Youth session !

1 in 5 kids has mental illness

2011-10-17T23:03:00.000+05:30

Only 1 In 50 Gets Treatment In India While Ratio Is 1:3 In West:
Study
Kounteya Sinha TNN

New Delhi: One in 5 children in developing countries like India has a mental health problem. Globally, mental health problems affect 10–20% of children and adolescents. However, while 1 in 3 people with a mental health problem in wealthy nations receive treatment, in developing countries, it is as few as 1 in 50.
One of the main reasons for this is that there is an overall shortage of 2.39 lakh mental health workers (17.3 workers per one lakh population in lowincome countries and 14.9 per lakh population in middle-income countries). For young people, neuropsychiatric disorders are a leading cause of health-related burden, accounting for 15–30% of the disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost during the first three .......More

More Loneliness, Anxiety Experienced By Overweight Kids, MU Study Finds

2011-10-10T04:04:00.000+05:30

As childhood obesity rates continue to increase, experts agree that more information is needed about the implications of being overweight as a step toward reversing current trends. Now, a new University of Missouri study has found that overweight children, especially girls, show signs of the negative consequences of being overweight as early as kindergarten.
"We found that both boys and girls who were overweight from kindergarten through third grade displayed more depression, anxiety and loneliness than kids who were never overweight, and those negative feelings worsened over time," said Sara Gable, associate professor of human development and family studies in the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences. "Overweight is widely considered a stigmatizing condition and overweight individuals are typically blamed for their situation. The experience of being stigmatized often leads.......More

Schizophrenia And Bipolar Disorder Share Many Common Genetic Variants Says International Research Consortium

2011-07-19T00:47:00.000+05:30

A new study by a large international consortium found that many common genetic variants contribute up to a third of a person's risk of inheriting schizophrenia and many of the same DNA variations are also involved in bipolar disorder. While the study helps to explain the complexity of the genetic make up of these diseases it also suggests that developing a test to predict these diseases will take some time.

The study, which provides the first molecular evidence of this form of genetic variation in schizophrenia and shows a new way of thinking about the genetic origins of psychiatric diseases, was the work of the International Schizophrenia Consortium whose members are drawn from 26 different research centers in the US, Europe and Australia. The findings are published as an advance access paper on...... More

Three Indian children to attend J8 summit in Rome

2009-07-04T19:17:00.000+05:30

New Delhi, July 4 (ANI): The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has picked three children to represent India at the J8 summit, a confluence of young people from countries participating in the G8 summit.
Sanjukta Pangi, a 16-year-old girl from Orissa, Samuel Venkatesen, 17-year-old boy from Tamil Nadu and Narendra Kumar, 15-year-old boy from Rae Bareli have been selected for the youth summit called Junior8 (J8) to be held in Rome from July 5-12.
‘I’m very excited and feel wonderful that I’m going to Rome. I always dreamt of such an opportunity. This gives me a chance to look into the problems I have gone through,’ said, Pangi, who is a tribal girl from Orissa.
‘What I have achieved today is all because of the help of UNICEF and my school teacher. There are many children like me who need attention,’ said Venkatesen.
These young Indian representatives will get a chance to share their experiences with other young people from 14 country teams. They will also get a chance to exchange their views amongst themselves and with the ‘extended summit’ leaders on issues like climate change, global meltdown and poverty reduction.

‘It’s a really fantastic opportunity to have the voices of the Indian young people heard. And not only among their peers but also by the world leaders who will be at the J8 summit as well,’ said Angela Walker, UNICEF India’s spokesperson.
The J8, now in its fifth year, brings together 56 young people, aged 14 to 17, from each of the G8 countries and four from the extra-G8 countries from July 4-10 to discuss contemporary issues.
The G8 comprises the developed countries, – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK and the US, while the extended summit includes leaders of developing economies, – Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico and South Africa.

One representative each from the 14 country delegations at the J8 summit will have an opportunity to engage their respective leaders on the concerns identified by the entire group. (ANI)
[NF]

By:http://www.sindhtoday.net/

Over 80 percent Pakistanis see Taliban a threat : Poll

2009-07-02T16:54:00.000+05:30

The survey, which was conducted between May 17 and 28 and randomly interviewed some 1,000 people across Pakistan, showed that about 70 percent of respondents support the government in its decision to launch the military offensive in the Swat valley.

Washington, July 2: Most Pakistanis believe that the Taliban fighters are a "critical threat" to their country and support the ongoing offensive in the Swat valley, according to a survey. An overwhelming 87 percent of Pakistanis think that the Taliban, who are fighting to overthrow the Afghan government, should not be allowed to have bases in Pakistan, showed the poll by the World Public Opinon (WPO), a US-based organisation working on public opinion on international issues.
The survey, which was conducted between May 17 and 28 and randomly interviewed some 1,000 people across Pakistan, showed that about 70 percent of respondents support the government in its decision to launch the military offensive in the Swat valley.
About 45 percent of respondents also said the government was right in trying to resolve the situation through dialogue with the militants. They believe that the Taliban breached the agreement by not putting down their weapons, forcing the government to deal with them militarily.
The army has been battling the militants since April 26 after the Taliban reneged on a controversial peace deal with the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government and instead moved south from their Swat headquarters and occupied Buner, which is just 100 km from Islamabad.
The operations had begun in Lower Dir, the home district of Taliban-backed radical cleric Sufi Mohammad, who had brokered the peace deal and who is the father-in-law of Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah. They later spread to Buner and Swat - and to South Waziristan earlier this month.
The military operations have displaced 3.8 million civilians from the three districts of NWFP.
"A sea change has occurred in Pakistani public opinion. The tactics and undemocratic bent of militant groups--in tribal areas as well as Swat--have brought widespread revulsion and turned Pakistanis against them," said Clay Ramsay, the organisation's research director.
However, he adds: "It's crucial to understand that the US is resented just as much as before, despite the US having a new president."
This striking new public willingness to see the government directly oppose Taliban groups and Al Qaeda owes little or nothing to an "Obama effect", the WPO poll said.
About 62 percent of respondents said US President Barack Obama's policies on Pakistan would be the same like his predecessor George W. Bush.
Similarly, 69 percent expressed unfavourably for the current US government, while more than 80 percent said they believe US is trying to weaken and divide the Muslim world.

Content from:http://www.indianewsupdates.com/

Some other posts:Early warning clue for dementia , Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban' , Israel reopens crossings into Gaza , Indian Republic Day , India's crown prince vs 'messiah of hate ', Rahul Gandhi vs Varun Gandhi , ELECTION EYE - Congress-Left could come together after polls , Some Interesting Factoids and Trivia About the Indian General Elections 2009 , BharatMatrimony conducts survey on "Marriage & its Values" among singles & .... , India's election campaigns get Net-savvy , The World's Most Important Election , Nigeria: Youth urged to drop gun for ICT , High security in India ahead of national elections: New Gandhi touted as future prime minister , Ohio prison director demoted for handcuffing youth , Murkowski Calls on HHS to Address Native Youth Suicide , Arvind Singhal: Dividends from human capital , 'Hot bhabhi' turns India on , Occupied Kashmir:World asked to take note of troops’ use of force ,India's politicians keep it in the family ,Indians in Australia warned over revenge violence ,Indian sex workers learn karate ,You can do it, Kalam tells youth ,‘Hot Bipasha real reason for global warming’ ,No sex education for us. We’re Indian. ,Child Labour: A Demon in the Indian Society ,Muslim youth: The road ahead ,Rahul Gandhi and the New Politics of India,Another Indian Student Racially Assaulted In Australia Inside story,NPYC to continue AAKS programmes,Now… Gay sex is legal !!

Now… Gay sex is legal !!

2009-07-02T15:52:00.001+05:30

Giving its landmark judgement, the high court said that section 377 should be amended and any sex between consenting adults should be legalised.

New Delhi, July 2: The Delhi High Court Thursday decriminalised gay sex by striking down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), quoting Jawaharlal Nehru to emphasise that the Constitution guaranteed homosexuals rights equal to what other citizens enjoy.
A bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar said that if not amended, section 377 of the IPC would violate Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which states that every citizen has equal opportunity of life and is equal before law.
"Equality and inconclusiveness are the tenets of the Constitution," the court quoted India's first prime minister Nehru as having said.
Section 377, a law from the British Raj era, says homosexuality and "unnatural sex" is a criminal act.
Giving its landmark judgement, the high court said that section 377 should be amended and any sex between consenting adults should be legalised.
In plain terms, what this judgement means is that police will no longer be able to intrude upon or arrest adult homosexuals having consensual sex.
Advocate Tripti of the Naz foundation, which had filed the petition, said: "It is very clear now that sex between consenting adults would no longer be an offence."
Anjali Gopalan of the Naz Foundation added: "We had asked that section 377 be read down. This, however, does not hold good for minors below the age of 18. Also, the fact the adults have to be consenting is important."
In 2004, the high court had dismissed the same petition, saying that it was an academic challenge to the constitutionality of a legislative provision which could not be entertained.

Content from:http://www.indianewsupdates.com/

NPYC to continue AAKS programmes

2009-06-21T16:39:00.000+05:30

The Indian Youth Congress has launched Aam Aadmi ka Sipahi, Soldier of common people (AKKS) a nationwide movement to confront the problems of the common man.
The Aam Aadmi or the Common Man has been at the centre of the Congress Party’s and UPA’s policies and programs. Indeed, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the Right to Information Act (RTI), Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan, Bharat Nirman Yojana, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, National Rural Health Misson etc were all initiated not only to renew the historical bonds that exist between the common people and the Congress party but also to empower the common people to take his rightful place as an active participant in the Nation-building process.
Kuputo Shohe, President, NPYC and Dokiu Kecham, State Level Co-ordinator, AAKS states in a press release, “It is being observed that the implementation of NREGA in Nagaland has a long way to go to fulfill its intended purpose. In compliance with the direction of Indian Youth Congress, the NPYC will continue to carry out the activities of AAKS with special reference to NREGA, NRHM, SSA, RTI, Bharat Nerman, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana etc. and carry forward the message of the people friendly policies and programmes of Congress led UPA government to the door steps of the people living in the rural villages.”
“It is also true that despite these historic steps taken by the UPA, the benefits of these schemes more often than not, do not reach their intended beneficiaries, more so in non-Congress ruled states. At the historic Centennial Session of the AICC at Mumbai, Rajivji had famously lamented that of every rupee sent by the Government of India for the poor; only a fraction reaches to those it was intended for. Not much has changed since then,” the NPYC also said.
By working alongside the common people at the grassroots, the AAKS will ensure that this is no longer so. In this sense, the AAKS is as much a social movement as it is a political one. Needless to say, it is the youth who plays the most significant role in any social movement. It is only fitting then that the IYC has taken the leadership in the movement to empower the common people who had hitherto been left out of India’s march towards taking its rightful place in the 21st century at the forefront of Nations.
“We wish AAKS all the very best in their efforts to fight for the rights of the Common Man,” the release further stated.

By: http://www.morungexpress.com/

Another Indian Student Racially Assaulted In Australia | Inside story

2009-06-17T12:51:00.000+05:30

Filed under: Issues
Author: micky

Racial attacks on Indians in Australia continued unabated with a 20-year-old Delhi youth becoming the 14th victim of a spate of assaults on the community in less than a month when he was punched and abused here, leaving him with a fractured finger and a bloody nose.Mr Sunny Bajaj, a Deakin University student, was attacked by two men in Melbourne’s eastern suburb on Friday night as he was about to get into his car. “They came up to me and asked me for money, I told them I had none and then they attacked me,” Mr Bajaj said. Mr Bajaj was verbally abused and then punched by the two men, in their 20s one white and the other apparently of African descent.
The student said the attackers slammed his car door and punched him in head and stomach and then racially abused him. “They called me a ——ing Indian c—- why would they do that? I said nothing to them,” Mr Bajaj said, adding he suffered a fractured finger, bruising to his back and a bloody nose.Mr Bajaj, who was supposed to sit for an accounts exam, had to miss out on it because of the broken finger. Meanwhile, Mr Sravan Kumar, the 25-year old student, whose comatose pictures had sent shock waves across the Indian diaspora, will be moved to a rehabilitation centre to help him recuperate from the brutal attack.Mr Kumar, the first victim of a series of alleged racist attacks will move to the rehab centre on Tuesday.

by: http://www.zorsebol.com

Rahul Gandhi and the New Politics of India

2009-06-16T12:24:00.000+05:30

The Quiet Revolutionary: Rahul Gandhi
by Sudip Mazumdar
NEWSWEEKFrom the magazine issue dated Jun 8, 2009

