WARNING:WATCHING TV IS SHORTENING YOUR LIFE

Watching TV is cutting short your life

Killer Couch: According to a new study, for every hour of TV viewing, your risk of dying early from cancer increases by 9 per cent.

Beware, couch time is shortening your life! For every hour of TV viewing, your risk of dying early from heart disease rises by 18 per cent, says a new comprehensive study of sedentary lifestyle.

The study by Australian researchers shows that each hour of TV viewing also increases your risk of dying from cancer by nine per cent.

Overall, each hour spent in front of TV increases your risk of death by 11 per cent.

Not only watching TV, but also doing sedentary jobs — sitting at the desk or in front of a computer — is equally dangerous for your health, according to the study.

As part of their study, the Australian researchers chose 8,800 people — 3,846 men and 4,954 women above 25 years of age — with no cardiovascular problems.

They grouped them into three categories on the basis of their television—viewing habits — those who watched TV less than two hours a day, those who watched it between two and four hours, and those who watched more than four hours.

During the next six years, 284 of them died — 87 from cardiovascular disease and 125 from cancer.

The researchers found that there was modest link between cancer deaths and television viewing. But the link between the time spent watching television and cardiovascular deaths was very direct and strong.

Overall, they found, there was a strong link with death from all sedentary causes, regardless of other lifestyle factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and obesity.

According to study author David Dunstan, who heads the Physical Activity Laboratory at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Victoria, (Australia), the human body is designed for activity, not for long periods of sitting.

“Technological, social, and economic changes mean that people don’t move their muscles as much as they used to. Consequently, the levels of energy expenditure as people go about their lives continue to shrink,” he said.

The study has been published in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association.

INDIA: INDIRA GANDHI PEACE PRIZE TO MS SHEIKH HASINA-PM-BANGLADESH



12 jAN 2010 13:54 IST

The President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, presented the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2009 to Ms. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh in New Delhi today. Following is the text of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s address on the occasion:



“It is a great privilege for me to be present on the occasion of the award of the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development to Her Excellency Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Smt. Indira Gandhi was not only a great national leader but also a great internationalist. She spent her lifetime championing the cause of developing countries and fighting for justice and equality in international affairs. She had a deeply held belief in India’s destiny and her place in the world.

Yet no cause was dearer to Indiraji than the emergence of a strong and prosperous South Asia on the world scene. She was an ardent advocate of peace and development in the region. Her empathy and unwavering support for justice and what is right defined her attitude to the people of Bangladesh.

It is therefore befitting that this year’s Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development is being awarded to an outstanding political figure of South Asia. Prime Minister Hasina has worked tirelessly through her political career for the welfare and socio-economic development of the people of Bangladesh; but she has been an equally tireless proponent of regional peace, security and progress.

Ever since her return to Bangladesh in 1981, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has played a catalytic role in the emergence of Bangladesh as a dynamic and strong nation. Her journey has not been smooth, yet every challenge has spurred her on to even greater heights. She has earned the love and affection of the people of Bangladesh for her selfless service to a great nation and its great people.

Bangladesh’s return to democracy owes a great deal to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s courage, sacrifice and unshakeable belief in the will of the people. As a democracy ourselves, we know that it is a form of governance which is not easy. It requires constant nurturing. It needs wisdom and forbearance. It requires the capacity to manage differences and the willingness to respect them. By championing the cause of democracy and pluralism, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given the people of Bangladesh the means to realize their true potential and strengthen peace and harmony in the country.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina led her Party, the Awami League, to a resounding victory in the parliamentary elections in 2008. This is her second term as Prime Minister. In the short period that she has been in office, she has already outlined an ambitious vision for her country and for her people. Her “Vision 2021” seeks to transform Bangladesh by reducing poverty, ensuring access to basic needs and undertaking developmental activities in the agricultural and rural sectors.



As part of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has paid particular attention to building on Bangladesh’s success in removing gender disparity in enrollment of boys and girls in primary and secondary schools. She herself manifests the emancipation of women in Bangladesh and their determination to be equal partners in shaping their country's future.



One of the Prime Minister’s primary concerns has been food security. She has sought a global agreement for development of agriculture, and attainment of food self-sufficiency in developing countries, particularly the Least Developed Countries. She has spoken passionately on behalf of developing countries threatened by climate change and worked to build global consensus on the need to tackle this problem.



Bangladesh has earned international recognition for its successful efforts at improving the social indicators of development and empowering the poor through a mix of well targeted policy initiatives.



Today, Bangladesh’s voice is heard with respect in international forums. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly last year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, and I quote: “At present we are witnessing a rapidly changing world whether be it in the form of climate change, economic turmoil, or terrorism. It is crystal clear to those who wish to open their eyes that we all belong to a global village where we must live and work together. Indeed, our lives and our world are intertwined. I, therefore, call upon all to discard short-sighted discords, and adopt a common resolve in facing today's grim challenges”.



This grand vision of international cooperation would have been very dear to Indiraji's heart and she would have heartily endorsed the honour being conferred today on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.



Today we honour not just a great daughter of Bangladesh but a distinguished world leader. On behalf of the Government and people of India, I congratulate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on receiving this prestigious award. I reiterate our commitment to work together with the Government and people of Bangladesh to shape a brighter future for our people and to enhance their common prosperity and development.”





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GUIDE:MAKE NO MISTAKE WHILE FILLING UP MUTUAL FUNDS APPLICATIONS:


E ······················ lementary," said the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes every time he deciphered a clue. We bet you'd say the same, every time you perform the simple task--or at least suppose it's simple--of filling a mutual fund (MF) form.
By now, you can blurt out details such as your name, address and telephone number even while sleeping. Some of you may even remember your bank account number or permanent account number (PAN). So, what's the big deal after all?
It could take you several days if not months to finally submit your "simple" MF form if you overlook even minor details. Your MF form can get rejected for the silliest of errors you make. Not only is it tiring to fill up forms again, you may even end up losing market upsides, if any.

Here are some common errors people make while filling forms.
Not joining existing folio If you invest in a scheme of a fund house that is already in your MF portfolio, make sure you use your existing folio. A folio is a combination of all your investments within the same fund house.

Suppose, you invest in three schemes of HDFC Asset Management Co. Ltd--HDFC Equity, HDFC Taxsaver and HDFC Prudence. The fund house will allot account numbers for each of the three schemes, and also club them under a folio for which you will get a unique folio number.

In keeping with the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) guidelines, your fund house will send a consolidated account statement once a year, mentioning details of all your holdings. It's like putting all relevant files (think of these as your account numbers) in a single filing cabinet (think of this as your folio).

A consolidated statement would reduce paper work and make it easier for you to monitor your investments. Also, effecting changes would be easier. For instance, your bank account or address details with the three HDFC schemes will get changed with a single application. K. Venkitesh, national head (distribution), Geojit BNP Paribas Finance Services Ltd, says: "Less than 10% of investors opt for the same folio number even though it reduces work substantially."

Not choosing an option Most schemes have various plans and options. Typically, "plans" specifies the category of investors such as institutional and retail. "Option" caters to either "dividend" or "growth".
Make sure you select the right plan and option.

Usually, different plans have different restriction levels in terms of the minimum investment amount. While institutional plans require a minimum investment of Rs25 lakh to Rs1 crore, depending on the fund house, retail plans need just Rs5,000. If you select the institutional plan for a small amount, your application will be rejected.

Also, decide whether you want the "dividend" or "growth" option.
In other words, decide whether you want to receive dividends as and when the fund declares them or wish to see your money grow.
Forget to select your option and the fund house allots you its default option, which could be either. For instance, Birla Sun Life MF imposes a default option of "dividend reinvestment" for all its schemes, except Birla Sun Life Tax Relief '96, where the default option is "dividend payout".

Jaydeep Kashikar, director, Brainpoint Investment Centre Pvt.
Ltd and a Mumbai-based financial planner, says: "Some people invest in equity funds expecting dividends, but don't get dividends because they don't make any choice.
The auto option may move the fund into, say, a growth option."

Wrong SIP start date Every time you enroll for a systematic investment plan (SIP), the fund house, typically, takes a month to process the application.
Your SIP starts after that. Make sure your SIP start-date in the form is at least 30 days away from your application date. So, if you enroll for an SIP on 7 February, the earliest you can start it is 7 March.
If you put 1 March, your application gets rejected. Typically, you can start your SIPs on the first, seventh, 10th, 15th, 20th and 25th day of any month.

There's more. If you want an electronic clearing service (ECS) facility for the SIP and you have a joint account, all bank account holders will have to sign on the form near the "bank mandate" section. Under the SIP mandate section, though, only MF account holders need to sign.
Not filling `mode of holding' Picture this. You and your spouse have invested jointly in an MF. Some months down the line, equity markets shoot up while you are travelling. You call up your spouse to book profits. She can't because, as it turns out, your signature is mandatory. By the time you return, it's too late.

