Perils of becoming a republic of scandals

" Corruption stalls development, undermines social progress, undercuts the confidence of citizens in the fairness and impartiality of public administration, impedes good governance, erodes the rule of law, distorts competitive conditions in business transactions, discourages domestic and foreign investment, fosters a black market economy, and raises new security threats. In sum, corruption obstructs a country from realising its goals and undercuts national security."


Brahma Chellaney

India’s situation is best explained by an ancient proverb, “A fish rots from the head down.” When the head is putrid, the body politic cannot be healthy. And when those at the helm remain wedded to grand corruption, clerks or traffic police cannot be singled out for taking small bribes.

Corruption, No. 1 national security threat, is eating into the vitals of the state, enfeebling internal security and crimping foreign policy.

India confronts several pressing national security threats. But only one of them - political corruption - poses an existential threat to the state, which in reality has degenerated into a republic of mega-scandals. The pervasive misuse of public office for private gain is an evil, eating into the vitals of the state, sapping India’s strength. When important decisions, from arms procurement to policy changes, are often tainted by corrupt considerations, it is inevitable that national security will get compromised. If India today is widely seen as a soft state, much of the blame must be pinned on the corrupt and the compromised that lead it. Such ‘softening’ of India has made the country a tempting target for those seeking to undermine its security.

India’s situation is best explained by an ancient proverb, “A fish rots from the head down.” When the head is putrid, the body politic cannot be healthy. And when those at the helm remain wedded to grand corruption, clerks or traffic police cannot be singled out for taking small bribes. In fact, it is the self-perpetuating cycle of corruption at all government levels - federal, State and local - that has turned internal security into India’s Achilles heel. As the then Chief Justice of India pointed out last year, the plastic explosives employed in the deadly 1993 Mumbai bombings had been smuggled into the country due to local corrupt practices.

But it is the institutionalised corruption in high office that is eviscerating the republic. When domestic policy is seriously stained by corruption, foreign policy can hardly be dynamic and proactive.

Such is the weakening of the state that India did a better job warding off regional security threats when it was economically weak - like during Indira Gandhi’s reign - than it is able to do today, despite nearly two decades of impressive GDP growth. Economic liberalisation, paradoxically, has whetted personal greed and brought in an era of big-bucks corruption, even as a system of arbitrary environmental stoppages and clearances has taken the place of the old “licence-permit raj.”

India now is witnessing not mere corruption but national plunder. The consequence is that it is getting feebler institutionally. Yet scandals remain so recurrent that public ire over any malfeasance is short-lived.

Indeed, one strategy often employed to ease public anger over revelations of a new mega-scandal is to start targeting second-tier corruption selectively. The misuse of government agencies remains rampant.

Corruption scandals now actually resemble television soaps, with engrossing but diversionary plots. To deflect public attention, the focus in the immediate aftermath is always on government processes related to probing a scandal, not on opening judicial paths to identify the real beneficiaries and quickly recover the loot. The latest scandal over the government’s allotment of second-generation telecom spectrum in 2008 falls in the same category, although the putative loss to the national treasury has been estimated at $39 billion, or 14.3 per cent of India’s total current external debt. The sheer scale of this kickback scandal indicates that multiple political interests must have had a hand in the till. If there is any good news, it is the belated appointment of a clean professional as Telecom Minister.

Make no mistake: The spiriting away of billions of dollars to international financial safe havens constitutes more than criminal wrongdoing. When economic contracts are signed or policy decisions taken so as to net handsome kickbacks, it constitutes a flagrant assault on the national interest. India ranks among the top countries whose stolen national wealth is stashed away in Swiss bank accounts. Yet no Indian politician has ever been convicted and hanged for waging such war on the state.

Let’s be clear: Corruption stalls development, undermines social progress, undercuts the confidence of citizens in the fairness and impartiality of public administration, impedes good governance, erodes the rule of law, distorts competitive conditions in business transactions, discourages domestic and foreign investment, fosters a black market economy, and raises new security threats. In sum, corruption obstructs a country from realising its goals and undercuts national security.

The cancer of corruption in Indiahas alarmingly spread to elements within the two institutions that are central to the country’s future - the judiciary and the armed forces. Recent revelations have highlighted the deep corporate penetration of the major political parties and the manner big business influences policymaking and media coverage. The rot in the media - the nation’s supposed watchdog - stands exposed. In fact, even the integrity of the national Padma awards has been badly vitiated.

But nothing illustrates the corrosive effects of the culture of corruption better than the palpable decay of state capacity. India’s economic dynamism is rooted in its private sector-led growth. But in stark contrast to China, India does poorly wherever the state is involved. The deterioration of the state is the principal constraint on India’s ability to secure its interests. That underscores the national-security costs of widespread corruption.

Today, a self-advertised “incredible India” has no articulated national security strategy, or a defined defence policy, or a declared counterterrorism doctrine, yet it is the only large country dependent on other powers to meet basic defence needs. Instead of seeking to build a first-rate military with strategic reach and an independent deterrent, India has allowed itself to become a money-spinning dumping ground for weapons it can do without. As a result, India has emerged as the world’s top arms importer in the past decade, even as its capacity to decisively win a war erodes.

The defence of India indeed has turned into an unending scandal. Even indictments by the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) have made little difference to the manner arms continue to be procured from overseas. Such imports, often clinched without transparency or open bidding, are a major source of political corruption. India shows that the more corrupt a system, the greater will be will be its corrupting power. A corrupt system quickly corrupts those who enter it, fixating them on the lure of kickbacks and on amassing pelf. Such metastasising corruption cannot be controlled simply by public funding of political parties. After all, much of the big-bucks corruption is designed to line one’s pocket, with no seeming limit to personal greed. In fact, the series of scandals during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government - from bribery-influenced arms imports and $1-billion urea contract with Oman to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars to the state in allowing private mobile telephone operators to shift from fixed licence fees to revenue sharing - served as a reminder of the growing concentration of powers in a few hands and the consequent disdain for integrated, holistic policymaking.

As in other national security challenges, the principal causes of rampant corruption are leadership deficit and governance deficit. The only way corruption can be contained is through integrity of leadership; improved governance; measures to ensure fiscal transparency; strengthened anti-bribery enforcement; government accountability; and active public involvement. The independence of investigating agencies is a prerequisite for developing an anti-corruption culture in politics and business. Yet in India, these agencies are controlled by those whom they are supposed to keep in check or investigate when a scandal unfolds. Even the vigilance system lacks autonomy and is open to manipulation. With corruption, nepotism and cronyism now endemic, Indian politics has become the safe, fast track to wealth. India freed itself from British colonialism only to come in the grip of an indigenous political class ruling the country on colonial-style principles and still functioning from colonial-era structures. It may take a second war of independence for India to gain true freedom from exploitation and pillage.

