24 December 2006
Tehran, Dec 24 (DPA) In his first reaction to the UN sanctions against Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that "a piece of paper" (the UN resolution) could not stop Iran's atomic programmes.
"They think they can stop our nuclear programme by spreading a piece of paper but, whether you like it or not, the fact is Iran has already become an atomic power," Ahmadinejad said.
"Iran has already gained the necessary know-how to complete its own nuclear fuel cycle and there is nothing the West can do about it," he said.
The news network Khabar quoted the president as saying the UN Security Council in agreeing upon the anti-Iran resolution Saturday had lost all credibility "and proved to be merely the servant of the US and Britain".
Ahmadinejad said that Iran was not afraid of the resolution but would still be vigilant towards what he called conspiracies against the Islamic state.
"Israel openly and rudely says we have the atomic bomb, while (the veto powers) just reply with a smile (and) impose sanctions against us," he said.
"You (the West) have committed another grave mistake and I am sorry to say that you have lost the last opportunity to have friendship with the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad added.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammad-Ali Hosseini had earlier Sunday said Tehran would be more decisive in pursuing its nuclear programmes following the UN sanctions against Iran.
Condemning the unanimous decision by the UN Security Council, the spokesperson said: "This move has been fully political, discriminatory, unfair and far beyond any legal basis and therefore it will have no impact on Iran's willingness to continue its peaceful nuclear path and we see ourselves in no way obliged to follow it."
Hosseini confirmed press reports, which had quoted chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani as announcing the start of the installation of 3,000 centrifuges on Sunday.
Iran has so far completed operation of two cascades of 164 centrifuges each and plans to increase the number of centrifuges to 3,000 by March 2007.
The spokesperson, however, stressed that, "the doors for unconditional talks have not yet been closed".
Jakarta, Dec 24 (DPA) Severe floods swept through the Indonesian island of Sumatra, leaving at least 13 people dead, over a dozen missing and about 90,000 villagers homeless, officials said Sunday.
In Aceh province, at least five people were killed and four reported missing in heavy flooding that swept through seven district areas. Over 70,000 residents sought refuge in temporary shelters, said officials.
The floods also cut off land transportation between Aceh and North Sumatra province as a number of bridges were swept away, Antara news agency reported.
Days of torrential rain also triggered several landslides, burying five people in Gayo Luwes district, said an official of the Aceh provincial administration,
Aceh was severely hit by the 2004 quake-triggered tsunami that devastated tens of thousands of homes and left around 170,000 people dead.
In North Sumatra province, heavy downpours caused rivers to overflow, submerging thousands of homes in 12 sub-districts of Langkat regency and killing eight people.
Twelve villagers are reported missing and over 17,000 residents have been forced to flee their homes. Langkat district chief Syamsul Arifin said the floods were the worst in 40 years.
Rain-triggered floods also swept Riau province in eastern Sumatra, inundating tens of thousands of homes throughout six district areas.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla blamed flooding and landslides - and long droughts during the dry season - on the destruction of the country's forests.
Environmentalists have also held the massive deforestation from illegal logging in several regions responsible for the floods.
By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu, Dec 24 (IANS) Disputes over encroachment, a long-standing thorn in India-Nepal ties, are likely to be over next year when the two neighbours plan to ink a new boundary.
A series of Indo-Nepal treaties - starting from the Sugauli Treaty in 1816 - that tried to delineate the nearly 1,800 km open boundary between India and Nepal on the east, south and west, have been countermanded by encroachments, claims and counter-claims.
A major cause for the disputes is that the two countries share a nearly 595-km border demarcated by about 60 rivers. With the rivers changing their course with time, the border underwent changes too but these were not implemented officially.
Now however, almost 98 percent of the work is complete on drawing up the new border and the remaining work is expected to be completed by June 2007.
To resolve the disputes, which erupted as recently as this month, on the eve of Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Kathmandu, a joint technical committee was set up to conduct a new survey.
After holding its 28th meeting in Kathmandu last week, the team, led on the Indian side by Maj.Gen. M. Gopal Rao, surveyor general of India, and on the Nepal side by Toya Nath Baral, director general of the survey department, said 98 percent of the work was complete with the rest expected to be over by June.
Besides the home, foreign affairs and defence ministries, the border talks include officials from the neighbouring Indian states, like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
One of the most contentious border issues is Kalapani near the western border. Many in Nepal feel India has encroached upon the area, measuring about 62 km, since 1962 and kept a military contingent there to keep an eye on China.
There are also allegations that India built bunkers and other permanent structures on Nepali territory.
However, India says the Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel are deployed on the Indian side of the border.
China and Nepal signed a boundary protocol in 1963. Unlike with India, Nepal has no boundary feuds with China, with whom it shares a nearly 1,414-km border demarcated by the Himalayan range.
Jerusalem, Dec 24 (DPA) Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed on easing of restrictions faced by the Palestinians, during a meeting here described as 'positive'.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, who attended a two-hour meeting at Olmert's official residence here, said that Israel agreed to transfer $100 million of confiscated money to the Palestinians for humanitarian purposes and to channel 35 million Israeli shekels (over $8 million) to hospitals in East Jerusalem.
Israel confiscated the money from tax revenues it collects for the Palestinian Authority and refused to hand it over to the Palestinians, fearing that the militant Hamas government would use it to buy weapons to be used against Israel.
Israel also acquiesced in the removal of West Bank roadblocks that restrict Palestinian freedom of movement, and agreed to allow 400 trucks to pass through the Gaza Strip's Karni commercial crossing.
The two sides further decided to examine the possibility of extending to the West Bank a truce declared Nov 26 for the Gaza Strip.
The possible ceasefire expansion comes as Olmert is under increasing pressure from within his cabinet to order the Israeli military to retaliate to Palestinian rocket fire on Israel, which has continued from Gaza despite the ceasefire.
Olmert and Abbas agreed to set up several committees to discuss various issues, including the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Israel had said that no Palestinian prisoners would be freed until the release of an Israeli soldier snatched by Palestinian militants June 25 in a cross border raid.
Political observers said the most important development was the meeting itself, the first time in about 18 months that Abbas had face-to-face talks with an Israeli government head.
The talks with Olmert come at a time when Abbas is locked in an increasingly violent power struggle with the ruling Hamas party, whom he blames for the breakdown of talks over the formation of a national unity government.
Although Abbas has said that a national unity government between Hamas and his moderate Fatah movement remains his preference, he has also called for new parliamentary and presidential elections in the Palestinian territories.
Any achievements he gets as a result of talks with Israel are expected to garner him support in his battle with Hamas, analysts believe.
By Michael Gonsalves
Pune, Dec 24 (IANS) Asia's biggest state-of-the-art stem cell research centre is being planned at the Pune-based Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) campus to treat diseases, a general says.
"Stem cell therapy is the futuristic regenerative or reparative medicine. It will be the futuristic treatment replacing drug therapy and surgery. Through stem cell treatment, heart diseases, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, eye and muscle disease and various other diseases can be cured," Surgeon Vice Admiral V.K. Singh, the Armed Forces Medical Services director general, told IANS.
A sum of Rs.500 million has been allocated for the proposed stem cell research centre. About 150 scientists from Pune's Cell Science Research Centre will be engaged in research and application.
Currently, 28 scientists are researching on stem cells in Pune, 10 in New Delhi and seven in Mumbai, he added.
Admiral Singh, also chairman of Military Medicine Association (Asia Chapter), said funding would be made available to make it Asia's biggest state-of-the-art stem cell research centre as this was the future of medical treatment/therapy for various diseases and India could not lag behind.
He said the longevity of humans could also be increased through stem cell treatment.
"Stem cells are one of the most fascinating areas of the study of biology. Stem cells have the potential to develop into many different cell types in the body with a more specialised function such as a muscle cell, a heart muscle cell, a red blood cell or a brain cell," Singh told IANS after his keynote address at a 'Stem Cell Therapy' seminar organised by the Department of Transfusion Medicine, AFMC.
Stem cell treatment is a new technique that relies on replacing diseased or dysfunctional cells with healthy, functioning ones.
"These new techniques are being applied to a wide range of human diseases, including many types of cancer, neurological diseases like Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injuries," the director general said.
"Replacing dead cells in the retina with new ones may someday cure even presently incurable eye diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration," he said.
Stem cells could be obtained from three sources: embryonic cells, adult cells (bone marrow) and umbilical cord blood cells from the placenta.
Lab tests carried out by scientists, Admiral Singh said, revealed that young stem cells could be used to replace the damaged or dead ones in diseased organs.
"This stem cell therapy is similar to the process of organ transplant, only the treatment consists of the transplantation of cells rather than organs," he explained.
Initially stem cell therapy was used only for treatment of blood diseases such as Thalassemia, Fanconi's anaemia and certain types of cancers as multiple myeloma and leukaemia.
"We are not playing god. Our intention is not to create a super human being but to repair diseased and damaged human tissues and organs," said Col. Harsh Kumar, head of the Department of Transfusion Medicine, AFMC.
"Stem cell therapy, a futuristic treatment in medicine, is all set to revolutionise and replace drug-based treatment as stem cells have the potential to form parts of the human body. It is absolutely achievable," he added.
By Nayanima Basu
New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) The ubiquitous auto rickshaw, the common man's transport in Indian cities hobbled by a poor public transport system, is gradually transforming into a new avatar - an unconventional yet cost-effective advertising tool.
The auto rickshaws advertise many websites on their backs and on their hoods, spelling booming business for the sites that one would not have known about.
"Advertising on the back of auto rickshaws has been a tremendous experience for us. What we got was beyond our expectations," Faisal I. Farooqui, founder and chief executive of MouthShut.com, a website where people can log on and share their views on any product, told IANS.
"We started this way back in 2001 in Mumbai when no one came out with such a concept, and I wanted to build a brand on a medium which would have a high recall value," Farooqui added.
"A billboard in Mumbai's posh Marine Drive area would cost somewhere around Rs.1-1.5 million. After this campaign we now experience more than 30 million page views a month."
This idea quickly came to the notice of potential advertisers who understood the benefits attached to the rickety auto.
"This innovative brand-building exercise struck me after I saw MouthShut.com and it has been a success since then," averred Siddhaartha Vaid of stickiewicket.com, a website which features statistics on cricket, live-scores and many other such information regarding the game of cricket.
"I tried stickers but those are not permanent. After that we started painting the hood of the autos," added Vaid.
The mode of payment to the auto rickhaw owners is one-time which can range anything from Rs.30-100 and the quality of the paint used in writing the name of the website on the hood of the auto cannot be easily removed. Each company targets around 100-150 autos.
And to avoid getting duped, photographs of the autos are maintained in these companies' records.
"We sometimes provide incentives like if an auto owner comes back after six months and if the name is still there, we pay him an amount," said Rakesh Verma, CEO of mapmyindia.com, a portal which deals with navigation features and interactive mapping system.
Aditya Malik, 21-year-old CEO of gogurgaon.com, who also started the same method of catching the eyeballs last four months, stated: "We didn't want to spend a huge amount in advertising and this form of campaigning cost us one-fifth of the normal form."
These companies have their own research team who do a complete socio-economic research to understand where their potential customer base is and target the autos of those areas. However, the painters are in some cases outsourced.
Adman Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman of McCann Erickson ad agency, told IANS: "This is an unconventional form of advertising which reaches the contact points. This kind of advertising is most welcome and it is going to be the future of advertising in India.
Dhaka, Dec 24 (IANS) The prolonged political tussle in Bangladesh ahead of general elections in January has ended, with the Awami League-led alliance calling off its boycott of the polls.
The alliance late Saturday night agreed to fight the polls. At its instance, the caretaker government asked the Election Commission to extend the last date for filing of nominations till Tuesday evening.
As of now, polling will take place Jan 23 to elect a house of 300 to complete the election process within a 90-day limit that ends Jan 25.
The alliance had Saturday asked its nominees not to file their papers with the poll authorities till the nomination-filing time is extended.
With the alliance agreeing to participate, it brings to an end its nearly two-month-long stir to press for poll-related demands that turned violent in November, leading to the deaths of 40 people, and again last week when armed forces were deployed and around 100 people injured.
