Wednesday, September 30, 2009

3 Indian troops killed in Sopore attack

153 troopers commit suicide since Jan 07

Srinagar, September 30 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, three Indian paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed in an attack in Sopore town.

The constables of CRPF troopers of 179-battalion were killed at a bus stand in Sopore, while two civilians including a woman were injured in the shoot out by the troops after the incident. 

The attackers also snatched two rifles from the troops before making good their escape from the scene of the incident.

An Indian trooper of 85/Armed Regiment committed suicide by shooting himself with his service rifle inside his unit at Ratnuchak in Jammu while a Special Police Officer (SPO) committed suicide by shooting himself with the service rifle at Kulhand in Doda. This brought the number of such deaths among the troops to 153 since January 2007.

Meanwhile, a sub inspector of 6th Bn CRPF died in mysterious circumstances at Katra in Jammu. 

 

Kashmir Media Service

104 runs for survival

Today its not a simple match, it’s a key of success door for kangaroos and Indians. Reaction of Indians is totally changes for today’s match over Pakistan

“It is interesting. The whole of India will be praying for a Pakistan win for a change,” said former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja.

“I think it’s a God-given opportunity for both the countries and with Indian fans praying for a Pakistan win, I hope that both the countries take this opportunity to come close to each other.”

Former paceman Sarfraz Nawaz hopes Pakistan do not go easy on Australia.

“It’s India’s fate and I would celebrate if India goes out of the event,” said Nawaz. “But Pakistan must beat Australia to carry a winning momentum.”

Here today’s match is a game of survival of Indians who are just commercial Hero’s. Over the sixty years they made propaganda for Pakistan but now they are backing up Pakistanis for their own survival. How mean they are…

Dhoni said India would be keeping an eye on the Pakistan-Australia match before deciding the team combination.

“They are playing a day game and we are playing a day-nighter. By the time we start our game, we will know where we stand and what we actually need to do. Accordingly, we will decide the playing eleven,” said Dhoni.

“This is one of those games where you have to achieve everything. First of all, you want Pakistan to win and Australia to lose. Then you want to win against the West Indies and you have to better your run-rate.”

Pakistan have already made it to the semifinals after securing four points from two wins, while defending champions Australia are strongly placed to join them in the last-four with three points from two games.

The West Indies are already out of the competition with no points after two matches. The top two sides advance to the semifinals.

Even if Australia lose to Pakistan and India beat the West Indies, the second semifinalist will be decided on net run-rate. Australia (+1.000) are currently well ahead of India (-1.080) on net run-rate. Today’s match is for 104 runs i.e. India need 104 runs for stepping up for the semifinals. I f Pakistan beat Australia by 50 runs then India needs 54 runs victory over West indians. Both the games are very crucial for India and Australia for their survival.

Here is points table in which Pakistan leads in both Group according to their Net Run Rate. Insha Allah Pakistan will lead the Trophy. Pakistan Zindababd

 

Group A

Teams

Mat

Won

Lost

Tied

N/R

Pts

Net RR

For

Against

Pakistan

2

2

0

0

0

4

+1.606

436/80.3

381/100.0

Australia

2

1

0

0

1

3

+1.000

275/50.0

225/50.0

India

2

0

1

0

1

1

-1.080

248/50.0

302/50.0

West Indies

2

0

2

0

0

0

-1.501

358/100.0

409/80.3

Group B

Teams

Mat

Won

Lost

Tied

N/R

Pts

Net RR

For

Against

New Zealand

3

2

1

0

0

4

+0.782

676/127.1

640/141.1

England

3

2

1

0

0

4

-0.487

682/145.0

660/127.1

Sri Lanka

3

1

2

0

0

2

-0.085

750/137.4

734/132.4

South Africa

3

1

2

0

0

2

-0.177

724/128.5

798/137.4

Points by match: Group A

Result Date

 

Team

Pts

 

Team

Pts

 

23 Sep 2009

 

Pakistan

2

 

West Indies

0

Table | Match

26 Sep 2009

 

Australia

2

 

West Indies

0

Table | Match

 

 

Pakistan

2

 

India

0

Match

28 Sep 2009

 

Australia

1

 

India

1

Table | Match

Points by match: Group B

Result Date

 

Team

Pts

 

Team

Pts

 

22 Sep 2009

 

Sri Lanka

2

 

South Africa

0

Table | Match

24 Sep 2009

 

South Africa

2

 

New Zealand

0

Table | Match

25 Sep 2009

 

England

2

 

Sri Lanka

0

Table | Match

27 Sep 2009

 

New Zealand

2

 

Sri Lanka

0

Table | Match

 

 

England

2

 

South Africa

0

Match

29 Sep 2009

 

New Zealand

2

 

England

0

Table | Match

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Up in Smoke: Black Carbon's Role in Climate Change

[Update: I am moving to a once-a-week blog post.  Check here each Tuesday for a brand new entry of Brave Blue Words!]

The most significant anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) is carbon dioxide, CO2. Comprehensive reductions in the atmospheric concentration of CO2 (expressed as “parts per million or ppm) are the only way to bring down global temperatures and reduce the impacts of climate change. However, because CO2 and most other GHGs have such a long atmospheric lifetime – hundreds of years – reductions made today will not be felt for a very long time.Black carbon, one of the small components of soot, may be responsible for as much warming as CO2 at the “Third Pole,” the Himalayan-Tibetan region and more than one third of the warming caused by CO2 in the Arctic. Because BC is so short-lived and only stays in the atmosphere only a week or so, BC reductions can have immediate benefits.

Black carbon (BC) is a solid, not a gas. When microscopic bits of a solid get suspended in the air, it is known as an aerosol. BC has such a short atmospheric lifetime because these tiny particles can get washed out of the air by rainfall. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) warm the atmosphere by absorbing infrared radiation, the heat that is given off by the Earth and would otherwise be transmitted out to space. BC absorbs sunlight directly, in the atmosphere and on surfaces.  When BC is deposited on otherwise highly-reflective surfaces such as snow and ice, the surfaces gets darker, reducing the amount of sunlight reflected back, the albedo. The heat absorbed by the BC accelerates melting of the underlying ice. This snow-albedo feedback is one of the most significant causes of of sea ice melting in the Arctic and the retreat of glaciers in the Himalayas.

BC’s short lifetime also means that it does not travel far from its emission source. Therefore its impacts – and the benefits of reductions – are felt close to its source. BC sources vary from region to region: the BC that gets deposited in the Arctic comes primarily from dirty diesel sources in areas north of 40 degrees N (North America and Europe), while much the BC darkening the slopes of the Himalayas is produced by cookstoves and primitive brick kilns in China and India. All of these sources produce air pollution that is responsible for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths a year. Therefore, in addition to producing dramatic climate benefits, reductions in BC can have immediate health benefits in the most populated regions of the world.

Primitive brick kiln

Dirty diesel smoke


Cookstoves

Septembrikuukonkurss - India

http://emicraft.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/rahvusvaheline-konkurss-umbermaailmareis/

Käes on september.. soojade toonide kuu!

Selle kuu värviks ongi meil mõnus soe värv – punane. Märksõnadeks on tikitud sarid, rubiinid ja safiirid.

Tähtaeg on 15. oktoober.

***

Meie blogi venekeelsesse peeglisse on saabunud juba mitmeid töid.

1. India elevant

Autor tostrov kirjutab selgituseks veel niimoodi: “Igaüks teab, et elevant on pärit Indiast, kuid kas igaüks teab seda, et ta on elevantide seast kõige väiksem. Pikkust on tal vaid 5.5 – 6.4 meetrit ning kaalub kõigest 5 tonni.”

2. Rangoli

Autor annajourcrafts räägib lähemalt oma tööst ja rangoli tähendusest: “Pidustusteks kaunistavad India naised oma majaesised joonistustega – Rangoliga. Arvatakse, et jumal Lakshmi eelistab külastada just neid maju, mis on rangoliga kaunistatud.”

3. Kari elevante

Autoriks on polyalik.

4. Õhupallidega ringi lendavad elevandid

Autor annajourcrafts.

5. Paisley

Autor tostrov.

6. Vürtside printsess

Autor tostrov.

Nagu tavaliselt – pildile klikates, näete rohkem pilte.

OOTAME TEIE TÖID!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Indo-Pak Relations: Can India Leverage on Zardari’s Candidness?

At a meeting with retired federal secretaries and bureaucrats a couple of weeks back, the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari reportedly said: “Militants and extremists emerged on the national scene and challenged the State not because the civil bureaucracy was weakened and demoralized but because they were deliberately created and nurtured as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objectives.”

Such candid admission by a civilian authority in Pakistan is certainly fraught with the risk of antagonizing its all-powerful military, besides, of course, stirring up a hornets’ nest— alienating the right-wing religious zealots farther from the mainstream politics—but the fact that it has been made clearly establishes the state of its political confidence. And interestingly, no ‘denial’ has followed, except, of course, for an explanatory attempt.

Indeed, it is not the first time for Zardari to make such outof- the-box statements: he is Pakistan’s first head of the state to promise a “no-first-nuclear-strike” policy against India. He also made it plain once that he does not carry any of the old ideological baggage, particularly, with regard to India. There is no doubt that the ongoing military action in Swat against Taliban, and particularly, the public support for it, despite huge displacement of population and the accompanying troubles, make one believe that whether there is US pressure or not, Pakistan has ultimately accepted the need for halting further advances of Taliban into their country.

Now, the question is: Would it mean a reversal of its past policy and acceptance of the fact that the threat to Pakistan is emanating from within rather than from across the border? No definite answer can perhaps be given to this question, for history categorically states that when it comes to dealing with Pakistan, it is a tad more complex. Even otherwise, weeding out extremism is not going to be that easy for Pakistan, particularly in view of its deeply entrenched relationship with the establishment, that too for this long, and the complexities thereof.

Nonetheless, these remarks make one wonder if the time is ripe for India and Pakistan to cease thinking of themselves as ‘enemies’, and instead, as Ashutosh Varshney suggested sometime back, to think of themselves as ‘adversaries’, for adversaries “can be respected, even admired,” which means competing “vigorously to become better than the other”—what indeed matters most for the common man on both sides of the ‘divide’—while enemies are destined to get killed.

