Pravasi English March10

Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2010

M I N I S T R Y O F O V E R S E A S I N D I A N A F F A I R S

PRAVASI BHARATIYA

Budget 2010-11The Finance Minister presents a growth-oriented

roadmap that is also fiscally prudent

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Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2010

CONNECTING INDIA WITH ITS DIASPORA

PRAVASI BHARATIYA

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

Global village The ‘other India’ must

also have access to high-speed data and broadbandservices, says Sachin Pilot

6 Saudi sojournThe Prime Minister’s visit toSaudi Arabia helped firm upbilateral strategic ties between the two countries

34 Sea secretsScientists havefound over 5,000new marinespecies that laydeep,unexplored

32 Peopling thecolosseumThe CWGOrganisingCommittee hasreceived anoverwhelmingresponse fromaspiringvolunteers

4 Pravasi Bharatiya March 2010

Printed and Published by Mithlesh Kumar on behalf of the

Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs Akbar Bhavan, Chanakyapuri,

New Delhi — 110021 Website: http://moia.gov.in


Consulting Editor

K.G. Sreenivas

Pravasi Bharatiya is a monthlypublication. The views expressed in this journal are those of the contributors and

do not necessarily reflect the views of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA).All rights reserved. No part of this journal may

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Time: 4th century BC. Key Player: Kautilya, Economist,Thinker, Strategist, Adviser and Superstar Author on State-craft. Reference Manual: Arthasastra. Client: Emperor Chan-dragupta Maurya. Country: Vast expanses of modern-day

India. Key Message: The Ruler must be guided by Vision, Mission andMotivation in the art of governance. A message that has stood the testof time regardless of culture, geography and history, cast in stone asit were.

The Arthasastra continues to resonate with principles of sound gov-ernance and management, many of whose modern-day precepts seemto have unconsciously drawn abundantly on the iconic treatise. Refer-ring to economics and financial administration and the importance ofprudence, Kautilya says that prudence must be guided by Justice(nyaya) and Ethics (dharma) which, in turn, will ensure that allstakeholders get equal opportunity to earn a living. But, it should alsoprovide for investment for future growth. So, we have two key princi-ples: Growth, most certainly, but prudence too.

This seems to have been the cornerstone of Budget 2010-11 present-ed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Contrarian pulls were ofthe essence. On one hand, the Budget had to be growth oriented (highpublic expenditure on infrastructure and social sectors and lowertaxes to ensure higher disposable income in the hands of citizens),and, on the other, it perforce needed to lay down a fiscally prudent(lower fiscal deficit and government borrowing) road ahead. Thetasks, therefore, pulled in different directions — it called for a deft,balancing act. As noted economist and Fellow of the Delhi-based Cen-tre for Policy Research, Dr. Partha Mukhopadhya, says: “In the cir-cumstances he seems to have squared some circles.”

The key features of this year’s $221.75 billion budget has been a sig-nificant tax relief for individuals, higher outlays for infrastructuredevelopment and social welfare schemes, and many fiscal steps aimedat ensuring inclusive growth. Which brings us back to Kautilya’sArthasastra which recommends, with such prescience, the impor-tance of prudence, especially in troubled economic times. India hascome out relatively secure from the recent global financial and eco-nomic crisis. Therefore, it’s time to consolidate the gains made in thepast years and ensure collective and inclusive growth. This issue ofPravasi Bharatiya takes you through the Budget story.

On the international front, India and Denmark have signed a bilat-eral social security agreement to protect their workers in either coun-try against double payment of social security contributions. Denmarkis home to nearly 13,000 Indians, most of whom are either profession-als or are self-employed. The agreement will also provide for portabil-ity of the benefits at the time of relocation to home country or anythird country.

Read about these and more in the subsequent pages. We wish todraw your attention to cinema in particular. My Name is Khan, whichevoked powerful emotions and feelings across the globe, was a moviewhich genuinely attempted to recast stereotypes with reference toIslam and our Muslim brethren across the world. A compelling view-ing in fractious times such as ours…

—K.G. Sreenivas

CONTENTS

Pravasi Bharatiya March 2010 5

18

40 44

My Name Is Khancreates historyBesides raking in

millions world over,MNIK seeks to recast

stereotypes

TRAVELNatural paradiseMeghalaya is the landof majestic mountainsand sparkling lakes

BOOKSDawn of lightA Polish philosopherroots for treating lightas a cosmic mother

46NEWSMAKERSAmnesty’s Indian head Salil Shetty will take overfrom Irene Khan in June 2010

36

Growth,PrudenceFinance MinisterPranab Mukherjeedoes a deft balancingact to table a growth-oriented but fiscallyprudent Budget — thefourth of his career

12

Apathbreaking extradition treatywas among five pacts signedbetween India and Saudi Ara-

bia in the presence of Indian PrimeMinister Dr. Manmohan Singh andSaudi Arabia’s King Abdullah BinAbdul Aziz in Riyadh on February 28.

“The extradition treaty will followthe standard format such treaties fol-low across the world,” Latha Reddy,secretary (east) in the External AffairsMinistry, said. “It will lay down theprocedures to be followed by bothcountries. How you present an extra-dition request, how the proceduresare to be followed and the grounds

for making an extradition request.”The second pact was on transfer ofsentenced prisoners to their own

country. “We hope this treaty willfacilitate the transfer of Indian pris-oners back to India where they couldserve the remaining (part of the) sen-tence (given by a Saudi court)”.

The third pact was on cultural coop-eration. The fourth was on scientificand technological cooperationbetween India's Department of Sci-ence and Technology and Saudi Ara-bia’s King Abdulaziz City for Scienceand Technology (KACST). The fifthpact was on peaceful uses of outerspace between the Indian SpaceResearch Organisation and KACST.

— Aroonim Bhuyan/Riyadh

NEWS

6 Pravasi Bharatiya March 2010 Pravasi Bharatiya March 2010 7

RIYADH CALLING

Indian Prime Minister Dr. Man-mohan Singh on March 1 con-cluded a historic three-day visitto Saudi Arabia during which

10 bilateral pacts were signed andthe Riyadh Declaration was sealedto firm up ties between India and theinfluential Arabic Gulf nation.

In a rare honour accorded to a for-eign dignitary, Dr. Singh was invit-ed on March 1 to address the Majlis-ash-Shura, the Saudi parliament,where he not only sought invest-ments from the Islamic kingdom, butalso pressed the need for Pakistan to“act decisively against terrorism”.Dr. Singh said the challenge of ter-rorism was immense in Afghanistan,where a Taliban suicide attack onFebruary 26 in Kabul left 17 peopledead, including nine Indians. ThePrime Minister also said that Indiawould grow at the rate of 9 to 10 per-cent for the next 25 years.

Dr. Singh visited the King SaudUniversity, where an honorary doc-torate was conferred on him. He leftthe Saudi capital for home afterattending a function at the Indianembassy where he met representa-

tives of the 1.8 million Indian expa-triate community.

The Saudi visit was the first by anIndian prime minister after IndiraGandhi’s in 1982. Dr. Singh andSaudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Azizsigned the ‘Riyadh Declaration — ANew Era of Strategic Partnership’ onFebruary 28.

A pathbreaking extradition treatywas signed to enhance the existingsecurity cooperation between thetwo countries. Many other agree-ments were also signed.

Besides the king, Dr. Singh also

met Saudi Foreign Minister PrinceSaud Al-Faisal, Petroleum and Min-eral Resources Minister Ali Al-Naimi and, Commerce and IndustryMinister Zainal Alireza.

Dr. Singh arrived to an unprece-dented welcome in the Saudi capitalwhen, setting aside protocol, theSaudi crown prince and the entirecabinet turned up at the airport toreceive the Indian leader. KingAbdullah officially welcomed him ata grand ceremony where a guard ofhonour was presented and a statebanquet thrown in his honour.

India and Saudi Arabia signedthe Riyadh Declaration late onFebruary 28 night to put theirseal of approval on rapidly

growing ties that are movingtowards a strategic partnership cov-ering security, economic, defence,technology and political areas, andincluding joint combat of terrorism.

The ‘Riyadh Declaration — A NewEra of Strategic Partnership’ wassigned by Prime Minister Dr. Man-mohan Singh and Saudi Arabia’sKing Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz AlSaud at a ceremony at the Al RawadPalace in Riyadh.

“The two leaders reviewed the sta-tus of implementation of the his-toric Delhi Declaration signed in2006, and expressed their satisfac-tion at the steady expansion ofSaudi-India relations since the sign-ing of the Delhi Declaration,” thenew declaration read. “They re-emphasised the importance of fullimplementation of the Delhi Decla-ration through exchange of visits atministerial, official, business,academia, media and other levels.”

The Delhi Declaration, signedduring the historic visit of KingAbdullah to India in 2006 as thechief guest on India’s Republic Day,had charted out a new path of coop-eration between India and SaudiArabia across a range of fieldsincluding security, bilateral tradeand investment, culture, and sci-ence and technology. According to

the new declaration, keeping inview the development of relationsbetween the two countries, and thepotential for their further growth,the two leaders decided to raisetheir cooperation to a strategic part-nership covering security, econom-ic, defence and political areas.

“The two leaders reiterated theirmutual desire to develop as knowl-edge-based economies based onadvances in the areas of informa-tion technology, space science andother frontier technologies,” it stat-ed. The two leaders renewed theircondemnation of terrorism, statingthat it was global and threatened allsocieties irrespective of race, colouror belief.

“The two sides agreed to enhancecooperation in exchange of infor-mation relating to terrorist activi-ties, money laundering, narcotics,arms and human trafficking anddevelop joint strategies to combatthese threats,” the declaration stat-ed. Dr. Singh and King Abdullahalso called for preservation ofAfghanistan’s sovereignty and inde-pendence.

“They supported the efforts of thepeople of Afghanistan to achievestability and security, protectedfrom exploitation by terroristorganisations, while upholding thevalues and principles of the consti-tution of Afghanistan,” it stated.

— Aroonim Bhuyan/Riyadh

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and the King of Saudi Arabia Abdullahbin Abdul Aziz Al Saud signing documents related to the Riyadh declaration,in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 28, 2010

Minister for Health and FamilyWelfare Ghulam Nabi Azadexchanging documents of pacts ontransfer of sentenced persons andthe extradition treaty in Riyadh

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh addressing the Majlis Al Shura, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 1, 2010

SAUDI SOJOURNThe Prime Minister’s Saudi Arabia visit was the first by an Indian PMafter Indira Gandhi in 1982, and helped firm up bilateral strategic ties

In a rare honouraccorded to a

foreign dignitary,Dr. Manmohan

Singh was invited to address the Majlis-ash-Shura, the Saudi parliament, where he said

India would grow at 9 to 10 percent for the next 25 years

Riyadh Charter

Landmark extradition treaty

India and Denmark on Febru-ary 17 signed a bilateral socialsecurity agreement to protecttheir workers in either country

against double payment of socialsecurity contributions, as also lossof such contributions and benefits.

The pact was signed in New Delhiby Overseas Indian Affairs Secre-tary A. Didar Singh and DanishMinister for Employment Inger Stojberg.

“The workers sent by Denmark-based companies to their Indiansubsidiaries, or those sent by Indi-an companies to their subsidiariesin Denmark will be exempt fromsocial security contributions underthe host country’s legislation,”Singh said.

There are about 13,000 Indians inDenmark, most of whom are work-ing as professionals and self-employed persons. While workingabroad, these employees will only

be subject to the social security reg-ulations of their home country. Theagreement also provides for porta-bility of the benefits at the time ofrelocation to home country or anythird country.

“This agreement will also helpenhance trade and investmentbetween the two nations on accountof reduction of corporate expenseson social security and would ensuresocial protection of migrant professionals,” Singh said.

The two countries will set up ajoint working group to opera-tionalise the agreement.

India has already signed similaragreements with Belgium, France,Germany, Switzerland, Luxem-bourg and the Netherlands.

“Presently, we are in a move tosign similar agreements with Cana-da, South Korea, Czech Republic,Sweden, Australia and the UnitedStates,” the secretary said.

Dr. A. Didar Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, and Danish Minister for Employment, IngerStojberg, signing a Social Security Agreement between India and Denmark, in New Delhi on February 17, 2010

Protecting workersIndia to sign social security agreements with Canada, South Korea,Czech Republic, Sweden, Australia and United States

vThe social security agreementsigned between India and Den-mark is aimed to protect theworkers in either countryagainst double payment ofsocial security contributions, asalso loss of such contributionsand benefits.

vThere are 13,000 Indians in Denmark most of whom areworking as professionals andself-employed persons.

vWhile working abroad, theseemployees will only be subjectto the social security regula-tions of their home country.

vThe agreement also providesfor portability of the benefits atthe time of relocation to homecountry or any third country.

PACT POINTS

Tightening up visa procedures,the Union Home Ministry onFebruary 18 asked all central

ministries and state chief secretariesto strictly adhere to the revised pro-cedure for grant of visas to foreign-ers coming to India to attend inter-national conferences and seminars.

Security clearance for grant of con-ference visa will be required for par-ticipants from Afghanistan,Bangladesh, China, Iran, Iraq, Pak-

istan, Sri Lanka, Sudan and in respectof foreigners of Pakistani-origin andstateless persons, the Home Ministrysaid in a statement. “These instruc-tions have been issued so as toensure that all organisers of suchinternational events strictly adhereto the time line for submitting theirproposals to this ministry at least sixweeks before the commencement ofthe event,” the ministry said. “Thiswould ensure that security clearancefor the event and for the participantscould be suitably assessed,” it said.

Participants from other nations canobtain a conference visa from theIndian mission concerned on pro-duction of an invitation letter fromthe organiser, event clearance fromthe Home Ministry, administrativeapproval of the nodal ministry andpolitical clearance from the Ministryof External Affairs.

There has been an over three-fold increase in Indians get-ting student visas to studyin New Zealand in the past

five years, authorities said.As many as 9,591 Indians were

issued students visas for the finan-cial year 2008-09 compared to 2,972for the year 2004-05, said Immigra-tion New Zealand. From July 1, 2009to January 31, 2010, a total of 5,544Indian student visa applicationshave been approved.

India stood second, after China,among 194 countries on the NewZealand immigration list. DespiteChina holding the first position, thenumber of Chinese students comingto New Zealand has decreased from52,059 to 26,518 in the past four years.

Richard Howard, an immigrationadviser, said: “In view of the recentspate of attacks on the current batch

in Australia and UK’s decision totemporarily stop accepting studentvisa applications at its three centresin north India, the number is expect-ed to increase more this year.”

— Amandeep Kaur/Hamilton

An international meet in progress atVigyan Bhawan, New Delhi

NEWSINDIA-DENMARK DEAL


Indian studentsNZ BOUND

v As many as 9,591 Indians wereissued students visas for thefinancial year 2008-09 compared to 2,972 for the year2004-05.

v From July 1, 2009 to January 31,2010, a total of 5,544 Indianstudent visa applications havebeen approved.

v India stood second, after China,among 194 countries on theNew Zealand immigration list.