Your mode of holding determines who manages your investment during an emergency. If you have a second account holder, you get two choices: "either or survivor (EoS)" or "joint". Under EoS, you or the second account holder can buy fresh units, switch or sell. Even if the second holder, say, sells your holdings, the sales proceeds would go to the primary holder's bank account. If you select "joint", signatures of all account holders are mandatory for any buy, switch or sell. Again, you don't choose and your fund does it for you. Fund houses such as Tata and Reliance have "joint" as the default holding mode while funds such as Birla and Mirae have EoS.
Not quoting your PAN It's common knowledge to quote your PAN while investing in an MF, but still a lot of us forget to mention it in the form, while remembering to attach a copy. "If you submit forms at the registrar's offices without mentioning your PAN, 99% of times your application gets rejected even if you have attached the PAN card copy. However, if you submit at your fund's offices, chances that they would double-check and fill the gap are much higher," says Venkitesh.

Sometimes the registrar will accept your form if you submit your PAN card copy without noticing that you haven't entered your PAN in your form. As a result, later, your fund may end up sending you reminders that you have not submitted or quoted your PAN.

SOURCE: LIVEMINT

Changing the rules of the energy game

Vladimir Radyuhin


The year 2010 will see the global energy map redrawn as Russia, the world’s largest producer of hydrocarbons, reorients its oil and gas flows from Europe to Asia. On the eve of New Year, Russia launched a major oil pipeline from Eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean (ESPO). For the first time, it is able to ship oil not only westward to its traditional customers in Europe, but also to the ever-growing energy markets in Asia, which already account for a third of the global oil consumption.

Initially, the new pipeline will move 30 million tonnes a year, but in four years the throughput is projected to increase to 50 million tonnes and then to 80 million tonnes, or about a third of Russia’s current export volumes. Today, more than 90 per cent of Russian oil exports goes to Europe and only 3 per cent to Asia. Last year, Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest producer and exporter of oil. The ESPO pipeline will help Russia ramp up oil output to an all-time record of 530 million tonnes by 2030 despite declining production at the mature oilfields of Western Siberia.

So far, the first 2,757-km stretch of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) has been completed. It runs from Taishet in Irkutsk region to Skovorodino near the Chinese border, where a 64-km spur to China has been built. The spur will carry 15 million tonnes of oil by 2012 when a 1,000-km pipeline on the Chinese side will connect it to Daging. Another 15 million tonnes will be hauled by rail from Skovorodino to the newly built Pacific terminal at Kozmino 2,100 km further east. By 2014, Russia will extend the pipeline from Skovorodino to Kozmino and build more pump stations along the 4,188-km ESPO pipeline.

It is symbolic that the first tanker loaded with Siberian oil headed for Hong Kong. China will be the main winner of the new Russian export route. Under a $100-billion contract signed last year, it will receive 300 million tonnes of oil via the ESPO pipe alone over the next 20 years. Deliveries may double as ESPO ramps up capacity.

The ESPO project will further cement strategic ties between Russia and China. But Beijing will not be able to tell Moscow what to do as the new pipeline gives the latter a choice of customers. When the project was still on the drawing board, China and Japan fiercely lobbied Russia to get exclusive access to the Siberian oil riches. The way the ESPO was eventually routed will allow Russia to sell oil to the highest bidder, be it China, Japan, South Korea or even the United States.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia looked forward to winning a much bigger share of the Asian oil market than its current 5-6 per cent compared with nearly 70 per cent for Gulf-originated crude. East Siberian crude, to be marketed under the name of ESPO, is similar or even superior to the Middle East crude and the new pipeline will take it close to Asian customers.

India also stands to benefit from the new pipeline, as it will be linked with oilfields in Western Siberia, including the Tomsk region where India’s Imperial Energy has operations. Imperial Energy, bought by ONGC-Videsh from British owners a year ago, plans to quadruple the output to 25,000 bpd by the end of this year. The company, which has 13 licences in Tomsk, plans to bid for more Russian oil assets. During Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s latest visit to Moscow in December 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised to grant India access to several other oil reserves, including the Trebs and the Titov fields in the Timan Pechora region in Russia’s north.

The ESPO pipeline will give a powerful boost to the development of Eastern Siberia. The region is fabulously rich in hydrocarbons and other minerals, but their exploration has been hampered by a lack of infrastructure aggravated by hostile climate conditions. According to Transneft Vice-President Anatoly Bezverkhov, who oversaw the ESPO construction, practically all infrastructures for ESPO had to be built from scratch as the route passed through uninhabited territories that lacked roads, electric lines or any other communication. Hundreds of km of the new pipeline were laid across permafrost; the builders had to cross more than 500 rivers and lakes, blast their way through solid rock and work in freezing temperatures of minus 40 degrees C.

Geologists believe that only 35 per cent of Russia’s oil reserves have been discovered so far. In Eastern Siberia alone, a thousand of likely oil and gas holds have been identified. The construction of the ESPO pipeline is expected to attract multibillion foreign investments in oil exploration in Eastern Siberia that will transform the region.

The ESPO pipeline is set to change the rules of the energy game in Europe as well. For years, the European Union has been trying to dictate its will to Russia taking advantage of Europe being the only market for Russian oil and gas. The EU proposes to ban Russian companies from its retail energy market and moots setting up an “energy NATO” to stop Russia from flexing energy muscles. Europe has been planning for years to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas supplies, but, ironically, it is Russia that has moved to diversify its energy exports away from the European market. By 2012, Russia’s natural gas monopoly Gazprom will build a gas pipeline alongside the ESPO oil pipeline. Another gas-pipeline system, Altai, will be built to deliver gas from western Siberia to China.

At the same time, Russia is working to consolidate its position as Europe’s irreplaceable energy provider by coordinating its energy strategy with China and former Soviet states of Central Asia in the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s “energy club.” A gas glut on the European market provoked by the global crisis has forced Russia to scale down its plans to buy all of Turkmenistan’s gas for re-export to Europe, but whatever resources have thus been freed will now go to China and Iran via newly built pipelines. There will be little left for the U.S.-lobbied Nabucco pipeline designed to bring Central Asian and Caspian gas to Europe bypassing Russia. In a further blow to Nabucco, Russia last October reached a deal to buy gas from Azerbaijan, the only gas-exporting ex-Soviet state which previously had no contract to sell the fuel to Russia. On January 1, Azerbaijan also started selling gas to Iran across a Soviet-built pipeline with a throughput capacity of 10 bcm a year.

Even as Russia undercut European efforts to build the Nabucco pipeline, it pressed forward with expanding it own pipeline network to supply gas to Europe — the Nord Stream that would connect Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea and the South Stream running across the Black Sea to south Europe. The new pipelines will bypass transit countries —– Ukraine, Poland and Belarus which have a long history of acrimonious price disputes with Russia. The same goal — to avoid transit route — motivated Russia to build a major oil pipeline and a terminal on the Russian coast of the Baltic Sea.

Alternative export pipelines give Russia greater leverage in negotiations with the West on not only the price of its energy resources, but also the far more important issues of Russia’s strategic interests in the former Soviet Union and access to the West’s cutting edge technologies that Russia needs to modernise its economy.

The diversification of export routes that reached its high point with the launch of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline last month is a key part of Vladimir Putin’s energy strategy set in motion after he assumed Russian presidency in 2000. In the earlier phases, Mr. Putin reasserted state control over the oil and gas sector, cancelled the hugely unprofitable production-sharing arrangements with foreign majors and limited their access to major Russian oil and gas fields.

The next big goal in Mr. Putin’s plan is to challenge the U.S. dollar-denominated oil trade by switching trade in Russian oil to roubles. Mr. Putin first declared Moscow’s intention to use rouble in its oil and gas transactions in his 2006 state of the nation address. The following year, Russia began trading Russian oil for roubles at the Russian Fuel and Energy Exchange set up for the purpose in St. Petersburg. The scheme failed to make an impact partly because the new mix offered for rouble trade, West Siberia’s REBCO (Export Blend Crude Oil), could be supplied only in small volumes. The East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline could act as a game-changer. Tens of millions of tonnes of East Siberia’s ESPO blend supplied along the pipeline to Asian markets would establish a new pricing benchmark and pave the way for large-scale oil trading in roubles. This would generate tectonic shifts in global power equations.

With the launch of a major oil pipeline from Eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean, Russia can now ship oil not only to its traditional customers in Europe, but also to the ever-growing energy markets in Asia.

20 million solar lights planned by 2022


11 Jan 2010

India plans to install 20 million solar lights and 20 million square metres of solar panel to generate 20,000 MW by 2022 as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah said on Monday.

“By 2022, we aim to install 20 million square metres of solar thermal collectors and save 7,500 MW power generation capacity,” he said at the launch of the mission here. “We want 20 million solar lights to be installed by 2022, which would result in a saving of one billion litres of kerosene every year.”

As per the official data, of India’s total installed generation capacity of 155.8 GW, renewable energy accounts for a mere 10 per cent. Most of this clean power is derived from wind, while solar power’s share is negligible.

“In the next three years, India plans to add 1,300 MW of solar power, of which 1,100 MW will be grid-connected and 200 MW will be off-grid. This is our first benchmark. If we achieve this, achieving the remaining target will not be impossible. A huge constraint in the commercial use of solar energy has been its cost. Today, the initial cost of solar energy is very high, especially for grid power generation. We aim to bring down the cost as quickly as possible,” Dr. Abdullah said.

Over the next three years, he said, the NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam would purchase solar power at rates fixed by the Central Regulatory Electricity Commission. When the State utilities bought solar power from the NVVN, they would get an equivalent amount of thermal power. “The bundling of more expensive solar power with cheaper thermal power will facilitate cheaper tariff for the consumer, estimated to be Rs. five or less per unit.”

