Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter 387
Palash Biswas
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Email this story Chhattisgarh MP's son shot dead by MaoistsTimes of India - Sep 26, 2009 RAIPUR: Suspected Maoists in Chhattisgarh on Saturday shot two sons of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Bastar MP Baliram Kashyap, killing one of ... Naxals gun down Bastar MP's son Hindustan Times Army won't be used against Maoists: ChidambaramHindu - Sep 25, 2009 RAIPUR/RANCHI: Visiting Maoist-affected Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said on Friday that the Army would not be involved in ... Fight against Maoists to be long drawn, says Chidambaram Times of India India prepares for Maoist assault BBC News No army involvement in anti-Maoist operations: Chidambaram Hindustan Times Clamour to let army fight Maoists risesCalcutta Telegraph - - 12 hours ago 26: The CPM in Bengal has joined an increasing chorus from the states to deploy the military as the Centre shapes a shotgun strategy counter-Maoist ... Maoists: We control 5000 villages Asian Age Allies warn CPM on 'Salwa Judum' plans Expressindia.com Eight 'Maoists' Killed In Mass Resistance People's Democracy Under UN pressure, Nepal to probe "disappearances"The Associated Press - - 16 hours ago Bennett's letter said the three killings "are among those for which there is substantial evidence of Maoists' responsibility," naming Maoist Third Division ... Maoists display black balloons Himalayan Times Maoists want talk with govt but on conditionEconomic Times - - Sep 24, 2009 KOLKATA: The banned CPI (Maoist), which is leading a movement in Lalgarh and the entire Jangalmahal zone for the past one year, has put up three key ... Beaten, CPM gives a call to arms to face down Maoists Expressindia.com 10 killed in CPM, Maoists clash Express Buzz Maoists kill two CPI-M leaders near Lalgarh Indian Express CPM beats back Maoist attackTimes of India - Sep 22, 2009 ENAYETPUR (WEST MIDNAPORE): The Maoist brigade, which was on a killing spree, has met its first ever challenge from CPM since the Lalgarh upsurge in ... Villagers ready to battle Maoists Calcutta Telegraph Toll rumours after CPM, Maoists clash Daily News & Analysis Maoists strike back, kill two CPM cadres in cold blood Expressindia.com Maoists trying to regain lost ground in APExpress Buzz - 9 hours ago KHAMMAM: Maoists are trying to regain lost ground in the State, according to informed sources in the Police department. Speaking to Express, a senior police ... Maoists kill Congress leaderExpress Buzz - 8 hours ago KARIMNAGAR: After a long lull, Maoists struck in the district last night. They killed a local Congress leader B Sammi Reddy (43) at Edulapuram in ... Move to neutralise Maoists' top leadershipExpress Buzz - Sep 26, 2009 RAIPUR: The recent arrest of CPI (Maoist) politburo member Kobad Ghandy in New Delhi wasn't any fluke. It matured after a long hunt by the security forces, ... A posh rebel in India's heart of darkness Daily News & Analysis |
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This would bring pressure on India to abandon its present policy of subsidising kerosene and cooking gas and even diesel and petrol when their prices rise above what the government thinks is above the level of political tolerance.
The G20 leaders' statement says, "we agreed to phase out and rationalise over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies while providing targeted support to the poorest. " The rationale is that such subsidies encourage wasteful consumption, reduce energy security, impede investment in clean energy and undermine efforts to deal with climate change.
India has been prevaricating on removing subsidies on fossil fuels since 2002, when, according to India's own policy arrived at without any assistance from external quarters, petro-fuel prices were to be fully decontrolled. However, whenever crude prices moved up and retail fuel prices had to go up, the government has chosen to abdicate its responsibility to implement its own policy and imposed price limits, and provided subsidy.
Studies have shown that 40% of subsidised kerosene gets diverted for adulteration of diesel. This not only foils the goal of offering subsidy on the fuel but also reduces engine life across our transport fleets and adds to pollution and diesel consumption through reduced fuel efficiency.
The original rationale for subsidising kerosene had been that it is the primary source of lighting in the rural areas. Now, viable alternatives are available for rural lighting. Solar lanterns, finds a study by The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) are a viable option till the government completes its rural electrification scheme.