(Brahma Chellaney is the author, most recently, of Asian Juggernaut - HarperCollins USA, 2010.)

source;thehindu

Sikkim skywalk project in limbo

Updated on Sunday, December 05, 2010, 09:51

New Delhi: The fate of the giant Skywalk proposed at Baleydunga peak in the south of Sikkim hangs in balance with the Environment Ministry refusing to divert a patch of forest land from a sanctuary for the project.

The ambitious project costing Rs 500 crore involves construction of three finger-shaped skywalks, or glass bridges protruding from the Baleydunga cliff at an elevation of 10,102 feet and connected through a tunnel.


The project proponent, Sikkim Tourism, had approached Environment Ministry's steering committee of the National Board of Wildlife for diversion of six hectares of forest land from Maenam Wildlife Sanctuary for survey and investigation for construction of the project.

The iconic structure is expected to propel Sikkim into the global tourism map besides becoming a landmark of its own in the Himalayan state.

Besides Skywalk, the Tourism Department has also proposed creation of allied supporting infrastructure like cable car, tourist complex, accommodation centre, nature and spiritual complex and other tourism amenities in the cliff, Yangang and Dhapar areas.


The survey was meant to find out whether the proposed site can support the creation of such structure as at present there is only one similar skywalk in the world -- at the Grand Canyon in Arizona near the Colorado river in the US.

However, in a recent meeting the Committee did not find "merit in the proposal from the point of view of wildlife conservation in the sanctuary which is a notified protected area.

"It was also opined that the proposal was not site-specific. In view of these suggestions, the Committee decided to reject the proposal," sources said.

source:PTI

SIKKIM STUDENT DESIGN ECO FRIENDLY CAR

Gangtok, Sikkim: A class XI science department student of Jawaharlal Navodya Vidhlaya at Rabong in South Sikkim has made a design of an eco-friendly vehicle which works on the principle of electromagnetic induction magnetism (EMIM).

Seventeen-year-old Deepak Gupta developed the design to prevent emission of harmful gases.

"I worked hard for four years for the design which is eco-friendly because instead of emitting harmful gases, the car produces nothing," he told PTI.

Explaining his design, he said that the design has one system in the gear. "By pressing the buttons of the vehicle, one can increase or decrease the speed of the vehicle. With the help of the batteries, we start the dynamo which shall charge the electromagnetic induction motor which gives energy to the vehicle," he said.

source: Mint

KUALA LUMPUR, December 5, 2010

India's Nicole Faria is Miss Earth 2010

PTI

 

AFP WINNERS ALL: Newly-crowned Miss Earth Talent 2010 Nicole Faria (second left) of India poses with Miss Earth Air Jennifer Pazmino (left) from Ecuador, Miss Earth Water Watsaporn Wattanakoon (second right) from Thailand and Miss Earth Fire Yeidy Bosquez of Puerto Rico, during the final of the Miss Earth 2010 contest held in the Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam on Saturday.

Event raised 100 million Vietnamese Dong for flood victims

India's Nicole Faria has been crowned Miss Earth Talent 2010 after beating 17 other contestants at a talent competition in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

Ms. Faria, a 20-year-old girl from Bangalore, won the title at the talent show with a scintillating belly dance that combines Oriental and Middle Eastern styles.

We are ecstatic: father

“We are ecstatic and overjoyed although we expected it,” Ms. Faria's father Ian said in Bangalore.

The event raised 100 million Vietnamese Dong, which will be transferred to the local Red Cross to support flood victims in the central region of Vietnam.

Vietnam's representative Luu Thi Diem Huong was voted among the top five contestants with her performance of folk dances that are inspired by traditional dances in the northern, central and southern region of the country.

Source: The WSJ

The fifth edition of Indo-China trade through Nathula border closed for the season recording absolute zero import this year on 30th November.

135 Chinese traders reached Sherathang Trade Mart near Nathu-La in the morning of 30th whereas from the Indian side, only 25 traders crossed the border. The export business was worth rupees 98, 53, 700. However the import was zero. The trade that commenced on 5th of May this year faced several teething problems in the beginning. This year’s business, despite picking up late, recorded yet another increase in the exports from this side of the border over the preceding years. As per the official record this year the recorded export business is Rs 4, 0254, 107.

District Collectorate (East) Mr. D Anandan, Director of Commerce and Industries Department, Mr KK Kafley and the Deputy Secretaries, Ms Sumita Pradhan and Ms Cheden Bhutia along with other officials visited the Mart on the last day. China’s In-charge of Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) Ms Kesang Diki while interacting with the media persons said that the reason for zero import is due to the non feasible list of items.

She completely expressed her dissatisfaction over the import list of items. She requested the Indian Government to take the matter of revising list of items on priority basis in order to have a good import value and also demanded to make the import list of items at par with the export item. While interacting with the officials she also expressed happiness over the goodwill gesture and expected revision of trading list by next year.

However the traders in Mart were seen selling the unlisted items. When asked to the custom SP, Mr TW Sherpa he said that it is very difficult for them to manage the border with only two staffs. He also anticipated more co-operation from the State Government.

DC while talking with press said that this year over 300 trade passes were issued from the DC office. He also expressed his happiness on the export growth. “Our main intention was to meet the Chinese traders at Rinquengang and to thank them for their support this season. We did not take much items today,” said one of the traders over the phone. Canned food, utensils, textiles, copper items, vegetable oil, tea, cigarette, coffee, misri, and blankets have been the most popular export items. The sixth edition of the border trade next year is expected to commence from 1st of May 2011.

Courtesy: Sikkim Mail

We need an ambitious agenda for engagement

Nirupama Rao  

AP Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the 5th East Asia Summit in Ha Noi, Vietnam. File photo

The view that India and China are rivals is an over-generalisation and over-simplification of a complex relationship.

This year saw India and China celebrating the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. A couple of weeks from now, Premier Wen Jiabao will be in India and will participate in the closing ceremony of the Festival of China in India which will bring to a close the calendar of activities organised in both China and India to commemorate this occasion.

The six decades of the India-China relationship behind us have a record that is chequered. We became arbiters of our national destinies from the date of India's independence and China's liberation in the late 40s of the last century, inspiring many others in Asia and Africa to end colonialism and foreign domination. This was the time when India and China in a sense, rediscovered each other, understanding the potential of the synergy between two of the largest populated nations in the world on the global stage. The vision of our founding fathers is within our reach today as we regain our place in Asia and the world as leading global economies. The awareness of historical contact between the two peoples of India and China created the basis for our well-intentioned attempt in the 1950s to build a new type of relationship based on Panchasheela, or the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. It was an attempt which, however, faltered, telescoping into the troubled phase that enveloped our relationship in the sixties up until the mid seventies.