In figures

Conference visa rules tightened

India a priority,says John Key

India is a priority relationship forNew Zealand, Prime Minister

John Key said in Wellington onFebruary 16 while welcomingRahul Gandhi, great-grandson ofIndia’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

A member of theIndian parliament,Gandhi visitedNew Zealand atthe inaugural SirEdmund HillaryFellow, a fund setup to recognise the

special contribution the conquerorof Mount Everest made to relationsbetween the two countries andNepal. The aim of the fellowship isto build a constituency for NewZealand among the emerging lead-ers of India and Nepal, Key said.

He said that India’s leadingregional and international statusand its economic significance madeit strategically important to NewZealand.

Vayalar Ravidischarged Overseas Indian Affairs Minister

Vayalar Ravi, who was beingtreated at the Madras MedicalMission Hospital in Chennai aftersuffering injuries in a road acci-dent in Liberia, was discharged on February 22. Minister Ravi met

with a road acci-dent in Liberiancapital Monroviaduring an officialvisit and was ini-tially treated at theJohn F. KennedyHospital there. He

was then air-lifted to Abidjan inthe Ivory Coast, from where hewas flown back to India in a spe-cial Indian Air Force flight.

The car in which Ravi was trav-elling also had Shamma Jain, Indi-an envoy to Liberia, and both wereinjured.

John Key

Vayalar Ravi

India is working on a new poli-cy to auction hydrocarbonassets for exploring oil and gasreserves on a perpetual basis,

with a database being drawn up ofall the country’s potential reserves,Petroleum Secretary S. Sundareshanhas said. “The Directorate Generalof Hydrocarbons is working on whatis called a national data repository— a database of our potential oil andgas assets. This should be ready inthe next four-five months,” he said.

“Then we will have a new policy,an open acreage system. Oil and gasblocks will then be on offer through

the year and not based on rounds.But I’m not assigning a time frame,”Sundareshan told IANS in his firstsubstantive interview since he tookcharge on February 1.

“The next round of bids may bethe last under the existing licensingpolicy,” he said, referring to theupcoming ninth round of auctionsunder what is called the new explo-ration licencing policy.

In the existing regime only a lim-ited number of oil and gas blocksare identified and offered for thedomestic and global companies tobid. In the proposed new regime,called the open acreage licencingsystem, a database of all such blockswill be made available in the publicdomain and a company canapproach and bid for a particularblock anytime during the year.

“The choice of selecting a block forauction will be with the investor —and not with the government,” hesaid. “We will sign the agreementsfor these blocks shortly.”

Sundareshan said he would hopeto “resolve once and for all” theissue over pricing of transport andcooking fuels for oil marketing com-panies. The oil ministry will alsocome out with a policy on availabil-ity and pricing of natural gas notonly from the Krishna-Godavari

basin, but also future discoveries.“Self sufficiency in oil and gas is

something no one in this ministry,at least, can ignore. This will be animportant goal. A difficult goal butwe must work towards this. There isno choice,” he said.

— Arvind Padmanabhan &Murali Krishnan

The sedimentary basins of India,onland and offshore up to the 200misobath, have an aerial extent ofabout 1.79 million sq. km. So far, 26

basins have been recognised and they havebeen divided into four categories based ontheir degree of prospectivity as presentlyknown. In the deep waters beyond the 200misobath, the sedimentary area has been esti-mated to be about 1.35 million sq. km. Thetotal thus works out to 3.14 million sq. km.

Over the past 12 years, the unexplored areahas come down to 15 percent which was 50percent in 1995-96. Credit for this goes inlarge measure to the surveys carried out bythe Directorate General of Hydrocarbons(DGH) established by the government ofIndia in 1993. The DGH has been entrustedwith several responsibilities like implemen-tation of the New Exploraton Licencing Pol-icy, matters concerning Production SharingContracts for discovered fields and exploration blocks, promotion of investmentin the Exploration and Production (E&P)sector and monitoring of E&P activities.

The Indian govern-ment has

approved the partic-ipation of ONGC

Videsh Ltd (OVL) and GAIL in theconstruction of a Chinese pipelineand also make additional invest-ment of over $1.3 billion in thedevelopment of Myanmaresehydrocarbon blocks.

The Cabinet Committee on Eco-nomic Affairs on February 18approved OVL’s investing $167.84million in a pipeline being con-structed by China NationalPetroleum Corp to transport gasfrom offshore A-1 and A-3 blocks inMyanmar. GAIL has been approvedinvestment of $83.88 million in theChinese pipeline, allowing OVL andGAIL to take 8.35 and 4.17 percentparticipating interest in the pipelineto transport gas from Myanmar’sA-1 and A-3 offshore blocks.

Hydrocarbon assets: These mainlyconsist of oil and gas reserves. Oiland gas blocks are identified andoffered to companies for bidding.Discovery: It means the finding,during petroleum operations, of adeposit of petroleum not previouslyknown to have existed, which can berecovered at the surface in a flowmeasurable by petroleum industrytesting methods.Barrel: A quantity or unit equal to158.9074 litres (42 United States gal-lons) liquid measure, at a tempera-ture of 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.56degrees Celsius) and under oneatmospheric pressure (14.70 psia)Contract Area: Contract Areameans, on the Effective Date, thearea described in Model ProductionSharing Contract and delineated onthe map attached or any portion ofthe said area remaining after relin-quishment or surrender from time

to time pursuant to the terms of thisContract.Crude Oil: ‘Crude Oil’ or ‘Oil’ or‘Crude’ means all kinds of hydro-carbons and bitumen, both in solidand liquid form, in their naturalstate or obtained from Natural Gasby condensation or extraction, butexcluding Natural Gas.Gas Field: Means, within the Con-tract Area, a Natural Gas Reservoiror a group of Natural Gas Reservoirswithin a common geological structure or feature.Oil Field: Means, within the Con-tract Area, an oil reservoir or agroup of oil reservoirs within a com-mon geological structure or feature.Commercial Production: The pro-duction of Crude Oil or Condensateor Natural Gas or any combinationof these from the Contract Area andtheir delivery at the Delivery Pointfor regular production and sale.

In the existing regime — whereeight rounds of auctions have

taken place so far — only a limitednumber of oil and gas blocks areidentified and offered for thedomestic and global companies tobid.

In the proposed new regime,called the open acreage licensingsystem, a database of all suchblocks will be made available in thepublic domain and a company canapproach and bid for a particularblock anytime during the year.

The Indian economy is a netimporter of almost all forms ofenergy. This fact, coupled with

India’s growing energy needs, hasintensified discussions on energysecurity for the country. The govern-ment is actively seeking private par-ticipation in the energy chain and isalso promoting acquisition of oil andgas reserves overseas. Strong private

sector participation is required tosupplement the public sector andbring in the required investments andtechnologies. Policies have increas-ingly recognised the need to promoteprivate investment. Private interest inoil and gas exploration and in powersector has increased significantly. Atthe same time, both the governmentand private sector companies arelooking to acquire equity in energyassets abroad. (Source: DirectorateGeneral of Hydrocarbons)

Blocks of ASSETSIndia is drafting a new regime to auction hydrocarbon reserves

Self sufficiencyin oil and gas

is something no onein this ministry, atleast, can ignore.This will be animportant goal. Adifficult goal, but wemust work towardsthis. There is nochoice

THE NEW SYSTEMKEY PLAYERS

In 1866, the first well in India wasdrilled by Mr. Goodenough of

McKillop, Stewart and Co, follow-ing clue of oil detected in the feetof an elephant carrying logs.

In 1889, Digboi well No. 1 wasstarted by W.L. Lake of Assam Railways and Trading Co. Lakeurged his boys “Dig boy, dig”, giving birth to Digboi.

A BIT OF HISTORY

(Source: Directorate General of Hydrocarbons)

SedimentaryBasins

EyeingChina A quick primer

S. Sundareshan

NEWS


ENERGY SECURITY

cally prudent (lower fiscal deficit and government bor-rowing). The tasks were contradictory and Mukherjeehad to do extensive tight rope walking to meet both thecontradictory objectives.

“In the circumstances he seems to have squared somecircles,” said noted economist and fellow of the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, Dr. ParthaMukhopadhya. “This budget is also influenced by slow-down fears — hence, government spending will remainhigh enough despite reigning in the fiscal deficit some-what, while there are tax reliefs which should spurdomestic demand and help the recovery process.”

The key features of this year’s $221.75 billion bud-get has been a sizeable tax relief for individuals, thebeginning of a gradual phase out of the three roundsof stimulus packages announced by the governmentduring the last fiscal through hikes in excise rates andminimum alternate tax, stepped up outlays for infras-tructure development and social welfare schemes andseveral measures aimed at ensuring high but inclu-sive growth.

Individuals stand to gain on account of a revision intax slabs. But they will have to pay more for cars,

cigarettes, petrol, diesel, cement, jewellery and a hostof consumer goods, even as they will shoulder higherairfares owing to the new service tax on air travel.

Presenting the Budget in the Lok Sabha, the LowerHouse of the Indian Parliament, Finance MinisterPranab Mukherjee also estimated a lower fiscal deficitof 5.5 percent of gross domestic product, against therevised estimates of 6.7 percent for this fiscal (See Charton page 14).

He said 46 percent of the plan allocation will be setaside for infrastructure alone and 37 percent for socialwelfare programmes, while outlays for rural and urbandevelopment schemes, as also for education and health-care have been substantially hiked.

“Today, as I stand before you, I can say with someconfidence that we have weathered the crisis well,”Mukherjee said in his 100-minute speech. He proposedthe following tax slabs for individuals: No tax for anannual income of up to Rs. 160,000, a rate of 10 percentfor up to Rs. 500,000, then 20 percent for up to Rs.800,000 and finally 30 percent on anything higher.

At the peak rate this will entail a saving of up to Rs.50,000, and an overall hit of $5.2 billion for the exche-quer. “The proposal to reduce the tax slab will benefit60 percent of all tax payers,” Mukherjee said, bringingcheer to people.

But he also sought to hike the minimum alternate taxto 18 percent of book profits from the present 15 per-cent, though he lowered the surcharge from 10 percentto 7.5 percent, which will have a direct impact on thebottomlines of large companies.

The Finance Minister also sought to restore the 5percent basic duty on oil and 7.5 percent each onpetrol and diesel, and imposed a Rs. 1 excise on thesetwo fuels.

On augmenting resources, he said $5 billion wasraised by way of divestment in state-run companiesduring the current fiscal, adding that he was budget-ing for $8 billion for the ensuing year.

With regard to major policy reforms, the FinanceMinister promised to implement the direct tax code(DTC) and the goods and services tax (GST) from Aprilnext year and assured a simplified foreign investmentpolicy soon, even as excise rates were hiked across theboard by 200 basis points.

He said three challenges remained for the economy— to quickly revert to high growth of 9 percent andcross to double-digit expansion through high publicinvestment in such areas as infrastructure whileensuring fiscal consolidation; make growth more inclu-sive and improve governance to ensure a better pub-lic delivery mechanism.

India’s Finance Minister, 74-year old veteran politi-cian Pranab Mukherjee, is known to be a man ofmany parts. But that he was also an expert intight- rope walking became evident on February

26, 2010 when he presented the fourth Union budget ofhis career as Finance Minister and the second for theUnited Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in itssecond straight term after being voted back to office inMay last year.

“Given the global as well as domestic circumstances,this is a very well-balanced budget,” said Jagannadham

Thunuguntla, equity head of India’s fourth-largestshare broking firm, the Delhi-based SMC Capitals Ltd.

“While the budget is growth oriented with publicexpenditure slated to go into all the right areas, it alsolays down a roadmap for bringing down the budgetdeficit to prudent levels,” Thunuguntla said.

Mukherjee had a tough task on hand. On one hand,he had to ensure that the budget was growth oriented(high public expenditure on infrastructure and socialsectors and lower taxes to ensure higher disposableincome in the hands of citizens) and on the other fis-

v Petrol and diesel prices to go up as basic dutyof 5 percent on crude petroleum, 7.5 percenton diesel and petrol and 10 percent on otherrefined products restored; central excise dutyon petrol and diesel enhanced by Re. 1 per litre

v Taxes on large cars and SUVs increased 2 per-cent to 22 percent

v Income up to Rs. 160,000 per year exemptfrom income tax; up to Rs. 500,000 to betaxed at 10 percent; income of Rs. 500,000-800,000 to be taxed at 20 percent and incomeabove Rs. 800,000 to be taxed at 30 percent

v If tax is deducted on payment by way of anyexpense and is paid before the due date of fil-ing the return, such expense to be allowed fordeduction; interest charged on tax deducted

but not deposited by the specified date to beincreased from 12 to 18 percent per year

v Total budget expenditure Rs. 11,087.49 bil-lion, an increase of 8.6 percent over last year

v Plan allocation for power sector, excludingRajiv Gandhi rural electrification programme,doubled from Rs. 22.30 billion in 2009-10 toRs. 51.30 billion in 2010-11

v Spending on social sector increased to Rs.1,376.74 billion, which is 37 percent of thetotal plan outlay

v Rs. 1,473.44 billion allocated for defencev Allocation on primary education raised from

Rs. 268 billion to Rs. 313 billionv Forty-six percent of allocations will be for

infrastructure development

WAY FORWARD: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee leaves for Parliament House to present Budget 2010-11, inNew Delhi on February 26. Ministers of State for Finance S.S. Palanimanickam and Namo Narain Meena, andother officials are seen.

GROWTH, PRUDENCE

BUD

GET

high

light

s

BUDGET ALLOCATIONSTOTAL BUDGET EXPENDITURE2009-2010 2010-2011Rs. 10208.38 billion Rs. 11087.49 billion

RAJIV AWAS YOGANA 2009-2010 2010-2011Rs. 1.5 billion Rs. 12.70 billion

NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY SECTOR2009-2010 2010-2011Rs. 6.2 billion Rs. 10 billion

PRIMARY EDUCATION2009-2010 2010-2011Rs. 268 billion Rs. 313 billion

POWER SECTOR2009-2010 2010-2011Rs. 22.3 billion Rs. 51.3 billion

WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT2009-2010 2010-2011Rs. 73.5 billion Rs. 110 billion

ROADS & HIGHWAYS CONSTRUCTION2009-2010 2010-2011Rs. 175.2 billion Rs. 198.94 billion

NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH MISSION2009-2010 2010-2011Rs. 139.3 billion Rs. 154.4 billion

DEFENCE2009-2010 2010-2011Rs. 1417.03 billion Rs. 1473.44 billion

NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT SCHEME2009-2010 2010-2011Rs. 391 billion Rs. 401 billion

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee does a deft balancing act to table agrowth-oriented but fiscally prudent Budget — the fourth of his career

We hope to breachthe 10 percent

growth mark in the not-too-distantfuture

COVER STORY


BUDGET 2010-11

8.6%

746%

61%

16.79%

130%

49.6%

13.5%

10.83%

4%

2.6%

COVER STORY


Fiscal consolidation

As part of the fiscal consolidationprocess, for the first time, the

government would target an explic-it reduction in its domestic debt-GDP ratio, Mukherjee said. Withinsix months, the finance ministrywould bring out a status paper giv-ing a detailed analysis of the situa-tion and a roadmap for curtailingthe overall public debt. This wouldbe followed by an annual report onthe subject.

