BBCNEWS.COM, Wednesday, 29 November 2006
A three-year-old boy has been eaten alive by a neighbour's herd of pigs on the outskirts of the Indian capital, Delhi, police say.
The boy, Ajay, strayed from the family home as his parents and other family members were having lunch.
When his mother went to look for him, she found the pigs chewing something and spotted bits of her son's clothing.
She threw stones at the animals but they turned on her. Her screams alerted neighbours who came to her rescue.
'Playing'
Relatives in the village of Samaipur Badli in north-west Delhi told police the boy had been carrying bread, which might have led the animals to attack him.
A senior police official, Manish Aggarwal, said a local man who owned the pigs had been detained for causing death due to negligence.
"Three children were playing outside their house when the incident took place," Mr Aggarwal told the BBC.
"The victim, Ajay, strayed from the area but his parents or relatives were not there to save him since they were having lunch inside their house."
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
India : A rape in every 28 Minutes
CHANDREYEE CHATTERJEE, The Telegraph , Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Calcutta, Nov. 27: Incidents of violence against women are on the rise in India, with one act of sexual harassment being reported every 12 minutes, one rape every 28 minutes and one dowry death every 67 minutes. And these are just the tip of the iceberg, as most cases go unreported.
“In a situation such as this, we feel it’s time to actively involve men in the struggle to stop violence against women,” said Anuradha Kapoor, director, Swayam, a non-profit women’s organisation committed to ending violence against women and children.
Swayam is organising a campaign in Calcutta to stop violence against women, in association with DRIK India, an alternative media organisation, and International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT), an international forum for personal contact and professional development among women broadcasters.
The campaign is part of an international initiative originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute, sponsored by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. It kicked off on November 25 with a mass awareness programme, including an exhibition of posters and performances by the theatre and music groups of Swayam.
The campaign ends on December 10, marking International Human Rights Day. “This period has a special significance. It coincides with the International Day against Violence against Women, World AIDS Day and World Disability Day,” said Kapoor.
Swayam’s campaign will feature workshops by artists and rights activists, photography exhibitions, panel discussions and film shows.
Filmmaker Goutam Ghosh, actor Rahul Bose and others will speak on issues like violence against women and the need to involve men in the attempt to eradicate the menace.
Calcutta, Nov. 27: Incidents of violence against women are on the rise in India, with one act of sexual harassment being reported every 12 minutes, one rape every 28 minutes and one dowry death every 67 minutes. And these are just the tip of the iceberg, as most cases go unreported.
“In a situation such as this, we feel it’s time to actively involve men in the struggle to stop violence against women,” said Anuradha Kapoor, director, Swayam, a non-profit women’s organisation committed to ending violence against women and children.
Swayam is organising a campaign in Calcutta to stop violence against women, in association with DRIK India, an alternative media organisation, and International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT), an international forum for personal contact and professional development among women broadcasters.
The campaign is part of an international initiative originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute, sponsored by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. It kicked off on November 25 with a mass awareness programme, including an exhibition of posters and performances by the theatre and music groups of Swayam.
The campaign ends on December 10, marking International Human Rights Day. “This period has a special significance. It coincides with the International Day against Violence against Women, World AIDS Day and World Disability Day,” said Kapoor.
Swayam’s campaign will feature workshops by artists and rights activists, photography exhibitions, panel discussions and film shows.
Filmmaker Goutam Ghosh, actor Rahul Bose and others will speak on issues like violence against women and the need to involve men in the attempt to eradicate the menace.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Monkey business in Delhi
by von Jo Johnson in New Delhi
The man-monkey conflict is intensifying in India, but Hindu faith rules out gorilla warfare. Environmentalists say the problem is not the rising number of monkeys but the increase in the urban population.
Softly softly catchee monkey" is all very well, but for Delhi finding a home for hundreds of Rhesus macaques that have been rounded up in snatch raids across the Indian capital is proving a real difficulty.
Overcrowding at a special monkey prison at Rajokari on the outskirts of the city is causing headaches for the authorities, which are under pressure to comply with a 2004 Supreme Court order requiring the city to be monkey-free.