The leadership in both our countries understood the untenability of any sustained estrangement between us. The last three decades have been marked by well-intentioned efforts of exploration towards establishing the framework of a stable, peaceful, productive, and multi-sectoral relationship between India and China. Contradictions are sought to be managed, and our differences have not prevented an expanding bilateral engagement and building on congruence. There are elements of cooperation and competition that form the warp and weft of our relationship.

There are both challenges that the relationship confronts us with and also opportunities. As our Prime Minister has said, India and China will continue to grow, simultaneously, and our policies will have to cater to this emerging reality. For India, the situation is complex since China is not only our largest neighbour but also because China is today a major power in the world both from the traditional geo-political point of view and the more current geo-economic point of view. In the world of today, China is a factor in several equations and, therefore, it is intellectually satisfying to see that scholarship in India is increasingly dedicated to looking more closely at all facets of China.

China's rapid economic growth over the last three decades has been spectacular and riveting. It is now the second largest economy in the world with a GDP of roughly $5.5 trillion. China has begun to deal in the currency of global power, and its economic success is impacting its foreign, defence and security policies. The appellation of assertiveness is frequently applied to China's profile in global affairs today. The question that I am always asked is whether our relationship with China will be one dominated by increasing competition for influence and resources, as our economic needs grow. I believe that neither of us has the luxury of seeing each other in antagonistic terms. The view that India and China are rivals is an over-generalisation and over-simplification of a complex relationship which encompasses so many diverse issues. I believe the proposition of competition and rivalry should not be exaggerated in a manner that it overshadows our genuine attempts to manage and transact a rationally determined relationship.

It is true that divergences persist. We have a disputed border. There are legacies as well as lessons bequeathed to us by history. This is a complex problem and the cartographies that define national identity are internalised in the minds of people in both countries. At the same time, we are making a serious attempt at trying to arrive at a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question as the recent 14th round of the Special Representatives talks will testify. The absence of a solution to the question is not due to lack of efforts but arises from the difficulty of the question.

What also needs to be appreciated is that the India-China boundary is one of the most peaceful of all borders. We have in place a well organised set of confidence building measures to ensure peace and tranquillity on the border. We are currently talking to each other on establishing more such mechanisms. There is maturity on both sides to understand the complexity of the issue and to insulate it from affecting our broader relationship. This policy on both sides I think has paid dividends and has contributed towards reducing the possibility of conflict.

Another issue of concern is the management of trans-border rivers. Many of the rivers nourishing the plains of Northern India and also areas in North-east India arise in the highlands of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and are a source of livelihood and sustenance for millions of our people. We are alert to reports of China damming trans-border rivers and have sought assurances from China that it will take no action to negatively affect the flow of the rivers into India, so that our rights as the lower riparian are not adversely affected. China has assured us that the projects on the Bramhaputra are run-of-the-river projects and are not meant for storing or diverting water. We look forward to working closely with China in this critical area of environmental and livelihood security.

There is, then, the question of the China-Pakistan relationship. India firmly believes that a stable and prosperous Pakistan is in India's interest, and we are not against Pakistan's relations with other countries. While I agree that relationships between countries are not zero-sum games, we do not hesitate to stress our genuine concerns regarding some aspects of the China-Pakistan relationship particularly when it comes to China's role in PoK, China's J&K policy and the Sino-Pak security and nuclear relationship. The need for mutual sensitivity to each other's concerns cannot be denied. The issue of giving stapled visas to Indian nationals from the state of Jammu and Kashmir arises in a similar context. We believe that the India-China relationship will grow even stronger as China shows more sensitivity on core issues that impinge on our sovereignty and territorial integrity. We hope this can be realised.

Our trade with China is growing faster than that with any other country and China is our largest trading partner in goods with trade likely to exceed US$ 60 billion this year. There is also serious discussion between the two countries on correcting the trade imbalance and we would like to see more Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. Many Chinese companies are now well established in India and many Indian companies are also opening up in China. We in India have also worked to resolve hurdles that have sometimes been faced by Chinese companies to ensure a level playing field for all foreign investors. We also expect similar access to Chinese markets especially in the area of pharmaceuticals, IT, engineering goods, where our companies have often faced non-tariff and opaque barriers. India is one of China's largest markets for project contracting. India needs an investment of US $ 1 trillion during the next Five-Year Plan period in infrastructure. China is well positioned to participate in this process.

The results of our policy of engagement are manifest in many areas and are not limited to bilateral trade and investment alone. Over 7,000 Indian students study in China, and the CBSE is set to introduce Chinese in the curriculum of schools from the next academic session. There is also an information gap that keeps our peoples from understanding each other better and which we need to bridge by concerted public diplomacy from both sides. There is much work to be done to improve perceptions within the media in both countries.

The global trend towards multi-polarity and a more even distribution of power has been accelerated by the recent global economic crisis. While the immediate financial aspects of the crisis may have been addressed, its structural causes in terms of global imbalances remain unsolved. This provides an opportunity to India and China to work together. Our consultations within the G-20 have shown the way in this regard. Similarly, we have partnered well in BASIC (for the climate change negotiations), and in the BRIC grouping of Brazil, India, Russia and China. We hope such cooperation will also be strengthened on the important issue of UN Reform and that we will be able to build common ground on the issue relating to the expansion of the Security Council and India's interest in permanent membership. In the immediate region in which both countries are located, Asia, as well, there is common ground between India and China on combating terrorism and extremism, enhancing maritime security, and on the need for a peaceful environment to permit the domestic economic growth and development of the two countries. An open, balanced and inclusive architecture to enable a transparent dialogue on these issues that concern security and stability in Asia is in the interest of both our countries.

As India and China continue to pursue their interests, and so long as their overwhelming preoccupation remains their domestic transformation, and both understand that this goal requires a peaceful periphery, it is my firm conviction that the elements of competition in the bilateral relationship can be managed and the elements of congruence can be built upon. As our interests get progressively more complex, the costs of any withdrawal from engagement will rise. I believe this is a big relationship with the clear possibility of an ambitious agenda of mutual engagement that will be one of the most important bilateral equations of our new century. It is in our interest to view it in a more wide-angled and high definition manner than ever before.