A revolution is underway in India. The man leading the charge is neither a fiery ideologue nor a gun-toting guerrilla. Instead, he is the scion of one of the world’s most famous political families. But Rahul Gandhi, 38, has set out to disrupt the very system that created his power. At first glance, he is simply trying to restore the 125-year-old Indian National Congress—a party once led by his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, his grandmother Indira Gandhi and his father, Rajiv Gandhi, and now run by his mother, Sonia Gandhi—to its once lofty position as India’s dominant political group.
But his tactics are game-changing: insisting on grassroots activism, building deep connections to rural India and trying to democratize the hierarchical Congress party itself. If he succeeds—a big “if”—India could soon undergo a kind of political big bang, ushering in a new model for developing countries: combining a well-functioning democracy with good government and economic growth. And if that works, Rahul will probably also ensure his own political future as the head of the nation.
Already Rahul, as he is known throughout the country, has been widely credited with Congress’s big win in last month’s elections. Not only was he, as Congress’ general-secretary, the party’s main campaigner—he spoke at 125 rallies across the country in six weeks, compared with 75 for his mother and 50 for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He was also its master strategist.
His approach—fully endorsed by his mother, the party’s president—was risky, presenting Congress as a national party that stood for secularism, good governance and growth. Such tactics were in sharp contrast to the mainstream of Indian politics for the last 20 years, in which parties based on caste, ethnicity and religion had flourished. During those decades, Congress officials had made alliances with these regional groups in order to maintain their access to power, privileges, perks and money. But this strategy had also ensured the slow decline of Congress as a national force, ceding ground to parties based on identity politics.
Rahul was convinced that to regain Congress’s old strength, it must contest elections alone as much as possible—especially in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. These two states, which together send 120 members to the 543-seat lower house of the Indian Parliament, are crucial to any party’s chances in New Delhi, and Congress had virtually become nonexistent in those areas.
Before the election, the conventional wisdom had it that Rahul’s choice to go it alone would be a huge blunder. But it paid off—spectacularly. Congress more than doubled its tally in Uttar Pradesh, from nine seats (out of 80) to 21. And the party made serious inroads into several other constituencies. In Bihar, even if it only ended up with two seats, it managed to take away big chunks of votes from caste-based parties and reduced powerful regional satraps and minor coalition partners to insignificance. Elsewhere Congress swept the polls. The result? “This is Rahul Gandhi’s moment,” says Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President of the Center for Policy Research, a New Delhi think tank. “He rose above the narrow identity politics of his opponents and showed that Indians long for inclusiveness and tolerance. He has changed the rules of politics.”
Rahul also broke ground by pushing forward a slate of young candidates—a rare move in a country where age is venerated and 80-year-old politicians are a common sight. He bet that with 70 percent of the country under the age of 40 and half under 25, youth politics had reached a tipping point. And again he was vindicated. Most of his fresh faces won. Just as significantly, many of these newcomers had emerged through an open and democratic selection process in the party—and were thus seen as more connected to the grassroots than usual Congress hacks.
One such winner was Rahul’s close aide, Meenakshi Natarajan, a biochemistry graduate from a small town called Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh. Natarajan couldn’t have been more different from a typical Indian politician. Nobody in her family had ever served in politics. She traveled in crowded public transport, lived in a small rented apartment in Delhi and devoted her time to energizing students and young people to join the party. All this was unheard of in India, where candidates typically travel in 20-car convoys with hundreds of hangers-on.
“The world missed the significance of our baby steps in democratizing Congress’s youth organizations,” says Natarajan. But the voters didn’t. Rahul is “creating space for fresh ideas, competence and youthful energy,” says political analyst Rajiv Desai. “If he can pull it off, this will eventually make the old timers and power brokers irrelevant in the party.”
Since the election, calls have grown within Congress for Rahul to take a seat in cabinet or become prime minister himself; even Singh has said that he would try to persuade Gandhi to join the government. But Rahul has politely declined the offers so far, saying his focus remains the party. This has only enhanced his public image. According to Sam Pitroda, who was an aide to Rajiv Gandhi and is considered the father of India’s telecom revolution, and now heads the country’s National Knowledge Commission, “Rahul is not here for any short-term goals. He has a long-term vision. He is methodical, analytical, hardworking and humble.”
Rahul’s makeover couldn’t have come at a better time. Apart from regional players and corrupt special interests, the Congress Party had come to rely on vast amounts of black money to run its campaigns in recent years. Other parties were even worse, dominated by people who used fear and hatred to widen caste, religious and ethnic differences. Campaign slogans were often divisive and negative.
Politicians became notorious for siphoning government resources and filling their coffers with kickbacks and bribes. While India now has some of the richest citizens in the world, it also has huge areas wracked by destitution, and more than half of its 1.2 billion people still live on less than 20 cents a day. Over the past two decades the Congress Party, which has ruled India for 45 out of its 62 years of independence, had gradually lost ground to its major rival, the anti-Muslim Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, and smaller caste-based and sectarian parties. Forced to cobble together coalition governments, Congress had fallen hostage to pressure and blackmail from its junior partners.
Rahul observed this decline from a front-row seat. His was a life of both privilege and tragedy. He was barely 14 when his grandmother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was killed by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984. Suddenly, Rahul and his younger sister, Priyanka, found themselves enveloped in a security cocoon and lost whatever vestiges of normal teenage life they’d once enjoyed. Then, less than seven years later, the children also lost their father, Rajiv, who had catapulted into politics from his job as an airline pilot after Indira’s death. Rajiv was killed by a Tamil suicide bomber at an election rally in 1991 in southern India.
After being shuttled from one school to another for safety reasons, Rahul was eventually sent to the United States, starting university at Harvard and eventually graduating from Rollins College in Florida. He then received an M.Phil. in development studies from Cambridge University. It was an academic career marked less by dramatic achievement than a desire for privacy. After graduating, he spent the next three years with the Monitor Group in London, a consulting firm founded by the management guru Michael Porter, before returning to India in 2002. Colleagues at the firm had no idea who they were working with—Rahul was using an assumed name—which meant Gandhi got no special treatment. His reputation within the company was “very impressive,” in the words of one senior partner. And he’d go on to apply the training he got with Monitor in the careful, methodical way he would study the Indian electorate.
During Rahul’s period abroad, the BJP, taking advantage of the rudderless Congress, had captured power with a coalition of a few other sectarian parties, and Congress had been reduced to a worn-out shell of its former self. Party leaders were dejected and desperately wanted another member of the storied Nehru-Gandhi line to rescue them. They ultimately managed to rope in Rahul’s reclusive, Italian-born mother, Sonia. And she soon managed to save her husband’s party from virtual extinction. Her tireless campaigning, political acumen and hands-on leadership revived Congress and helped return it to power in 2004.
Although Sonia tried to reform the party, she remained surrounded by elderly time servers and family retainers with no connections to the grassroots. Though the Congress Party had traditionally held the middle ground of Indian politics by appealing to all sections of society, factionalism and lack of ideas had drained its strength. Many advisers began pushing Sonia to let the articulate and savvy Priyanka become Congress’ new face. But she was married and focused on raising her children, and was not inclined to join active politics.
Meanwhile, away from the public gaze, Rahul—often seen as shy and reclusive—began closely studying the Indian system and the way its parties were run. He began visiting his mother’s parliamentary constituency in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state and a place where Congress had become a nonentity. When the general elections were called in 2004, Rahul made his move: he ran for a seat from Amethi. He and his mother campaigned vigorously around the country and their efforts paid off: Rahul won his seat and nationally Congress managed to overthrow the BJP-led coalition. Declining the office of the prime minister, Sonia installed Singh—a former finance minister and an economist with sterling credentials—in the top job, signaling a break from the party’s corrupt power brokers.
Sonia’s critics saw her renunciation of power as nothing more than a clever move to keep the seat warm for her son by letting a loyal follower take the job till Rahul was ready for it. But Rahul had different plans. He stayed away from the media and devoted his time to studying ways to advance development—and Congress—focusing on his own constituency and the divisive, caste-based politics of Uttar Pradesh.
Over the past three years he has worked hard to acquaint himself with poor, rural India by making numerous visits to remote, neglected villages, where he would listen to locals’ complaints while sitting cross-legged on their dirt floors, sharing their meals and sometimes even sleeping in their homes. On occasion he would lead villagers to government officials to demand better services or organize sit-ins in dusty towns to highlight the plight of the poor. His “discovery of India” tour (a riff on Nehru’s book of the same name) was dismissed by the media and scorned by his opponents, one of whom referred to Rahul as an “aquarium fish.” Yet Rahul persisted, often making unnoticed trips to remote tribes, panicking his security detail. Calculated or not, such moves are extremely rare for a politician of Gandhi’s stature in India, where most leaders prefer to travel in air-conditioned comfort.
Rahul’s current views on the economy seem to owe to these tours. Broadly speaking, he is pro-market, owing in part to his time at Monitor, but he insists that growth should provide opportunities for the poor. “What is the difference between a rich man and a poor man?” he liked to ask at campaign rallies. “Opportunity!” Rahul argues that the human talent in India’s poorest states is as good as anywhere else and that it’s the government’s fault that these regions remain impoverished. He also believes in economic reform.
Rahul has said that the current global financial crisis is a “short-term disruption” and large countries like India and China can benefit in the long run if they position themselves properly. But he wants “inclusive growth,” and has supported job guarantees for the rural poor and loan waivers to farmers—measures derided by market reformers but that appear to have had strong political benefits for Congress and to have shielded India’s rural sector from the worst of the current crisis. Rahul is also known to support the growing U.S.-India alliance and is said to speak well of George W. Bush in private for pushing it through.
Those who know Rahul say he is levelheaded and unruffled, draws inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi (no relation) and, like his sister, Priyanka, takes an interest in Buddhism and has attended teachings by the Dalai Lama. He meticulously seeks out different points of view before coming to a decision. He is a teetotaler who once favored fast cars but whose only apparent vice now is a fondness for Indian sweets. The siblings are close (”There is no one closer to me than my sister [Priyanka],” he recently told a questioner). For a while, he was known to be dating an attractive Spanish architect, but he is now India’s most eligible bachelor and appears in no hurry to change that status.
In a sense, given the magnitude of the job he’s assigned himself, it’s no wonder that Rahul turned down a cabinet post. The work he has in mind involves enlisting 10 million young people into the party’s youth wing and holding democratic elections to produce new leaders from among them. He has already managed to sign up some 1.5 million youngsters in three opposition-ruled states—Punjab, Gujarat and Uttarakhand—to join the Youth Congress. All this has helped Rahul construct himself as an agent of radical change. “His strategy of positioning himself as an outsider seems a masterstroke,” says Mehta, the New Delhi analyst.
The irony, of course, is that in seeking to make the Congress Party more democratic, Rahul is working against the legacy of his own grandmother, who suspended internal party elections in the mid-1970s, allowing her to chose the party’s regional leaders herself—a process most experts believe helped turn Congress from a grassroots, vibrant party into a court full of fawning retainers.
Still, the seductions of power remain strong—indeed, this may be the biggest obstacle Gandhi will face. “Rahul has a unique role to play in defining India’s political destiny over the coming decades,” says Ramesh Ramanathan, a former Citibank senior manager who gave up a flourishing career in Europe in his mid-30s to start a Bangalore nonprofit that promotes government accountability and who now works as an adviser to the government on urban renewal.
“Thousands of ambitious people will gather around him like moths around a lamp to feed their own careers.” Rahul’s success will depend on how well he avoids the trap of hubris, so common among Congress leaders, and how well he handles the inevitable flatterers and hangers-on. “So far he has been careful not to let any [such clique] grow around him,” says Mehta. “He seems to allow only those around him who have no ax to grind.”
There are other obstacles. Congress remains extremely resistant to any moves that would weaken its party grandees. Regional governments will not eagerly make room for newcomers at the expense of favored castes and clients. The Indian bureaucracy has a long way to go before it begins actually serving the people rather than obstructing their path. Big business will also be happy to slow down certain reforms—in order to slow down competition—or guide them in ways that let it game the market.
Still, the process Rahul Gandhi has unleashed has the potential to turn India into a shining example of how to manage a successful economy and a successful democracy in a large, heterogeneous country. It’s true that he faces enormous challenges. Yet he also enjoys enormous advantages—especially his family name and his rising popularity. This stature will only grow if Rahul manages to remain uncorrupted. Of course, it will be all too easy for him to succumb to the status quo, to do just well enough to achieve high office and then to stop fighting. But that would be a tragic waste of India’s greatest hope in a very long time.
URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/200051

Muslim youth: The road ahead

2009-06-16T10:59:00.000+05:30

By Dr Malik Rashid Faisal,

What an average Indian Muslim youth thinks of the issues concerning the Muslim society at large? This is no small question, the answer of which builds a world where a whole lot of generation can not only survive but move towards a prosperous living. When I was a child, for me the world was nothing more than a game where everyone is playing a role of one’s own choice. There are, perhaps, still no clearly drawn out objectives of Muslim youth, although the earth has been steadily rotating to demonstrate the bitter lessons they could learn.
I used to go to a maktab on the bicycle gifted by my maternal uncle. Some boys of my village traveled to the school on foot. They used the tactic of pushing and pulling my moving cycle to irritate and annoy me. Like wise, Mulsims today are two steps forward and one step back. Unfortunately, today I do not find those boys in any prestigious position. I am told that some of them completed Intermediate with difficulties and some ended up in scraps business in Mumbai. They all are struggling to survive.
A Muslim youth is blamed for pursuing a conservative, fanatic and fundamentalist course of action. They are alleged to be terrorists. I can say without any doubt that their survival is at stake and they can not afford to be a terrorist. They have no energy to think beyond their survival. Had I not studied in Madrasa, I could never have known the actual situation a big population of Muslims is trapped into. A Madrasa student lives like a frog in a well. They do not know the contemporary issues of importance. They read books which do not have any relevance to sufferings of Muslims. The old and irrelevant issues of Islamic jurisprudence are still taught in Madrasas. I remember the day when Babri Masjid was demolished. This sad news was announced in a trembling and emotion laden voice by one of our Maulana after Namaz-e-Asr in the Masjid located in the fore walls of the Madrasa Jamiatul Falah and then a sudden silence enveloped amongst all the students and teachers.
The next day, in the weekly cultural programme of my class, I delivered an emotionally laden high pitched speech raising the slogan ‘Allahu Akbar’ as if I was going to wage a war against the demolishers. The teacher laughed. But it is a fact that the same teachers taught me the way I registered my protest against the demolition. On the other hand, I admit that Madrasas inculcate in students the basic understanding of religion. A Madrasa student at later stage of his growth knows how to deal with religious issues and practices.
But then only 4% of Muslims go to Madrasas. What about the rest of the Indian Muslim youth? Ironically, most of them live a battered life. They have no clear cut thinking about the interests of the society at large. One of many reasons is of course, illiteracy. Many of them are school drop outs. Some get trapped into family business and some join underpaid jobs. They get married and are forced to take care of the well being of the family.
Naturally, if a large section of the society is cut to size and made vulnerable, how would its people join the mainstream and think high for the betterment of society? Today we observe that Indian Muslim youths have no new organizations of their own that works for improving the deteriorating conditions of the Muslims. It may be because of the fear of failure.
The endeavor to start an organization for overall development of the community is something which should be taken seriously. In fact, many Muslim NGOs do exist but they are not performing well and therefore often alleged to be nothing but ill fated. Many of them are purposefully collecting funds for self interests. At this hour of crisis, the energetic Muslim youth could play an important role in promoting the organizations for the development of the community. Unfortunately, they are not showing interest in such an endeavor.
The pathetic attitude of Indian Muslim youths is maligning the whole community. For instance, about 15,000 Muslim students study in Aligarh Muslim University but it is very unfortunate to say that very few of them do something good for the society after completing their education. Most of the Muslim youth join underpaid jobs and live the whole life in conformity. Some of them become burden on their parents. They lack will power to do something great. This is, in my view, on account of inferiority complex and no proper guidance from the parents or the elders of the community.
That is no wonder then, economic, political and social conditions of Muslims are very bad. However, Muslim youths through establishing NGOs and coordinating with each other could do a great job for overall development of the community in all aspects. They need to understand the severity of the problems being faced by themselves and the community. NGOs can play an important role in raising the standard of community in all aspects. Therefore, to think positive and move forward is the only solution of many problems. Youths in any society play important roles and the Muslim community is no exception.
--------------------------------------------------
Malik Rashid Faisal is the Senior Editor of The Sunday Indian (Urdu). He may be contacted at malikrfaisal@gmail.com
article from: http://www.twocircles.net/