The state of Madhya Pradesh this week filed an objection to a court order requiring it to take a shipment of 300 Delhi monkeys, arguing that they would run amok in villages and spread diseases among humans. An earlier batch of 250 Delhi monkeys released in the forest of Palpur Kuno near Gwalior had been "creating problems" for locals and had upset the ecological balance of their new habitat by eating birds' eggs, the state government said.
Last month Himachal Pradesh turned down monkey shipments and four other states may follow suit, which might force Delhi to use its meagre resources for infrastructure development in the form of building more monkey prisons.
Man-monkey conflict is intensifying, with an estimated 100 people a day being bitten across the country. Extermination drives are not a serious option because of the popularity among many Hindus of Hanuman, a deity with simian features.
Since India banned the export of monkeys for medical experimentation in 1978, its Rhesus macaque population has soared from 200,000 to over 500,000 in 1999, with more than half of them living in human habitations.
Environmentalists say the problem is not the rising number of monkeys but the increase in the urban population and its encroachment on forest land. Delhi's human population increased by 50 per cent to 13.8m between 1991 and 2001.
"There is an increase in man-monkey conflicts and in the absence of a management plan of both forests and commensal monkeys, the problem of man-monkey conflict is only going to increase," says Dr Ikbal Malik, a primatologist.
"Building more monkey prisons would not be the answer at all. The construction of the cage was one of many many things that the government has done wrong. We need monkey sanctuaries across the country."
Most government offices in Delhi have opted for a direct approach. Although keeping leashed monkeys is illegal, many have chained langurs, an aggressive species of monkey that is used to scare away the Rhesus.
[Deutch Finacial Times]
The man-monkey conflict is intensifying in India, but Hindu faith rules out gorilla warfare. Environmentalists say the problem is not the rising number of monkeys but the increase in the urban population.
Softly softly catchee monkey" is all very well, but for Delhi finding a home for hundreds of Rhesus macaques that have been rounded up in snatch raids across the Indian capital is proving a real difficulty.
Overcrowding at a special monkey prison at Rajokari on the outskirts of the city is causing headaches for the authorities, which are under pressure to comply with a 2004 Supreme Court order requiring the city to be monkey-free.
The state of Madhya Pradesh this week filed an objection to a court order requiring it to take a shipment of 300 Delhi monkeys, arguing that they would run amok in villages and spread diseases among humans. An earlier batch of 250 Delhi monkeys released in the forest of Palpur Kuno near Gwalior had been "creating problems" for locals and had upset the ecological balance of their new habitat by eating birds' eggs, the state government said.
Last month Himachal Pradesh turned down monkey shipments and four other states may follow suit, which might force Delhi to use its meagre resources for infrastructure development in the form of building more monkey prisons.
Man-monkey conflict is intensifying, with an estimated 100 people a day being bitten across the country. Extermination drives are not a serious option because of the popularity among many Hindus of Hanuman, a deity with simian features.
Since India banned the export of monkeys for medical experimentation in 1978, its Rhesus macaque population has soared from 200,000 to over 500,000 in 1999, with more than half of them living in human habitations.
Environmentalists say the problem is not the rising number of monkeys but the increase in the urban population and its encroachment on forest land. Delhi's human population increased by 50 per cent to 13.8m between 1991 and 2001.
"There is an increase in man-monkey conflicts and in the absence of a management plan of both forests and commensal monkeys, the problem of man-monkey conflict is only going to increase," says Dr Ikbal Malik, a primatologist.
"Building more monkey prisons would not be the answer at all. The construction of the cage was one of many many things that the government has done wrong. We need monkey sanctuaries across the country."
Most government offices in Delhi have opted for a direct approach. Although keeping leashed monkeys is illegal, many have chained langurs, an aggressive species of monkey that is used to scare away the Rhesus.
[Deutch Finacial Times]
Thursday, November 23, 2006
India downs five, 148th in football rankings
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, November 22, 2006
India slipped five places to be 148th while Brazil continues to top the list in the latest FIFA world football rankings released on Thursday.
India, which was 143rd in last month's list, dropped 24 points to slip down the list following its 1-2 defeat to Yemen in Sanaa´ on November 15.
India has 112 points. The country is, by comparison, even below the tiny island nation Mauritius, which is 139th with 151 points.
Maldives, another small island, also is much better placed than India, a country of more than 100 billion people. Maldives is 146th with 115 points.