There are quite a few other but critical reasons as to why India and Pakistan cannot afford to be enemies, the first and the most important being: both are suffering from endemic poverty. Both are nuclear-armed. Both are suffering from one kind or the other of internal insurgencies. At the same time, both are spending huge sums on military buildup. And such huge expenditure on defense obviously eats into developmental programs. The stakes are thus quite high for both sides.

However, if peace in the region is to be established and if the countries are to focus on growth and prosperity, what is required of India is not to issue statements such as what India’s External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said in Rajyasabha: “With the confession from the highest authority in Pakistan, India stands vindicated … I hope hereafter Pakistan will make a determined bid to curb terrorism. It can’t be fought selectively but has to be combated across the board, because those encouraging it can become victims. This is my subtle caution to them.” Instead, it must display statesmanship and a well-crafted policy that can strengthen this newfound realism in Pakistan and enable the Pakistani leadership to take it forward, while at the same time not giving a chance to its right-wing groups to accuse its leadership of submitting itself to the dictates of the Indian Government.

Also, India must bear in mind what Raja Mohan, Professor of South Asian Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, said: today, many of our “national security and foreign policy priorities come together in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.” But post-Mumbai terror attacks, our foreign policy approach towards engaging Pakistan appears to have acquired a dark edge, as is often reflected in the statements of political leadership, such as “terror infrastructure has to be dismantled” and “perpetrators of terrorism have to be brought to justice,” if India has to resume talks with Pakistan.

Sadly, such statements prove how right B Raman, the Indian Security Affairs Analyst, is, who, when asked for his comments by the India/South Asia Bureau Chief of The Straits Times of Singapore, said: “We have no culture of strategic- thinking and laser-sharp analysis based on cruel facts and figures. But we have a long-ingrained culture of wishful thinking.” A strategic integrated look at all this makes a case for India to be “more optimistic and even opportunistic” in its approach to the Af-Pak region. Indeed, to set the log on roll, India must first aim at settling lesser issues like Sir Creek dispute. It should even be bold enough to shed its known shibboleths and use American weight—the country that is currently showing extraordinary interest the Af-Pak region—on Pakistan to produce long-term structural changes within Pakistan and in its relationship with India. In any case, India must act to leverage on Zardari’s candidness, for its growth prospects are highly dependent on the stability in its neighborhood.
– GRK Murty

South Africa choke again - Champions Trophy 2009 Roundup

What a roller coaster it’s been thus far? Sri Lanka beat South Africa and then loses to New Zealand and a Aussie-battered England. South Africa beat New Zealand but lose to England.

In the other group, tournament favorites (despite their issues) Australia suffer a scare against what they called a “second string” West Indies. Pakistan almost lose to West Indies and then embarrass the #1 ODI team India (more on this in my next post).

All these developments make the tournament more interesting upto the semi finals, but it remains to be seen if the interest levels prevail if the top 3 ODI teams don’t make it to the semi finals. Forget the ICC ratings, don’t we want to watch the best battle it out? Does wining two games in a row make a team better than one which has won several games in trott in the past which has bought them the interest and respect of cricket lovers world wide? Many questions that need answering. I will hold my opinions till the end of the trophy.

Who shall we blame now? Chokers South Africa or free spirited England? Shall we blame Andrew Strauss for denying Smith the runner? I do actually, because runners have been provided before for cramping batsmen, esp from the sub continent, and by denying the runner Strauss showed how insecure he was about Smith being there. Isn’t it easier to effect a run out when you’ve got three people trying to communicate with one another about taking a run? Returning to the blame game, shall we blame the injuries for India’s loss?

The organizers need to wake up about the pitch making malpractices. I have seen at least two games so far where the pitch played a Man-of-Match worthy role in a team’s victory. Not to take away from Shah-Collingwood or Malik-Yousuf in the games England and Pakistan played against South Africa and India respectively, but there was nothing in this for the seamers. If ODI cricket dies, let us not blame the format, for there is more to this than meets the eye.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

F1 Night race buzz

સિંગાપોરમાં આજે ફોર્મ્યુલા1 ગ્રાન્ડ પ્રીક્સની નાઇટ રેસ યોજાવાની છે. ફોર્મ્યુલા1 સર્કિટની દરેક રેસ દિવસ દરમ્યાન યોજાય છે પણ સિંગાપોર એક જ એવી જગ્યા છે જ્યાં આ રેસ રાત્રિ દરમ્યાન એટલે કે ફ્લડ લાઇટમાં યોજાય છે. ગયા વર્ષે સિંગાપોરમાં ફોર્મ્યુલા1 ઇતિહાસની પ્રથમ રાત્રિ રેસ યોજાઇ હતી અને પહેલી રેસથી જ સિંગાપોર ગ્રાન્ડ પ્રીક્સ એ ફોર્મ્યુલા1 ના રસિયાઓ વચ્ચે એકદમ હીટ બની ગઇ હતી. સિંગાપોર સરકારે પણ દુનિયાભરના લોકોમાં ફોર્મ્યુલા1 વિશેનો વિશેષ રસ જોઇને કંઇક અલગ અને લોકોને વધારે મજા આવે એ હેતુથી રાત્રિમાં રેસ યોજવા માટે કમર કસી હતી. ભારતના ખેલ મંત્રી આ રમતને ધનિકોની રમત અને મનોરંજન ગણાવીને આ રમત પર ઘ્યાન નથી આપતા. ખેલ મંત્રી કહે છે કે મારે બીજી રમતો પર ધ્યાન આપવું છે. (વાતો તો એવી કરશે જાણે બીજી બધી રમતોમાં એમણે આપણને champion બનાવી દીધા હોય.). કદાચ ખેલમંત્રીને ખબર નથી કે આ રમતને મહત્વ અપાય તો ભલે દેશના રમતવીરોને ફાયદો નહીં થાય પણ ટુરિઝમ ડિપાર્ટમેન્ટને જરૂર ફાયદો થશે. અત્યારે સિંગાપોરમાં આખી દુનિયામાંથી (ખાસ કરીને ગોરી પ્રજા) ફોર્મ્યુલા1 રેસના ચાહકો સિંગાપોરમાં આવી ગયા છે. ઓર્ચડ રોડ પર અત્યારે 5માંથી 2 વ્યક્તિ ગોરા જોવા મળે છે. આના લીધે ટુરિઝમ, રીટેઇલ અને હોટેલના ધંધાઓમાં એક્દમ તેજી આવી ગઇ છે. આજ કાલ મંદીના જમાનામાં આવા ઇવેન્ટ યોજીને જ ઇકોનોમીને પાટે લાવી શકાય. (હું પહેલા નહોતો માનતો કે આવી રેસ કે બીજા ઇવેન્ટ યોજવાથી ઇકોનોમીને ફાયદો થાય પણ આ વખતે લોકોમાં ક્રેઝ અને વિઝીટરોને જોઇને આ વાત માનતો થઇ ગયો.) હું મોટર સ્પોર્ટસનો ચાહક  નથી (હું ઔરંગઝેબ છું આ રમતની બાબતમાં અને રમતના નિયમો વિશે પણ જાણકારી નથી) પણ રેસની આર્થિક જગત પર અસરોને જોતા મને લાગે છે કે ભારતમાં પણ આ રેસ લાવવા વિશે વિચારી શકાય.

થોડું સિંગાપોરમાં યોજાતી રેસ વિશે. આ રેસનો ટ્રેક શહેરની મધ્યમાં જ (એટલે કે CBD – Central Business District)છે. ટ્રેકની આજુબાજુ ઉંચી ઇમારતો, સિંગાપોર રીવર, સિંગાપોર ફ્લાયર અને મર્લિયન આવેલ છે. આ એરિયા મારા મુજબ સિંગાપોરનો સૌથી સારો એરિયા છે. આ રેસ સિંગાપોર ફ્લાયરમાંથી પણ જોઇ શકાય છે અને એના માટે વિશેષ પેકેજ પણ હોય છે. Fullerton Hotel અને ટ્રેકની આજુબાજુમાં આવેલી હોટલમાંથી પણ આ રેસ જોઇ શકાય છે. રેસનો ટ્રેક અને એના આજુબાજુના એરિયા વિશેની માહિતી અહીં છે. મેં પહેલી વાર જ્યારે રેસનો ટ્રેક જોયો હતો ત્યારે મને તો બહુ નાનો લાગ્યો હતો પણ ખબર નહીં ટ્રેક આટલી પહોળાઇના રહેતા હશે રેસમાં. રેસની ટિકીટોની કિંમત વિશે મને બહુ ખબર નથી પણ કદાચ બહુ સસ્તી નથી. મારા એક મિત્રએ પ્રેક્ટિસ સેશન જોવા માટે (રેસ નહીં) 38 ડોલર (લગભગ 1200 રૂપિયા)ની ટિકીટ ખરીદી છે. મને બહુ રસ નથી એટલે ટિકીટના ભાવમાં પડવાની મગજમારી મેં નથી કરી. પણ એક વાત છે રેસના લીધે સિંગાપોરનો માહોલ બદલાઇ ગયો છે. ઓર્ચડ રોડ પર ફરતી વખતે મેં લીધેલા ફોટા અમુક નીચે મૂક્યા છે.

      

 

        Enjoy beautiful Singapore during racing season

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BMW is there to grab……

 

 

 

 

 

 

Model racing car on display @Orchard Road

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Hoardings put up @Orchard to set racing mood amongst visitors

P.S. :

I have been bit late in writing this post. While writing this post, I was watching F1 race on TV and Lewis Hemilton won the race. Readers also pls excuse me for my poor knowledge about F1 race.

3000 kms. 8 days. 4 states. 2 guys. 2 bikes. 1 helluva journey.

So I could not make it to Kanyakumari from Pune on this trip. Not everyone quits their jobs just because their company did not give them leave you know?

But that does not take anything away from the fact that this trip is going to be one helluva experience. A 3000+ kilometre ride is no joke. Nor is it gonna be child’s play.

Date Day Where we will be starting from 28-Sep Mon Pune 29-Sep Tues Goa 30-Sep Wed Chikmangalur 1-Oct Thurs Coimbatore 2-Oct Fri Madurai 3-Oct Saturday Rameshwaram 4-Oct Sunday Bengaluru 5-Oct Monday Bengaluru 6-Oct Monday Pune

What do we expect to see on this trip? South India in all its splendour. And ugliness. Majestic hair-pin bends. Ghost-towns. Wild-life sanctuaries. Coffee plantations. Insanely huge temples.