The Finance Minister’s budgetdeficit figures have, however, comeunder some criticism. It has beenargued that despite a reduction inthe fiscal deficit, the actual revenuedeficit at over 70 percent would stillremain too high for 2010-11 as wellas for the next few years. This isbecause a more than 70 percent rev-enue deficit would mean the govern-ment would be spending more than70 percent of what it borrows on con-sumption and only less than 30 per-cent on investment that would helpit earn returns that can be used toservice the debt. That in turn meansto service the debt the governmentwould have to earn at least a 30 percent return on theinvestment it makes (30 percent of total borrowing) soas to earn a return of about 9 percent of the total bor-rowings — that is enough to meet the cost of borrow-ing. This is unlikely as even private companies find itwell nigh impossible to earn a return of 30 percent ontheir investments.

“If you look at the global scenario, India’s overall fis-cal situation is better than for most other countries,”said Thunuguntla. “While India’s debt burden is about82 percent of GDP, for the U.S. it will be100 percent of GDP in two years accord-ing to their own estimates in the Bud-get for 2010. It is already 100 percent forthe UK and for Japan it is a whopping197 percent,” he said.

“In 2009, the U.S. ran up a deficit of$1.4 trillion or about 11.2 percent ofGDP, the highest in 60 years, when itsgrowth was negative 1 percent,” hesaid. “Compared with that, India’s 5.5percent deficit with more than 7 per-cent growth is heavenly,” Thunugunt-la said.

“The distinction between revenuedeficit and fiscal deficit is in somesense meaningless because you havecapital spending in non-plan spendingand you have revenue spending in planspending, so it is impossible to sayexactly how much is consumption

spending and how much is capital spending — butoverall spending and government borrowing is beingbrought down despite enough scope for government tospend more if private sector investments continue tolag because of the global slowdown. This is what is goodabout the budget — prudence in spending but enoughspending scope to counter any remaining slowdownhangover,” Mukhopadhya said.

Mukhopadhya, however, felt that there has not beenmuch improvement as far as the quality of the expen-

diture is concerned. Far too much is still being spenton consumption and less on projects that would bringin benefits in terms of returns to government or interms of alleviating poverty, he said.

Improving investmentenvironment

While pointing out that foreign direct investmentflows at $20.9 billion during April-December, 2009

against $21.1 billion for the same period the previousyear was steady despite the decline in global capitalflows, the Finance Minister said the government willmake FDI policy more user-friendly by consolidatingall prior regulations and guidelines into one compre-hensive document. “This would enhance clarity andpredictability of our FDI policy to foreign investors,”he said.

The government would also set up an apex levelFinancial Stability and Development Council with aview to strengthen and institutionalise the mechanismfor maintaining financial stability.

The government would also increase the capitalisa-tion of public sector and regional rural banks so thatthey can maintain a comfortable capital to risk weight-ed asset ratio and have adequate capital base to sup-port increased lending.

Recognising that the global recovery was still veryfragile, the finance minister announced that the 2 per-cent interest subvention on pre-shipment export cred-it would be extended for one more year till March 31,2011, for exports covering handicrafts, carpets, hand-looms and small and medium enterprises.

Mukherjee announced that to spur agricultural

Encouraged by reforms and the strong macro-eco-nomic fundamentals, the Economic Survey haspredicted that India would return to a high 9

percent growth in 2011-12 towards becoming theworld’s fastest growing economy in four years. The pre-budget Economic Survey (2009-10), presented byFinance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament, alsorecommended a “gradual rollback” of stimulus measures after assessing sectoral impact.

Projecting economic growth to touch up to 8.75 percent in 2010-11 and 9 percent in the next year, theSurvey said: “It is entirely possible for India to move intothe rarefied domain of double digit growth and evenattempt to don the mantle” of the fastest growing economy in the world within the next four years.Some highlights: n Outlook for India’s trade sector in 2010 has

brightenedn Bank credit to the commercial sector shows revival

since November 2009n Proposal to double rural houses to

12 million through the IndiraAwaas Yojana in the next five years

n Core industries, infrastructure ser-vices show recovery signs in themiddle of overall industrial growth

n Employment increases by 500,000 in July-Septemberquarter compared to first quarter of current fiscal

n Gross domestic product expected to grow 8.25-8.75percent in 2010-11

n Centre, states need to begin fiscal consolidation, capdebt levels

n Food subsidy should be given to households, insteadof routing through the public distribution system

n Poor families should be given foodcoupons to buy at discount fromany shop

n Liberalise foreign investment norms in education,healthcare sectors

n Sustaining current levels of domestic petroleumprices not viable

n Expenditure restraint can help contain deficit at budgeted levels

n High inflation due to supply-side bottlenecksn Growth in telecom to continue with

monthly additions exceeding 17.6 mil-lion connections

n Share of central government expendi-ture on social services up by 19.46 percent in the current fiscal

n Foreign exchange reserves rise to $31.5billion in current fiscal to $283.5 billion till endDecember 2009

n Balance of payment situation improves due to surgein capital flows and rise in foreign exchange reserves,accompanied by rupee appreciation

ECONOMIC SURVEY

THE GROWTH TURNPIKE: A highway recently convertedinto a four-lane expressway. Stepped up spending on roadprojects is a key instrument of boosting growth throughhigh public spending.

While India’s debt burden is about 82percent of GDP, for the U.S. it will be 100

percent of GDP in two years according totheir own estimates. It is already 100 percentfor the UK and for Japan it is awhopping 197 percent

6.7

5.5

2.5 2.6

1.9

4.5

5.3

4

0 00.4

2.63.2

1.9

4.5

4 4.1

3.5

2.7

6

1.1

3.6

-0.9-0.2

-2

-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

BUDGET 2010-11

Fiscal Deficit

Revenue Deficit

Primary Deficit

(R.E.) (B.E.)R.E. = Revised estimates B.E. = Budget estimates

DEFICIT AS A PERCENTAGE OF GDP

Percent

COVER STORY


BUDGET 2010-11

growth, the government would follow a four-prongedstrategy covering (a) agricultural production, (b) reduc-tion in wastage of products, (c) credit support to farm-ers, and (d) a thrust to the food processing sector.

To increase production, the government will take upa special initiative to extend the green revolution to theeastern states of Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, east-ern UP, West Bengal and Orissa. Also, 60,000 “pulsesand oilseeds” villages will be organised in rain-fedareas during 2010-11 and the government will providean integrated intervention for water harvesting, water-shed management and soil health to enhance the pro-ductivity of the dry land farming areas.

Similarly, Mukherjee announced steps to reducewastage, increase credit availability to farmers andboost infrastructure development for the food process-ing sector.

Infrastructure

Coming to infrastructure development, Mukherjeesaid: “Accelerated development of high quality

physical infrastructure, such as roads, ports, airportsand railways is essential to sustain economic growth.”He said in the budget for 2010-11, the allocation oninfrastructure development has beenraised to Rs. 1,73,552 crore whichaccounts for over 46 percent of thetotal plan allocations.

He further said that to make a vis-ible impact in the road sector, thegovernment has targeted construc-tion of national highways at the paceof 20 km per day and the allocationfor road transport has been

increased by over 13 percent from Rs. 17,520 crore toRs. 19,894 crore.

For the railways, the Finance Minister said that thisyear the railways had been provided Rs. 16,752 croreas budgetary support for 2010-11 which is about Rs. 950crore more than what was provided last year.

For the power sector, the Finance Minister has dou-bled the allocation from Rs. 2,230 crore in 2009-10 to Rs.5,130 crore in 2010-11. He also announced that a CoalRegulatory authority will be set up to facilitate reso-lution of issues like economic pricing of coal andbenchmarking of standards of performance.

Inclusive development

The Finance Minister announced several initiativesto ensure inclusive development. “For the UPA gov-

ernment, inclusive development is an act of faith,” hetold Parliament.

“In the last five years, our government has createdentitlements backed by legal guarantees for an indi-vidual’s right to information and her right to work.This has been followed-up with the enactment of theright to education in 2009-10. As the next step, we arenow ready with the draft Food Security Bill which will

be placed in the public domain very soon,” Mukherjeesaid. “To fulfil these commitments, the spending onsocial sector has been gradually increased to Rs.1,37,674 crore which now stands at 37 per cent of thetotal plan outlay in 2010-11. Another 25 per cent of theplan allocations are devoted to the development of ruralinfrastructure. With growth and the opportunities thatit generates, we hope to further strengthen the processof inclusive development,” the Finance Minister said.

For example, the allocation for school education hasbeen increased by nearly 16 percent from Rs. 26,800crore in 2009-10 to Rs. 31,036 crore in 2010-11. Similar-ly, the plan allocation for the Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare has been increased by a little over 14percent from Rs. 19,534 crore in 2009-10 to Rs. 22,300crore in 2010-11.

Rural development

For the UPA government, “development of ruralinfrastructure remains a high priority area,”

Mukherjee said. “For the year 2010-11, I propose to pro-vide Rs 66,100 crore for rural development,” he said.This represents a 4 percent hike. But of this as muchas Rs 40,100 crore is for the Mahatma Gandhi Nation-al Rural employment Guarantee Scheme as against Rs.39,100 crore for 2009-10. The spending on rural housinghas been increased from Rs. 8,800 crore last year to Rs.10,000 crore this year while the allocation for buildingrural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana has been maintained at Rs. 12,000 crore.

The Finance Minister also announced enhanced allo-cations for housing and urban poverty alleviation andextension of interest subvention for housing loans upto Rs. 10 lakhs where the cost of the house does notexceed Rs. 20 lakhs. He also announced an allocationof Rs. 1,270 crore for the Rajiv Awas Yojana for slumdwellers and urban poor, up from Rs. 150 crore lastyear as the scheme is now ready to take off. The allocation for micro, small and mediumenterprises has also been raised to Rs. 2,400 crore fromRs. 1,794 crore last year, the Finance Minister said.

Mukherjee announced several initiatives for workersin the unorganised sector, the most important of which

is the decision to set up a National Social SecurityFund for unorganised sector workers with an initialallocation of Rs. 1,000 crore.

The budget also provides for skill development, a 50percent increase in the plan outlay for Women andChild Development, recasting of the National LiteracyMission to improve the female literacy rate, an 80 per-cent increase in the plan allocation for Ministry ofSocial Justice and Empowerment, and a nearly 50 per-cent increase for the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

Greater transparency

In this area again, the Finance Minister announcedseveral initiatives such as formation of a Financial

Sector Legislative Reforms Commission to rewrite andclean up financial sector laws most of which are veryold, and bring them in line with the requirements ofthe sector. He also announced the implementation ofthe recommendations of the Administrative ReformsCommission, and a much higher allocation for theUnique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) whichis set to issue the first set of unique identification num-bers for citizens in the coming year. Mukherjee alsoproposed setting up of a Technology Advisory Groupunder the leadership of Nandan Nilekani to look intovarious technological and systemic issues involved inrolling out IT projects aimed at effective tax adminis-tration and financial governance system, and setting upof an Independent Evaluation Office to undertakeimpartial and objective assessments of the various pub-lic programmes and improve the effectiveness of thepublic interventions, and establishment of a NationalMission for Delivery of Justice and Legal Reforms tohelp reduce legal backlog in courts and also helpimprove the legal environment for business.

“Considering the various constraints within whichthe finance minister has worked, this is a very goodbudget, as he has addressed all the three challengesthat he outlined at the beginning of the budget speechas best as possible,” Mukhopadhya said.

“No doubt the stock markets have welcomed the bud-get as it has been better than their expectations,”Thunuguntla said by way of signing off.

NATION BUILDING: The budget puts great emphasis on infrastructure development as the government thinks itessential to sustain economic growth.

To increase agricultural production, thegovernment will take up a special

initiative to extend the green revolution tothe eastern states of Bihar, Chhatisgarh,Jharkhand, eastern UP, West Bengal and Orissa

LITERACY LEVERAGE: A class in progress in a rural school. The budget has made a 16 percent higher allocation onschool education as part of the government’s goal of ensuring inclusive growth.

India is charting a grandscheme targeting its rural out-back to reach telecom andbroadband services to each of

its 626,000 villages, using funds tothe tune of $3.5 billion lyingunutilised in a dedicated fund.

Outlining the contours of thisambitious programme in an inter-action with IANS, Minister of Statefor Communications and IT SachinPilot said that 11,000 communica-tion towers will be set up for thepurpose — several in villages bor-

dering Bangladesh and Pakistan.“We are close to launching a pro-gramme of putting up these towersin villages where the population isless than 500 people and sometimesless than 200. It will be deployed byBharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd,” saidthe minister at the IANS head officein New Delhi on March 10.

“You will hear more on this verysoon.” He said all service providers— private or state-run — have beenallowed to install telecom towers toreceive signals within 500 metresnear the international borders tostrengthen the existing communi-cation system in rural areas. “Thiswill also check interference fromforeign telecom networks,” he said.

Pilot said many of the towers willbe in the tribal belts of Nagaland,Tripura, Mizoram and Assam in thenortheast, as the government’s pri-

BROAD VISION: Sachin Pilot

GlobalVILLAGE“The ‘other India’ must also have access tohigh-speed data and broadband services...”

ECONOMY

Pravasi Bharatiya March 2010 1918 Pravasi Bharatiya March 2010

INTERVIEW SACHIN PILOT

State-run telecom operatorBharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd(BSNL) and software solutions

provider HCL Infosystems signed anagreement on September 16, 2009to work together on the NationalBroadband Penetration Programme(NBPP), a nationwide initiative toaccelerate spread of informationtechnology in rural India.

To implement the project, BSNLwill leverage the Universal ServiceObligation Fund (USOF) set up bythe Department of Telecommuni-cations (DoT), which has grantedsubsidy to the state-owned com-pany for providing broadband ser-vices in rural areas at cheaper rates.USOF will provide a subsidy ofRs.4,500 per broadband connec-tion that BSNL will roll out throughits 27,789 rural and remote tele-phone exchanges. A customer canavail the service by paying Rs.2,250followed by Rs.300 per month forthe computing device and sub-sidised broadband package atRs.99 or Rs.150 per month.

Personal computers will be avail-able at HCL’s Touch outlets acrossmore than 4,000 towns.

n The National Broadband Pene-tration Programme (NBPP) is inline with the government’s aimto reach 100 million broadbandsubscribers by 2014.

n The Universal Service ObligationFund (USOF) set up by theDepartment of Telecommunica-tions offers subsidy to con-sumers to the extent of Rs. 4,500per connection.

n HCL will set up two call centres,one for enquiry and the other fortechnical support (toll free nos)

n BSNL is offering Broadband@512 Kbps at highly subsidisedrates of Rs.99 and Rs.150 permonth package.