Brazil tops the list with 1,588 points - an increase of 28 points in the last month - while World Cup winners Italy, which has maintained its second position, has 1,560 - an increase of 20 points.
Former World Cup champions France has moved one place up, to third, and now has 1,551 points.
View the full report from here The official FIFA world Cup Rankings
New Delhi, November 22, 2006
India slipped five places to be 148th while Brazil continues to top the list in the latest FIFA world football rankings released on Thursday.
India, which was 143rd in last month's list, dropped 24 points to slip down the list following its 1-2 defeat to Yemen in Sanaa´ on November 15.
India has 112 points. The country is, by comparison, even below the tiny island nation Mauritius, which is 139th with 151 points.
Maldives, another small island, also is much better placed than India, a country of more than 100 billion people. Maldives is 146th with 115 points.
Brazil tops the list with 1,588 points - an increase of 28 points in the last month - while World Cup winners Italy, which has maintained its second position, has 1,560 - an increase of 20 points.
Former World Cup champions France has moved one place up, to third, and now has 1,551 points.
View the full report from here The official FIFA world Cup Rankings
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Bengal Hindu priests start fire to cure ozone
DNAINDIA.COM November 17, 2006
Stop this madness, shout green campaigners
Bappa Majumdar
Hindu priests in West Bengal began burning wood and herbs in over a thousand deep pits on Friday in a ceremony they said will heal the ozone layer and cure disease, drawing anger from green campaigners.
Billowing smoke from 1,008 fires, which will blaze for three days, will wipe out parasites which cause outbreaks of dengue fever and malaria, local religious leaders said, and help boost the earth’s natural defences.
But environmentalists warned the thick blanket of smoke generated would only pose a serious health hazard and dismissed the beliefs as foolish.
“The smoke will cause a deep haze and the ozone layer will only weaken with such foolish acts,” Subhas Dutta, an activist warned. “Someone must stop this madness before it is too late.”
The Gayatri Janakalyan Kendra, a group which believes in the benefits of ancient Hindu philosophy, began kindling the fires in densely populated Howrah, about 10 km north of Kolkata, witnesses said.
Hundreds of priests were supervising the fire ceremony, chanting ancient Hindu verses to invoke gods, as thousands of people, including women clad in yellow robes, looked on.
“Three days after the sacred fire rages, smoke from burnt wood and herbal medicines will strengthen the ozone layer and cure diseases,” Pashupati Nath Misra, Gayatri’s secretary said. The fires cleanse the atmosphere of evil, he said. The ozone layer shields the earth from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays and US scientists reported in October that this year's hole over Antarctica was bigger and deeper than any on record.
Stop this madness, shout green campaigners
Bappa Majumdar
Hindu priests in West Bengal began burning wood and herbs in over a thousand deep pits on Friday in a ceremony they said will heal the ozone layer and cure disease, drawing anger from green campaigners.
Billowing smoke from 1,008 fires, which will blaze for three days, will wipe out parasites which cause outbreaks of dengue fever and malaria, local religious leaders said, and help boost the earth’s natural defences.
But environmentalists warned the thick blanket of smoke generated would only pose a serious health hazard and dismissed the beliefs as foolish.
“The smoke will cause a deep haze and the ozone layer will only weaken with such foolish acts,” Subhas Dutta, an activist warned. “Someone must stop this madness before it is too late.”
The Gayatri Janakalyan Kendra, a group which believes in the benefits of ancient Hindu philosophy, began kindling the fires in densely populated Howrah, about 10 km north of Kolkata, witnesses said.
Hundreds of priests were supervising the fire ceremony, chanting ancient Hindu verses to invoke gods, as thousands of people, including women clad in yellow robes, looked on.
“Three days after the sacred fire rages, smoke from burnt wood and herbal medicines will strengthen the ozone layer and cure diseases,” Pashupati Nath Misra, Gayatri’s secretary said. The fires cleanse the atmosphere of evil, he said. The ozone layer shields the earth from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays and US scientists reported in October that this year's hole over Antarctica was bigger and deeper than any on record.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Thousands worship Indian infant
15 November 2006
KOLKATA: Thousands of people are flocking an Indian village to worship a baby girl born with rare tumours as they believe she is a reincarnation of Durga, the multi-armed Hindu mother goddess, police said.