I will tell you all about it, if I do not get trampled by the wild elephants, mauled by the tigers and panthers and leopards or killed by the sandalwood dacoits. Or get into horrible accidents with drunk drivers. Or potatoes.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Morning Mantras!!!

S ……. S is the shape in which I sleep…….With my head rested on my hands and my legs folded as close as plausible to my stomach I relish the time I sleep. Albeit I don’t relish while I do it. Nobody can I suppose. The place I sleep is so close to the outer environment that I love the morning minutes. Some of which I observed.
Disturbed by the effects of the lowering temperature the unconscious part of my brain began to grope certain imperative morning ragas. I was in the process of figuring out that I was asleep. The process of the sun rays eating up the beauty of the black night was in a nascent stage. Ironically it was becoming colder with the rays reacting with the moisture content in the air. And it was the time when my eardrums opened up to some beautiful sounds. The sounds of lil birds chirping and the long horns of a single parrot (“Early bird catches the worm” was sure right) ,the sounds of a distant engine roaring, the sounds of the milk man peddling his cycle, the sounds of puppies cuddling each other, the sounds of dedicated house wives sprinkling water over the ground, the sounds of dried leaves being caught and pushed by the sweeper’s broom, the sounds of morning mantras and many more pleasant sounds .
I was trying to bring a perfect S not able to withstand the cold weather when suddenly a big sheet of cloth was perfectly laid on me. Thanks to my mom I suppose. With a lil rise of the temperature inside my fabric house I began to get to sleep again with a smile on my face. All of a sudden there was this outburst of a soprano. There was this woman shouting at my mom supposedly . I was vaguely trying to understand her problem . It then seemed like she wanted me to wake up and get out. Flabbergasted by the incident I woke up to blast at the lady when a series of events took place.
1. I woke up and saw a lady staring at me with a tricycle full of tender coconuts.
2. My mom was standing beside me.
3. There was this black carpet of tar in front of me with vehicles passing by.
4. There was this torn sheet of cloth in my hand.
After comprehending the situation I smiled at the lady and scratched my head in disappointment and walked away from the place.
The lady shouted at me because it was her regular place for selling the tenders and I was sleeping overtime.

The platform is home for n number of people in India. They run the risk of being run over by stupid drunk bunch of youth or an actor with a stupendous car. They are the face of the homeless , they are the face of an overly populated country , they are the face of the needy , they are the face of the NEW INDIA .

Note: A post of the immature times of my life!!!

Vidya Balan Career Snapshot

Vidya Balan, the 31-year-old actress has sadly been more in news for her fashion sense than her acting skills. Though she has delivered some good movies and hits along these years in her career spanning six years in Bollywood, she is still struggling for getting due respect and fame in the industry.

2008 saw no releses of hers, although Bhool Bhulaiya and Heyy baby were mighty successful films of Vidya in 2007.

Vidya Balan has a big line up of films in 2009 and the coming year. Milan Luthria’s Bihaad with Ajay Devgan and Sanjay Dutt, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Chenab Gandhi with Big B and Harman Baweja, Balki’s Paa with Bachchan father son duo and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Ishqiya with Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi are the films she has up her sleeve.

Friday, September 25, 2009

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Genetic studies show that India is the most diverse place on planet earth

Africa is the most diverse place in the world genetically. But phenotypically, India is the mopst diverse place in the world.

India has been defined as a ‘Country of Caravans”. The country has seen the arrival of diverse groups, races and religious communities from the very beginning.  Aborigines, Aryans, Chinese, Mediterranean, Nordics, Mongols and Europeans came here and merged in the great Indian nation. India is the only country of the world where you will experience such a diverse kind of amalgamation of the people.                                       

 

There are 4 races in India.

1) Australoids

2) Dravidians(Caucasoids)

3) Mongoloids

4) Indo Aryans(Caucasoids)

 

1) Australoids

The Australoid race is very closely related to Australian aborigines and melanesians. They were the first waves of people who migrated to India 60,000 yrs ago.  Presently, In India, the dalits(untouchables), low caste people and the hill tribes of India are descendants of australoid people.  Australoid people also form the slum population of India.  They are people with wavy hair  lavishly distributed all over their dark bodies, long headed with low foreheads,  noses with low and broad roots, thick jaws, large palates and teeth and small chins. The Austrics of India represent a race of medium height, dark complexion with long heads and rather broad noses but otherwise of regular features. Australoids have never been mixed with other races in India because they were low caste and thus were considered inferior and unattractive by Dravidians, Indo Aryans and Mongoloids of India. Australoids are mainly seen in the Southern hill tribes of India, poor villages and are also seen in the slums in Mumbai. They are also seen in Tamilnadu and Kerala mainly in the villages as a minority. Australoids are a minority in India and they form only 25% of the Indian population.  They are widely discriminated in India and they are treated very poorly in India.

Some pics of Australoids in India:

 

 

2) Dravidians aka Mediterraneans.

The second group of immigrants who migrated to India were the Dravidians aka the Mediterranean people. They migrated to India from Eastern Mediterranean regions like Syria, Jordan, Turkey and parts of Greece roughly 4000 yrs ago. Dravidians form the majority of the population in South India. They range from pale to golden brown skin with straight shiny black hair, very large eyes, thin lips, oval shaped faces, considerable body hair and pointy prominent noses. Dravidians are classified as Mediterranean caucasians. Dravidians were the founders of city civilization of the Indus valley. Dravidians are an ancient form of the Mediterranean race. Anthropologists describe Dravidians as the ‘Mother of the Mediterranean race’. 

Some pics of Dravidians:

 

Famous Model and movie actress Aishwarya Rai is a dravidian(pic of her below):

 

More pics of Dravidians:

 

 

 

 

3) Mongoloids

These people are found in the North eastern part of India in the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Tripura. They are also found in Northern parts of West Bengal, Sikkim, and Ladakh. Generally they are people with yellow complexion, oblique eyes, high cheekbones, flat noses, sparse hair and medium height. Mongoloids migrated to India from China 2,000 yrs ago. Mongoloids form only 3% of the Indian population.

Pics of Mongoloids in India:

 

 

4) Indo Aryans(Nordics)

This group were the last one to immigrate to India. They migrated to India from Southern Russia or Iran(I am more inclined to believe Indo aryans are from Iran because North Indians look more like Iranians and nothing like Russians) 3,500 yrs ago. They form almost all of the population of North India and Central India. Central Indians(Gujaratis) are heavily aryans wih a little mix of dravidian.  Indo aryans usually have pale skin, straight/wavy black/brown hair, dark eyes(sometimes colored eyes), thin noses, long faces with well marked chins and hairy bodies.  There are really tan/dark skinned Indo aryans too. Indo aryans are classified as Nordic caucasians. Some of these Indo aryans are mixed with Dravidians. Indo aryans are also seen in large numbers in Northern Europe in the form of blonde hair and blue/green eyes.  Indo aryans in India are a dark haired dark eyed version of the Indo aryans seen in Northern Europe.

Pic of Central Indians(Indo aryans mixed with Dravidians). Hence, their light tan skin.

 

Pics of Indo Aryans from North India:

 

 

In short,

Most Indians(72%) are caucasians(either Nordic or Mediterranean or a mix of both), 25% of Indians(tribal people, slums and dalits) are australoids and 3% of Indians are mongoloid.

In other words, Both Dravidians and Indo aryans(Mediterranean & Nordic) constitute 72% of the population along with Australoid people forming 25% of the Indian population and mongoloids forming only 3% of the Indian population.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Shillong Bound.

Here’s the Plan. As you might have guessed by now, flexibility is key here so we’ll see how the plan goes down

Friday night: Catch the 10pm train for a 7 hour trek up north to the city of Sylhet (Bangladesh) .

Saturday morning: Cross the border at Dawki (India) to be picked up by NEICORD. I asked Gregory how I’d find them, he said we could make a sign for me to hold…? I can picture it now

And then the fun begins! I’ll be doing work with the HIV/AIDS program in Shillong and the Food Security Project in the nearby state of Assam, as well as more editing of annual reports, some ethnographic research, preparing powerpoints & video (do they know how un-technically savvy I am?) for donors/churches, and….

Kohima just spoke to the NEICORD director and he told her not to worry, I wouldn’t have time to be homesick…??

The YWCA where I was originally going to be staying at is closed for rennovations so I will now be staying with a family. I’ve been told they are Khasi, which is one of the predominant tribes in the NorthEast so I’m excited to live and learn with them

They live close to the office so I’ll be able to walk to work which makes me happy. Walking is so much better for getting to know a city.

Systematic Investment Plan(SIP)..Whats That?

Wealth creation is an art and over the years it has changed its avenues and area of interest for investors.


In this blog, we will discuss what is SIP and what are the benefits of SIP?


SIP or systematic investment plan is a simple and time honored investment strategy for creation of wealth in a disciplined manner over long term period.

It aims at a better future for investors by giving a good rate of return as compared to one time investor in volatile market by lowering the average purchase cost.


It is evident from the recent slowdown that the Mutual fund invested trough SIP route has prevented the pitfalls of equity investment and is enjoying the high returns, if compared.


So it makes all the more sense today when the stock markets are volatile.


BENEFITS of SIP.

1. Power of compounding:

If money is invested at an early age one can make money work with greater power of compounding with significant impact on wealth accumulation.


2.Rupee cost averaging:

It is not so easy to predict the movements of the market.

An automatic market timing mechanism that eliminates the need to time one’s investments is Rupee cost averaging.

Though SIP does not guarantee profit, but one can invest through it as it goes a long way in minimizing the effects of investing in volatile markets.


3. Convenience:

It is very easy and convenient to operate through SIP route as it could be done by simply providing post dated cheques with the completed enrolment form or give ECS instructions.

The cheques can be deposited on the specified dates and the units credited into the investor’s account.

The SIP facility is available in most of the categories in domestic Mutual Fund industry.


SIP features:

If one would like to earn a good return from its principal then he should have a disciplinary approach.

The disciplinary approach is a vital to earning good returns over a longer time frame.

Once invested through sip route, investors are saved from bothering to identifying the ideal entry and exit points from volatile markets.


Conclusion:

Though SIP resolves a dilemma often facing investors due to ups and downs in the market price but investor finds it difficult to decide when to invest in the equity scheme.

The success of investors SIP hinges on the performance of his/ her selected scheme.

