India ''poised'' for giant leap in science and technology

India ''poised'' for giant leap in science and technology
Gulbarga, Jan 15 (UNI)

Union Minister for Planning M V Rajasekharan today said that the country was poised for a giant leap in the advancement of science and technology, surpassing the developed countries in a couple of years.Delivering the S R Patil foundation endowment lecture at Sharana Basavappa Appa College here, he said scientists and technocrats had made ''tremendous achievements'' in the field of information technology, agriculture and defence sector which were once the domain of the developed countries.

The Minister, however, expressed concern over the increase in poverty due to increasing unemployment problem both in rural and urban areas. Unless remedial measures were taken immediately, the consequences may pose great threat for the development of the country, he added. Referring to the Hyderabad-Karnataka area, which is the most backward region in Karnataka, the Minister said that both the State and the Centre have taken steps to remove poverty and improve standard of living of the people in this region.

Recently, the Karnataka government submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for release of a grant of Rs 16,000 crore as recommended by the Nanjundappa Committee.The appeal of the State Government is under the consideration of the Union Government+, he added.He said the Centre has taken up several programmes to remove backwardness and poverty in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region.

Over Rs 180 crore would be spent in three years in Gulbarga and Bidar districts under Rashtriya Samavikasa Yojana. He also assured more funds for the development of the region from the Centre.

ISRO to empower villagers through VRCs: ISRO chief

ISRO to empower villagers through VRCs: ISRO chief

Panaji, Jan 15: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is currently embarking on the plans to establish nationwide Village Resource Centres (VRCs) in the rural areas, providing locally relevant, multi-tasking, citizen-centric operational services in natural resources management, agricultural marketing information, disaster support services, tele-education support as well as tele-medicine services, for empowering the local rural populace and ensuring rural employment.

The ISRO chairman, Mr G Madhavan Nair, delivering the convocation address at the 17th annual convocation of the Goa University, held at the university faculty enclave, today, said that ISRO has carried out tele-medicine experiments through the INSAT satellite system, wherein hospitals and health centres in remote locations in the country are connected via INSAT system to super-speciality hospitals, enabling the patients at remote end to have the best medical consultations with specialist doctors.

�Large percentage of the poor Indian population lives in rural areas, practicing agriculture in most primitive way,� he lamented, adding this does not augur well for the overall growth of the country.

Earlier, the Governor, Mr S C Jamir, who is the Chancellor of the Goa University presented degrees to 5,481 candidates inclusive of undergraduates and postgraduates, besides 26 Ph D degrees and 89 PG diplomas.

Further speaking, Mr Nair, who is also the secretary of the department of space said that the strategy adopted for the Indian space programme was essentially towards building an indigenous capability to front ranking research, developing systems using innovative technologies, and setting up appropriate institutional arrangement in the country to adapt and absorb the innovative applications that are in tune with national developmental needs. “Today, India has a state-of-the-art constellation of Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites, providing services not only to the community in India, but also to many countries around the world,” he pointed out.

Mr Nair also observed that the history, art, culture, science and faith of all times and religions is our inheritance; we study and respect all of them with equal reverence and that Goa is a typical example of this great Indian philosophy.

Mr Jamir, while taking a stock of the academic activities said that we have hundreds of thousands of university-educated students in the country who are unemployed not merely because of dearth of employment avenues but because of their mind-set. “The theoretical education they have been imparted within the colleges and universities had not prepared them adequately to face the real world. This is a matter of grave concern, which needs to be addressed by both, the policy makers as well as academicians,” he pointed out.

The Governor also said that the multi-nationalisation of education, has ushered in a scenario where education is sold as a commodity in the international education market. “Such a scenario offers a serious threat to the unique cultural heritage of a nation like India because traditionally, education in our country is geared towards not only spurring the growth of the country but also towards preserving its unique cultural heritage,” he cautioned.

The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof P S Zacharias, in his address spoke about the current initiatives of the university such as bandwidth, virtual library, distance education, Study India Programme, Bio Resource Centre, international students hostel and multipurpose sports hall.

“This year, the government has increased the support to university by Rs 70 lakh, as plan and non-plan grants,” he informed, hoping that it will further enhance the financial support to create and maintain the best infrastructural support system.

The university registrar, Dr Jayant Budkuley, the heads of different faculties at the university and the heads of various professional and non-professional educational institutes affiliated to the university were also present on the dais.

Remote viewing and field intelligence help India find connection between Pakistan’s ISI and insurgents like ULFA and Naxals in India

Remote viewing and field intelligence help India find connection between Pakistan’s ISI and insurgents like ULFA and Naxals in India
Staff ReporterJanuary 14, 2005

Pakistan’s intelligence agency and covert operations organization ISI got a surprise of a life time when Indian Intelligence bureaus started busting their efforts in India. Remote Viewing and pin pointed field intelligence helped Indian intelligence in recognizing and neutralizing the ISI connections to Naxals and ULFA.