The tumours on the infant, born in a village in the eastern state of Bihar a few weeks ago, looked like extra limbs, drawing locals from around the region with gifts of fruits and flowers, they said.
"People believe the girl is their deliverer, but experts say it is a case of congenital defect," said Amit Jain, a senior Bihar police officer.
Durga is worshipped by millions of Hindus.
Scoop, New Zealand
KOLKATA: Thousands of people are flocking an Indian village to worship a baby girl born with rare tumours as they believe she is a reincarnation of Durga, the multi-armed Hindu mother goddess, police said.
The tumours on the infant, born in a village in the eastern state of Bihar a few weeks ago, looked like extra limbs, drawing locals from around the region with gifts of fruits and flowers, they said.
"People believe the girl is their deliverer, but experts say it is a case of congenital defect," said Amit Jain, a senior Bihar police officer.
Durga is worshipped by millions of Hindus.
Scoop, New Zealand
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
NRI remittance to India was $20 billion from Arabian Gulf Countries
- India recieved $23 billion remittance during 2005-06 from NRIS
- Non Gulf NRIs contributed only $ 3 billion
- A whopping amount of $ 20 billion was from Arabian Gulf
- Kerala recieved the huge portion
- FDIS from GCC exceeded $ 2 billion this year
- India calls for more Arab investment
New Delhi, Nov 13 (IANS) India Monday reiterated its solidarity with the Arab world, home to over a four million strong Indian diaspora, and called for converting longstanding historical and civilizational ties into a vibrant economic partnership.
'We should use attitudinal ties between people to enhance trade linkages between India and the Arab world. Oil-exporting countries of the Arab world, in particular, should increase investment in India,' Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said in his inaugural address at an international conference at the Vigyan Bhavan convention centre on promoting India-Arab economic relations.
The two-day conference, which is being attended by ministers, diplomats, academics, business and opinion leaders from India and Arab countries, has been organised by the Indo-Arab Economic Cooperation Forum and the Institute of Objective Studies.
Underlining India's centuries old multi-faceted ties with the Arab world, Chidambaram spoke about geographical proximity, long-standing cultural and trading ties and 'unbroken relation of cordiality' between the two sides.
He, however, rued that the foreign investment from Arab countries in India are much below potential. Even rich Arab countries are not investing in India enough, he said.
To further accelerate bilateral trade and investment, the minister said that India will be signing bilateral investment protection agreement with more Arab countries and discussions are already going on for negotiating a free trade area (FTA) between the two sides.
Calling Indian workers in the Gulf countries 'an investment of human capital in the Arab world,' Chidambaram said remittances from Indians working in these countries worked out to a whopping $20 billion. In the first quarter of this year alone, remittances have exceeded $6 billion, he said.
Bilateral trade between India and the Arab world has been growing steadily and will scale new heights in the future, he said. FDI from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has exceeded $2 billion this year.
Besides the continuing cooperation in energy sector, the Arab countries supply nearly 30 per cent of India's crude oil needs, IT, infrastructure, biotechnology, nanotechnolgy, and financial services are key future areas of bilateral cooperation between India and the Arab world.
Anwar Ibrahim, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, lauded the rise of India on the global stage and praised the strong fundamentals of India's economy as exhibited in its high economic growth and its increasing attractiveness as a hub of investment for the world.
Alluding to Indian Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen's concept of 'development is freedom,' Ibrahim, who was the guest speaker, said that the Arab countries should take a 'closer look' at India and called for balancing economic growth with a more humane social order.
'In India and the Arab world, we have to maximise the opportunities that globalisation is creating to ensure that there is inclusive and all-round growth in our regions,' said Mohammad Manzoor Alam, president of Indo-Aran Economic Cooperation Forum.
India received the highest inbound remittance estimated at $23 billion in 2005-06, while China received $21 billion. In 2004-05, China received $20 billion and India received $18 billion.
Interestingly, India received the highest inbound remittances with only 22 million non-resident Indians, while there are about 40 million Chinese residing outside China. Western Union managing director (South Asia) Anil Kapur said this was primarily due to the social and family structure in India.
Interestingly, India received the highest inbound remittances with only 22 million non-resident Indians, while there are about 40 million Chinese residing outside China. Kapur said this was primarily due to the social and family structure in India.