If the investor is able to make wise decisions and make the best of the Indian volatile market, SIP is definitely a powerful tool to create wealth over time.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Gujarat: Rann of Kutch

Rann of Kutch is India’s only saline clay desert. It is located in the district of Kutch. Rann of Kutch is a unique exotic destination hard to find in many other countries, the 30,000 sq.km long desert is between the Gulf of Kutch and Indus River. The most beautiful sight in the Rann of Kutch is the amazing flocks of Flamingos. It is one of the very few breeding grounds for Flamingos in India. Rann of Kutch is the only place in Asia where the last of the three species of Asiatic wild ass still survive. The other wildlife seen here includes Fox, Jackals, Blackbuck, wolves, Nilgai antelopes etc.

The Ahmedabad airport and Railway station are the nearest to reach Rann of Kutch and the Little Rann of Kutch is well connected by road through Ahmedabad. There are options like tent camping, wildlife resorts, city hotels, home stays, general resorts etc for tourists to choose.

Vidyaarambham : <i>initiating children to the world of knowledge</i>

Vidyaarambham (Vidya : knowledge, aarambham : beginning) is a tradition followed by Keralites to introduce children into the world of letters. Towards the final days of Navratri, the 8 th day or ashtami is spent worshipping the goddess of knowledge and celebrated as Saraswati puja in Kerala. The day is also observed as Ayudha puja (ayudha : tools). On the evening of Durgashtami, many people offer their books to temples or keep books at home in front of Saraswati. It is called puja veypp (kept for puja). The next day is Mahanavmi and the 10 th day is observed as Vijayadashmi when early morning, books and tools are taken after puja. This ceremony is called puja edupp (taken after puja). After this, everyone writes on a tray of rice or sand as it is considered auspicious.

Vijayadashmi is considered auspicious for knowledge initiation. The ceremony either takes place in temples or at home. Mostly the initiation is done by the oldest in the family or by parents of the child. Some people even prefer it by their gurus. On a tray of rice, the oldest in the family/ father or mother/teacher takes the child’s right index finger and writes the mantra ‘Om hari sree ganapataye namah’ (ഓം ഹരി ശ്രീ ഗണപതയേ നമഃ). This ceremony is done when the child is 2 or 3 years old and only after this a child starts to read and write.

This is nostalgia for me because 10 days of puja holidays were most sought after while growing up. We had many Bengali friends so visiting puja pandals with them then our Saraswati puja and after that Vijayadashmi/Dussehra celebrations. This is the time when everyone in India is rejoicing. For us these rituals didn’t matter, what mattered were togetherness and the fun we had during those times. My brother and I eagerly waited for puja holidays mainly for those two days when we could keep our books and not study at all.

It is difficult to follow the tradition here but auspiciously this year Saraswati puja falls on a weekend (26 Sep) and Vijayadashmi on 28. So I am planning to do the same for Peanut this year. The other half and all his cousins got initiation from their grandfather. My brother and I got it from our father. I can vaguely remember the day my brother got his knowledge initiation. When Peanut was 1.5 years old, the other half and I intiated her vidyarambham here; on a plate of rice we made her write the mantra and then let her play with the rice. She still remembers it and looks forward to the day when she can write on a tray of rice.

Peanut's vidyarambham in year 2006

Thunchathu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan is considered the father of Malayalam language. So on this auspicious day, many people arrive at Tunchan paramb, birthplace of Ezhuthachan, to take sand and use in the initiation of their children to the letters. Every year, hundreds of people bring their children to this place to write their first letters on the sand during the Vijayadasami festival.

Nowadays the tradition of knowledge initiation is followed by people of many faiths.  According to this article since year 2003, the St. George’s Orthodox Syrian Cathedral at Palayam, Trivandrum too started following the tradition then followed by many Churches. The children in the Church write ‘Sree Yeshu Mishihaye Namaha’.

With time our traditions see vast transformation but tie that connects us never slackens.

“Saraswati Namastubhyam, Varade Kaamaroopini Vidyaarambham Karishyaami, Siddhir Bhavatu Mey Sada”

Translation: O Saraswati! who grants all our desires, as I begin my studies, I bow to you to help me in making it rewarding and make me successful in all my efforts.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Militaries and governments are crushing aspirations of South Asian people in moving freely - Prof Chaman Lal

“India’s interest is best served by strengthening the peace and democracy loving constituency in Pakistan.  Can India insulate itself in case there is a civil war in Pakistan? Asked Sumit Chakravarty, editor of Mainstream magazine, speaking at the public rally organized by the Delhi Chapter of the “Pakistan – India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy”.

“Further, instead of closing our borders to Pakistani citizens, we should open up all borders in South Asia. It is people’s free exchange and opportunities for trade that are the best antidotes against extremism and terror” said Chakravarty, addressing the forum.

The public forum was organized at the Press Club of India, in Raisina Road, Delhi on the theme, “Ongoing dialogue between India and Pakistan; the way forward”.

The forum was also addressed by human rights activist and General Secretary of the Indian Chapter of the Forum, Tapan K. Bose who noted that while terror politics represents a growing trend, the peace constituency in Pakistan is also quite strong.

Prof Chaman Lal - JNU

Prof Chaman Lal of the Jawahar Lal Nehru University and Chairperson, Centre of Indian Languages too contributed to the forum as a guest speaker.

Ravi Hemadri, the Joint Secretary of the Delhi Chapter issued the following media release after the conclusion of the forum, that was attended by a large gathering of concerned social and human rights activists.

Press release

New Delhi, 19 Sep. 09

Speakers at a public meeting organised by the Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) stressed that there was no alternative to both India and Pakistan but to engage in serious dialogue. They highlighted the need to end the atmosphere of suspicion that has vitiated the relations between the two countries since the terrorist attack in Mumbai last year.  The fact is that we are neighbours and must therefore engage in direct dialogue.

Speaking at the meeting, Tapan K. Bose, eminent human rights activist and the General Secretary of the India chapter of the Forum said that cessation of dialogue cannot ensure that there will be no future attacks. He deplored that ever since Mumbai attacks, the terrorists have set the agenda for relationship between the two countries. There is now enough evidence that there are terror groups operating from Pakistani soil. Some of them may also have links with the agencies of the Pakistani state. However, while terror politics represents a growing trend, the peace constituency in Pakistan is also quite strong. Mumbai attacks and other similar violence on civilians is condemned by large sections of the Pakistani society. As a part of its Pakistan policy India must not limit itself to address the Pakistani state but adequately express its concern to the plight of the ordinary people there who face terror attacks on a daily basis.

The peace constituency has also grown over the years in India. The very fact that there was no popular support for India to go to war with Pakistan in the aftermath of Mumbai shows the strength of this peace constituency. An attack ten years ago like that happened in Mumbai last year, would have pushed both countries to war. We must not forget that the then government of India almost went to war with Pakistan after the attack on the Indian parliament in 2001.

Pakistani state is reported to be in a crisis. There is a real threat of a civil war breaking out in that country, warned Sumit Chakravarty, editor of Mainstream magazine. He said India’s interest is best served by strengthening the peace and democracy loving constituency in Pakistan.  Can India insulate itself in case there is a civil war in Pakistan? Further, instead of closing our borders to Pakistani citizens, we should open up all borders in South Asia. It is people’s free exchange and opportunities for trade that are the best antidotes against extremism and terror.

Prof Chaman Lal of the Jawahar Lal Nehru University deplored the visa system that exists between nations in South Asia. He argued that India and Nepal allow each other’s citizens to move freely in their countries because a section of the people of Nepal shares a common culture with people of some of the states of India. He asked, is it not the same in the case of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh? He alleged that the militaries and the governments are crushing the aspirations of the people of South Asia to move freely in the entire region.

The joint statement issued by Pakistan and India at Sharm-el-Sheikh was a creative piece of diplomacy to set the dialogue process back on the track. But ever since the joint statement it has been attacked by the rightist parties in India. Fr. T K John of the Vidyajyothi College of Theology said that the ruling party, buckling under the attack, has continuously diluted the spirit and the interpretation of the joint statement.

Ravi Hemadri

Joint Secretary

For further details contact:

Harris Kidwai:   9811081240

Ravi Hemadri :  9871415186

PIPFPD Secretarait – pipfpd@pipfpd.org

Dual Listing May Not Be Possible !!

India will have to amend host of laws and make rupee fully convertible before allowing dual listing of shares as is being proposed by the South African telecom major MTN.


Dual listing is not feasible in short term as there are amendments required in FEMA to allow full capital convertibility. These are major bottlenecks.

Moreover, Dual listing is not popular globally.


The government will have to amend Companies Act to allow dual listing, which is not allowed currently.

Pointing out that Dual listing faces number of bottlenecks which need to be taken care of in advance, SMC Capital Equity head Jagannadham Thunuguntla said, “If the government is committed for dual listing, it can be feasible. However, there are huge challenges and the process will take some time.”


He further said that there are many regulatory hurdles before it to become feasible. “Amendments are required in FEMA regulation, capital account convertibility, listing agreement,” he added.


The dual-listed companies retain their separate legal identities while being listed on both stock exchanges.

Besides, they also enjoy equal voting rights.


RBI appointed Tarapore Committee has suggested that India should go for fuller capital account convertibility in stages.

Amid merger talks between Bharti and MTN, the government recently said it is examining the issue of dual listing of the South African firm as per Indian laws.


Monday, September 21, 2009

Similarities and Differences: A Comparison of IFRS, US GAAP and Indian GAAP (May 2009)

The change in accounting language for Indian corporate is round the corner — less than a year to be precise (effective 1 April, 2010), assuming IFRS is introduced as issued by the IASB with minor modifications. Today, no boardroom discussion is complete without a reminder to be on the look out for any structural impacts of the convergence and the concerns they may bring about. The change to IFRS is not an optional or voluntary exercise. IFRS is set to become the local accounting language. Implication of change in accounting will have a direct implication on the way businesses are run.

We have been working over the last few years to develop methodology and tools to enable an efficient and effective transition. As a part of the firm’s ongoing commitment to help companies navigate the switch from Indian GAAP to IFRS, PwC released an updated fifth edition of its publication “Similarities and Differences: A Comparison of IFRS, US GAAP and Indian GAAP.” The publications has been updated taking into account authoritative pronouncements issued under all three framework up to 31 March 2009.