That leaves liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used for cooking. Piped natural gas is a cheap alternative in towns, where LPG is the preferred cooking fuel. For rural areas, smokeless woodburning stoves have been designed which have superior thermal efficiency and are also less destructive of women's health.
Now, while the G20 leaders prefer cash transfers for targeting poor beneficiaries, they do not insist on them. Other appropriate methods are also acceptable.
The International Energy Agency and the OECD have estimated that removing fossil fuel subsidies by 2920 can bring down greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 by a whopping 10%. In other words, this is a potential no-loss bargaining chip for India and developing countries in climate negotiations.
Maha Navami is observed on the ninth day of the Shukla Paksha (waxing phase of moon) of Ashwin month. It is the ninth and the final day of nine-day Navratri Festival. Maha Navami 2009 date is September 27. Mahanavami is also the penultimate day of Durga Puja.
The rituals associated with Navratri Maha Navami vary from region to region. In South India, Maha Navami is observed as Ayudha Puja. All books, utensils and tools are kept for puja.
Maha Navami rituals are the final rituals associated with Durga Puja. The next day is Durga Murti Visarjan or immersion. A major bhog is held on the day and Prasad is offered to Goddess Durga. Food items prepared on the day is shared by devotees.
In some regions, animal sacrifice is held on the day. But this ritual is discouraged by many people today and is also banned by the government. But it is still held in rural regions and famous Durga Mata and Kali Mata Temple.
http://www.hindu-blog.com/2009/09/maha-navami-2009-durga-puja-mahanavami.html
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| Goddess Durga knows no boundaries. Then, why should her devotees be bound by borders? Not so, at least for the four auspicious days of Durga Puja. Devotees in four interior villages on the Indian side of the border, about 70 km away from Dhubri, join their counterparts on the "No Man's Land" near the line of control to observe Durga Puja at a historic Mahamaya temple situated there. About 200 families living in Ramraikuti, Khaksarkuti, Bhogdohar and Kedarnalia also contribute money for the various rituals. All this, amid strict vigil by security guards of both the countries. According to locals, the Mahamaya temple is believed to be over 200 years old and was on the Indian side of the border before Partition. But after the India-Pakistan division in 1947 and later, the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the temple fell on "No Man's Land". After Bangladesh was created, Puja at the temple remained restricted for years owing to security reasons, but Durga Puja resumed a few years ago after permission was given by security forces of both the countries guarding the international border. Devotees from both sides contribute all the Puja expenses themselves, and also take part in the preparations - like making the Durga idol, performing the rituals and even having prasad together. "The villages are very remote. There is no proper road communication, no electricity, and development is almost negligible. They constantly live under security threats. People from the villages are unable to visit Pujas celebrated in Dhubri town as there is no transport. The condition of villages on the Bangladesh side is no better. Besides, there is no fencing on both sides. So they converge on the Mahamaya temple every year for the Durga Puja," said D Roy, a police personnel posted at Golokganj police station, about 10 km from the border area. He informed that security forces posted along the border keep close vigil on the devotees to ensure that nothing untoward happens during the four days of Durga Puja. Maha Navami witnesses the maximum footfall of Hindu devotees from both the countries. However, people are not allowed to converge during nights as there is no electricity and the place is said to be a hotbed of cross-border criminals. | ||
| Police stunt nets Mahato - Cops in media garb draw criticism | |
| OUR CORRESPONDENT | |
Midnapore, Sept. 26: Interview over, the "reporter" pulled out a revolver and pointed it at Lalgarh tribal leader Chhatradhar Mahato. Two police officers disguised as journalists "from Singapore" today arrested the spearhead of the Lalgarh agitation at last, one holding him at gunpoint while the other grabbed him from behind. The head of the Maoist-backed People's Committee Against Police Atrocities had "eluded" the cops for nearly three months while moving freely around Lalgarh, giving sundry media interviews and even appearing on TV. It was apparently one interview too many he gave at his hideout near his home village of Amlia in Lalgarh today. Maoist guerrilla chief Kishanji told The Telegraph the police had tried to trap him the same way but he had rejected their request for an interview and thus had had a "narrow escape". The Maoists have called a 24-hour countrywide bandh on October 3 to protest the arrest, according to PTI. Mahato's arrest apparently came under ally