Mother- a Special Gift of God!

Nothing is impossible in this world if one person is with u,nothing can be taken from u if that person is with u,no one can cause u any damage, if that person is with u, even if u r sleeping , then also one person is there who is luking after u, u may be anywhere in this whole world, one person always wishes u to be successful, u may not be with that person, but her wishes, her help, her care ,her support will always be with u, u may forget her, but she can't even think of this , whenever u become sad, there is always one person who becomes more sad than u r and that person is your MOTHER.

Mother , this is a wonderful word in every person's life. Each person is closely attached to his/her mother and why not , after all this attachment is like an eternal relation.It's the greatest gift of God a person can ever have.Mother , mummy, mom, ma, etc are the most wonderful syllables a person have,these words r attached to the bottom of their hearts.

The relation between son and the mother is actually the attachment of their souls.They r so attached that a slightest of the troubles to one person produces great distress to the other.
Right from the childhood, when the child is not able to walk, speak, then it is the mother who luks after the child.She is so much concerned that at nights when the child starts crying she wakes up and then does not sleep until the child sleeps peacefully. She is always concerned abt the child, and always wants her child to be happy evertime and for giving that happiness to that child, she is able to do that which a person can't even think of doing.She does'nt ask for anything from God but the happiness of her child,this shows how greatly concerned she is.It is something which a person even if he wants can't do. This is an extraordinary gift and we must be thankful to God for providing such a divine relationship .

Ma, a monosyllabic word has more than just a sound.It is one of those wonderful words that makes the life on this world a great great one to live for.The mother always wants to hear those words and it gives her that utmost happiness which even the biggest of the gifts can't provide.
Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs, since the payment is pure love and this payment is the most difficult to get.Tears start coming out when a person tries to think wat his mother has done for him all these years.It is an incredible work she has done, she has gone through those sleepless nights just to give you that peaceful sleep, she has missed her past just to secure your future, just to make u stand where u r, she has lost her enjoyable days just to ensure u r gearing up in the rite direction, she has been so helping and caring just to ensure that u get all the happiness in this world, when u become sad, she is the one who supports u, when u do some wrong thing, she is the one who teaches u , when u get wat u wanted , she is the most happiest person in the world, when u are saddened, she too gets saddened, when u want something, it is she who provides u, when u are going through the difficult times , it is she who provides u the much needed encouragement and makes u believe that u will overcome this thing and that too very soon.

She is ur support which does'nt decrease with time, she is ur helping shoulder , which is always there, she is ur best friend who enjoys ur success, she is the dearest relation one can ever get, and she is the most precious gift of God to a person and above all


SHE IS YOUR MOTHER!

Happy Mother's day Mumma!!

Life- it's all about our thinking!!

This article is based on my experience .After living for this much of time , what I have got to know about life is what I am trying to explain in this post.


Life- what it is?? When people say that my life is good, my life is great etc. etc., I tend to think sometimes what makes the life great, what makes the life so interesting? I asked this question to many people and the ans was great. And then when I asked how ? they told just "aisehe". Infact people have developed this habit of saying that I am really enjoying, well It's great to enjoy but what makes your life this enjoyable is what my query is. What's the reason for you enjoyment?,and how far will you be enjoying?? How do you define fun? How does one define enjoyment??

To proceed, I would say that there is nothing called excitement, nor enjoyment nor boring not sadness. These are all the terms invented by some of the minds who just changed the meaning of life and then tried to associate these words with the lives.If a person pretends that he is happy, one assuumes vow man, what life is he having! Vow what life Amitabh Bachan has!
Kash meri bhi life aise hoti, etc. etc. Well, guys if anyone of you thinks like that then certainly you need to read this article.

According to me , life is nothing but the outcome of what one does.As you sow so shall you reap- a famous quote. Well, this defines what will be the outcome but still one question remains, what makes the life interesting?It may be the case that the reason for enjoyment for one person may not be for another one.Like for example, if one is getting the food everday he thinks that he is happy, but if you go to the rich people, they don't beleive happiness lies in having food everday but what they beleive in is having good food ,no tension etc.etc. for their happiness.So in short, Life's happiness is defined separately by one's choice.A person can redefine the word happiness and can have the most wanted happiness.If one redifines the meaning of these words peace, happiness, enjoyment etc then certainly he is there to enjoy (not only in his own definitions but also in other's as well.)

So friends, Life is great if you are satisfied with what you have or what you are getting day by day.

But this does not mean that you should not aim too high and must be satisfied with where you are :P. enjoy!!

GO ON AND ENJOY BUT ALWAYS AIM HIGH AND DON'T BE SADDENED WITH WHAT YOU DON'T HAVE.

Kiran Bedi.....inspiration for all...........

Kiran Bedi is an Indian social activist and a retired Indian Police Service(IPS) officer. She became the first woman to join the Indian Police Service(IPS) in 1972, and was last posted as Director General , BPR&D (Bureau of Police Research and Development, Ministry of Home Affairs). She retired from IPS in December, 2007, after taking voluntary retirement.
During her service, she was also remained the Inspector General Prisons of Tihar Jail, - one of world's largest prison complexes, with over 10,000 inmates , from 1993 to 1995 , and her prison reforms policies lead to her winning, the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award.
Subsequently, she has founded two NGOs in India: Navjyoti for welfare and preventive policing in 1987 and India Vision Foundation for prison reforms, drug abuse prevention, child welfare in 1994.
In 2007, she applied for seeking voluntary retirement from service, and the application was accepted by the government.

Navajyoti (which literally means New Enlightenment), set up in 1987, and India Vision Foundation, set up in 1994, are the two major voluntary organizations established by her with the objectives of improving the condition of the drug addicts and the poor people. Her efforts have won national and international recognition, and her organizations was awarded the Serge Soitiroff Memorial Award for drug abuse prevention by the United Nations.
She also started one site named http://www.saferindia.com to log complaint regarding any crime if the police at the concerned area denies to accept complaint. Then the NGO behind this site mails complaint to the DGP of concerned area.This mail can also be used as the legal document in case of filing a case in the court of judgement.
She has written her autobiography, 'I Dare. It's Always Possible', which was released in 1998 .


Kiran Bedi has received a number of Awards, including the following:

President’s Gallantry Award (1979)
Women of the Year Award (1980)
Asia Region Award for Drug Prevention and Control (1991)
Magsaysay Award (1994) for Government Service
Mahila Shiromani Award (1995)
Father Machismo Humanitarian Award (1995)
Lion of the Year (1995)
Joseph Beuys Award (1997)
Pride of India (1999)
Mother Teresa Memorial National Award for Social Justice (2005)

THOUGHTS bring INNOVATIONS.................