Child Labour: A Demon in the Indian Society

2009-06-15T16:24:00.000+05:30

Anshul Tewari

Raju wakes up at 6 every morning. After preparing rice for his 5 sisters, who are 4 to 5 years each, Raju leaves for a nearby construction site to continue his work. Raju's mother, however, goes to a few houses to help clean the households, and his father is usually drunk, thus, does nothing. After 10 hours of continuos work, Raju returns home, with a soar stomach and rugged hands.
His mother prepares rice for them and each member of the family has not more than 5 tea spoons of rice, enough to help them survive the night.

Raju is only 8 years old and is a child labourer working in a residential area of Delhi. He misses his childhood, all he knows is that he has to earn enough to get his sisters married off.
India has been talking about child labour more often than not, at seminars, in the parliament, by NGO's and at many more places and by many more people. At a time when India is witnessing an abnormal high in the number of children associated with this problem, Youth Ki Awaaz brings forth a report which will help us understand better, the solutions for this problem. Why are we facing this problem? How did it emerge? What are the areas of concern and how can we solve them? We present to you an analysis of child labour in India focussing on its various aspects.
In India, officially there are around 16 million child labourers, but if we trust the unofficial sources, the number crosses 60 million. A country where 70% of the population lives in rural areas, around 50-60% children are being forced into child labour. Let's understand this evil and try to curb it.
Usually, when we think of child labour, the first thing that comes to our mind is a child working in a factory. But this is not it, child labour ranges from factories to mines, to construction areas to small tea stalls and every other work. Children, who are at the receiving end, end up with ruined lives, bleak and a misty future and physical as well as psychological disorders.
Child labourers are divided in a number of sectors. Namely, I. Cultivation, II. Agricultural Labour, III. Livestock, Forestry, Fishing, Plantation, IV. Mining and Quarrying, V. Manufacturing, Processing, Servicing and Repairs, VI. Construction, VII. Trade and Commerce, VIII. Transport, Storage and Communication, and IX. Other Services (Census of India 1981 cited in Nangia 1987, 72).
Labour by children is an outcome of many reasons other than the well known poverty, unemployment, lack of education. They are either in debt bondage or pledged for advances contracted by parents. Some of them are victims of illusory promises made by procurers about bright prospects after undergoing training in certain trades. People say that the points stated above are the reasons behind child labour. But we argue the other way. Our experience and the various studies conducted by researchers corroborate the fact that child labour is equally, if not solely responsible for causing and perpetuating unemployment, poverty, population growth and illiteracy.

Looking at the states which have the highest number of child labourers, Andhra Pradesh tops the list with over 18 million child labourers, followed by Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The industries in which children are employed are:

Matches, Fireworks and Explosives- Sivakasi
Glass and Bangles- Ferozabad
Beedi Making- Nizamabad, North Arcot District
Carpet Making- Bhadoi, Varanasi , Mirzapur , Jammu and Kashmir
Lock-making- Aligarh
Brassware- Moradabad
Export Oriented Garment Industry- Tiruppur
Gem Polishing Export Industry- Jaipur, Rajasthan
Slate Mines and Manufacturing Units- Markkapur
Leather Units- Agra , Kanpur , Durg, Rajasthan
Diamond Industry- Surat

India has the dubious distinction of being the nation with the largest number of child laborers in the world. The child labors endure miserable and difficult lives. They earn little and struggle to make enough to feed themselves and their families. They do not go to school; more than half of them are unable to learn the barest skills of literacy. The environmental degradation and lack of employment avenues in the rural areas also cause people to migrate to big cities. On arrival in overcrowded cities the disintegration of family units takes place through alcoholism, unemployment or disillusionment of better life etc. This in turn leads to emergence of street children and child workers who are forced by their circumstances to work from the early age. The girls are forced to work as sex -workers or beggars. A large number of girls end up working as domestic workers on low wages and unhealthy living conditions.
Some times children are abandoned by their parents or sold to factory owners. The last two decades have seen tremendous growth of export based industries and mass production factories utilizing low technologies. They try to maintain competitive positions through low wages and low labor standards. The child laborers exactly suit their requirements. They use all means to lure the parents into giving their children on pretext of providing education and good life.
People come here, read the articles, get the point, but rarely do they implement stuff in their daily lives. When asked for solutions, various NGO's told YKA the following:

-Stop eating at dhabas and restaurants which promote child labour.
-Condemn the business and industries which preach child labour
-Do not employ a child to work at your place or at your workplace.

These points are common and heard of. But Youth Ki Awaaz completely differs from these illogical points. Yes, we are being radical. These points are illogical, excpet for the last one.

And the reason behind them being illogical is simple. Consider this, if you stop going to a restaurant which preaches child labour, stop buying clothes of a brand which preaches child labour, condemn a corporate who preaches child labour or an industry which preaches child labour, you are just killing the child. He would have no money, thus, no food, thus, empty stomach (both the child and the family), and no place to live, thus, the child would die. Right?

So what is the solution? Let's understand this by the easiest way possible. What is the prime reason for child labour? Poverty. What is the prime reason for poverty? Unemployment. What is the prime reason for unemployment? Education.
This might sound cliche, but yes, EDUCATION is the solution. Some argue that there is a lack of opportunity, but we say, what good would opportunity be if there is no education. Right?
The need of the hour is to make education available to each and every child, especially in the rural areas.
Youth Ki Awaaz asked a few children who were working as labourers, aged around 15 to 16 years, about the reforms that they would want. The reason behind asking this age group was the fact that they have a better understanding in terms of work and the problems that they face. Their list was as follows, we have modified a bit to make it look more realistic and we have added a few points as well:

1. Enforce existing laws on child labour.
2. Every child should enjoy a free and compulsory education till they complete 18 years.
3. Develop alternative education options and training schemes for child labourers.
4. Enhance economic security and resilience of household of all child labourers.
5. Ensure participation of child labourers in decisions that affect them.
6. Right to Education Bill, 2008 should be passed in the Parliament at the earliest.
7. Allocate over 5% of GDP for education.

"There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they can grow up in peace."-- Kofi Annan

No sex education for us. We’re Indian.

2009-06-15T15:23:00.000+05:30

By Amodini Sharma

India is a populous country, and I’m pretty sure the citizens of India have something to do with it. I don’t think the storks are delivering all those babies, or that they are gifts of the Gods a la Kunti. Thus the move to squash teaching of basic sex education in schools is quite surprising. A few months back, the Committee on Petitions, comprising Rajya Sabha members and headed by BJP’s Venkaiah Naidu, said “there should be no sex education in schools” since “our country’s social and cultural ethos are such that sex education has absolutely no place in it”. ”Let’s trot out that pony again — India’s glorious cultural ethos. Let’s hide behind it again. We won’t do it because it’s against our cultural ethos. Let’s all burrow our heads in the sand and ignore the problem, because it’s “against the Indian cultural ethos”.
Watch Indian TV nowadays, and if it isn’t Ekta Kapoor’s sindoor-anointed, scheming pativrata naris in backless cholis, it’s pretty young things in short-short skirts swinging to some very suggestive lyrics. Sexy is the new buzzword. Looking pretty is not good enough — you’ve got to look sexy. Most advertisements use women to sell their products. These are mostly pretty women, and they sell soaps, shampoos, refrigerators, hair dyes and even car tyres (Ceat tyres had an animated cartoony advertisement featuring a well-endowed woman in a low-cut blouse and shorts and you can’t see the face of the woman). A lot of these ads feature women in little clothing, mouthing suggestive dialogues.
Watch Bollywood films, and you will realise that most feature women in secondary roles, playing second-fiddle to the men and assumming subservient roles. There are also those, which pandering to the NRI, portray foreign-bred women who are all too happy to trade-in autonomous life to smilingly melt into the arms of our handsome, chauvinistic hero. Women as depicted in such media are shown as having little independence.
Many rural women marry young, conceive early and die in child-birth. Knowledge of contraceptives is limited. There are few people “progressive” enough to go to a doctor for such advice, leave alone uneducated women who have no agency of their own. Attitudes in the country still remain vastly chauvinistic — you’ll read about it in the newspapers (foeticide, infanticide and child marriage) and you’ll see it in the street molestation everyday. The youth remains uninformed about sexual choices and we shy away from educating them because it’s against the “cultural ethos” ?
“The committee ruled that children must be given the message that sex before marriage is “immoral, unethical and unhealthy” ”The young people of this country are being bombarded by suggestive messages on the one hand and being denied basic sex education on the other. Pativrata nari vs. oomph-laden, skirt-suited pretty woman — guess who wins the image war these days ? Mr Naidu and his Committee might think pre-marital sex is “immoral”, but it’s happening anyway. And if the folk having pre-marital sex don’t know about basic safety, it’s probably adding to the AIDS numbers, if not creating unwanted children.
The urban youth has access to the net and other media. If you don’t give them information straight up, they will find it, and it might be pretty warped depending upon the source. Apart from that, what about curiosity ? If a girl starts menstruating early, she might be a little curious as to what’s going on. Mr Venkaiah Naidu might be blind, but most young folk are not.
“Advocating “instinct control” and “dignity of restraint”, the committee called for a new curriculum to include material on lives and teaching of saints, spiritual leaders, freedom fighters and national heroes.”While I do think kids should have knowledge of saints, freedom fighters etc, I doubt that learning about Bhagat Singh will help the cause of abstinence any. The cultural invasion has already come. And it’s a little worrying to hear statements like the above from eminently sane people with good vision, and one assumes, satifisfactory hearing. Are they actually living in modern-day India ? Do they actually not see Govinda (now an MP) cavort on screen and thrust his pelvis or have they missed out on all those little gems of fine Indian film-making ? Do they think he is hinting at “instinct control”?
The Committee had better realise that the day for preaching the “dignity of restraint” has come and gone. In other words, that boat sailed. Long ago. And Mr Naidu wasn’t on it. And if at all applicable in this context, there is “dignity” only in not treating our youth as if they were pea-brained. As for restraint, Mr Naidu might apply it to avoid placing his foot in his mouth.
The committee said chapters on Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Unani and Yoga and moral values should be made integral parts of the syllabus to enable “total development of the child”. Chapters like “Physical and Mental Development in Adolescents” and “HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases” and related topics should be removed from the curriculum and incorporated in biology books only at the 10+2 stage.
When I was in school, some 20 years back, education on puberty and bodily changes was dealt with in the 9th standard. Much too late, I have always thought. I cannot imagine it being pushed out even further. At that time, a child is already 14-15 years of age, well into the age of puberty. And whether you like it or not, they are noticing these changes. It is high time for adults to acknowledge the elephant in the room.
There is a case to be made for considering the subject essential to proper growth and a balanced viewpoint. And for starting this education earlier. The more we consider this taboo and hide information, the more mystique is built around it. And the more alluring it gets.
It is all very well to talk about the high road and moral values, but it is another to assume that problems will dissappear once we try to inculcate our moral values in young folk, without first answering their pertinent questions. And as much as I am a fan of Yoga, I do think that the Committee is a tad out of touch with the youth’s mindset to think that it would do any good in this respect.
Ignoring sex education for young adults has done enough damage already. From a burgeoning AIDS crisis to exponential population growth, and young folk with repressed sexualities and stunted mentalities, it is bad enough already. It should not be allowed to get any worse.
***
Amodini Sharma is a software programmer based in the US. She believes that society is still chauvinistic and immune to indignities against women, and that speaking up and writing about this is an important first step towards changing attitudes. Among other things, she is passionate about films and a keen reader. She blogs at Amodini’s Movie Reviews and the Review Room.