(Courtesy: BSNL)

BSNL, HCL tie-up to provide ruralbroadband services

Highlights of NBPP

ority, as opposed to that of privateplayers, was to get villages into thetelecom loop as well.

“Private operators go where themoney is,” he said, adding thefinance will come from the Univer-sal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)that is collected by the governmentfrom private players to meet thedemands of rural connectivity.

Around Rs.17,000 crore ($3.5 bil-lion) is lying in the fund. Pilot, whois an alumnus of the Wharton Busi-

ness School and St. Stephen’s Col-lege in New Delhi, said communi-cations will be a great unifier andbridge the digital divide so that the“other India” in the hinterland alsohas access to high-speed data andtelecom. “We want to make ourcountry much more wired than it istoday. That’s a very good way ofgetting people together. That’s whywe have to leverage these opportu-nities before us,” he said.

— IANS

We want to make our countrymuch more wired than it is

today. That’s a very good wayof getting people together...

A NEW DAWN: Rural folk may soon experience broadband connectivity.

After upgrading 1,000 postoffices across the coun-try, India Post is giving acorporate look to 727

more with better services underone roof as part of its “ProjectArrow”, said Sachin Pilot, Minis-ter of State for Communicationsand IT. “The look and feel of thesepost offices will be different,” Pilottold IANS during an interaction,adding these offices will be fullycomputerised with additional fea-tures like electronic funds trans-fer, instant money order and com-

puterised banking services. “Wepicked some 1,000 post offices in500 districts over the past year andspent Rs.160 crore. The look andfeel, the aesthetics, the uniformhave all changed. They are like aone-stop shop for people looking ata host of services,” he said. “Oncethe atmosphere is more welcom-ing, footfalls will increase. Andonce the footfalls increase, morerevenue will come in. And oncemore revenue comes in, it moti-vates our employees.”

“We have started getting resultsas well. In the last quarter of 2009,these 1,000 post offices saw a 23-percent jump in revenue,” said theminister. The government hasaround 150,000 post offices across

the country and more than 450,000people working out of them.

“Our job is not to make profit,but deliver services to people. For-tunately, we still enjoy a lot ofgoodwill. We now send our peoplefor training and give them incen-tives,” Pilot said, adding he waspersonally monitoring progresswith a video conference every twoweeks with all the 30 postmastersgeneral across the country.

“The video conference is live. Weanalyse the data, it is web-enabled— so no fudging of data. We areactually tracking it so minutelythat if four speed posts havereturned, then I ask the concernedpostmaster-general to explain,” hesaid.

PROJECT ARROWUnder this uniqueendeavour, expectmore post officesacross the country toacquire a corporatelook soon. Also,customers can expectbetter services

On the ground floor of asquat building in down-town Lusaka, tellers sitinside tiny wooden cabins,

counting out money. The busy sceneis as ordinary as at any other bank,but the provenance of this financialfirm is a rather unique experiment,beginning nearly 6,600 km away —in India.

The Indo-Zambia Bank, as is evident from its nomenclature, wasborn of a mixed parentage of threeIndian state banks and the Zambiangovernment in 1984.

Or as 57-year-old Satish Shukla,the bank’s managing director,described: “It is a joint venture offour cultures”. It is also the first everproject in which three Indian banks— Bank of India, Bank of Barodaand Central Bank of India — cametogether on an overseas platform,each contributing 20 percenttowards the share capital, with therest held by the Zambia government.

The bank came into existence dur-ing the heyday of the Non-Aligned

Movement, when Zambia’s KennethKaunda and India’s Indira Gandhiwere striding the global stage pro-pounding South-South cooperation.

Twenty-five years on, the bankstill exists and thrives, with 12branches, 260 local employees, nineIndian chief managers, one Indianmanaging director and a Zambian

chairperson. Fluorescent lights illu-minate the high-ceiling hall, whichis filled with employees working andflitting between scores of desks,piled with files, while clients sit onrecessed window seats or standpatiently in a queue.

Not that it has always been easy.It survived the crisis in the bankingindustry in Zambia during 1995-97,when eight banks folded up.

Their secret — “We have been run-ning the bank in a typical conserva-tive Indian manner,” Shukla toldIANS.

While the global recession did notimpact Zambia in the last two yearsbecause of its small economy , it didgo through a turbulent time in 2008due to the sharp drop in the price ofcopper — the county’s life blood.

With profitability under strain,plans to open new branches wereshelved for 2009-10. But, with copperprices having relatively bouncedback, “next year we would definite-ly aim to open two-three morebranches.”

The bank is the first ever project in which three Indian banks cametogether on an overseas platform, each contributing share capital

Banking on CULTURE

The main branch andHead Office of the Indo-Zambia Bank in Lusaka

Shukla was quick to emphasisethat financial fundamentals werestrong. “We have been pretty aggres-sive in expanding credit. In the lastthree years, credit has grown by 50 percent, deposits have grown by30 percent and capital adequacyratio is 40 percent,” he said. Thetotal deposits are now 679,764 mil-lion Kvacha (Rs. 6.8 billion/$130 mil-lion).

In fact, it has perhaps the lowestproportion of gross non-performingassets (NPA) to gross advanceamong banks in Zambia. “Here, thebanking sector NPA to grossadvances is 13 percent, which hasincreased from eight percent twoyears ago... Ours is less than one per-cent. I think it is the best rate amongthe banks here,” said Shukla, anative of Mumbai, who has been inLusaka since September 2008.

The increase in NPA in the Zam-bian banking industry was due tothe aggressiveness in giving loans.“They were even sitting in malls andgiving loans. And here once you loseyour job, it is difficult to repay thepersonal loans,” explained Shukla.

With Indian companies increas-ingly coming to Africa and Zambiafor investment opportunities, there

is scope to further expand bankoperations. “All Indians who want toset up any business here, naturallytend to come here directly,” saidShukla.

With Indian bankers, all of themon deputation for four years, work-ing closely with local employees, itis not surprising that some of theirways have rubbed on them. G.H.R.Haminza, the bank’s senior-mostZambian employee, who joined in1989, got trained in the Central Bankof India. He was on attachment tothe Bank of Baroda and is currentlyGeneral Manager.

He even sports a steel bangle,known as kara, on his right wrist. “I saw an Indian working with metrying to open a bottle of coke withthis, instead of a bottle opener. So Isaid give it to me. Now I wear it,”Haminza told IANS. With one out offour board meetings held in India,Haminza considers himself well-travelled in the sub-continent, hav-ing visited remote places like theAndaman Islands and Sikkim. “Ihave seen more of India than mostIndians,” Haminza, said, adding: “I am perhaps more Indian thanmost.”

— Devirupa Mitra/Lusaka

The customer service area of themain branch of the Indo-ZambiaBank in Lusaka.

G.H.R. Haminza, General Manager ofthe bank

Satish Shukla, 57, is the ManagingDirector of the Indo-Zambia Bank

Twenty-five yearson, the bank still

exists and thrives,with 12 branches, 260local employees, nine

Indian chiefmanagers, one

Indian managingdirector and a

Zambian chairperson

ECONOMY


INDO-ZAMBIA BANK

ECONOMY


Twenty-three years back,Hansibaben was just anoth-er artisan in a little knownvillage in Gujarat. Today, at

92, she has a cloth brand namedafter her which has reached suchheights that international namesare scurrying to have tie-ups with it.

It’s a little difficult to decidewhich story is more amazing — thatthe woman after which Hansiba, asthe brand is called, was 70 when thewhole journey started and she isstill working at innovating the tra-ditional craft. Or that 15,000 ruralwomen manage the entire supplychain of the company and take careof their families.

“Today, we have tie-ups withinternational brands in the US, UK,Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Thirty percent of our products areexported,” said Reema Nanavaty,director of the NGO SEWA and thewoman largely responsible for start-ing the Hansiba initiative.

“Our clothes have also been show-cased in the Madrid fashion weekand the New York fashion week,”Nanavaty told IANS, sitting at heroffice in Ahmedabad on January 17.Nanavaty said: “When I first wentto the Datranai village in Patan dis-trict here 23 years back, and spoketo the women to market their craft,they looked at me with suspicion.After all, I was a woman with shorthair, they said!

“It was only Hansibaben, then 70,who believed in me and gave me asample of her work. We made thepayment immediately. Then with

some persuasion, 50 women joinedus. To see if there indeed was a mar-ket for their ethnic product, we hada show in Mumbai and Delhi and itwas a big hit,” she said.

“The market loved the richness ofthe ethnic embroidery and the beau-ty of the handcrafted product. Forthe women, this was literally like anew lease of life,” she said. Accord-ing to Nanavaty, the men of thesefamilies are mostly dependent on

the rain for farming and most of theyoungsters migrate to the city for aliving. With their handicrafts nowbringing in money, the familes sud-denly had a much-needed safety net.

“We set up the Self EmployedWomen’s Association Trade Facili-tation Centre in which the artisanswere the main shareholders — 65percent of the sales went to themdirectly,” she said. Finally, in 2003,Hansiba, the brand was launched,named after the woman who firstjoined the movement. “Hansiba wasvery well received,” said Nanavaty.

Hansiba will showcase its collec-tion in a fashion show in Delhi inMarch and its protagonist, the 92-year-old Hansibaben, is expected towalk the ramp!

—Azera Rahman/Ahmedabad

Hansibaben, 92, in her village in Patan district of Gujarat.

With just around amonth to go for the re-launch of the EastIndia Company — the

world’s first multinational whoseforces once ruled much of theglobe — its new Indian owner sayshe is overwhelmed by “a huge feel-ing of redemption”. It’s been along, emotional and personal jour-ney for Sanjiv Mehta, a Mumbai-born entrepreneur who completedthe process of buying the EastIndia Company (EIC) in 2005 fromthe “30 or 40” people who owned it.

Acutely aware that he owned apiece of history — at its height thecompany generated half of worldtrade and employed a third of theBritish workforce — Mehta, nowthe sole owner, dived into the com-pany’s rich and ruthless past inorder to give it a new direction forthe future.

With a $15-million investmentand inputs from a range of experts— from designers and brandresearchers to historians — Mehtais today poised to open the firstEast India Company store in Lon-don’s upmarket Mayfair neigh-bourhood in March.

And then there is the inevitable— and daunting — task of launch-ing in India, a country whoseresources, army, trade and politicsthe company had controlled forsome 200 years. “Put yourself inmy shoes for a moment: On arational plane, when I bought thecompany, I saw gold at the end ofthe rainbow. But, at an emotionallevel, as an Indian, when youthink with your heart as I do, Ihad this huge feeling of redemp-tion — this indescribable feeling ofowning a company that once

owned us,” he told IANS. With itsown Elizabethan coat of arms —now owned by Mehta — the com-pany was made responsible forbringing tea, coffee and luxurygoods to the West and trading inspices across the globe.

“When I took over the company,my objective was to understand itshistory. I took a sabbatical fromall other business and this becamethe single purpose in my life,” saidMehta. He travelled around theworld, visiting former EIC tradingposts and museums, reading uprecords and meeting people “whounderstood the business of that

time”. “There was a huge sense ofresponsibility — I didn’t createthis brand, but I wanted to be aspioneering as the merchants whocreated it,” he said. “The Eliza-bethan coat of arms stands fortrust and reassurance, but we arenot repeating history. It took mefour years to do the brand posi-tioning and put up the mile-stones.” The ‘relaunched’ compa-ny will have its headquarters onConduit Street in Mayfair. “It’salso a major ambition to bringIndian products to the rest of theworld,” Mehta said. — Dipankar De Sarkar/London

At 92, Hansibaben is still working atinnovating the traditional craft

HANSIBA: Aglobal brand

East India COMPANYnow has INDIAN owner

At an emotional level, as an Indian, whenyou think with your heart as I do, I had this

huge feeling of redemption — thisindescribable feeling of owning a company

that once owned us

Sanjiv Mehta, CEO of the East India Company, with the company’s Coat ofArms, granted by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600.

It’s difficult todecide which storyis more amazing —

that the womanafter which

Hansiba, as thebrand is called, was70 when the wholejourney started. Or

that 15,000 ruralwomen manage theentire supply chainof the company andtake care of their

families

When Sanjiv Mehta took over the company, he took a sabbaticalfrom all other business to understand its history

AMAZING WOMAN

ECONOMY


India plans to build seedreserves to ensure nationalfood and income security tomillions of its farmers, reeling

under the impact of a deficit mon-soon and a harsh drought in 2009, atop official said on February 12.

“We are working with the seedindustry to produce surplus high-yielding, pest and disease-resistantseeds to build reserves that can beused in the event of crisis arisingout of droughts or floods during themonsoon,” union Agriculture Sec-retary T. Nanda Kumar toldreporters in Bengaluru.

Noting that despite monsoon fail-ure and drought in many parts ofthe country, supply of food grainswas not affected due to surplusstocks and seeds from the 2008-09bumper crop, Kumar said the pro-posed seed reserve would be inde-pendent of the stock the NationalSeed Corporation of India or state

seed corporations build-up everyyear. “A depositary of seeds will belocated across the country in dif-ferent states and made available tofarmers depending on their require-

ments. In states like Punjab,Haryana and Madhya Pradeshwhere wheat is produced more, wewill stock wheat seeds and in south-ern states like Andhra Pradesh andTamil Nadu, we will stock riceseeds,” Kumar said on the marginsof the first Indian Seed Congress,organised by the National SeedsAssociation of India.

“Similarly, seed reserves for corn,pulses, edible oils and other foodcrops will be stored in states wherethey are produced more,” Kumarpointed out.

As such an ambitious projectinvolves substantial cost involvingprocurement, storage and mainte-nance, Kumar said the central gov-ernment would have to pick thebill and it would be shared by therespective states. “The game planis to build sufficient seed reservesfrom next year to be made avail-able to farmers faster in emergen-cy after they are affected bydrought or flood,” Kumar averred.

Admitting that Indian agricul-ture and millions of farmers werestill monsoon-dependent due toinadequate water resources andincomplete irrigation projects inmany states, Kumar hinted therewas no guarantee that another cli-mate variability may not occur inthe short term. “Maybe, five yearsdown the line, we may have eitherdeficit or excess rainfall resulting

in either drought or flood. Both sit-uations create problem to farmersand food productivity. In such dis-tress situation, seed reserve willhelp farmers to access seeds fortimely sowing of food and cashcrops,” Kumar added.

India plans seed reservesThe game plan is tobuild sufficient seedreserves from nextyear to be quicklymade available tofarmers affected bydrought or flood

A depositary ofseeds will be locatedacross the countryin different states

The Prime Minister’s Eco-nomic Advisory Council onFebruary 19 predictedIndia’s growth for this fiscal

at 7.2 percent, and later acceleratingto 8.2 percent and 9 percent, respec-tively, over the next two years.