"Those who know how to think needs no teachers."
-Mahatma Gandhi

THINKING...........I have always stressed upon this key word, the word which gave us the power to develop, to understand the earth and the universe and to understand GOD. We all know it but with a different name, 'DHYAAN'(Meditation), which this world has considered to be a property belonging only to those who have commited their lives to God. It is not true, we all should meditate, we all should think. Thinking gives one the power to reach the top, the chance to find the ultimate truth of life.It's thinking that created science because without thinking one cannot start doing something.

Let me share with you all a experience from my life itself............I am currently studying at IIT Delhi and live in a hostel. People are always asking me that 'What difference I find between IIT and any other college which makes IIT...IIT?' I always tell the same thing..............'IITs are IITs mostly due to the students. IIT can be thought of as a place where highly intellectual people, people who dare to think beyond today, gather, live together, study together and THINK together. Its the thinking power that seperates an IITian from the masses and that is why everybodies expectations from these students are high.'


Thousands come and go, spending their lives just in gossiping the life. You become the one who could bring a significant change. Become the one to lead the world to a better future.'Thoughts' give birth to 'Innovations'. So keep thinking...............and


BE THE CHANGE....................

Creativity - The power of thinking

I'm always thinking about creating.

My future starts when I wake up every morning.

Every day I find something creative to do with my life.
-Miles Davis

Innovation and creativity play a critical role in an organization's success. While many organizations continue to focus on downsizing, rightsizing, reengineering, streamlining, cost-cutting to achieve short-term results, the smart managers are always searching for new ways to create value for their organizations and increasing customer service. In the new land that you need the right culture and mindset for success. So what do you do?

When was the last time, your managers discussed an innovation strategy? What could an innovation strategy look like in your organization? This is a fundamental component of any innovation initiative. So what is stopping you? Times may be tough in the Forest Service, but when the going gets tough…the tough get going!

All of us have days when things just don't seem to go our way, when we face more challenges than usual. An innovation strategy is tough. You can help foster a culture that embraces innovation. So how exactly can you get going when the going is tough? Consider these ideas:

v Think of problems as possibilities for improvement…Since problems are inevitable, you might as well make the most of them. Think of them as opportunities to learn new things and improve. It's often by working through difficult situations that people discover strengths they didn't know they had.

v Remind yourself of recent successes…There is nothing wrong with giving yourself a pat on the back now and then. Don't underestimate the power of what seems like small accomplishments…they are part of your success. Remembering how you solved a problem in the past can help you feel confident, motivated and more creative.

v Remember you are not alone…Talk to your peers and colleagues…you know those trusted friends in your life. Chances are, they have experienced similar problems and can offer a new perspective, idea, useful advice, or even a helping hand.

Isn't it time to bring innovation to life in your organization? Have you planted the seeds of innovation? Have you institutionalised innovation?

Everything Happens For Good............

There was once a King who had a wise advisor. The advisor followed the King everywhere, and his favorite advice was, “Everything happens for the good”. One day the King went hunting and had a little accident. He shot an arrow at his own foot and was injured. He asked the advisor what he thought about the accident, to which the advisor replied, “Everything happens for the good”. This time the King was really upset and ordered for his advisor to be put in prison. The King asked his advisor, “Now, what do you think?” The advisor again replied, “Everything happens for the good”. So the advisor remained in prison. The King later went on a hunting trip, this time without the advisor. The King was then captured by some cannibals. He was taken to the cannibals' camp where he was to be the evening meal for the cannibals. Before putting him into the cooking pot he was thoroughly inspected. The cannibals saw the wound on the King’s foot and decided to throw him back into the jungle. According to the cannibals' tradition, they would not eat anything that was imperfect. As a result the King was spared. The King suddenly realized what his advisor said was true. The advisor also escaped death because had he not been in prison, he would have followed the King on the hunting trip, and would have ended up in the cooking pot. It is true that everything in life happens for a purpose, and always for our own good. If you think about it, all our past experiences actually happened to bring us to where we are today, and it is always for the good. All the past experiences makes us a better person. So, whatever challenges that we may face today, consider it happening to bring us to the next level.

Now another SETBACK to Indian education : Resevation for professors at IIT

“This way lies not only folly but disaster.”

— Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

on communal reservations

It has just become a joke or what for this Government of India, led by Dr.Manmohan Singh,who himself was a professor and a great scholar, to break down this growing education system of our country.The row on the reservation for students in the premier institutes haven't settled, our chosen cabinet is out again with yet another big blast "Reservation for PROFESSORS at IIT". Now even the highly respected people are under the threat of the devil called "reservation", what a pity. This step has just reified the vote policy followed by the so called democratic political parties.

Practically speaking, these people have gone nuts. How can they think of developing the undeveloped(as per them) by keeping the undeveloped as their guides? and, How can they think of further developing the already developed(also as per them) by keeping the undeveloped as their mentors and teachers? , isn't it crazy? These people , theSC,ST,OBC,Gujjars(joined recently), are really fool enough too think it as a way to develop themselves taking under consideration the question I raised at the starting of this paragraph. I believe thet either they are too innocent or they too are like these Netajan who can't see this nation developing.

In this stage I find that the "Vision of India" and "Vision 2020" seen by our very respected "Father of the Nation" and the "Missile Man of India" have been outfocused and this land has become a battle ground for the "Comrades" fighting for "reservation" as if they are fighting for the Indpendence. God please forgive these people for they don't know what they are doing.

I appeal to the 'People of India' to please spread this word and raise the awareness level of all the citizens of this country to work for the development of India and not against it. Please understand that Reservation is not the solution.

Taslima Nasreen:What made her what she is

Taslima Nasreen is Bengali Bangladeshi ex-physician turned author, feminist, and journalist.

Taslima Nasreen, the controversial Bangladeshi writer, left India last Wednesday for an undisclosed destination in Europe. At London's Heathrow airport, where she was waiting for a connecting flight on Wednesday, she accused the Indian Government of forcing her out. "They are no better than religious fundamentalists," she said. Four months ago, she was hounded out of Kolkata (Calcutta) and put in a safe house in New Delhi that she described as "torture chamber." There she was not allowed to meet anybody, even specialist doctors, despite her serious cardiac condition and retinopathy. Though her visa was extended in February, she had to leave India. A piece on her website blamed India's Foreign Minister and fellow Bengali, Pranab Mukherjee, who "exerted great mental pressure," for her to exit.

Taslima's beginnings in Bangladesh were modest and held little clue to her literary talent. Sexually abused in her adolescence, she became a gynaecologist routinely examining girls who had been raped. This influenced her later writings, and calling herself a "secular humanist," she lashed out against the treatment of women in Islam. Her work, both prose and poetry, that began in the late 1980s became globally renowned in the next decade.