(The author is the Foreign Secretary of India. This is an edited version of a speech she delivered to the Observer Research Foundation on December 3.)

source.the hindu

PERSONALITY: Anuradha as I know her

sourceBarun Roy 

FROM MYREPUBLICA.COM

BY PETER J KARTHAK

I had been planning to write this story, and my pending plan rushed me when I read the weekly “Kopila” of the Kantipur daily of Sunday, November 28. In it, Suraj Kunwar writes that Ranjit Gazmer and I had opened a school called Amar Adarsha in Baneshwor, and Anuradha Koirala came to Kathmandu to join the team. This is fictional journalism, and the “kopila” readers of the weekzine can be misled.

Had the two of us operated this imagined school, I wouldn’t still be working as a copyeditor in Kathmandu and Ranjit wouldn’t have immigrated to Bombay, now Mumbai. Hence, I must write the true story. What I write herein are mostly pickings from my already previously published columns, and I add a few more points in the second part, as the true occasion for writing this particular piece warrants.

Anuradha Gurung in Darjeeling

At Mr. Amber Gurung’s Art Academy of Music in Darjeeling, there was Ajay Gurung as a member who was an excellent tabla player, second only to another member, Ranjit Gazmer. This was in the winter of 1961/62, and the other musicians were Karma and Gopal Yonzon, Sharan Pradhan, Indra Thapalia (Amber’s miitjyu), Aruna Lama, Lalit Tamang, Jitendra Bardewa, Indra Gazmer, Puru Subba, and others – including this writer.

Another Gurung was Abhay (recently departed) who shone for many years as a national footballer in India, Sikkim, Bhutan, and Nepal. In Kathmandu, he was a guru to many national kickers and dribblers and played for many clubs.

These were Anuradha’s older brothers. Since Ajay was a fellow musician at the Academy, I visited his Toong Soong cottage where Colonel and Mrs. Gurung had deposited their six or seven brats to give them a permanent moor in life and save them the military transfers their soldier father had been subject to, as the Indian Army required.

Anuradha and her younger sister were kids to us, and they had nothing to do with our serious business – music. Anuradha was a hockey schoolgirl at Loreto Convent, and we saw her in town in her school uniform, with a hockey stick. And that was that.

In Birgunj

I graduated from college in late 1966, and I had ten months to decide my future course of actions. As people of Darjeeling fled its gloomy and misty winter, an annual event, I was visited by Phurba Tshering – a member of The Hillians whom I led. He asked me to accompany him to Birgunj in Nepal to help manage a new “English medium” school. Ranjit Gazmer also joined us. Phurba had already joined the school, so we were in good hands. So off we went, traveling mostly on railway through India – Siliguri, Galgaliya, Sugauli, Barauni and then Raxaul to enter Nepal at Birgunj. The school was in a rural flatland called Itiyahi, some dusty kilometers away from Birgunj town. When we reached our destination in the evening, I saw, to my surprise, Anuradha Gurung who already was a teacher at the school. Thus began our lifelong relationship.

In our time in Nehruvian India, Vande Mataram was having its renaissance, and everything else was “phoren” and anti-nationalistic, including the proven Cambridge education system. The opposite was happening in Nepal, and the craze for modern education continues to this day, forty-four years later. Teachers from outside Nepal, including the Northeast Hills, were hot malpuwas then, as is the case even today. We worked as choice teachers at the Itiyahi Durbar School, promoted by one Badgami Sahu.

Then something happened which, in retrospection now, was fateful in our lives, especially for Anuradha and me, the two players out of seven members in our group. We two still find ourselves in Kathmandu when more than four decades have elapsed since we arrived here.

It happened this way: When our second batch of teachers arrived in Birgunj, the Nepali Rupee had devalued against the Indian Rupee by 135:100. Previously, it had stood at NRs 101 for IRs 100. Now, there was a deficit of Rs 34, and we from India would lose by 34% in our salary. The new decision was taken by Surya Bahadur Thapa, the new prime minister of Nepal.

We negotiated with Sahu Badgami. Since I had assumed leadership of the Darjeeling group of teachers, I argued with him that our salary should be paid at the new rate in Nepali Rupees as we were Indian/foreign “imports” to Nepal. Badgami would not budge. I banged the table; he banged it even louder – it was his property, after all. It was eight in the evening when the powwow failed. Ranjit and I were drawing our first salary but Anuradha and others, who had joined the school months ago, were the greater losers. So we decided to leave the school and left late at night. There were six teachers and a kid in our group, and this was a mass desertion at one go. But since Badgami stood his greedy grounds, whatever happened to the school was his responsibility.

Badgami did another unethical thing. He charged us for our lodging and food and deducted the amounts from our salary. We avenged ourselves by spending our last night in Birgunj in Badgami’s comfortable hotel, had our sumptuous dinner at his restaurant and stuffed ourselves from his department store. His staff obliged us with the credits because we were their boss’s fabled schoolteachers from Darjeeling. We left Birgunj the next morning in Yangji Sherpa Didi’s Volkswagen minibus. We met her by chance in town, and we crashed onto the empty seats. That’s how we reached Kathmandu. Anuradha was sick and threw up at many bends of the serpentine Tribhuvan Rajpath. I don’t know how her motion sickness is these days. She also had inflamed tonsils and it gave her much trouble.

It’s a long story, but suffice it to say that we still owe Yangji Didi Rs. 28 for our ride in her vehicle. She passed away some years ago, and the due is still unpaid.

My brief memories of Birgunj are both sad and happy. I lost my beloved Bowie knife while leaving the school at night. The happy memories are of bagedi snacks downed with dudhiya in town. One special occasion was a concert held by Gopal Yonzon and Dil Maya Khati in Birgunj, and Ranjit, Phurba and I helped the musical evening with our own songs and instrumental backup.

In Kathmandu

That’s what fate is all about, I think. The devaluation was one thing, but what it caused to us is unexplainable. We were right, and Badgami was wrong; but he wasn’t responsible for what happened, either: It wasn’t in the agreement, or was there such a clause for an unforeseen turn of events? Nobody was wrong, or right, either. What Surya Bahadur Thapa’s decision caused is beyond even Kafka’s post-modernism.

There was another hitch in our journey to Kathmandu. We soon found out that except for Anuradha and me, everybody was flat broke. Why? We had lived in Nehru’s India where he stifled and asphyxiated and atrophied the Indians’ dreams. So when our other members saw Badgami’s department store laden with Max Factor makeup kits, Kirin and Sapporo beer from Japan and British and American cigarette brands, they overspent and drew credits beyond their means. Badgami duly exacted the arrears from their salaries before we left his school, and we found ourselves in dire straits in Kathmandu. I had Rs 700 and Anuradha perhaps Rs. 1,000. With that, we began our lives in this senile, strange, unfriendly, suspicious and crumbling city – its Hanuman Dhoka complex slanted all over to match the drugged swaying of Hippies all along the nearby Jhhochhen, better known as the Freak Street.

