AIRPORT
Punj Lloyd lowest bidder for Sikkim airport
( Source: Moneycontrol)
The company has emerged as a lowest bidder for Sikkim airport, reports DNA.
( Source: Moneycontrol)
The company has emerged as a lowest bidder for Sikkim airport, reports DNA.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
PM STATEMENT AT G 20 SUMMIT
PM’s statement at the Summit of Heads of State or Governments of the G-20 countries on Financial Markets and the World Economy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following is the statement by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at the G-20 Summit in Washington today 15TH Nov 2008:
“We are meeting at a time of exceptional difficulty for the world economy. The financial crisis, which a year ago seemed to be localized in one part of the financial system in the US, has exploded into a systemic crisis, spreading through the highly interconnected financial markets of industrialized countries, and has had its effects on other markets also.
It has choked normal credit channels, triggered a worldwide collapse in stock markets around the world. The real economy is clearly affected. Industrialised countries were expected to slow down in 2008. They are now projected to be in a recession in the second half of the year, and there is as yet little prospect of an early recovery. Many have called it the most serious crisis since the Great Depression.
Emerging market countries were not the cause of this crisis, but they are amongst its worst affected victims. Recession will hit the export performance of developing countries and the choking of credit, combined with elevated risk perception, will lead to lower capital flows and reduced levels of foreign direct investment. The combined effect will be to slow down economic growth in developing countries.
India is experiencing this negative impact. After growing at close to 9% per year for four years, our growth rate is expected to slow down to between 7 to 7.5% in the current financial year. The pace of growth next year will depend, in part, upon how long the global recession lasts and how quickly global capital flows return to normal. Much of India’s growth is internally driven and I expect we can maintain a strong pace of growth in the coming years, but many developing countries will be harder hit.
A slowing down of growth in developing countries will push millions of people back into poverty, with adverse effects on nutrition, health and education levels. These are not transient impacts but will impact a full generation. If we are to prevent a slide back and ensure that MDGs are achieved, we need to ensure that growth in developing economies is not affected.
Since the crisis is global, it calls for a coordinated global response and this summit is therefore timely. In our discussions, we need to distinguish between the immediate priority, which must be to bring the crisis under control as quickly as possible with as little adverse effect on developing countries, and the medium term objective of reforming the global financial architecture to prevent similar crises in future. I will comment briefly on both.
As far as the immediate priority is concerned, I recognize that a number of important steps have already been taken by countries to inject liquidity into the financial system, recapitalize banks and other systemically important institutions. Some countries have also introduced a number of innovative, even unorthodox, measures to restore confidence so that the financial system could start functioning again. These measures have had some effect, but the crisis is far from over. Credit channels remain clogged and the signs of distress in the real economy suggest that additional measures are needed.
An obvious issue is to consider whether the emergence of recessionary trends calls for some fiscal stimulus. A coordinated fiscal stimulus by countries that are in a position to do so would help to mitigate the severity and duration of the recession. It would also send a strong signal to investors around the world. Resort to fiscal stimulus may be viewed as risky in some situations, but if we are indeed on the brink of the worst downturn since the Great Depression, the risk may be worth taking. We should therefore take all possible measures at the national level to complement any coordinated international stimulus.
The international community needs to consider special initiatives to counter the shrinkage of capital flows to developing countries that is almost certain to occur over the next two years. The initiative by the IMF to establish a new liquidity facility is a welcome step. However, we must also consider whether the IMF is adequately funded for the task it will face in managing this global crisis. Looking ahead we must plan for possible additional demands on the IMF if the global recession is pronounced. This suggests that we must activate a process for replenishing IMF resources.
An alternative to the IMF as a source of quick disbursing liquidity is the establishment of short term swap arrangements. The existence of such arrangements will reduce the burden on the IMF and will add to confidence in the system. Countries in a position to do so should consider the scope for expanding such arrangements.
Depressed conditions in the global economy are likely to produce a downturn in private investment in developing countries which will worsen recessionary trends. It is necessary to take steps to counter this development. Expanding investment in infrastructure by the public sector and also the private sector where possible is an ideal countercyclical device. It has the immediate effect of stimulating demand counter-cyclically and the longer-term effect of laying the conditions for an early return to faster growth. Investment in infrastructure today is perhaps the best signal for reviving private investment, including FDI, tomorrow.
This requires new and innovative ways of solving the financing problems that will restrain infrastructure investment. The World Bank, regional development banks and national governments need to consider measures such as providing additional credit for infrastructure projects, promote new instruments for infrastructure financing and providing capital and liquidity support to banking institutions to lend to infrastructure projects that are underway. The World Bank / IFC and the Regional Development banks should aim at making an additional $50 billion per year in support of infrastructure development in the public and private sectors. This window can be wound down once normalcy returns to global capital flows.