“The council expects a bounceback in agricultural gross domesticproduct in the next year and main-tenance of the desired trend growthof 4 percent in 2011-12,” Chairman C.Rangarajan said at a press meet in

New Delhi after a review of the Indian economy.

The high-profile council alsoexpected the industrial and servicesectors to continue to expand strong-ly through both these years andhoped the government’s prioritiesand initiatives on infrastructurewould proceed along desired lines.“On this basis, we are making aninitial estimate that the economywould grow by 8.2 percent in 2010-11and by 9 percent in 2011-12,” saidRangarajan, after presenting thereview to Prime Minister Dr. Man-mohan Singh.

The council noted with concernthe price movements in the currentfiscal that has resulted in very highrates of inflation in food products,both primary articles and manufac-tured items. “The danger of thisspreading to other commoditiesexists, especially in the backdrop ofthe strong recovery that the Indianeconomy has been making since thesummer of 2009,” it said.

INDIAN IT & BPO INDUSTRY PERFORMANCE

(Source: Nasscom)

Note: Government IT spend is estimated to reach $ 5.4 billion in 2010-11from $ 3.6 billion in 2009-10, including $ 897 million in e-governance alone

2008-2009

Export earnings

47

$ bi

llio

n

2009-2010 2010-2011(Projected)

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Domestic market revenues

12.8 14.34 16.64

50

56-57

12% YoY growth 15-17% YoY growth

5.5% YoY growth 13-15% YoY growth

Growth peggedat 7.2 percentPM’s council says growth would accelerate to8.2 and 9 percent over the next two years

FDI limit needingcabinet nod upIndia on February 11 doubled to

$240 million the limit for foreigndirect investment proposals thatrequire prior cabinet approval. Ameeting of the Cabinet Commit-tee Economic Affairs, presidedover by Prime Minister Dr. Man-mohan Singh, raised the limitbased on recommendations by thecommerce and industry ministry.At present, all proposals with atotal project cost of up to $120million are approved by thefinance minister, and those aboveare placed before the cabinet.

Ford India toexport Figo

UK group tobuild highways

The Indian arm of global automaker Ford Motor will com-

mence exports of its small car Figoand diesel and petrol engines toSouth Africa and Asean countries,the company said on February 4.

“We will be shipping outfully built Figo andengines (dieseland petrol) toSouth Africa andAsean nations,”Ford India president and man-aging director Michael Bonehamsaid after inauguration of Ford’snew engine plant near Chennai.

Agroup of key British construc-tion companies have set up a

consortium to build roads andhighways in India, Road Transportand Highways Minister Kamal Nathsaid in London on February 2. TheBritish-India Roads Group metKamal Nath on February 1 and willsign an agreement with the gov-ernment within two months. Thegroup has over 20 British firms andwill enter into pacts with Indianpartners to facilitate India’s ambi-tion to build 20 km of highwaysper day over the coming years.

INDIA STORY

The White House has inviteddozens of America’s topexecutives, including Pep-sico’s India-born chief exec-

utive Indra K. Nooyi, seeking tips onhow the U.S. bureaucracy canbecome leaner and meaner. BesidesNooyi, Microsoft chief executiveSteve Ballmer, Craigslist founderCraig Newmark, Sprint Nextel chiefexecutive Dan Hesse, and Facebookco-founder Chris Hughes are amongthose expected to attend.

The idea is to find ways to cutcosts and getting federal agenciesto place a higher priority on betterserving the public, in areas includ-ing immigration, education and thecensus, The Washington Postreported. White House officialshope tips from the executives mayhelp translate private sector’sentrepreneurial zeal to federal agen-cies as they turn to new technolo-gies, such as web and text messag-ing, to make that all happen.

The Census Bureau spent $600million on a project to make its 2010count electronic, but the effortfailed and the census will be con-

ducted by paper this year. “We seea big gap in technology from theprivate sector and the federal gov-ernment in terms of productivityand service quality,” said JeffreyZients, the Deputy Director forManagement of the Office of Man-agement and Budget.

Zients, federal Chief Information

Officer Vivek Kundra and federalChief Technology Officer AneeshChopra told The Post in a groupinterview that they invited execu-tives from various industries whohave demonstrated excellence incost management, customer ser-vice, and the use of high-tech toolsto achieve those ends.

One challenge facing the adminis-tration is that federal workers aren’t

motivated by the shareholder pres-sures and corporate bonuses of theprivate sector. The executives willbreak out into three working groupsand then present their ideas to allattendees, including Valerie Jarrett,a senior adviser to President BarackObama, and Peter Orszag, director ofthe Office of Management and Bud-

get, The Post said. The governmenthas started to implement some ofthe ideas. It’s cut nearly a dozeninformation technology contractsthat appeared wasteful.

The U.S. Customs and Immigra-tion Services is using text messagesto inform applicants for citizenshipwhen their paperwork movesthrough the seven steps of the appli-cation process.

DIASPORA


WHITE HOUSESEEKS ‘TIPS’The White House has invited top Indian-American executives to helpfind ways of cutting costs to make the US bureaucracy leaner

Indian-American Nobel laureateVenkatraman Ramakrishnanhas been named the India

Abroad Person of the Year 2009 bythe ethnic weekly newspaper.

A total of nine awards were pre-sented in seven categories at theseventh annual India Abroad Per-son of the Year Awards gala onMarch 5. Prominent members of theIndian-American communityattended the event, held at theNational Museum of the AmericanIndian in the magnificent Alexan-der Hamilton U.S. Customs Housein New York.

The first to be honoured was theIndia Abroad Young Achiever 2009,Kavya Shivashankar, winner of theScripps National Spelling Bee 2009.

The India Abroad Gopal RajuAward for Community Service 2009went to the South Asian Council forSocial Services (SACSS) and itsExecutive Director Sudha Acharyafor SACSS’s long support and

empowerment of South Asianimmigrants in America.

Priyamvada Natarajan, Professorof astronomy and physics at YaleUniversity, was named the IndiaAbroad Face of the Future 2009, anaward which recognises thepromise of future achievement.

Mathematician Manjul Bhargava,the youngest Full Professor atPrinceton University, and the inau-gural India Abroad Face of theFuture 2008, was also present.

Investment banker SreedharMenon was awarded the IndiaAbroad Award for Lifetime Serviceto the Community 2009.

The India Abroad Publisher’s Spe-cial Awards for Excellence werepresented to National PublicRadio’s Morning Edition ExecutiveProducer Madhulika Sikka, TheWashington Post Managing EditorRaju Narisetti, and Otterbein Col-lege professor Abhijat Joshi, bestknown as the co-writer of Bolly-wood blockbusters 3 Idiots and LageRaho Munnabhai.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelistJhumpa Lahiri’s publisher AjaiSingh ‘Sonny’ Mehta, the editor-in-chief of Alfred A Knopf, was giventhe India Abroad Award for Life-time Achievement 2009.

Virginia’s Republican Governor-elect Bob McDonnell has

appointed long-time fundraiserDr. Kamlesh Dave to his transitionteam for economic development.Dave, a cardiologist practising inChester, Virginia, is the first Indi-an-American to be inducted intothe governor-elect’s inner circle ofadvisers. Born and raised inAhmedabad, Dave is a leadingsocial activist. He was recentlyunanimously elected president ofthe new Republican Indian Com-mittee, a political action body.Dave did his internship at CornellUniversity in New York andworked in Manhattan and partsof New Jersey for several years.

KAMLESHDAVE TOADVISEVIRGINIA GUV-ELECT New Jersey’s Republican

Governor Chris Christiehas named an Indian-

American doctor, Poonam Alaigh,as the commissioner of the stateHealth and Senior Services Depart-ment, a cabinet post. Alaigh, 45, hasa multifaceted background inhealth care and administration,including hospital practice, hospi-tal administration, managed care,pharmaceutical medicine, andhealth care policy. “It is importantwe have a qualified team with theattitude and willingness to get towork, make tough decisions andstrive for results. These appoint-ments will assure that the statusquo isn’t acceptable and the healthand education of New Jersey’s citi-zens will be in the best of hands,”Governor Christie said, announc-

ing Alaigh’s name. Alaigh said herfirst priority is to help the governorbalance the budget. Currentlydirector of Horizon Blue Cross BlueShield of New Jersey, she is alsoworking as an assistant professorin the department of family prac-tice at the University of Medicineand Robert Wood Johnson Univer-sity Medical School.

Poonam Alaigh is justwhat the doc prescribed

New Jersey Governor Chris Christieintroduces Poonam Alaigh.

Aneesh Chopra Indra Nooyi Vivek Kundra

Ramakrishnan is India Abroad Person ‘09

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

There may be an economicslump in Poland, but thegrowing popularity of Indi-an food has set off an Indi-

an restaurant boom in the Polishcapital and other cities with

samosas, chicken tikkas, biryaniand what is known as mango

lassi hooking Poles, manyof whom have begun

cooking Indiandishes in their

homes. “It is amazing but true that in

the past six months around a dozen

new Indian restaurants have comeup along with six old ones. To caterto the demands of Warsawoians,restaurants like Aarti, NamasteIndia, Buddha Bar, BombayMasala, Ganesh and many othershave been opened largely by Sind-hi businessmen,” said DevenderSingh, owner of Maharaja, the firstIndian restaurant here that hasbeen in business since 1992.

“Earlier, most of these business-men were dealing with fabric busi-ness. Now all of a sudden these peo-ple see a gold mine in restaurant


DIASPORA

business,” Singh told IANS.“Now you go to any corner of

Warsaw you will find an Indianrestaurant close to your liking. Toopen a new restaurant in a poshstreet like Nowy Swiet, or for thatmatter in the club-stoned smallstreets of Old Town, where rentsare exorbitant, is quite costly. Stillthese businesmen have taken a riskto compete with other continentaland Polish restaurants. One has toappreciate their business senseeven in these recessionary times,”J. J. Singh, president of Indo-PolishChamber of Commerce and Indus-try, who himself is a partner in Bol-lywood Lounge, told IANS.

The success of Bollywood Lounge,a favourite hub for the young crowdon weekends, has prompted Singhand his partners to open anotherbranch in Gdandsk.

Similarly, branches of NamastaIndia Lounge of Ashok Manani andIndia Lounge have come up in War-

saw in the last three months toencash on the success of Bolly-

wood Lounge. “We at the Indian-Polish Cultural

Committee are happy with the ever-growing numbers of Indian restau-rants coming up in many Polishcities, such as Krakow, Poznan andGdansk. One can open a modestIndian restaurant with two Indiancooks and three Polish waitresses,provided one gets cheap accommo-dation. A big part of the successgoes to the Polish tourists who havebeen to India in the last five years,”Janusz Krzyzowski, president of thecommittee, said.

“Some 90,000 people have visitedIndia in the last five years. Theyare the new converts and nowmountain has come to Mohammadto satisfy their demands.” “Onceyou are hooked to Indian food, itbecomes a life-long addiction,” saidBoguslaw Zakrezewski, an Indophileand a former ambassador. ManyPoles, he said, have also startedcooking few Indian dishes in theirown homes, thanks to spices available in Indian shops.

— Surender Bhutani/Warsaw

Po-LandOF SPICESGrowing popularity of Indian food has set off an Indian restaurant boom inPoland, with samosas and chicken tikkas becoming favourites among Poles

An Indian Centre for Con-temporary Research hasbeen set up by the Euro-

pean Union at Warsaw Universityto cater to a growing interest inIndia in Europe.

“It will act as a bridge betweenIndian universities, particularlyJawaharlal Nehru University andCentral University of Hyderabad,along with other EU-funded centres in the European Unioncountries,” said Marie-TheresaDuffy Hausler, the representativeof EU in Poland.

“The centre will take up a Mas-ters Course on Indian Studiesshortly and that too in Englishlanguage, so that it could meetthe requirements of EU students,”said Pawel Wajczehowski,Poland's vice minister for foreignaffairs.

“It is a great day for India thatEU has given a proper status tothe emerging power of India,”said Rajesh Vashenav, the Indiancharge d’affaires at the inaugura-tion ceremony of the university.

“We are ready to host the firstjoint seminar in January 2011,”said Prakash Sarangi, pro-vicechancellor of the University ofHyderabad.

The EU Commission selectedPoland and Denmark among 27countries. The centre will get spe-cialists from other Europeancountries along with teachersfrom India.

Indian studycentre set upin Poland

Warsaw University

DIASPORA


Indo-CanadianbusinessmanVim Kochhar

was nominated tothe Canadian sen-ate by Prime Min-ister StephenHarper.

When he takesoath, 73-year-old Kochhar willbecome the first Indian-born sena-tor in Canadian history. Kochhar isamong five new members appoint-ed to the upper chamber of theCanadian parliament.

Founder and CEO of the VimalGroup of Companies in Toronto,Kochhar came to Canada in 1967after finishing his engineeringdegree from the University ofTexas. He became a Canadian citi-zen in 1974.

Currently, there are 105 membersin the Canadian senate whichincludes 51 from the ruling Conser-

vative Party and 49 from the oppo-sition Liberal Party.

Known for his community work,Kochhar set up the Canadian Foun-dation for Physically Disabled Per-sons. He was also instrumental instarting the annual Great ValentineGalas, Rolling Rampage forwheelchair athletes, the CanadianHelen Keller Centre, RotaryCheshire Homes for the Deaf-Blind,the WhyNot Marathon for the Par-alympics, and the Terry Fox Hall ofFame.

Since the opposition majority inthe Senate till now held up manygovernment legislation, the Cana-dian Prime Minister said: “Theopposition have abused their Senatemajority by obstructing and evis-cerating law and order measuresthat are urgently needed by Cana-dians. These new senators are com-mitted to community safety and jus-tice for the victims of crime.”

Indian-American professor Ken-neth S. Sajwan of SavannahState University (SSU) has

received an award for excellence inmentoring, from U.S. PresidentBarack Obama.

Sajwan, coordinator of the envi-ronmental science programme atSSU, was among 100 math and sci-ence teachers to get the award fromObama as he announced a $250 mil-lion public-private initiativedesigned to improve national mathand science education. Nationallyrecognised as a leading scholar andresearcher in the field of environ-mental science, Sajwan’s workshave been seen in more than 100publications.

He received a Masters’ of Sciencedegree in agronomy in 1975 from

J.N. Agricultural University inIndia and earned a doctoral degreein post-harvest technology fromIndian Institute of Technology in1980 and another doctoral degree inagronomy and environmental qual-ity from Colorado State Universityin 1985. American students, Obamanoted, currently rank 21st in sci-ence compared with studentsaround the world, put the U.S. at adisadvantage on issues such asmedicine, energy and security.