Her fiesty newspaper columns culminated in a book, "Nirbachito Kolam" (Selected Columns), which won her a prestigious award in India in 1992. She then penned about 30 books of novels, short stories, essays and poems, but her fiction, "Lajja" (Shame), in 1995 invited the anger of Muslim fanatics. The book was banned and she had to flee Bangladesh after Islamic groups passed a death sentence on her.

She has been living in various places since then, including Sweden and France. She returned to her country in 1998, but her books, "My Childhood" and "Wild Wind," were not only banned by Bangladesh, but also led to fresh rage and threats against her.

When she eventually sought refugee in Kolkata, saying that the city felt more like home to her, she fell foul of the West Bengal Government, which could not displease a quarter of its population, Muslims. New Delhi proved as terrible.

How Indian bloggers change the way world thinks about India

India, for long was relegated to the status of a third world nation. Try as you might, year after year it was the same perception. Poverty, pity, snakes, jungles, curry and what not.

Somewhere along the way, the IT revolution, outsourcing, offshoring, IT service providers, Y2K happened and India and Indians slowly moved from the "Wheres India..." to "India has good programmers...".

BRIC, (Brazil, Russia, India, China), the ultimate acronym has lifted India beyond the orbit of India being constantly being referred to as a suffix or prefix with its friendly neighbour. With the growth in outsourcing and its economy, India is touted as a growth engine, emerging economy and a must have in any companys strategy. From good programmers, India now has a "growth economy" as well.

Because of these two factors India is slowly moving up in the eyes of the India watcher and slowly showing up in the radars of businessmen, industry, researchers and universities for whom it was hitherto invisible (or with low visibility).

There is a third level which is contributing significantly to India moving up the proverbial value chain. This, imho, is thanks to the blogging space. Blogging and bloggers are the creators, if you will, of the zeitgeist of the web today which in turn shape the perceptions and world of tomorrow. Most serious bloggers are usually economists, professors,journalists, students, venture capitalists (who I call the "idea drivers of tomorrow") with opinions, insights, contributions, research all or some of which flow into shaping up tomorrow.

Indian bloggers today contribute significantly in determining the way India is perceived tomorrow. Indian bloggers are slowly reinforcing through the blogging community about the depth of India and how it is much more than an army of coders. Indian bloggers contribute and host many a carnival(bhartiya blog mela), many a collobrative blog and write on subjects ranging from education to science to brands to technology to management to analysis to writing and youth.

If Brand India emerges more as an intellectual superpower tomorrow, we Bloggers can claim our two cents of contribution to it.

The Elephant vs The Dragon

The United States attended the Aero India defence show, hoping to profit from India's hunger for military equipment; it wants to make India a counterweight to China. The relationship between China, India and the US is ill-defined; in a region that bristles with weapons, India also will have to contend with Japan and Russia.

An elephant can run very fast.India would sooner or later resume its place in the world. They were more divided over whether the Indian elephant could overtake the Chinese dragon, yet all dreamed of power.

Indian civilisation once rivalled China and was pre-eminent in Asia; in 1700 it led the world financially (1). Yet by 1820 its share of global income had fallen from 22.6% to 15.7%, half that of China (which then followed it into decline). By 1980 India, with 3.4% of global income, and China, with 5%, had been marginalised. China has now shown that a country can bounce back and India wants to catch up as fast as it can.

India has decided to throw in its lot with the United States in a spirit of pragmatism rather than any ideological conviction (2). Navtej Singh Sarna, foreign ministry spokesman, in his 1960s Soviet-style office in New Delhi, said carefully: "The US is the dominant superpower, so it is logical that we should seek to develop good relations with it." This normalisation follows decades of non-alignment spent in the diplomatic shadow of the Soviet Union and resented by the US.

India's trade with the US rose to almost 11% of the Indian total in 2005-6; trade with Russia, which was formerly its main partner, was only just over 1%.

India wants a lot more. Stunned by the speed with which the economy of China has taken off (3), India makes no secret of its desire to utilise its new relationship with the US to attract the investment that it lacks. In 2005 foreign direct investment (FDI) into China rose to $72.4bn; India's FDI was only $6.6bn, although this may be an underestimate, since not all capital movements are recorded. The Indian government did proudly point out that it received 40% of FDI in information technology in developing countries, while China had only 11%. Even so, an abyss separates them.

Copying China

The government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has copied China's example: among other measures it has set up special, near tax-free economic zones, waived social protection and lowered customs duties. These measures have yielded results. There has been investment in IT services and in cars; in November 2006 Renault announced the construction of an assembly plant. The major supermarkets -- Wal-Mart, Tesco, Carrefour -- are planning to move in: who cares if the arrival of their vast stores kills local businesses and overwhelms landscapes that have so far been spared the monotonous urbanisation of the West?

"Modernisation" is under way. The US leads the investors, followed by the island tax haven of Mauritius, Britain, Japan and South Korea.

However, political preoccupations rather than economic ambitions drive the Indian government: it wants recognition as an Asian and global superpower. Hence the importance of the deal over civilian nuclear technologies which, following ratification by both sides of the US Congress in 2006, will come into effect early this year, in time for President George Bush's visit to New Delhi in March.

The embargo introduced in response to India's widely condemned nuclear tests in 1998 will be lifted, although India still refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty on the grounds that it is "discriminatory"; in an assertion of its independence, it denies international inspectors access to more than 33% of its installations. The US and its allies continue to apply this demand to Pakistan, North Korea and Iran.

India will now be able to import sensitive materials and use nuclear power to generate electricity to meet its rapidly expanding energy needs. The prominent diplomat, Shashi Tharoor, the United Nations under-secretary general who campaigned unsuccessfully to succeed Kofi Annan, explained: "There is a more important issue than energy supply: the agreement recognises India as a significant nuclear power in its own right. It marks the recognition of the Indian exception by the US and the official nuclear powers."

It is self-evident that "India is not a country like any other"; this saying has become a mantra.

After independence in 1947 India's unique status, epitomised by its policy of non-alignment, made it a moral force that stood out from other third world countries in the process of decolonisation. Now India is beginning to look like a US-approved military power. Some Indians fear that it may be falling into the alignment trap. The prime minister responded by saying: "I am often disappointed by the lack of adequate appreciation in our country, including among our political leaders, of the changing nature of our relationship with the world. Very often we adopt political postures that are based in the past" (4).

Although some US senators have deplored the nuclear deal and there has been concern that it "may enhance India's ability to produce fissile material for weapons" (5), it has its supporters in Washington. The Bush administration has already expressed its disapproval of a gas pipeline project with Iran, although this would supply a significant proportion of India's energy needs and have the enormous diplomatic benefit of forcing India to negotiate with its main enemy, Pakistan, through which the pipeline would pass.