Indian agents infiltrated the Naxal and ULFA infrastructure based on information from remote viewers and then confirmed and/or corrected the data.
In recent days the Northeast India has seen tremendous activities from the ULFA, an insurgent group supported by neighboring countries. Indian intelligence found that Pakistan’s ISI had shifted the focus from Jammu and Kashmir to other parts of India to help the insurgents or militant group all over India. ISI found good acceptance in Northeast India and in Andhra Pradesh.

On December 15, 2004, Indian Police in Orissa finally arrested a notorious naxalite leader William Marandi alias Napoleon responsible for killing 45 police personnel and two village headmen in the last three years. A graduate with a brilliant academic career, Napoleon is a top leader of the erstwhile Maoist Communist Centre (MCC). According to some sources, many ULFA and Naxal leaders who were never found in the last few years in spite of several attempts, bounties on their heads etc. are all on a sudden getting nabbed by Indian security infrastructure one after the other. Remote viewing and pin pointed field intelligence are helping the authorities find these militants. The biggest breakthrough came in December around the same time the Tsunami hit India. Indian intelligence created a booby trap based on remote viewing data and field intelligence on meeting between a foreign intelligence agency and ULFA, the militants in the Northeast. India did nothing to stop the meeting but followed the trail to find who was really behind it

The Central Indian Government possessed information that Pakistan’s ISI was directly or indirectly supporting Naxalite and ULFA activities in the country, Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said on Thursday.
"We have the information on ISI directly or indirectly supporting the Naxalite and ULFA activities in the country," he told reporters. The minister said the Indian government has raised the issue with Pakistan.

Also, the Naxalite activities are being encouraged from other neighboring countries, the minister said. He added that "the issue has been discussed with Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar, and they have assured of initiating steps but the Indian government is not satisfied with the assurance from Bangladesh on the subject." Jaiswal said the states having international borders have been asked to improve their security and pay special attention to international borders.
The Naxalite problem cannot be tackled independently either through force or development, Jaiswal said adding both the aspects should be undertaken simultaneously. Efforts are needed to generate employment in the less developed region, as it was the major cause of public turning Naxal, the minister said. The Center was prepared to provide help to state governments that plans for development of the region affected by Naxalites, Jaiswal said. "It is not merely a law and order issue but related to the internal security of the nation," he added.Bangladesh is an Islamic country on the east of India and formerly a part of Pakistan. The amount of pin pointed intelligence India is providing is worrying Bangladesh.

India emerges among top tourist havens : HindustanTimes.com

India emerges among top tourist havens:
January 12, 200511:55 IST

Nepal has plummeted 17 places from a top 10 travel destinations list drawn up by a leading international travel and tourism agency while India shot up to be among the first five.

According to the list drawn up by the Chicago-based iExplore.com agency on the basis of vacation packages bought under its adventure and experimental travellers' programmes, Nepal, which ranked 10th in 2003 and had remained among the top 10 earlier too, fell to 27 in 2004.

This has been blamed on the Maoist insurgency that has killed nearly 11,000 people since 1996 and has destroyed infrastructure worth billions.
'Nepal, a traditional top 10 adventure destination, is suffering from the actions of Maoists who escalated their activities in 2004, which is impacting tourism,' the company said.

On the other hand, India, which ranked 36 in 2003, rose to become the fifth-most longed for destination, a rise excelled by no other country.
'The year 2004 clearly marked the rebound in exotic, faraway destinations, like India,' said iExplore CEO George Deeb.
China, a neighbour of both Nepal and India, also improved its ranking in the survey climbing up to the third ranking from its earlier fourth. Peru topped the list, followed by Egypt.

The 10th position, where Nepal stood earlier, was wrested by France.
During an online poll conducted by iExplore in 2002, in which over 60,000 veteran travellers reportedly took part, Mt Everest from Nepal was ranked as the eighth wonder in the world while India's Taj Mahal

Microsoft launches R&D ops in India- So the War continues to dominate the IT WORLD

Microsoft launches R&D operations in India:

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2005 02:07:51 AM
Sign into earnIndiatimes points
BANGALORE: Microsoft Research India and the Union ministry of Science and Technology and Ocean Development signed a memorandum of understanding to partner in science and technology research projects.

The first collaborative project will be a geographic information systems project that will bring a variety of satellite imagery , remote sensing and other geographic data together in a geographically indexed database.

Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Science and Technology , who inaugurated the company�s research operations in India on Tuesday, however, did not comment whether this joint effort will form part of the much-touted Tsunami warning systems.

He said that the government is finalising an ambitious project � National Spatial Data Infrastructure � which has been cleared by the Union Cabinet and finalities of the proposal is underway.

This initiative is aimed at encouraging collection and distribution of spatial data on different themes in set standards, a programme which has been kicked off in various rural schools across the country. Plans are on to extend this programme to 30,000 schools.

“A national mapping policy also will be in place soon to facilitate this project,’’ Mr Sibal added.

The Bangalore lab, the third Microsoft Research facility outside the United States, will conduct long-term basic and applied research. The research division will initially start investigating the areas of geographic information systems, technologies for emerging markets, multilingual systems and sensor networks. The company has already awarded $250,000 worth funding for few such projects in India.