Industrialized countries can also help to revive trade flows in developing countries by expanding the scale of export credit finance available to these countries. We know there is a temporary market failure in this area with elevated risk perceptions which discourage private flows. There is a need to intervene to overcome market failure. A collapse of trade is the last thing that one wants in the current crisis, with all its implications for growth and employment. Concerted government action in expanding export credit financing on reasonable terms will help support the pace of development in developing countries, which is critical for achieving poverty alleviation and employment objectives.
Our willingness to take specific steps to support developing countries in this period of exceptional difficulty will be a test of our collective leadership. Many developing countries have made strenuous efforts to implement economic reforms to deal with the challenges of an increasingly open and globalised world. This has often required implementation of policies which have aroused domestic fears and uncertainties. We have persevered in this process and have benefited from it. Economic performance in almost all developing countries has improved. In the process, attitudes towards globalization have begun to change and people all over the world have come to appreciate the enormous benefits that can be derived from global economic integration. It would be a great pity if this growing support for open policies in the developing world is weakened because of a failure to protect developing countries from a recession which is not of their making.
We need to take urgent steps to strengthen the global trading system and forestall any protectionist tendencies which always surface in times of recession. A successful conclusion of the on-going multilateral trade talks would be an important confidence builder at this stage. We are willing to work constructively with other major players to reach a balanced and mutually beneficial outcome.
While our immediate priority should be to deal with the crisis which is still unfolding, we also need to look ahead to see what changes are needed in the global financial architecture to avoid such crisis from recurring. Much useful work in this area has already been done by Finance Ministers and there is considerable consensus on many areas. I will, therefore, limit my remarks to a few points.
I agree with the general consensus that there are several factors behind the crisis and the future global economic architecture must be designed to deal with these. These include failure of regulatory and supervisory mechanisms, inadequate appreciation and management of systemic risks and inadequate transparency in financial institutions.
The new architecture we design must include a credible system of multilateral surveillance which can signal the emergence of imbalances that are likely to have systemic effects, and also put in motion a process of consultation that can yield results in terms of policy coordination. At this point, I would like to emphasise the importance of broad based multilateral approaches to our efforts. Bodies such as the G-7 are no longer sufficient to meet the demands of the day. We need to ensure that any new architecture we design is genuinely multilateral with adequate representation from countries reflecting changes in economic realities.
The International Monetary Fund is the logical body to perform the task of multilateral surveillance of macro-economic imbalances and their relationship to financial stability. However, it is relevant to ask whether its systems and procedures are adequate to the task. Over the years, the Fund has become marginal to the task of policy analysis and consultations on macro-economic imbalances and related policies in the major countries. That task is now performed in other forums, though it is questionable whether it is being performed well. I believe we need a comprehensive review of the procedures of the IMF leading to recommendations on governance reform which would enable the Fund to perform the role of macro-economic policy coordination.
An important element of longer term reform is to restructure the representation in the governance levels of the Fund to reflect the current and prospective economic realities. Quota reform is the normal way to effect a change in voting power but it has been contentious and incremental, and what has been achieved thus far has fallen far short of what is needed. The Board of Governors of the IMF should be explicitly charged with exploring alternative modalities to achieve a more legitimate representation.
Looking ahead, we also have to pay attention to the many regulatory gaps in the financial system which allowed the development of excess leverage and the risks associated with it. It is obvious that we need better systems of risk management and better regulation and supervision, especially of institutions that have a global reach and are dealing in financial instruments that are exceedingly complex. Managers of financial institutions, credit rating agencies and regulators have to do a much better job. The structure of incentives in the system has to be aligned to this end. We also need to examine whether the existing forums of regulators that are there are adequate and cover the entire gamut of regulatory and supervisory activities that are required.
These are technical issues that should be tackled in the specialized forums dealing with financial stability, notably the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision and the Financial Stability Forum. However, both these bodies need to have broader representation than they do at present. International co-ordination on regulatory issues would be more easily achieved if the principal forums where these issues are discussed were seen to be more representative. Broad basing the present representation in these forums is much easier to achieve and I hope this Summit will give a clear signal in this direction. It will certainly build confidence in our intention over the longer term to achieve significant reform in the governance of the global financial system.
Given the fact that this financial crisis has affected growth prospects across the board, we also need to examine the present structures of trade and development finance to consider how to ensure greater stability in these flows in the face of difficult situations such as the current one. This issue could be examined by the expert group I have referred to or by separate group focusing on this issue. Its work could lead to the design of appropriate international mechanisms and instruments for maintaining and enhancing these flows in future.