‘Hot Bipasha real reason for global warming’

2009-06-15T11:36:00.000+05:30

MACAU - Bipasha Basu should be India’s environment minister because she was “the real reason for global warming all over the world.”
This was the choice of International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards hosts Boman Irani and Riteish Deshmukh who unveiled their dream cabinet before a packed auditorium at the Chinese resort here as the annual event marked its 10th anniversary.
The comic duo announced their choice that they said should have been appointed by Bollywood after the recent elections, much to the delight of the 15,000 strong crowd here Saturday night.
Director Ashutosh Gowariker should be agriculture minister for what he had done for the rural community with his hit film “Lagaan”; Raakesh Roshan, the coal minister because his successful film “Koyla” had shown that he knows everything there is to know about the black product; and Katrina Kaif should be the youth affairs minister because every youth wanted to talk to her, the pair added.
Aamir Khan should be home minister because all he did for eleven months in every year was sit at home and then just release a single film in the last month.
Akshay Kumar, shown on screen with his face on a Rs1,000 note, should be the finance minister because with the money he makes he could finance almost the entire population.
“Slumdog Millionaire” star Freida Pinto would do well in the post of minister for
overseas and foreign affairs because she knew exactly how to start an affair abroad, Irani jested.
Always on the defensive, Salman Khan would make the ideal defence minister and Malika Sherawat could occupy the new position of minister for the upliftment of the downtrodden.
Others in the Irani/Deshmukh cabinet would be Sunny Deol as law and transport minister ; Yash and Aditya Chopra of ‘Punjab Power’ fame for their film “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi” as joint power ministers; and Viveik Oberoi as telecommunications minister because he knew how to make calls quickly when necessary.

You can do it, Kalam tells youth

2009-06-12T12:06:00.000+05:30

LONDON: The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, has been awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by Queen’s University, Belfast, for distinction in public service.
The degree was conferred on him at a special ceremony on Wednesday. Queen’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Gregson described Mr. Kalam as an “outstanding world statesman, scientist, educator and visionary” who had “inspired millions” in India and around the world.
“It is a significant honour for Queen’s to host this visit from the former leader of one of the world’s most thriving and exciting countries. A number of distinguished Indian institutions hold a special place within the Queen’s family of academic partners and Mr. Kalam’s visit is a tangible example of the educational, research, business and cultural links between India and Northern Ireland,” he said.
Sir Reg Empey, Northern Ireland’s Minister for Employment and Learning, said the decision reflected Queen’s University’s close links with India.
Mr. Kalam called for pooling global resources for common good. He said that in today’s “borderless world,” countries could not afford to remain isolated as problems affecting one country had implications for others.

Imaginative leadership
Mr. Kalam said he had noticed “anxiety” among youth on how to deal with a world “devastated” by conflict. But he said: “Youth can do it,” He called for “imaginative leadership” to bring people together and build a peaceful world.

Some other posts:Early warning clue for dementia , Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban' , Israel reopens crossings into Gaza , Indian Republic Day , India's crown prince vs 'messiah of hate ', Rahul Gandhi vs Varun Gandhi , ELECTION EYE - Congress-Left could come together after polls , Some Interesting Factoids and Trivia About the Indian General Elections 2009 , BharatMatrimony conducts survey on "Marriage & its Values" among singles & .... , India's election campaigns get Net-savvy , The World's Most Important Election , Nigeria: Youth urged to drop gun for ICT , High security in India ahead of national elections: New Gandhi touted as future prime minister , Ohio prison director demoted for handcuffing youth , Murkowski Calls on HHS to Address Native Youth Suicide , Arvind Singhal: Dividends from human capital , 'Hot bhabhi' turns India on , Occupied Kashmir:World asked to take note of troops’ use of force ,India's politicians keep it in the family ,Indians in Australia warned over revenge violence ,Indian sex workers learn karate , Hinduism and India Cool

Hinduism and India Cool

2009-06-11T18:43:00.000+05:30

Indian youth has a new relationship with religion. As the BBC programme, What the World Thinks of God explores the modern world's relationship with God, Bachia Karkaria writes about contemporary attitudes to faith and in particular Hinduism.
God has a new incarnation in India - cool, user-friendly, results-oriented, upwardly mobile, and probably carrying one too. Seriously. Cell-phone ring-tones come in the tunes of popular Hindu hymns.
Atheism may be universally endemic to the young, especially male, but India is the exception to the dictum that "Everyone is a Marxist in his youth".
For the record, young Indians remained equally immune to communism's mystic alternative - the hippie movement of the 60s.
Today's New Age cults are nothing more than flower-power Gen-etically modified.
Like the sitar, guru shirts and transcendental meditation in the Beatles-era, India Cool has discovered nirvana, yoga, joss-sticks and Vastu Shastra, the Hindu equivalent of Feng Shui, via the West.

Ordinary, middle-class 20-somethings have an equation all their own with God.
They have been influenced by the political tsunami of Hindutva, the political incarnation of Hinduism.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which started it all, has displayed an increasing ambivalence towards militant Hinduism, first to appease its more secular allies, and now to advance their new 21st century globalised image.
Young Hindus are woven out of these contrary strands, but the result is a seamless breed with varying levels of religious involvement.
Pretty young things genuflect to patriarchy by fasting for the long-life of future husbands, even as they invoke the goddess, "Shakti", which literally means `power', to fight their social battles.
The computer geek is quite likely to decorate his desktop with stickers of both Garfield and Ganesha, the phenomenally popular god of auspicious beginnings.
His home probably boasts a stylised idol sculpted by a best-seller Indian artist in collaboration with Murano glass.
The mystic word `Om' once had an exclusively religious context. But it has acquired a dubious universality courtesy of Madonna mantras and Sunset Boulevard spiritualism.
There is a new Om-ni presence even among those who never chanced upon the Time story on yoga featuring Christy Thornton sitting in the lotus position on the cover.
Fashion accessory

Young Indian men and women sport Hinduism's most potent symbol as a fashion accessory.
Designer "Om" pendants dangle from throats and jangle on charm bracelets, alongside little Ganeshas - and yin-and-yang medallions.
They rock to the souped-up Om beat of a Grammy wannabe. The spiritual O-Word seeps into them from almost every episode of popular TV soaps.
In the blockbuster "Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai", a Britain-returned heroine in a micro-mini belted out the hymn, "Om Jagdish" to prove that she remained uncorruptedly Indian.
Rituals, surprisingly, are still important to young Hindus. In fast-paced, commuting-harried urbania, the temple comes to the worshippers' drawing room via the tele-puja and even a votive tele-viewing of the deity.
Conditional faith
Where the young differ from their parents is their attitude to faith. If faith wants to keep them, it has to work for it.
It's a commercial relationship. You can have my prayers, provided you get me my girlfriend back.
But it's not all sanitised sanctity. A regressive fundamentalism is clearly evident in sections of the young of all religions, including such traditionally liberal ones as Zoroastrianism.
Its disturbing manifestation is an obdurate intolerance, communal exclusivity, and the demonising of the Other.
They don't want to hear that dying for your belief is quite different from killing for it.

Bachi Karkaria

Associate Editor, The Times of India

Indian sex workers learn karate

2009-06-11T18:06:00.000+05:30

Prostitutes in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have begun taking karate lessons to protect themselves from violent customers and pimps.
The women say they were so fed up with abuse that they approached a local community group for help.
The organisers hope the course in the ancient self-defence technique sends a message that violence against sex workers must stop.
India is thought to have nearly three million sex workers.
Most live on the fringes of society and have few legal rights.
Correspondents say that means they often have little or no choice but to put up with violence and harassment.
'I will kick him'
Dressed in white and wearing masks, the first 75 women to take the karate course in the coastal city of Madras (Chennai) had to brave intense heat as they practised their moves.

They trained together for nearly five hours a day, mostly learning how to fight. Now the women say they feel more able to protect themselves.
"Even though I may not be able to attack a group of five men when they attack me, I am fully confident now that I can escape," one sex worker, Santhi (not her real name), told the BBC Tamil service.
"I think I can easily handle one man at any given time. I face physical abuse on a daily basis and have been abused and been beaten up by my clients many times.
"A thug once stripped me of my clothes and told me to run naked. From now on, I think nobody can do that to me. I will kick him."
The Indian Community Welfare Organisation is providing the training free of charge. Its founder secretary, AJ Hariharan, said Tamil Nadu state alone was thought to have about 90,000 commercial sex workers.
"Many of them, particularly those who operate individually on the streets face physical abuse on a daily basis - not only from their customers, but also from local thugs and policemen," he told the BBC Tamil service.
"They attack these commercial sex workers, rob their money and force them into having unprotected sex. We want to train them in karate so that they can protect themselves from these violent attacks."
Mr Hariharan said the aim was to build the self esteem and self confidence of the women.
"We are going to train 300 sex workers in the second phase and 500 sex workers after that.
"We are trying to send a loud and clear message to those who abuse these sex workers that they cannot abuse them any more.

Indians in Australia warned over revenge violence

2009-06-11T17:59:00.000+05:30

Sydney, June 11: Indian students staged a protest in Sydney demanding protection from the Lebanese youth groups here on Wednesday. This has resulted in a warning by the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd against forming of any vigilante groups.
window.google_render_ad();
Rudd warned those who take law and order in their own hands. “I fully support hardline measures in response to any act of violence towards any student anywhere-Indian or otherwise. And furthermore we also need to render as completely unacceptable people taking the law into their own hands,” Rudd maintained.
Nearly 70 Indian students blocked traffic near Harris Park, Sydney protesting against the events of racial attacks against them by the gangs of ethnic Lebanese youth.
Meanwhile, the Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh have appealed to the Indian students in Oz to maintain calm.
Simon Overland, the Victorian chief police commissioner said they have been working to bring the increasing menace of robberies under control.
“We’ve already been doing a lot of work to tackle the growing trend of street robberies over the past 18 months. We’ve certainly not been sitting on our hands with this issue and this increased enforcement will further bolster our already concerted efforts,” Overland stated.
BREAKING NEWS

India's politicians keep it in the family

2009-06-10T12:01:00.000+05:30

As India's new cabinet was sworn in, the biggest applause was reserved for one of its youngest members, Agatha Sangma, who is all of 28.
She was among several young faces who were brought into government by the Congress party to inject a sense of freshness and energy after its resounding poll victory.
But every single one of them belongs to political families.
Political nepotism appears to be a trend that isn't abating but seemingly spreading beyond the influential Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to a handful of clans across India.
So the formation of the new cabinet was held up because the chief of the southern Dravida Munnetra Khazagam (DMK) party wanted posts for his children and members of his extended family.
Even the smaller parties are often family fiefdoms with parents handing over the reins to their children.

'Subverting democracy'

Jiten Jain who runs Youth For Equality, a political advocacy group, says increasingly politics is being seen as a lucrative business.
"Sons, daughters, relatives are becoming MPs. This is disturbing. You are moving towards a monarchy where one constituency is ruled by one family and 500 families will rule India."
Youth for Equality put up a candidate in the election but she was routed by her better-funded opponent from a well-known political family.
"There are three to four political families that have five to six ministers in the cabinet. Except for one or two, none of them have worked in the social domain, none of them have any political experience. They have just come with the name of their fathers and grandfathers and got elected," he says.
It's not the voters who are at fault.
Vir Sanghvi, editor of the Hindustan Times newspaper says the parties are simply subverting democracy and freezing out the people.
"Often the voters are given two or three choices and all of those choices are dynasts. The internal democracy that we should be seeing in parties is almost entirely missing.
"So while there may be democracy when it comes to elections there is no democracy within parties. It's almost always the dynasts who get nominated," he says.

The young political beneficiaries of this trend argue that they have earned the right to be here.
Agatha Sangma, who is the daughter of a former Speaker of parliament, accepts that a political background, especially at a young age, is a huge advantage but it's not enough to succeed.
"It's not a guarantee that just because you have a political background things will be easy for you. It gives you an initial advantage but after that you have to be able to perform and only that will determine your political future," she says.

Family business
So at a time when India is emerging as a major international player, the world's largest democracy and an economic giant whose companies are at the forefront of global buy-outs - what can explain this apparently regressive step?

It's an extremely profitable business, people who become ministers tend to make a lot of money," says Vir Sangvi.
"There's also a sense, particularly in the smaller parties, that if you allow proper succession you lose control of the party. It's much more tempting to run it like a family business."
Then there's the tradition in India of children, usually male but increasingly female, going into the family profession.
Sociologist Dipankar Gupta says that unlike their Western counterparts, middle-class Indians feel that they cannot afford to leave the family profession, be it medicine, law, or increasingly, politics.
"The gap between the rich and the poor is so large that nobody wants to risk sliding to the bottom of the social scale. And because of a shortage of avenues you need your parental help otherwise you'll be at the bottom of the social rung."
So why do the parties select people from political families?
Mr Gupta says it has to do with a vast system of patronage between the politicians and the parties where they both end up favouring each other often at the cost of ordinary people.
But for many, this is extremely worrying for Indian democracy.
"If this continues, you will have the emergence of a political caste - a sort of Brahminical caste. Indian democracy will cease to be participatory, it will cease to be a way of empowering people. To get elected to parliament you will have to be born into political families," says Mr Sanghvi.
"The whole point of democracy in India is that poor people should be able to enter politics and change their lives.
"If there's just going to be a class of new Brahmins who get elected because the peasants vote them into power, the consequences for India will be devastating."