TEMPLE of Learning

PIO appointed senator

IndianAmerican top mentor

A state-funded school in Britain is adornedwith a marvellous marble temple that boastsof Vedic ethos and vegetarian meals

MARTINS GETSTOP OZ HONOUR

Indian-originresearcher of

Alzheimer’s dis-ease, RalphMartins, hasbeen namedAustralian ofthe Year 2010by the government of Western Aus-tralia. Peter Varghese, Australianhigh commissioner to India, said:“The award signals Martins’ contri-butions to research on Alzheimer'sdisease.”

OZ DAY MEDALSCONFERRED

V.P. Unnikrishnan, secretary ofthe Federation of Indian Com-

munities, Queensland, hasreceived two Australia DayAchievement Medals for his con-tributions to society there.

Both these awards are to recog-nise individuals who made note-worthy contributions to the com-munity and department overmany years. It was his road designat the Sydney Olympics, whichensured smooth flow of trafficfrom the city of Sydney to the Syd-ney Olympics village.

INDIAN LINGUISTEXCELS

An Indian linguist, M. J. Warsi,has been awarded a $25,000

grant by the South Asian LanguageResource Centre (SALRC) to devel-op a South Asian languages cur-riculum in the U.S. A gold medal-list from Aligarh Muslim Universi-ty, Warsi teaches linguistics atWashington University. An Indo-Aryan language and linguisticsprofessor in the South Asian Stud-ies at the department, Warsi hasalso authored many books help-ing understand the efficacy of thecommon contact in languages andculture.

Ralph Martins

Vim Kochhar

Kenneth S. Sajwan (left)

Adorned with classroomshrines and a grand mar-ble temple, Britain’s firststate-funded Hindu school

has opened its doors to the Britishmedia after fending off allegations itwould promote religious segregation.

Krishna Avanti Primary Schoolopened up its eco-friendly com-pounds to show its Vastu-inspiredarchitecture and design, yoga ses-sions, Vedic ethos and vegetarianmeals. And the sponsors of theschool in northwest London, whichhas the largest concentration ofHindus in Britain, immediatelyannounced plans to open up sec-ondary Hindu schools to cater tomounting demand in London,Leicester and other cities.

The showpiece of the school,which does not charge fees, is aneye-catching temple built from

hand-carved Makrana marble fromRajasthan, the same marble thatwas used to build the Taj Mahal.

The smart school buildings arewood-clad, their roofs covered withgrass and the “eco-friendly” com-pound includes a pond, a wildlifegarden and an amphitheatre.

Before the opening of the school,which is funded by a charity andpartnered by the International Soci-ety for Krishna Consciousness(ISKCON), Hinduism was the onlymajor religion without a faithschool in Britain.

Headteacher Naina Parmer says,“We’re not an exclusivist ghetto. Asa faith school one of the key thingsis we’re an inclusive faith. The chil-dren learn about other religions.”

“We play classical music in the

communal areas as it is calmingand it also embraces the fact we areBritish.” Ten percent of the chil-dren are white.

Unlike other schools in Britain,Krishna Avanti Primary School recy-cles rainwater, uses water pumps towarm up water for under-floor heat-ing and has intelligent building man-agement systems that control roomtemperature. As with a nearbyISKCON temple — housed in anestate donated by the late BeatleGeorge Harrison — the school serveslunch cooked from vegetables thatare grown on the school grounds.

I-Foundation, an organisationthat helps raise government andprivate funds to build schools, hasproposed a secondary school thatwould cater to up to 600 pupils.

The International Society for Krish-na Consciousness, ISKCON, wasfirst incorporated in 1966 in NewYork by A.C. Bhaktivedanta SwamiPrabhupada. ISKCON today is aworldwide confederation of morethan 400 centres, aiming for self-sufficiency, 50 schools and 90restaurants. In recent decades, themovement's most rapid expansionsin terms of numbers of member-ship have been within EasternEurope and India. ISKCON spreadsthe practice of bhakti yoga (devo-tion to God), in which aspirantdevotees (bhaktas) dedicate theirthoughts and actions towardspleasing the Supreme Lord.

ISKCON: Ashort history

An ISKCONtemple


SPORT


There is a buzz around theimposing CommonwealthGames Organising Com-mittee Headquarters near

Connaught Place these days asscores of excited students, profes-sionals, homemakers, ex-service-men, teachers and people from thecorporate world flock to it to join asvolunteers for the October 3-14Games.

The aspiring volunteers awaittheir turn for a one-on-one inter-view for being part of the 30,000needed for the Games, though the

number of applicants is severaltimes that number.

Sudhir Mital, the special director-general looking after the Rs.180 mil-lion ($4 million) image-building vol-unteers programme Delhi United,said the response was so over-whelming that receiving applica-tions online had to be discontinuedfor a while.

“To make the programme social-ly inclusive, we have categorisedapplicants under different heads.For 5,000 volunteers in the generalcategory, our portal has received a

whopping 29,000 applications, forc-ing us to discontinue the service,”Mital told IANS.

It is amazing to find the kind ofpeople who want to be associatedwith the Games in some form orother — from specialist volunteersto generalist.

“We have a number of applicantsfrom top corporate houses. Theyare willing to take off from theirwork to join the Games,” Mitalsaid.

The rest of the 25,000 volunteerswill be recruited from the TourismMinistry, Delhi University, Nation-al Cadet Corps, National ServiceScheme, and sports and physicaltraining institutes.

“The volunteers will be the mostvisible face of the Games. From themoment a visitor lands at the air-port till the time he leaves, he willbe interacting with volunteers themost. Therefore, the volunteers pro-gramme is a key component in theGames framework,” Mital said.

— Azera Rahman

PEOPLINGTHE COLOSSEUMThe CWG Organising Committee has received anoverwhelming response from aspiring volunteers,from homemakers to corporate chieftains

Here come the ‘Soleck-shaws’. Thousands ofathletes and officials tak-ing part in the Common-

wealth Games here this year willget to travel in solar rickshaws —a zero carbon vehicle.

“We are introducing a fleet of1,000 Soleckshaws (the name ofsolar rickshaws) for the Common-wealth Games players,” RajeshKumar, a senior scientist at theCouncil of Scientific and IndustrialResearch (CSIR), told IANS.

“These Soleckshaws are thegreenest transport vehicles. Theywill also help the cause of the GreenGames as promised by the Delhigovernment,” said the scientist,who has been coordinating with thestate government for this project.

Over 7,000 players and delegatesfrom over 70 countries will reachDelhi to be a part of the Common-wealth Games from October 3-14 inthe national capital.

It was developed by the Durgapur-based Central Mechanical Engi-neering Research Institute, one ofthe 30-odd laboratories of CSIR, theapex science research body in thecountry.

The technology has been trans-ferred to three companies — oneeach in Faridabad, Hyderabad andKolkata.

“These zero carbon vehicles willferry players inside the Games vil-lages and help them reach sportingvenues from Metro stations,”Kumar explained.

He said this effort would give spe-cial status to the country for its aimof reducing carbon intensity evenduring a mega sporting event andpopularise the vehicle among themasses, who may adopt it quicklyin several cities.

Soleckshaws are optimallydesigned, pedal operated, motorassisted green pedicabs which drawtheir power from overhead solarpanels.

The solar panels absorb energyfrom sun, which powers the pedal-driven vehicle. Kumar said intro-ducing these rickshaws will herald

India's effort in providing a life ofdignity to people.

“It will enhance the dignity ofhuman labour by diminishingdrudgery and exhaustion involvedin pulling traditional rickshaws.This will put India in a better lightamong the global community. It’s amodel for sustainable develop-ment,” he said.

The scientist said use during theGames would help the acceptancelevel of the vehicle and increaseself-employment at the grassroots.

The solar rickshaw would not useany fossil fuel and hence there wasno question of polluting the envi-ronment.

He said the solar rickshaws wouldbe supplied by three companies.

“We will have full support forthis. It will support the GreenGames concept as well as make ourproduct a marketable one later,”said Anil Sahoo, manager of theHyderabad Battery Limited, one ofthe three companies, which are con-verting CSIR lab rickshaws to marketable ones.

What’s that? A Soleckshaw

The Gameshas insti-

tuted a Com-monwealthGames Delhi2010 EcologicalCode that outlines ways of cuttingdown on carbon emissions duringthe mega sporting event, layingstress on clean fuel, water conser-vation and waste management.The ecological code will also assessthe impact of the Games on land,energy, water, air and carbon whiledelineating its environmentalvision. The code emphasises exten-sive afforestation, energy conser-vation, reduction in water con-sumption, encouraging waste-water treatment, encouraging theuse of clean fuel such as CNG inbuses and creating awarenessamong Delhiites about preserva-tion of biodiversity.

The GreenCode

Did you known The logo of the Commonwealth Games is inspired by the Ashok Chakra. Spiralling upwards,it depicts the growth and development of India.n It has a distinctive colour scheme in which green signifies life and energy, purple adds ahint of mystery and excitement, while pink adds an element of surprise and luxury to the Gameslook, reflecting the resplendent glory of India.

A soleckshaw powered by solar panels

A CNGbus in Delhi

COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2010

SCIENCE


MARINE LIFE

Scientists working on theworld’s first ocean census —a decade-long project —claim to have found over

5,000 new marine organisms thatwere not known to mankind all thiswhile.

A network of 2,000 scientists from82 nations have been working sincethe year 2000 to prepare an inven-tory of marine organisms in theworld, which will be released inLondon in October this year. Theproject costs around $650 million.

“We have found more than 5,000new marine species and many moreare lying in jars yet to be analysed,”Jesse Ausubel, programme coordi-nator of the Census of Marine Life(CoML) scientific steering commit-tee, told IANS during a trip to India.

Scientists engaged in the censushave observations on 200,000 to250,000 forms of marine lives whichwill be available in an online ency-clopaedia. But they think it is justthe tip of the iceberg and millionsof more species living in the sea areyet to be discovered.

“We are all eagerly waiting forOctober 2010 when we will presentthe first census of marine life as we

don’t have anydetails aboutmarine organ-isms. It willhave detailsabout the small-est organisms,the microbes, tothe very largest,the blue whales,which live in thesea,” saidAusubel.

“The first census will not onlyadvance knowledge about life in theglobal ocean, including the firstever complete catalogue of marinelife, but will serve to inform deci-sions about how best to manage andpreserve the resources that livebelow the surface around theworld,” said Ausubel.

Ian Poiner, chairman of CoML,said: “We want to know how cli-mate change, more acid in theocean, more pollutants and moresound are affecting marine life andwe cannot find this until we have acomprehensive baseline of marinelife.”

“Now that we will have an inven-tory of marine life, say, by 2020 or2030, we can say that certain ani-

mals are moving to cooler watersdue to heating of the oceans or fromshallow water to deeper due to pol-lution or harmful methods of fish-ing,” said Pioner, who also headsthe Australian Institute of MarineScience.

The scientists found that thereare a large number of undiscoveredspecies in the deep sea.

“About 90 percent of species werecovered in the deep sea were newto science. Bigger species have beenexplored but species of the smallsize between 500 micron and 1 mm

Indian scientists will try to dis-tinguish individual whalesharks off the Gujarat coast,

using a technique employed byNASA to identify galaxies.

Just as each tiger is distinguishedby its stripes, whale sharks too canbe identified through a unique pat-tern of spots that form points ofnumerous triangles on their bodies,say experts.

As the whale shark grows, the dis-tance between these spots increas-es, but angles of these trianglesremain the same, thus identifyingthe whale shark. The method is alsoused by NASA to identify galaxies.

This initiative is part of a study tounderstand the migratory pattern,breeding and habitat of whalesharks for future conservation mea-sures, says Dhiresh Joshi of theNGO Wildlife Trust of India (WTI)that is working on the project inpartnership with the Gujarat forestdepartment.

It involves taking underwater pic-tures of whale sharks and storingthem in a global database managedby the NGO Ecocean.

If whale sharks spotted here arealso sighted elsewhere in the world,

it will help reveal their migratorypath to the Arabian Sea through theoceans. Initially, the forest depart-ment and WTI will be the main col-laborators of the project. Later, fish-ermen will be roped in too, forsighting and the photo identifica-tion programme, says Joshi.

Each time a whale shark is pho-tographed, details of the location,water conditions and other factorsare recorded. The photographs helpidentify individual whale sharks,facilitate population estimation bythe ‘mark recapture’ method andmigratory pattern, he added.

Joshi says past record shows thatwhale sharks aggregate in larger

numbers off Gujarat than off anyother state in India.

A survey by the NGO TrafficIndia recorded over 500 whaleshark sightings between 1999 and2000.

“From the satellite images it isclear there are large planktonblooms off the coast of Gujarat com-pared to any other maritime stateand this could be the reason forsuch frequent sightings,” Joshi toldIANS.

Ecocean has received supportfrom the UN Environment Pro-gramme to promote the globalwhale shark library.

— Sanjeeb Baruah

Space technology to identify WHALE SHARKS OFF GUJARAT

SEA SECRETS: OVER 5,000 SPECIES FOUND

This Crassota jellyfish was found bythe Census of Marine Life.

Anthomastis cascade was discovered in the Tasman Fracture Zone.

A whale shark

Jesse Ausubel,ProgrammeCoordinator,CoML

This transparent seacucumber was spotted some1.7 miles under the sea in theNorthern Gulf of Mexico.

They were the sea’s best kept secrets — until now. Scientists havefound over 5,000 new marine species that lay deep, unexplored.

have maximum diversity on earth.They live at 1,000 to 2,000 metresdepth and get enough food and ener-gy to survive,” said Myriam Sibuet,vice-chairperson of CoML. Theinternational scientific steeringcommittee of CoML has simultane-ously started genetic barcoding ofold and new species. DNA barcod-ing is a method that uses a shortgenetic marker in an organism’sDNA to identify it.

“Initially, we are trying barcod-ing for over 50,000 of the 200,000species and have taken species of

some of the major groups like mol-luscs, gastropods, sea cucumbers,and microbes. We have already bar-coded 10,000 species,” said Sibuet.Scientists in the census were alsoimpressed with the high level ofIndian participation in the census.

“In India, we got a chance toexplore new technology that can beused for exploring the ocean. It hasopened up new vistas for other pro-grammes,” said Mohideen Wafar,chairperson of the Indian Oceanteam of CoML.

— Richa Sharma

Clione limacina (Sea Angel)

CINEMA


SUPER GROSSER

That he is a bigger drawthan Hollywood superstarTom Cruise with the Indi-an diaspora in the UK and

the US, is an earlier-known fact.This time Shah Rukh Khan hasgone a step ahead. His latest film,Karan Johar’s My Name Is Khan,has become a global phenomenon.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh says,“It has made the biggest openingever for a Bollywood film in the UK($1.4 million in its opening week-end), and also in the US ($1.86 mil-lion in the first weekend). This reit-erates the fact that Shah Rukh isking in the overseas market.’’

The film has also taken severalother foreign markets by storm. Ithas broken the record for thebiggest initial for a Bollywoodmovie in the UAE. And is the firstHindi film to release in Egyptacross eight theatres. In the firstweek of March, the film released innine theatres across Jordan, Syriaand Lebanon.