Bangla Desh: Will not allow our soil to be used against India: Hasina

Jan 11, 2010

India and Bangladesh on Monday signed five pacts in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his counterpart Sheikh Hasina to add impetus to the bilateral ties that had been on the upswing since the last one year.

In a series of high-level meetings, Ms. Hasina assured New Delhi that Dhaka would not allow its soil to be used as a base of operations by groups inimical to India, her Advisor, Abul Kalam Azad, said.

The five agreements relate to mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, transfer of sentenced persons, fight against terror, organised crime and illegal drug trafficking, power cooperation and cultural exchange programmes.

“We are confident that this visit would serve to underline that strong India-Bangladesh relations are vital; not just for both our countries, but for the entire region and the international community,” noted Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao.

“The intention is to put in place mechanisms that would be irreversible regardless of the nature of the regimes in both countries,” said official sources.

The two sides also discussed an Indian credit line to build railway track in Bangladesh, an easier trading and investment environment and assistance in dredging of rivers.

Ms. Hasina, who arrived here on a four-day state visit on Sunday, began her official engagements by laying a wreath at Rajghat, samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi. Later, she called on President Pratibha Patil.

Central scheme to revitalise water bodies

Ponds and lakes have traditionally played an important role in irrigation, drinking water supply, hydropower, ecology, tourism, culture and domestic use in India. The importance of some of these water bodies has waned due to a number of reasons like shifting away from community-based tank system to individual beneficiary oriented ground water dependent system, encroachments, silting, population pressure, multiplicity of agencies responsible for their upkeep.

The funding pattern for the scheme:

# For special category states (North-Eastern States including Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and undivided Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi (KBK) districts of Orissa) as well as projects benefiting drought prone/tribal/maoist-affected areas, 90 per cent of the project cost will be provided as central assistance (grant) by the Government of India and 10 per cent of the cost by state governments

# For non-special category states 25 per cent of the cost will be provided as Central assistance (grant) by Central government and 75 per cent by state governments

Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs and National Rainfed Area Authority to organize a seminar this month to highlight importance of convergance of Agricultural and Business Interests

11 Jan 2010

The President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, in her address at the concluding event of the ‘India Corporate Week, 2009’, had stated that agencies closely linked with agricultural development and other stakeholders should look for “out of the box” and “innovative” solutions for realizing benefits of technologies, aggregation of inputs and outputs, value addition, marketing and entrepreneurship. They should consider evolving a basic “model” to bring farmers into a partnership arrangement to obtain the benefits of economies of scale which is transparent where farmers retain confidence about the ownership of land and protection of their interests. The issues relating to providing the necessary legal framework to function in a competitive environment should be examined and effort should be made to develop a consensus among stakeholders about the contours of such a model.

As a follow up of this, Shri R.Bandyopadhyay, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs had held a meeting with Shri J.S.Samra, CEO of the National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) on December 23, 2009. In the meeting, it was decided that the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs and NRAA will work together to provide a platform for convergence of the agriculture scientists, entrepreneurs and farmers to conceptualize innovative business models for the development of farming in the rainfed areas.

In this direction, NRAA and the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs will organize a seminar on January 22, 2010. It will be inaugurated by Minister of Corporate Affairs, Shri Salman Khurshid. In it the domain and technologies experts in the area of agriculture sciences, trade and industry chambers, institutions and other stakeholders will participate to develop synergy in identifying methods of developing economic activity in the rainfed areas so as to improve the income levels of the farmers. Efforts will also be made to encourage business sector to develop new methods of working so that they can involve the farmers and the agricultural output in their business models for mutual value creation.


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SOLAR ECLIPSE IN SIKKIM 12.15 PM TO 3.29 PM

The solar eclipse is known as Surya Grahan. These eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth so that the Sun is fully or partially covered.

Surya Grahan on Mauni Amavasya – An annular solar eclipse will occur on Friday, January 15, and will be the longest solar eclipse in duration since 1992. A Partial Solar eclipse will be visible during 11:25 AM to 3:15 PM (Indian Standard Time).

This time it has been considered comes as the longest annular eclipse to occur this century with a duration of 11 mins 08 seconds.

Surya Grahan Sparsha kaal – 11.29 AM
Surya Grahana Madhya kaal – 1.22 PM
Surya grahana moksha kaal – 3.15 PM
Surya grahanam adhyantha punya kaal – 3.46 PM

The most important precaution to be taken during Solar Eclipse / Surya Grahan:

Don’ts During Solar Eclipse

* Never watch the eclipse with a naked eye.

* Don’t use Binoculars or Telescope to view the eclipse.

* Don’t use any cheap or easily available filters in Telescope or Binoculars to view the sun. Only specifically designed filters should be used with Telescope and Binoculars.

* Don’t watch the eclipse using color film.

* Don’t watch the eclipse with non-silver black and white film.

* Don’t watch the eclipse with medical x-ray films with images on them.

* Don’t use smoked glass to view the sun.

* All developed films lack a silver emulsion and therefore it should not be used to view the eclipse.


Places and Times in India Where Surya Grahan on 15th January, 2010:

Four Metros

Delhi – 11:53 AM to 3:32 PM

Mumbai – 11:17 AM to 3:04 PM

Chennai – 11:25 AM to 3:15 PM

Kolkata – 12:07 PM to 3:29 PM

Gangtok, Sikkim – 12:15 PM to 3:29 PM

INDIA: Industrial units processing fruits and vegetables

11 Jan 2010

As per the data maintained by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India under Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 5166 fruits and vegetables processing units were licensed under Fruit Products Order (FPO),1955 in the country as on 01.01.2009.

Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MFPI) has received some proposals from areas like Kamrup, Karimganj District of Assam for financial assistance for setting up of fruit and vegetable processing units during 11th Plan. The data on functioning of food processing industries / units in the country, including that in the State of Assam is not centrally maintained by MFPI. MFPI has no specific scheme/policy for revival of sick fruit and vegetable processing units. However, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MFPI) has been implementing various schemes for promotion and development of food processing industries in the country. MFPI through its various schemes for financial assistance and other promotional measures, facilitates creation of food related infrastructure including processing facilities aimed at reducing wastages, enhancing value addition and increasing shelf life. The Scheme for Technology Upgradation/Establishment/ Modernisation of Food Processing Industries is aimed at creation of new processing capacity and up-gradation of existing processing capabilities, modernization of Fruit & Vegetables units.

Under the Scheme for Technology Upgradation/ Modernization/ Establishment of Food Processing Industries:

MFPI extends financial assistance to food processing industries including fruit and vegetable processing units in the form of grant-in-aid @ 25% of the cost of plant and machinery and technical civil works subject to a maximum of Rs. 50.00 lakh in general area or 33.33% subject to maximum of Rs. 75.00 lakh in difficult areas such as Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand,

Sikkim

and North Eastern States, A&N Islands, Lakshadweep and ITDP areas. In addition, under the Technology Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture in North Eastern and Himalayan States, higher levels of assistance @ 50% upto maximum of Rs. 4.00 crore for setting up and Rs. 1.00 crore for Upgradation of fruit and vegetables processing is available. A National Horticulture Mission (NHM) has been launched with an objective to boost the horticulture sector.

Short notes on investments.

There are 'great' businesses that 'will' make you big money in the long term. There are 'good' businesses that 'may' make you good money in the long term. And then, there are 'terrible investments' that 'will' definitely lose you money in the long term. It is this third category that you must stay clear of.

Buffett describes such terrible businesses as ones that 'grow rapidly, require significant capital to fuel the growth, and then earn little or no money for shareholders'. His topmost example of such a business is airlines. But there are several others such terrible businesses existing in India that you must stay clear of. And this is despite the fact that some of these businesses promise a bright growth opportunity in terms of growing their revenues and profits. But it is not just revenues and profit growth that matter. What also counts is shareholder returns.

The ones that come to our mind exist in sectors like retailing, power, textiles, and oil marketing. We see businesses in power and oil marketing continue to get hurt by wide regulations that restrict returns for companies. As for the ones in retailing, continuous expansion of mall space will consistently eat into their cash flows.

We do not think that investing large amounts of capital into such businesses is a bad thing in itself. But you as an investor need to make sure that there is a good chance that such capital investments will actually translate into healthy shareholder returns in the future. If you see such chances as minimal, stay clear of investing in these businesses!

Sikkim is held hostage by Gorkhaland agitation: Chief minister (Interview)


IANS

Gangtok, Jan 10 : Over the past years and especially these last days, Pawan Chamling has been seeing his dreams of a prosperous Sikkim, which he wants to be India’s top state in per capita income, shaken and even fractured by an ongoing agitation for a separate Gorkhaland in neighbouring West Bengal.

“Since 1986, when the demand first surfaced, we have been suffering, but the present time has been very bad, 80 percent of our hotel bookings have been cancelled, our lifeline is closed and we are under tremendous pressure,” said Chamling, who has been chief minister of this Himalayan state for 15 years over three terms. In the 2009 elections, his Sikkim Democratic Front made a clean sweep in the 40-member state legislature.

“We lost about Rs.2,000 crore (Rs.20 billion/$400 million) in these past weeks,” said Chamling in an interview in New Delhi, after a meeting with PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh where he demanded that the central government ensure that the highway from Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri be kept open.