First, we welcomed ourselves to Renchin’s flat at Fasikew near Ranjana Cinema. “Baby” Renchin – the future Mrs. Gopal Yonzon – hosted the seven of us for three days and nights.

Then, as fate would have it, we met two strangers of our own age. Shambhu Poudel – now a big shot of Kathmandu – and his friend Rimal showed us an apartment in Dilli Bazaar, and the seven of us lived in it. The terrace was our kitchen. Phurba and I got jobs at the newly planned Casino Nepal as trainees while Anuradha, Ranjit and we were taken in as teachers by Basant Bahadur Shrestha at his New Model English School at Baneshwor. Soon, Anuradha lived at the school hostel as housemother; this led to her becoming Mrs. Koirala later, and the seeds of Maiti Nepal were sown during this time. Ranjit became Amber Gurung’s assistant at the Royal Nepal Academy. Phurba and I were confirmed croupiers at the casino and we relocated to Basantpur. I stopped teaching and joined Tribhuvan University for my Masters in English while Ranjit, Phurba and I became hotshot studio musicians at Radio Nepal. These are the gist of the adjustments we made for ourselves in the silly city called Kathmandu.

Why didn’t we give up in Birgunj itself and go back to where we came from, eh? Well, I, for one, wouldn’t go back after merely two months of my misadventure there. Badgami Sahu and Surya Bahadur Thapa had composed our battle cry: “Kathmandu, or bust!” Also, as a reverse Lahurey, I wouldn’t go back without money, materials and medals. Eventually, five of the original group left Kathmandu anyway, and only Anuradha and I remain in Kathmandu today. But, even at best, we’re irredents here, our native lands being overtaken by others; and as reverse migrants, Kathmandu has been our new Muglan.

Maiti, a dreadful word in Nepal

Hereupon, I have my new observations which I didn’t make before. But these thoughts find their rightful place in this concluding part of my heartfelt write-up.

I’ve never been to Maiti Nepal at Til Ganga. The Nepali word “maiti” scares me in this story’s connotation, and I’ve never had the guts to see how Anuradha was doing there. I have my own distressful reasons for this:

Firstly, the word “Maiti” has the prefixes of “ma” and “mai,” the former denoting mother and the other meaning mother goddess. Maiti is the parental house of a “cheli,” the female of the family. But in the name of the mother and daughters, the family is dominated by males, the father and his sons, who marry off their young females as soon as possible. The only psychologically reassuring recourse being, if abused by her husband, a cheli can always look back to her maiti for rightful action and justice on her behalf. But the truth lies somewhere far away: Once the cheli is married off, she’s left to her own device. “Look, you’re no more ours; so fend for yourself, la?”

This, among other causes, births Anuradha’s Maiti Nepal, as a shameful reminder to Nepali males of their impotence and inadequacy.

Secondly, Nepal and the Nepali world outside it are rare on the Earth for having males who are internationally known as brave, unselfish, chivalrous and valorous. As the snow leopards of the Himalaya, the Sherpas have carried climbers to the summits of Mount Everest and other tallest peaks of the world. The dreaded Gurkhas/Gorkhas, belonging to some six martial ethnic Nepali nationalities, need no further mention except uttering their common identity makes the enemy wobble and wet his pants. The Newars are renowned for their indomitable trans-Himalayan and risky cross-Terai commerce and industries while their fellowmen at home built the classical durbar squares of the Kathmandu Valley and spread their architectural marvels all over Asia.

What’s gone wrong, then? Well, these are unsung heroes in their own lands, for one thing. Moreover, the enemies are within who sell, smuggle and traffic their own neighbors’ girls, if not their own. Abuse is aplenty in the Nepali society. Otherwise, why would Samrat Upadhyay describe in his short story the fellatio administered by the daughter-in-law to her father-in-law? Manjushree Thapa’s novel mentions its female character being once raped by her paternal uncle, yet she visits him every Dashain to receive his tika.

What ironies on Nepali males who so effortlessly victimize their own helpless, weaker and silent lambs? Over and above, Nepali men can’t even look after their women, much less protect their virtues.

That’s why Maiti Nepal is a half-house for despair to be turned into hope, victims near death to be nurtured to survival, the doomed to be given assurance, desperate to receive rehabilitation and resolve, helping sufferers to regain their loss of minds and means.

It was not easy for Anuradha, especially when external interferences were also imposed on her operations. An example is the “accountant” wife of a British envoy who wanted to supervise the funds received from Prince Charles who sold some of his paintings to raise money specifically earmarked for Maiti Nepal. Anuradha refused to accept the unnecessary precondition, and the other party had to eventually give in. She also refused funds from some international organizations because of their fiduciary stipulations, and again she was victorious when the peace pipe was offered from the other sides.

Vote of thanks

That’s all on Anuradha because she and Maiti Nepal have now become world news. Except to say, she’s always Anuradha Gurung to me, and shall remain so. Perhaps a compromise would be Anuradha Gurung Koirala, and that would be ideal. She and I need to retain our ethnic tribal identities, to say the least.

Wikipedia has this on Anuradha: “In Hinduism, Anuradha is a goddess of good luck (Adrusta Devatha). Anuradha is the 17th nakshatra.”

Well, Maiti Nepal’s Anuradha has now become the First Sun Goddess for the ill-fated and destitute girls and women of Nepal.

In conclusion, while I say “Syabash! Kya Tarakki!!” to Anuradha Gurung Koirala, I also bow my head to the other nine CNN Heroes of 2010: Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega of Juarez, Mexico; Susan Burton of California, USA; Linda Fondren of Mississippi, USA;

Narayanan Krishnan of Madurai, India; Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow of Scotland, UK; Harmon Parker of Kenya, Africa; Aki Ra of Cambodia; Evans Wadongo of Kenya, Africa; and Dan Wallrath of Texas, USA.

And grateful thanks to Mr. Anderson Cooper, and CNN, too!

In Gujarat, e-literate paanwala googles NREGS, stumbles on Rs 1-crore scam

Mon, Nov 15 06:09 AM

A newly e-literate village paanwala's obsession with Google has blown the lid off a unique NREGS scam in Porbandar. The motley bunch of beneficiaries include affluent NRIs, doctors, government officials, teachers and well-off farmers — all shown as unemployed village labourers holding NREGS job cards. So far, the money siphoned off comes to nearly Rs 1 crore.