The convening of this Summit has raised expectations in many circles that we will work to produce a new Bretton Woods II. The world has certainly changed sufficiently to need a new architecture, but this can only be done on the basis of much greater preparation and consultation. We can however signal that we are serious about starting a process that will, in time, produce an architecture suited to the new challenges and vulnerabilities facing the world economy and reflective of the changes that have taken place in the economic structure. We must also give the world a clear signal of our resolve to take specific coordinated action to handle the current crisis in a manner which restores confidence and which also responds to the needs of developing countries. We need to ensure that the processes we set in motion today safeguard and promote the welfare of our future generations.
***
AD/HS ( SOURCE:PIB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following is the statement by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at the G-20 Summit in Washington today 15TH Nov 2008:
“We are meeting at a time of exceptional difficulty for the world economy. The financial crisis, which a year ago seemed to be localized in one part of the financial system in the US, has exploded into a systemic crisis, spreading through the highly interconnected financial markets of industrialized countries, and has had its effects on other markets also.
It has choked normal credit channels, triggered a worldwide collapse in stock markets around the world. The real economy is clearly affected. Industrialised countries were expected to slow down in 2008. They are now projected to be in a recession in the second half of the year, and there is as yet little prospect of an early recovery. Many have called it the most serious crisis since the Great Depression.
Emerging market countries were not the cause of this crisis, but they are amongst its worst affected victims. Recession will hit the export performance of developing countries and the choking of credit, combined with elevated risk perception, will lead to lower capital flows and reduced levels of foreign direct investment. The combined effect will be to slow down economic growth in developing countries.
India is experiencing this negative impact. After growing at close to 9% per year for four years, our growth rate is expected to slow down to between 7 to 7.5% in the current financial year. The pace of growth next year will depend, in part, upon how long the global recession lasts and how quickly global capital flows return to normal. Much of India’s growth is internally driven and I expect we can maintain a strong pace of growth in the coming years, but many developing countries will be harder hit.
A slowing down of growth in developing countries will push millions of people back into poverty, with adverse effects on nutrition, health and education levels. These are not transient impacts but will impact a full generation. If we are to prevent a slide back and ensure that MDGs are achieved, we need to ensure that growth in developing economies is not affected.
Since the crisis is global, it calls for a coordinated global response and this summit is therefore timely. In our discussions, we need to distinguish between the immediate priority, which must be to bring the crisis under control as quickly as possible with as little adverse effect on developing countries, and the medium term objective of reforming the global financial architecture to prevent similar crises in future. I will comment briefly on both.
As far as the immediate priority is concerned, I recognize that a number of important steps have already been taken by countries to inject liquidity into the financial system, recapitalize banks and other systemically important institutions. Some countries have also introduced a number of innovative, even unorthodox, measures to restore confidence so that the financial system could start functioning again. These measures have had some effect, but the crisis is far from over. Credit channels remain clogged and the signs of distress in the real economy suggest that additional measures are needed.
An obvious issue is to consider whether the emergence of recessionary trends calls for some fiscal stimulus. A coordinated fiscal stimulus by countries that are in a position to do so would help to mitigate the severity and duration of the recession. It would also send a strong signal to investors around the world. Resort to fiscal stimulus may be viewed as risky in some situations, but if we are indeed on the brink of the worst downturn since the Great Depression, the risk may be worth taking. We should therefore take all possible measures at the national level to complement any coordinated international stimulus.
The international community needs to consider special initiatives to counter the shrinkage of capital flows to developing countries that is almost certain to occur over the next two years. The initiative by the IMF to establish a new liquidity facility is a welcome step. However, we must also consider whether the IMF is adequately funded for the task it will face in managing this global crisis. Looking ahead we must plan for possible additional demands on the IMF if the global recession is pronounced. This suggests that we must activate a process for replenishing IMF resources.
An alternative to the IMF as a source of quick disbursing liquidity is the establishment of short term swap arrangements. The existence of such arrangements will reduce the burden on the IMF and will add to confidence in the system. Countries in a position to do so should consider the scope for expanding such arrangements.
Depressed conditions in the global economy are likely to produce a downturn in private investment in developing countries which will worsen recessionary trends. It is necessary to take steps to counter this development. Expanding investment in infrastructure by the public sector and also the private sector where possible is an ideal countercyclical device. It has the immediate effect of stimulating demand counter-cyclically and the longer-term effect of laying the conditions for an early return to faster growth. Investment in infrastructure today is perhaps the best signal for reviving private investment, including FDI, tomorrow.