On the MoU signed with the Centre, Mr P Anandan, managing director, Microsoft Research India said that more such alliances are being planned with government and research bodies to help solve some of the toughest problems in computing and accelerate the next generation of innovation in software and computing.
``We are also actively collaborating with academic institutions and have identified several projects,’’ he added.

55 moguls join India's Billionaire Club

55 moguls join India's Billionaire Club
January 13, 2005 09:50 IST

Wipro chairman Azim Premji is India's wealthiest billionaire. Premji has added Rs 12,235 crore (Rs 122.35 billion) to his wealth this year, taking his net worth to Rs 31,198 crore (Rs 311.98 billion).
Premji has been at the top of the rich list five times in the last six years, being briefly displaced from the top by the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, last year.

Business Standard's The Billionaire Club annually ranks the wealth of India's billionaires. This year, the collective wealth of India's 178 billionaires amounted to Rs 1,85,800 crore (Rs 1,858 billion) on August 31, 2004 -- Rs 55,500 crore (Rs 555 billion) more than what they had a year earlier.

The booming stock market has spawned scores of new billionaires. As many as 55 new billionaires entered the list this year. At the end of August 2004, their collective net worth was Rs 14,751 crore (Rs 147.51 billion).

This time, Mukesh and Anil Ambani have fallen back to second place, with a combined net worth of Rs 24,172 crore (Rs 241.72 billion).

Sunil Mittal is ranked number three among billionaires, with wealth of Rs 12,552 crore (Rs 125.52 billion). Shiv Nadar rode the technology boom with a 84 per cent rise in his net worth. His net worth of Rs 7,929 crore (Rs 79.29 billion) was enough to elevate him to the fourth place, up from fifth last year.

Nadar ranked above Malvinder and Shivender Singh, the Ranbaxy promoters, who slipped to fifth position from third on account of the relative underperformance of the share price of their listed company Ranbaxy Laboratories.

Dilip Shanghvi, whose net worth rose by Rs 1,937 crore (Rs 19.37 billion) to Rs 4,965 remains at number six. Kumar Mangalam Birla is number seven this year.

Hero Honda chairman Brijmohan Lall Munjal, is ranked eighth this year, up from 14th the previous year. Zee group chairman Subhash Chandra is the ninth richest Indian, down from the eighth richest in the previous year. Cipla chairman and managing director Y K Hamied is ranked No. 10.

India Inc welcomes scrapping of Press Note 18 - Good news for Indian Industry

India Inc welcomes scrapping of Press Note 18

Thursday, 13 January , 2005, 07:38

New Delhi: While India Inc was near unanimous in welcoming the scrapping of the contentious Press Note 18 announced by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Wednesday morning, players were guarded in their response to the provisions of the new Press Note 1 (2005) announced by the Government later in the day.

Leading taxation expert and partner with BMR Associates Mukesh Bhutani termed the revised norms as offering only "partial relief". "The move can at best be termed as a step forward, but it is rather insufficient in the present scenario," Bhutani said.

Analysts, however, agreed that the revised guidelines under Press Note 1 (2005) remove the `arm-twisting' powers conferred to Indian partners by the Press Note 18 era, under which they could stymie a move by their foreign joint venture partners to set up a new business by refusing to grant the mandatory "no-objection certificate."

Reacting to the scrapping of Press Note 18, Madhur Bajaj, Vice-Chairman, Bajaj Auto Ltd said, "It is a very balanced, welcome step and provides flexibility and freedom to all new joint ventures. At the same time, it also provides a rational framework for existing joint ventures."

Instances where Press Note 18 was put to use include the earlier joint venture between Chinese consumer electronics company TCL Electronics and Baron International. TCL had wanted to set up a 100-per cent subsidiary in India and its plans were delayed with Baron's refusal of granting the mandatory "no-objection" certificate. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board finally overruled the objections raised by Baron and granted TCL the permission to enter the Indian market.

Similarly, Walt Disney had to postpone its investment plans in the country, which included a television channel and entertainment parks, after it failed to get a `no objection' from its Indian partner, the K.K. Modi group.

"There is no direct impact on retail industry in India since no FDI is allowed in this sector at present. But on the whole, the scrapping of this note should benefit those sectors which depend largely on technology - pharmaceuticals, engineering goods and chemicals," Arvind Singhal of KSA Technopak said.

A confectionery industry sector player said it made no sense to keep the Press Note 18 valid when the Indian economy has been liberalised in every other aspect. He said though such a move should be generally welcome, some Indian industrialists are expected to cry out against it.
However, some advocates of Press Note 18 maintained that due to these provisions, the interests of shareholders in joint ventures such as Hero Honda and Maruti Udyog have been safeguarded.

Meanwhile, the FICCI President, Onkar S Kanwar, expressed "satisfaction" on the Prime Minister's announcement.

The Assocham President, Mahendra K. Sanghi, complimented the Prime Minister for accepting the demand of industry for removal of stringent stipulations of the Press Note 18, which, according to him, are of no consequence in the globalising economy.

The Confederation of Indian Industry also welcomed the move.