Analysts said the alliance, led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, would join the poll fray minus some of its demands, including President Iajuddin Ahmed, who also doubles as the Chief Advisor of the interim government, making way for someone 'neutral', and removal of two controversial election commissioners.
They noted that the alliance was left with no choice, finding that precious time for the poll campaign was running out, and the rival alliance, led by Begum Khaleda Zia, was way ahead in its efforts to return to power.
So serious was the possibility of the poll boycott by the Sheikh Hasina-led alliance that constituents of the Zia-led alliance had prepared for contesting separately and sweeping the polls.
Hasina has finalised 220 nominees, leaving in effect 80 seats for her allies, including Left-of-centre parties, communists and a clutch of Islamist splinter groups.
Media reports said things were sorted out by Saturday night, which was the last date for filing of nominations - already extended once - after hectic parleys between President Ahmed's advisors and alliance leaders led by Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil.
Jalil, who had been spouting venom against the president, accusing him of being "remote controlled" by Zia, sang a different tune Saturday, saying that contesting elections within the 90-day time was possible "if the atmosphere is conducive".
Thimphu, Dec 24 (IANS) Bhutan's draft constitution that bars people from contesting the first general elections in 2008 if they don't have a university degree is mired in a row with people's representatives opposing the move.
"The education criteria would take away rights of the people. There will not be mass representation," Bhutan's deputy speaker in the National Assembly Zhamling Dorji was quoted as saying by the national newspaper Kuensel.
Bhutan's Election Act has proposed that a candidate must have a minimum Bachelor's Degree to enable him to contest the elections. Bhutan's literacy level is the lowest in South Asia, around 42 percent with just about 11,000 graduates in a country of 600,000 people.
"Should we allow our population to be represented by the two percent graduates?" Dorji questioned in a debate at the session of the national assembly in capital Thimphu.
"There would be minority representation to the parliament if the criteria are not changed."
Several representatives of Bhutan's 20 districts have also opposed the guidelines for the polls that would see the Himalayan kingdom shifting from monarchy to parliamentary democracy.
"Modern education alone cannot judge a person," an unnamed representative of Zhemgang district was quoted as saying.
A representative of Bumthang district said the present national assembly or parliament is comprised of representatives with different educational backgrounds.
"The educational qualifications will not allow broad representation as we have now. The future parliament should also be able to serve the government and the people as we are doing now," he said.
Earlier, Bhutan's Chief Election Commissioner Dasho Kunzang Wangdi stressed on the need for a minimum academic qualification saying only a person with sound educational background would be able to serve the nation as parliamentarians.
"To be a minister one must win a seat in parliament and be a member of the ruling party, besides meeting the minimum academic qualification as enshrined in the Election Act," Wangdi said.
"They (the elected parliamentarians) should be complimented by academic qualification so that their analytical and decision-making capabilities would be proficient."
The two-week long assembly session that began Friday has decided to invite Wangdi to address it to dwell on issues relating to election procedures, including a discussion on the academic qualification.
The new king of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was present at the assembly session.
Former king Jigme Singye Wangchuck earlier this month abdicated the throne in favour of his eldest son before Bhutan adopts a constitution and elects a prime minister in 2008.
Bhutan's election commission said some 400,000 voters would be eligible to exercise their franchise in 2008 to choose the first democratically elected government.
The transition began five years ago when the former king handed over the powers of daily government to a council of ministers and empowered the national assembly to force a royal abdication if three-quarters of its membership backed the motion.
In 2004 Bhutan unveiled a 34-point constitution. This was sent to some 530,000 citizens for their views. The constitution is expected to be ratified after a referendum.
Once adopted, it will replace a royal decree of 1953 giving the monarch absolute power. The new king is the fifth ruler in the Wangchuck dynasty that came to power in December 1907.
Hangzhou (China), Dec 24 (Xinhua) Chinese business people have transferred part of their production to Africa this year, bringing capital and jobs to local people in a continent where Beijing is fast becoming a major source of investment and aid.
Wang Jianpin, a businessman from Wenzhou, a city in east China's Zhejiang province, shifted one fourth of the production capacity of his Hasan Shoes Co. to Nigeria in 2006. Wang has decided to invest a further $6 million in the west African country.
The decision followed the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in November.
At the summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to take eight new measures to further improve cooperation between China and Africa. One measure involved loans of $3 billion at particularly favourable terms, a further $2 billion in buyer's credit and the setting up of special trading zones.
Chinese economists said the summit heralded a new age of China-Africa economic cooperation. With Chinese businessmen being encouraged to set up businesses in Africa, early movers are likely to scoop the rewards and become stable investors in the continent, they said.
The Zhejiang-based Holley Group provides anti-malaria drugs for three million malaria sufferers in Africa. Lu Chunming, president of Chongqing Holley Co., Ltd., one of the group's subsidiaries in southwestern China, said Holley is planning to launch a production facility for anti-malaria drugs in Africa.
But he declined to say in which country the manufacturing entity would be located.
Emanuel Masenga, assistant to the general manager of China Paper (Tanzania) Ltd., said he now earns $600 per month, a good salary in a country where per-capita monthly living expenses are $30.
The Chinese papermaking company has hired 70-plus local people for its production facility in Tanzania. Technical workers earn $100 a month. The company has a social welfare scheme for local employees. "A worker's income can support the whole family," Masenga said.
According to Zhang Yuanxiang, general manager of China Travel Service (Kenya), the year 2006 saw the number of Chinese tourists to Africa double to over 200,000. Most of them went to Africa to search for business opportunities and Kenya was often the gateway, Zhang added.
Official statistics showed that between 2000 and 2005, trade between China and Africa increased from just under $10 billion to nearly $40 billion, and is likely to surpass $50 billion in 2006 and hit $80 billion in 2010.
China is rapidly becoming one of Africa's main sources of investment. By the end of September 2006, China had established more than 800 enterprises in the continent, involving a total investment of $11 billion.
To encourage more Chinese citizens to invest in Africa, Premier Wen Jiabao pledged that China would launch a $5 billion China-Africa Development Fund.
Some sceptics claim that China's interest in Africa is driven by self-interest and that its closer economic and trade ties with Africa could lead to a kind of "neo-colonialism".
But both Chinese and African leaders have refuted the allegation.
Wen Jiabao said: "The neo-colonialist hat simply doesn't fit China."
Said Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe: "China has established friendship with many African countries, and is opening itself up to Africa and providing assistance. It is cooperating with African countries on an equal basis and has no desire to colonize Africa."
By Shabtai Gold
Bethlehem, Dec 24 (DPA) Residents of Bethlehem are once again bracing for a bitter, disappointing Christmas. The West Bank city, which used to host around 100,000 pilgrims celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, expects to receive a fraction of that number this year.
"There is hardly a Christmas feeling in the city", says Sami Awad, of the Holy Land Trust.
Most residents blame the Israelis for the roadblocks set up between the city and Jerusalem, erected after the Palestinian uprising broke out in 2000. They also blame them for the controversial separation barrier - a long, concrete and wire structure that snakes along in some places in the West Bank.
Israel says it built the barrier to prevent would-be suicide bombers from reaching its cities, but residents of Bethlehem complain that it has virtually imprisoned them inside their own city, and keeping tourists out.
This year, however, there may be another reason why tourists aren't coming - the fierce infighting in the Palestinian Territories, which potential pilgrims may not realise has so far been confined almost entirely to the Gaza Strip.
Sitting in his office, with photographs of Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Ghandi and the Dalai Lama on the walls, Awad says the Israelis are deliberately trying to keep people away.
"The Israeli tour operators are telling the tourists not to come, that there is a civil war. But there is no fighting in Bethlehem," he says.
Whatever the reason, the scarcity of pilgrims has impacted negatively on the local economy, which centres around tourist trade.
The city's centrepiece is Manger Square, outside the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ. It is almost deserted, with only a few locals and a small group of tourists from Singapore wandering around.
"We can't make a living here anymore," complains Ismail, a 55-year-old taxi driver. Work is scarce, he says, indicating a long line of taxis waiting, hoping for a passenger.
Says Ahmed, a coffee vendor in the square: "Ten years ago there were 70-80 tourist buses coming in (over Christmas), now there are maybe five."
He can hardly make a living and cannot pay his wife's medical bills.
Nearby, a Christian shop owner shouts that he is offering a "99 percent discount on everything" in stock. "Just to sell something," he says with a tired smile.
Bethlehem did receive its annual Christmas grant from the Palestinian government - $50,000 sent by Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of the ruling Islamic Hamas party.
But the cash is needed to pay outstanding salaries and the festive decorations placed in the city have been paid for by private funding from varied sources, including the Islamic Bank and the Lutheran Church.
Adding to the city's woes is a strike by municipal employees, who say they have not been paid for months. "We don't even have money to come to work," says Mohammed, a municipality worker.
These are the street cleaners, who "make Bethlehem nice", as one of the strikers states.
Bethlehem's mayor Victor Batarsi says he can only hope they go back to work before Christmas, even though "there is simply no money to pay the workers".
He says that the people are not paying their taxes either, owing to the situation.
Batarsi is furious at the international boycott of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has been in place since the Islamic Hamas movement won the elections and took office in March, and refused demands to recognise Israel.
"This is not a Hamas-led government, this is the Palestinian people's government," he states.
Khaled Jodeh, a member of the Bethlehem city council from the Hamas-affiliated Islamic list, echoes Batarsi's statements.
"The West wants to punish Hamas, but they are punishing the whole Palestinian people. Bethlehem suffers in particular because of the wall putting our city under siege," he says.
About the upcoming Muslim Eid al-Adha feast, which falls between Christmas and New Year's Day, Jodeh is more succinct.
"Muslims and Christians here are both suffering."
New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) The rise in inflation is largely due to stagnation in food production, says the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), seeking greater investment and focus on technology inputs to boost farm output.
"The current inflation rise is largely attributable to the stagnating food grain production scenario. While manufacturing, services and even infrastructure is showing growth, the continued stagnation of food grain production cannot be accepted any more," CII president R. Seshasayee said in a statement Sunday.
While a moderately high inflation is usual with a rapidly growing economy, in India it has become "all the more crucial when the highest increases are registered in food products", said Seshasayee.
The industry lobby has pointed out that while the present levels of inflation at 5.32 percent, as on Dec 22, are within the acceptable range set out by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) of 5-5.5 percent, it has stressed the need for a response mechanism to deal with it to reduce impact on the common man.
The CII observed that while there are no sustainable short-term solutions, short-term relief could be possible through import of agriculture commodities, where the shortages are most acute.
"However, for the long term, a comprehensive overhauling of the agricultural sector is most necessary," said Seshasayee.
"Food grain production is practically stagnating and there is an urgent need to take measures to usher in the next green revolution, with significant use of technology such that productivity and yield increases substantially."
Stressing on need for fresh investments to give a boost to agriculture, Seshasayee said: "Interventions would have to be made particularly in the area of technology, crop selection, land reforms and allowing greater play of markets."
CII is seeking research on new hybrid varieties, particularly for crops like pulses, to up per acre productivity, which is one of the lowest in India.
The industry lobby has also emphasised the need to strengthen the infrastructure for soil testing at all block levels and to educate farmers about the crop pattern and use of the right fertilisers after examining the micro nutrient deficiency in soil and providing good quality seeds at low price.
New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) The demand for fast moving consumer goods known as FMCG such as toothpaste, talcum powder and instant coffee is set to soar in rural and semi-urban areas due to rising incomes, says a new industry study.
The current level of the FMCG market size in these areas is Rs.700 billion - around 30 percent of total. It will grow to 50 percent or worth Rs.1.23 trillion by 2012, says a "Future of FMCG Products in India" report released Sunday by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).
"The FMCG goods are likely to make a major dent in rural and semi-urban segments by 2012 with their demand growing at the rate of about 60 percent annually," says the study.
"The demand for FCMG products will grow because of rising per capita income of rural and semi-urban folks."
The study expects rural and semi urban incomes to rise due to government focus of their industrialisation.