On paper, there are 963 NREGS job cardholders at Kotda village in Kutiyana taluka of Porbandar district. Records show they have been paid over Rs 95 lakh for their 'labour' over the past three years. In reality though, none of them have ever dug wells or built roads in their lives or actually received any money for the same under NREGS or otherwise.
The scam came to light after Aslam Khokhar (37), a Class X dropout and a paan shop owner in Kutiyana learnt how to use computers and searched NREGS on Google. "I was thrilled to find every detail of NREGS work in our area on the website. But I then came across the job card of a friend, who is a government employee.
I searched and found there are doctors, teachers and NRIs I personally know in the village, listed as 'labourers' on the site," said Khokar.
Veja Modedara, an independent councillor at Kutiyana taluka panchayat, and Congress worker like Bhanukant Odedara soon joined hands with Khokhar. The trio conducted door-to-door meetings with villagers named in the website and found they had neither worked on any NREGS site nor received any wages.
Several like Bharat Ganga (23), who has been to Muscat for the past three years, were shocked to learn that they were named as NREGS employees on record and have been even paid for their work. "How can this be? I moved out of India three years ago," Ganga told The Indian Express.
Varu Karsan Uka (38), an official with the Pashcim Gujarat Vij Company Limited for 15 years also holds the job card number GJ-21-005-030-001/726 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              005-030-001/726      end_of_the_skype_highlighting. Even his wife has been also named as a card holding labourer. According to the records, the couple had built roads and dug wells for 60 days and received Rs 6,000 for their work. "How can I possibly get an NREGS job card when I am a state government official ?" said Uka.
Dr Dayaram Babhania (58), a well-known physician in Kutiyana too holds a job card (number GJ-21-005-030-001/526 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              005-030-001/526      end_of_the_skype_highlighting), though he admits never to have lifted a pickaxe in his entire life.
Other like him on the list are Range Forest Officer Jesa Odedara, Forest Guard Arshi Bhattu, Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) employees Meru Odedara and Arjan Odedara, teacher Leela Dasa, Ex-serviceman Kunti Rama and NRIs Haja Modha, who have long left the village and settled in Israel. On paper, all are 'labourers' and many have been paid too.
Kutiyana Sub-Inspector I Damor said the police probe will take a while since details of all the 963 accounts need to be verified.
Kutiyana Taluka Development Officer J Gamit said, "Preliminary investigation by the department has revealed that at least 73 cardholders are government employees, professionals or NRIs."
District Development Officer K D Bhatt said: "We will begin a door-to-door survey to find the exact scale of the scam."

source:yahoo news

China begins damming Brahmaputra river for hydropower project

Ananth Krishnan
source; hindu  

Special Arrangement The hanging bridge on the Siang, as the Brahmaputra is called in Arunachal, is between Jidu and Tuting, about 35 km from the border with China.

Indian government has raised concerns about possible downstream impact of project

China has started damming the middle reaches of the Brahmaputra river, or the Yarlung Tsangpo as it is known in Tibet, to begin construction on a 510 MW hydropower project that has raised concerns in India.

The government for the first time revealed that it has, since November 8, begun damming the Tsangpo's flow to allow work to begin on the hydropower project at Zangmu. This is the first major dam on the Brahmaputra and has been billed by the Chinese government as a landmark hydropower generation project for Tibet's development.

A news report on Monday said the “closure of the Yarlung Zangbo river on November 12 marked the beginning of construction.” Work is expected to continue beyond 2014, when the first set of generators will be put into operation. The total investment in the project is 7.9 billion yuan ($1.2 billion).

The Indian government has raised concerns about the possible downstream impact of this project during talks with China earlier this year. Chinese officials have assured their Indian counterparts that the project would be “run of the river,” having little impact downstream.

China has said that its projects were only for hydropower generation, and were neither storage projects nor designed to divert the water.

Officials at India's Ministry of External Affairs have, however, voiced frustration over China's general lack of willingness to share information regarding the Zangmu project, meaning they had little means to verify claims on the specific construction plans and impact on flows.

According to Ramaswamy R. Iyer, former Water Resources Secretary of the Government of India, for India “the point to examine would be the quantum of possible diversion and the impact it would have on the flows to India.”

Usually, to ensure that the flow downstream remains unaffected during the period of construction of a dam, the water is diverted through streams around the construction site and returned to the river.

“Since the flow of the water cannot be stopped, the water will be diverted so there will be no reduction of flow in this stage,” Mr. Iyer, who is an authority on dams and transboundary water issues, told The Hindu on Monday, speaking from New Delhi.

He stressed that he was speaking in general terms regarding any dam construction, and did not have specific details regarding how China was carrying out this particular project.

There is still some uncertainty on what China intends for the project, and whether or not a storage reservoir, which could affect downstream flows, will be built beyond the minimal “pondage” required to operate the turbines.

Chinese media reports indicated that the Zangmu project is unlikely to be the last on the Brahmaputra. A news report on the widely read portal Tencent said the Zangmu dam was “a landmark project” for Tibet's development, being the first major dam in Tibet, and “a project of priority in the Eleventh Five Year Plan.”

The report said that such projects would “greatly relieve the energy stress in the middle regions of Tibet” and upgrade power capacity from 100 MW to over 500 MW.

‘No treaty'

Mr. Iyer said a larger concern for India was the absence of a water-sharing treaty with China, which does not allow India to either qualify or address Chinese claims regarding specific projects.

“Between India and Pakistan, we have a treaty which specifies what we should do,” he said. “We're not supposed to retain a drop, and [even] during a stated period of construction, inflow is equal to outflow.”

“But with China,” he added, “we have no treaty. So what they will do, we have no idea.”