India Daily � You did not notice but the third world war started � it is the fight for dominance in oil and trade

India Daily - You did not notice but the third world war started - it is the fight for dominance in oil and trade:

You may think that the third world war would be a devastating one with nuke exchanges that will terminate the world, as we know in hours. No it did not happen. The cold war ended and other mini superpowers do not have the guts to launch the big one. You may think Osama and Al-Queda will create the problem. No they are right now running for cover. They got uprooted in Afghanistan proper and in Pakistan. There are little places where they can exert their menacing terrorism. That does not mean they are out of business. They just realized late last year – the third world war has started and they were fighting a wrong war with wrong ammunition called terror.

This new dangerous third world war is all on trade and energy resources. No country in the world can survive without viable and reliable source of energy without going back to cave ages. The farmers need energy, the factories need energy and in the developed world (who is really under developed these days?) you need energy to travel even a few blocks. At the same time nations also need to generate money to pay for the energy. Energy demand is rising rapidly as people in India and China wake up to the call of American dreams of good life and modern amenities. The Energy supply is stagnant if not declining because of various geopolitical situations and terrorism possibilities.



The third world war is about oil and trade. Three major blocks have emerged. The first is the Americans with some allies like Australia, Japan and so on. The second is BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). The third is the European Union. The triangle of international politics is complex and a diplomatic challenge for all head of states. For example India is the process of a tug of war between the Bush led Americans and the Putin led BRIC. China is definitely in BRIC quarter. Russia is leading the BRIC with its big oil reserve. Brazil is in similar situation as India but they are leaning towards BRIC because of Chinese imports of Brazilian grain and other agricultural products. India is scared to antagonize the Americans. They love earning American dollars and Euros by exporting English speaking educated bodies or services to the West. But the heart of India is with the BRIC. Self respect and independence is very important in India. If you leave out the Indian oligarchs in the field of call centers, Information Technologies who make money by exploiting young educated people (a modern version of high tech slave trading), the rest of the country is pro-BRIC. India is also concerned about the ‘Pakistani nuisance effect” – Pakistan is not really a threat in any sense but can be a perpetual nuisance to deal with. For earning easy money based on H1 temporary work visas in America and so called providing outsourcing services and keeping Pakistani ambition in check, India just cannot antagonize the Americans. Also these Indian oligarchs fund the election of all the political parties. The Indian oligarchs control all the political parties. And as long as Americans keep providing outsourcing money to these oligarchs, India will stay neutral.

China is different story. They like to sell to the Americans and the Europeans but do not like to be dominated by them. They are spearheading an outright oil competition with America and India. They are happy with their fantastic balance of trade; sky rocketing foreign exchange reserves and they believe they can conquer the world once they have enough energy resources under their control. Lot of companies stampeded into China to make money with cheap labor, they are realizing that there is no way you can make money there. For communist China it is a one-way door. All direct investments are welcome in but do not ask for taking profit out!

Read more about it at http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/01-10a_1-05.asp

Christian Persecution in India: The Real Story

Christian Persecution in India: The Real Story

We have heard about what the Christians in India have called the persecutions against them. However, there is much more to this story than we often hear, and there are certainly two sides to it. The following is a first-hand investigative article that relates what has really been going on with the Christians in India, much of which has been kept from the public. This shows the duplicity in the Christian activities in India. This article, by Francois Gautier, is reprinted from the "Annual Research Journal, 2001" published by the Institute for Rewriting Indian [and World] History.

WILL HINDUISM SURVIVE THE PRESENT CHRISTIAN OFFENSIVE?
By Francois Gautier

When then Prime Minister of India Mr. Vajpayee was in the US in September (2000) , the National Association of Asian Christians in the US (whom nobody had heard about before), paid $ 50,000 to the New York Times to publish "an Open Letter to the Honorable Atal Bihari Vajpayee, prime minister of India."

While "warmly welcoming the PM," The NAAC expressed deep concern about the "persecution" of Christians in India by "extremist" (meaning Hindu) groups mentioning as examples "the priest, missionaries and church workers who have been murdered," the nuns "raped," and the potential enacting of conversion laws, which would make "genuine" conversions illegal. The letter concluded by saying "that Christians in India today live in fear."

The whole affair was an embarrassment (as it was intended to be) to Mr. Vajpayee and the Indian delegation, which had come to prod American businessmen to invest in India, a peaceful, pro-Western and democratic country.

I am born a Christian and I have had a strong Catholic education. I do believe that Christ was an incarnation of Pure Love and that His Presence still radiates in the world. I also believe there are human beings who sincerely try to incarnate the ideals of Jesus and that you can find today in India a few missionaries (such as Father Ceyrac, a French Jesuit, who works mostly with lepers in Tamil Nadu) who are incarnations of that Love, tending tirelessly to people, without trying to convert them.

But I have also lived for more than 30 years in India, I am married to an Indian, I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and I have evolved a love and an understanding of India, which few other foreign correspondents have because they are never posted long enough to start getting a real feeling of this vast and often baffling country (nobody can claim to fully understand India). And this is what I have to say about the "persecution" of Christians in India.

Firstly, it is necessary to bring about a little bit of a historical flashback, which very few foreign correspondents (and unfortunately also Indian journalists) care to do, which would make for a more balanced view of the problem.