This new edition has been completely redesigned to make it user-friendly and the key features of the new publication are:

1) It provides an insight regarding the impact of key differences between IFRS, US GAAP and Indian GAAP,
2) It provides the context of how the conversion to IFRS has ramifications far beyond the accounting department, and
3) It encourages early consideration of what IFRS means to your organisation.

This will serve as a quick reference guide for CFOs and practitioners and will also be useful to users of financial statements who are looking for a quick understanding of these three frameworks.

Your feedback, suggestions and questions are most welcome and we look forward to them.

Please feel free to write to us:

sohandhande@gmail.com

http://www.pwc.com/in/en/publications/Similarities-and-Differences-GAAP-2009.jhtml

An Odissi ensemble

Madhulita Mahapatra performed an Odissi dance as part of our demonstration performances on 20th September. The performance left the audience spellbound for it’s sheer beauty and poise.

It couldn’t have been a more beautiful opening for NaVaRaSa. Having practiced Odissi from her childhood, Madhulita was a picture of divine grace. Her piece, which was an offering to the Gods, was

done with immense passion. Yet there was a simplicity about the dance – an earthiness that transported us, the audience to another sphere.  It was simply put – a soul-stirring experience.

Her workshops begin from 7th October onwards.

To register mail us at navarasa.mail@gmail.com

Sunday, September 20, 2009

First Day in the Office.

I’m sitting in the CRWRC office editing an annual report for one of its child survival programs in India. First of all, let me say that the number of acronyms in this report is incredible…welcome to the world of NGO lingo. While editing is not the most exciting job, it’s fascinating to read through this report. Yes, it’s full of data and targets and action steps, but every one of these numbers represents a child who was immunized or a mother who has received prenatal care. It matters.

It matters to me because I remember working with children in an orphanage in Kolkata who would be lame for the rest of their lives because of polio, a preventable disease. But they hadn’t received the immunization. And their lives would be impacted by it forever. It matters to me because I can’t even count the number of women with sick babies on their hip who were tapping on the window of my car today and holding their hands out for money. Each number represents a woman who was given some training on how to treat dysentery or prevent malaria.

I’m not saying I believe programs are the solution to poverty, often the problems we see are symptoms of greater injustice and larger issues. In fact, the report I’m editing often cites the lack of supplies available in the clinics and programs. But, it’s something.

It matters.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

A Cup of Tea (or 2 or 3...)

I am sitting on the floor of my room as I write this because the wireless is just out of reach at my desk but if I sit in the doorway I can reach it just fine

So here are some of my thoughts for today.

I’m currently drinking my 3rd cup of tea. Yes, I said tea. My friends & family may be in shock over this, but I like the tea here! It’s more milky and the spices are deelicious. I don’t quite understand how one could think hot tea and 32 degrees C is a good combination but when in Rome…

Today I was taken shopping for some clothes. In Shillong I’ll be able to wear western clothes but for village trips and for other times when cultural sensitivity is required Kohima suggested I buy the common wear, called  a  Salwar Kameez (basically just a long, flowing shirt, a scarf, and pants). I’ll try post a pic of me in my new threads once I get a chance.

It seems I’ve come at an interesting time. The Muslim holiday of Eid is going to be anyday now, tonight it will be determined by the moon if it’s on Sunday or Monday. So everyone is travelling home for the holiday and the stores will be closed for a few days for the festivities. Then the Hindu holiday of Puja will be a few days after. I’m excited to take in as much as I can. But in all of this, it means that my departure for India has been delayed until the 25th of Sep. Flexibility and cross-cultural work go hand in hand But there are a few projects at the office here in Dhaka that I’ll be working on until then.

Tory and I had a bonding moment talking about our favourite movies. We both resonated with Sweet Home Alabama, I loved her description of the lead actor “ohh, he’s such a manly man!” I think we’ll get along just fine

Friday, September 18, 2009

Mattia Fustini: salviamo il panda, ma anche le vacche

Siamo alla facoltà di Veterinaria, nello studio del dott. Mattia Fustini che oltre ad essere dottorando presso il dipartimento di morfologia, fisiologia e produzioni animali, responsabile tecnico della stalla didattica dell’università, è figlio di allevatori di vacche da latte. Ha le sue radici nelle valli del Trentino. E’ nato in quel di Tione nel maggio 1982 e ha la passione per l’allevamento nel Dna, è infatti il presidente nazionale dell’AGAFI (Associazione Giovani Allevatori Frisona Italiana), cioè le classiche vacche pezzate nere. Mattia è orgoglioso delle origini e molto legato alla terrper forza di cosa da sempre vivono in famiglia.

 

 

- Che differenza di mentalità pensi che ci sia tra chi vive a contatto con gli animali e chi è un cittadino semplice consumatore (magari tra quelli più disinformati anche se spesso non per colpe proprie) ?

La vita in campagna ha un limite di contatti tra le persone rispetto a chi vive in città. Però vediamo che nel mondo moderno questa possibilità di contatti spesso non è sfruttata, la televisione è già da tempo un mezzo di distrazione di massa che allontana dalle altre persone, dal confronto. Il ragazzino moderno ha perso la possibilità del gioco di piazza che si faceva una volta. Per come sono cresciuto io, mi mancava la possibilità di avere tanti amici con cui vedersi fuori dalla scuola, soffrivo un pò l’isolamento della campagna, di chi sta fuori dal paese. Dall’altro punto di vista parti fin da subito aiutando a casa, magari seguendo la cura dei vitelli, facendo un po’ anche compagnia ai genitori mentre lavorano.

- Tu pensi che un ritorno alla cultura della terra tramite il rilancio di varie realtà come ad esempio la filiera corta, possa essere di aiuto per l’economia ? E in che misura ciò può costituire una sfida culturale in una società in cui tutto quanto di più vero e umano viene sempre più offuscato dall’alienazione data dal consumismo e la sua realtà “plastificata” ?

Allora il discorso è molto ampio: in generale diciamo che il contadino per forza di cosa deve seguire il mercato. Siamo plagiati su un modello di alimento finto per il quale la mela che compriamo deve essere perfetta così come l’uovo e l’insalata. quando in realtà la qualità non è quella dell’immagine, ma quella del principio nutritivo e quella organolettica (del sapore, n.d.r.). Abbiamo perso parecchi sapori. Però ci sono cibi per i quali non sono state utilizzate quantità massive di pesticidi e per le quali non sono stati utilizzati gli stessi ibridi di piante, rispettando quella variabilità che rischiamo perdere per soddisfare un mercato standard. Negli ultimi tempi è nata una sensibilità nuova : si è visto che certe produzioni hanno un peso ambientale ed economico molto forte. Per arrivare ad un prodotto esteticamente di serie A, se ne butta una grossa parte perchè considerato prodotto di serie B, quando sarebbe consumabile. Fino ad arrivare al punto in cui prodotti che non vengono neanche raccolti perchè costa di più la raccolta che lasciarlo in campo o distruggerlo sul posto. Questo è un tipo di prodotto che viene pagato 20 cent al produttore ed arriva al consumatore ad 1 euro. La filiera corta serve proprio per arginare questo problema, saltare le intermediazioni. La logica industriale capistalistica ha sempre dettato legge e la filiera corta spezzerebbe questi meccanismi: guadagna di più il produttore, spende di meno il consumatore. Tuttavia bisogna stare attenti, è difficile che la filiera corta riesca a coinvolgere la totalità della produzione, rimane una cosa di nicchia. Perchè bisogna pensare ad i nostri ritmi di vita e alla densità abitativa, la maggior parte delle persone vive in città, hanno quindi queste persone modo di recarsi tutti i giorni al distributore del latte, anche quando esso si trova in centro città ? Qui nascono i problemi per via della deperibilità di certi prodotti, in particolare quelli lattiero-caseari.

- E’ la pigrizia uno degli ostacoli maggiori ? I gruppi di aquisto (GAS) sono una via d’uscita?

E’ pigrizia ma è scusata da certi ritmi di lavoro, i GAS sono un’ottima risposta per esempio per quanto riguarda l’aquisto della carne. Se si sviluppa una sensibilità in questo senso, ci potrebbe essere anche la distribuzione del latte porta a porta. Se un certo numero di famiglie che abitano vicino tra loro ritirano tutti i giorni una bottiglia di latte, il produttore si organizza per consegnarlo e la rete di distribuzione potrebbe funzionare benissimo. Ottimizzando i tempi ed i costi. – In questo modo verrebbe anche ricompensato in maniera adeguata il lavoro degli agricoltori, sia economicamente, che socialmente, con il riconoscimento del loro ruolo di tutori dell’ambiente ….. Se si prende il prodotto appena uscito dall’azienda esso è meno sofisticato e non ha subito nessun processo. Ovviamente è privo di conservanti e non è imbottigliato in atmosfera protetta e quindi ha una vita commerciale molto più breve, tuttavia identificare questo prodotto come proveniente da un determinato allevamento anzichè dall’industria lattiero-casearia è qualcosa che crea più fidelizzazione del consumatore verso chi produce. Qual è il problema? Secondo te quanto latte degli allevamenti potrebbe essere venduto attraverso questo mercato diretto ? L’ideale è che potesse essere venduto la maggior parte, ma siccome in realtà chi ha il distributore vende una piccola percentuale del suo latte e l’altra parte la deve comunque consegnare al caseificio, è un rischio che si crei il latte di serie B (che va al caseificio) e il latte di serie A (che va al distributore, dove viene pastorizzato n.d.r.), che però in realtà sono lo stesso latte. Ovviamente quello fresco crudo è come prodotto finale migliore anche se dall’altra parte l’allevatore deve comunque vendere tutto il suo latte. Poniamo che ad esempio se tutte le aziende di Ozzano si mettano a vendere latte crudo e quindi poi i consumatori inizino ad essere troppo pochi, i produttori quindi si metterebbero in concorrenza tra loro e avremmo chi da 1 euro passa a 90 cents al litro, o ad 80, pur di avere mercato visto che tanto ormai l’investimento del distributore si è fatto. Si tornerebbe così ad una competizione del singolo. Quello che dobbiamo secondo me ricordare è che il caseificio inteso come coperativa, (Granarolo ad esempio), è nato per unire i produttori perchè possano vendere tutti insieme latte al consumatore e quindi essere organizzati con un unica macchina di confezionamento, un’unica rete vendita, un unico nome. Tutto ciò se vogliamo “spersonalizza” un pò in quanto non è possibile raccogliere separatamente il latte dalle varie aziende. Però lo spirito della cooperazione è molto importante per l’ Italia per il settore primario che ha sofferto storicamente sempre, prima dai propietari terrieri poi dal sistema industriale. Allora se noi diciamo che il latte della cooperativa è meno buono del latte del distributore, ingeneriamo nel consumatore l’idea che sia di serie B. perciò più faticosamente quel latte lì emergerà rispetto al latte ungherese, tedesco, austriaco perchè la gente penserà serie A il distributore, serie B tutto il resto. Invece bisogna fare capire che le aziende vendono tramite il distributore e soddisfano per ora una nicchia di mercato ma la maggior parte del latte la vendono attraverso la cooperazione e la grande distribuzione. Importante allora valorizzare anche questo questo latte.