According to current estimates, while the per capita income of semi-urban folk is around Rs.14-15,000 per annum, that of rural people is measured at less than Rs.7,000 a year.
ASSOCHAM findings say that by 2012 the per capita income of rural folk will double and that of semi-urban people will more than double. This is expected to see a commensurate hike in their consumption patterns for FMCG products.
Around 70 percent of the total households in India reside in rural areas. The total number of rural households is expected to rise from 135 million in 2001-02 to 153 million in 2009-10 - the largest potential market in the world.
In rural and semi-urban areas the FMCG market penetration growth is now about two percent in general as against its total growth rate of about eight percent, said ASSOCHAM president Anil K. Agarwal.
"The Indian rural market with its vast size and demand base offers a huge opportunity that FMCG companies cannot afford to ignore," said Agarwal.
Although the rural and semi-urban demand of FMCG products will grow higher, it is expected to put a severe pressure on the margins of manufacturers of FMCG products because of cut-throat competition, says the analysis.
The major challenge would be to make the products more affordable.
By Sujit Chakraborty
Agartala, Dec 24 (IANS) From guns to craftsmanship. Life is looking up for scores of tribes people in Tripura who have renounced militancy to take up bamboo handicrafts in a major way.
For the likes of Kamini, Ananta, Shambhu, and Nagendra, life in the jungles was far from romantic - disillusioned with life underground they all bade farewell to arms. Today they are engaged in a new vocation - honing their skills in mastering the art of handicrafts items made of bamboo.
"We left the jungle defying the whip of our bosses. Now we are all happy with our family," said Kamini Debbarma.
Kamini is among dozens of others who had surrendered recently and are now busy in setting up bamboo-based industrial units with financial assistance from the government.
"The North Eastern Council (NEC) had sanctioned Rs.350 million for the Cluster Based Livelihood Project to be implemented by the Guwahati-based Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC)," NEC member P.P. Shrivastava told IANS.
According to him, about 150 surrendered militants and their family members would benefit from the project with the Tripura government providing land in Khumulung, 20 km north of here.
"A variety of bamboo based products are to be produced," CBTC director Kamesh Salam, said. Militants apart, more than 700 tribal people would be covered under the project, the first of its kind in the northeast.
"Imparting training on bamboo would go a long way in accelerating and making livelihood project a great success," Salam said.
"We would provide all assistance and support to the project to encourage the surrendered militants to start a new life and to motivate those still in the jungles to come to the mainstream," Tripura Tribal Welfare Minister Jitendra Chowdhury said.
The CBTC is currently holding a week-long bamboo festival here to showcase bamboo as the 'green gold' for the northeastern region, which has 67 percent of India's growing bamboo stock, spread over 3,50,000 hectares.
Burnpur (West Bengal), Dec 24 (IANS) Stressing the need to boost productivity and global competitiveness of the Indian steel industry, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday said that the government was committed to the modernize and expand state-run companies.
"The United Progressive Alliance government is committed to the modernisation and expansion of our public sector enterprises," Manmohan Singh while laying the foundation stone for the expansion of the Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO) Steel Plant at Kulti in Burnpur - home to the first modern iron ore-making unit in the country that was started over a century ago.
"We have an effective system for examining the viability of each and every loss making public sector unit with a view to identifying its long term prospects for rehabilitation and growth," he said, underlining that his government did not have a "blind disinvestment strategy" and examined each case on its viability and merits.
"The government has provided large amount of funds to revive many units such as Bridge & Roof, Heavy Engineering Corp, Braithwaite & Company, Cement Corp of India and Bharat Opthalmic Glass," he said.
Underlining the importance of a vibrant steel industry, Manmohan Singh rued that India still had "a long way to go in catching up with the newly industrialising economies of Asia".
"Today steel consumption in China is 10 times that of India. We have to move fast, move quickly and move efficiently to catch up with our neighbours in East Asia," he stressed.
"The investment of over Rs.95 billion ($2 billion) here at the IISCO Steel Plant will create large new capacities and generate new employment opportunities. It will greatly help in the industrial regeneration of this potentially vibrant region.
"I hope the expansion of this steel plant here in Burnpur will mark a new beginning for West Bengal. West Bengal needs modern industries, and the jobs that come with it," Manmohan Singh stressed.
"It needs a process of industrialisation which is employment intensive, welfare enhancing and on the whole humane and just. Every section of society should benefit from the spin off benefits of industrialisation," he said, calling for inclusive economic growth.
Manmohan Singh exhorted domestic steel makers to benchmark themselves against global titans and stressed on the need to improve industrial conditions at home for better productivity and quality.
"It is indeed ironic that an Indian businessman is today called the 'Steel King of the World'. Lakshmi Mittal started his business career here in West Bengal. Today, his group is the world's largest steel producer without producing a kilo of steel in India!" he said, lamenting the lack of opportunities to Indian entrepreneurs to grow in the country.
"Why does Lakshmi Mittal or Ratan Tata have to buy foreign companies to establish a global presence and expand steel capacities when our per capita consumption of steel is so low and when there is so much opportunity here?" he asked while underscoring the need for introspection in order to make Indian industry globally competitive.
He said the government is, however, confident that the country's steel-making capacity is all set to double from the present level of around 40 million tonnes per year to about 80 million tonnes by the year 2012.
If the expansion continued at this rate, India will reach a production target of 110 million tonnes much earlier than 2020 as projected under a national steel policy last year.
New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) India said Sunday it was studying the implications of the UN Security Council's sanctions against Iran while saying that the Iranian nuclear row needed to be resolved through dialogue.
"We continue to feel that all possible efforts should be made to address the Iranian nuclear issue by peaceful means through dialogue and negotiation and that the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) should play a central role in resolving outstanding issues," external affairs ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna said in response to a question on UN sanctions targeting Tehran's nuclear programme.
India said it acknowledged Iran's right to pursue its nuclear programme for peaceful civilian use and added that it was studying the implications of the UN resolution.
The UN Security Council Saturday voted unanimously to impose sanctions on Iran, targeting Tehran's trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology in order to stop enrichment work that could also be used in making bombs.
Iran, which has refused to end its uranium enrichment work in return for economic incentives, has condemned the resolution as "illegal" and vowed to continue with its peaceful nuclear activities.
India had voted against the Iranian nuclear programme at the Vienna-based IAEA and supported the referral of the issue to the UN Security Council. But it has maintained that Tehran's nuclear issue should be resolved through dialogue and not through sanctions.
By Prashant K. Nanda
New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) India will set up a medical park and a vaccine park in Chennai soon to help cut costs in the manufacture of healthcare equipment and for research into new vaccines, said Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss.
"While the medical park will enable us to manufacture medical equipment for the country, the vaccine park will research on developing new vaccines," Ramadoss told IANS.
"The medical park will be built on 300 acres of land and the vaccine park on 100 acres. The new initiative, being undertaken in collaboration with the commerce ministry, will help cut costs in a major way," he said.
"Currently 90 percent of the medical equipment used in India is imported. The park will help us tackle this situation. It will be open to both national and international companies but the equipment produced will be strictly for domestic use."
The minister said some international companies, especially from China, have evinced interest in the project. Work on the parks, to come up near the airport, will start by the second half of 2007.
According to Ramadoss, healthcare facilities in India were costly because most equipment was imported from outside, and "once this issue is addressed the situation will automatically improve".
For instance, a MRI scanner, which costs over Rs.90 million, can be manufactured in India at less than Rs.20 million. An ultrasound machine costing around Rs.1 million can be manufactured at a fifth the present cost. "So the direct benefit will go to the people."
"The healthcare sector is growing in India and so is the faith of the international community in our medical expertise," said the minister.
"To remain competitive, we have to resort to several innovative strategies. Both the parks will benefit in two ways - help people avail of medical facilities by spending less and provide an edge over other medical tourism destinations."
Without giving details of the investment proposed, Ramadoss said both the parks would be within two kilometres of Chennai airport.
A group of experts is discussing on the modalities of the vaccine park and its exact nature of operation. "We will soon come up with a clearer roadmap on this," he said.
Bhopal, Dec 24 (IANS) A government official in Madhya Pradesh has allegedly refused to allow an inter-religious marriage between a Christian man and a tribal woman at the behest of a Hindu group, triggering a political controversy.
Meena Gond (36), a polio-afflicted tribal girl and Peter Abraham (38), a Christian rickshaw-puller, were not allowed to tie the nuptial knot by a marriage official following opposition by Dharam Sena, an offshoot of Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The Sena said such a marriage would boost "conversion" in the state.
The couple had applied for marriage in the Jabalpur district marriage office in October. The mandatory 40 days notice period - during which objections, if any, could be filed - expired on Nov 13 but the official, Deepak Singh, refused to solemnise their marriage because "the groom is a Christian while the bride is not".
"Peter is a Christian. And he lured the tribal girl by offering her money. Sooner or later, she will be forced to change her religion," maintained Sudhir Agrawal, convener of the Sena in Mahakaushal region.
"We have specific knowledge that some Christian missionaries are doling out money to people like Peter to influence tribal people to convert their religion," he said.
The opposition Congress party has threatened to launch an agitation if the poor couple was not allowed to marry by the year-end.
"We conveyed our protest plans to the district collector," said Jabalpur district Congress president Naresh Saraf.
Madhya Pradesh Christian Association president Indira Iyengar has condemned the Sena's attitude saying, "How does the Dharam Sena come into picture when both the bride and groom are adults?"
"Even the government provides incentives for marrying a tribal girl. The law enforcing agencies should deal with the matter strictly," she said.
Meanwhile, Meena's brother Radhey Gond has denied the Sena's allegation.
Radhey said: "How can a daily wage earner afford to entice any woman by providing money?"
Peter, on the other hand, is running from pillar to post to convince the officials that there was nothing fishy about his marriage.
Tehran, Dec 24 (Xinhua) Iran says it will begin installing 3,000 centrifuges at a uranium enrichment plant Sunday in response to a UN Security Council resolution that demands Tehran to end all uranium enrichment-related work, the Kayhan newspaper said.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani told the newspaper that Iran would start installing the centrifuges at its Natanz uranium enrichment plant.
"As of today, we will start the activities at the site of the centrifuge machines in Natanz," Larijani was quoted as saying.
"This is our immediate response to the UN Security Council resolution," he added, just hours after the UN Security Council passed the resolution.
Tehran condemned the resolution as illegal, insisting its nuclear programme is peaceful.
Shortly after the UN Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to impose sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear activities, the Iranian foreign ministry began to lash out at the resolution as an "illegal measure".
Iran considers it as "an illegal measure taken outside the framework of its duty and against the UN Charter", the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The US accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons under the cover of a peaceful programme, a charged repeatedly denied by Iran.
By Imran Khan
Patna, Dec 24 (IANS) Kala azar, a deadly parasitic disease transmitted by the tiny sand fly, has affected an estimated 25,000 people, mostly poor, and claimed 93 lives so far in Bihar. The disease has got 31 of the state's 38 districts in its grip.
Known as the poor man's disease because it affects the poorest of the poor, the disease has affected the little son of Kameshar Manjhi, a poor Dalit labourer in Patna. Manjhi is desperate to earn more money to treat his son and is working through the day and into the night.
Manjhi fears his son may die of the disease, that is characterised by fever, weight loss, swelling of the spleen and liver and leads to cardiovascular complications.
The little sand fly that transmits the disease multiplies among the cow dung that villagers use liberally to plaster their shanties or as cow dung cakes for fuel. The flies survive on the sap in banana and bamboo groves and the decomposed cow dung heaps and make their home in the straw thatches of houses.
Like Manjhi's son there are dozens of poor labourers and rickshaw pullers in Tirhut region where most of the deaths have occurred, who are afflicted with the disease.
"We know that kala azar affects only poor like us, but what can we do other than pray. Our income is low, not enough to afford the costly treatment for kala azar," Muni Paswan, a rickshaw puller said, adding that in rural Bihar, people were offering prayers and performing rituals hoping to get rid of the disease.