On its opening day, MNIK rakedin Rs. 250 million worldwide — thefirst of its kind.

High on the praise he hasreceived from the Indian and for-eign media, an ecstatic Karan said,“MNIK is the first global film thathas actually come from Bollywood.It has penetrated far deeper than

the parameters of the diaspora mar-kets and has found patronage incountries like Poland, Germany andRussia where no Bollywood filmshave found such a huge favour. Wehave already added 25 odd printsacross the Middle East — Oman,Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, heart-ened by the phenomenal first weekcollections in UAE.’’

Fox Star Studios, Red Chillies andDharma Productions are smilingtheir way to the bank because inthe Middle East countries, the printcounts that stood at 61 will go up to71 by the first week of March. Thisis almost double the print tally formost Hindi films. In Singaporealone, the film has done phenome-nal business at the ticket windowswhich is a record for Hindi film.And the great word of mouth con-tinues to keep it on top, says thelocal distributor. Australia andNew Zealand have ended their firstweek collections with record ticketsales. In Hong Kong, the film is run-ning to packed houses.

What has warmed the cockles ofKaran’s heart, though, is his recenttrip to the prestigious Berlin FilmFestival where SRK, Kajol and hewalked down the red carpet.Reports say there were 3,000 ecstat-ic fans braving the minus 10degrees temperature to participate

in their moment of glory. Sourcessay that when Shah Rukh got the1,800 lucky viewers who finallymade it into the auditorium todance to the ‘Sajda’ number, he wonGermans for life.

In India, despite controversy andcalls to boycott the film, hundredsof thousands thronged cinema hallsacross India, and MNIK opened topacked theatres.

But Khan has a long journeyahead. Karan and Shah Rukh stillhave a couple of aces up theirsleeve. “We will be releasing thefilm in many other countries acrossEurope and America right till themonth of June,’’ says Karan. “Theactual assessment can therefore bemade only after July, when the realnumbers of the film start showing.’’Karan added.

The film is also being dubbed inGerman and Polish so that the non-Hindi speaking SRK fans also get toenjoy MNIK. “Every country has adifferent requirement. In Poland, itwill be released with Polish subti-tles. In Germany, we want the filmto go down much deeper to the Ger-man audience and that particularmarket prefers films to be dubbed.So that's why we are dubbing it inGerman and Turkish,” Vijay Singh,CEO of Fox STAR Studios India,said.

CREATES HISTORY “My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist”

These words today signify the majority of Muslims who live in con-stant fear that they will be branded terrorists simply becausethey follow Islam. This unfortunately is the latent fear

the majority of our Muslim brethren nurture — of beingbranded terrorists simply because they follow Islam!

There couldn’t have been a better time for a film likeMy Name Is Khan when a growing number of people arevictims of what some call “travelling while a Muslim”. Apassenger, whatever be his religion, bearing a first nameor a surname like Muhammad, Khan, Rahman or any otherArabic name, must endure extra security checks and humil-iation at international airports. One of the initial scenes inthe film has an American airport security officer jestinglyasking Rizwan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) what message hewanted to give to the President of the United States, “Youknow where Osama is?” The scene captures a certainmood, paranoia, fear and disdain for Muslims in the USpost 9/11.

In the last few years, many Bollywood films haveattempted to tackle the issue of terrorism. Many oftenclaim to have helped ‘remove’ the stereotypes about Mus-lims. But these storylines have failed miserably. The cen-tral point being the characterisation of the key players inthe story, linking ‘Islamist terror’ with Islam. In almost allthese films, the protagonist who stood against terror waseither a modern and educated Muslim or a non-Muslim. Inthe former case, not because he did not have any theolog-ical understanding of Islam but because he had lived in theWest! And that leaves the stereotypes and confusion intact.This is why My Name is Khan is such an important film.

The film tackles the subject head-on and triumphs. Theprotagonist, as well as various other supporting Muslimcharacters, are shown comfortable leading a normal ‘Muslim’life. They pray, they wear the hijab, and they have a social lifetoo outside their Muslim families. They have strong traditional rootsbut are not inclined towards any larger ‘plot’. The film acknowledges theproblems within Muslim communities and brings out into the open what is dis-cussed under the closet, but then counters them not from outside but from inside. MNIK’scentral character stands out against the system not in spite of his upbringing and ‘religion’,but because of it. MNIK is the story of Rizwan Khan, an Indian Muslim immigrant to theUS who is disabled by Asperger’s Syndrome. Rizwan can think only in black and white, rightor wrong and has little appreciation of social nuances. So he does things straight out of hisheart — be it offering namaz in public spaces, reciting the Surah Ikhlas while passingthrough airport security, offering Zakat at the 9/11 charity, donning traditional clothes, ordismissing his neighbour’s culinary skills on her face. Various other characters are authen-tic and taken straight out of daily life, be it that of Rizwan’s brother, his sister-in-law, or theGujarati motel owner. Khan’s life changes after his son becomes a victim to anti-Muslim‘hatred’. One of the most poignant scenes in the film is where Khan’s wife Mandira (Kajol) isnear hysterical and lashes out at him: “My son was killed because his name was Khan, if hisname was Rathore, he would be living. He was killed because I took on your name.”

Bollywood has been faulted for timing, for its films on 9/11 and its effects have appeared 10years after the tragedy. Hence the most often asked question: “How is this relevant to us today?”After Mumbai’s 26/11 tragedy, the film becomes an effective vehicle for the message of toler-ance, harmony and peace. Not least, in the wake of the Shiv Sena’s anti-SRK tirade and subse-quent vandalisation of cinema halls. MNIK has a universal story to tell. — By Nandini S. Sen

More than a name‘My Name Is Khan’

Reiterating the fact that Shah Rukh Khan is the king, MNIK becomesa global phenomenon, with the biggest openings ever for a Bollywoodfilm in the UK and the United States

CINEMAFILMFARE AWARDS


Graphic novels, the illus-trated avatar of the con-ventional storybook, aregradually making their

presence felt in the country, offer-ing a wider bouquet of Indian andforeign titles and even roping in Bollywood filmmakers for racy scripts.

Westland Limited and Tranque-bar Press, an upcoming publishinghouse promoting young writersfrom across the globe, “has extremeplans to promote the segment”.

“Suddenly, the film industry isinterested in the graphic novel asan extension of what it is doing —supplementing it,” Paul VinayKumar, executive editor of West-land Limited and TranquebarPress, said.

The publishing house is talking tofilmmaker Anurag Kashyap to“develop a series of graphic novels”,which will be scripted by him andillustrated by Westland, Kumarsaid. “We are also discussing agraphic novel project with adwhizkid R. Balakrishnan (Balki) ofPaa fame. It is in a nascent stage,”he said.

“I think a younger and more visu-ally trained generation identifieswith the text-image composite.Those who’ve grown up with comicbooks are comfortable with the ideaof reading images. Then there arethe more adventurous readers whoare constantly seeking new formsand ideas,” Karthika V.K., chief edi-tor and publisher of HarperCollins-India, said.

The graphic book, which existedas comic books in India till the1980s, evolved as picture novels inthe mid-90s when Goa-based illus-trator Orijit Sen published River ofStories (1994) about a young activistcampaigning against the NarmadaDam Project.

The book led to a spurt in the pub-lication of similar illustrated novels

like Corridor, The Barn Owl's Won-drous Capers, Kari and The Hotel AtThe End of the World.

A year ago, four illustrators/writ-ers, Sarnath Banerjee, VishwajyotiGhosh, Parismita Singh and OrijitSen joined hands with AmitavaKumar to set up the Pao’s Collective— India’s first platform to promotegraphic novels.

Since then, almost every contem-porary popular literature series —be it Indian or foreign — has flood-ed the country.

The format is trying to fill the gapbetween television and fine print tolure new and younger segments ofreaders, said publishers at therecently held World Book Fair inNew Delhi.

“The genre, which had a slowstart in the 1990s, is now cominginto its own. One of the reasonswhy graphic novels were slow tocapture the market was the highcost of production,” ChandrakantBaua, publisher of the Mumbai-based Shree Book Centre, said.

The Shree Book Centre dis-tributes graphic versions of populartitles like the Hardy Boys, NancyDrew, Biggles, Agatha Christie,Iznogoud, Quick and Flupke,Doomsday and Birth of a Monsterseries. The price of graphic novelsranges between Rs. 190 and Rs. 699on an average, publishers said.

With the market for graphic novels growingbig, publishing houses in India are roping inBollywood filmmakers for racy stories

A Bollywood twist AUTUMNOF A STARBig B shocked to seerobust Shashi Kapoorin wheelchair

AmitabhBachchan

was shocked tosee ShashiKapoor, his co-star of Trishul,Deewar and somany other hits,confined to a

wheelchair at the Filmfare Awards.Amitabh was supposed to pre-

sent the Filmfare Lifetime Achieve-ment Award to the 71-year-oldactor, but could not attend. How-ever, Amitabh saw pictures of theevent later and was shocked — justlike so many of his other fans.“...the affable (Filmfare) editorJitesh Pillai had asked me if I wouldgive the Lifetime AchievementAward to Shashi Kapoor and I hadagreed with great pleasure. Imissed that more than the expec-tation of winning the best actoraward. Seeing him confined to awheel chair, was something I couldnever associate Shashiji with,”Amitabh posted on his blog.

A unique filmfest in Puri

No juries, no awards... just sun,sand, sea and film screenings

inside makeshift tents. These weresome of the unique features of theBring Your Own Film Festival(BYOFF), recently held in Puri. Hun-dreds of filmmakers, artists, cre-ative men and women and stu-dents participated in BYOFF. It wasthe seventh edition of the festival,initiated by a group of filmmakersto provide a hassle-free platformto people to showcase their cre-ativity. BYOFF made its debut in2004 and more than 3,500 peoplehave participated over the pastfew years.

And the BLACKLADY goes to...T

wo vastly differentfilms swept up anequal number oftrophies at the 55th

Idea Filmfare Awards heldat a glittering ceremony atYash Raj Studios in Andherirecently.

While Vidhu VinodChopra’s 3 Idiots snapped upmost of the popular awards— Best Film, Best Director,Best Story, Best Screenplay,Best Dialogue and Best Sup-porting Actor, AnuragKashyap’s Dev D won six aswell. The Best Actor awardwent to Amitabh Bachchanfor his performance as aprogeria-afflicted child inPaa, while Vidya Balanwalked away with the BestActress trophy for thesame film.

Led by a line-up of stal-warts who turned out instrength, the Hindi filmindustry raised a toast to itsmembers who hit paydirt atthe box-office and won criti-cal acclaim as well. Much tothe delight of the spectators,show hosts Shah Rukh Khanand Saif Ali Khan were backafter taking a break last

year owing to SRK’s elbowinjury. Wasting no time atall, the irrepressible duolaunched their antics on thered carpet itself, and keptpulling out the gags thickand fast through theevening. In this, they wereably supported by goodfriend Karan Johar andactors Siddharth and Shruti.

Salman Khan stole theshow by dancing wildly tothe kind of songs that front-benchers love him for. As abevy of hopeful chorusdancers begged baraat lekeaaja, the most eligible bach-

elor of the industry fendedthem off pleading oonchihai building, lift teri bandhai.

Katrina Kaif wasanother class act with amedley of recent songsleading from yaar nazarnahin aata and haijunoon to her signaturehit Tera hone laga hoonfrom Ajab Prem KiGhazab Kahani.

Shahid Kapoor’s tal-ent at dancing is a fore-gone conclusion andthis time he chose atheme that struck aninstant chord. As hedid a mean moon-walk, the audience’sthoughts went backto the colossal lossof the past year—Michael Jackson.Another warm tributewas reserved for theliving legends. Theaudience rose as onewhen actor ShashiKapoor and composerKhayyam wereawarded this year’sLifetime Achieve-ment Awards.

ROLE OF HONOURBest Film: 3 IdiotsBest Director: Raj Kumar Hirani | 3 IdiotsBest Actor (Male): Amitabh Bachchan | PaaBest Actor (Female): Vidya Balan | PaaBest Supporting Actor (Male): Boman Irani | 3 IdiotsBest Supporting Actor (Female): Kalki Koechlin | Dev DBest Music: A.R. Rahman | Delhi 6Playback (Male): Mohit Chauhan | ‘Masakali’, Delhi 6Best Playback (Female): Kavita Seth | ‘Iktara’, Wake

Up Sid, Rekha Bhardwaj | ‘Genda phool’, Delhi 6Critics’ Award for Director: Nandita Das | Firaaq

Critics’ Award BestActor (Male): RanbirKapoor | Wake Up Sid,Ajab Prem, Rocket SinghCritics’ Award for Best Actor(Female): Mahie Gill | Dev DBest Story: Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani | 3 IdiotsBest Debut (Directors): Ayaan Mukherji | Wake Up Sid, Zoya Akhtar | Luck By ChanceLifetime Achievement Awards: Shashi Kapoor,Khayyam

Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopraand director Rajkumar Hiraniat the Filmfare Awardsceremony where their film 3 Idiots bagged six awards.

Shillong: ‘Scotland ofthe East’

The state capital is a very attrac-tive hill station luring you with

its sparkling lakes, numerouswaterfalls and pine-tree forests. Theplace still has an English auraattached to it, with locals address-ing it as ‘mini London’. Shillonghas a host of attractions making ita popular tourist destination. Itboasts of an 18-hole golf course sit-uated in the heart of the city. Estab-lished in 1898 by officers of BritishCivil Services, golfers from all overthe world come here to test theirskills. The densely forested ShillongPeak, 1,965 metres above sea level isan ideal place for camping. A steepcurvy road will take you to thepoint from where you can have a

TRAVEL


FOSTERED BYMOTHER NATURE

Nestling in the eastern Himalayas, Meghalaya is the land of majesticmountains, deep gorges, sparkling lakes and mesmerising waterfalls,says Kamini Kumari

Asmall state situated in thehilly terrains of Garo-Khasi Mountains, Megha-laya is an upcoming eco-

tourism destination with its abun-dant flora and fauna. Meghalaya lit-erally means ‘abode of clouds’which describes the climatic phe-nomenon of torrential rains in theregion. The state is blessed withspellbinding natural beauty withover 250 species of flowers,sparkling lakes, dazzling rivers,lush green mountains, gushingwaterfalls and thriving wildlife.This spectacular north-easternstate of India has it all.

Garo-Khasi Hills

Meghalaya was declared the 21ststate of India in 1972 by uni-

fying the regions of the Garo andKhasi mountains. The Khasi hillsregion is characterised by animposing plateau marked by deepgorges and steep slopes. The green-ery spread across the river valleysis breathtaking with over 150species of grass. The place alsoboasts of a number of ancientmonoliths and table stones as tall as6 metres.

The Tura peak of Garo hills, 657metres above sea level, offers anarresting sight of the mightyBrahmaputra river flowing downthe plains. Its catchment area isclearly visible from the peak, offer-ing one of the country’s most raresights. The Nokrek BiosphereReserve in the Garo hills region isone of the least disturbed foresttracts of the Himalayan ranges. It

also houses the mysterious Sijucave, which has water drippingcontinuously from its walls and isyet to be explored completely.