- Cosa pensi dell’attività del ministro Zaia a proposito delle celeberrime quote latte ? Si tratta di un regalo ai furbi ?

Domanda molto scottante. La mia impressione è che nel pasticcio che c’è sempre stato nella regolamentazione delle quote latte, grazie a questa legge sia stato appianato il deficit di quote dell’Italia rispetto alla produzione reale. Però l’attribuzione di queste quote richieste a livello europeo è andata agli allevatori che non avevano mai acquistato queste quote e quindi erano in esubero di produzione. La consistenza delle multe per questi allevatori in esubero di produzione è comunque inferiore a quanto previsto e inoltre il pagamento è rateizzato. Quindi chi è ha rispettato la legge mantenendo il tetto di produzione o acquistando quote si trova a non ricevere niente, mentre chi ha fatto il furbo non acquistando e producendo oltre le regole si trova offerte in regalo delle quote. Questo non è un bel esempio. Questa decisione inoltre è nata dall’idea che, vista l’impennata del prezzo del latte ad inizio 2008, producendo più latte si potesse arrivare ad avere più reddito quando in realtà l’aumento della produzione ha inflazionato il mercato. Così adesso scontiamo un prezzo del latte veramente al di sotto dei costi aziendali. – So che sei di ritorno da una riunione diciamo così “itinerante” dell’ AGAFI, di cui sei il presidente, avvenuta tra Puglia e Basilicata : quale clima si respira tra i giovani allevatori in questo difficile periodo ? Ogni anno ci troviamo a livello nazionale tra Dairy Club provinciali. E’ un momento di confronto e di conoscenza tra ragazzi di realtà lontane e vicine tra loro. In questo modo è più facile fare sistema e ciò significa essere uniti tralasciando le gelosie per i colleghi. I giovani hanno il compito di portare nuova linfa agli allevamenti in questo periodo di difficoltà economica che causa scoraggiamento tra i genitori che conducono le aziende. Il giovane con il suo entusiasmo è importante anche per l’unione tra produttori che attraverso il sistema cooperativo, in cui crediamo molto, può affrontare il mercato e poter anche imporre un sistema di qualità a duro prezzo affermatosi in Italia. L’unione dei produttori di fronte agli industriali è fondamentale.

- Ogni anno il numero degli allevamenti diminuisce sempre più : quanto è chiaro alle persone che se si estinguono gli allevatori si estinguono anche le vacche ?

Latte e latticini in Italia vengono comunque consumati. Se noi non diamo adeguata informazione riguardo alla produzione di latte, cosa succede? Il latte ungherese viene valutato uguale al latte italiano, al latte belga, al latte tedesco. Abbiamo visto che l’aver sotto controllo gli allevamenti, le tecniche e gli alimenti per gli animali, è un punto molto importante per la sicurezza alimentare. La sicurezza alimentare viene persa quando noi subiamo l’importazione di latte dall’estero, che di solito non è il miglior latte di quei paesi, in quanto si vende il latte che è in eccesso. Il latte poi è un alimento molto deperibile quindi chissà cosa può succedere durante i trasporti. I prodotti tipici sono il fiore all’occhiello per l’Italia, migliaia di tipi di formaggi diversi di grandissima qualità. Sappiamo che il Parmigiano Reggiano non può essere fatto con un latte qualunque e gli stessi formaggi gustati durante il convegno AGAFI in Puglia erano diversi da quelli di altre regioni italiane, così come il pane , le carni, etc. Le materie prime erano uniche, per via dei foraggi e dei metodi di allevamento. Perderle vorrebbe dire perdere un’alimentazione di qualità. Se andiamo in questo senso andiamo verso il fast-food con carne, formaggio, maionese, insalata spersonalizzati, mangiati tutti nello stesso momento avendo un equivalente nutritivo equivalente se non maggior quantità calorica, ma una piattezza di gusto notevole. Questo per dire che poter mantenere la tradizione ma anche l’allevamento in Italia vuole dire anche mantenere un’indipendenza da questi modelli, da questi sistemi che si impongono sempre più ma a cui il consumatore può dire no. Non è sempre vero che l’aumento di pochi centesimi nella pasta o nel latte sia qualcosa di inaffrontabile, capisco che rientri nei costi ma per mangiare spendiamo una quantità veramente bassa della nostra disponibilità di denaro. In realtà 70 anni fa si spendeva l’80% delle proprie risorse per mangiare, oggi spendiamo il 20-30 %. Quindi secondo me nella gerarchia dei bisogni, mangiare bene e poter distinguere ciò che mangiamo, entrando nella cultura che vi sta dietro, è fondamentale. Questa cultura preserva il territorio e lo mantiene vivo con le sue tradizioni e tutela l’ambiente. Il fatto di lesinare sul centesimo, porta alla chiusura di moltissimi allevamenti. Come ci dicono le statistiche. La chiusura costante e annuale di allevamenti, cui se ne sostituiscono altri sempre più grandi i quali sorgono su un territorio più piccolo con maggior impatto ambientale. Questo perchè ci viene inculcato dall’alto l’obbligo di sfornare cibi a basso costo.

-La nuova civiltà contadina è composta in gran parte da lavoratori stranieri. Sappiamo che l’azienda della tua famiglia è un esempio positivo di integrazione multietnica in questo contesto. Parlacene un pò.

l lavoratori extracomunitari sono indispensabili per fare andare avanti la zootecnia e soprattutto il settore ortofrutticolo qui in Italia. Bisogna ricordare che loro non sono assolutamente in competizione con italiani che cercano lavori come il raccoglitore o il mungitore : l’italiano non si presta più a fare questi importantissimi lavori. A casa non abbiamo trovato nessun lavoratore italiano che accettasse di buon grado di svolgere la mansione di operaio zootecnico. Mentre invece ci sono persone straniere che hanno una grande passione e a volte maggiore sensibilità nella cura dell’animale. Per loro è naturale produrre alimenti per sfamare. Oggi nella nostra società l’alimento è visto come qualcosa che ingrassa ma tranne i nostri nonni nessuno di noi ha vissuto la fame. Non conosciamo la carestia e quindi l’alimento è visto come qualcosa di calorico e che fa male. In realtà è una distorsione della realtà. Se i bambini che crescono con le merendine e alimenti prodotti dalla grande distribuzione avessero la possibilità di vivere in azienda, con un alimentazione più sana (meno conservanti e sofisticazioni) e il movimento dato dall’attività fisica, potrebbero mangiare quanto vogliono e non avrebbero nessun problema di obesità. A casa nostra abbiamo avuto come collaboratore prima un ragazzo indiano che è cresciuto formandosi e imparando il mestiere presso il nostro allevamento con grande abilità, da qui poi il ricongiungimento con la famiglia: cosa molto importante in quanto chi lavora deve poterlo fare in serenità ed avere la famiglia all’estero non è di certo condizione adeguata. I bambini si sono ben integrati nelle scuole, grazie alla disponibilità di tutti. Poi si sono aggiunti altri due collaboratori sempre indiani della regione del Punjab, (a nord dell’India ai confini col Pakistan), da dove provengono la maggior parte dei mungitori. La popolazione di quelle aree è infatti dotata di grande sensibilità verso gli animali. L’integrazione è stata naturale.

Ora Mattia deve andare in stalla didattica di facoltà, per controllare che tutto sia a posto: è quasi sera e il rito della mungitura sta per iniziare.

Foreign Investors Poured $9 Billion in Indian Stock Market :)



Foreign investors have poured Rs 43,837 crore (USD 9.05 billion) into the country’s stock markets so far this year, reflecting confidence of foreign funds in the Indian equity markets.



At the close on Wednesday, overseas investors were gross buyer of shares worth 4,17,121 crore and gross sellers of stocks valued at Rs 3,73,283 crore, resulting in a net flow of Rs 43,837 crore into the stock markets so far this year.

This latest data has been announced by the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).



Significantly, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex has gained nearly 73 per cent so far this year.



The National Stock Exchange barometer Nifty – composed of 50 shares — has also advanced fairly and for the first time in more than a year it touched 5,000 level on Thursday.

(Read more about that on previous blog).

Global fund houses have made a total net investment of Rs 3,564 crore so far in September, according to the SEBI data.



After pulling out a huge sum of Rs 52,986 crore (USD 11.9 billion) from the local stock markets, foreign investors are now moving their money towards emerging economies like India.



However in debt market segment, overseas investors have not turned net investor so far this year.

FIIs were net sellers of debt instruments worth Rs 527 crore (USD 49 million) in 2009 so far according to the latest data received from the market regulatory body,SEBI.



Thursday, September 17, 2009

MouthShut.com

MouthShut.com is a user-generated content and consumer review site on the Internet. Mouthshut.com is structured as social media company providing word-of-mouth recommendations in the form of user generated product reviews, consumer blogs, micro-reviews (SMS based), comparison shopping data and video reviews. The company is headquartered in Mumbai (Bombay), India and according to India’s largest newspaper, The Times of India, Mouthshut.com continues to be the leader in the user-generated content space in India [1].

MouthShut.com was founded in the year 2000 by Faisal Farooqui [2]. The Indian blog contentsutra.com reports that MouthShut.com pioneered the whole user-generated content space in India then [3].

Visit www.mouthshut.com !

Why are Indians apprehensive to online shopping?

The Internet provides a progressive dimension to most of the industries on global platform. The retail industry has also benefited from its online version which has resulted in the growth and expansion of the sector worldwide. In India, e-commerce has been on a slow track in comparison to other parts of the world. There has been a visible growth in the e-retail sector yet the industry is being seen in its incipient stage.