Despite the state government's claims of providing treatment for kala azar, it still remains a dream for the poor. The disease has affected mostly those from the poorest of the poor belonging to the Musahars, a Dalit community, who fall easy prey to the disease as they are forced by socio-economic compulsions to live in unhygienic conditions.
Many of those suffering with kala azar are in Tirhut division, which comprises Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Sitamarhi, Sheohar and East and West Champaran districts.
H.N. Srivastav, deputy director of health, Tirhut division, in his Dec 18 report said that 93 people had died of the disease in October and November. The report said that 9,666 infections were identified in the region during the months.
"In October, 9,011 patients and in November, 655 were identified with kala azar. In October 90 people suffering from kala azar died and only three died in November," the report said.
Ironically, most of the kala azar deaths were reported from Muzaffarpur and Vaishali districts - 29 died in Muzaffarpur and 35 in Vaishali. Of the rest, 17 were reported from in East Champaran, nine in Sitamarhi, two in West Champaran and one in Sheohar.
According to former central health minister C.P. Thakur, an expert on the disease, more than 50,000 people are suffering from the disease.
Bihar last faced a kala azar epidemic in 1991 when 250,000 cases were reported. In 2000, the numbers were low but it has been on the rise since 2003.
A new ray of hope to check the spread of kala azar has come out with the Institute for OneWorld Health, a non-profit pharmaceutical company, announcing an affordable treatment for the disease.
Kala azar - medically known as Visceral Leishmaniasis - is the second-largest parasitic killer in the world after malaria. The parasite attacks the bone marrow and weakens the immune system leading to increased vulnerability to infections and diseases.
The disease occurs in 62 countries, primarily in the developing world. Around 90 percent of world cases are found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sudan and northeast Brazil. Experts say over 60 percent of the cases in India are found in Bihar alone.
Jammu, Dec 24 (IANS) The Jammu and Kashmir government will press for speedy implementation of the recommendations of the Prime Minister's Special Task Force on the state's economic development, Finance Minister Tariq Hameed Karra said Sunday.
"We will seek speedy implementation of the task force recommendations so that the state draws the maximum benefit from them," he said in a statement here.
In a report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday, the task force headed by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor C. Rangarajan recommended a Rs.83 billion (nearly $2 billion) development package for the revival of the border state in areas like energy, roads, tourism and horticulture. It also suggested creation of a satellite city to decongest Srinagar and to improve the "psyche" of militancy-hit state's people.
Karra emphasised that the content and process of development of Jammu and Kashmir has to take into account the state's historical, institutional and political situation and deliver quickly on growth and poverty reduction as recommended by the task force.
The minister said the task force had rightly identified power shortage as the critical bottleneck for attracting private investment in the state and had recommended evolving a policy framework to develop the state's hydropower potential.
He welcomed the recommendation for transfer of the Dulhasti and Bursar power projects to the state besides expediting work on the Sawalakote power project.
Karra said the creation of a special investment zone in the state as recommended by the task force, identifying tourism and horticulture sectors as the engines of growth, modernisation of the state's airports, fast track completion of road and rail projects, launching of employment generation schemes, creation of an asset reconstruction company (ARC) and enhancing telecom penetration in the state are some of the key areas that need to be worked on.
"As has been recommended by the task force, the state government would start working on a vision document and a master plan to follow it up with both short- and long-term implementation measures," he said.
By Abhishek Roy
New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) History-making woman boxer M.C. Mary Kom, archer Jayanta Talukdar and shooter Abhinav Bindra became world champions to hog the limelight in 2006 - a year in which lesser known sports made a big impact and cricket shone only in patches.
Besides, chess prodigy Parimarjan Negi became the world's youngest ever grandmaster, shooters Samresh Jung and Gagan Narang hit the bull's eye in the Commonwealth Games, and Jeev Milkha Singh emerged as the top Indian golfer winning three tour titles.
Chess GM Viswanathan Anand continued his glorious march as he won a record fifth successive Corus Chess title, while hockey plummeted to a new low as the men's team failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the Doha Asian Games towards the end of the year.
One of the biggest feats of the year by an Indian was Mary Kom's brilliant hat trick of gold medals - a rare achievement at the World Championships. The Manipuri boxer won her third successive gold in the 46kg category. She had also won the title in the same category in Turkey in 2003 and in Russia last year.
The 24-year-old completed the hat trick in front of her parents and well-wishers when the World Championships was held here in November.
India won four gold, a silver and three bronze to win the team title.
Bindra also made history for India when he became the first one to win the gold in the 10-metre air rifle at the World Championships in Croatia in July. The 23-year-old shot 597 in the preliminary round and 102.1 in the finals for a total of 699.1/700 to also book a berth in the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games.
In archery, 20-year-old Talukdar became the world champion in the recurve category in Croatia. He defeated 1996 Atlanta Olympic silver medallist Magnus Petersson of Sweden 108-105 points in the final to script history.
His feat is all the more remarkable as he defeated three Olympic medallists on his way to the gold. The triumph catapulted him from world No. 23 to No 4 in the recurve.
Shooters won the maximum number of medals for India, establishing a host of records in the wake. Little surprise then that six shooters - Bindra, Gagan Narang, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Avneet Kaur Sidhu, Anjali Bhgawat and double trap specialist Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore - who won the historic silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics Games - have also booked their tickets for the Beijing Olympics.
Pistol ace Samresh Jung turned out to be a big hit at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March, winning five gold medals, and a silver and bronze each to be adjudged the Best Athlete of the games.
But since then Jung has failed to live up to the expectations and has failed at the World Cups and the World Championships, and is yet to secure an Olympic seat. In the Munich World Cup he finished 15th and 43rd in the Milan World Cup. His poor run continued in the World Championships as he finished 31st in Croatia.
Narang, 23, won four gold in the Commonwealth Games. He also won the gold in the World Cup in China. Consistent performance in the international circuit won him the Arjuna Award.
Thanks to Jung and Narang, India clinched 16 gold, seven silver and four bronze medals for a grand tally of 22 gold, 17 silver and 11 bronze that fetched the country the fourth place in the overall medal standings.
Besides Bindra, Sandhu won the trap gold in World Championships, while Navnath Farthate won the air rifle gold in the junior category to emulate Jaspal Rana, who had won the gold in 1994.
Rana shone towards the end of the year when he equalled the world and Asian record on way to winning three gold and a silver in the 15th Asian Games. He was also shortlisted for the Athlete of the Games award, and eventually finished third in the voting. India were eighth in the overall medal standings of the Games with 10 gold, 18 silver and 26 bronze for a total of 54 medals.
In golf, Jeev won three Tour titles to end the year at 37th rank in the world. His achievements also guaranteed him a place in all four Majors next year.
He won the $1.8 million Volvo China Open at the Honghua International Golf Club in Beijing in April to end a seven-year-old drought. He also won the Casio World Open and the Nippon Series J.T. Cup in Japan. He topped the Asian Order of Merit Trophy at the Hong Kong Open, and took his season's earnings to $573,442.
In chess, wonder boy Negi became the youngest GM in the annals of the game, at 13 years and 142 days. The Delhi-based Negi broke Norwegian Magnus Carlson's world record, and also erased the Indian record of Hari Krishna, who became a GM at 15 years and 91 days in August 2001. Negi is the 15th Indian to achieve the feat.
Anand also had a good year as he made history by becoming the first player to win the prestigious Corus Chess Tournament for the fifth time in a row in Wijk Aan Zee, Holland, in January.
The 31-year old Indian defeated Bulgarian world champion Vaselin Topalov in a super tiebreak in the final to win the Corus title. He also emerged as the joint winner in the Amber Blindfold.
India found a new badminton hope in teen sensation Saina Nehwal. She became the first Indian to win a Grand Prix title when she won the Philippines Open in Manila in May.
A junior national champion, Saina had also won the Asian Satellite Badminton Championship.
The Hyderabadi confused the nation with her name that to some extent phonetically resembles India's tennis sensation Sania Mirza, who also hails from the same city.
While Saina rose to fame, Sania's game slumped and she ended the year at 65th world rank. Sania, 20, started the year with her career best 31st rank that she achieved in October last year. But string of poor performances in the Grand Slams and other tournaments took the ranking down. Amongst Sania's forgettable performances were her second-round exit at the Australian Open and the US Open and the first round defeats at Wimbledon and French Open.
Amongst the highlights for Sania was a win over former world No. 1 Martina Hingis of Switzerland in the Korean Open in Seoul. The Indian also won the Sunfeast Open doubles title along with South African Liezel Huber in Kolkata. In spite of an average year, Sania won the Padma Shri award for her performance over the last few years and bagged the Newcomer of the Year prize of the Women's Tennis Association.In the men's section, veterans Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi bagged a few Grand Slam titles.
Bhupathi partnering Hingis won the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open while Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm won the men's doubles title in the US Open. Paes-Damm, however, lost to Bob and Mike Bryan in the final of the men's doubles of the Australian Open.
In athletics, Pinki Pramanik won the silver in the women's 400m and Anju Bobby George won the silver in the women's long jump in the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix in Bangalore in May.
The athletes also put up a decent performance at the Asian Games. The women's 4x400m relay team, comprising Sathi Geeta, Manjit Kaur, Chitra K. and Pinki, won the gold, Anju bagged the long jump silver and Soma Biswas and J.J. Sobha won the silver and the bronze respectively in heptathlon. There was also shame and humiliation for India as middle distance runner Santhi Soundarajan was stripped of her 800m silver medal as she failed a gender test at the Games.
The Indian men's kabaddi team continued its domination as it retained the gold for the fifth successive time at the Games.
In chess, played for the first time at the continental games, GM Koneru Humpy won the gold in the women's category. She also helped the Indian team win the gold in the mixed team classical event. GMs K. Sasikiran and P. Harikrishna were the other team members.
In tennis, spearheaded by the experienced Paes-Bhupathi duo, India won the men's doubles gold. Paes then teamed up with Sania to win the mixed doubles gold.
Sania won the silver in the singles and helped the women's team win the silver. The men's hockey team, a sentimental favourite of millions of Indian fans, disappointed virtually almost throughout the year. The game is perhaps going through the darkest phase in its history in the country.
India had finished 11th in the World Cup in Germany in September. This was their worst finish since 1986, when the team finished 12th and last in England. In the Asian Games, India failed to qualify even for the semi-finals, for the first time since the game was introduced in 1958. The team finished fifth.
In other tournaments, India finished third in a four-nation competition in Germany in April, and managed only a bronze in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur in June. The story was same for the women's team. Like their men counterparts, the women also finished 11th in the World Cup in Madrid. But, unlike the men, they managed to win a bronze in the Asian Games.
The future of the game seems bleak as the K.P.S. Gill-headed Indian Hockey Federation remains indifferent to these abysmal results and the periodical protests that are held in the country by legendary players and fans. They also failed to elicit support from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after despatching a letter of protest to him.
Football is another sport at which India languishes at the bottom. India is currently ranked a pathetic 157th in world rankings. The lone win in nine international matches the country played in the year came against the tiny Maldives at the Asian Games.
By Ashok Jaitly
Although Kashmir is the 'core issue' for Pakistanis in a political sense, at another level it is clouded by ambiguities. I cannot speak about 'Azad Kashmir' or the Pakistan-administered Kashmir but people do seem to harbour a number of misconceptions about the Indian Kashmir.
I was truly surprised to learn that there is still a belief among many that Kashmiris do not really have the stomach for armed struggle, that they are a 'soft' community and it is primarily because of this that 'the struggle' has not succeeded - and this, even after almost 20 years of insurgency and all the thousands of young Kashmiris who have sacrificed their lives.
Is this a Punjabi macho perception? And, I ask myself, how long will this stereotype of an entire society persist?
There is yet another fallacy. Many people in Pakistan tend to see Kashmir as a homogeneous Muslim region that has been deprived of its right to an Islamic identity in a Hindu dominated India. When you try and tell them that this is a romantic notion and that the reality is far more complex, there is a general disbelief as if you are pushing some sort of Hindu obfuscation.