In the words of Edward Luce, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, writing in the Financial Times : "The pipeline would give Islamabad a strong incentive to maintain stability with New Delhi" (6). For now, Manmohan Singh is using Iran's excessive price demands as an excuse to leave the issue unresolved, but this can only be a short-term solution.

Nothing is settled

India must also come to an understanding with China. Either the two giants build a regional understanding that will influence Asian and international politics, or they fight it out, which seems the more likely possibility. Nothing is settled; there are really three parties in the ring, including the US, or four including Japan.

The US was prepared to risk undermining the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in order to encourage India to become a counterweight to China, whose economic, military and diplomatic rise threatens the long-term hegemony of the US in the region. The US also has a problem with some traditional allies -- such as South Korea, which has refused to adopt a sufficiently aggressive stance against North Korea. India, wary of its vast neighbour, is happy to cooperate with the Bush administration for now.

China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, visited New Delhi in April 2005. Showing an impressive sense of history, he pointed out that for 99.9% of the past 2,200 years the countries had lived in harmony (7). The discordant 0.1% was the war of 1962 (8), an unexpected defeat that heralded the end of the Nehru era and still rankles in India.

The economist Amartya Sen has suggested that the earliest Sino-Indian relations were initiated by trade rather than Buddhism; after the 1962 war, economic and trading links restored good relations (9). Trade remained marginal, at $3bn a year, until 2000; it was expected to reach $22bn in 2006. China sells more than it buys and wants to exploit synergies between the economies to make good its technological deficit. It is pushing for a free-trade agreement that India, which has only 33% of Chinese GDP and is fearful of being flooded by Chinese imports, rejects.

India's priority is to consolidate its ageing and relatively weak industrial sector. It recognises that it cannot guarantee national development if it continues to rely financially upon the contribution of outsourced call centres, sub-contracted services for English-speaking businesses around the world and IT. Nevertheless, during the visit of the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, in November 2006, it signed 13 agreements to cooperate in finance, agriculture, IT and energy.

Another potential area for detente is energy, with its rapidly increasing demands. The two countries are in competition for energy resources with China well ahead, especially in Africa. At the end of 2005 the China National Petroleum Corporation and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) reached an agreement to invest in the exploitation of Syrian oil reserves. Also in 2006 the Chinese and Indian oil ministers discussed creating a buyers' cartel to influence prices, a fresh idea that was thwarted when the Indian minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, was sacked.

The joint declaration that accompanied Hu Jintao's visit emphasised the need to "encourage collaboration between their enterprises, including through joint exploration and development of hydrocarbon resources in third countries" (10). The full significance of the declaration emerged in the context of US protests to the Indian government about its investment in Syria. The declaration also announced that "the two sides agree to promote cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, consistent with their respective international commitments". The terms of the agreement were left vague, unlike the agreement Hu Jintao signed with Pakistan a few days later, yet this was the first official reference to nuclear cooperation (11). China, while acknowledging India's agreement with the US, was trying to prevent it from establishing itself as the US's privileged partner.

An anti-China axis?

Despite these developments, border issues remain unresolved. China continues to claim part of Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India, while India claims Aksai Chin on its northwest frontier: the commission established to settle these disputes has made little progress. China accepted the incorporation of the former Buddhist kingdom of Sikkim into India in 1975. More importantly, India has recognised Chinese sovereignty over Tibet since 2003, although India continues to play host to the Dalai Lama and more than 100,000 Tibetan refugees.

In July 2006 the Nathu La pass in the Himalayas reopened after more than 40 years of closure, restoring a section of the old Silk Road. Traffic still falls far short of the early 20th century, when more than 75% of trade between India and China used the pass, but there are grounds for hope that merchants will slowly displace soldiers.

Even so, India remains suspicious and fearful of encirclement. To the north, China has long offered unconditional support to Pakistan in its conflict with India over Kashmir (12), and it is now investing in the construction of a deep sea port at Gwadar, on Pakistan's coast, close to the entrance to the Persian Gulf. To India's southeast, China is funding Burma's navy. China claims that it is merely trying to secure sea access in order to guarantee the security of its imports.

India remains unconvinced and has conducted several military exercises with US forces, including some on the Chinese border and in the Indian Ocean, as far east as the vital oil-tanker route through the Strait of Malacca. It is also conducting joint operations with Japan, which has been adopting a more aggressive military posture (13).

India wants to show off its muscles. The Bush administration wants India to be a rampart against China, a job that most of India's openly pro-US political elite are happy to take on. Some members of the business community are less enthusiastic. As Shyamal Gupta, a senior executive with the leading Indian manufacturer Tata Sons, insisted: "What we will see is not India against China but India plus China" (14). Some politicians share this reticence, including Jairam Ramesh, a member of the governing Congress party and a former minister, who has published a sensational book, Making Sense of Chindia.

Nobody, of course, is proposing the construction of a Sino-Indian alliance against the US. Everybody is mindful that Chinese leaders are banking on a close relationship with the US, upon which China is economically dependent. Asia is nevertheless a region where military expenditure has recently soared: China is the world's second-biggest military spender, Japan the fourth, and India the eighth. So giving real substance to the declared Sino-Indian intention to "explore a new architecture for closer regional cooperation in Asia" has become a priority.

As The Hindu's famous columnist Siddarth Varadarajan said: "Asia is too big to be dominated by a single power. China, India and Japan should not even think of controlling the region, whether on their own or with the support of an external power." Like many progressive intellectuals, Varadarajan advocates more active Indian participation in regional organisations.

Russia sidelined?

Russia, previously a cornerstone of Indian diplomacy, seems to have been sidelined. Joint declarations have been guarded and bilateral relations tepid. Despite the collapse of the early 1990s, trade has resumed, especially in the military sector where it reached $6.5bn in 2005. Professor Anuradha M Chenoy of the School of International Studies at JNU told me: "India is the only country that has a programme of technical and military cooperation with Russia." Russia sells the most weapons to India, ahead of Israel, with which the previous Hindu nationalist government established close diplomatic relations (15).

The quest for oil and gas supplies also encourages cooperation with Russia. In 2004 the oil minister, Aiyar, announced: "In the half-century of Indian independence, Russia has guaranteed our territorial integrity, and in the second half-century it may be able to guarantee our energy security. I am talking about the strategic alliance with Russia in energy security, which is becoming for India at least as important as national security" (16).

This may not be the official position, but the ONGC is involved in the Sakhalin I and II oil and gas fields. For Russia, which has agreed to supply India with 60 tonnes of uranium, energy has become a weapon in its attempt to reassert itself as a leading global player.

As Yu Bin of the International Relations Centre explained it: "The once super military power has now become the super petro-power under Putin, whose mission is to remake Russia as a world power to be respected, if not feared" (17).