These are the main rail, road and air hubs for north Bengal. The highway, which snakes its way up from the Bengal plains to Gangtok,Sikkim’s capital, and to the India-China border, has been blocked at the entry point for Sikkim by protesters demanding a separate state, including school children.

“We are hostages in Sikkim: if it is a national highway, then it should be treated as such and cleared for traffic, goods and passengers. Why should we have to suffer for no fault of our own,” Chamling snapped. “The centre and the stategovernment in Bengal should ensure safe conduct of convoys through the highway.”

He balanced this against the integration of Sikkim since 1975, when it was absorbed into India. Not less than 10,000 jobs had been hit in the tourism industry alone, he said.

Chamling added that the prime minister had assured him that he would talk to Home Minister P. Chidambaram about the issue. The chief minister now plans to visit Kolkata to press his counterpart in West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. While Chamling said the Gorkha demands were within the ambit of the Constitution, he felt the centre andWest Bengal should not delay a decision on the issue.

Clearing the blockade is a ticklish problem for the centre because law and order is a state subject under the Constitution and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance does not want to do anything that would give the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) inWest Bengal an issue to mobilise anti-Delhi support.

The state is to go to the polls next year and the CPI-M and its allies are facing for the first time a major challenge to three decades of rule from a resurgent Trinamool Congress under RailwayMinister Mamata Banerjee and its ally, the Congress. The state government has been rocked by its failure to control the Maoist challenge in Lalgarh and singed by the agitation over Singur.

Chamling holds to his vision of a Sikkim where ecological conservation would be balanced with economic development through investments in major hydro-electric dams, eco-friendly tourism and pharmaceuticals. He says his government has already brought in Rs.30,000 crore from investments in hydro power and another Rs.10,000 crore in higher education and tourism.

But he also knows that that the constant pressure on his tiny state could disrupt its enviable record of many decades of peace with Tibet to the north, an unstable Nepal to its west and north-eastern insurgencies.

And this is something that New Delhi cannot take for granted any longer.

(Sanjoy Hazarika can be contacted at sanjoyha@gmail.com)
Copyright Indo Asian News

INDIA:PM launches Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission – Solar India


11 Jan 2010 11:50 IST
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission – Solar India in New Delhi today. Following is the text of the Prime Minister’s inaugural address:

“I am very happy to be here today to launch the highly innovative Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission under the brand name “Solar India”. This National Solar Mission has the pride of place in India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change. Its success has the potential of transforming India’s energy prospects, and contributing also to national as well as global efforts to combat climate change. This Mission is one of the major priorities of the second term of our government and I congratulate Dr. Abdullah and my other colleagues particularly Shri Shyam Saran, for the work they have done in bringing this to fruition.

Increased use of solar energy is a central component of our strategy to bring about a strategic shift from our current reliance on fossil fuels to a pattern of sustainable growth based on renewable and clean sources of energy. I sincerely hope that this solar Mission will also establish India as a global leader in solar energy, not just in terms of solar power generation but also in solar manufacturing and generation of this technology.

The importance of this Mission is not just limited to providing large-scale grid connected power. It has the potential to provide significant multipliers in our efforts for transformation of India’s rural economy. Already, in its decentralized and distributed applications, solar energy is beginning to light the lives of tens of millions of India’s energy-poor citizens. The rapid spread of solar lighting systems, solar water pumps and other solar power-based rural applications can change the face of India’s rural economy. We intend to significantly expand such applications through this Mission. As a result, the movement for decentralized and disbursed industrialization will acquire an added momentum, a momentum which has not been seen before.

The target of 20,000 MW of solar generating capacity by the end of the 13th Five Year Plan is no doubt an ambitious target. But I do sincerely believe that the target is doable and that we should work single-mindedly to achieve it as a priority national endeavour.

The carefully crafted regulatory and incentive framework that has been unveiled today has several innovative features. We expect that it will lead to a rapid scale up of capacity. This will encourage technological innovation and generate economies of scale, thereby leading to a steady lowering of costs. Once parity with conventional power tariff is achieved, there will be no technological or economic constraint to the rapid and large-scale expansion of solar power thereafter.

Clearly, technological innovation will be a key factor in ensuring the success of this Mission. We will need to find ways of reducing the space intensity of current solar applications, including through the use of nano-technology. Cost-effective and convenient storage of solar energy beyond daylight hours will be critical to its emergence as a mainstream source of power. In the meantime, we may need to explore hybrid solutions, combining solar power generation with gas, biomass or even coal-based power.

It was the vision of Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru that enabled India to create world-class scientific and technological capacities in the field of atomic energy and space sectors. It is these strengths in science and technology that eventually have created the Information Technology revolution in India and made it a global power. I am convinced that solar energy can also be the next scientific and technological frontier in India after Atomic Energy, Space and Information Technology.

There exists in our country immense talent and research capabilities already engaged in the solar energy field both in the private and public sectors. It is clear that a large number of Ministries and authorities will have to work in tandem if we are to make a success of this important Mission. The Solar Mission should evolve as a single national platform for coordination among our scientific, industrial and regulatory establishments in a synergetic manner.

I am happy that the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry has been associated with this event. The role of industry in this Mission’s success will be critical. Eventually, if the ambitious roll out of the Mission is to become a living reality, we will have to create many ‘Solar Valleys’ on the lines of the Silicon Valleys that are spurring our IT industry across the four corners of our country. These valleys will become hubs for solar science, solar engineering and solar research, fabrication and manufacturing. I urge Indian industry to see the National Solar Mission as the huge business opportunity that it is going to be.

The Sun has long been recognized as a primal source of all energy on earth. In an ancient civilization like India, the Sun has been worshipped as the God who bestows life and sustains it. The bounty of the Sun is truly inexhaustible, renewable and free. It is to this source of energy that humankind must turn to meet the twin challenge of energy security and climate change.

With these words, I wish the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission every success.”


*****

SIKKIM: Chief Minister to inaugurate Maghey Mela at Jorethang


Gangtok: With a new charm and added events the famous Maghey Sankranti Mela of Jorethang in South Sikkim is all set to begin from 14th January 2009 and last till 17th January 2010. As learnt from the area MLA Madan Cintury, the Mela will be formally inaugurated by the Chief Minister Dr. Pawan Chamling at Jorethang playground. Showering flowers from helicopter at the inaugural ceremony is arranged, it is learnt.
Final meeting of the Mela organizing committee was held on 9th January at the committee office in Jorethang. The meeting was chaired by the area MLA Mr. Cintury. He was accompanied by the President of the Organizing committee cum DC South Mr. AK Singh.
In the meeting representatives of different committees of the Mela discussed their preparation plans and mentioned the hindrances being faced in organizing the different events of the Mela. The committees are for sports, accommodation, finance and culture, among others.
DC South gave several suggestions to the organizing committee urging it to organize yhe Mela in a systematic way. The meeting also discussed preventions of antisocial activities during the mela.
Attractions of this year’s Mela include stalls of different traditions displaying their respective cousins, foods and customs and a fancy market on the bank of river Rangeet which are expected to attract a good number of visitors from all over the state and outside the state. Events like paragliding and mina mela will be the other attractions this year.

INDO-BANGLADESH RELATIONS:Future

Haroon Habib

An economically strong, secular and democratic Bangladesh is crucial for New Delhi and the rest of the region.
The domestic context in Bangladesh of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s major visit to India starting on Sunday.

Sheikh Hasina, who started her second term as Prime Minister of Bangladesh on January 6, 2009, is due to visit India from Sunday. This is her first visit to New Delhi during this term, and it is expected to be a significant one.

When Ms Hasina became Prime Minister in 1996 (she held office till 2001), her Awami League had a thin majority in Parliament, and her government had many limitations. She came to power after two decades that followed the bloody changeover of 1975. Despite those limitations, her government took some remarkable steps vis-À-vis India. Overall, it tried to reverse certain post-1975 political trends and to rejuvenate the pro-liberation spirit that was needed badly for a secular polity in a country that had seen the planned rehabilitation of the so-called 1947 spirit by a set of military and pseudo-democratic rulers.

During that tenure, the Awami League-led government signed the historic Ganga Water Treaty. It also paved the way for the return to India of thousands of Chakma refugees from Tripura with the signing of a landmark accord that ended decades of tribal insurgency in the border region. Then, it sent a firm signal to insurgents operating all across northeastern India, many of whom, as claimed by India, enjoyed sanctuary in Bangladesh. These steps were not easy to take, and indeed constituted a test of courage and conviction for the government.

This time, too, the government of the grand alliance led by the daughter of the slain founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is not without its limitations. But its leadership is now more experienced. It won a landslide in the December 2008 elections, and secured a two-thirds-plus majority in Parliament. This enabled Ms Hasina’s government to amend the Constitution and bring about certain changes that it felt were needed to initiate a new journey that Bangladesh needs to undertake in order to get back on the right track.

Having achieved independence from Pakistan in the aftermath and as a consequence of the devastating war of 1971, Bangladesh did not get adequate time to consolidate itself and put itself on a firm democratic footing. India helped the Bengali freedom fighters to a great extent, and finally formed a joint military command after Pakistan attacked its soil. But that remarkable and historic achievement failed to deliver the expected outcome fully, probably due to a certain lack of alertness, a premature sense of euphoria or a misreading of the feelings of the forces that were defeated.