Perhaps because Pakistan itself has virtually become a uni-religious society, it is difficult for people to perceive a situation where the 60 percent Muslim majority in Jammu and Kashmir has to share political and social space with 40 percent Hindus and Buddhists who have an equally strong claim on their homeland. And when you explain that even the Muslim population has to be distinguished between Kashmiri, Muzaffarabadi, Dogri, Gujar, Bakerwal, Balti and Shin and that all of these communities have their own cultural identities, different aspirations and conflicting compulsions, there is even more surprise. Awareness about the social realities of Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan is as vague as it is in much of India.
What struck me as a third cardinal error in perception was the widespread impression that there is tremendous economic deprivation in Kashmir and that the population lives in abject poverty, supposedly having been denied the same opportunities as the rest of India and that years of conflict have exacerbated this.
Ironically, there is a similar opinion in India because of the widespread misconception, including among circles that should know better, that Kashmir's economy is wholly dependent on tourism. The reality is completely contrary. Living standards in the Kashmir Valley have been far better than most other parts of the country ever since the land reforms of the 50s and the Green Revolution that followed -- and continue to be so for a variety of reasons like booming horticulture and a growing service sector. Bizarre though it may sound, insurgency has brought with it unimagined monetary benefits by way of hawala funds to militants and unlimited resources to the security forces both of which fuel the local consumption market.
A final persisting source of confusion in Pakistan is the thought that the Kashmiris look towards them to for deliverance. This may have been true when the bubble burst in 1989. But the Jhelum continues to flow on its implacable course. What is not at all appreciated is that there has been a great change in the understanding of the political scenario and the Pakistani comedown. Even while accepting that prolonged violence and armed conflict has not resulted in opening up any positive directions for a solution, it seems to be equally difficult for public opinion in Pakistan to accept that this has actually led to a sense of disenchantment and even bitterness in the valley.
One explanation for this failure to understand that the dynamics of any continuing conflict inevitably leads to fatigue and frustration is the failure of the media, both in Pakistan and India, to actually capture the underlying public sentiment. On one side there seems to be an exaggerated emphasis on the pronouncements of the Hurriyat as being representative of the 'voice of Kashmir'; on the other, a lazy reliance on claims made by security forces and intelligence agencies. A closer and deeper study of people's genuine feelings would, I am sure, reveal the different layers of the truth, which the general public on both sides is entitled to know.
Once again, official blinkers in India have contributed in no small measure to propagating these erroneous perceptions about Kashmir. While media persons from Pakistan do come to New Delhi, there are still so many hurdles in their going to Srinagar. Surely, this is not necessary. It is perhaps accepted that in diplomatic legerdemain, quid pro quo is considered par for the course, but does this doctrine not need to be followed intelligently rather than mechanically?
Often such restrictions are counterproductive and actually serve to conceal truths that would be in one's own self interest. Much more frequent and easier exchanges between the media would undoubtedly promote greater understanding about the ground realities and what people feel. After all, that is the ultimate arbiter.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Ashok Jaitly, a former chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir, is currently a Distinguished Fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute. He can be reached at ajaitly@teri.res.in
By Syed Zarir Hussain
Sikharhati (Assam), Dec 24 (IANS) Until recently Muhammad Siraj Ali, a young timber merchant in Assam, had neither heard of Muhammad Yunus nor about micro-credit that earned Yunus, a Bangladeshi, the Nobel Peace Prize.
But Ali, like Yunus, had always dreamt of empowering the rural poor to fight against poverty. In July, he floated the idea of a non-conventional bank in Sikharhati village, 45 km west of Assam's main city of Guwahati.
In less than two months, Ali and his associates got the bank registered under the Cooperative Societies Act as the Rani Bholagaon Khudra Sanchay Bank (Rani Bholagaon small savings bank).
The two-roomed bank was established on Sep 1, with a handful of villagers and just Rs.80,000 ($1,795) in deposits.
"I didn't know about Yunus and his work. It was only after he won the Nobel prize in October that I realised that our concept was similar to the micro-lending facilities of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh," said Ali, the bank's president.
In under three months, account holders rose from 12 to 1,500 with cash deposits growing to Rs.500,000 ($11,223).
"We have for long been thinking of ways to ameliorate the socio-economic condition of the people here. A vast majority of them live well below the poverty line," Ali said.
"Unless the rural poor are able to get banking benefits by way of small credit, they would continue to suffer from poverty and helplessness," he added.
The bank was formed with the basic idea to connect the rural masses with the economic engines by way of offering micro-credit so that they can set up businesses or generate income by other means.
"Credit is a cost-effective weapon to fight poverty and could go a long way in boosting the general economic condition of the rural folks as the poor have always been kept outside the banking orbit because they are poor and hence not bankable," said bank manager Haren Talukdar.
The unique selling propositions of this bank are trust and accountability - a person can avail of small credit without any collateral, even without operating a bank account.
"A person with absolutely no source of income can also avail of a small loan. They do not require any documents and simply need their identity verified by the village head for getting credit facilities," said Suren Mahanta, the bank's vice-president.
"All they have to do is to assure us that the loans will be used for generating income and not just to buy food and eat," he added.
At present the bank's jurisdiction is over 100 villages, half of them tribal people officially recognised as living below the poverty line.
So far the bank has awarded credit of Rs.380,000 to 60 people with sums ranging from Rs.5,000 to Rs.20,000.
Jagadish Thakuria was until recently unable to get two meals a day for him and his mother. He approached the bank for a small loan of Rs.5,000 to start a pig farm.
"The bank sanctioned the loan in a matter of hours and in three months time, I am beginning to notice changes in my life," Thakuria said. In the first week of December, he repaid the first instalment of his loan amount.
"I bought some pigs and then started selling them at a premium. This bank is a godsend to people like us," he said.
There are several more like Thakuria who have benefited from the bank's micro-lending scheme.
"I took a loan of Rs.20,000 and started a tea stall right in front of the bank. Today I am doing well. I have just repaid the first loan instalment," said Hiren Das, another beneficiary of the bank.
"Do you think I would have ever dared to approach a normal bank for a loan?" he asked.
To attract investors, the bank had kept interests on deposits half-a-percent more than most nationalised banks - at five percent annually, while interest rates on credit has also been competitive than most other financial institutions at 15 percent.
"We are definitely going to lower the interest rate on credits by at least one percent within a year," Ali said.
"There were some apprehensions about loan recoveries. But as you know this is a bank based on trust and goodwill. And then we are already getting the loan repayment installments in time," he added.
The procedure for opening an account has been kept so simple that people can do without the usual bureaucratic red tape involved in conventional banks.
"You don't need a photograph or any document. All you need is to get yourself identified by the village head," the bank manager said. "The idea is to encourage the rural poor to have an account, avail credit facilities, and also learn the art of small savings."
Nine villagers act as bank agents for collecting money from petty shopkeepers and farmers on a daily basis.
"The minimum daily deposit is Rs.10 and this scheme is an instant hit," Ali said. "People cannot deposit Rs.10 in any other bank."
Moreover, the bank is utilising the resources of 60 government fair price shop owners in the locality as guarantors for providing micro-credit to the villagers.
"A villager can also come to the bank for a loan if certified by their respective fair price shop owner. Since the person is known to the shopkeeper, he or she stands as the guarantor," the manager said.
"Our target is to increase the cash deposits to Rs.10 million and offer credit to at least 1,000 people within a year," Ali said.
And by the next three years, the target is to increase the number of borrowers to 5,000 - half the number of people residing in the 100-odd villages covered by the bank.
And the enterprising team led by Ali definitely wants a few tips from the progenitor of the world's micro-credit movement, Muhammad Yunus.
"We are giving ourselves a year's time and then surely we would love to visit Bangladesh and meet Yunus to learn the finer nuances of the micro-financing system," Ali said.
"Who knows, one day this bank might get the Nobel Prize for this trend-setting initiative. Nothing is impossible if there is a will."
Bangkok, Dec 24 (DPA) Bo Mya, the 79-year-old leader of the ethnic Karen insurgency in Myanmar, died Sunday in a Thai provincial clinic.
The death occurred at the Phra Wah Hospital in Mae Sot, 700 km north of here.
Bo Mya died from complications related to a variety of diseases including high blood pressure and diabetes, a hospital spokesman said.
He led the Karen Nation Union (KNU) for three decades, before retiring in 2004. During his long leadership, he refused to accept a ceasefire accord with Myanmar's military regime unlike most other rebel groups.
KNU was the first ethnic minority group to protest against Myanmar's Yangon-based central government following the country's independence in 1948 from Britain.
The military junta has stepped up its offensives against KNU remnants in the Karen State in recent years, driving thousands of civilian refugees to camps along the Thai-Myanmar border.
NANDED BLAST: THE HINDU HAND
Narco-analysis and brain-mapping reports of the accused and the Maharashtra Police ATS's findings on the Nanded blast add up to reveal an alarming trend: local Sangh Parivar members are raising their own terror networks.
Shashwat Gupta Ray reports
'Bomb attacks outside mosques are the only way of safeguarding Hindutva'
HIMANSHU PANSE
Nanded blast accused
'A Bajrang Dal leader called me asking me not to be scared. He promised to get me out of jail at the earliest'
SANJAY, ALIAS BHAURAO CHOUDHARI
Parbhani and Nanded blasts accused
'We will be treated like hijras if we don't take action. Counter-attacks are the only way of avenging terror attacks'
HIMANSHU PANSE
Individuals associated with Hindutva outfits like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal are developing terror networks in north Maharashtra targeting the region's Muslim population. This has been revealed by the accused in the Nanded blast, which occurred on April 6, during their narco-analysis and brain-mapping tests.
The narco-analysis and brain-mapping reports, which are with Tehelka, reveal that the accused were being aided by state-level VHP and Bajrang Dal officials to execute bomb blasts at mosques in Parbhani, Jalna and Purna in central Maharashtra. The bomb which accidentally went off in the house of an RSS member in Nanded, killing two, had been prepared to go off at a mosque near the railway station in Aurangabad after the Friday prayers there.
The blast occurred very early on the morning of April 6 in Nanded, at the residence of a retired irrigation department engineer and RSS worker, Lakshman Rajkondawar. It killed his son Naresh Lakshman Rajkondawar, and one Himanshu Venkatesh Panse. Three others, Yogesh Ravindra Deshpande Vidholkar, Maroti Kishore Wagh and Gururaj Jayaram Tuptewar, were seriously injured. Another injured, Rahul Manoharao Pande, managed to flee from the scene of the explosion, but was arrested later. Tuptewar was a young farmer from Brahmagalli in Nanded and Vidholkar a first-year law student.
The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Madivala, Bangalore, performed a narco-analysis (Report Number: No/FSL/4876/FPS/187/2006) on one Sanjay alias Bhaurao Vithalrao Choudhari, who is an accused in the Parbhani and the Jalna blasts. Sanjay was a graduate and operated a gymnasium in partnership with Rahul Manoharao Pande in Nanded. According to the analysis report, dated July 19, 2006, Sanjay operated with Himanshu Panse and three others � Maroti Keshav Wagh, Rahul Manoharao Pande and Yogesh Ravindra Widulkar. All four were trained in bomb making at the Akash Resort at Sinhagad, Pune, in 2003. Pande's brothers stayed near Sinhagad and he frequently visited them.
According to the report, Panse's motive was to avenge the deaths of Hindus killed in terror attacks. Panse was convinced that the mastermind behind these attacks were underworld dons Abu Salem and Dawood Ibrahim.
The report says that Panse was "pained" by the terrorist attacks in Delhi and Varanasi. He felt that Hindus would be "treated as hijras" if they failed to take any action.
Feeling that retaliation was necessary to uphold Hindu honour, Panse decided after the Varanasi blasts to engineer explosions in Muslim-dominated areas in central Maharashtra with the target of killing at least 300-400 Muslims in each incident.
A closer look at all the recent blasts that have occurred in central Maharashtra reveal a pattern which seems to fit with Panse's plan. All blasts (including the ones in Malegaon on September 8) occurred between 1.45pm and 2.00pm at the most prominent mosque in these towns, just after the Friday prayers, when attendance is maximum.