Earlier, the reasons cited for the weak response towards online shopping was blamed on the lack of Internet facilities and inadequate online transaction facilities available in the market. Since then, there has been technological boom in India. Now, the Internet is easily accessible to urban India and even rural pockets are getting Internet accessibility at select places. Growth in the credit card industry and other online transaction methods has also been a boon for e-shopping.

Despite the recent developments, response to online trading and transaction has been feeble in this part of the world. Some of the reasons which potentially work against the industry in India include: – Bargaining is not possible – Product trial is generally unavailable – Insecurity surrounding the credibility of a shopping portal – Delays in product delivery – Lack in the variety of products – Social networking is restricted – Preference to real-time shopping for get-together The above mentioned reasons clearly indicate that apart from online activities like travel ticket booking and online broking, e-commerce still has a long way to go before earning the faith of the consumers.

More innovative and tangible options are still awaited before the shopaholic appetite of the quintessential Indian is satisfied by these virtual stores.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Cord blood stem cell transplantation cures minor girl

Courtesy by: samaylive

Chennai, Sept 16 An eight-year-old girl suffering from Thalassemia has been cured by ‘cord blood stem cell transplantation’ at a hospital here.

The doctors used her younger brother’s cord blood stem cells for transplantation and the hospital authorities claimed it was the first time this method was practised.

Thalassemia is a genetic blood disorder in which the body makes an abnormal form of hemoglobin that results in excessive destruction of these cells and causes severe anaemia that can occur months after the birth. The patient then has to undergo monthly blood transfusion.

Mayur Abhaya, president and executive director of LifeCell International, a leading stem cell bank, told reporters here that Thamirabhurani was suffering from Thalassemia for the last six and a half years.

She went through painful blood transfusion and medication until the stem cell Cord blood stem cell transplantation cures minor girl, he said.

“The stem cell transplantation was recently done by Dr Revathi Raj at Apollo Hospital and it helped the girl get rid of Thalassemia,” he said, adding doctors had recommended that the patient start on iron reducing medication initially.

“The doctors then asked her parents to consider another pregnancy and go for umbilical cord blood stem cell banking”, he added.

Raj said a pre-natal test confirmed that the foetus was not affected with Thalaseemia.

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Scholar Explodes Myth of ‘India Shining’ Image

KARACHI: The image of ‘India Shining’ is one that applies to only about 30 per cent of the Indian population, but it is taken by many around the world to apply to the majority of the population, when in fact the remaining 70 per cent of Indians have very little to do with that image at all, according to a British academic at the University of London.

Dr Marie Lall, South Asia specialist at the University of London and an associate fellow of the Asia Programme at Chatham House, was speaking at a seminar titled ‘India Today: Rising Star or Land of Snake Charmers?’ organised at a local hotel here on Saturday.

Beginning her talk, Dr Lall asserted that in her experience Pakistanis and Indians tended to have very ‘incomplete pictures’ of one another, and that this tends to colour their perceptions.

She spoke about the development of the idea of India’s identity and its aims as a nation. Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and other leaders at the time of partition, she said, were primarily educated in the West, and so the anti-colonial movement was shaped ‘primarily by Western ideas of the nation state’.

‘Nehru’s first challenge,’ she said, ‘was framing a new identity for India around something. For Pakistan this was simple, as there was a common religion, but for India this was not workable. So he chose the idea of shared history.’

She argued that there is a disparity between the image of India and the realities on the ground. ‘There is an India of the 70 per cent, and an India of the 30 per cent. To the outside world, they see just the 30 per cent.’

Dr Lall also provided a brief overview of Indian political and economic history, with particular emphasis on the 1991 financial reforms, which were necessitated after India was forced to empty its gold reserves to pay off loans to international institutions. She said that reforms led to devolution of power from the Centre towards the provinces, thus leading to the growth of smaller, local parties. The south of India prospered more in comparison to the north, and there were rural/urban demographic shifts. She further said that the rise of Hindu nationalism is directly linked to the reforms that were brought about between 1991 and 1996.

She said the 2004 and 2009 wins for the Congress party in the Indian general elections were relatively unexpected, particularly to analysts, who assumed that India would go whichever way the middle-classes went, which was presumably with the BJP.

‘But the masses dictated the elections, and the Congress won, something which most analysts did not factor into their calculations,’ she said.

Regarding foreign policy, Dr Lall asserted that India’s ‘aim was always to be a global power and to be recognised as such’.

Prior to the 1990s, she said, India’s claim to being a global power was on the basis of ‘moral standing’. Nehru’s vision was that India would ‘lead the postcolonial world’.

This, however, proved to be problematic as time went on, as India’s ambitions then grew to leading the developing world, many of whom were not postcolonial and had no interest in being led by the South Asian giant.

With Indira Gandhi, she said, one saw a gradual shift to a more realistic approach on the regional level, where India recognised that it was the hegemon, and acted as such by dominating smaller states such as Nepal and Bhutan. ‘Again,’ Dr Lall said, ‘you see a dualism, where there is regional hegemony on one hand and then ‘moral standing’ on the other.’

Post-1991, she said, things changed significantly, and India went from being non-aligned to dictating foreign policy on the basis of economic growth and needs. ‘To open markets you need to trade, and there was no real foreign policy vision from either the Congress or the BJP.

The only government which did have that vision was the short-lived United Front government, led by I.K. Gujral. There was also a gradual shift towards welcoming mostly Hindu non-resident Indians, who had in the past been shunned by the Indian state, to invest in the country. Congress followed in BJP’s footsteps, as far as this was concerned.’

She added that it was significant that during this ‘new era’ of foreign policy, India also approached other states it would in the past not have, including the US and Israel.

Indian energy security

A significant part of Dr Lall’s talk also centred on India’s new focus on energy security. She said that as of 2004 India realised that it requires this security in order to fuel its economic growth in the coming years.

‘It is now energy that drives Indian foreign policy. Nothing else,’ she said. ‘Right now there is no idea how they are going to meet the needs they will have in 2020, and even though there is increasing cooperation with other states, the energy secured so far is not enough.’

On the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, she said that the project will likely not only provide India with energy, but will also foster regional stability. The economic and logistical feasibilities were all worked out in 2007-08, she said, but the only remaining issue was the US’s objections to the deal. In the past this would not have stopped India, she said, but now there was the India-US nuclear deal to consider. As such, she said, her feeling was that the pipeline would not in fact be built.

‘The India-US nuclear deal has nothing to with energy, let’s be clear about this,’ she said. ‘It has nothing to do with energy and everything to do with great power status.’

Further, she argued that US and Indian priorities on the deal were actually conflicting. While the US wants to use India to counter China as a growing economic threat, and to increase trade with it to ease its own balance of trade deficit, India has pursued the deal mainly to be recognised as a military and civilian nuclear power, and to have access of fissile material and the latest nuclear technology. India, she said, also wants a greater role to play in the Asian balance of power, and believes that the nuclear deal gives it a greater ‘status’ as a country.

Dr Lall also spoke briefly about Indo-Pakistan relations, as well as about relations between India and Myanmar. Concluding her talk, she said that in the Indo-Pakistan set-up at present, India ‘does not need to do anything, and so it is treating Pakistan like China treats India. It can afford to stand back’.

Dr Lall’s research has focused primarily on India, Pakistan and Myanmar. She has written widely on issues of political economy, energy security and foreign policy. She also works on education policy in Pakistan and India, and is a senior lecturer at the Institute of Education at the University of London.

She is currently residing in Lahore, where she is a member of the visiting faculty at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Courtesy

Litmus test for MS Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s biggest test is round the corner. While expectations are always high around Indian cricket, they tend to get stratospheric when Team India is defending a world title. Ask Kapil about 1987 and he will tell you how the team’s campaign to defend the World Cup was doomed by anticipation even before the first ball had been bowled.

Much like the ’83 World Cup victory, the 2007 T-20 world championship triumph was a seminal event and after just two years the burden of expectation is already weighing on Team India. The defeat in the warmup game at the hands of New Zealand must have been like a wake up call.

It is strange but true that the skipper believes that spin bowling, one of the great strengths of Indian cricket, will once again play a key role. Given the fact that the cricket is being played in early June in England, it is hard to estimate how much of a factor slowing up the ball to deny batsmen the pace to generate power will be.

The early summer conditions usually help seam and swing bowling, which is what suited the Indian team of 1983 with its plethora of medium paced all rounders who could make the ball wobble in the air. A question mark may have to be placed against how effective spin will be even if we do implicitly trust Dhoni’s judgment, which has invariably proved to be accurate.

Seeing how well the veteran Anil Kumble bowled in the IPL final in which he took up the challenge of bowling straight up at Adam Gilchrist, the captain of victorious Deccan Chargers, it is easy to predict continued success for his fellow spinners from a country with a rich heritage in this branch.

What lends Team India such a formidable look in most forms of the game is the variety of talent at its command, be it power batting or fast and spin bowling. The same cannot be said of Australia, who are seemingly more unidimensional now because of a preponderance of quick bowlers but no quality spinners.

And yet Australia and South Africa are probably the opponents that the defending champion must fear most. Do the Aussies have the batting prowess to boast of a couple of stroke options for each ball bowled at them as the Indians seem to have and which the South Africa seemed to have picked up on, especially in the IPL experience.

A quality spinner like Harbhajan Singh is likely to produce the goods in any conditions. But whether the non-regulars who have performed in the past like Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh or even Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma after their IPL success do it when the conditions only allow the ball to slide and not spin is to be seen.

In the ’07 edition, medium slow bowling and spin were effective on South African pitches and conditions. England may be different unless the summer is hot so early on as to allow the surfaces to grip the spinning ball. South Africa, which has two good spinners in the T-20 format now, will also be hoping that their variety in attack will give them the edge they are seeking.

Dhoni was emphatic about spin on the day that Vettori picked up wickets for New Zealand. Dan is one of the few high quality spinners in world cricket and so it is difficult to draw conclusions solely from his success on that day at Lord’s. The Indian skipper’s strategy will obviously spin around his slow bowling options, which are many.

What should give the champions greater hope is the long batting lineup that packs a wallop right down to Yusuf Pathan in the late middle order. The openers may have seemed jaded during IPL but the World T-20 should prove inspiring enough for Sehwag and Gambhir to regain form.

For Team India to emerge victorious, their batsmen must rock for when they do the team’s cricket tends to pick up in all departments. More than spin to win, it might be a clear case of strike with the willow to win. The big guns do pack a mighty wallop and let’s look forward to their success.