So is the "CIA triangle", as its detractors call it, of China, India and the US, about to be supplanted by an alliance between China, India and Russia? Not yet. India has decided to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as an observer, along with Pakistan and Iran. This body includes four central Asian republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), plus China and Russia, which are trying to build up its diplomatic muscle in the face of increasing US influence in the region.

India does not yet seem capable of any spectacular strategic initiative. The writer Sunil Khilnani said shrewdly: "We have become enamoured of the idea that we are soon to become a permanent invitee to the perpetual soiree of great powers, and so must dust ourselves off and dress for the part . . . But we need to deliberate over what the role should be, and how we can most effectively achieve it" (18).

Border issues

India is at present expending much energy in resolving border issues. Although it feels no great pressure to engage in equal relations with smaller neighbours, it did at least join Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in setting up the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) in 1985. Economic cooperation remains marginal (less than 10% of trade) and the struggling organisation is unable to transcend its own conflicts.

The strained relations between India and Pakistan contribute to this. The talks that began over Kashmir in 2004 have made little headway, but some trade has resumed. Discussions were suspended after the July 2006 train bombings in Bombay, which killed 200; India blamed them on Pakistan's secret services. The talks resumed in October and in December Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf announced that, for the first time, Pakistan was ready to abandon its claim to Kashmir if India would do the same. The proposal was welcomed "with interest" by Manmohan Singh. People on both sides of the control line in Kashmir are not holding their breath.

India's relations with other immediate neighbours are less conflictual, but by no means unproblematic, although an agreement in Nepal in November between government forces and the Maoists could improve the situation. The uncertainties in Bangladesh and continued fighting in Sri Lanka are a problem for India: there are thought to be 20,000 Bangladeshi refugees in India, and 10,000 Sri Lankan Tamils crammed into camps in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Many are destitute; they fuel the activities of violent groups and serve to justify police abuses.

Poverty feeds the Naxalite (Maoist) movement, particularly in West Bengal, Orissa, Telangana (Andhra Pradesh) and, further north, in the state of Bihar on the frontier with Nepal, where calls for independence are getting louder. According to Singh, this is India's most serious security problem. Indian borders are porous, but Singh forgets to mention the social causes of friction, especially the disastrous effects of "modernisation" upon rural areas. More than 10,000 farmers killed themselves in 2005, most often by swallowing pesticides, because they could not meet their debts. India exports cereals, yet more than 50% of its children are malnourished; 40% of Indians can neither read nor write (only 10% of Chinese are illiterate). India ranks 126th on the UN Human Development Index, well below China in 81st place.

The few measures that the government has attempted have often been undermined by widescale corruption; neither the government nor the upper classes seem concerned about the divide that separates the majority of Indians from the 60-70 million people (5-6% of the population) who have achieved a standard of living comparable to that in Europe.

Shashi Tharoor is one of the few who acknowledge this situation: "We must do something for the other India . . . We must invest in hardware [roads, ports and airports, all in a pitiful state], but also in software, the human beings to whom we must give what they need. It is a question of civilisation." Wholesale exclusion is the vulnerable point of India, which seeks to present itself as the largest democracy in the world.

Brand India

Imagining India

The making of a brand is a tough task. Tougher still, making reality live up to the image.

There is a new buzzword around these days about our country: “Brand India”. It’s an idea, says the subtitle of a forthcoming book by London-based Niclas Ljungberg, whose time has come.
Brand value

But what is that idea? What, for that matter, is Brand India? A brand, the marketing gurus tell us, is a symbol embodying all the key information about a product or a service: it could be a name, a slogan, a logo, a graphic design. When the brand is mentioned, it carries with it a whole series of associations in the public mind, as well as expectations of how it will perform. The brand can be built up by skilful advertising, so that certain phrases or moods pop up the moment one thinks of the brand; but ultimately the only real guarantee of the brand’s continued worth is the actual performance of the product or service it stands for. If the brand delivers what it promises — if it proves to be a reliable indicator of what the consumer can expect, time after time — then it becomes a great asset in itself. Properly managed, the brand can increase the perceived value of a product or service in the eyes of the consumer. Badly managed, a tarnished brand can undermine the product itself.

So can India be a brand? A country isn’t a soft drink or a cigarette, but its very name can conjure certain associations in the minds of others. This is why our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, insisted on retaining the name “India” for the newly independent country, in the face of resistance from nativists who wanted it renamed “Bharat”. “India” had a number of associations in the eyes of the world: it was a fabled and exotic land, much sought after by travellers and traders for centuries, the “jewel in the crown” of Her Britannic Majesty Victoria, whose proudest title was that of “Empress of India”. Nehru wanted people to understand that the India he was leading was heir to that precious heritage. He wanted, in other words, to hold on to the brand, though it was not a term he was likely to have employed.
Changing fortunes

For a while, it worked. India retained its exoticism, its bejewelled maharajahs and caparisoned elephants against a backdrop of the fabled Taj Mahal, while simultaneously striding the world stage as a moral force for peace and justice in the vein of Mahatma Gandhi. But it couldn’t last. As poverty and famine stalked the land, and the exotic images became replaced in the global media with pictures of suffering and despair, the brand became soiled. It stood, in many people’s eyes, for a mendicant with a begging-bowl, a hungry and skeletal child by his side. It was no longer a brand that could attract the world.

Today, the brand is changing again. As India transforms itself economically from a lumbering elephant to a bounding tiger, it needs a fresh brand image to keep up with the times. The Government even set up, with the collaboration of the business association the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), an India Brand Equity Foundation. They were tasked with coming up with a slogan that encapsulated the new brand in time for the World Economic Forum’s 2006 session in Davos, where India was the guest of honour. They did. “India: Fastest-growing free market democracy” was emblazoned all over the Swiss resort. Brand India was born.
The essence in words

But though it’s a great slogan, is it enough? Coca-Cola, for years, offered the “pause that refreshes”: it told you all that you needed to know about the product. Does “fastest-growing free market democracy” do the same? India’s rapid economic growth is worth drawing attention to, as is the fact that it’s a free market (we want foreigners to invest, after all) and a democracy (that’s what distinguishes us from that other place over there, which for years has grown faster than us). But isn’t there more to us as a country than that?