This requires new and innovative ways of solving the financing problems that will restrain infrastructure investment. The World Bank, regional development banks and national governments need to consider measures such as providing additional credit for infrastructure projects, promote new instruments for infrastructure financing and providing capital and liquidity support to banking institutions to lend to infrastructure projects that are underway. The World Bank / IFC and the Regional Development banks should aim at making an additional $50 billion per year in support of infrastructure development in the public and private sectors. This window can be wound down once normalcy returns to global capital flows.
Industrialized countries can also help to revive trade flows in developing countries by expanding the scale of export credit finance available to these countries. We know there is a temporary market failure in this area with elevated risk perceptions which discourage private flows. There is a need to intervene to overcome market failure. A collapse of trade is the last thing that one wants in the current crisis, with all its implications for growth and employment. Concerted government action in expanding export credit financing on reasonable terms will help support the pace of development in developing countries, which is critical for achieving poverty alleviation and employment objectives.
Our willingness to take specific steps to support developing countries in this period of exceptional difficulty will be a test of our collective leadership. Many developing countries have made strenuous efforts to implement economic reforms to deal with the challenges of an increasingly open and globalised world. This has often required implementation of policies which have aroused domestic fears and uncertainties. We have persevered in this process and have benefited from it. Economic performance in almost all developing countries has improved. In the process, attitudes towards globalization have begun to change and people all over the world have come to appreciate the enormous benefits that can be derived from global economic integration. It would be a great pity if this growing support for open policies in the developing world is weakened because of a failure to protect developing countries from a recession which is not of their making.
We need to take urgent steps to strengthen the global trading system and forestall any protectionist tendencies which always surface in times of recession. A successful conclusion of the on-going multilateral trade talks would be an important confidence builder at this stage. We are willing to work constructively with other major players to reach a balanced and mutually beneficial outcome.
While our immediate priority should be to deal with the crisis which is still unfolding, we also need to look ahead to see what changes are needed in the global financial architecture to avoid such crisis from recurring. Much useful work in this area has already been done by Finance Ministers and there is considerable consensus on many areas. I will, therefore, limit my remarks to a few points.
I agree with the general consensus that there are several factors behind the crisis and the future global economic architecture must be designed to deal with these. These include failure of regulatory and supervisory mechanisms, inadequate appreciation and management of systemic risks and inadequate transparency in financial institutions.
The new architecture we design must include a credible system of multilateral surveillance which can signal the emergence of imbalances that are likely to have systemic effects, and also put in motion a process of consultation that can yield results in terms of policy coordination. At this point, I would like to emphasise the importance of broad based multilateral approaches to our efforts. Bodies such as the G-7 are no longer sufficient to meet the demands of the day. We need to ensure that any new architecture we design is genuinely multilateral with adequate representation from countries reflecting changes in economic realities.
The International Monetary Fund is the logical body to perform the task of multilateral surveillance of macro-economic imbalances and their relationship to financial stability. However, it is relevant to ask whether its systems and procedures are adequate to the task. Over the years, the Fund has become marginal to the task of policy analysis and consultations on macro-economic imbalances and related policies in the major countries. That task is now performed in other forums, though it is questionable whether it is being performed well. I believe we need a comprehensive review of the procedures of the IMF leading to recommendations on governance reform which would enable the Fund to perform the role of macro-economic policy coordination.
An important element of longer term reform is to restructure the representation in the governance levels of the Fund to reflect the current and prospective economic realities. Quota reform is the normal way to effect a change in voting power but it has been contentious and incremental, and what has been achieved thus far has fallen far short of what is needed. The Board of Governors of the IMF should be explicitly charged with exploring alternative modalities to achieve a more legitimate representation.
Looking ahead, we also have to pay attention to the many regulatory gaps in the financial system which allowed the development of excess leverage and the risks associated with it. It is obvious that we need better systems of risk management and better regulation and supervision, especially of institutions that have a global reach and are dealing in financial instruments that are exceedingly complex. Managers of financial institutions, credit rating agencies and regulators have to do a much better job. The structure of incentives in the system has to be aligned to this end. We also need to examine whether the existing forums of regulators that are there are adequate and cover the entire gamut of regulatory and supervisory activities that are required.
These are technical issues that should be tackled in the specialized forums dealing with financial stability, notably the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision and the Financial Stability Forum. However, both these bodies need to have broader representation than they do at present. International co-ordination on regulatory issues would be more easily achieved if the principal forums where these issues are discussed were seen to be more representative. Broad basing the present representation in these forums is much easier to achieve and I hope this Summit will give a clear signal in this direction. It will certainly build confidence in our intention over the longer term to achieve significant reform in the governance of the global financial system.