“The number of Indians going abroad is increasing every year and the money coming into the country in the form of remittances is also swelling,” MoneyGram International country manager Harsh Lambah said, adding the industry is all set to witness further growth. As per an estimate, about half a million Indians migrate annually.
Kapur also said this industry needs to be more organised as it would directly add to the foreign exchange kitty. Remittances are high in all the southern states, apart from a few in the north like Punjab.
Monday, November 13, 2006
HRW Report blames UAE
Monday, 13 November 2006
Human Rights Watch recommendations
* Establish a commission to investigate and publicly report on the situation of migrant workers.
* Prohibit companies from doing business with recruitment agencies in the UAE and abroad, that charge workers fees for travel, visas, employment contracts. Prosecute and penalise employers and recruiting agencies that violate the law.
* Aggressively investigate and prosecute employers who violate the labour law.
* Provide quantitative and qualitative data on labour disputes, deaths and injuries at constructions sites and government actions to address these issues.
* Increase the number of inspectors. Ensure that they are carrying out their duties.
* Inform and educate foreign construction workers of their rights.
* Abide by the obligation to implement a minimum wage.
* Allow establishment of genuine and independent human rights and workers rights organisations.
* Ratify International Labour Organisation conventions on freedom of association and collective bargaining.
* Ratify ILO convention on occupational safety and health.
* Ratify ILO convention on protection of rights of migrant workers and members of their kin.
Unskilled workers to be limited to six-year stay in UAE
A draft of the modified labour law includes an article that stipulates a maximum six-year stay for unskilled workers, according to an UAE official.
"The six-year maximum stay for expatriates in the GCC countries was shelved at GCC level but the UAE will go ahead with it, having an article in the new Labour Law to this effect," the official told Gulf News yesterday at the sidelines of the GCC undersecretaries meeting in Abu Dhabi.
Under the rule, unskilled foreign workers and domestic help will be allowed a maximum stay of six years in the country. It will be applicable to a total of two million unskilled workers.
"The UAE received an official document from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) recognising the change of the workers' position from being immigrants to temporary contractual workers.
"This will allow the country to proceed with rules making the maximum stay of workers six years - an initial stay of three years to be renewed only once for a similar period," the official said.
The source explained that workers who complete six years in the country will have to leave but may return after two years on the same conditions.
Dr Ali Bin Abdullah Al Ka'abi, Minister of Labour, told Gulf News yesterday that a draft of the modified law had been finalised. Other amendments to the law include increasing maternity leave from 45 days to 60 days and an article authorising the Labour Minister to approve the setting up of trade unions. Also included is reducing the unpaid Haj (pilgrimage) leave from one month to three weeks and authorisation for introducing a two-day weekend for private sector workers.
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Indians want to go to US and England : VS Naipaul
Indo-Asian News Service
Brussels, November 8, 2006
Nobel laureate VS Naipaul believes that India is heading for a cultural clash between the city-dwellers and the village population.
People in cities are turning their backs to Indian civilisation. They want green cards. They want to migrate. They want to go to England. They want to go to the US, Naipaul told media persons at the Centre For Fine Arts, Bozar, here.
"There is a fracture at this moment of great hope for India. A fracture in the country itself. It is possibly quite dangerous at the moment," and added that the consequences "could be a very radical kind of revolution - village against city".
However, at the same time, Naipaul said that India "is a very dynamic, moving culture."
Naipaul aired similar views during the reading and interview session for the general public as part of the ongoing India Festival at the Bozar Saturday evening.
During the press meeting, Naipaul held forth on various issues, reports INEP agency.
"There is no tradition of reading in India. There is no tradition of contemporary literature," he claimed. It was only in Bengal that there was a kind of renaissance and a literary culture, he said and added: "But in the rest of India until quite recently people had no idea what books were for."
Reading in India, he claimed, was limited to books on wise sayings.
According to him,
"Indians have no regard for museums"
He recalled that Rabindranath Tagore's house and university has been pillaged.
"They stole even his Nobel medal", he said.
"The idea of a museum is a Western idea. It's not an Indian idea. The idea is that these things are old, they are finished."
Naipaul asserted that at the end the British rule in India was "very good."
"They gave a lot back to India. All the institutions that now work in India were given by the British. So the British period was not that bad."