At the high-level meetings between Bangladesh and India over the next few days, particularly of the heads of governments, important bilateral aspects that will have a historical resonance are bound to come up. But the domestic context of the visit is unlikely to remain unnoticed.

Bangladesh is now ruled by secular democratic forces, known as the ‘pro-liberation’ forces. But the forces which opposed independence from Pakistan and which developed a solid economic foundation and organisational base over the past few decades, have now become quite alert and aggressive. They have been quickly joined by some elements — who were direct beneficiaries of the 1975 changeover and who ruled the country for 30 out of the 39 years of its political existence — and have unleashed a propaganda war.

The fundamentalists and the local versions of the Taliban do not want Bangladesh to remain friendly with India; to them India is “the enemy state.” But why is the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is but a mixture of soft Islamists, fundamentalists and former communists, singing a similar tune?

When the national media projected the Prime Minister’s visit to India optimistically — as an opportunity to begin a new era and resolve certain outstanding issues — Begum Khaleda Zia, BNP chairperson and chief of the four-party rightist alliance in which the Jamaat-e-Islami plays a pivotal role, posed an open challenge to the government. She stated publicly that should Ms. Hasina conclude an honourable deal with India, she would be welcomed with garlands on her return. If, on the other hand, she failed to protect the ‘national interest,’ her path would be strewn with thorns.

This is an open challenge posed before the one-year-old government, which has ensured that the war criminals found guilty for their role during the liberation war against Pakistan face trial. The Supreme Court recently upheld the death sentence to the killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

There are several issues on the table in the context of Ms Hasina’s visit. It is all right to analyse them ahead of the summit, but it will be wrong to give the impression that any lack of progress in solving them in a single visit will constitute failure. To imply that even a meeting with the Indian leader could somehow lead to an eventual surrender of national interests is equally fallacious.

Post-1975, the definition of patriotism changed in Bangladesh. Originally, it was the Bengali freedom fighters and their local collaborators on the warfront who were called “patriots” along with the vast majority of people who helped to fight the war against the Pakistan Army. But the history of the independence struggle was re-written, rather distorted, by a set of military and pseudo-democratic rulers. Fortunately, Bangladesh now looks forward to removing the distortions as a younger generation of Bangladeshis seeks to know what really happened.

The Khaleda Zia-led combine, which will soon be under the command of her controversial son Tareq Rahman — he is now in London and faces multiple corruption charges — did not perhaps notice the changed national mood. As Ms Hasina prepared to go to New Delhi, the Leader of the Opposition chose to question the patriotism of even the people who belong to the ruling party, forgetting that patriotism is not the monopoly of any single group or party.

Whenever such a top-level meeting takes place, the mainstream media delve into history and recall India’s support to the cause of Bangladesh’s nationhood. It is yet another irritant Begum Zia and her alliance have been destined to suffer. It is a matter of history that India sheltered 100 million refugees from the former East Pakistan when the Pakistan Army began a genocidal war against unarmed civilians, and also extended significant support to Bangladesh’s war that finally culminated in the creation of a new country.

However, the historic relationship did not develop as it was meant to. Bangladesh faced its first shock in August 1975 with the assassination of Mujibur Rahman. With state power vested in the military and pseudo-democratic rulers for two decades, Bangladesh found a new ethos that practically negated the secular spirit of 1971. India, too, underwent transformation on multiple fronts. Therefore, while history provides a vital thrust, India and Bangladesh must practically resolve the issues that have confronted them, and seek to put their relations on a solid foundation.

Since India is a big neighbour, some psychological impact on both sides of the border is inevitable. When the post-1975 situation influenced a section of Bangladeshis to look back at the “spirit of 1947,” which actually ran counter to the spirit of the war of liberation, Dhaka-New Delhi relations faced many obstacles. While this was against the will of many Bangladeshis, the protagonists of the “spirit of 1947” did succeed in influencing a section that would strongly argue that the stumbling blocks were mainly India’s “intransigence, chauvinism and obduracy.”

Bangladesh covers a relatively small territory. But it has enormous potential and considerable strategic significance. Close relations with India to resolve all major irritants should be a key requirement for it to make a new beginning. Despite having been in office only for a year and despite the fact that the adversaries of the pro-liberation spirit are more powerful than ever before, the Sheikh Hasina government has shown considerable courage and conviction to free its soil from anti-India activity. Many would, therefore, hope for suitable reciprocal gestures to strengthen the polity.

An economically strong, secular and democratic Bangladesh is crucial for New Delhi and the rest of the region. A democratic and secular India, and Bangladesh, that has started its renewed march towards a stable democratic polity despite the muscle flexing by some extremists, should work together for a stable South Asia.

(The writer, who was involved in Bangladesh’s freedom struggle, can be reached at: hh1971@gmail.com)

A novel way to tackle food inflation

MANIKAM RAMASWAMI


Food inflation is good for 70 per cent of India’s real poor as they are net food producers. The Central Government’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has ensured that farmers get a reasonable wage; good enough to lift them above the poverty line (BPL). The downside is the steep increase in the cost of cultivation, given the farm sector’s large dependence on manual labour.

If it is ensured that the benefits of the 20 per cent inflation in food articles actually reach the farmers, substantial poverty for 70 per cent of the very poor can be eliminated. Several successful models exist within the system for ensuring a good connect between the farmer and the consumer or end-user.

They have to be identified, documented and laterally implemented to ensure that the farmer gets the benefit of higher prices.

(1) Support price operations for crops where support prices are fixed; greater awareness of the support prices should be created; support price operators should have a telephone (SMS)-based complaint lodging mechanism in place to ensure proper functioning of the system. A few good, well-represented support price operators and their models need to be adopted in other cases too.

(2) ‘Ulavar Sandhai’ initiated by the Tamil Nadu Government is another good example that can be studied and finetuned for lateral adoption, probably with the addition of better hygiene and cold storage facilities.

(3) The market committee yards in Gujarat and parts of Andhra Pradesh are the other good examples to be adopted to connect farmers and users in a transparent way.

While connecting the farmer and the end-user, focus should not be lost on the other 30 per cent of the very poor who are non-food producing poor. It is here that the public distribution system (PDS) plays an important part; a well-run PDS, which is also inclusive, can substantially alleviate the impact of rising food prices.

Here again, Tamil Nadu needs to be complimented. The State government partnered Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and studied possible improvements to the PDS system and implemented most of the recommendations. The recent experiment of selling vegetables through the PDS at 50 per cent of the open market price needs to be emulated.

This effort of the government will also help the farmer realise better prices when they sell the products to PDS outlets even as it brings down the vegetable prices substantially to consumers.

Instead of looking at food price increase as an inflationary evil, one should look at it as a belated recognition of the fact that those who produced food too need to come above the poverty line.

Look at other means to totally reduce the impact of higher farm gate food prices on that part of the society that is vulnerable to high food prices.

Remedy for inflation

Remedy for food price inflation is completely different from that for inflation stemming from other sources. Tight money policy is not an answer. A better connect between food producers and consumers or agro product users and a more compassionate policy of adding a larger number of items to PDS together with leakage elimination in the PDS system is the way out.

Organisations interested in doing charity can volunteer to help better connect farmers to users and be watchdogs at PDS outlets. Corporates too can include theses in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and convert what appears to be dangerous cholesterol into good and desirable cholesterol. In the process, they can save themselves from tight money policy which becomes inevitable if food inflation is seen as bad cholesterol. Ensuring that the PDS becomes less prone to leakages too is in the interest of corporates as food subsidy will then come down, lowering the budget deficit and lessening the need for taxation.

Sikkim Safest place for investment in the entire country- Aiyar



Kolkata 10 Jan 2009

Former DoNER minister Mani Shankar Aiyar at the North East Business Summit in Calcutta on Saturday and Union minister B.K. Handique at another session of the meet. Pictures by Kishor Roy Chowdhury
Calcutta, Jan. 9: Former DoNER minister Mani Shankar Aiyar today blamed the private sector’s lack of “long-term vision” and “genuine patriotism” for the tardy infrastructure growth in the Northeast.

Speaking at the fifth North East Business Summit here this morning, the former minister pulled up entrepreneurs for resorting to “easy options” in the developed zones of the country rather than investing in the Northeast.

“It establishes my conviction that in this country, the private sector is more inefficient than the public sector, making me an unredeemed socialist,” said Aiyar on the sidelines of the summit.

Asked whether insurgency has deterred companies from investing in the region, Aiyar said barring Manipur and parts of Assam and Nagaland, the rest of the Northeast has been peaceful. He named Sikkim and Mizoram as the two “safest” states in the entire country.

Regarding attacks on mega projects, including the East-West corridor, Aiyar said he had been demanding a dedicated set of security personnel for a particular project.

“India cannot achieve double digit growth unless the Northeast is pulled up by the boot straps to match the national growth rate,” he said.

To ensure that kind of growth and proper implementation of Vision 20/20, Aiyar proposed that civil society and the business sector should monitor the implementation of projects.

He said the Indian Chamber of Commerce could form a group of intellectuals drawn from all the northeastern states to assess the growth impartially.