In fairness to the smart people who coined the phrase, the more attributes you try to get in, the clunkier the phrase and the less memorable it becomes. It’s easier for smaller countries that aim for one-issue branding. The Bahamas came up with the great message “It’s better in the Bahamas”. Puerto Rico sold itself as a “tropical paradise”, and there’s “surprisingly Singapore”. But what do we want the world to think of when they hear the name “India”? Clearly we’d prefer “fastest-growing free market democracy” to replace the old images of despair and disrepair. But surely there are other elements we want to build into the brand: the exquisite natural beauty of much of our country, encapsulated in the “Incredible India!” advertising campaign conducted by the Tourism Department; the glitz and glamour of Bollywood and Indian fashion and jewellery designs; the unparalleled diversity of our plural society, with people of every conceivable religious, linguistic and ethnic extraction living side-by-side in harmony; and the richness of our cultural heritage, to name just four obvious examples. Yet it would be impossible to fit all that into a poster, a banner or even a TV commercial. (And we’d still have left out a host of essentials, from ayurveda to IT).

So the challenge of building Brand India continues. But one essential fact remains: what really matters is not the image but the reality. If we can make India a healthy and prosperous place for all Indians, the brand will be burnished all by itself. Then, and only then, might we even return to “India Shining”

How I was ragged at IIT Delhi and why it was not a joke : Sujit Saraf

This is an article written by Sujit Saraf with his straightforward comparisons of ragging and hazing , it is the article of an international acclaim that forced IIT to take the matter more than seriously.The courtesy of the article is disclosed but it is freely available at websites and can be searched at google search
(Sujit Saraf is a film-maker and playwright who lives in California.He has been associated with IIT Delhi both as a student and an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He isa member of the PACE Anti-Ragging Cell.)
Author: Sujit Saraf Institution: IIT Delhi Years: 1989- Written on 1 July 2004I went to IIT Delhi in the fall of nineteen eighty seven. I had beenliving in Delhi for two years but I was still a small-town boy fromBihar, intimidated by tall buildings and a steady stream of traffic.Even now, after television and the internet and all that, I meetpeople in my town who, when told about my college and career, respond- ITI? ek hamaare yahaan bhii hai.When I arrived at my hostel inside the IIT campus, I found a noticeposted in the lobby, saying 'Ragging is banned in the Institute.' Ihad come with horrible stories of ragging in mind, told by friends,relatives and well-wishers. My father, whose knowledge of college lifewas thirty years out of date, wrote me in a letter that I was to 'takecare to avoid rigging in IIT'. I remember he mis-spelt the word, andhe seemed to think my participation was voluntary.I entered the hostel, was given my room, and transferred my luggageinto it. I was on my knees ten minutes later with a leash around myneck, announcing my name at the top of my voice and reciting thehostel pledge, which granted every senior the right to fuck me in thearse, then bust it into eight thousand pieces, mash some pieces into abharta, and feed the rest to the dogs of the hostel warden.It sounds funny now, even to me.We did many things in that one month that now appear harmless andamusing. We stood on benches in the dining hall and recited thenational anthem, we crawled on all fours and barked like dogs, wemarched backwards in unison, we wore our clothes inside out, we ranerrands for our seniors, we brought them cigarettes and Campa Cola, wecleaned their rooms and made their beds, we did push-ups in thestreet, we barked and shouted and whispered and lived our livesaccording to the prescriptions of boys barely a year older than us.Finally, we dropped our trousers so they could look at our penises. Weheld one another's penises and estimated their lengths, we formed longhuman trains – each train car holding the penis of the car in front –and whistled our way through hostel corridors at top speed, turningleft and right in response to semaphores controlled by our seniors. Weformed human pyramids, simulated orgies, stripped naked, then wore ourunderpants over our pants, turning ourselves into 'The Phantom' ofcomic books. After so many years, I can list these 'forms of ragging'dispassionately, but no one should be misled. When an eighteen yearold boy stands naked to be inspected by ten leering animals, heshudders in the bottom of his heart. Brutality and oppression remainjust that, no matter the name chosen for them, no matter thecircumstances in which they are exercised.Who were these seniors, and why did they humiliate us so? They seemedpowerful then, but they were boys like us, older by a year or two orthree. They had endured similar humiliation in their time. Theirseniority in the hostel gave them, for the first time in their lives,power over other human beings – power to command fear, subjugate andhumiliate. They exercised this power with abandon, and they haddeveloped countless theories – from the facetious to the philosophical- to support their sadism. Ragging forces you to stay up late, theysaid, and this is useful when you must prepare for difficultexaminations. Ragging breaks the ice between seniors and juniors.Ragging brings the freshman – or the 'fachchaa' - into intimatecontact with peers and seniors, and this turns the hostel into a home.Ragging helps the freshman break out of his shell and lose hisinhibitions. And finally, said our seniors sententiously, raggingteaches you humility. It prepares you for the 'real' world.Presumably, if you have been insulted a sufficient number of times incollege, you will have acquired the virtue of patience when your bossinsults you in the real world. Like a well trained dog, you will notbark and lose your job. Instead, you will wag your tail, look theother way, and pretend the abuse was meant for someone else. Ourseniors proclaimed - and some actually believed - that they hadacquired this wisdom through age and experience, and they were nowanxious to pass it down to us. Many were genuinely surprised that wewere not grateful for this favour.These arguments did not wash with us, of course. I was supposed tocome closer to my peers after our mutual penis-measuring ceremony.Shared humiliation was supposed to draw us close together. Instead itboxed us into shells. It destroyed our first foray into adulthood. Itrobbed us of valuable moments in our lives. It turned our first monthin college into a nightmare.As our first year passed, so did memories of our humiliation. Life inthe hostel became pleasant once we realized we could walk about withour pants on, and did not need to spring to attention whenever asenior passed us. Six months later, ragging was an amusing episode inour past. Twelve months later, most of us firmly believed it was ourduty to pass on the wisdom we had acquired through age and experience.We ragged the next class of freshmen ferociously and methodically, andwere genuinely surprised that they were not grateful for this favour.Some people in my batch forced a freshman to sit on a corn-cob and hadhim smoke a cigarette with the lit end inside his mouth. That incidentbecame a ragging 'case', drew much attention, lead to the expulsion ofthe raggers, and incited a short-lived signature campaign to defendthe raggers as boys having fun.I began a 'stop ragging' campaign that died quickly when neither mybatch-mates, nor the freshmen I was trying to save, appearedenthusiastic. For my batch-mates, the logic of ragging wasirrefutable. They now had happy memories of their own initiation intohostel life, and could not remember ever having disliked it. Forfreshmen, getting ragged for a month was a rite of passage that wouldensure them free books and the patronage of someone powerful. It waseasier to 'get it over with' than be ostracized (so they were told)for the rest of their stay in the hostel. When they were led onleashes, some had ingratiating smiles on their facesMy seniors were wrong. I never managed to strike a friendship with anyof them, unable to forget the moments of humiliation. When I left IIT,everyone I counted as a friend was someone I had met after the raggingperiod. After travelling the entire world, working at many jobs inmany capacities and passing through many stages in life, I have neverfound any use for the education my seniors so generously imparted tome. I was never called upon to suffer humiliation in silence, barklike a dog to break the ice with my peers, managers or sub-ordinates,or insult my co-workers to gain their confidence. But of course, myseniors had no inkling of the real world themselves. They were newlypubescent boys who fancied themselves to be men. After all thepretentious talk of their responsibility to make men out of us, theirentire exercise of power came down to the scrutiny of a shrivelled-uppenis, of a modest teenager brought up by conservative parentsstanding naked amidst ten soulless boys, trembling in horror, hispants wrapped about his ankles. Ragging is a case study for SigmundFreud, nothing more.I have often wondered why ragging never comes to an end, in spite ofall the noise made about it among professors, politicians and theparents of boys who suffer it. IIT had, in my time, a disciplinarycommittee of professors whose job was to police ragging by makingsurprise visits to hostels. They drove in a tell-tale white Marutivan, whose arrival was announced by a freshman posted at the entrancelong before the professors had time to open the doors, get out of thevan and lumber into the hostel. The wise professors would find a groupof seniors giving an intense tutorial to freshmen on academic life inIIT, and go home to sleep in peace. The disciplinary committee – whosevery name made it ridiculous, because we called it 'disco' – spent itstime discussing cases of ragging, fixing proportionate punishment,deciding what was 'mental ragging' and what was 'physical ragging'over endless cups of chai in somnolent meetings. Like all othercommittees, its function was to manage ragging - not stop it - and toprevent incidents of ragging from ballooning into 'cases'. Like allother committees, it was also inept at its job, so we had one or two'cases' every year which made their way into newspapers, caused muchheartburn, and resulted in the expulsion of those who had 'oversteppedthe bounds', after which everyone was satisfied that something hadbeen done.I do not want to over-simplify the situation. Even if the faculty atcolleges were sincere about stopping ragging, and even if they had thesupport of student representatives, it is unlikely that ragging willcompletely stop. Educational seminars, sensitization classes andinformation dissemination may help but, as the all-forgiving clicheinsists, boys will be boys. I remember how we sniggered at suchlectures, how little respect we had for all attempts to discipline us,and with what ridicule we regarded the notice saying 'Ragging isbanned in the Institute'. Years later, when I went back to teach inIIT, I asked my students – all freshmen – whether they were beingragged in their hostels, and if I could do anything to help them. Wehave no such thing nowadays, I was told. Your time is now gone, theysaid, as are the problems of your time. I knew they were lying, andthere was little I could do about it.Ragging is not an exclusively Indian phenomenon. We have no monopolyon brutality. Hazing rituals are common in the 'Greek societies' onAmerican campuses. My room-mate at Berkeley nearly died at aninitiation ritual in his fraternity, where he was made to drink manyglasses of vodka in a short period of time. There is a very importantdifference between hazing in Greek societies and ragging in Indiancollege hostels. Membership to a Greek society is voluntary. Those whostudy at a university do not have to become members, and most do not.Those who study in IIT must become members of hostels - this may havechanged since my days - and suffer the humiliation that comes with it.Aside from the Greek societies, however, there is little or no raggingin the dormitories on American campuses. At my dormitory in Berkeley,we went on an overnight retreat and had coffee-socials to break theice between newcomers and old-timers. We ate together, chatted, playedracquetball and squash, watched football games, and these brought uscloser. The very concept of ragging was unknown. I cannot say thiswith certainty, but this may be because American college students aremuch closer to adulthood. Many are already in their twenties, mosthave to earn their way through college or take loans to pay for theireducation, and almost all are on their own. Their attitude to collegeis very different from that of Indian boys, who have been dispatchedto the campus by loving parents, borne on a cushion of money andsupport that they did not earn.A college campus cannot exist completely outside the system thatenfolds it. The prevention of ragging through draconian rules may beimpossible. You cannot imprison freshmen into a hostel of their own,forbid contact between freshmen and seniors, or electrocute seniorswho humiliate a freshman. Many of the frustrations that a studentexpresses through ragging are really brought by him from the worldoutside the campus. Given a chance to release those feelings, he will.The reason there is little or no ragging on American campuses may justbe that college students are adults, and are treated as such. They donot spring up with a 'Sir' when professors walk in, they areencouraged to argue and protest, they live in relatively freeenvironments where the only restricted activity is that which harmsothers. If Indian students were shown the same respect, they may beginto find ragging juvenile. There remains no reason, in the twenty firstcentury, to segregate voting-age adults into unisex dormitories. Boysand girls should live in the same hostel. They should come to theirhostels and leave them as they please, with no curfew hours. Theyshould be allowed to mix freely, speak freely, and enjoy everyprivilege an adult is entitled to. They are eighteen, they can takecare of themselves. Should they violate rules or break the law, theyshould receive proportionate punishment. These ideas may createconditions that make ragging redundant and allow it to wither away.
(Sujit Saraf is a film-maker and playwright who lives in California.He has been associated with IIT Delhi both as a student and anassistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He isa member of the PACE Anti-Ragging Cell.)