If ever there was persecution, it was of the Hindus at the hands of Christians, who were actually welcomed in this country, as they have been welcomed in no other place on this planet. Indeed, the first Christian community of the world, that of the Syrian Christians, was established in Kerala in the first century. They were able to live in peace and practice their religion freely, even imbibing some of the local Hindu customs, thereby breaking the Syrian Church in two.

When Vasco de Gama landed in Kerala in 1498, he was generously received by the Zamorin, the Hindu king of Calicut, who granted him the right to establish warehouses for commerce. But once again, Hindu tolerance was exploited and the Portuguese wanted more and more. In 1510, Alfonso de Albuquerque seized Goa, where he started a reign of terror, burning "heretics," crucifying Brahmins, using false theories to forcibly convert the lower castes, razing temples to build churches upon them and encouraging his soldiers to take Indian mistresses.

Indeed, the Portuguese perpetrated here some of the worst atrocities ever committed in Asia by Christianity upon another religion. Ultimately, the Portuguese had to be kicked out of India, when all other colonisers had already left.

British missionaries in India were always supporters of colonialism. They encouraged it and their whole structure was based on "the good Western civilized world being brought to the Pagans." Because, in the words of Claudius Buchanan, a chaplain attached to the East India Company, "Neither truth, nor honesty, honour, gratitude, nor charity, is to be found in the breast of a Hindoo!" What a comment about a nation that gave the world the Vedas at a time when Europeans were still grappling in their caves!

And it is in this way that the British allowed entire chunks of territories in the East, where lived tribals, whose poverty and simplicity made them easy prey to be converted to Christianity. By doing so, the Christian missionaries cut a people from their roots and tradition, made them look westwards towards a culture and a way of life which was not theirs.

And the result is there today for everyone to see: it is in these eastern states, some of which are 90 per cent Christian, that one finds the biggest drug problems (and crime) in India. It should also be said that many of the eastern separatist movements have been covertly encouraged by Christian missionaries on the ground that "tribals were there before the 'Aryan Hindus' invaded India and imposed Hinduism upon them."

The trouble is that the latest archaeological and linguistic discoveries point to the fact that there NEVER was an Aryan invasion of India --it just was an invention of the British and the missionaries to serve their purpose. Aryanism is a synonym of Vedic culture.

Secondly, Christianity has always striven on the myth of persecution, which in turn bred "martyrs" and saints, indispensable to the propagation of Christianity. But it is little known, for instance, that the first "saints" of Christianity, "martyred" in Rome, a highly refined civilization which had evolved a remarkable system of gods and goddesses, derived from Hindu mythology via the Greeks, were actually killed (a normal practice in those days) while bullying peaceful Romans to embrace the "true" religion, in the same way that later Christian missionaries will browbeat "heathen" Hindus, adoring many gods into believing that Jesus was the only "true" god.

Now to come to the recent cases of persecution of Christians in India at the hands of Hindu groups. I have personally investigated quite a few, amongst them the rape of the four nuns in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, nearly two years ago. This rape is still quoted as an example of the "atrocities" committed by Hindus on Christians.

Yet, when I interviewed the four innocent nuns, they themselves admitted, along with George Anatil, the bishop of Indore, that it had nothing to do with religion: It was the doing of a gang of Bhil tribals, known to perpetrate this kind of hateful acts on their own women. Today, the Indian press, the Christian hierarchy and the politicians, continue to include the Jhabua rape in the list of atrocities against Christians.

Or take the burning of churches in Andhra Pradesh a few months ago, which was supposed to have been committed by the "fanatic" RSS. It was proved later that it was actually the handiwork of Indian Muslims, at the behest of the ISI to foment hatred between Christians and Hindus. Yet the Indian press, which went berserk at the time of the burnings, mostly kept quiet when the true nature of the perpetrators was revealed.

Finally, even if Dara Singh does belong to the Bajrang Dal, it is doubtful if the hundred other accused do. What is more probable, is that like in many other "backward" places, it is a case of converted tribals versus non-converted tribals, of pent-up jealousies, of old village-feuds and land disputes. It is also an outcome of what -- it should be said -- are the aggressive methods of the Pentecost and Seventh Day Adventist missionaries, known for their muscular ways of conversion.


Thirdly, conversions in India by Christian missionaries of low caste Hindus and tribals are sometimes nothing short of fraudulent and shameful acts. American missionaries are investing huge amounts of money in India, which come from donation-drives in the United States where gullible Americans think the dollars they are giving go towards uplifting "poor and uneducated" Indians.

It is common in Kerala, for instance, particularly in the poor coastal districts, to have "miracle boxes" put in local churches. The gullible villager writes out a paper mentioning his wish such as a fishing boat, a loan for a pucca house, fees for the son's schooling. And lo, a few weeks later the miracle happens! And of course the whole family converts, making others in the village follow suit.

American missionaries (and their government) would like us to believe that democracy includes the freedom to convert by any means. But France for example, a traditionally Christian country, has a minister who is in charge of hunting down "sects." And by sects, it is meant anything that does not fall within the recognized family of Christianity -- even the Church of Scientology, favoured by some Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise or John Travolta, is ruthlessly hounded. And look at what the Americans did to the Osho movement in Arizona, or how innocent children and women were burnt down by the FBI (with the assistance of the US army) at Waco, Texas, because they belonged to a dangerous sect.