pressure, with Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee facing tough questions from RSP minister Kshiti Goswami at the last cabinet meeting. The move also appeared to be in line with the Centre's apparent strategy of picking up Maoist leaders in the run-up to a planned countrywide offensive this winter, although Mahato isn't a Maoist himself. However, the tactic of posing as journalists, though perhaps not illegal, may be ethically questionable. At least one media association has condemned the tactic. The media in the US and Canada, where police do dress up as reporters to arrest strike leaders or keep a tab on white supremacists, say the practice threatens the safety of real journalists. West Midnapore police chief Manoj Verma said Mahato faced "at least 15 cases, including murder, sedition and abduction", all relating to the Lalgarh agitation. It will be decided later whether to book him under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Sources said the trap had been laid with care. Six officers, drawn from the CID and district police, had been camping in Jhargram since Tuesday. "They collected the names of reporters who were in regular touch with Mahato and Kishanji," an officer said. "They convinced two of these reporters that they were journalists from a TV channel in Singapore. One officer identified himself as Anirban Roy and contacted Mahato with the help of these two Jhargram-based reporters." Two officers, posing as reporter and cameraman, travelled to Lalgarh from Jhargram on two motorcycles along with the two journalists. Within five minutes of the arrest, a police team stationed nearby arrived at the spot, and Mahato was taken to Midnapore town for interrogation. As the news of Mahato's arrest spread, the Maoists exploded a landmine at Dalilpur. No one was injured. |
Here's the news from the horse's mouth. The Indian economy will continue to improve. It will grow at 6 per cent — or even higher — in each of the remaining three quarters of the current financial year.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kolkata on Wednesday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said: "GDP growth in the second and subsequent quarters will surely be in excess of 6 per cent. I cannot say whether it will be 6.5 per cent or 6.7 per cent at this point in time." (GDP stands for gross domestic product - the value of goods and services produced in a country).
The Indian economy grew at 6.1 per cent in the first quarter (April-June). It had grown at 6.7 per cent last year, when it retained its position as the second-fastest growing large economy in the world — after China — for fourth straight year.
The Asian Development Bank had on Tuesday raised its projection for India's growth this year from 5 per cent to 6 per cent.
The finance minister added that the Reserve Bank of India should refrain from raising interest rates so as to allow the growth to gather momentum.
But a full recovery (read: a return to the 9 per cent growth trajectory of 2004-05 to 2007-08) will still take some time, Mukherjee said.
Terming the manner of the arrest as "unethical", top Maoist leader Kishenji told PTI over phone, "The police disguised as journalists have arrested Chhatradhar and that is not only unethical but it also puts a question mark on the intergrity and honesty of the mediaperson in general."
"The state government has received the Governor's approval during the day and formalities on number of offices and recruitments in the CMO will be placed for ratification at the next meeting of the state Cabinet," Chief Secretary Asoke Mohan Chakraborty said.
The plan to create the CMO, to be responsible for taking key decisions in government, was taken on September 16 by the state government to bring more transparency and flexibility in the administration.
Kishenji, speaking from an undisclosed location, said, "The incident happened as we have always maintained a very good relation with the media and the police have taken the advantage of our faith."
Earlier Mahato, the leader of People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), was arrested from Pirka near Lalgarh when he was preparing to give an interview to a journalist, who was trailed by the police.
The Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate also remanded eight others, arrested yesterday, to police custody till that date. The eight include persons arrested along with Mahato and those held during planting of a landmine at Katapahari.
Mahato, an alleged ally of the Maoists, was booked for three offences, including setting fire to Jhargram police outpost and torching of several other police stations.
Mahato, chief of the People's Committee against Police Atrocities, who had evaded police arrest ever since he started the anti-police stir in Lalgarh in West Midnapore district, was caught at Pirka, near Lalgarh, while he was giving an interview to a journalist who was followed by policemen posing as TV journalists.
Mahato, who was kept in the Midnapore Police Lines after his arrest yesterday, was brought to Jhargram amid tight security this morning.
Initially, he was taken to Jhargram police station from where he was taken to the court around noon.