Monday, September 14, 2009

The future of global warming policy

Source: The New York Times | By John M. Broder

The Obama administration’s senior negotiator on global warming warned Thursday that developed and developing nations remained deeply divided in talks on reducing greenhouse gases and that time was running out before United Nations treaty negotiations in December.

The negotiator, Todd Stern, the State Department special envoy on the issue, told a Congressional panel that it was critical that Congress act on proposed energy and global warming legislation to demonstrate the nation’s willingness to play its part in reducing harmful emissions.

“Let me say bluntly that the tenor of negotiations in the formal U.N. track has been difficult,” Mr. Stern told the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming. “Developed countries tend to see an unforgiving problem with potentially grave and irreversible consequences and that cannot be solved without the full participation of developing countries, particularly China and the other emerging market economies.”

Mr. Stern said China, India, Brazil and other rapidly industrializing countries were taking significant unilateral steps to slow the growth of emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to the warming of the planet. He said their efforts in some cases outstripped those of the United States and some other advanced economies.

He said the United States could also pose a major hurdle to the global talks to produce a treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 accord that expires in 2012. While the House approved a fairly aggressive climate and energy bill in June, action in the Senate this fall is uncertain at best.

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

If... when... maybe...

A WTF news story from recent times: Nandan Nilekani says the Unique Identification Number is not mandatory.

On the face of it, this seems contrary to what was originally announced — a UID number for every citizen.

The Unique Identity (UID) project seeks to assign a UID number to each individual in the country that would remain a permanent identifier right from birth to death of the individual.

The UID would obviate the need for a person to produce multiple documentary proofs of his identity for availing of any government service, or private services like opening of a bank account.

Closer examination reveals considerable ambiguity. For instance, this is what Montek Singh Ahluwalia actually says:

“By 2011, we should be able to develop a system through which anyone wanting a unique identity number could get it. This will help authorities in easily identifying the citizens of the country,” Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said…

Nandan’s vision, as articulated in interviews like this one, is however inclusive:

Mr Nilekani, let me start with a simple question. It is said that 80 per cent of Indians have Election Commission identity cards, others have ration cards, some people have BPL cards, others have driving licence and passports, and there are even PAN cards. Why on top of this do we need a unique identification number?

Nandan Nilekani: We need one single, non-duplicate way of identifying a person and we need a mechanism by which we can authenticate that online anywhere because that can have huge benefits and impact on public services and also on making the poor more inclusive in what is happening in India today.

Karan Thapar: When you say one online way of identifying a person, am I right in assuming what makes the unique identification different to anything else is that in addition to name, age, sex, date of birth and address, you actually have the individuals biometrics which are unique to that individual?

Nandan Nilekani: Absolutely. It is a combination of most probably fingerprints and picture and a biometrics committee will finalise that but finally that makes it unique. And we will also make sure that there are no duplicates. That’s another important decision.

Curiosity prompted me to mail the man in the middle of the muddle, with one simple question: The Yahoo story suggests the UID number is not mandatory — is that correct? Nandan’s response:

It is correct. Cannot make it mandatory as that would exclude people who dont have it, from getting services. Can be made mandatory once it is ubiqutious.

I suspect that behind the ambiguity of that response lies the technocrat’s dilemma. He is used to a more structured system, where an idea is thought through in its entirety, from concept to implementation; the execution systems are put in place, and so on. As opposed to that, he now finds himself in government — where a grandiose vision is articulated without the nuts and bolts having been thought through, and the person responsible for implementation is then thrown into the deep end and forced to work things out, a process that within our bureaucracy is akin to doing the backstroke through molasses.

Nandan likely needs to work out, first, where his office will be and what resources he has before he can even begin planning the project and its implementation. Universal UID numbers by 2011? Don’t count on it.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Trends Update -- IP Constituencies: Rotman Article Explores Canadian Biotech Collaborations with Developing Countries

A very interesting article in Nature Biotechnology from a group at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health provides some empirical support for a trend we’ve been following of increased innovative activity in developing countries. 

Over 25% of Canadian biotechs collaborate with developing countries.  It should be noted, though, that the vast majority of those do so alongside collaborations with other developed country partners — only 4% collaborate exclusively with developing countries.  Also, gaining access to developing countries’ markets is the most frequent (66%) reason cited for collaboration.

Still, some of the data reflects the growing importance of developing country collaboration (China and India in particular):

  • Canadian firms’ collaboration with India (17) and China (22) nearly equal the number of collaborations with Japan (18) and Germany (23); and
  • Accessing knowledge from developing countries’ partners (24%) is approaching providing knowledge to developing countries’ partners (37%) as a reason for collaboration.

How do these collaborations look overall?

The figure from the paper on the left shows the geography of, and rationale for, the collaborations. Part “a” shows marketing and distribution collaborations, and part “b” shows those involving an R&D component.

 

What is the effect of all this activity?

The authors review revenue data from public company respondents and find that:

“average total revenues of firms that have North–South collaborations are nearly four times higher than firms that do not have such partnerships.” 

My bottom line: causal or not, that’s a correlation that should cause all biotech companies to take note.

[Via http://crossborderbiotech.ca]

Tips on How to Select the Best Business School for You

Each year lakhs of you students decide to do your MBA or a Course in Management. Some of you are happy with the course, as it fulfills your expectations, while some of you are sorely disappointed. Why? Probably because you did not think carefully about why you were doing the management course for, or they joined the B School because your friends were heading there.

Today, Management Course takes up a lot of valuable time and finance, it is therefore important to plan for your course carefully.

If you are one of those who are planning on a doing an MBA or on joining a Business School , view these fantastic Power Point Presentations on Choosing the Right Business School for You, so that you make the right choice.

Scribd- Choosing the Right Business School for You

SlideShare – Choosing the Right Business School for You

If you like the Presentations, don’t forget to drop in a comment or contact us with queries.

[Via http://eduworldinfo.wordpress.com]

Saturday, September 12, 2009

WHEN BLOGGING IS SHOT DEAD....

Why do famous bloggers stop blogging?

1. Is it because they forget their username/password and get locked out of their blog?

2. Is it because they start new websites and write for the development of that site?

3. Do they lose their tongues because some greedy female fan bit off their tongue (a species of Ardentophilus linguophagicus)? Aside– do ‘they’ have a tongue or several tongues?

4. Do they get elected President?

5. Do they rub shoulders in fashion events with scantily clad nymphs who look like Asian Paints representatives? 

6. Do they lose their sense of humor and start writing columns for other websites?

In case you guessed it, here is a holiday for two to Alaska from me– here is a priceless depiction of the erstwhile blogger Rambodoc (now occasionally seen, like a horse in pajamas, in social media like Twitter or Facebook) on the ramp. The pictures of sundry Asian Paints representatives rubbing their ample assets on his strong arms have been deleted by the Indian Government. 

Oh, and about the Alaska trip? Just buy the tickets. I will buy you a bear beer.

[Via http://rambodoc.wordpress.com]

India's FDI Inflows Surge in July :)

The government has revealed that despite a global financial crisis, the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) to India during the month of July 2009 has been registered at $3.52 billion, impressive 56.5% higher than the $2.25 billion registered last year.

However, the inflows in July have been against $2.58 billion during the month of June 2009 and $2.10 billion received during the month of May 2009.

Moreover, it is said that this raise is an optimistic one if the present fiscal situation of India and world is taken into consideration.



In addition, it is said that a non-profit company will be encouraging FDI into India and this will act in association with the central and state governments as well as the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

On the other hand, the distinctive feature is the partnership between a private sector organization, the Government of India and state governments is unlike anywhere else in the world.

However, in order to attract more foreign investments, Indian government on Thursday announced formation of a not-for-profit company ‘Invest India’.



[Via http://smcinvestment.wordpress.com]

Friday, September 11, 2009

Nobel Laureate in Literature 1913

Albert Einstein and Rabindranath Tagore (India, 1861-1941)



My Song

This song of mine will wind its music around you,

my child, like the fond arms of love.

The song of mine will touch your forehead

like a kiss of blessing.

When you are alone it will sit by your side and

whisper in your ear, when you are in the crowd

it will fence you about with aloofness.

My song will be like a pair of wings to your dreams,

it will transport your heart to the verge of the unknown.

It will be like the faithful star overhead

when dark night is over your road.

My song will sit in the pupils of your eyes,

and will carry your sight into the heart of things.

And when my voice is silenced in death,

my song will speak in your living heart.

[Via http://thedragonheart.wordpress.com]

Travel to Chamba of Uttarakhand as Hill Station of North India

Chamba is known as the hill station of North India. It is situated in Tehri Garhwal District of Uttarakhand, India. It is a nagar panchayat. You can say it a small town also. It is situated on the cross road of Mussoorie, Rishikesh, Tehri and New Tehri. It is on the mid-way of Chamba-Dhanaulti road. Most of the tourist places are near about it – Dhanaulti, Surkanda Devi Temple and New Tehri. A tourist can reach here very easily from each part of Tehri and the Char Dham. Chamba is known as the ideal place to spend holiday also. So, it is one of the best holiday places of North India also. You can view very beautiful sunset here from several peaks such as Banderpunch and Bhagirathi.

Historically it is known as the part of Tehri Riyasat. It was called as Chamba or Chamua. Chamba town is mix up of Garhwali and north Indian culture. Chamba is known as the host location for Gangotri and Yamunotri for tourists. Its environmental beauty is just like heaven.

The most attractive place for tourist of Chamba is the town, Gabbar Singh Negi Memorial and Shri Bageshwar Mahadev Mandir. Chamba town is known as the main location of North India for any tourist. GMVN Tourist Guest House is the most famous of Chamba town to spend some times for tourists. The market is also situated on the hill.

Another place is Gabbar Singh Negi Memorial hall which has great importance, historically. Gabbar Singh was a brave solder of Garhwal Rifles. Gabbar Singh Negi Memorial hall was established in 1925 in Chamba. It is the best location for tourists in Chamba.

Shri Bageshwar Mahadev Mandir is also the most famous temple of Chamba. It is dedicated to the lord Shiva. The temple is very beautiful which attracts lots of tourists.

You can reach very easily to Chamba from roads, air or train. It is well connected with the most famous tourist places – Mussoorie, Rishikesh, Tehri and New Tehri. You can enjoy here as holiday traveling or hill station traveling. Chamba is known as the most beautiful hill station of North India also.

[Via http://indiatraveling.wordpress.com]