The Parbhani blast occurred at Mohammadiya Masjid, Rehmat Nagar, on Friday, November 21, 2003. The main accused in this case are Sanjay, Panse, Wagh and Widulkar. The blast in Purna, in district Parbhani, occurred on Friday, August 27, 2004 at the Meraj-ul-Uloom Madarsa and Masjid, Siddharth Nagar. The main accused are Sanjay and Tuptewar.
The Jalna blast was triggered on Friday, August 27, 2004 at the Quadriya Masjid, Sadar Bazar. Wagh is the only accused in this case. The bomb that exploded in Nanded was supposed to explode at the Aurangabad mosque on Friday, April 7, and all the above accused were involved in planning that blast. The Malegaon blasts also occurred on a Friday � September 8, 2006.
Sanjay's narco-analysis report states that Panse was receiving orders on his mobile phone from his superiors and that he had a separate sim card for receiving the orders. Sanjay revealed that he too received a call from a local Bajrang Dal leader, Balaji Pakharia, who lives in Bajrang Nagar in Nanded.
Pakharia told Sanjay not to be afraid and assured him that if he were to get arrested, he would get him released from jail at the earliest.
The report of the brain-mapping test (Report Number: No/FSL/4371/FPS/187/2006) conducted on Rahul Manoharao Pande at the FSL corroborates many statements in Sanjay's narco-analysis report. Pande said that all the suspects present at Rajkondawar's house at the time of the explosion were his friends and Panse was the group leader.
Sanjay revealed that all the recent blasts in the Marathwada region in central Maharashtra � at Jalna, Purna and Parbhani � had been planned by Panse, and that he had gone with Panse to Jalna to engineer the blast there. The report says that the accused were supported by Nanded-based VHP leader Govind Puranik, and by Abhay Madhukar and Atul Vinodrao Kamtekar from Aurangabad, who are members of the RSS and the Bajrang Dal. The three had given Tuptewar around Rs 45,000-50,000 to trigger the blasts. Sanjay also revealed that VHP leader Praveen Togadia had once visited them (the report doesn't specify where) and delivered a speech.
Sanjay revealed that the four accused underwent training to make improvised explosive devices (IEDs) under one Mithun Chakraborty in Pune. He was the one who taught them how to make pipe bombs, in which a water pipe coupling (similar to the one found at the site of the Nanded blast) is cut open and filled with explosives mixed with iron pieces and thrown at the target. They were also taught to make thread bombs and timer bombs. Sanjay described Chakraborty as tall, well-built and sporting a beard. Panse used to refer to him as "sir" and after their training was complete, he gave him a bag containing explosives at the Pune railway station.
The police got the first hint of the involvement of Govind Puranik, Abhay Madhukar and Atul Kamtekar, when these three visited the injured in the hospital, the day after the blast. When an injured Pande was arrested at Pusad, 180 km from Nanded, he named these three. Soon afterwards, they were nabbed by the police and turned approvers. On June 2, they were presented by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra Police before the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) and deposed before the court. The confessions made by them tallied with Sanjay's narco-analysis and Pande's brain-mapping reports.
According to the report filed before the CJM by Anil J. Tamaychekar, ACP, ATS Maharashtra, the police suspected the role of the three Sangh Parivar members in the bomb blasts as the diary of one of the suspects, Wagh, contained their details. The police had also recovered a photo album, an RSS diary, a cultural newsletter and various documents pertaining to the Sangh Parivar from Panse's house. The photos were taken when Panse visited Aurangabad in 2004 and included photos of the mosque from all sides. The police also recovered a map � in which the Aurangabad mosque was clearly marked � and a fake beard from Panse's house.
ACP Tamaychekar's report clearly spells out the accused's Parivar connection. "Influenced by the radical ideologies of the Sangh, Himanshu along with Manohar Pande started a gymnasium called Power, with sole purpose of attracting Hindu youth and persuading them to join their movement against Muslims. Soon afterwards, Himanshu and Wagh opened a Sangh branch in Nanded's Bajrang Nagar. Another accused, Yogesh, started an orphanage under the banner of the RSS. These accused used Hindu festivals like Gudi Padwa (the Marathi New Year), Vijaya Dashami, Ganeshotsav and Ram Navami amongst others to propagate anti-Muslim ideologies. They cited instances like the killing of cows for meat and terror attacks on Hindu temples such as Vaishno Devi and Akshardham to drive home their point of view," the report states.
Soon after the accused received training in handling IEDs from Chakraborty, Panse moved to Goa where he trained with the VHP and Bajrang Dal for two years. Then he, along with co-accused Wagh, trained at the Bhonsla Military School in Nagpur for 40 days. He returned to Pune in 2003 and executed a bomb blast at the Gosiya Masjid in Parbhani.
After the April 6 Nanded blast, the survivors claimed that firecrackers caused it. "They were aware of the danger involved and thus had this firecracker theory ready, which was evident from the fact that the accused had illegally stockpiled a large quantity of firecrackers. They had prepared two IEDs from the explosives at their disposal, which were to be used for terrorist activities to inflict maximum casualty," the ACP said in the report.
According to the police report, on April 5, Rajkondawar called up Kamtikar on mobile number 9822297494 and told him that Wagh would be coming to Aurangabad by High Court Express. He told Kamtikar to keep a motorcycle ready for him. Following this conversation, Kamtikar left a motorcycle with one Suresh Kadam.
Then at around 12.15am on April 6, Rajkondawar called Kamtikar and told him that Wagh would not be reaching Aurangabad that day, but would certainly get there the next day and that the motorcycle was to be kept ready. The report says that this is definite proof that the accused planned to engineer a blast at some mosque.
But the bomb exploded while it was being assembled. Some sources suspect that the timer of the bomb might have mistakenly been set for 1.50am instead of 1.50pm.
The ATS report also says that during the panchanama, the police found 10 live 7.65 mm bullets at the blast site and one live 7.65 mm bullet at Panse's house. These bullets are used in rifles.
But despite all the available evidence, the accused are being treated leniently. "The local police initially made contradictory statements in which they first said that the explosion was due to firecrackers, and then changed the statement and said that it was due to a live bomb. No arrests were made in the initial stages. Soon after the blast, a fire engine was rushed to the house and began spraying water inside. This was done even though there was no fire as such. A lot of crucial circumstantial evidence were washed away," says Altaf Ahmed, who belongs to the Nanded Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM).
Discouraged by local police's handling of the case, the MIM appealed to higher authorities. Seven MIM members filed two criminal writ petitions demanding a CBI inquiry into the incident. The government then handed over the investigations to the ATS, which arrested as many as 21 people. It sought the District Magistrate's permission to submit a chargesheet against these accused on July 29.
"Surprisingly, the ATS has withdrawn the case under Section 69 of the crpc against 11 of the accused just two weeks after it sought permission to file the chargesheet against 21 accused, citing lack of evidence against them. Now the role of the ATS is also doubtful," Altaf says. He points out that material evidence during investigations was recovered from the 11 whom the ATS now wants to set free.
Questioning the ATS's motives, Altaf says that in spite of clearly stating that the accused were history-sheeters involved in terrorist activities, it booked them under sections which enabled them to be set free easily. They could have been booked under the more stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and National Security Act, he points out. In despair Altaf and others approached the Prime Minister's Office which then issued directions to the Chief Secretary of the Maharashtra government. But this has made no difference on the ground.
RR Patil, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, has announced that investigations into the Malegaon blasts and the Marathwada blasts case, including the Nanded explosion, would be handed over to the CBI, but Altaf is not very hopeful.
As it is, responding to a writ petition filed by Marathwada MIM president Saleem Ahmed before the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court, the CBI has expressed its inability to conduct the inquiry into the blasts in an affidavit.
"The CBI is already overburdened and has limited hands to deal with such cases if entrusted by this honourable court," Surinder Paul, Superintendent of Police, CBI, Special Crime Branch, Navi Mumbai said in the affidavit.
Incensed by the CBI's approach, Altaf says, "The point raised by the CBI that it is overburdened and has limited hands to deal with such case is most irrelevant. And this cannot be a valid ground to discard the relief to the petitioners for investigating the case through the CBI. Also, the bench was yet to declare its verdict regarding handing over the investigations to the CBI; it was not a party in this case. Yet, they submitted the affidavit before the court. Filing such a suo motu affidavit without notice of the High Court is also highly objectionable in a pending judicial proceeding. This shows nothing but an effort to support the tardy investigation being conducted by the state police and ATS."
Many in Malegaon are now contrasting the fate of those arrested in the blasts in their town with those arrested in the Nanded blasts case. They say that authorities have failed to nail the accused in Nanded despite plenty of evidence being available against them, whereas the fate of those arrested in the Malegaon blast case is anyone's guess although there is hardly any evidence against them.
The Nanded explosion has exposed the phenomenon of tit-for-tat terrorism in the name of religion. The self-proclaimed "custodians of Hindutva" could be part of an ominous trend of violence against Muslims, which could assume frightening proportions.
Dec 30 , 2006
Source: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main24.asp?filename=Ne123006Nanded_blast_CS...
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By Mahendra Ved
The death of Turkmenistan's President-for-life Saparmurat may help his country's re-emergence in Central Asia after 21 years of authoritarian rule and poverty despite having the world's fourth largest gas reserves.
Niyazov did not leave behind a successor. But with the economy heavily tied to Russia and his opponents living there in exile, Moscow, from all available indications, may again play a decisive role in Turkmenistan, a former Soviet Republic.
Niyazov's policies were exclusivist and his departure may open up avenues for gas exploration projects on the Caspian Sea. India, for instance, is talking to Kazakhstan and has a favourable response from Uzbekistan and can also test the Caspian waters on the Turkmen side by seeking work, either jointly or with any of the major players.
Experts already looking at India's involvement in Sakhalin in Russia would need to study who New Delhi can now combine with: Russia's Gazprom, a Western cartel or with the Chinese who had already signed up with the Niyazov regime for a pipeline to be laid via Uzbekistan's Ferghana Valley in a project to be completed by 2009.
India's presence in Turkmenistan, says Central Asia expert Ramakant Dwivedi, could help counter the growing Pakistani influence in neighbouring Azerbaijan. It also promotes its role in the "extended neighbourhood". India has willy-nilly shown some interest, after much hesitation because of the Pakistan factor, in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline project that accentuated the "Great Game" in the mid-1990s. But a big question mark persists, thanks to the rivalry by major contenders and the unchanged ground situation in terror-stricken Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan through which the pipeline is to be laid.
Turkmenistan has not been adequately noticed by India. New Delhi has not gone much beyond a pharmaceutical project under a $5 million grant extended in the early 1990s. Physical barriers in reaching the land-locked nation of five million and the latter's capacity to absorb have been limiting factors. But India can yet look at investment in the farm and pharma sectors. It enjoys goodwill among the Turkmen who celebrated fifth centenary of Bairam Khan, uncle and guardian of Mughal Emperor Akbar, some years ago. Whether Niyazov's son or any other family member will have a place in the change of guard in Asgabet (Ashkabad), the Turkmen capital, remain to be seen. Among his allies turned opponents is Boris Shikhmuradov, familiar in New Delhi as one-time head of the Soviet Information Centre. He and another former foreign minister, Abdi Kuliev, are living in exile in Moscow.
Niyazov had kept both Moscow and Washington at an arms length, picking up disputes with the former on the price of Caspian gas and denying the latter a military base that was sorely required after 9/11 to launch operations in Afghanistan.
Niyazov took his policy of 'neutrality' to the extreme and kept out of political alliances like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), due to which Turkmenistan was completely isolated.
The "Neutrality Tower" Niyazov erected in the heart of Asgabet at an estimated cost of $30 million to propagate his foreign policy shall stand as a reminder of one-party governance of a leader whose photograph hung everywhere. Millions of such photos were discarded in 1999 when he decided to colour his hair from grey to black.