A month before the North Eastern Council meets for its biennial conclave, the intellectuals’ forum would prepare a project report on behalf of civil society containing a genuine assessment of progress made over a certain period of time. The North Eastern Hill University (Nehu) could also pitch in with economists and intellectuals to monitor the growth.

Aiyar stressed on the “major historical breakthrough” that would alter the political profile and the economic prospects of the Northeast — Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India on January 12.

The Northeast, he said, was the second most prosperous zone in British India, only to be robbed of its prospects by the Bangladesh war.

It was time, Aiyar said, that the human roadblocks set in the path of healthy trade ties between the two countries be removed. Confident that Hasina’s visit would improve trade connectivity, Aiyar said the two neighbouring countries had missed out on an era of economic development in the past 40 years.

Union minister B.K. Handique concentrated on mining prospects in the Northeast in another session of the business meet at the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce.

source: Soma Banerjee

Investment resolutions for 2010


Energy: The International Energy Agency (IEA) released its World Energy Outlook in late 2008. The IEA estimates that every fossil fuel resource we rely on today will simply not be able to keep pace with demand. Coal reserves are expected to be over in less than a 100 years; natural gas production is expected to go into a decline after 2020; and uranium mines will not be able to keep pace with demand, and current oil production from a majority of oil fields are past their peaks and beginning their decline.

The next alternative to traditional energy is alternative energy or renewable energy. Whether it’s solar, wind, photovoltaic, geothermal, bio-fuel or hydropower, these alternative sources of energy will gradually replace more conventional sources.

Commodities: Recent money supply growth with central banks around the world printing money, higher inflation is likely to stay for some time. In this scenario gold, silver and other commodities are a good destination.

Developed economies such as the US, France and Germany have over 65% of their forex reserves in gold. On the other hand, Bric countries and other South-east Asian economies have less than 5% of reserves in gold. Over time as their levels go up, gold prices will be driven higher. Fertiliser and food-grain will also remain attractive through the decade as we try to feed the world’s growing population and combat the decline of oil with biofuels.

DATA

No of electric connections:

AREA Number of Consumers

Darjeeling 19,554
Bijanbari 8,309
Sukhiapokhri 8,087
Lodhama 2,154
Takdah 9,293
Kurseong 16,717
Sonada 6,579
Mirik 7,857
Kalimpong 20,330
Teesta Bazar 1,619
Mongpoo 3,025
Naxalbari. 1,465

Total 1,04,989

GST: Pranab to meet state FMs on Jan 13

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee may meet state finance ministers this week to discuss their requirements and implementation of proposed Goods and Services Tax, speculated to be delayed by over six months, is likely to be discussed during the meeting.

“Finance Minister will meet state finance Ministers on January 13 as a pre-budget exercise,” an official said.

Among other things, the meeting is also likely to discuss issues pertaining to implementation of GST, which is likely to be delayed by at least seven to eight months, he said.

The government had proposed to introduce GST from April 1, 2010, but it would not be possible as the constitutional amendments, necessary for introduction of the new tax structure which will subsume levies like excise, VAT and service tax, would take sev en to eight months.

The government, the official said, may not introduce the amendment bills in the forthcoming Budget session as there is no consensus among the states on rates and modalities of the new tax regime.

States, which have been clamouring for more funds to tide over the financial difficulties following the economic crisis which had hit revenue collections, will also raise the issue of compensation on account of phasing out of the Central Sales Tax (CST).

A feel good way to shedding excess baggage?


When your New Year's resolution to lose weight crumbles as fast as the cookie touching your lips, it's time to admit that dieting doesn't work. More successful is a holistic approach to losing weight that lets you feel good about feeding your body the nourishment it craves.

"By understanding the whole person, including emotional reasons for eating, stress triggers, medical history and physiological factors, we help each individual approach food in a whole new way," said Henri Roca.

Roca works with the Centre of Integrative Medicine's (CIM) registered dietician and nutritionist to help people understand why they eat what they do.

"We look at the emotional aspects of eating and the habits an individual creates surrounding their relationship with food," said Roca.

"Stress alone can have more of an impact than most people realise. Chronic stress can lead to increased cortisol levels, which stimulate glucose production in the body. Excess glucose is converted to and stored as fat, particularly around a person's mid-section. A chemical chain reaction can occur inside the body and sabotage the best weight loss efforts," said Roca, according to a CIM release.

Cutting back on calories and adding or increasing exercise are proven to assist with weight loss, but they do not provide enough motivation for people who have been repeatedly unsuccessful at reaching their weight-loss goals

INDIA:Intense R&D needed for Global Leader in Solar Energy: Dr. Farooq Abdullah

THREE NEW FACILITIES INITIATED AT SOLAR ENERGY CENTRE

10 Jan 2010 17:14 IST

The Jawhar Lal Nehru National Solar Mission announced recently by Government of India targets 20,000 MW grid solar power, 2,000 MW off grid solar applications and 20 million sq meters of solar thermal collectors by the year 2022, the end of the thirteenth plan period. The National Solar Mission will formally be launched by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in the Solar Energy Conclave 2010 to be held on 11th January, 2010 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.

India has very good solar insolation with large parts of the country having more than 1800kWh/m2/year insolation and 300 days of sunshine. For development of reliable and cost effective solar energy technologies, the Solar Energy Centre of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has for many years been working on various aspects of solar resource utilization and technology development.

Today, on the eve of this important development, under a new initiative of academia-industry-government partnership, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Union minister of New and Renewable Energy laid the foundation stone for three more technical facilities in the R&D campus of the Solar Energy Centre situated on the Gurgaon-Faridabad Road just on the outskirts of the national capital. Speaking on the accasion, he emphasized the need of such intense indigenous research and development in the area to establish India as a global leader in solar energy.

Shri Deepak Gupta, secretary Ministry of New and Renewable Energy was also present on the occasion.

These facilities initiated today include the Solar Thermal Testing, Research and Simulation facility being developed by a consortium led by Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. The facility would have a grid connected solar thermal power plant of 1 MW capacity. This will also include a test set up that enables companies and research institutions to test the performance of different solar concentrator options, coatings and materials, components and systems for a solar thermal power plant. In addition, the IIT Bombay led consortium is also developing a solar power plant simulator that simulates the performance of the actual solar thermal plant through component and system models based on appropriate mathematical equations. The consortium members of this unique facility include Tata Power, Tata Consulting Engineers, Larsen & Toubro, Clique, KIE Solatherm and Solar Energy Centre.

The second facility is a pilot project based on an indigenously developed solar concentrator technology that promises delivering low cost thermal energy. Megawatt Solutions, a Chennai-based company has partnered with Solar Energy Center to demonstrate technical and commercial viability of the technology that can harness solar energy through the thermal route for various applications like industrial process heating, air-conditioning and power generation.

The consortiums in both these pilot projects for development of solar thermal energy represent a new model for academia, industry and government partnership for technology development and research.

Reliable and cost effective photovoltaic (PV) modules and robust engineering of a PV system are extremely important for widespread utilization of solar PV technology. Today Minister Dr Abdullah also laid the foundation stone of a 20 kW solar photovoltaic power plant for validation of various design configurations. The configurations of the plant have been designed by the Centre and is being installed by Solar Semiconductor Private limited with power conditioning units supplied by Optimal Power Synergy India. The PV module reliability R&D facility of the Centre has recently been expanded and enhanced through a cooperative research project with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Japan. The facility works on long term performance evaluation of different technology PV modules to determine module life times, expected degradation or failure rates through testing under actual field conditions.

Shri Deepak Gupta, secretary of MNRE, stated that the efforts of the Solar Energy Centre are well in line with the objectives of the National Solar Mission that envisages setting up Centres of Excellence in the country for solar energy research.

INDIA: Drugs worth US $ 80 billion are on the verge of going off-patent
There is a big opportunity for investment in the drug manufacturing sector.

9 Jan 2010 15:16 IST

The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad has has invited the people of Indian origin to become a partner in the health sector in India. Speaking at the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas here today, Shri Azad highlighted the potential of investment in drug manufacturing and medical education for the Indian diaspora.

Shri Azad asserted that there is every possibility of India becoming pharmacy of the world, in the times ahead.

He drew attention to the fact that drugs worth US $ 80 billion are on the verge of going off-patent and with India’s capacity to manufacture drugs at competitive prices, there is a big opportunity for investment in the drug manufacturing sector.

Government of India has already cleared the desk by streamlining and strengthening of the regulatory frame-work with international credence. “I take this opportunity to invite the NRI entrepreneurs to come forward and invest in the drug manufacturing sector which has bright prospects.”

Shri Azad detailed the steps taken by his ministry in promoting medical education in order to deal with the shortage medical human resources. He informed the PIOs that besides recognition of foreign degrees many changes have been effected to facilitate opening of new medical colleges and increase in the capacity of existing colleges.

Reduction in land requirement from 25 acres to 20 acres for setting up a medical college across the country, in north-eastern states this land can be in 2 parcels of 10 acres each.