By Sanjoy Majumder

Occupied Kashmir:World asked to take note of troops’ use of force

2009-06-10T11:43:00.001+05:30

People carry a Kashmiri youth to a Srinagar hospital, injured by Indian troops’ firing on a peaceful protest in Shopian.
Students hold forceful anti-India demos in IHK
Srinagar, June 09 (KMS): The APHC Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has urged the international community to take notice of the use of brute force by Indian troops against peaceful demonstrators in occupied Kashmir.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in a statement issued in Srinagar strongly condemned the unprovoked firing on the peaceful protesters by the troops in Shopian, yesterday, injuring several demonstrators. He pointed out that India would not be able to stifle Kashmiris’ voice for right to self-determination by such tactics.
The President of Bar Association of occupied Kashmir, Mian Abdul Qayoom, addressing a press conference in Srinagar, today, demanded of India to revoke draconian laws, withdraw its troops and come forward in a serious manner to resolve the Kashmir dispute, once and for all.
The Jammu and Kashmir Jamaat-e-Islami, Mahaz-e-Azadi, Professor Nazir Ahmed Shawl and Farooq Siddiqi in their separate statements took strong exception to the use of indiscriminate force by Indian troops against the demonstrators in the territory.
On the other hand, students at colleges all across occupied Kashmir took to the streets to register their protest against the rape and murder of two women by the troops in Shopian. They raised high-pitched anti-India and pro-liberation slogans.
The APHC Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Muhammad Yasin Malik and Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi continued to remain under house arrest while Syed Ali Gilani, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Saleem Nunnaji and other Hurriyet leaders are under illegal detention.
In Islamabad, the APHC-AJK chapter organised a sit-in in front of the United Nations Observers’ Office to protest against the stepped up Indian state terrorism in occupied Kashmir. It was led by the Acting Convenor, Mehmood Ahmed Saghar.
The Executive Director of Kashmir Institute of International Relations, Sardar Amjad Yousuf, addressing the 11th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, in Geneva, said that Kashmir dispute could only be resolved through relevant UN resolutions on Kashmir.
Kashmir Media Service
Some other posts:Early warning clue for dementia , Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban' , Israel reopens crossings into Gaza , Indian Republic Day , India's crown prince vs 'messiah of hate ', Rahul Gandhi vs Varun Gandhi , ELECTION EYE - Congress-Left could come together after polls , Some Interesting Factoids and Trivia About the Indian General Elections 2009 , BharatMatrimony conducts survey on "Marriage & its Values" among singles & .... , India's election campaigns get Net-savvy , The World's Most Important Election , Nigeria: Youth urged to drop gun for ICT , High security in India ahead of national elections: New Gandhi touted as future prime minister , Ohio prison director demoted for handcuffing youth , Murkowski Calls on HHS to Address Native Youth Suicide , Arvind Singhal: Dividends from human capital , 'Hot bhabhi' turns India on

'Hot bhabhi' turns India on

2009-06-04T00:53:00.000+05:30

So I'm at work and reading the e-paper and see this article, I definitely didn't expect to be reading about Savitabhabhi in a newspaper in Toronto. Guess she's world famous now.

Quote:
In India, the land that brought the world the Kama Sutra, pornography is illegal. But that has not stopped millions from logging on to their computers to follow the amorous adventures of Savita Bhabhi, a housewife, a crime fighter and a Lara Croft figure who happens to be a cartoon.Despite weak stories and mediocre writing, the tales of the "hot bhabhi" are attracting a legion of followers fuelled in part, say analysts, because of the rich layers of Indian culture that surrounds the cartoons and a dearth of home-grown adult entertainment for the English-speaking urban youth.But while the creators behind Savita Bhabhi hope she will change sexual attitudes in India, some experts are horrified that traditional beliefs and culture are being eroded by an underground sex industry which is flourishing and is difficult to enforce because of globalization and the Internet.So who exactly is Savita Bhabhi?"She is the newly married hot woman next door!" wrote one of the creators of the site in an e-mail. He only goes by the name Deshmukh because of fears of Indian obscenity laws and "hotheads who are living in the Victorian Age of false morality."But scholars say the bhabhi is much more than that."The bhabhi is the wife of an older brother," said Ashwini Tambe, professor of history at the University of Toronto and author of Codes of Misconduct: The Regulation of Prostitution in Colonial Bombay.The bhabhi is someone you can joke with, confide in and is a figure of friendship for young men in a family, she explained."There is certainly an element of inaccessibility of the bhabhi that makes her a more tantalizing figure," Ms. Tambe said.Savita Bhabhi adventures are revealed to readers one page a day. She is insatiable; she seduces most men she meets including doctors, young men, terrorists and lingerie salesmen.The comic is steeped in Indian iconography: Savita Bhabhi is infused with Indian marriage symbols and an artistic style some say is reminiscnet of Amar Chitra Katha, the mythological comic tales that are read by millions of Indian youth. The Web site is offered in 11 languages including English, Hindi, Tamil and Desi.The site savitabhabhi.com doesn't make any money, is staffed by volunteers and many of the ideas for scripts are proposed by fans. Deshmukh said the site receives about 200,000 hits per day, six million a month and 70% of the traffic is in India.Deshmukh said the popularity of Savita Bhabhi is a sign of changing sexual attitudes in India and he is hoping to use the cartoon as a catalyst."We want to concentrate on our goal of making SB popular and using her to open people's thinking rather than waste time dealing with the few people who still believe sex is something dirty," Deshmukh wrote."I had a very difficult time digesting these images," said Aradhana Parmar, a professor at the University of Calgary who teaches Indian studies. She said she immediately picked up on the marriage symbols including the red powder in the part of Savita's hair and a red dot on her forehead, symbols of lost virginity and marriage.She said she was "horrified" when she first looked at the Web site in its Hindi translation."Because the language they used was really vulgar. It was the street boys' language ... it was f-word all over," Ms. Parmar said.But Deshmukh said the response to the site from women has been mostly positive."For every critic ... we have 10 others [mostly women] who praise SB for the message of sexual liberation that it portrays. One woman thanked me for showing Savita reaching an orgasm in every episode. I am willing to wager that many a husband have asked their wives about female orgasms and how they can help them reach it after reading SB," Deshmukh wrote.Deshmukh said as part of India's sexual awakening, even issues such as homosexuality are starting to reach the mainstream. He mentioned a movie that came out of Bollywood called Dostana, with "a seemingly gay couple as their main characters." But he said that tolerance and openness depends on the region, but most importantly, caste."An elite family in Bombay is more similar to a family in London than a rural counterpart in Solapur," he wrote.Ms. Tambe concurs.She believes that one reason that Savita Bhabhi might be so popular is because urban, English-speaking Indians do not have their own home-made adult movies or stars, they look more to the West, even though areas such as Kerala in southern India have a large soft-core porn industry."There is that interesting class difference.... It could be that [cosmopolitan Indians] watch Hollywood films and cable television programming that is made in other parts of the world, so your tastes in pornography are also more [Western].""Scholars say it is the outcome of post-liberalization India. And it is the time of coming out sexually. It's a significant development ... which is 1992 and on," Ms. Parmar explained.She said she was upset thinking about the impression the site gives young men and women, and added that economic liberalism and advances in technology have facilitated the erosion of traditional beliefs."Especially in Indian culture, traditionally sex was portrayed as something sacred, now you see it's totally commercialized and fantasy is taking over morality," Ms. Parmar said.But it's exactly some of these traditional views that Deshmukh hopes to change with the comic."Sex is repressed because our dialogues over sex are not honest, democratic and open. If a woman isn't enjoying sex with her partner, can she complain? If a son is experimenting sexually and wants to know more about condoms ... can they ask their dad?" Deshmukh wrote.Deshmukh said the Savita Bhabhi will hopefully "throw some light on sex in India."

Arvind Singhal: Dividends from human capital

2009-06-04T00:48:00.000+05:30

With the new government in place, and the ministers in their allocated saddles, expectations of change are expectedly running amok. India, of course, needs a lot to be reformed and needs transformational changes in all sectors both on ideological as well as policy fronts. Education, however, is one sector where the country has actually regressed during the tenure of the last two governments, even as over 250 million children have been born in the last decade alone who would be rightfully demanding access to accessible, affordable, high-quality and employability-enhancing education.

Hopefully, the new government will waste no further time debating ideology or creating illusory vote banks, and will get down to the daunting task of reforming the education sector at all levels.
Justifiably, a lot of attention is focused on primary education and on higher education. Both need the creation of “capacity” on a war footing. However, relatively less attention gets paid to those estimated 400 million out of about 460 million jobs which are skill-based and require vocational training. These jobs cover an incredible vocational spectrum that includes cooks, hairdressers and beauticians, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, masons, truck and bus drivers, cab drivers, fork lift operators, retail front-end operations such as selling and visual merchandising, pathology lab technicians, healthcare equipment technicians, construction site staff including crane and other construction and earth-moving equipment, mechanised farming equipment operators, administrative and secretarial functions, tourism guides, fitness instructors, etc to list just a few. Yet, less than 6 per cent of this huge mass of workers receives any form of vocational training.
The current landscape of vocational training in India comprises about 5,500 industrial training institutes and about 1,750 polytechnics. China, having a population not much bigger than India, has over 500,000 such institutes. India offers about 175 trade-training programs. The US, with a population just about a quarter of India’s, offers over 1,500 trade-training programmes. It is no surprise that while over 18 million currently enter the employment market every year (and this number poised to increase every year for decades to come), the current vocational training infrastructure caters to just about 2.5 million per year and even there, the quality of training so imparted is at best “average” and at worst, totally ineffective when benchmarked with the needs of the job. Hence, probably only 5 per cent of Indian youth is single-skill vocationally trained compared with 96 per cent in Korea and 22 per cent in even Botswana!
The government has, of course, constituted the National Skill Development Mission and has allocated Rs 31,000 crore in the Eleventh Plan for the development of skills in 20 high-growth sectors, with the objective to create 70 million additional jobs by 2012. However, this quantum of investment will still fall woefully short of the immediate and emerging needs of the economy which needs a much better-skilled workforce both to improve the capacity of output, and for quality and productivity improvements all around. Hence, what India needs is a massive influx of private investment as well as leveraging government and private resources through innovative public-private partnership models.
Notwithstanding policy hurdles, India is seeing an increasing quantum of investment in the education sector. However, a lot of this investment is being directed either to more elitist primary schools, including the much fancied IB (international baccalaureate) ones, or to the more alluring engineering, dentistry and business schools, and the entrance exam-focused training bucket shops. Sadly, the pioneering example of NIIT has yet to be determinedly and successfully replicated across other vocational training areas even though, as NIIT has so successfully demonstrated, there is a proven business model. Further, as NIIT has also demonstrated, some of these businesses can be grown to multi-thousand crore in revenue size and can be multinational businesses for even more growth in the future. Admittedly, it may not be glamorous to set up a training business for barbers and beauticians (even when there are over 1 billion heads and bodies to be taken care of on a near monthly basis) or a training business focusing on training cooks and chefs for the tens of thousands of new food services outlets India will see coming up in the next decade. However, the balance sheets of such training businesses can be very attractive and the gains for the economy even more impressive.

Murkowski Calls on HHS to Address Native Youth Suicide

2009-05-29T19:12:00.000+05:30

From a Lisa Murkowski press release:
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to fund a $1.2 million study designed to reduce the high rate of suicides among Alaska natives.
In a letter to the Secretary, Murkowski pointed to a study proposed by Commissioner Warren Zapol of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission that would examine the mental and behavioral health issues facing Alaska Native populations living in the Arctic. Zapol’s study would be conducted by the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences.
This new study would seek to determine the specific genes that contribute to major depressive disorders and alcohol abuse leading to targeted treatment options for Alaska Natives.
"According to the Indian Health Service, suicide rates for American Indians and Alaska Natives are 70 percent higher than the general United States Population," Murkowski wrote. "Suicide is the second leading cause of death for American Indian and Alaska Native youth ages 10-24. Males are especially at risk and commit suicide at a rate five times higher than females."
Murkowski’s letter comes in the wake of a May 16, 2009, article in the Anchorage Daily News that highlighted the tragic story of a 17-year-old girl from the community of Selawik, in the Northwest Arctic region of Alaska. The girl’s suicide triggered a string of suicide attempts within the community.
"Youth suicides devastate rural communities which are characterized by tightly knit extended families" Murkowski wrote. "The Maniilaq Association, the regional tribal health care provider for the Northwest Arctic, has reported that in 2008, for every suicide in their region, there were 13 suicide attempts."
Murkowski added: "Suicide affects our Native communities in epidemic proportions and we must do all that we can to support our clinicians, communities and leaders to address the issue of youth suicide" she wrote in her letter to Sebelius. "We must bring the best science to Alaska Native communities."

Ohio prison director demoted for handcuffing youth

2009-04-17T11:53:00.000+05:30

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The state has demoted the superintendent of a youth prison after she twice handcuffed herself to out-of-control youths to help calm them down.
Reports obtained by The Associated Press show the superintendent says she handled the unruly teens in what she thought was the safest way possible.
The Ohio Department of Youth Services demoted Beth Oprisch (OH'-prish) from superintendent of Indian River Juvenile Correctional Facility in northeast Ohio.
The 47-year-old Oprisch started a new job Wednesday in the agency's parole division in Columbus.
The reports say Oprisch handcuffed herself to one youth on Feb. 5 and another on Feb. 17 as the teens grew increasingly unmanageable.
The state also reprimanded four other Indian River administrators.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Some other posts:Early warning clue for dementia
Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban'
Israel reopens crossings into Gaza
Indian Republic Day
India's crown prince vs 'messiah of hate '
Rahul Gandhi vs Varun Gandhi
ELECTION EYE - Congress-Left could come together after polls
Some Interesting Factoids and Trivia About the Indian General Elections 2009
BharatMatrimony conducts survey on "Marriage & its Values" among singles & ....
India's election campaigns get Net-savvy
The World's Most Important Election
Nigeria: Youth urged to drop gun for ICT
High security in India ahead of national elections: New Gandhi touted as future prime minister

High security in India ahead of national elections: New Gandhi touted as future prime minister

2009-04-16T12:08:00.000+05:30

Indians begin voting in epic elections Millions of Indians are due to vote in the first round of the country’s 15th general elections on Thursday.
Voters in 124 constituencies will be taking part in Thursday’s vote. There are four other phases between then and the last phase on 13 May.
More than 700 million Indians overall are eligible to vote for seats in the lower house of parliament.