Did you know that Christianity is dying in the West? Not only is church attendance falling dramatically because spirituality has deserted it, but less and less youth accept the vocation to become priests or nuns. And as a result, say in the rural parts of France, you will find only one priest for six or seven villages, whereas till the late seventies, the smallest hamlet had its own parish priest.

And where is Christianity finding new priests today? In the Third World, of course! And India, because of the innate impulsion of its people towards god, is a very fertile recruiting ground for the Church, particularly in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Hence the huge attention that India is getting from the United States, Australia, or England and the massive conversion drive going on today.

It is sad that Indians, once converted, specially the priests and nuns, tend to turn against their own country and help in the conversion drive. There are very few "White" missionaries left in India and most of the conversions are done today by Indian priests.

Last month, during the bishop's conference in Bangalore, it was restated by bishops and priests from all over India that conversion is the FIRST priority of the Church here. But are the priests and bishops aware that they would never find in any Western country the same freedom to convert that they take for granted in India? Do they know that in China they would be expelled, if not put into jail? Do they realize that they have been honoured guests in this country for nearly two thousand years and that they are betraying those that gave them peace and freedom?

Hinduism, the religion of tolerance, and spirituality of this new millennium, has survived the unspeakable barbarism of wave after wave of Muslim invasions, the insidious onslaught of Western colonialism which has killed the spirit of so many Third World countries, and the soul-stifling assault of Nehruvianism. But will it survive the present Christian offensive?

Many Hindu religious leaders feel Christianity is a real threat today, as in numerous ways it is similar to Hinduism, from which Christ borrowed so many concepts. (See Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's book: "Hinduism and Christianity")

It is thus necessary that Indians themselves become more aware of the danger their culture and unique civilization is facing at the hands of missionaries sponsored by foreign money. It is also necessary that they stop listening to the Marxist-influenced English newspapers' defense of the right of Christian missionaries to convert innocent Hindus.

Conversion belongs to the times of colonialism. We have entered the era of Unity, of coming together, of tolerance and accepting each other as we are, not of converting in the name of one elusive "true" god.

When Christianity accepts the right of other people to follow their own beliefs and creeds, then only will Jesus Christ's spirit truly radiate in the world.

[The author, who writes "The Ferengi's Column" in The Indian Express, is the correspondent in South Asia for Le Figaro, France's largest circulating daily. He has just published "Arise O India" (Har-Anand).]

[This article is found at: www.stephen-knapp.com]

India's quality of mercy - Indians are ready to give. But India is yet to develop a policy on giving.

India's quality of mercy

The quality of mercy, Shakespeare wrote, is not strained. It is twice blessed. He went on: “It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes”. The tsunami disaster, one of the worst natural calamities in recent memory, has brought an outpouring of aid from governments and people across the world.

Within the nation itself, as the Express reported, citizens have given as never before. In less than two weeks Indians have contributed nearly as much as over a year to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund when a massive earthquake hit Gujarat four years ago.

Meanwhile, India’s lack of grace in handling offers of international assistance for the tsunami victims seems bipartisan. The Vajpayee government reacted in the same manner after the earthquake in Gujarat in 2001 by saying “thanks, but no thanks”. This new trend on foreign aid suggests a certain sense of “growing up” on India’s part and a presumed determination to stand on its feet. While the sentiment is welcome, there is no running away from the fact that India will continue to need a lot of external resources, in the form of aid, loans, or investment, for its development.

The political controversy over New Delhi’s refusal to accept aid for immediate disaster relief has masked an important new trend: India’s emergence as an aid donor. Its rapid economic growth since the early ’90s has pushed it into a paradoxical position on international aid. New Delhi will remain doubly blessed when it comes to foreign aid. It will continue to receive aid, albeit in declining annual doses. Meanwhile India’s own aid to other countries will continue to grow.

It is that second trend that deserves some policy attention. At the IMF, India has now become a creditor nation signaling its desire to be taken more seriously in the politics of global finance. India, of course, has given aid from the very early years of the Republic. Bhutan and Nepal have received substantive sums of assistance over the decades from the external affairs ministry. India’s role as an aid giver, however, has gone beyond the traditional responsibility towards Bhutan and Nepal. A couple of years ago, it announced a credit line of US $200 million to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Last year, India announced a US$ 500 million credit line for nine West African countries called Team 9. New Delhi has smaller credit lines to many countries in India’s extended neighbourhood in South East Asia, Central Asia, the Persian Gulf and Africa.

After the fall of the Taliban, India has given impressive assistance to the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul. The present exposure of Indian aid to Afghanistan spread over some years is to the tune of US$ 400 million. In the year ’03-’04, India spent nearly US $380 mn on grants and loans to foreign governments. In an important political gesture in 2003, India also wrote off the debt owed to it by seven African countries amounting to nearly US$ 20 million. It has also begun to give substantive defence-related assistance to a few friendly nations and provides significant military assistance to Nepal in fighting the Maoist insurgency.