Cherrapunji: Earth’swettest place

Regarded as the wettest place onearth, Cherrapunji’s yearly

rainfall measures over 11,430 mm.Tucked away in the Khasi hills, 56km from Shillong, Cherrapunji wasthe first British outpost in the east-ern part of India.

Over 1300 metres above sea level,this breath-taking enclave is alsofamous for its limestone caves andorange honey. A place where rever-berating waterfalls leap into deepgorges forming splendorous rain-bows.


Top: Locals playing the betting game ‘Teer’Below: A root bridge in Cherrapunji

Umiam Lake — also known as‘Bara Pani’ — in Shillong


look at another of Mother Nature’swonders — the snow-capped peaksof the Himalayas and the plains ofSylhet. Then there are the mes-merising waterfalls that are equal-ly phantasmal. The Bishop falls, theElephant falls, the Beadon falls andCrinoline falls are the best known.

AdventurousMeghalaya

Endowed with over 750 caves,many of them unmapped and

unexplored, Meghalaya is literallythe “cave capital” of the country.Venture into the tenebrous Sijucaves, the stalactite Mawsynramcaves, the stalagmite Mawsmaicaves, the water dripping Syndaicaves and you will experience darkmysteries. The Tura peak is thebest option for trekking and rockclimbing. The wild currents of theSimsang river make for a perfectwhite water rafting location. Thetall Pine trees are a bird watcher’sdelight, the most preferred destina-tion for wildlife photographers.

Flora and Fauna

Meghalaya has a forest cover ofabout 43 percent of the state’s

total area. These subtropical forestsare one of the richest botanicalhabitats of Asia. The place receivesabundant rainfall supporting a vastvariety of floral and faunal biodi-versity. There are the mysterious‘sacred groves’, small pockets offorests preserved by the tribal com-munities for hundreds of years.They remain protected from anysort of exploitation and harbourmany rare plant and animalspecies.

The Khasi hills showcase morethan 2,000 flowering plants in aradius of 16 km. There are over 150species of ferns, mosses, fungi andlichens. More than 250 species oforchids, 25 species of balsams, 20species of palms and wild species ofapples are available in the area.

The eastern region of the Garohills provides a natural habitat formammals, reptiles, birds andinsects. It has a considerable num-ber of wild elephants, boars, deer,leopards, apes and monkeys. There

are approximately 500 species ofbutterflies with some of them beingvery rare. Meghalaya has threewildlife sanctuaries, theNongkyllem sanctuary, the Sijusanctuary and the Bhagmara sanc-tuary, which is also home to theinsect-eating pitching plant,Nepenthes Khasiana.

Meghalaya is a state comprisingmany natural wonders. The hotsprings of sulphur water at Jakrem,64 km from the state capital, arebelieved to have curative medici-nal properties. The trees of thesacred groves are considered aus-picious and are worshipped by thelocals. The caves are believed to bea part of “divine intervention” asmany of them have giant forma-tions in the shape of shivalingaswith water continuously drippingover as if to anoint them.

Meghalaya is an amalgam of cul-tural diversity, rich heritage, mass-scale festivals and the tribes.

The best time to visit is duringthe months of March to July whenmonsoons come to a halt.

Road: National Highway-40 runsacross the state. It connectsShillong with Guwahati, whichin turn is connected to othermajor cities of the country.Railways: Shillong is connectedby North Frontier and NorthEastern Railway via GuwahatiRailway Station, which is about127 km from Meghalaya.By Air: Shillong is connected byhelicopter service fromGuwahati. Guwahati Airport isover 120 km away.

How to reach

Teer

Festivals

A betting game, Teer is played with great passion and is hugely pop-ular in the state. Archers take aim at a fixed target, called skum, made

of bamboo slats tied together, approximately 4 feet in height. Within 180seconds, the archers are required to shoot with their allotted number ofarrows at the target placed at a distance of 150 feet. If out a total of 1,000arrows, 850 implant themselves on the skum, then that archer wins. Thosewho place their bets on the winning archer receive double the amountthat was at stake. The game offers tremendous scope to become a world-renowned sport and has already become a part of Meghalaya’s ethno-social identity.

Among the Garos, the most important festival is the Wangala or theHundred-drum Festival held in the months of November and Decem-

ber. This is a harvest festival celebrated in honour of Saljong, the Sun Godof fertility. The festival marks the end of the period of toil in the fields, bring-ing a good yield of crops. Everybody — young and old join in the festivi-ties. The men beat the drums and move forward in rhythmic union. Dore-gata Dance Festival is another interesting festival, in which women try toknock off the turbans of their male partners, using their heads. Anotherdance that requires exquisite skill is the Chambil Mesara or Pomelo Dance.This is a solo dance form, in which the performer dangles a pomelo or anyother fruit on a cord tied to his waist and then hurls it round and round.

A magnificent waterfall in Cherrapunji

Young girls getting ready before participating in theWangala Dance Festival

Above: The famed cane products crafted bythe KhasisBelow: A tea garden in Shillong

BOOKSNEW PHILOSOPHY


After matriarchy and patri-archy, the world is gradu-ally moving towards anage of light or ‘lumenar-

chy’, says noted Polish philosopherand Indophile, Henryk Skolimows-ki, who considers himself “moreIndian”, in his new book Let ThereBe Light: The Mysterious Journey ofCosmic Creativity.

“If we go back 7,000 years ago intime, society was dictated by god’sessential laws — justice and com-passion. But there has been grossviolation of the law by patriarchalsocieties. All patriarchal religionsare ungodly and inhuman. Matri-archy was symbiotic. The motto ofmatriarchy was ‘live and let live’,but the motto of patriarchy was ‘Ihave to live’. We cannot live withpatriarchy any longer and neithercan we return to a matriarchal set-up. Where do we go from here?” asksthe 80-year-old philosopher.

“Mankind has to transcend matri-archy, patriarchy and anarchy totreat light as the great cosmic moth-er — the source of all energy andnourishment,” Skolimowski says.

“This is the essence of ‘lumenar-chy’, an idea that I propounded forthe first time on February 18 thisyear. It is an extension of my theory

of ‘lumenology’ or the understand-ing of light and its role in the entirecosmos and in the human world formillions of years as all-pervadingand all-helpful,” he says.

The philosopher says that in thelong run “the seekers of light wouldlike to establish a ‘Society of Lume-nologists’, whose members will comefrom such diverse cross-sections assun worshipers, moon and star gaz-ers, students of solar science,philosophers, artists and all the hid-den worshipers of light”.

Skolimowski’s work is targeted at

overcoming human angst caused inpart by the “dominance of moderntechnology sowed by industrial rev-olution and the imbalance in humanrelationship with nature”.

He is the author of 40 books and 600articles, including a book on Indianspirituality and environment, Danc-ing Shiva in the Ecological Age.

“I am more Indian and Hindu thanmany in the country. When I firstcame to India 22 years ago, it waspoorer. Now, prosperity has grownand with it the dawning of con-sciousness,” he says.

TOP 10 BESTSELLERS

Fiction

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest Author: Stieg Larsson Publisher: Quercus Price: Rs. 495

2 States: The Story of My Marriage

Author: Chetan BhagatPublisher: Rupa

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The Palace of Illusions Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Publisher: Picador India Price: Rs.395

The Museum of Innocence Author: Orhan Pamuk

Publisher: Faber and Faber Price: Rs. 599

The House on Mall RoadAuthor: Mohyna SrinivasanPublisher: Penguin BooksPrice: Rs. 325

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The Last SunsetAuthor: Amarinder SinghPublisher: Roli BooksPrice: Rs. 695

Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy Author: Joseph StiglitzPublisher: Allen LanePrice: Rs. 499

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Victoria & Abdul: The True Story Of The Queen’s Closest ConfidantAuthor: Shrabani Basu Publisher: Rupa Price: Rs.395

BiryaniAuthor: Pratibha Karan

Publisher: Random House IndiaPrice: Rs.795 N

EW R

ELEA

SES Indian Essentials

By Various Authors

Indian Essentials is a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek ode to India, celebrating 60 years

of the Indian Republic. In this quirky collec-tion, twenty writers and social commentatorsponder the mysteries of the Indian psycheand try to make sense of one trait — thephenomenon or cultural value that isquintessentially Indian. From the Indianmale’s penchant for public urination to theIndian female’s obsession with gold, from

the jhatkas of Bollywood to the melas of Allahabad, from ourembarrassingly frank matrimonials to how seriously we takeour copulation problems, nothing is spared scrutiny.

Indian novelist Rana Das-gupta’s Solo and Pak-istan-based authorDaniyal Mueenuddin’s

In Other Rooms, Other Won-ders were recently declaredregional winners of the Com-monwealth Writer’s Prize for2010 in the European andSouth Asian categories.

While Solo was declared thebest book, In Other Rooms...was selected as the best firstbook by an author.

Presented by the Commonwealth Foundation withsupport from the Macquarie Group Foundation, theglobal winners of the award will be presented on April12. A five-day literary event in the run-up to the awardsceremony on April 12 will begin on April 7 with a seriesof interactive literary sessions. This is the first time thatthe event will be held in New Delhi, which will also hostthe Commonwealth Games in October.

The two books from the South Asian and Europeanregions will have to compete with winners from Africa,Caribbean and Canada next month for the global prizesin the best book and the best first book categories, direc-tor of the Commonwealth Foundation, Mark Collins,said. Other regional winners include The Double Crown(Best Book) by Marie Heese and I Do Not Come to YouBy Chance (Best First Book) by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubanifrom Africa; Galore by Michael Crummey (Best Book);Under this Unbroken Sky (Best First Book) by ShandiMitchell from the Canada and Caribbean region; andThe Adventures of Vela by Albert Wendt and SiddonRock by Glenda Guest in the Southeast Asia and Pacif-ic region.

Collins said the entries this year had been “absolute-ly outstanding and competition was fierce”.

...in India in March

Muskoka Maharani By David McMahon

Harry Barnsley, an Australian newspaperreporter, faces the sack if he cannot pro-

duce a scoop. Then the paper’s Anglo-Indianadvertising director, Charmaine D’Souza, tellshim to fly to Muskoka, north of Toronto,where her Indian-born aunt Serena lives. Ser-ena had helped capture a German spy duringthe Second World War, but has remained

tight-lipped about the affair. Will Serena reveal her secret toBarnsley?

David McMahon’s atmospheric novel gives us a rare glimpseinto the lives of ordinary Anglo-Indians in pre-IndependentIndia, even as it breaks the biggest story of the decade.

The Scientific Indian: A Twenty-first CenturyGuide to the World around Us By A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Nuclear capability, self-sufficiency in food pro-

duction, an array of indige-nous satellites and missiles,an unmanned Moon mission— India’s achievements inthe scientific domain inrecent years have been spec-tacular. But, according to thecountry’s best-known scien-

tist A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and his close associate Y.S.Rajan, we’ve only just begun.

Polish philosopher Henryk Skolimowski says in his new book that mankind has to transcend matriarchy, patriarchy and anarchy to treat light as the great cosmic mother...

Dawn of light Solo wins C’wealthWriter’s Prize

Rana Dasgupta

Rashad Hussein is the latest high-level Indian-Ameri-can appointee of the Obama White House. Rashad,

who has been a deputy associate White House counsel, takesover as Special Envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Confer-ence (OIC).

President Barack Obama described Rashad in glowingterms: “A lawyer and a close and trusted member of myWhite House staff”.

Announcing the appointment on February 13 in a videomessage to the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar,Obama’s avowed purpose was to broaden the “outreachstrategy towards the Muslim world” he laid out last year inCairo.

“Rashad has played a key role in developing the partner-ships I called for in Cairo. And as a hafiz of the Quran, he isa respected member of the American Muslim community,”Obama added.

Rashad posted a message on the White House blog, sayinghe was “honoured and humbled” by the appointment.


DIASPORANEWSMAKERS

Ministry of OverseasIndian Affairs

Confederation ofIndian Industry

Making investment in India easier for overseas Indians.

For details contact:Shefali Chaturvedi

Chief Executive Officer, OIFC & Director, CII

249-F, Sector 18, Udyog Vihar, Phase IVGurgaon - 122 015, Haryana, INDIATel: +91-124-4014060-67 / 4014071

Fax: +91-124-4014070Website: www.oifc.in

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Secunderabad-born SureshKumar, who was also a for-mer Doordarshan sports

and news anchor, has becomethe most senior Indian Americanin the U.S. commerce depart-ment.

President and managing part-ner of KaiZen Innovation,Kumar served as a special advis-er to the Clinton Foundation andwas a news anchor with Doordar-shan from 1970 to 1985.

“I could not help but reflect on the incredible journeyfrom Mumbai via Indonesia, Singapore and Canadathat brought me to the United States 16 years ago,”Kumar told lawmakers during his confirmation hear-ings. Kumar’s confirmation has made him the secondmost senior Indian American in the Obama adminis-tration after Rajiv Shah, administrator of the US Agen-cy for International Development (USAID), who is alsoin-charge of U.S. relief efforts in Haiti.

INDIAN-ORIGIN HAFIZ ISNEW OIC ENVOY

EX-DD ANCHOR JOINS

OBAMA TEAM

Salil Shetty, an Indian who headed the UNMillennium Campaign, is the next

Secretary-General of Amnesty International— the global human rights watchdog. Hetakes over the job in June 2010, succeedingIrene Khan.

“I feel privileged to be given this amazingopportunity,” said Shetty, who becomes thefirst Indian to head the human rights body.

Shetty will lead its 50th anniversary expansion plans, said Amnesty.

Indian head forAMNESTY

Suresh Kumar

RashadHussein

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Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs www.moia.gov.in


BEYOND THE ROCKS

Located at about 400 metres from the southern-most tip of Kanyakumari, the Vivekananda Rock Memorial stands

tall at the Vivekananda Rock. The Rock juts out at the convergence of the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the

Bay of Bengal, making the structure a visual treat. Built in 1970, the memorial commemorates the visit of Swami

Vivekananda who is believed to have meditated on the rocks. Legend has it that he attained enlightenment on the rock,

and subsequently became a reformer and philosopher. Regarded as a sacred place, the rock has been traditionally

known as ‘Sripada Parai’, meaning that it has been blessed by the ‘sacred feet’ of Goddess Kanya Kumari.

Built on a total area of 4 acres (16,200 sqm), the memorial consists of two main structures, the Vivekananda

Mandapam and the Shripada Mandapam. The former houses a life-size bronze statue of Swami Vivekananda. The calm

atmosphere of the Vivekananda Mandapam makes it an ideal place for meditation. The Shripada Mandapam is the

main sanctum surrounded by an outer platform. It has a projection on the rock that resembles a human foot, which is

regarded as Sri Padam.

Pravasi English March10

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