Swami Vivekananda's Speech

The World Parliament of Religions, Chicago

WELCOME ADDRESS - Chicago, Sept 11, 1893
Sisters and Brothers of America,It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee."The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: "Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.

India fights United States

Here's a story : from 17th century Kerala: The Portuguese had anchored off the Malabar coast and were received with warmth by the king Zamorin. After a few days, the palace guards rush breathless into the court, lit with alarm. "Your Majesty, the foreigners are on the hill slopes," they report. "uprooting pepper vines and carrying them away to the ships. If they begin to grow these in their lands we will lose our trade." The Zamorin is unperturbed: "Ah, don't worry too much. They may take the vines but how can they take our monsoons." Such was India's calm then, it had an extreme generosity and a willingness to share its wealth with the world.

By October, 1996 when the prestigious New Scientist magazine wrote under the title, "Pirates in the garden of India", India's sanguine magnanimity was to end. A crisis was brewing. India had to do something.Universities in united states had started big research projects on what are "dadi ma ke nuskhe "in India, and register patents in US before India does.India had to do something.

And the war began.........

In May, 1995 the US Patent Office granted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center a patent [#5,401,504] for "Use of Turmeric in Wound Healing."
Well, well, well. Some discovery, that. Indians grow up with a constant awareness of turmeric. It permeates their life. It is an easy and generous plant [curcurma longa] that grows throughout the sub-continent. The tuber when dried keeps practically forever. It is a condiment that adds character to Indian food and helps digestion. Turmeric powder heals open wounds. Drunk with warm milk, it stems coughs, cures colds and comforts throats. Indians paint doorways with turmeric paste as an insecticide. Women in the south make a depilatory skin cream with it. Add the juice of fresh lime to dry turmeric, let it marinate for three days, dry it in the sun and grind it to a fine powder and voila, you have the brilliant red kunkum that 'dots' Indian women's foreheads and surrounds the gods in the temples.Roots are exchanged between people as a formal symbol of goodwill. Indians place freshly uprooted plants at the altar during Pongal and offer worship.
(if you any other use of termuric then write as a comment)
For Indians turmeric is a benevolent goddess. For sound reasons, it transpires. Indian physicians had always packed their kits with turmeric. Now West's formal research was confirming many of its virtues. It is now believed to be able to treat dysentery, arthritis, ulcers and even some cancers. It is also found to protect the liver.Turmeric's grace is stunning cancer researchers.