In short, resource outflow from India, in the form of international assistance has become significant in recent years. But much of that aid is decided and disbursed in an ad hoc manner. Neither is there an articulation of an over-arching set of objectives nor a mechanism to effectively manage India’s aid-giving. An attempt was made in the ’03 budget speech by the then finance minister, Jaswant Singh, to give some coherence to the process, when he unveiled the India Development Initiative (IDI). It was meant to reflect India’s new ability and commitment to advance the development of others. Jaswant Singh promised to reconsider the policy of offering loans and lines of credit and replace it with a scheme to provide grants and project assistance. Barring the debt relief offered to seven African countries, very little came out of the IDI. In ’04, new finance minister P. Chidambaram held back on the IDI pending a review of the concept.

One hopes Chidambaram would remember, when he makes his budget presentation this year, his promise to review the notions behind the IDI and come up with a broad set of guidelines for India’s external aid. In doing so, he will have to resolve some of the contradictions inherent in India’s aid-giving.

At the core of any new approach must be the recognition that external assistance has become an important tool of India’s foreign and commercial policy as well as a broader means to contribute to the economic development of other nations. As India gives more, it will be liable to the same accusations — political motivation and commercial interests — that New Delhi used to level against Western donors in the past. While India rejects tied aid from Western nations, its lines of credit do exactly the same in promoting Indian exports and the interests of Indian companies which are increasingly registering their presence abroad.

Some of this criticism is rooted in the reality of India moving away from a mere third world recipient of aid to a potentially significant donor. But as it seeks to assume a growing international responsibility amidst rapid economic growth, it must increase the component of its untied aid and demonstrate that the IDI is not an export subsidy to the Indian industry. In intent and execution, the IDI must be about facilitating the development of less-fortunate nations.

India’s external aid must now include larger amounts of developmental as well as humanitarian assistance without any strings attached. The Indian private sector, too, could contribute significantly in this effort.

As India begins to draw less from the global aid pool and contributes a little more, there is an urgent need to define the objectives of India’s assistance, locate the geographic priorities of its destination, identify the sectors where the biggest impact can be made, devise competent structures for aid administration at home and find ways to involve the non-governmental organisations.

Indians are ready to give. But India is yet to develop a policy on giving. As it begins to offer more to the world, it must recall the bard’s reference to the greatest quality of mercy: “It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God’s; When mercy seasons justice”.

Business Report - Ambition, not fear, drives India's refusal to accept tsunami aid

Ambition, not fear, drives India's refusal to accept tsunami aid
January 9, 2005

Singapore - The Indian government's refusal to accept overseas aid for tsunami relief invited a sharp rebuke from the Times of India.

"There's a genuine outpouring of global sympathy for the affected," its editorial said. "It's churlish on our part to refuse such well-meant offers."

With more than 15 000 people killed or missing, India's toll from the tragedy is bigger than Thailand's. Only Indonesia and Sri Lanka have reported more casualties.

Among the four worst-affected nations, India's annual per capita income of $2 900 (R17 640) is the lowest in terms of international purchasing power.

Moreover, the Indian government doesn't really have a lot of cash lying around. Its budget deficit as a ratio of gross domestic product was 4.8 percent in 2003, the fourth-highest in the world, according to statistics from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 34 major economies.

Yet not only did India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh say no to aid, his government also announced financial assistance totalling $22.5 million to Sri Lanka, Maldives, Indonesia and Thailand.

It isn't that India would have become a stooge of some foreign power. Brett Schaefer, a fellow at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, noted that, after receiving $935 million in US assistance between 1993 and 1998, India voted against the US in the UN 81 percent of the time - more opposition than China, Libya and Iran.

The real reason behind India's refusal to accept tsunami aid is ambition, not fear. India is campaigning hard for a permanent seat on the UN security council. It has 1 billion people, a space programme, a nuclear bomb and a thriving computer software industry. What it needs to show now, India reckons, is greater confidence in its own capability.

As part of that effort, India decided in 2003 to phase out foreign aid from all but six major donors - the US, the UK, Japan, Germany the European Commission and Russia.

Also in 2003, India became a creditor nation to the IMF, 12 years after surviving a balance-of-payments crisis with the help of a bailout organised by the international lender.

India's aspiration to be counted as an emerging power is legitimate. Still, in denying foreign help, is the government being fair to citizens? Shouldn't it try to "maximise our resources and ensure that relief reaches the right people at the right time", as the Times of India put it?

"I like this recent trend of not taking hand-outs," says one comment posted on Sulekha.com, an online community of Indians worldwide.


Another says: "All the pictures we're seeing don't indicate we're equipped and adequately resourced."

The Times misses a few crucial points. An offer of government-to-government help isn't an immediate wire transfer of funds. More often than not it's an offer in kind, comprising goods that an affected country may either not need in the first place or no longer require by the time the shipment arrives. Also, disaster aid is at times just a transfer of funds from developmental aid already committed under country-specific assistance programmes.

And by rejecting foreign assistance, the Indian government has willingly invited greater scrutiny of its relief efforts. One can, therefore, expect a better-than-usual response from the bureaucracy.