Source: Livemint

Data source: Economist, goldprice.org

INNOVATERS & THEIR INNOVATIONS

AT&T Bell Laboratories
Ongoing advancement of modern communication systems
AT&T Labs and Lucent Technologies
Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., Erich Bloch, and Bob O. Evans
Breakthrough family of IBM System/360 computers
International Business Machines Corp. Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harold A. Rosen and Allen E. Puckett
Geostationary satellites—a new era in satellite communications
Hughes Aircraft Corporation Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John T. Parsons and Frank L. Stulen
Innovating numerically controlled machine tools for industry
John T. Parsons Company Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joseph F. Sutter
Breaking the mold for jet-powered aircraft
Boeing Commercial Airplane Corporation Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marvin M. Johnson
Improving petroleum refining through metals passivation
Phillips Petroleum Company Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ralph Landau
Engineer of key innovative materials and chemical processes
Halcon-Scientific Design Group Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steven P. Jobs and Stephen Wozniak
The personal computer is born
Apple Computer Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

William H. Joyce
Plastics pioneer and entrepreneur
Union Carbide Corporation Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bernard Gordon
Father of high-speed analog-to-digital conversion
Analogic Corporation Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Francis L. VerSnyder
Directionally solidified and single-crystal turbine components
United Technologies Corp. Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frank N. Piasecki
Developer of the tandem rotor helicopter and other innovative aircraft
Piasecki Aircraft Corporation Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reynold B. Johnson
Introduced and developed magnetic disk storage for computers
International Business Machines Corp. Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stanley Donald Stookey
Making magic with glass-ceramics
Corning Glass Works Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

William Norris
Advancement of microelectronics and computer technology
Control Data Corporation Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robert N. Noyce
Inventor of the integrated circuit and champion of the Information Age
Intel Corp. Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John E. Franz
Introduced safer and more effective weed killers
Monsanto Corporation Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joseph V. Charyk
Developed the first global satellite network
Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

W. Edwards Deming
Management theorist and advocate for product quality
Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arnold O. Beckman
Advancing scientific research and technology through innovative instrumentation
Beckman Instruments and Smith Kline Beckman Corporation Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clarence L. Johnson
Outstanding achievements in aircraft design and business management
Lockheed Martin Corporation Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

David Packard
Extraordinary and unselfish leadership in both industry and government
Hewlett-Packard Company Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edwin H. Land
The invention, development, and marketing of instant photography
Polaroid Corporation, The Rowland Institute for Science Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harold E. Edgerton
Inventor of the electronic strobe light and modern flash photography
EG&G Corporation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John Leland Atwood
Technological advances in aviation and space travel
Rockwell International Corporation Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul M. Cook
Visionary and entrepreneur in radiation chemistry
Raychem Corporation Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Raymond Damadian and Paul C. Lauterbur
Developers of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and whole-body medical scanning
FONAR Corporation and the University of Illinois Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robert H. Dennard
Inventor of DRAM, modern computer memory
IBM T. J. Watson Research Center Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Helen Edwards, Richard A. Lundy, J. Richie Orr, and Alvin Tollestrup
Developed the TEVATRON particle accelerator
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Herbert W. Boyer and Stanley N. Cohen
Inventors of gene splicing
University of California, San Francisco and Stanford University Medical Center Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay W. Forrester and Robert R. Everett
Developers of the first real-time electronic digital computer
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Mitre Corporation Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chauncey Starr
Pioneer in nuclear power and energy research
Electric Power Research Institute Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

David B. Pall
Developing and commercializing over 100 filtration products
Pall Corporation Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Donald N. Frey
Innovator in manufacturing and information systems
Northwestern University Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fred W. Garry
High-performance jet engines
General Electric Corporation Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gordon E. Moore
Visionary leader of the microchip revolution
Intel Corporation Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jack St. Clair Kilby
Computing pioneer and prolific inventor
Jack Kilby Co. Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John S. Mayo
Making the move from analog to digital
AT&T Bell Laboratories Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John V. Atanasoff
Co-inventor of the first digital computer
Iowa State University Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marvin Camras
Creator of modern recording technology
Illinois Institute of Technology Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The DuPont Company
Innovative high-tech materials
Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wilson Greatbatch
Inventor of the cardiac pacemaker
Wilson Greatbatch, Limted Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

C. Gordon Bell
Continuing achievements in computer design
Microsoft Corporation Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carl Djerassi
Developer of hormone-based insect control
Stanford University Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Charles R. Reed
Going beyond inventing
General Electric Co. Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

F. Kenneth Iverson
Making innovative steel "mini-mills" a reality
Nucor Inc. Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frederick M. Jones and Joseph A. Numero
Development of refrigeration technology for transportation
Thermo King, a subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Corporation Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Geoffrey Boothroyd and Peter Dewhurst
Developed design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA)
University of Rhode Island Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grace Murray Hopper
Inventor of the first modern computer language
Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

James J. Duderstadt
Excellence in engineering education and commerce
University of Michigan Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John Cocke
Inventor of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture
International Business Machines Corp. Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John Paul Stapp
Originator of biodynamics and modern crash safety
U.S. Air Force (Ret.)/Space Center Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robert W. Galvin
Leadership and technological innovation in electronics
Motorola Incorporated Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr.
Outstanding leadership in the engineering profession
Bechtel Group, Inc. Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Pegasus Team: David W. Thompson, Antonio L. Elias, David S. Hollingsworth, Robert R. Lovell
Developers of the first commercial space launch vehicle
Orbital Sciences Corporation and Hercules, Inc. Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Charles D. Kelman, M.D., P.C.
Innovations in cataract surgical technology
Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Delbert H. Meyer
He brought polyester out of the lab and into our lives
Amoco Chemical Company Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joseph M. Juran
Applying statistical quality control to new technology
Juran Institute Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Merck & Company, Incorporated
Innovative human and animal health products
Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

N. Joseph Woodland
Inventor of the barcoding system
International Business Machines Corp. Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul B. Weisz
Improving petroleum refining through advanced chemistry
University of Pennsylvania and Mobil Corporation Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

W. Lincoln Hawkins
Plastics pioneer
AT&T Bell Laboratories Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

William H. Gates III
Computing visionary and business leader
Microsoft Corporation Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amos E. Joel
Leading the way for long-distance phone calls
AT&T Bell Laboratories Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

George Kozmetsky
Technology development and entrepreneurship
IC2 Institute, University of Texas at Austin Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

George Levitt and Marinus Los
Independent contributions to environmentally friendly herbicides
DuPont Corporation and American Cyanamid Corporation Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hans W. Liepmann
Outstanding research contributions to the field of fluid mechanics
California Institute of Technology Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kenneth H. Olsen
Entrepreneur and innovator of computing technology
Digital Equipment Corporation Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Walter L. Robb
Leadership in the development and commercialization of new medical imaging technologies
General Electric Corporation Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

William D. Manley
Discovery and creative application of high-tech materials
Martin Marietta Energy Systems and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amgen
Improving and extending the lives of cancer and kidney disease patients
Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corning Incorporated
Inventions that spawned new industries—lighting, television and optical communications
Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

H. Joseph Gerber
Inventor and promoter of manufacturing automation systems
Gerber Scientific Incorporated Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Irwin M. Jacobs
Innovation and leadership in the field of digital wireless communications
Qualcomm, Incorporated Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joel S. Engel and Richard Frenkiel
Fathers of the cellular phone
Ameritech, Incorporated and AT&T Consumer Products Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3M
Breakthrough technology as a path to success
Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alejandro Zaffaroni
Adding new dimensions to individual health
ALZA Corporation, Affymax N.V. Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edward R. McCracken
Groundbreaking work in 3D visual computing
SGI Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IBM Team: Praveen Chaudhari, Jerome J. Cuomo, and Richard J. Gambino
Inventors of read-write, optical storage technology
IBM TJ Watson Research Center Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sam B. Williams
Inventor and entrepreneur in gas-turbine engine technology
Williams International Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Procter & Gamble Company
Applying advanced technologies to consumer products
Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Charles H. Kaman
Pioneering helicopter design and technology
Kaman Corporation Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