India's Fightback.................

Consider the implication of 'turmeric patent' #5,401,504. If an expatriate Indian in America sprinkles turmeric powder -- just as her ancestors in India have done for centuries-- on her child's scrape, she would in fact be infringing US patent laws and was open to prosecution.

The patent was promptly challenged by Dr. R A Mashelkar, an Indian scientist who has done much to awaken India to Intellectual Property Rights issues. After four months of submissions it was established that the use of turmeric as a healing agent was well-known in India. For some centuries, one is tempted to add. The patent was annulled.

But there were more battles ahead.

In 1996, Vandana Shiva -- an icon for Third World Knowledge Rights -- began to challenge the patent granted to the firm of W.R.Grace & Co by the European Patent Office, Munich for 'fungicidal uses of neem oil'. Now, it so happens that neem is as much a divine object in India as turmeric is. With far less education than modern scientists the Indian farmer over the ages had integrated neem into his work. It is a part of India's religious life, to sublimate anything of value to divine levels in order to engender an esteem and sensitivity for it. Shiva and Ajay Phadke [who had researched neem for Rhone Poulenc in India] flagged ancient Indian texts for their eminences in Munich to convince them that there was no 'novelty' factor in neem's magical properties that Grace had unveiled-- Indians had known them for long. This patent too was vacated.

India Wins...........

Two battles won indeed, but there are many ahead. London's Observer reported that there were more than 100 Indian plants awaiting grant at the US patent office. And patents have already have been granted to uses of Amla, Jar Amla, Anar, Salai, Dudhi, Gulmendhi, Bagbherenda, Karela, Rangoon-ki-bel, Erand, Vilayetishisham, Chamkura etc, all household Indian names.These need to be vacated.

Bio-piracy doesn't affect just India. Much of Africa and Latin America are prowling grounds for First World's knowledge pirates.

But India is emerging as a vocal and effective battler against the Untes States' Knowledge pirates.

Whenthe US introduced IPRs in the Uruguay Round as a new issue, it accused the Third World of 'piracy'. The estimates provided for royalties lost in agricultural chemicals are US$202 million and US$2,545 million for pharmaceuticals.

However, as the RURAL ADVANCEMENT AND FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL(CANADA), in Canada has shown, if the contribution of Third World peasants and tribals is taken into account, the roles are dramatically reversed: the US owes US$302 million in royalties for agriculture and $5,097 million for pharmaceuticals to Third World countries."

In these two biological industry sectors alone, the US owes $2.7 billion to the Third World. This debt will not be paid by the US unless we have our biodiversity legislation in place.

India won the battle ,but there is a need to keep your intellectual rights with yourself.Indians can no longer think like king Zamorin of kerela
Knowledge pirates of united states steal monsoons also.......

THREE SECRETS OF HAPPINESS.............

We all know that money can’t buy happiness … but many times we act as if we’d be happier with a bit more money. We are conditioned to want to be rich (when we know the rich aren’t happy either); we are trained to want the latest gadget or style that television tells us to want; we want to earn more money because then we’ll have the good life.But none of that will bring us happiness. No matter how much we earn, no matter how much we have in the bank, no matter how nice our clothing or cars or toys, none of it will make us happier. And the sad thing is that it could take us decades of pursuing wealth and luxury items before we realize this.So what will bring us happiness? Luckily, it’s three things that don’t cost a thing. These three things have been proven by research — surveys of hundreds of thousands of people about what they have, what their lives are like, and how happy they are.Here they are, the Three Secrets to Happiness:

1. Good relationships- We have a human need to be close, to be intimate, with other human beings. Having good, supportive friendships, a strong marriage or close and loving relationships with our family members will make us much more likely to be happy. Action steps: Take time, today, to spend time with your loved ones, to tell them what they mean to you, to listen to them, and develop your relationship with them.

2. Positive thinking- I’m obviously a big proponent of positive thinking as the best way to achieve your goals, but it turns out that it can lead to happiness too. Optimism and self-esteem are some of the best indicators of people who lead happy lives. Happy people feel empowered, in control of their lives, and have a positive outlook on life. Action steps: Make positive thinking a habit. In fact, this should be one of the first habits you develop. Get into the habit of squashing all negative thoughts and replacing them with positive ones. Instead of “I can’t” think “I can”. It may sound corny, but it has worked for me, every time.

3. Flow-This is a popular concept on the Internet these days — the state we enter when we are completely focused on the work or task before us. We are so immersed in our task that we lose track of time. Having work and leisure that gets you in this state of flow will almost undoubtedly lead to happiness. People find greatest enjoyment not when they’re passively mindless, but when they’re absorbed in a mindful challenge. Action steps: Find work that you’re passionate about. Seriously — this is an extremely important step. Find hobbies that you’re passionate about. Turn off the TV — this is the opposite of flow — and get outside and do something that truly engages you.You’ve been given the Three Secrets to Happiness. Don’t waste them!

Waaaaaater..........

What do you, the trees, and a hamster have in common? Give up? You all need water. All living things must have water to survive, whether they get it from a water fountain, a rain cloud, or a little bottle attached to the side of a hamster cage.Without water, your body would stop working properly. Water makes up more than half of your body weight and a person can't survive for more than a few days without it. Why? Your body has lots of important jobs and it needs water to do many of them. For instance, your blood, which contains a lot of water, carries oxygen to all the cells of your body. Without oxygen, those tiny cells would die and your body would stop working.Water is also in lymph (say: limf), a fluid that is part of your immune system, which helps you fight off illness. You need water to digest your food and get rid of waste, too. Water is needed for digestive juices, urine (pee), and poop. And you can bet that water is the main ingredient in perspiration, also called sweat.In addition to being an important part of the fluids in your body, each cell depends on water to function normally.Your body doesn't get water only from drinking water. Any fluid you drink will contain water, but water and milk are the best choices. Lots of foods contain water, too. Fruit contains quite a bit of water, which you could probably tell if you've ever bitten into a peach or plum and felt the juices dripping down your chin! Vegetables, too, contain a lot of water. Think of slicing into a fat tomato from the garden or crunching into a crisp stalk of celery.