Already, the Indian air force has mounted one of its biggest peacetime operations.

And finally, like it or not, when it comes to disaster assistance, both recipient and donor nations play games all the time. A study titled The Politics of Humanitarian Aid: US Foreign Disaster Assistance, 1964-1995, by political scientist A Cooper Drury of the University of Missouri at Columbia and other researchers, presents some disturbing findings.

The authors conclude that the decision by the US government on whether to help a country after a disaster is markedly political. The size of the aid package is somewhat less so, though it is to a great extent influenced by media coverage of a tragedy: one article in the New York Times is worth more disaster aid dollars than 1 500 fatalities, it says.

"Our analysis puts to rest the notion that US foreign disaster assistance is purely objective and non-political," the authors say.

India's own offer of help to other tsunami-affected nations, laudable though it is, isn't purely out of humanitarian concerns.

India, which is vying with China for economic and political influence in Asia, couldn't have avoided making a commitment, especially after its neighbour raised its tsunami relief to $60 million from $2.6 million.

"India has always perceived itself as a regional power," says Robert Karniol, the Asia-Pacific editor at Jane's Defence Weekly in Bangkok.

"With being a regional power comes responsibilities to respond to these kinds of crisis. India is accepting that responsibility."

India sought the diaspora's knowledge, not just dollars

India sought the diaspora's knowledge, not just dollars:

Held against the backdrop of the killer tsunami, India's annual event to engage with its vast and increasingly influential diaspora sent a clear signal that the country seeks not just their riches but also the richness of their expertise.

Wooing investments from the successful and affluent Indian diaspora was just one aspect of the series of interactive sessions at the third edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, or commemoration of Indian Diaspora Day, which concluded here Sunday.

India tried to gauge how the knowledge base of its 25 million diaspora, spread over 110 countries, can be leveraged to tackle some fundamental impediments that inhibits the country's resolve to emerge as a global economic giant.

"There is more to the Indian diaspora than the dollars they can remit or the investments they can make," said Chicago-based Sam Pitroda, credited with heralding the telecom revolution in India.

"What India needs is the knowledge of its talented diaspora in addressing some basic issues like disaster mitigation, healthcare, drinking water, sanitation, and administrative, judicial and political reforms," Pitroda told IANS.

Even President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, a scientist himself, was interested in the intellectual capabilities of the overseas Indians, more so in the wake of the tsunami tragedy that has wreaked havoc in India and other countries.

"Your prosperity is our happiness," Kalam said, noting he would be happy if the diaspora comes together to establish an India International Research Centre with a corpus of $100 million dedicated to earthquake research.

In many ways, the annual three-day event that shifted venue from the national capital to the country's financial capital also sought to send the message that engagement between the country and its diaspora will be mutually beneficial.

And the delegates - comprising scientists, political leaders, entrepreneurs, academics, social activists and artists - seemed to have realised the potential of what is widely acknowledged as one of the world's fastest growing economies.

"Malaysians feel there is great future in the world's largest democracy," said the country's Works Minister Samy Vellu, who traces his roots to India and led a 168-strong delegation to the conference.

Malaysia, which has 2.3 million people of Indian origin, is involved in highway projects worth $1.8 billion in India with more in the pipeline, he said.

Adding a geopolitical dimension, Sudhir Parikh, president of the US-based Federations of Indian Associations, said overseas Indians must convert their wealth, sent in terms of remittances, into political gains for India.

"Given the huge number of Indian Americans and the political contribution we make, the community can achieve tremendous mileage and espouse the Indian cause more effectively," Parikh said.

"Together, we must bring forth the vision, the strength and the unity to challenge the unreasonable, stand up for what we believe, get involved in what matters to us and our motherland, and do what there is to be done."

Similar sentiments were echoed by Vice President Abdool Raouf Bundhun of Mauritius, who said it was a matter of pride that a member of the Indian diaspora was a strong contender for the top World Trade Organisation (WTO) post.

He sought the support of the Indian diaspora for Jaya Krishna Cuttaree, foreign affairs and international trade minister of Mauritius with roots in India, for the post of director general of the WTO.

From Britain-based political scientist Lord Bhiku Parikh to tennis commentator Vijay Amritraj, all spoke of a new meaning that has come to be associated with being Indian.

"For too long it was felt that the country where Indians cannot succeed was India," said Shashi Tharoor, a novelist and under secretary of the UN. "This is clearly changing since the 1970s."

Today, 38 percent of doctors in the US are of Indian origin. Thirty-four percent of Microsoft employees are Indians and 36 percent of the staff at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration trace their roots to India.

With India carving out a niche for itself in the global tech market, some delegates eyed the country's booming software, IT and biotechnology sectors.

"The knowledge economy is a very good area to connect with India," said Saurav Srivastava, chief executive of British outsourcing firm Xansa. "Opportunities in the sector are phenomenal. We have just scratched the surface."

In the end, it was the sentiment of coming to a land of their origin that stood out for most delegates.

As Basdeo Panday, former prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, told IANS: "We need to know that we are a part of a culture and race, preferably a great race, even if we have to create a fiction to feel that way."