The incumbent Congress-led coalition government is facing a challenge from the main opposition BJP-led alliance.
It is also competing against a third front of communist and regional parties in a poll that is too close to call.
Results are due on 16 May and a new parliament must be in place by 2 June.
Voting takes place on Thursday in constituencies spread across the country, including volatile areas in north and central India.
States where voting takes place are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Lakshwadeep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
More than two million security personnel are expected to be deployed, especially after a string of recent attacks by Maoist rebels who have threatened to disrupt the vote.
Thousands of police and paramilitary troops have been deployed across the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, which will vote for both national and state assembly representatives. “We have taken every necessary measure to ensure peaceful, free and fair elections. Now you go out and vote,” state director general of police AK Mohanty said in the state capital, Hyderabad.

Thousands of troops have also been placed on alert in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which has the most seats in the national parliament. Polling takes place for 16 of the state’s 80 seats on Thursday.
Security concerns are also likely to be high in the eastern state of Bihar, where heavily armed Maoist rebels on Wednesday attacked a paramilitary camp set up for the elections, wounding one soldier, senior police official Vikas Vaibhav told the Associated Press news agency.
The district where the attack took place is 140km (87 miles) south-west of the state capital, Patna. It too goes to the polls Thursday.
Neither of the two main parties in the election - Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - is expected to gain a clear majority.
Both may have to depend on the support of smaller parties to form a government - and correspondents say the campaign rhetoric in recent days has become increasingly bitter.
While security and the economy are key election issues, especially after last year’s attacks in Mumbai (Bombay), global economic meltdown and local and regional issues are all expected to be key issues.

Meanwhile Reuters reports, Rahul Gandhi’s speech may have been wooden and the applause sparse, but that didn’t matter for dozens of party cadres who trailed his every move on a campaign stop in northern India.
For the man speaking is heir to the powerful Gandhi dynasty, a prime minister-in-waiting and the poster boy who may give the ruling Congress party a winning election edge.
The lukewarm crowd response highlights the uncertainty that surrounds Gandhi, 38, in his biggest political test: an election in which a Congress-led coalition is battling the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance.
Congress’s official candidate is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but at 76 and undergoing heart surgery this year, many in the party see the youthful Gandhi as his replacement.
Despite campaigning only as a party youth leader, the election is testing his national appeal and whether his fame and family heritage can translate into winning votes from the kind of ordinary Indians who attended this Punjab rally.
To his supporters, he is an honest, tech-savvy politician appealing to the two thirds of Indians that are aged under 35. He comes from an excellent political bloodline as his father, grandmother and great grandfather were all prime ministers.
Gandhi himself has played down any role as a prime minister, focusing on introducing more grassroots democracy into the Congress party, especially its youth wing.
“India is a young country. What India youth wants is empowerment,” he told reporters after the rally.
“We are not going to see it after three months, but give it seven years,” he added, referring to the rise of a new generation of younger politicians in the Congress party.
The party plays on his youth, contrasting him with 81-year-old BJP leader L.K Advani.
He has zigzagged across India in the last few years, often staying the night in farmers’ homes under the glare of camera lights, in what has been his political apprenticeship.
But even some supporters say his time may not have come.
“I don’t think he’s ready yet. He needs more administrative exposure,” said Raninder Singh, a Congress candidate who accompanied Gandhi on the rally. “But the time will come when he’s ready. To his credit, he’s already managed to carry a cross section of the party with him.”
If Congress wins the election, Gandhi could first take a ministerial post, perhaps in education which has been one of his major political interests.
Some analysts predict that both Congress and the BJP could fare badly in the election, leading to a weak coalition of regional parties that may only last two years.
That may herald an end to the elderly leadership of both BJP and Congress, giving Gandhi the chance to introduce a fresh generation.
“This election is like the semi-final,” said Yashwant Deshmukh, head of the C-Voter Polling Agency.

Some other posts:Early warning clue for dementia
Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban'
Israel reopens crossings into Gaza
Indian Republic Day
India's crown prince vs 'messiah of hate '
Rahul Gandhi vs Varun Gandhi
ELECTION EYE - Congress-Left could come together after polls
Some Interesting Factoids and Trivia About the Indian General Elections 2009
BharatMatrimony conducts survey on "Marriage & its Values" among singles & ....
India's election campaigns get Net-savvy
The World's Most Important Election
Nigeria: Youth urged to drop gun for ICT

Nigeria: Youth urged to drop gun for ICT

2009-04-15T22:35:00.000+05:30

Governors from the Niger delta region in Nigeria are creating more constructive ways of engaging the growing number of restive youth in the oil rich region. One of the ways is a scholarship program for a full time training in Information Communication Technology (ICT) in an Indian University.
About 200 beneficiaries left Nigeria for India last week for the one year sponsored program. “The program is one of the off-the –street campaigns of the government of that country. We are concerned about the spate of kidnapping and the high level of unemployment, so we are channeling the creativity of this active young people to a more creative venture that will empower them and make them independent” said Tiemi Sylver, governor of Nigeria’s Bayelsa State.The governor said the scheme will grant scholarship to 1,000 youths to be trained annually in ICT in India.President Musa Yar’dua also offered to grant amnesty to restive youths in the delta who have constituted a militia group in the oil region. “We support the call for amnesty for any one or group that is repentant and is willing to drop arms and embrace dialogue” said Emmanuel Uduagha, governor of Delta State. The governor argues that a lot of so called militants are hiding in the creeks because they are scared to confront the outside world.The leadership of MEND, a popular militia group has rejected the Presidents offer of amnesty on grounds that it requires a blue print of the Presidents’ plan for the “sovereign survival of the Niger delta people” a document signed by MEND, noted.

:Victor Emeruwa, AfricaNews reporter in Lagos, Nigeria

Some other posts:Early warning clue for dementia
Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban'
Israel reopens crossings into Gaza
Indian Republic Day
India's crown prince vs 'messiah of hate '
Rahul Gandhi vs Varun Gandhi
ELECTION EYE - Congress-Left could come together after polls
Some Interesting Factoids and Trivia About the Indian General Elections 2009
BharatMatrimony conducts survey on "Marriage & its Values" among singles & ....
India's election campaigns get Net-savvy

The World's Most Important Election

2009-04-15T22:07:00.000+05:30

Relatively little rested economically on the result of last November's US presidential election. John McCain was politically well towards the big-government wing of the Republican party, while successful Democrat Barack Obama, after an initial burst of public spending, will be forced by economic reality to retrench during his remaining years in office.There is, however, an election pending that will have a far more important economic effect on the fate of mankind, causing a fifth of the world's population to remain mired in poverty or to move rapidly towards economic growth and prosperity. That election is in India. The British colonial oppressors did a fairly decent job in India, but they got one thing horribly wrong: their exit. Apart from causing a civil war with 500,000 casualties, they essentially handed the country on a plate to the leftist Congress Party, run by economic illiterates (not that British economic policy between Neville Chamberlain and Margaret Thatcher was that much better). As a result, India suffered for the next four decades in an economic backwater with around 1% per capita economic growth and an endless proliferation of bureaucracy, the "permit raj".There was a gradual easing of controls in the 1980s and a somewhat more vigorous one after 1991 under prime minister Narasimha Rao and his finance minister Manmohan Singh, but Indian economic growth thereafter appeared to relapse back into its usual torpor until the advent in 1998 of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Vajpayee government pursued market-opening policies with considerably more vigor than any of its predecessors, with the result that by 2004 Indian growth was running around 8% annually and the country had been included among Goldman Sachs' BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) group of emerging markets that would in future dominate the planet.In an exhibition of voter ingratitude unequalled since the British electorate threw out Winston Churchill in 1945, the Indian electorate in 2004 rejected Vajpayee and the BJP so strongly that a Congress-dominated coalition was formed under Manmohan Singh. There was much talk of further economic reform, but in reality reform essentially ceased, although economic growth didn't.However, like all Congress governments the Manmohan administration proved to be addicted to public spending and fiscal indiscipline, with the spending outcome for the 2008-09 fiscal year being fully 20% above the budget estimate for that year. Since most Indian states also run budget deficits, the overall Indian fiscal deficit has widened in the global downturn to around 12% of gross domestic product. The Economist poll of forecasters predicts Indian growth of 5% in 2009 and 6.4% in 2010, but if the fiscal deficit persists at these levels, that growth will almost certainly be curtailed by financing difficulties. Indian inflation in the 12 months to February ran at 9.6%, while three-month interest rates are currently at 4.5%.In spite of India's magnificent export successes in last decade, the current account deficit is already running at 3.7% of gross domestic product (GDP). In other words, under present policies, the Indian economy is an accident waiting to happen, with an inflationary crisis and seizure of financial markets the most likely form for the breakdown - the rupee is already down 20% against the US dollar in the past year and could easily collapse if things go wrong enough.Nevertheless, the potential of the Indian economy remains enormous, if only the country can find a proper government. The announcement last week of Tata Motors' new US$2,000 Nano automobile demonstrates why. The combination of a vast supply of extremely cheap labor and a domestic market that can provide manufacturers a large enough domestic market for their products for economies of scale to be achieved is rare.Outside of India and China, emerging market automobile producers have the enormous problem of an inadequate domestic market, so are forced to rely on export markets, in which it is very difficult to achieve enough volume quickly. Malaysia's Proton automobile company had most of the advantages of Tata, but without an adequate domestic market it was never able to expand enough to make itself truly internationally competitive.However, the Tata saga also demonstrates India's problems. Tata had originally intended to launch the Nano last October, manufacturing it at Singur, in the state of West Bengal. It had obtained permission from the Communist government of West Bengal and had spent $350 million on the plant. Nevertheless, in early October, it was forced by local protests led by West Bengal's opposition party, the Congress offshoot Trinamool Congress, to abandon the plant and transfer production to a new factory in Gujarat, which will not be ready until 2010.Meanwhile, Tata is being forced to manufacture Nanos at its plant in Pantnagar, a facility that will only allow annual production of 50,000 Nanos, compared with the 250,000 that Tata believed it could sell in its first year - and with 51,000 advance orders in the first 10 days from the product's official launch, Tata's estimate of the Nano's sales potential may even have been low.The stakes in the Indian election are thus high. At one extreme of possible results, India can continue its progress as an emerging market with Chinese-style growth rates and a population that is expected to exceed China's by 2025. Such an India would be a highly important strategic balance to China, and a magnificent ally for the United States and Europe, balancing China and Russia's authoritarian leanings. Most important, over the next generation, it would lift a fifth of the world's population out of poverty.At the other extreme, India can suffer a financial crisis that ends the current spurt of growth, followed by a reversion to the "Hindu rate of growth", leaving the country mired in poverty, a problem rather than a solution to the world's geopoliticians, with conflict with nuclear-armed Pakistan an ever-present possibility and its myriad inhabitants everlastingly impoverished.The Indian election takes place in five phases between April 16 and May 13. The chance of the optimal outcome must be reckoned as slender. Vajpayee has retired from politics (he is 85) and the new BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani (himself 81) is not particularly economically oriented and has a history of Hindu extremism that may prove highly off-putting to Moslem voters and somewhat off-putting to moderates. Nevertheless, the reformist former finance minister (2002-04) Jaswant Singh is still active in the party, leading the opposition in the upper house of parliament and in this election standing for election in Darjeeling, West Bengal (at 71, he is a stripling by Indian political standards.)The economic failings of the Manmohan government have not yet become fully apparent. India is in the "stimulus" phase of excessive public spending when it creates spurious economic growth but has not yet run up against the financial constraints nor made fully apparent its disadvantage in accelerating inflation and "crowding out" private investment. Thus, a BJP absolute majority or a position so close to a majority that it could easily govern with the adherence only of like-minded free-market parties in the National Democratic Alliance is not very likely.The most likely outcome is a renewal of the Congress-dominated coalition, which is currently leading in opinion polls but without an absolute majority. Manmohan would presumably continue as nominal prime minister, although at 76 and in recovery from a January 2009 heart surgery, he may become increasingly a figurehead, deferring to Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, 38, the natural next leader of the dynastically dominated Congress. (Rahul is the son, grandson and great grandson of Congress Party Indian prime ministers).Since Congress is likely to expand only modestly from its current 150 seats (out of 545), even if Manmohan wished to return to his 1990s reformism, he would be unable to do so because the coalition would include communists or other anti-market elements. Rahul is Western-educated and has worked for the Monitor strategic consultancy, but his family tradition of state control make him an unlikely reformist, although in spite of his youth he would probably be more able to control the left of a Congress coalition than Manmohan.Given the weakness of Congress and BJP, it may well be that neither Advani nor Manmohan will be able to form a government, with regional parties holding the majority of seats in parliament. A group of those parties, mostly left-oriented, have formed a "Third Front", which would most likely ally with Congress, although its leader Mayawati, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, might be an alternative prime ministerial candidate.Mayawati has held no non-political jobs other than schoolteacher; it is thus interesting that in 2007-08, she was the highest taxpayer among Indian politicians, paying 260 million rupee (US$5.2 million) in tax. It's a pretty grim prospect. The chances are that after the dust clears in mid-May, India will elect another anti-market government, or possibly submerge itself for a couple of years in political squabbling. In either case, its stellar growth record is likely to come to an unpleasant end.Given the abdication of Russia also from serious pretensions as a growth market, the BRIC group of emerging growth markets will in that event have narrowed itself to BC. With the United States, Europe and Japan also mired in low growth and excessive budget deficits, the 2010s are likely to be a miserable global decade.