In cities of Mumbai, Kolkatta, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderbad, Pune, Bangalore and Kanpur, medical college can be located in multi-storied buildings with floor area as per MCI and in such cases the land requirement has been further reduced to 10acres. Faculty and staff requirements have also been rationalised. The teaching experience required for the post of Professor and Associate Professor has been reduced by one year each in the respective feeder cadres, to speed up the promotion of the teachers to overcome the difficulties being faced by medical colleges. The requirement of bed strength and bed occupancy required at the stage of inception has been rationalized for the North Eastern States and Hilly States. Shri Azad also informed that apart from the religious and charitable trusts, now companies registered under the Companies Act have also been made eligible to open medical colleges. With these changed regulations, the feasibility of opening of a new medical colleges has increased to a great extent and there is need to open new medical colleges, particularly in underserved and unserved States. “ With these amended provisions, I appeal to the NRIs to come forward and invest in setting up the medical colleges or take up teaching or practice or contribute in any other way you wish towards furthering the cause of the nation”, said Shri Azad.


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Benefits of Investing in Mutual Funds

Almost everyone can buy mutual funds. Even for a sum of Rs 1,000 an investor can invest in a mutual fund.

Professional Management

For an average investor, it is a difficult task to decide what securities to buy, how much to buy and when to sell. By buying a mutual fund, you acquire a professional fund manager who manages your money. This is the person who decides what to buy for you, when to buy it and when to sell. The fund manager takes these decisions after doing adequate research on the economy, industries and companies, before buying stocks or bonds. Most mutual fund companies charge a small fee for providing this service which is called the management fee.

Diversification

According to finance theory, when your investments are spread across several securities, your risk reduces substantially. A mutual fund is able to diversify more easily than an average investor across several companies, which an ordinary investor may not be able to do. With an investment of Rs 5000, you can buy stocks in some of the top Indian companies through a mutual fund, which may not be possible to do as an individual investor.

Liquidity

Unlike several other forms of savings like the public provident fund or National Savings Scheme, you can withdraw your money from a mutual fund on immediate basis.

Tax Benefits

Mutual funds have historically been more efficient from the tax point of view. A debt fund pays a dividend distribution tax of 12.5 per cent before distributing dividend to an individual investor or an HUF, whereas it is 20 per cent for all other entities. There is no dividend tax on dividends from an equity fund for individual investor.

Ground Rules for Investing

Investing is a complex exercise only because we insist on making it so. But the basic principles are simple. As simple that anyone can become a good investor just by following simple and easily understood rules, which also help avoid big mistakes. Here are my rules for investment success.

Develop a Plan: For your short-term goals, make sure you're taking appropriate risks. Invest money that you'll need in the next two years to five years in cash and short-term bonds. If you've taken on too much risk for short-term objectives, pull back now. There's no telling where the bottom of this market is. It's better to cut your losses and preserve the money you already have for short-term goals. For your long-term financial goals, consider equities.

Keep It Simple: Buy a diversified equity fund or an index fund for equity exposure and a floating-rate bond fund for fixed income exposure. These are the basics of the investment world. Sure, you can buy many other types of funds (Petro, MNC, Gilt, Fixed Maturity, Serial Plans etc), but it's hard to go wrong with these two. To keep fund selection simple, stick with a diversified equity funds of well-established fund families. Equities prove to be the best performing long-term asset class. Stay away from exotic speciality and sector funds, unless you have a huge risk appetite and you can take in your stride a 25% loss in a quarter.

Ignore the hot stocks and funds: If you buy this year's top-performing fund or stock, be prepared to see it at the bottom next year. The fancy academic expression for this phenomenon is -- Reversion to the Mean. But the old saying explains it just as well -- what goes up must come down.

Invest Regularly: Investing a little bit of money each month is the surest way to reduce the risk of investing, because you lessen the possibility of buying at the market top. Also, no one is smart enough to anticipate all the moves, both up and down.

Buy and Hold: Short-term trading makes more brokers than investors rich. The income tax department likes the practice, too. If you meet anyone who claims to have made money through short-term trading, resist your temptation to listen any further and move on to a more productive conversation.

Start Early: It is not the "market timing" but time in the market that matters. Power of compounding will turn things in your favour.

Investing is a long-term proposition. Research your investments, remember your goals, re-examine your risk, and limit how much you listen to day-to-day market commentary. And don't let your emotions overpower your sense of reason.

First annular solar eclipse of longest duration on Jan 15

January 15th will herald the first annular solar eclipse of the year, also the longest in the millennium.

Ajay Talwar of the Amateur Astronomers Association told IANS, “Not only will this eclipse be the first of the year but also the longest of the third millennium, that is between 2001 and 3000. In India it will start at around 11 a.m. and end at around 3 p.m.”

“The eclipse will first be seen in south of Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and then travel obliquely to Rameshwaram and Dhanushkodi, where it will enjoy the best view. It will then travel to Kerala and end in Mizoram in the northeast,” he said.

The rest of India will see the eclipse only partially, Talwar added.

According to a post on the site of NASA: “On Jan 15, an annular eclipse of the sun is visible from within a 300 km wide track that traverses half of earth. The path of the moon’s antumbral shadow begins in Africa and passes through Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Somalia.

“After leaving Africa, the path crosses the Indian Ocean where the maximum duration of annularity reaches 11 minutes 8 seconds. The central path then continues into Asia through Bangladesh, India, Burma (Myanmar) and China.” he added.

According to Talwar, the eclipse will last the maximum in Rameshwaram - 10 minutes and eight seconds.

“As the eclipse passes through different places after that, the duration will lessen. In Kanyakumari, the eclipse will be for around nine minutes and so on,” Talwar said.

“Also, the eclipse will begin at different times in different places. It will be a long eclipse,” he added

Blame calcium if you find food tasteless


Next time you find food tasteless, you can blame calcium as it plays a role in taste-making, a new study shows.

Japanese researchers have shown for the first time that calcium channels on the tongue are the targets of taste-enhancing compounds.

Besides molecules that directly trigger specific taste buds (salty, sweet and others), there are other substances with no flavour of their own. But they can enhance that of those paired with them (known as kokumi taste in Japanese cuisine).

Exploiting this discovery could open the way to creation of healthy foods that contain minimal sugar or salt but still elicit strong taste. At the moment, though, the mode of action for these substances is poorly understood.

However, Yuzuru Eto and colleagues from Ajinomoto Incorporated, Japan, examined whether calcium channels - which sense and regulate the levels of calcium in the body - might be involved in the mechanism.

They noted that calcium channels are closely related to the receptors that sense sweet and umami (savoury) tastes and that glutathione (a common kokumi taste element) is known to interact with calcium channels.

The results of their experiments provided a strong correlation: the molecules that induced the largest activity in calcium receptors also elicited the strongest flavour enhancement in taste tests.

The study appeared in the Friday edition of JBC.

INDIA:Southern Railway’s first woman EMU driver


by S. Vydhianathan

For the first time in the history of Southern Railway a woman has been posted as motorcar driver of an EMU. C.V.Thilagavathi operates EMU services in the Chennai suburban network, except on Chennai Beach – Tambaram section.

She joined as Assistant Driver in the Indian Railways in 1995. According to the 37-year-old Thilagavathi, she did not know that the job would involve operation of locomotives when she applied for the post of diesel assistant. Only after the selection, she came to know that she had to assist loco drivers in operating mail and express trains. Though she was little bit hesitant, it was her father who asked her to take up the post as it would be a challenging one.

After working as assistant driver for four years in long distance mail and express trains in Bhopal, Central Railway, she was transferred to Southern Railway in 1999. Thilagavathi who was posted in Chennai Division was soon promoted as the main driver of goods trains. Subsequently, she was given two months training in the working of EMU services and one month course in general rules of suburban operation.

December 16, 2009, was a memorable day for Thilagavathi as on that day she was asked to operate the Moore Market Complex – Tiruvallur EMU service. “I was not at all nervous when I was asked to operate the EMU for the first time. I operated the service with ease and reached the destination in time.”

Talking to The Hindu, Ms.Thilagavathi said “It is just like any other job and my colleagues cooperate with me like in other professions.” Asked about the reaction of passengers when they saw her in the motor cabin, she said some looked at her with surprise. Some women commuters shook hands with her after she got down from the car. A senior citizen commented that he was happy to see a woman driving an EMU and congratulated her for taking up the job.

If everything goes on well, Ms. Thilagavathi will get promotion as mail and express loco driver.

A smart idea to supply power

The solution could be installation of “smart grids,” which will store excess energy whenever there is surplus and distribute it when required using information technology in power transmission and distribution networks.

A fundamental idea taught to electrical engineering students is that energy may be stored, but not power. And this has been seen as a primary obstacle to ensuring sufficient peak power supply, even when the installed power capacity can easily handle non-peak conditions.

The solution could be installation of “smart grids,” which will store excess energy whenever there is surplus and distribute it when required using information technology in power transmission and distribution networks.

A team of five, including the present and past students of the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, on Thursday won a business plan competition in New York, with their idea for powering large networks using their software.

Midhun Saleem, a final B. Tech (electrical engineering) student, who worked on the software as part of his project, says the team’s product ‘XEstor’ uses algorithms to store various battery parameters and interfaces with the grid to control the amount of energy supplied and stored in the network.

Saleem, Kaushik Anand, Ashish Dattani, Sriram Kalyanaraman and Vinay Shankar B.K. shared the $20,000 prize. They will set up shop in New York next year with funding from venture capitalists to commercialise their product. “We got the idea from a White Paper published by Cisco. We thought we could use the interface I was developing for my B. Tech project as our entry to the competition,” Saleem said.