The police custody of a Maoist leader Pradyot Mahato, who was arrested six days ago, was today extended by a Midnapore court till October 1.
Meanwhile, two police constables, who were abducted by the rebels after Mahato's arrest yesterday, remained untraced till date, the police said.
The constables -- Sisirkanti Nag and Siddheswar Prasad Singh -- were on leave and had boarded a Purulia-bound bus from Jhargram when armed men intercepted their vehicle near Tamajhuri village, eight km from Belpahari police station, last night, dragged them out and disappeared into the forest.
The PCPA today dug roads and obstructed a 30-km stretch between Midnapore and Dherua with tree logs in protest against Mahato's arrest. They also jammed roads leading to Lalgarh at several places with uprooted trees.
The PCPA has called a two-day 'Bangla Bandh' starting on September 30 and the Maoists have called a 'Bharat bandh' on October 3 in protest against the arrest.
When a TOI team took a recce around town looking for the best pandal, best idol and the best green pandal from amongst the Durga puja committees that registered for this year's Durge Devi Namastute contest, the enthusiasm of devotees only grew with the day.
South Delhi was dazzling like every year with its many famous pandals at Kali Bari, Mela Ground in CR Park and Matri Mandir puja at Safdarjung Enclave. But the pandal at Co-operative Ground in C R Park undoubtedly stood out with its thematic representation it looked like a cave with the idol seemingly cut out of stone. It also had statues of 10 other gods who gave their weapons to Durga when she was going to kill Mahishasur. At C R Park, almost every block had its own puja. Said Supriya Roy at the D Block puja where pandals had been decorated with ice-cream sticks, "Since, we all know each other in the block, we stay in the pandal till late in the night. This is the time we get to meet each other.''
Matri Mandir pandal made on the theme of Egyptian civilisation was not only frequented by locals but foreigners too. At Gurgaon, one of the biggest puja pandals was set up by Dakshin Gurgaon Puja Samiti. Built over 2.5 acre, the pandal has a separate area for bhog with air-coolers and also a separate food court. They even have a parking space for 1,000 cars.
East Delhi also had great ideas for celebrations. Etched in a different era, the pandal set up by Milani Cultural and Welfare Association in Mayur Vihar Phase I offered a peep into the rural version of the puja. Done up in mud and jute with traditional accessories, the pandal shows how a zamindar would have celebrated Durga Puja at his house almost 150 years ago.
Even the office of the association in the pandal resembled a zamindar's workplace with a curtain-fan on top that worked with hand. Anupam Saha, cultural secretary, said, "We decided on having a rural set-up to make the younger generation connect with their roots. The entire pandal is educative.''
The idol in the nearby Kali Bari puja was also breathtaking. Made of sola, a stem as soft as thermocol, it had been painted in green with vegetable colours to call for environment conservation. Surprisingly, the background was created with nearly 800 waste oil canisters cut out to place small idols. Said Pratip Dey, cultural secretary, Mayur Vihar Kali Bari Puja Samiti, "Using the tins was the children's idea. They collected waste tins from oil-sellers and restaurants.''
In far west, creativity and causes ruled the festivities. Quite a few pandals have been designed by professionals and bring alive the culture of West Bengal. The Nivedita Enclave Puja Samity had hired a well-known designer from Kolkata to set up the pandal for its silver jubilee. The designer mainly used bamboos and nearly 750 pot paintings while playing with shades of red to make the pandal stand out.
"We wanted to give the designers from the villages of West Bengal a chance to showcase their talent. We got around 12 artistes mainly from the villages near Diamond Harbour. They have made most of the pot paintings popular in West Bengal,'' said Amit Roy, chairperson, Nivedita Enclave Puja Samity, which spent nearly Rs 46 lakh this year.
Another puja just a few blocks away aimed at an old Bengali art. The puja pandal set up by the Paschim Vihar Bengali Association is built in the form of a temple made with `paat kathi' or jute stick. "Forty-five artistes worked for four months to make this pandal. They used an art which is gradually dying,'' said president Mahadev Das.