He dismissed Mahatma Gandhi's book "Indian home rule" published in 1909 as an "absurdity." He said:
"Its an absurdity. He knows nothing. He said he wrote it in two weeks. He is against everything that is modern in 1909."
Denouncing multiculturalism as a bad, destructive idea, he said: "Multiculturalism is a very much left-wing idea that gained currency about 20 years ago. It's very destructive about the people it is meant to defend."
He cited the example of Britain where he said there was a large immigrant population, "many of them bending the laws to be able to stay in England."
"They wish to do that but at the same time they don't wish to enter the culture. I think that is parasitic and awful."
He defended the caste system in India, arguing that "caste is a great internal series of friendly societies and in bad times it kept the country going. But people don't understand this. It has to be rethought and a new way of looking at it.
"In India it is having trouble at the moment because it rules politics. Foolish people think that the upper castes are oppressing the lower caste. It is the other way," he said noting that lower castes have reserved seats in education and employment.
Asked if he felt like a European, he replied: "No, not at all. One doesn't have to be one thing or the other. One can be many things at the same time."
Could he live in India?
Naipaul paused for a moment, but his wife Nadira replied:
"Yes, quite happily, if we didn't have a cat. Our cat is an English cat. It is hard for it to live in India, but we can."
Naipaul added: "If you would have asked me this question fifty years ago, I had to say 'out of the question' It would have been impossible. So things are moving and changing all the time."
Brussels, November 8, 2006
Nobel laureate VS Naipaul believes that India is heading for a cultural clash between the city-dwellers and the village population.
People in cities are turning their backs to Indian civilisation. They want green cards. They want to migrate. They want to go to England. They want to go to the US, Naipaul told media persons at the Centre For Fine Arts, Bozar, here.
"There is a fracture at this moment of great hope for India. A fracture in the country itself. It is possibly quite dangerous at the moment," and added that the consequences "could be a very radical kind of revolution - village against city".
However, at the same time, Naipaul said that India "is a very dynamic, moving culture."
Naipaul aired similar views during the reading and interview session for the general public as part of the ongoing India Festival at the Bozar Saturday evening.
During the press meeting, Naipaul held forth on various issues, reports INEP agency.
"There is no tradition of reading in India. There is no tradition of contemporary literature," he claimed. It was only in Bengal that there was a kind of renaissance and a literary culture, he said and added: "But in the rest of India until quite recently people had no idea what books were for."
Reading in India, he claimed, was limited to books on wise sayings.
According to him,
"Indians have no regard for museums"
He recalled that Rabindranath Tagore's house and university has been pillaged.
"They stole even his Nobel medal", he said.
"The idea of a museum is a Western idea. It's not an Indian idea. The idea is that these things are old, they are finished."
Naipaul asserted that at the end the British rule in India was "very good."
"They gave a lot back to India. All the institutions that now work in India were given by the British. So the British period was not that bad."
He dismissed Mahatma Gandhi's book "Indian home rule" published in 1909 as an "absurdity." He said:
"Its an absurdity. He knows nothing. He said he wrote it in two weeks. He is against everything that is modern in 1909."
Denouncing multiculturalism as a bad, destructive idea, he said: "Multiculturalism is a very much left-wing idea that gained currency about 20 years ago. It's very destructive about the people it is meant to defend."
He cited the example of Britain where he said there was a large immigrant population, "many of them bending the laws to be able to stay in England."
"They wish to do that but at the same time they don't wish to enter the culture. I think that is parasitic and awful."
He defended the caste system in India, arguing that "caste is a great internal series of friendly societies and in bad times it kept the country going. But people don't understand this. It has to be rethought and a new way of looking at it.
"In India it is having trouble at the moment because it rules politics. Foolish people think that the upper castes are oppressing the lower caste. It is the other way," he said noting that lower castes have reserved seats in education and employment.
Asked if he felt like a European, he replied: "No, not at all. One doesn't have to be one thing or the other. One can be many things at the same time."
Could he live in India?
Naipaul paused for a moment, but his wife Nadira replied:
"Yes, quite happily, if we didn't have a cat. Our cat is an English cat. It is hard for it to live in India, but we can."
Naipaul added: "If you would have asked me this question fifty years ago, I had to say 'out of the question' It would have been impossible. So things are moving and changing all the time."
Why should you move your business out of India?