Martin Hutchinson is the author of Great Conservatives (Academica Press, 2005)

Some other posts:Early warning clue for dementia

Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban'

Israel reopens crossings into Gaza

Indian Republic Day

India's crown prince vs 'messiah of hate '

Rahul Gandhi vs Varun Gandhi

ELECTION EYE - Congress-Left could come together after polls

Some Interesting Factoids and Trivia About the Indian General Elections 2009

BharatMatrimony conducts survey on "Marriage & its Values" among singles & ....

India's election campaigns get Net-savvy

2009-04-15T17:05:00.000+05:30

news analysis INDIA -- Parties, candidates and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in the country are increasingly using Web 2.0 tools to campaign and raise awareness among voters. But, this medium has limited reach, say industry watchers.
Barack Obama effectively used online tools to rally supporters, campaign, defend attacks and communicate with constituents.
In India, the forthcoming general assembly elections have seen many local politicians follow Obama's footsteps, and the Internet is poised to play a larger role in these elections--to held in five phases on Apr. 16, 23 and 30, as well as May 7 and 13.
With nearly 700 million people eligible to cast their votes, political parties are busy wooing first-time voters and the country's tech-savvy middle class. Indian politicians have turned to YouTube, Facebook, Orkut, podcasts, live chats, Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools, to reach out to the electorate.
Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) octogenarian prime ministerial candidate, L. K. Advani, is reaching out to youths through live chats and his Web site. Advani is also on Facebook, Orkut and YouTube, while his colleague and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, uses tools such as podcasts, Twitter, Google SMS and widgets.
"Social networking is an innovative tool at the hands of some politicians," Abhijeet Saxena, CEO of Netcore Solutions, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail. "However, it does not influence as many people as it does in the West," he noted. A mobile marketing services company, Netcore is handling BJP's mobile campaign.
Several parties including left-wing Communist Party of India (Marxist), as well as politicians such as Advani and V. K. Malhotra, have created dedicated Web sites for their election campaign.
Supporters have also created groups on social networking sites such as Facebook and Orkut, to rally voters. Ruling party Indian National Congress' youth wing leader, Rahul Gandhi, for instance, currently has over 3,000 supporters on Facebook. Several politicians are also on Twitter, including Congress' S. M. Krishna and BJP's V K Malhotra.
The country's largest opposition party, BJP is undoubtedly the most active on cyberspace, and has banner ads--spouting "Advani for PM" messages--running on a plethora of Web sites.
"Their strategy is akin to carpet bombing," Santosh Desai, CEO of Future Brands said in a phone interview.
Wooing educated middle-class According to Navin Khemka, senior vice president of media services company ZenithOptimedia, local politicians are "trying to ape Obama". The U.S. president raised half US$500 million online during his 21-month campaign for the White House, dramatically ushering in a new digital era in presidential funds-raising.
But, in India, the situation is quite different.
Khemka explained in a phone interview: "In the U.S., Internet penetration rate is nearly 80 percent. In India, there're only around 60 million Internet users, making up less than 6 percent of the total population."
Concurred Saxena: "Cyberspace is not a tool for the masses. Though the number of Internet users may have grown, it is still not very effective." While political parties are using the medium, they are not relying solely on the Internet, he noted.
The Internet, however, provides a way to appeal to the youth. Over half of India's 1.15 billion population is younger than 25 years, and 50 million new voters are estimated to have entered the electorate since 2004. Many first-time voters are likely to be connected via Internet and mobile phones.
Khemka said: "Politicians like Modi and Advani, want to project themselves as progressive, and the Internet is a great medium to do that. [These politicians] are investing [in the medium] ahead of the curve."
"BJP has capable strategists managing their Internet campaign, [but] mass media plays no role in Indian elections," Desai said. What matters more is the politicians' performance during their previous term, and other factors such as money and goodies, doled out to voters as part of a host of other populist measures undertaken to increase the vote bank.
Likening India's online campaigning to "buying an insurance policy", Desai said the Web is the first tool deployed to capture political rhetoric. For instance, the Pink Chaddi Campaign against the Sri Ram Sene took birth on social networking sites.
Spreading awareness through Web Using the Internet as leverage is a strategy also used by a host of NGOs and non-profit organizations, such as the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy and Public Interest Foundation, These entities have used the Web, alongside traditional media including radio and television, to launch initiatives geared toward raising awareness among the electorate.
For instance, Janaagraha and Tata Tea's Jaago Re! One Billion Votes is a nation-wide campaign to urge Indian citizens, especially the youth, to register to vote. Jaago Re also has an active social media presence with over 16,000 members on Facebook and 13,000 members on Orkut.
Similarly, National Election Watch (NEW) is a nationwide campaign comprising more than 1,200 NGOs and other citizen-led organizations, working on electoral reforms to improve democracy and governance in India.
Some organizations are also helping the electorate better know their candidates. According to figures released by the ADR, 222 candidates--or 16 percent of 1,425 candidates--running in the election's first phase have criminal records.
Several of these organizations are active on social networking Web sites, where the Public Interest Foundation's No Criminals in Politics campaign, for instance, has over 5,000 supporters on Facebook.
Most of these campaigns are targeted at India's middle-class, which has turned increasingly apathetic toward polls. "In cities, nearly 50 percent of people do not vote," Khemka said.
Because voters in this segment of the population "can make very educated choices" Saxena noted that several organizations and groups are trying to get the middle and upper classes to vote." Such attempts can help pave the way to a more responsible government, he said.
But a better medium, Saxena said, is mobile telephony. "Mobile has 10 times more reach than the Internet, and SMS is the most common medium after voice," he said.
:By Swati Prasad
Swati Prasad is a freelance IT writer based in India.

Some other posts:
Early warning clue for dementia
Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban'
Israel reopens crossings into Gaza
Indian Republic Day
India's crown prince vs 'messiah of hate '
Rahul Gandhi vs Varun Gandhi
ELECTION EYE - Congress-Left could come together after polls
Some Interesting Factoids and Trivia About the Indian General Elections 2009
BharatMatrimony conducts survey on "Marriage & its Values" among singles & ....

BharatMatrimony conducts survey on "Marriage & its Values" among singles & parents across major cities

2009-04-15T12:35:00.000+05:30

BharatMatrimony, India's most trusted matrimony portal with over 1.5 crore members worldwide, conducted an interesting survey on ‘Marriage & its values’ in major cities – Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mysore, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Delhi, Ludhiana, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Madurai, Surat, Pune & Ahmedabad
BharatMatrimony will be celebrating April 14th as Matrimony Day – a day to celebrate and experience the joys of matrimony. This day will specially mark the significance of marriage in the current trend and will drive singles to get married and share moments of togetherness. The portal has been recognized by Limca Book of Records for record number of documented marriages online.
Some interesting statistics received in the survey throws light on Marriage & Its values among singles & parents.
Below are the some of the interesting survey findings:
Ø 71 % singles believe in the institution of marriage
Ø 76 % singles feel marriage is must in life
Ø 57 % singles say marriage will make them happy
Ø 56% singles say Mutual understanding / sharing is the most important aspect of marriage
Ø 65 % singles are confident that its possible to maintain a happy married life and a good career together after marriage
Ø 58 % parents perceive their life partner us a true companion
Ø 52 % parents prefer the newly wedded couple to stay along with parents
Ø 37 % parents feel Mutual understanding constitute a successful marriage
Ø 61 % parents say marriage is an important part of life to be experienced
Talking about the survey Ms. Uma Thenappan Head of Marketing Consim Group, said, “We at BharatMatrimony conduct surveys on a regular basis to understand the pulse of the youngsters and their opinion on marriages. With changing times one’s outlook for matrimony remains unchanged since inception, and hence to promote this concept further we are delighted to recognize April 14th, which marks the importance of marriage and also drives singles to experience the joys of matrimony. This survey will garner interest among singles/prospects on matrimony being valued in this new trend”

Some other posts:
Early warning clue for dementia
Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban'
Israel reopens crossings into Gaza
Indian Republic Day
India's crown prince vs 'messiah of hate
'Rahul Gandhi vs Varun Gandhi
ELECTION EYE - Congress-Left could come together after polls
Some Interesting Factoids and Trivia About the Indian General Elections 2009

Some Interesting Factoids and Trivia About the Indian General Elections 2009

2009-04-14T20:51:00.000+05:30

On April 16th, 2009 the first phase of the voting for the Indian general elections will begin and conclude on May 13th, 2009. This is the 15th general elections in India since it became independent in 1947.
There are 714 million people that are eligible to vote. About 1,368,430 electronic voting machines have been deployed across the country. This is the first time where quite a few states have been redistricted to allow more urban representation. Karnataka, especially Bangalore, is a case in point, where because of the redistricting there is an increase in the number of seats from the urban areas, when compared to the rural ones.
India’s population is over 1 billion and about 60 percent of the population is under the age of 35 years. There has been a well-coordinated multi-pronged media strategy to reach out to young voters, who form a significant chuck of the Indian electorate. Perhaps for the first time filmmakers and actors from the Indian film industry, especially Bollywood have stepped out of their comfort zone and pitched in to help in either election campaign and voter mobilization. According to one media report there are 40 million more voters in this election, when compared to the previous election held in 2004.
What is significantly different about this general election is the amount of information that is available to the Indian voters through different media channels and languages. For instance, tech giants Yahoo! and Google have pitched in and created election special sites that is a mashup of maps, videos, audio and print. Most mainstream media have created election special sites for their online, broadcast and print versions. And then there is the ubiquitous mobile phones where every mobile user gets targeted SMS or voice messages from various political parties.
The Election Commission of India has made available a wide range of information right from how to become a registered voter to political candidates, who have been disqualified to contest in this general elections.
According to the Election Commission of India there are a little over 1,00o political parties contesting at the local and national level according to this rather absorbing list of the various political parties and their political symbols. The Election Commission has done such a thorough job that they have also printed a list of free symbols that can be used by the political parties including kite, pressure cooker, diesel pump and kettle among others.
The Election Commission has made available a lengthy document that is 333 pages long that lists 3423 candidates, who have been been disqualified to participate in this election. And perhaps for the first time there is an online website called No Criminals that is geared towards educating voters about political candidates that have a criminal record and stop them from contesting elections. According to one news repor the Congress Party has the most number of rich politicians in the country: 121 members.
There are quite a few myths that have built over the years about the Indian electorate. Yogendra Yadav, a well-known psephologist breaks some of the myths in this article published by the BBC. One of the myths that Yadav dispels is that currently more Indian women exercise their right to vote when compared to Indian women. Also, there has been a decline in the number of women, who turn to their husbands for political advice when it comes to voting. But, he does point out that Indian women tend to follow in the footsteps of their husbands when it comes to voting for political parties.

Some other posts:
Early warning clue for dementia
Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban'
Israel reopens crossings into Gaza
Indian Republic Day India's crown prince vs 'messiah of hate'
Rahul Gandhi vs Varun Gandhi
ELECTION EYE - Congress-Left could come together after polls

ELECTION EYE - Congress-Left could come together after polls

2009-04-14T19:33:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The following is a snapshot of recent developments in India's general election campaign. (The sources are mentioned in brackets).
* The Congress party and the communists could come together after the election, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in West Bengal.
But Prakash Karat, chief of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the largest of the left parties, ruled out chances of a post-poll alliance with Congress. (The Times of India, TV)
* Rahul Gandhi, son of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, said he was not interested in becoming prime minister.
Addressing a media conference, Gandhi said the top post was not his aim and he is striving for democratisation of the Congress party and adequate representation for youth in the party leadership. (The Indian Express)
* Prime Minister Manmohan Singh criticised the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for weak leadership. Singh singled out Lal Krishna Advani, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, saying he was strong in speech but weak in action. (The Indian Express)
* Lal Krishna Advani, the prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party, India's main opposition, has demanded an apology from Sonia Gandhi, the Congress party chief for describing the BJP as a bigger threat to the country's stability than militant groups. (Hindustan Times)

Some other posts:

Early warning clue for dementia

Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban'

Israel reopens crossings into Gaza

Indian Republic Day
India's crown prince vs 'messiah of hate'

Rahul Gandhi vs Varun Gandhi

2009-04-14T16:49:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI — They are as different as chalk and cheese -- India's political "crown prince" Rahul Gandhi and his estranged first cousin Varun Gandhi, dubbed the "messiah of hate" by local media. Engaging, earnest and touted as a future premier, Rahul, 38, has become "the young face" of the ruling Congress, in campaigning for general elections starting this week, said columnist Parsa Venkateshwar Rao. Rahul "represents a new generation," Rao said.