Given the fact that this financial crisis has affected growth prospects across the board, we also need to examine the present structures of trade and development finance to consider how to ensure greater stability in these flows in the face of difficult situations such as the current one. This issue could be examined by the expert group I have referred to or by separate group focusing on this issue. Its work could lead to the design of appropriate international mechanisms and instruments for maintaining and enhancing these flows in future.
The convening of this Summit has raised expectations in many circles that we will work to produce a new Bretton Woods II. The world has certainly changed sufficiently to need a new architecture, but this can only be done on the basis of much greater preparation and consultation. We can however signal that we are serious about starting a process that will, in time, produce an architecture suited to the new challenges and vulnerabilities facing the world economy and reflective of the changes that have taken place in the economic structure. We must also give the world a clear signal of our resolve to take specific coordinated action to handle the current crisis in a manner which restores confidence and which also responds to the needs of developing countries. We need to ensure that the processes we set in motion today safeguard and promote the welfare of our future generations.
***
AD/HS ( SOURCE:PIB)
NATHU LA TRADE THIS SEASON
Gangtok, Nov. 14: Chinese trade through Nathu-la continues to falter compared to business on the Indian side. But it is not the global economic meltdown that has hit the neighbouring country.
Rather, it is the “obsolete” items, which China can export, that have made the trade a one-sided affair.
The volume of trade from May 19 to October 30 stood at nearly Rs 59 lakh as against Rs 34.6 lakh in the same period last year. The Sikkimese traders exported items worth Rs 57.6 lakh, while the imports from China were Rs 1.35 lakh. Edible items topped the list of articles sent to China in 2008, the third year since the reopening of the trade route located at 14,400ft above sealevel.
Official records of the trade through Nathu-la available with the Sikkim commerce and industries department reveal that the businessmen from the state have a monopoly over their counterparts in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) in China. While the Indian exporters can send 29 items, including tea, flour, vegetable oil, cigarettes and liquor, China can sell 15 items permitted by India.
Anil Kumar Gupta,General Secretary, India-China Traders’ Association, said the Chinese could have done better if silk was permitted to be exported by them. “The list of items that the Chinese can export includes obsolete articles like goat’s hair, yak’s tail, China clay and horses. Our exports could have touched the crore mark had we been allowed to sell Basmati rice.”
Quoting official figures, Gupta said this year, over a thousand traders from Sikkim had visited the Renquingang trade mart in TAR, 16km from the border, while double the number of their Chinese counterparts came to the Sherathang post near Nathu-la.
“If more Indian exporters had gone across the border, the volume of trade would have certainly gone up,” he said.
An official of the Sikkim commerce department said the state government had made several attempts to persuade the Centre to revise the trade list but did not get any response. “We had prepared the list and sent it to the Union commerce ministry,” the official said.
The trade through Nathu-la will close on November 30. The traders from both the countries will meet at Sherathang on that day and review the business conducted through out the year.
Rather, it is the “obsolete” items, which China can export, that have made the trade a one-sided affair.
The volume of trade from May 19 to October 30 stood at nearly Rs 59 lakh as against Rs 34.6 lakh in the same period last year. The Sikkimese traders exported items worth Rs 57.6 lakh, while the imports from China were Rs 1.35 lakh. Edible items topped the list of articles sent to China in 2008, the third year since the reopening of the trade route located at 14,400ft above sealevel.
Official records of the trade through Nathu-la available with the Sikkim commerce and industries department reveal that the businessmen from the state have a monopoly over their counterparts in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) in China. While the Indian exporters can send 29 items, including tea, flour, vegetable oil, cigarettes and liquor, China can sell 15 items permitted by India.
Anil Kumar Gupta,General Secretary, India-China Traders’ Association, said the Chinese could have done better if silk was permitted to be exported by them. “The list of items that the Chinese can export includes obsolete articles like goat’s hair, yak’s tail, China clay and horses. Our exports could have touched the crore mark had we been allowed to sell Basmati rice.”
Quoting official figures, Gupta said this year, over a thousand traders from Sikkim had visited the Renquingang trade mart in TAR, 16km from the border, while double the number of their Chinese counterparts came to the Sherathang post near Nathu-la.
“If more Indian exporters had gone across the border, the volume of trade would have certainly gone up,” he said.
An official of the Sikkim commerce department said the state government had made several attempts to persuade the Centre to revise the trade list but did not get any response. “We had prepared the list and sent it to the Union commerce ministry,” the official said.
The trade through Nathu-la will close on November 30. The traders from both the countries will meet at Sherathang on that day and review the business conducted through out the year.
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