James C. Morgan
Leader in globalization and commercialization of semiconductor manufacturing
Applied Materials, Inc. Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Johnson & Johnson
Continuous innovation in health and quality of life
Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peter H. Rose
Vision and leadership in modern semiconductor manufacturing
Krytek Corporation Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ronald H. Brown
Champion for the innovative spirit of the American people
U.S. Secretary of Commerce, 1993-1996 (posthumous award) Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stephanie Louise Kwolek
Inventor of Kevlar
DuPont Company Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Norman R. Augustine
Leader in the aerospace industry
Lockheed Martin Corporation Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray M. Dolby
Inventor of sound recording and reproduction technologies
Dolby Laboratories Inc. Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robert S. Ledley
Radiology revolutionary in medicine
Georgetown University Medical Center Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vinton Gray Cerf and Robert E. Kahn
Envisioned the network that became the Internet
MCI and Corporation for National Research Initiatives Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Biogen Incorporated
Breakthrough biology for saving lives worldwide
Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
Extending and enhancing human life through innovative pharmaceuticals
Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Denton A. Cooley, M.D.
Innovator of modern cardiac medical practice
Texas Heart Institute, Texas Medical Center Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kenneth L. Thompson and Dennis M. Ritchie
Inventors of the Unix operating system and C programming language
Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robert Fraley, Robert Horsch, Ernest Jaworski, Stephen Rogers
Bringing genetic engineering to agriculture
Monsanto Corporation Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Glen Culler
Computing and network pioneer
Culler Scientific Systems Corporation Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Raymond Kurzweil
Pioneer in artificial intelligence
Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robert Swanson
Father of modern biotechnology
K&E Management, Ltd. Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robert Taylor
Helping make computers personal
Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Symbol Technologies, Inc.
Bringing barcode scanning and wireless technology to a global audience
Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corning Team: Donald B. Keck, Robert D. Maurer, Peter C. Schultz
Inventors of low-loss optical fiber
Corning Incorporated Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dean Kamen
Medical inventor, entrepreneur and technology advocate
DEKA Research & Development Corporation Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Douglas C. Engelbart
Director, Bootstrap Institute
Bootstrap Institute Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IBM Corporation
World leader in data storage technology
Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arun N. Netravali
Leader in the field of communication systems
Bell Labs Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jerry M. Woodall
Semiconductor researcher and inventor
Yale University Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John A. Ewen
Industrial research chemist and inventor
Catalyst Research Corporation Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sidney Pestka
Leader in the field of biotechnology
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Dow Chemical Company

Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Calvin H. Carter, Jr.
Pioneer in the development of new semiconductor materials
Cree, Inc. Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carver A. Mead
Microelectronics leader, teacher and entrepreneur
California Institute of Technology Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DuPont
Wilmington, Delaware
Three decades of technology leadership Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haren S. Gandhi
Automotive technology to improve environmental standards
Ford Motor Company Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John J. Mooney and Carl D. Keith
Principal inventors of the three-way catalytic converter
Engelhard Corporation (retired) Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nick Holonyak, Jr., M. George Craford, Russell Dean Dupuis
Inventors and innovators in LED technology
Microelectronics Lab, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Lumileds Lighting, San Jose, California; Georgia Institute of Technology at Atlanta, Georgia Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jan D. Achenbach
Pioneering use of ultrasonic methods to improve aircraft safety
Departments of Mechanical and Civil and Environment Engineering, Northwestern University Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robert M. Metcalfe
Inventor of the Ethernet
Polaris Venture Partners Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rodney D. Bagley, Irwin M. Lachman, Ronald M. Lewis Bagley
Innovative designers of catalytic converters
Corning Incorporated Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UOP LLC
Eight decades of leadership in the petroleum industry
Des Plaines, IL Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watts S. Humphrey
Innovator of software development and production methodologies
Fellow of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), Carnegie Mellon University Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
Pioneering role in patenting and licensing university ideas
University of Wisconsin-Madison Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gen-Probe Incorporated
Fast and effective blood-testing technologies for infectious diseases
San Diego, CA Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IBM-Microelectronics Division
Four decades of innovation in semiconductor technology
Armonk, NY Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Industrial Light & Magic
30 years of innovation in visual effects technology for the motion picture industry
San Francisco, CA Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Motorola, Inc.
Over 75 years of achievement and leadership in mobile communications
Schaumburg, IL Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PACCAR Inc
Development and commercialization of aerodynamic, lightweight trucks
Bellevue, WA Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ralph H. Baer
Father of the Home Videogame
Engineering Consultant, Manchester, NH Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roger Lee Easton
Pioneer of satellite-based Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
RoBarCo, Canaan, NH Aerospace and Aviation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alfred Y. Cho
Development of the molecular Beam epitaxy (MBE) technology and its application in electronic and photonic devices
Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dean L. Sicking
Design and development of car safety technology to decrease damage cause by crashes
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE Chemistry and Physics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Genzyme Incorporated
Improvement of the health of patients with rare diseases and development of new therapies using biotechnology
Cambridge, MA Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ronald J. Eby, Maya Koster, Dace Viceps, Velupillai Puvanesarajah
Discovery, development, and commercialization of the first vaccine against Streptococcus pneumonia infections in children
Wyeth Pharmaceticals Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC)
Development of most successful university research team for growth and advancement of semiconductor industry
Durham, NC Globalization and Commerce

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xerox Corporation
For over 50 years of innovation in marketing, materials, electronics, communications, and software
Norwalk, CT Computing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Charles M. Vest
Revitalization of partnerships among academia, government, and industry
Massachusetts Insititute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) or Arlington, VA Education

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Herwig W. Kogelnik
Development of the technology of lasers, optoelectronics, integrated optics, and lightwave communication systems
Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs (Murray Hill, NJ) of Fair Haven Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

James E. West
Co-inventor of the electric microphone in 1962
The Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) of Plainfield, NJ Communications

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leslie A. Geddes
Contributions to electrode design and tissue restoration leading to the development of the modern implantable medical device field
Purdue University, Lafayette, IN Medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul G. Kaminsky
Development of advanced, unconventional imagining from space for national security and the development of advanced systems with greatly enhanced survivability
Technovation, Inc., Fairfax Station, VA Aerospace and Aviati