Tuesday, 07 November 2006
A recently publised World Bank report on Business Friendliness data from 175 countries around the globe honour India as:
* The world's most extensive tax administration system.
* India's taxation law contains 9,000 pages to protect the corrupted life style of caste clad civil servants.
The report says that an Indian medium-size company should pay a total tax rate of 81.1% on profit and will eat 264 hours of administrative burden and cause 59 steps for submission.
Even though such a high rated tax system is in place, the tax revenue receipts have remained below 10 per cent of GDP of Indian economy due to corruption of the civil service regime.
Enforcing commercial contracts in India is not an easy job. It can take 56 procedures and 1420 days and will cover only up to 35.7% of the debt!
The time to resolve bankruptcies in India take 10 years. Import and export procedures in India is a very hard process due to the restrictions of security regime. This part is rated at 139.
In India,the number of steps entrepreneurs can expect to go through to launch of a new business is 11 and it takes on average 35 days, and the cost required as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita is 73.7%.
Dealing with licences in India take 270 days and the number of procedures counted as 20. It requires an amount closer to of 606 % GNI (Income Per Captia).
The World Bank's Doing Business Project assesses how many obstacles the tax system puts in the way of a business in every one of 175 nations on earth. The aim is to encourage faster administration, leading to more profitable business activities and hence economic growth. Reduced paperwork and lower taxes are the hallmark of wealthier nations, the World Bank notes. The bureaucrats of India are in love with tax rules.
Over all, India is ranked with a low rating of 134.
Corrupt practices are most likely to be found in the highest taxing nations, as entrepreneurs find themselves forced to bribe officials in order to cut through red tape or just to operate outside of the official economy altogether.
Middle Eastern states such as the United Arab Emirates and Asian locations like Hong Kong come in the top five of easy tax locations. The place on earth with the most difficult tax regime is the former Soviet republic of Belarus.
Report on India
Saturday, November 4, 2006
Indo-Canadian Sikh activist appointed citizenship judge
3 Nov, 2006 IANS
TORONTO: An Indo-Canadian has been appointed as a citizenship judge by the Canadian government.
Raminder Singh Gill, a politician and former member of Ontario's provincial parliament, is among the four citizenship judges appointed by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Monte Solberg, according to a press release.
There are 15 citizenship judges across Canada who process about 150,000 applications for citizenship each year. Gill is the only Indo-Canadian among them and the first in Ontario.
Gill is an active member of the University of Toronto chemical engineering faculty advisory board and works as an international consultant.
Born in Punjab, Gill was educated at the University of Toronto and holds a master's degree in engineering. As a chemical engineer, he has held top positions in several multinational pharmaceutical companies.
Gill is also an active spokesperson and volunteer for the Canadian Sikh community.
Thursday, November 2, 2006
FBI to investigate role of right wing hindu elements role in disrupting Sikh Muslim relations
By Rob Young, Marysville-Yuba City, California
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
The FBI is helping investigate a threat to destroy the Sikh temple on Tierra Buena Road, Sutter County Sheriff Jim Denney said Tuesday. Copies of the written threat were received in the mail by the sheriff, the Yuba City Police Department.
The threat came as the Sikh Temple prepares for its 27th annual festival and parade through Yuba City on Sunday, an event attended by thousands of Sikhs from around the state and country.
Ed Vasquez, spokesman for the San Jose-based Sikh Communication Council, said local Sikhs and Muslims have had a good working relationship. The council was founded after 9-11 in response to violence against Sikhs whose beards and turbans caused them to be mistaken for Muslims. Sikh leaders suspect the role of right wing hindutva elements behind the hoax letter. Most of the muslims in the area is of Pakistani origin, but do have a very cordial relation with Sikhs.
When an arson fire destroyed the Islamic Center's mosque in 1994, local Sikhs contributed money to help rebuild it, said Abdul Kabir Krambo, spokesman for the Yuba City Islamic Center. Relations between local Sikhs and Muslims are generally good, “depending on who you talk to,” said Krambo.
“Oh, great,” said ,Krambo about the letter. The center's mosque is near the Sikh Temple on Tierra Buena Road. Krambo called the threat “just awful. As if we didn't have enough problems already.”
“We hope this doesn't mean problems between Sikhs and Muslims,” he said.