Niyazov's death, reportedly by cardiac arrest, can be said to be the first peaceful transition of a former communist commissar since the break-up of the Soviet Union in a region that has seen "Tulip Revolution" in Kyrgystan, leading to the ouster of Askar Akayev. The region has to contend with a simmering movement of radical Islamists in the Ferghana Valley that has links in China's Xinjiang province and extends to Afghanistan and Pakistan. His policies gave Turkmenistan a continued phase of Soviet-style governance, minus most of its positive points. It is a reminder to other former communists - Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov, Tajikistan's Emomali Rakhmanov and Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbayev - of the need to combine progress with democracy, even while combating radical Islam.
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Mahendra Ved is a political and strategic affairs commentator. He can be reached at mahendra.ved@gmail.com
Lucknow, Dec 24 (IANS) The senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders - Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani - refrained from mentioning either the Ayodhya temple issue or Hindutva that other leaders dwelt on heavily over the past two days at the party's three-day national conclave that concludes here Sunday.
While Advani simply made a passing reference to Muslim appeasement, adopted in a resolution on Saturday, Vajpayee did not even touch upon that. The former prime minister chose to concentrate more on issues related to the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Significantly, this came in sharp contrast to the vitriolic comments by senior party leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh who did not mince words both on the need for erecting the Ram temple as well as on pursuing the hardline Hindutva agenda. Singh was speaking on a resolution moved by senior party leader Sushma Swaraj against what they termed as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) policy of "Muslim appeasement".
Even as he attacked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav for the state's deteriorating law and order, Singh also expressed his gratitude to the chief minister for extending hospitality for the party conclave.
Referring to the importance of state polls slated early next year, Vajpayee said: "We have a great challenge lying ahead of us in Uttar Pradesh and we must revive the party here because the road to the seat of power in Delhi goes from here."
He warned party workers to rise above their personal differences.
"There can be no room for factionalism and groupism and it is high time for us to realise this and work jointly towards strengthening the party in this crucial state," he added.
Advani trained his guns not only at the UPA government but also at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "It is really unfortunate that this is the first prime minister who does not enjoy an independent status as his reins are controlled from somewhere else," he said in an indirect reference to UPA chairperson and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Accusing the UPA government of pursuing "Muslim vote politics", Advani praised the resolution adopted earlier by the house. "Both the resolution on appeasement as well as the economic resolution were very good and we need to take them ahead," he observed amid applause.
Advani said, "The Vidhan Sabha elections are important, but we also have to prepare ourselves for the bigger challenge that lies further ahead in 2009 - the Lok Sabha election." The remark was seen in BJP circles as a reflection of his keenness to be projected as the prime ministerial candidate - for which Vajpayee offered his blessings on Saturday.
Islamabad, Dec 24 (IANS) Pakistan may amend its controversial blasphemy law, that provides for death penalty for non-Muslims convicted of insulting Islam and the Prophet and has frequently been misused over the last two decades.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz could make an announcement on Christmas eve Sunday, media reports said.
State Minster for Information Tariq Azeem had Saturday hinted that Pakistan's minorities - Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmediyas - would receive "good news" this Christmas in the form of a "review" and possible amendments to laws that they consider discriminatory, such as the blasphemy law, The Daily Times said Sunday.
Azim did not give details, it said.
Minorities constitute about three per cent of the 165 million population of Pakistan, half of them Christians.
The Ahmediyas, who were declared non-Muslim in 1974, stand to benefit too.
The Blasphemy Law was introduced in the Pakistan Penal Code as Section 295-C in 1986. Under this section, any person guilty of defiling the name of the Prophet Muhammad was made liable to suffer life imprisonment or death.
In 1991, the alternative of life imprisonment was removed under the direction of the federal Shariat court - accordingly the only penalty applicable now is death. It was subsequently upturned by the Supreme Court.
The law stipulates that any person who "by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly" defiles the name of the Prophet, is liable to be tried for blasphemy.
In additional to a fine, he shall be punished with the death sentence or imprisonment for life.
This would be President Musharraf's second attempt to change the controversial law, ostensibly in keeping with his current political line advocating "enlightened moderation" and presenting "a soft and humane" face of Pakistan to the world.
He had dropped an earlier attempt in 2000 after protests from the Muslim clergy and the conservatives.
His success in affecting a substantial change in the controversial law could make him more acceptable to the Western world that has taken a dim view of Pakistan's human rights records, especially when it comes to the religious minorities.
However, it would add to the opposition he is facing, especially from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the principal Islamist rightwing alliance that is preparing for the elections Musharraf has promised to hold next year.
Musharraf has already changed the law pertaining to women, providing a measure of relief in cases pertaining to rape and adultery, and has announced more legal reforms aimed at doing away with social practices weighed against women.
In 1990, the federal Shari'at court ruled that the penalty for blasphemy should be mandatory death sentence, with no right to reprieve or pardon. The decision of the Shari'at court is binding but the Pakistani government has so far failed to pass the necessary bill to amend the law. Hence the current situation is that the clause 'or life imprisonment' is void, even though the Pakistani government has often used this anomaly to defend itself against critics of the death penalty.
For long a matter of concern of human rights bodies across the world, the blasphemy issue got highlighted when Bishop John Joseph, Roman Catholic Bishop of Faisalabad and an ardent spokesman for peace and inter-religious dialogue, shot himself on May 5, 1998.
He shot himself right in front of the iron gate of the sessions court of Sahiwal, which convicted Ayub Masih, a Christian, on charges of blasphemy and sentenced him to death on April 27, 1998.
Jammu, Dec 24 (IANS) Aiming to expand the party's base in all three regions of Jammu and Kashmir, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) has launched a vigorous campaign to promote its concept of self-rule for Kashmiris.
PDP, a major partner in the ruling coalition in the state, has set its sights on the Hindu-majority Jammu region to "popularise" self-rule theme.
PDP patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has asked party leaders and cadres to garner support for self-rule and counter what he called a "misinformation campaign" against the party and its programmes.
The psychological appeal of the self-rule theme, which has many similarities to Pakistan President Pervez Musharaff's self-governance formula, has failed to strike a chord among the Hindu majority in Jammu region.
According to a party spokesman, Mufti Sayeed has decided to lead the campaign.
Other star campaigners will be PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, who is regarded as an architect of party's victory in 2002 Assembly elections, former tourism minister Ghulam Hassan Mir, who has wide appeal across the state, and senior PDP leader Muzzaffar Hussain Baig, a lawyer-turned-politician.
The spokesman said that PDP is all set to launch a mass contact programme in the Jammu region to consolidate the party's position.
"This is a part of our future strategy," he quoted Mufti Sayeed as having told his senior party colleagues.
Mufti Sayeed asked the "party activists from the Jammu region to reach out to the masses with the PDP's programmes and policies that have started attracting a great deal of public attention in the region".
He said the party activists should adopt a proactive policy in reaching out to the masses and educating them about virtues of self-rule.
Kolkata, Dec 24 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday sent an emissary to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to find a way out of the stalemate over the acquisition of farmland for a car project even as she refused to end her 21-day-old protest fast.
Anxious over Banerjee's health, Manmohan Singh, who was on a daylong visit of West Bengal, sent Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi to her in an attempt to explore solutions to the impasse over the state government's move to allocate farmland in Singur, 60 km from here, to Tata Motors for its small car factory.
Banerjee informed Dasmunsi that she had respect for the prime minister but "it is not possible for me to end my fast since there is no specific assurance from Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattcharya to return the forcibly acquired land to farmers.
"One Mamata Banerjee may die, but that won't matter. I am not afraid of death. I am safeguarding the interest of farmers," she said.
She added that there was no response from the state government to her demand for the return of "forcibly acquired land to farmers". She also warned of snap protests from Dec 26.
Agartala, Dec 24 (IANS) The process of repatriation of 33,000 Reang tribal refugees from Tripura to Mizoram hangs in balance even after New Delhi's request to the Mizoram government to resolve the ethnic crisis.
"We have requested the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to take up the matter with both the central and the Mizoram governments to settle the sensitive ethnic issue," said Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) president Elvis Chorkhy.
The Reang or Bru tribal refugees have been sheltered in six north Tripura camps for the past nine years following ethnic clashes with the majority Mizos in Mizoram.
"The inmates are asking how long they would remain refugees in their own country," Chorkhy told IANS.
The Mizoram government and the militant Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) had last year signed an agreement to solve the decade-old ethnic crisis, leading to the surrender before the Mizoram government of about 1,040 militants belonging to the BNLF and Bru Liberation front of Mizoram (BLFM).
Both the rebel outfits had been fighting for an autonomous council for the Reang refugees. The surrendered militants had submitted a memorandum to the Mizoram government seeking proper economic rehabilitation of the refugees.
"The Mizoram government had earlier insisted that the repatriation of Reang tribal refugees would not begin until Bru militancy was wiped out completely," Chorkhy said.
"Due to the long stay of the tribal refugees since October 1997, Tripura is facing serious socio-economic problems," Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said, while the central government has so far spent about Rs.900 million for their upkeep.
Baghdad, Dec 24 (Xinhua) Seven policemen were killed and at least 30 people injured Sunday when a suicide bomber struck a police station in Iraq's Diyala province.
"A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up at Maqdadiyah town's police station early morning," an informed source said.
The blast set ablaze several cars and damaged a part of the police compound in Maqdadiyah, some 100 km northeast of here.
By Jaideep Sarin
Chandigarh, Dec 24 (IANS) Former cricketer, ex-MP, successful commentator and TV host and now even a convict. So many titles may not go easily with one man but when it is Navjot Singh Sidhu it is different.
The loquacious Sidhu, recently convicted for causing death to a 65-year-old man in a road accident in Patiala and getting suspended sentence, is a busy man despite this.
His home state, Punjab, goes to assembly polls February-March and Sidhu has big stakes in it.
Even as he has moved an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Punjab and Haryana High Court convicting him of causing the death of Gurnam Singh in December 1988, Sidhu has taken cudgels on behalf of Punjab's main opposition- the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) alliance - to gun for the Congress and particularly its Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. Both Sidhu and Amarinder Singh come from Patiala.
Leading from the front comes naturally to Sidhu as he goes about addressing scores of political rallies across Punjab - spewing venom against Amarinder and the Congress - and meeting up with his celebrity assignment deadlines in Delhi and elsewhere.
Ironically, his political popularity after being declared a 'convict' has soared. This was more than apparent on Dec 8 when the Akali-BJP combination organised a political rally of over 500,000 people at Moga near Ludhiana to celebrate the 80th birthday of Akali top boss Parkash Singh Badal. When Sidhu reached the microphone to speak, the half a million crowd roared.When he actually spoke, he took the thunder away from all the Badals, Advanis, Rajnaths, Chautalas and others. "I am not the one to be cowed down (by the conviction). I will rise from the dust," he roared to the applause from the crowd.
Despite being the host of a comedy show, Sidhu makes no mention of the comic tragedy in his own life.
His late father, Bhagwant Singh Sidhu - a leading criminal lawyer of Patiala who saved many in courts with his legal acumen - is not around when Navjot needed him the most.
Sidhu, the son of a Congress leader - his father headed the district Congress in Patiala, had been acquitted in the road rage case in 1994 when the Congress was in power in Punjab. The case was reopened in 1999 when the Akali government led by Badal was ruling the state. Now he rubs shoulders with the same Akalis who are said have brought him this fate. Following his conviction though, he is not as accessible to the media as freely as earlier.
Sources close to him say that is deliberate. "He does not want to end up saying anything that can go against him in court. Hence the distance," the source said.
Being projected as BJP's frontman for Punjab even before his conviction early December, the alliance is using the wave for him to their full advantage. For the Hindu party, this Sikh face in a Sikh-dominated state is important. He is addressing smaller rallies two to three times every week. Sidhu's political fate still hangs on what the Apex court makes out of his case. His bail is only till Jan 31 and he has the three-year prison sentence looming over his head. If the sentence is upheld, his political career is over - at least for six years after his release.
If he gets a reprieve from the Supreme Court, Sidhu could land up in hometown Patiala to take on Amarinder Singh in a direct contest for the assembly seat.
London, Dec 24 (IANS) A Sikh teenager from Edinburgh who claimed his hair was chopped off by racist thugs last month has said that he had cooked up the story.
