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

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.

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.

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."

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

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.

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.