Threats of violence are inconsistent with the “Sufi-oriented” Muslim religion practiced at the Yuba City mosque, he said.
Krambo said he would warn his Pakistani Muslim friends to be on the lookout for outsiders or “anyone talking crap.”
Bains, Krambo and law enforcement officials said they were unaware of any actual groups called the Muslim Union or Taliban Group or of a Taliban leader being sentenced in India.
Karen Ernst, FBI spokeswoman in Sacramento, said law enforcement agencies don't consider the threat credible but are not totally dismissing it. “We're going to be investigating if there are leads to be followed up on,” said Ernst. “The main thing is that people should feel like they can go about their business and participate without being too terribly worried.”
The letter, which purports to be from the “Muslim Union” and is signed by the “Taliban group,” also contains a threat to destroy the Golden Temple in India because “our leader in India punish by sikh ladi judge.”
The Golden Temple is the holiest Sikh site in India and Muslims and Sikhs enjoy cordial relationship. “We also know they have Sikh temple in Yuba City and they are going to be celebrate Sikh guru birthday the first day of November. We are going to destroy the sikh temple in Yuba City on that day,” the letter went on.
Didar Singh Bains, chairman of the annual Sikh event, said temple leaders were “kind of surprised” by the threat but aren't varying their plans, except for adding extra security.
Since Sept. 11, it's hard to tell which threats are credible, said Bains.
“We are alert,” he said. Denney, who met with temple leaders, said the threat is being taken seriously because it deals with international terrorism.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
The FBI is helping investigate a threat to destroy the Sikh temple on Tierra Buena Road, Sutter County Sheriff Jim Denney said Tuesday. Copies of the written threat were received in the mail by the sheriff, the Yuba City Police Department.
The threat came as the Sikh Temple prepares for its 27th annual festival and parade through Yuba City on Sunday, an event attended by thousands of Sikhs from around the state and country.
Ed Vasquez, spokesman for the San Jose-based Sikh Communication Council, said local Sikhs and Muslims have had a good working relationship. The council was founded after 9-11 in response to violence against Sikhs whose beards and turbans caused them to be mistaken for Muslims. Sikh leaders suspect the role of right wing hindutva elements behind the hoax letter. Most of the muslims in the area is of Pakistani origin, but do have a very cordial relation with Sikhs.
When an arson fire destroyed the Islamic Center's mosque in 1994, local Sikhs contributed money to help rebuild it, said Abdul Kabir Krambo, spokesman for the Yuba City Islamic Center. Relations between local Sikhs and Muslims are generally good, “depending on who you talk to,” said Krambo.
“Oh, great,” said ,Krambo about the letter. The center's mosque is near the Sikh Temple on Tierra Buena Road. Krambo called the threat “just awful. As if we didn't have enough problems already.”
“We hope this doesn't mean problems between Sikhs and Muslims,” he said.
Threats of violence are inconsistent with the “Sufi-oriented” Muslim religion practiced at the Yuba City mosque, he said.
Krambo said he would warn his Pakistani Muslim friends to be on the lookout for outsiders or “anyone talking crap.”
Bains, Krambo and law enforcement officials said they were unaware of any actual groups called the Muslim Union or Taliban Group or of a Taliban leader being sentenced in India.
Karen Ernst, FBI spokeswoman in Sacramento, said law enforcement agencies don't consider the threat credible but are not totally dismissing it. “We're going to be investigating if there are leads to be followed up on,” said Ernst. “The main thing is that people should feel like they can go about their business and participate without being too terribly worried.”
The letter, which purports to be from the “Muslim Union” and is signed by the “Taliban group,” also contains a threat to destroy the Golden Temple in India because “our leader in India punish by sikh ladi judge.”
The Golden Temple is the holiest Sikh site in India and Muslims and Sikhs enjoy cordial relationship. “We also know they have Sikh temple in Yuba City and they are going to be celebrate Sikh guru birthday the first day of November. We are going to destroy the sikh temple in Yuba City on that day,” the letter went on.
Didar Singh Bains, chairman of the annual Sikh event, said temple leaders were “kind of surprised” by the threat but aren't varying their plans, except for adding extra security.
Since Sept. 11, it's hard to tell which threats are credible, said Bains.
“We are alert,” he said. Denney, who met with temple leaders, said the threat is being taken seriously because it deals with international terrorism.
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