The 15-year old teenager had told police that he had been assaulted by a group of white youths who clipped his hair, racially abused him, punched and knocked him down while he was on his way to a relative's house.
The incident was widely criticised by the Sikh community and was publicised across Britain because of its unusually aggressive nature. Investigators, however, found that there were a lot of things that weren't adding up.
The teenager admitted Saturday that the whole story was a lie.
According to reports, the youth cut off his own hair, punched himself in the face and made up the whole incident. It is believed that he was experiencing personal problems, the Guardian said.
Informed sources said the Sikh teenager felt torn between his traditional Sikh values and Western ideas. They said he had wanted to get his hair cut for some time, but was afraid of the reaction of his family members and the larger Sikh community.
The police confirmed that the reported attack had not taken place and said the boy had expressed deep regret for the consequences of what he had done.
Investigators had questioned over 120 people and scanned hours of CCTV footage. No action will reportedly be taken against the teenager for wasting the time of the police.
By K.S. Jayaraman
Bangalore, Dec 24 (IANS) While prayers and ceremonies worldwide will mark the second anniversary of the Asian tsunami on Tuesday, it has stirred up a feeling of remorse among Indian geologists.
Would the loss of lives - 12,405 Indians confirmed dead - have been much less had they conducted any detailed geological investigations of the Indian coast prior to the Boxing Day disaster?
Tsunami geologist Chittenipattu Rajendran of the government-run Centre for Earth Science Studies at Akkulam in Kerala firmly believes so.
He has reasons to. Rajendran and co-workers have just discovered that the east coast of India had been devastated twice by powerful tsunamis around 1,500 and 1,000 years ago. The ancient tsunamis churned waters at depths of 50 metres causing floods that swept through 800 metres of coast, burying the famed temples built by Pallava kings at Mamallapuram, 55 km south of Chennai.
Evidence of all this has come from sediments preserved within two deep trenches at the Mamallapuram beach site excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India after the December 2004 tsunami.
Rajendran, whose group announced this discovery last month in the journal Current Science, feels bad that such investigations were not carried out prior to the tragedy.
"We should have stuck our neck out much before the 2004 tsunami to look at the geological archives preserved in our coasts to understand their recurrence pattern," Rajendran told IANS in an email interview.
Studying the geological signatures of past tsunamis would have led to a better understanding of tsunami frequency, magnitude and flow dynamics, and a greater appreciation of hazard and risk, he says.
Tsunamis write their own histories. They are preserved in the "sediment sheets" left behind after several sand-laden tsunami waves wash over the coastal marshlands drowned due to land subsidence during the earthquake.
Dating of the deposits in layered sequence allows estimates of tsunami frequency. And detailed studies of the deposits can yield clues to flow depth and velocity, providing empirical data for tsunami modelling and allowing better hazard estimation. "I think this is an important piece of information (geological evidence of ancient tsunamis) that we lacked. This would have helped us in educating the people on the potential tsunami threat."
Australian tsunami geologist Amy Prendergast agrees. "If geological records of tsunamis in the Indian Ocean region had been studied before the event, the regional tsunami hazard may have been recognised and the impact may have been reduced through the implementation of education programmes and early warning systems," she told this reporter.
Rajendran says his group is already discussing with Australian scientists for a joint programme on ancient tsunamis that affected Australia and Indian Ocean countries.
"Our present studies should now focus on understanding future sources of devastating tsunamis," Rajendran said. "We are trying to formulate a methodology to conduct such studies using the 2004 tsunami as a template."
Rajendran's team with funding from the science ministry is looking at Kaveripatnam, another historical site on the east coast of India, for more evidence of ancient tsunamis.
"Large historical tsunami events that affected these areas are referred to in the ancient Tamil epics like 'Manimekahlai'," he said. "It has been a bit of a detective work, but we are hopeful of more clinching geological evidence for these historical references."
By Frederick Noronha
Bangkok, Dec 24 (IANS) Television journalist Dendy Montgomery saw 10-metre tall waves kill people in his homeland in Indonesia's Aceh province two years ago. He now feels that waves of forgetfulness are compounding the tragedy.
The western coastal areas of Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, were among the hardest hit by the tsunami resulting from the Indian Ocean earthquake Dec 26, 2004. According to estimates, around 230,000 people were killed in Aceh and 500,000 left homeless.
On that fateful day, Montgomery and his photographer wife Nur Raihan Lubis saw the waters engulf areas near the majestic Grand Mosque, saved many by carrying them away in their old jeep, and narrowly missed death.
"We lost at least 50 relatives (from our joint family)," Montgomery told IANS here. "(After that) I lost my sense of reporting for a month.
"Reuters (with whom he has been a TV stringer) wanted to give me a Betacam (camera). But I'm just thinking, can I just take a break for a while? Everybody and everything appeared the same to me. There were broken pieces ... and dead bodies. And I was a tsunami victim myself," he said.
For six months after the disaster, the epicentre of the massive Indian Ocean tsunami remained in the news.
"But after that, I don't know. We didn't have (dramatic pictures) like broken homes. So (editors) probably felt it was not a 'sexy' story anymore," says a bewildered Montgomery.
When the first year's commemoration came up, reporting took a spurt. Then again it slowed down. Similar has been the case for the second anniversary of the event.
"You should follow your heart. Journalists from elsewhere come to (Aceh) to do what their news director wants, not to report what's happening in the field," he says.
Montgomery says he slowly got back to the camera, when he got a chance to do long-term work on the lives of tsunami survivors. "It was like being born again. After months, I began thinking about getting a good picture," he adds.
He says the conflict in Aceh, earlier known for its separatist rebel movement fighting for greater autonomy from Indonesia, is also not viewed as "sexy any more" in newsrooms.
"Sometimes journalists ask the military to shoot from their tank, and then report (on TV) as if they are in the heat of a battle," he remarks.
"Some ask me, 'Hey Dendi, where can we find good gun-fighting?' So I tell them, why do you want to find something like this? Don't break my heart. I'm Acehnese. Why would you like gunfighting? Just for your audience? Or your TV station?"
Aceh has substantial natural resources, including oil and gas - some estimates put Aceh gas reserves as being the largest in the world. "We've got wealth, but no development," Montgomery states.
Aceh was established initially as a small Islamic kingdom in 12th century AD. During its golden era, its territory and political influence expanded as far as Satun in southern Thailand, Johor in Malay Peninsula and Siak in what is today Riau province.
Its capital, Banda Aceh, gets the first part of its name from the Persian, meaning 'port' or 'haven'.
"It's not even a true war (in Aceh). But we can find a victim everyday," says Montgomery. "It's easy to kill people. Once they are dead, you can claim they are from the Free Aceh Movement or from the military, depending which side you're on."
The separatist battle began in 1998, but flared up in 2001.
But on a more personal note, Montgomery's personal loss is that of his gear, which was taken away by the tsunami waves.
"If I need to do a production, I need to rent a camera, tripod, mike-boom... and pay approx $150 per day for that," he says.
Washington, Dec 24 (DPA) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the imposition of UN sanctions "a strong signal" for the Iranian government to halt its nuclear programme and accept negotiations to resolve the nuclear issue.
The UN Security Council voted 15-0 Saturday to impose nuclear-technology sanctions against Iran, after a year of lobbying by Western powers to keep Iran from developing or acquiring weapons technology.
Rice emphasised that the vote was a unanimous decision by the Security Council, in which the US wields veto power.
"We call on all countries to take immediate action to implement their obligations under this resolution," she said. "The Iranian government, through its own actions, has further isolated itself and the Iranian people from the international community."
Rice said the UN decision was "the product of many months of hard work by the US and other members of the council".
The resolution "places Iran among the small number of countries facing international condemnation through Chapter VII Security Council sanctions".
The resolution demands that Iran end all research on uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium can be used for fuelling nuclear power plants, or, as the West fears in Iran's case, for nuclear weapons.
The resolution also calls on Iran to halt all ballistic research and development that would enable the country to make or deliver nuclear weapons.
Trade sanctions aim at banning imports and exports of sensitive materials and technology relating to uranium enrichment, fuel reprocessing and heavy-water reactors, but also includes ballistic missile delivery systems.
In Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was ready to implement the UN resolution on Iran.
"The agency will implement the relevant parts of the resolution that relates to its work," the IAEA said in a statement.
Sanctions can be lifted if the IAEA confirms Iran has halted its nuclear activities, stopped its efforts to construct a heavy water reactor and returned to the negotiating table. The Security Council expects IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei to report within 60 days after the adoption of the resolution.
By Maxwell Pereira
Western music arrived in India with the colonial powers, its influence initially confined to coastal towns. Delhi at that time was under Bahadur Shah Zafar - a poet in his own rights, one who had neither the will nor the power to resist the gradual British influence infusing the existing Indian culture with fresh intake from the West. Music, they say, is international with no language, nationality or borders - so making inroads here was just natural.
The popular or pop is light while the classical is deeper and soul touching, classified Western music. The light made its way to corners of the land, with young people deeply involved, their creativity giving fair competition to other musicians on the international arena. The Church music of today is also imported from West and is heard and played in every church and worship services, sans the rock and sway aspect of Western music. In Delhi, popular music was restricted to 'crooners' in all the five star hotel night clubs or in total contrast to small groups that met in homes for the more studied and practiced recitals.
Western classical music has a much older history, but did not match the pace with the progress that light music made in India. Classical music too has two divisions - instrumental and vocal. Delhi may have had a bit of instrumental music but was more or less dry in vocal music. Twenty years ago, apparently there were only two trained voices in the public domain in the city with an academic music degree -- Seetu Singh and Sharmila Livingston (nee Bannerjee).
In those days music was a hobby, not an academic profession. Today, with the Trinity School of Music offering a rock curriculum in addition to the classical, the numbers of takers has leaped exponentially. Delhi University too has for the first time opened up a degree programme in Western Music.
Things have changed. A one time dry desert for Western music, Delhi has since grown. With greater dispensable income, music is no longer a luxury for a limited few but an important extra-curricular activity for kids. With changes in import/export regulations, one can buy quality foreign branded musical instruments at somewhat affordable prices. Music teaching/training is becoming big business with classes costing up to Rs.1,200 a lesson, and schools of music opening up in the national capital region.
With the MTV age, music videos, well-funded college festivals, inter-school competitions, TV talent shows - there are any number of platforms available for performance, starting with the very young.
From a single city chorus namely "The Delhi Christian Chorus" conducted by Rev Richard Smythe in the late 60's and early 70's, the city now offers choices: Capital City Minstrels, Neemrana Chorus, Choraliers, Artists Unlimited, the Naga and the Mizo choirs and several smaller ones. Folks can join and/or go to more choices of concerts. The audience at most of these affairs is no longer mostly foreigners. Indians are working hard to get to concerts, shows, recitals, and musicals.
Promoters though are few - perhaps because of limited knowhow, infrastructure or funds, to develop and take classical music to greater heights in Delhi. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations is doing its bit by inviting foreign artists, chamber and symphony orchestras, and dance groups. The Delhi School of Music and the Delhi Symphony Orchestra are making their own contribution in a limited way - their performances just a few with inadequate publicity.
On the instrumental side, the Delhi Symphony Orchestra is one of the oldest. Bringing together musicians from around the country, most of them are from Delhi. Often numbering as much as 75-strong, the orchestra has performed some of the most demanding symphonic scores. Its conductors, for many years, have come from around the world, each bringing his/her own sensibilities to the music. Members of the orchestra range from trained students to highly qualified performers and music professionals.
Delhi Symphony Society also hosts many musicians, choirs and ensemble groups from India and the rest of the world, enabling them to perform in Delhi. Gautam Kaul, the honourary secretary, has managed it almost single-handedly for many years.
To Capital City Minstrels goes the credit as the face of Western classical choral singing in the city. Founded 12 years ago by Zohra Shaw, its members come from across the world, across religions, across ages and across professions. The quality and difficulty level of the music it performs remains dauntingly high. The Minstrels' annual calendar has three seasons: spring performances scheduled for late April/early May, often foc