In contrast, Varun, 29, jailed on charges of inciting Hindu-Muslim hatred while stumping for the opposition Hindu nationalists has become a spectacle of scandal embroiling the Gandhis -- the first family of Indian politics.
Congress has denounced Varun's diatribes, in which he threatened to cut off the hands of anyone who dared harm India's majority Hindus, as a betrayal of the secular convictions of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
"It goes against all the principles the Gandhi family has stood for," said Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul's sister.
Rahul, Priyanka and Varun are heirs to a dynasty that has given India three Congress prime ministers -- its first Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv -- since independence from Britain in 1947.
And Congress believes it has another winner in Rahul as it fights an election in which 100 million people will be first-time voters.
Rahul, whose dimpled face is splashed on posters, is chasing the youth vote in a campaign in which the prime ministerial incumbent Manmohan Singh is 76 and his main challenger, L.K. Advani, is 81.
Gandhi, who heads the party's youth wing, shrugs off questions about whether he entertains prime ministerial hopes, saying his goal for the next two years is persuading young people to get politically involved.
"There's going to be a space for a new type of politics," he said on the campaign trail, promising to change a system which has long been the preserve of fixers, cronies, criminal suspects and people with influence.
Asked about his longer-term future, he will only say he is a "soldier of the party." Premier Singh, a family loyalist, is widely seen as keeping the job warm for Rahul.
Since independence, power in Congress has threaded from one generation of the family to the next and now rests with Rahul's Italian-born mother Sonia who is Congress president.
It was Sonia who cradled her mother-in-law Indira as she lay dying after being shot by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.
Sonia, who arrived in India in her early 20s as a bride to live in the Gandhi joint family, entered politics after her husband Rajiv -- Rahul's father -- was blown up by a Tamil rebel suicide bomber in 1991.
She said she "fought like a tigress" to prevent Rajiv, a commercial pilot, from joining politics after his brother Sanjay -- Indira's closest advisor and viewed as her political heir -- died piloting a small plane.
After Indira's assassination, Sonia feared prophetically politics might mean a violent death for her husband too.
Maneka Gandhi, Sanjay's widow and Varun's mother, became a family outcast after her husband's death when Indira made it clear she would play no political role.
Varun's anti-Muslim outbursts, constantly replayed on Indian television, have deepened the family schism.
Sonia was persuaded by Congress to become leader to rescue the party's fortunes after Rajiv's assassination, overcoming stagefright and stumbling Hindi to lead the party to unexpected victory in 2004.
Rahul, meanwhile, has thrown himself into politics, criss-crossing India to drill home his message of change.
"These pan-India pilgrimages give the Gandhis the air they belong to the whole country -- something other regional leaders can't do," said analyst Rao.
Such is the family's aura, many party supporters can't conceive of a future without a Gandhi in charge.
"Rahul's leadership right now is very important to lead the country into a next era," Oscar Fernandes, a Congress leader said.
But critics decry the need for continuation of the dynasty, calling it at odds with India's emerging economic superpower status.
"What is questionable is the assumption -- shared by his family, his close associates and apparently by the man himself -- that the top job in party and government is his for the asking," said historian Ramachandra Guha.
Posts "should be filled on the basis of competence," he wrote in Outlook magazine.
The family declared in 2004 it had decided Rahul should formally enter politics, although his younger sister Priyanka is seen as the more charismatic. She has promoted her bachelor brother while she raises two children.

Some other posts:
Early warning clue for dementia
Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban'
Israel reopens crossings into Gaza
Indian Republic Day

India's crown prince vs 'messiah of hate'

2009-04-14T13:29:00.000+05:30

They are as different as chalk and cheese -- India's political "crown prince" Rahul Gandhi and his estranged first cousin Varun Gandhi, dubbed the "messiah of hate" by local media.
Engaging, earnest and touted as a future premier, Rahul, 38, has become "the young face" of the ruling Congress, in campaigning for general elections starting this week, said columnist Parsa Venkateshwar Rao.
Rahul "represents a new generation," Rao said.
In contrast, Varun, 29, jailed on charges of inciting Hindu-Muslim hatred while stumping for the opposition Hindu nationalists has become a spectacle of scandal embroiling the Gandhis -- the first family of Indian politics.
Congress has denounced Varun's diatribes, in which he threatened to cut off the hands of anyone who dared harm India's majority Hindus, as a betrayal of the secular convictions of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
"It goes against all the principles the Gandhi family has stood for," said Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul's sister.
Rahul, Priyanka and Varun are heirs to a dynasty that has given India three Congress prime ministers -- its first Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv -- since independence from Britain in 1947.
And Congress believes it has another winner in Rahul as it fights an election in which 100 million people will be first-time voters.
Rahul, whose dimpled face is splashed on posters, is chasing the youth vote in a campaign in which the prime ministerial incumbent Manmohan Singh is 76 and his main challenger, L.K. Advani, is 81.
Gandhi, who heads the party's youth wing, shrugs off questions about whether he entertains prime ministerial hopes, saying his goal for the next two years is persuading young people to get politically involved.
"There's going to be a space for a new type of politics," he said on the campaign trail, promising to change a system which has long been the preserve of fixers, cronies, criminal suspects and people with influence.
Asked about his longer-term future, he will only say he is a "soldier of the party." Premier Singh, a family loyalist, is widely seen as keeping the job warm for Rahul.
Since independence, power in Congress has threaded from one generation of the family to the next and now rests with Rahul's Italian-born mother Sonia who is Congress president.
It was Sonia who cradled her mother-in-law Indira as she lay dying after being shot by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.
Sonia, who arrived in India in her early 20s as a bride to live in the Gandhi joint family, entered politics after her husband Rajiv -- Rahul's father -- was blown up by a Tamil rebel suicide bomber in 1991.
She said she "fought like a tigress" to prevent Rajiv, a commercial pilot, from joining politics after his brother Sanjay -- Indira's closest advisor and viewed as her political heir -- died piloting a small plane.
After Indira's assassination, Sonia feared prophetically politics might mean a violent death for her husband too.
Maneka Gandhi, Sanjay's widow and Varun's mother, became a family outcast after her husband's death when Indira made it clear she would play no political role.
Varun's anti-Muslim outbursts, constantly replayed on Indian television, have deepened the family schism.
Sonia was persuaded by Congress to become leader to rescue the party's fortunes after Rajiv's assassination, overcoming stagefright and stumbling Hindi to lead the party to unexpected victory in 2004.
Rahul, meanwhile, has thrown himself into politics, criss-crossing India to drill home his message of change.
"These pan-India pilgrimages give the Gandhis the air they belong to the whole country -- something other regional leaders can't do," said analyst Rao.
Such is the family's aura, many party supporters can't conceive of a future without a Gandhi in charge.
"Rahul's leadership right now is very important to lead the country into a next era," Oscar Fernandes, a Congress leader said.
But critics decry the need for continuation of the dynasty, calling it at odds with India's emerging economic superpower status.
"What is questionable is the assumption -- shared by his family, his close associates and apparently by the man himself -- that the top job in party and government is his for the asking," said historian Ramachandra Guha.
Posts "should be filled on the basis of competence," he wrote in Outlook magazine.
The family declared in 2004 it had decided Rahul should formally enter politics, although his younger sister Priyanka is seen as the more charismatic. She has promoted her bachelor brother while she raises two children.

Some other posts:

Early warning clue for dementia

Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban'

Israel reopens crossings into Gaza

Indian Republic Day

Early warning clue for dementia

2009-04-11T00:17:00.000+05:30

Heightened activity in an area of the brain that deals with memory may give a subtle early warning of dementia decades later, UK research suggests.
It was known that carrying a rogue version of a gene called ApoE4 raised the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Now researchers have linked the same mutation with raised activity in an area of the brain called the hippocampus in people as young as 20.
The study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

The researchers, from Oxford University and Imperial College London, believe over-activity in the hippocampus may effectively wear it out, raising the risk of dementia in later life.
They hope their work could be a first step towards developing a simple method to identify people at increased risk of developing dementia.
They could then potentially be offered early treatment and lifestyle advice.
Carrying one copy of the rogue ApoE4 gene raises the risk of Alzheimer's by up to four times the normal, two copies by up to 10 times.
But not everyone with the rogue gene will develop the condition.
The latest study used scans to compare brain activity in 36 volunteers aged 20 to 35.
In those who carried the rogue gene activity in the hippocampus was consistently raised, even at rest.
Researcher Dr Clare Mackay said: "These are exciting first steps towards a tantalising prospect: a simple test that will be able to distinguish who will go on to develop Alzheimer's."
Caution urged
Dr Peter Nestor, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge, said: "The findings of this study are of considerable interest but should not be over-interpreted to mean that Alzheimer's disease is already starting to develop in this young, healthy group of volunteers.
"Whether or not the differences seen in those with ApoE4 can offer a clue to what makes some brains more likely to develop Alzheimer's is a challenge for future studies."
Rebecca Wood, of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said the research was a "significant development".
"It takes us a step closer to accurately predicting who will develop Alzheimer's before any symptoms become apparent.
"However, we are not yet at that stage; those with the ApoE4 genetic variant - while at a statistically higher risk of developing the disease than others - will still not develop Alzheimer's in most cases.
"The causes of Alzheimer's are complex - both genetic and environmental - and if we can understand these better, we can enhance efforts to help people lower their risks."
Professor Clive Ballard, director of research at the Alzheimer's Society, said: "This study paves the way for further research that could help us understand how brain function in younger adults may contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease later in life."

Strikes 'kill 27 Afghan Taleban'

2009-04-10T23:54:00.000+05:30

At least 27 suspected insurgents have been killed by international forces battling Taleban rebels in Afghanistan, the US-led coalition has said.

A coalition statement said air strikes killed 15 insurgents in Helmand province and another 12 in Uruzgan following attacks on two patrols.

The two areas of southern Afghanistan are centres of the Taleban rebellion.

Earlier, the coalition said five suspected militants were killed in an operation in neighbouring Kandahar.

On Thursday, the coalition acknowledged that it had killed at least four civilians and injured two others in a similar operation in the eastern province of Khost.

Patrols hit

Friday's violence flared in volatile areas of southern Afghanistan where US President Barack Obama plans to deploy thousands of new troops to battle the Taleban.

Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor in Helmand, said as many as 36 Taleban were killed, with 18 more wounded.

Mr Ahmadi also told the AFP news agency that six Afghan police were killed and seven injured in a Taleban attack near the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. It was not clear whether that attack was the spark for the coalition air strikes in Helmand.

The coalition statement also said there were no Afghan or coalition casualties in either the Helmand or Uruzgan clashes.

In Uruzgan, a joint patrol came under attack from insurgents.

The coalition said it took measures to protect nearby civilians before killing 12 insurgents there.

The US is preparing to raise troop levels in Afghanistan by sending 17,000 extra troops to the country, adding to 38,000 US soldiers already on the ground in Afghanistan along with 30,000 more from Nato armies and allies.

Israel reopens crossings into Gaza

2009-01-29T12:50:00.000+05:30

Israel has reopened crossing points into Gaza that it had closed following a bomb attack along the border but the top United Nations official in Gaza said that access still remained a problem with thousands of tons of aid sitting in Egypt, Jordan and the ports of Israel.

The Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) reported that the Kerem Shalom crossing, the Karni grain conveyor belt and the Nahal Oz fuel pipeline re-opened on Thursday.

However, the UN called for speedy delivery of aid and easier access.

"That aid should be right here, right now, helping the people who need it," the Director of Operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), John Ging, said.

While Israel has allowed increased shipments of basic commodities with 120 truckloads getting in on good days, the normal daily requirement is a minimum of 500.

Ging noted that the number of people receiving UN food aid in Gaza following Israel's devastating three-week offensive against Hamas had now gone up to 900,000.

The growing number of aid-dependent Palestinians is due to the lack of an economy in Gaza, as well as the recent damage and destruction, he said.

UNRWA is distributing millions of dollars of cash assistance to those who have had their houses damaged and need temporary shelters, he added.

Israel's offensive, launched with the stated aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks against it, is estimated to have killed some 1,300 Palestinians, and injured more than 5,300 others, 34 per cent of them children, and destroyed or badly damaged 21,000 homes.(AKS-29/01)

Indian Republic Day

2009-01-25T12:41:00.000+05:30

Firstly Happy Republic Day to all indians.

The Constitution of India came into force, and India declared itself as a "Republic" on January 26, 1950, a date thereafter celebrated annually as Republic Day in India. The Constitution had been drafted by the Constituent Assembly which was set up when India gained its independence from the British in 1947. This, in fact, was a deliberate act: the 26th of January was initially India's "Independence Day", one of Mahatma Gandhi's many symbolic acts during India's struggle for freedom against British colonial rule, and the adoption of the Constitution on this date was felt able to strengthen its initial meaning, one calling for Indians of all ages to declare their freedom from the British Raj. It is one of three national holidays in India, the other two being the nation's Independence Day on August 15 (since 1947) and the birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on October 2. And so, after the disposal of the Empire of India, King George VI was the last and only "Emperor" of modern India.
To mark this occasion, a grand parade is held in New Delhi, the Capital of India, beginning from Raisina Hill near the Rashtrapati Bhavan (Presidential Palace), along the Rajpath, past India Gate and on to the historic Red Fort in the old quarter of the city. Different infantry, cavalry and mechanized regiments of the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force march in formation, decked in all their finery and official decorations. The President of India, who is also the Commander in Chief of the Indian Armed Forces, takes the salute. The Chief Guest of the parade is a Head of State of another nation. The parade also includes many traditional dance troupes, to symbolize the cultural heritage of India. It traditionally ends with a colourful flypast by Air Force jets in a tiranga formation. Similar parades are held in the capitals of all the states of India, where the Governors of the respective states take the salute.

2009-01-04T16:54:00.001+05:30

Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza : GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Israeli troops gained control of the eastern section of northern Gaza Sunday, less than 24 hours after launching a ground incursion into the Palestinian territory, according to Palestinian security sources.

2009-01-04T16:37:00.000+05:30

Dozens killed in Iraqi pilgrimage suicide bombing :The dead included many Iranians who had come to mark the Shia holy period of Ashura, which commemorates a central event in the history of the movement.

2008-11-30T17:08:00.001+05:30

National

Govt to explain stand on Antulay before Par session ends

Govt to announce decision on petro price cuts in Parliament

Talks on seat-sharing with SP in UP, in progress: Rahul

International

UN wants comprehensive settlement to W. Asia conflict in 2009

Strong earthquake shakes Chile

Zardari to visit Afghanistan today to discuss anti-terror measures

Bussiness

Nuclear power will not be expensive: Govt

Fulfill SAIL iron ore need before pvt firms in Chiria: Govt

Govt mulls Export Promotion Council for AYUSH drugs

Sports

Linares Chess Championship is my next target: viswanathan Anand

Twenty 20 no threat to Test cricket : Morgan

BCCI calls off Indian cricket team's tour to Pak