The smart grid projects, for which U.S. President Obama has provided $3.4 billion as part of a stimulus package for the U.S. economy, remains largely on paper, mainly because of the complexity involved in controlling flows across huge power grids in the cities of the world. Many companies have started implementing ideas to save millions of dollars for consumers and to forestall blackouts.

So while the team will start working from its office in the Big Apple, in the long-term it is power-starved countries like India that will benefit from the “smart grid” idea.

source: The Hindu

The brokeback debt mountain


In order to stave off the global financial crisis their own bankers had created, aided by poor ratings by rating agencies and by brokers selling all sorts of junk, Governments have pumped in huge amounts of money to replace private consumption. An article on the BBC website says the cost is $ 10.8 trillion, which translates to $10,000 per person in the developed world! Of the $10.8 trillion, the US shared $ 3.6 t, the UK $ 2.4 and others $3.2. China and other countries pipped in with $ 1.6 t. As a percentage of GDP, the US bailout is 25.8%, which is enormously high. Compare it to the approximately 8% of GDP during the great depression and one sees why; the current recession is not yet over and one may see a double dip.


But the UK figure is even more startling! Its bailout is a whopping 94.4% of its GDP, translating to $ 50,000 per person! How on earth will the UK Government get out of this debt mountain? Debt of both US and UK is enough to break their backs. This is what is worrying investors.

Also of concern everywhere is when is a good time to withdraw the stimulus packages. The US non farm jobless figures were depressing, at 85,000 for Dec 09. Look at the serious decline, over decades, in non farm employment from the website www.chartoftheday.com

In India, Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla feels that the Indian economy is healthy enough to start withdrawing the stimulus packages; he is also looking to the deteriorating fiscal situation. On the other hand, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma warns that early withdrawal could be painful; witness how Japan has not recovered 20 years after its asset bubble burst in Dec 1989. (see Economist Jan 2, 2010 ) In the 80s Japan used to be a contender to become the world's leading economy. Its stock market was booming, the Nikkei nearly hitting 40,000, the most expensive stock in the world was NTT Docomo, 7 of the top 10 global banks were Japanese (there is one now), Japan was buying US assets such as the Rockefeller Centre and Universal Studios. It has lost 2 decades with no economic growth and an aging population. It is now China that is threatening to take over the mantle of economic leadership. It has just overtaken Germany in exports.

India's fiscal situation is strained because of inept management. Consider this. Direct tax collections are up 8.5% in the first half of the year and corporate taxes are up 44% in December. Yet the Government has no money to pay the promised fertiliser subsidy (estimated at Rs 70,000 crores) and is seeking to further subvert its oil marketing companies by capping its share of recompense for subsidy to Rs 15,000 crores. ONGC and Oil India are asked to bear the cost of diesel and petrol subsidies whilst the Government bears the cost of LPG and kerosene which it now wishes to cap at Rs 15,000 crores. This, despite higher tax revenues!

What is the result? The three oil marketing companies, IOCL, HPCL and BPCL, are bathed in red ink and so unable to upgrade refineries in 4 regions, Kerala, J&K, North East and Bihar, to meet Euro III emission standards of fuel. Ergo, auto makers cannot sell Euro III cars in those regions. Ergo, pollution is higher (hey, what about our commitment at Copenhagen?)

The Prime Minister says that India's GDP would grow at 9%, but this would require much better governance than has been displayed. LN Mittal is chagrined at the delays in clearing large projects and says India is unprepared for large investments. Good governance is what has enabled Bihar, one of the states that used to be known as Bimaru, or sickly, to achieve an 11% growth rate! This would have been unbelievable a year ago!

In corporate news of interest, there may be a postponement of plans for an IPO by BSNL and Coal India, until their valuations are as desired by Government. BSNL's current valuation as advised to Government is Rs 58,000 crores, which is half what it used to be. This is largely due to the senseless delays in awarding of contracts to expand its network. It had completed the tender process for it when one of the (losing) contenders filed a writ petition and stalled the award. BSNL also has to bear, almost entirely, the unviable cost of a rural telephone network, and is asking for a waiver of licence fees for such loss making network, which, if agreed to, would save it Rs 1800 crores a year. Coal India is currently valued at Rs 75,000 crores, but is, according to Government, worth more.

In other corporate news, RIL has upped its bid for Llyondell by 13%, to $ 13.5 b.

This columnist was expecting an explosive start in Indian stockmarkets but the start was muted. They replaced Sehwag with Dravid. The sensex went up the first 3 days and down the next 2, to end the week with a gain of 75, at 17,540. The Nifty ended at 5244, up 43. Interestingly, foreign investors were net buyers on all days, and domestic funds were net sellers on all days except Tuesday. It is thus the FIIs which are propping up the market at these levels.

The sensex is poised at the crossroads. It has reached the level of 17700, from whence it fell, in May 2008. It had fallen sharply to 7700 by Oct 08, causing investors to take double doses of Imodium.

It is likely that the market may meet resistance at current levels. They would not fall anywhere near the May 2008 to Oct 2008 fall. But buying on a dip may be advisable. As of now the high debt levels of the developed world have not manifested themselves too strongly. But they will, later.

By J Mulraj

Siliguri: Huge marijuana haul


Siliguri, Jan 9: Customs officials seized a consignment of around 1.55 tons of marijuana here on Friday.

Acting on a tip off, officials seized a consignment of around 1.55 tons of marijuana from an oil tanker in Naxalbari town.

The tanker, registered in Assam and coming from Manipur was raided when it was passing through Ghoshpukur road of the National Highway-31.

The marijuana packets were concealed in two chambers of the tanker.

"On getting the information it was caught. The total weight of Ganja (marijuana) is 1,550 kilograms or 1.55 tons," said R. Mangababu, Additional Commissioner of Customs for North Bengal and Sikkim, in Siliguri.

This has been one of the biggest seizures of marijuana in the recent times by the North Bengal customs.

TEA BOARD: LEARN FROM SIKKIM

Kolkata: Tea Board of India has asked north-eastern states to focus more on orthodox specialty tea aimed solely at the international markets instead of CTC that they are mostly producing at present.

Tea Board has asked the states to follow the Sikkim model while maintaining quality close to that of the Darjeeling crop.

Assam and neighboring states account for more than 70% of the country’s total tea production.

“For the other north-eastern states [states other than Assam] they should look at it as high grown orthodox specialty tea. Even that is exported in bulk it will fetch higher returns. We don’t want them to produce CTC only,” Tea Board chairman Basudeb Banerjee said.

According to him, although CTC tea is sold easily the price realization is less.

“Many of them are producing orthodox tea but not to the extent we want them to,” he said. According to Banerjee, the north-eastern gardens should follow the Darjeeling model. “Which is what Sikkim has done in a Temi tea estate. We are telling the same thing to Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand,” he added.

The Tea Board is in touch with the state governments for field visits.

It will go to Mizoram next month while a team has already visited Nagaland.

“We are also encouraging big players to enter those states. It cannot happen on a backyard kind of attempt. If Indian companies can go abroad and start production from there the same model can be replicated here too,” Banerjee said at a north-eastern summit in Kolkata.

Tea Board will provide 50% subsidy to small growers in those regions apart from a corpus for setting up a self-help group.

He also said that the Guwahati auction centre has started operating entirely through e-auction model and that the Kolkata auction centre will run entirely on that model from April this year.

Sikkim CM talks with Indian Express.

New Delhi

Frustrated at frequent blockades of NH-31A — the only road connecting Sikkim to the rest of India — by protestors seeking a separate Gorkhaland, Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling said on Friday that he often feels like a “hostage” in his own country and appealed to the Centre to “establish governance” in the region.



Chamling, one of the longest-serving chief ministers in the country, said repeated blockade of the road was hurting state’s economy and warned that the resulting discontent in the local population could be exploited by miscreants to disturb peace in the sensitive state.



“We feel trapped. A bunch of students and youngsters, who probably have no idea about the Gorkhaland issue, are able to isolate us from the rest of the country whenever they please. People in Sikkim are completely at the mercy of these so-called agitators. I feel like a hostage,” Chamling said in an interview with The Indian Express.


National Highway 31A is Sikkim’s only link to the rest of the country. The nearest rail and air links both lie in West Bengal, each more than 100 km away from the state capital Gangtok.



Agitators demanding a separate Gorkhaland state out of the hill districts of West Bengal have often resorted to disrupting traffic on NH-31A, which passes through that area, to put pressure on the Central and state governments to concede their demands. The Centre has, in the past, expressed its helplessness in dealing with this growing tendency to disrupt road and rail networks by agitating mobs in different parts of the country.




With the situation becoming desperate, Chamling met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier this week and urged him to resolve the issue quickly, by using force if necessary. “The Centre will have to ensure that there is proper governance in the Gorkhaland area. If nothing else works, the National Highway needs to be kept open by force. I don’t want geography to become a curse for my state,” he said.



The CM, who is in his fourth term in office, said a sense of frustration and alienation was slowly creeping into the local population because of the repeated blockades.



“For more than 15 years, I have worked extremely hard for the emotional integration of Sikkimese people with India. Now, such blockades are leading to a lot of resentment as people’s livelihoods are getting affected. This season there was a huge reduction in tourist inflow in the state because of the uncertainty over road communication" he said.

Source:Indian express.com