Every puja committee tried its best to host Ma Durga in the perfect way. While some had a strong concept behind the design of their pandals, others had beautiful idols. Some offered authentic Bengali cuisine and others invited the best performers from West Bengal. However, those which managed a little of everything might just be the winners of the Durge Devi Namastute contest. The winners will be informed about the result on Sunday.
"The Durga Puja of Bengal style was started in Varanasi over 200 years ago by a Bengali landlord, Babu Anandmay Mitra," said Tarun Kanti Basu, an elderly citizen. The descendants of the family still celebrate the festival in classical style at their ancestral place at Bengali Deodhi in Chaukhambha area. According to Basu, worshipping Shakti in the form of Mahishasurmadini was conceptualised in Karnataka and brought to Bengal by the founder of famous Sen dynasty of Bengal, Adi Shur Sen, who himself belonged to South Dharwad in Karnataka. "Shakti, the savior of good and destroyer of evil, is worshipped as eternal mother all over the country, but she is the dear daughter in Bengal," Basu said.
"In Bengal, it is a home coming of Goddess Durga as a daughter to her parental home along with her husband and children. The last day of Vijya Dashmi is celebrated as the farewell to the daughter amidst tears with a chanting `Punaragamanaaya cha' (please come back again)," said Basu.
Finance
"I am not prescribing a tight money policy", he said, pointing out that fiscal and monetary policies adopted by the government and the RBI to combat the slowdown are paying dividends and signs of recovery have started to show up.
The government proposed to borrow about Rs 4.5 lakh crore from the money market during the current fiscal against Rs 3.1 lakh crore in the previous fiscal.
RBI, which has considerably eased the monetary policy to provide liquidity to the crisis-hit industry, is slated to announce second quarterly review of the monetary policy on October 27.
Referring to the growth prospects during the current fiscal, the Minister expressed hope that the country would register over six per cent GDP growth. "Both the fiscal and the monetary policies are working well in tandem and paying dividends," he added.
| Also Read |
| → Advanced tax collection up in Q2 |
| → World Bank approves $4.3 bn in loans to India |
| → ADB gives India growth forecast upgrade to 6% |
| → India calls for strong G20 message against protectionism |
The Asian Development Bank in its recent update on the Asian Development Outlook has revised India's growth projections to 6 per cent from 5 per cent. The Planning Commission has projected 6.3 per cent economic expansion during the fiscal.
The minister told the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry AGM here that private borrowings would not be crowded out as a result of the government's borrowing programme.
On stimulus packages, he said it was not advisable at this point to withdraw them as they are helping in the reversal of the economic downturn.
On fiscal deficit, he sounded caution and said the budgeted fiscal deficit of 6.4 per cent of GDP was not sustainable.
Mukherjee said the rise in fiscal deficit had been due to a few items of special expenditure like payments for the Sixth Pay Commission and fiscal concessions under the stimulus packages.
He said the target was to bring it down to five per cent in 2011 and four per cent in 2012.
Expressing concern over the lagging exports (in dollar terms), the minister said that from October 2008 till date there has been no recovery.
This, according to him, was due to the downturn in the European economies and Japan.
On the impact of drought on agriculture, he said that the kharif crop had been affected.
However, the late rain would compensate for the loss in kharif and the rabi season is expected to be normal.
| Pressed hard for giving access to details of money stashed away by Indians and other overseas clients with them, Swiss banks have offered to tax this wealth on behalf of the respective foreign governments. India, where there have been long-running demand for concrete actions to bring back the black money lying in highly secretive Swiss banks, will begin talks in December for a new tax treaty with Switzerland so that it could get details about the defaulters. Besides India, a number of other countries are also said to be looking at similar treaties, while the US recently reached an agreement for giving access to close to 4,450 bank accounts of Americans with Swiss banking major UBS. As an alternative to the information exchange, Swiss banks have mooted the idea of a 'universal withholding tax', wherein they would tax the earnings generated from the wealth of foreigners deposited with them and transfer the proceeds to the government of the concerned country, and is currently discussing the same with the relevant authorities. When asked about the proposal and its applicability to the wealth deposited by Indians in Switzerland, Swiss Bankers Association's Head of International Communications James Nason told PTI from Basel: "We are in contact with the Swiss authorities about the proposal so it would be premature to publicise more details for the moment." While there are no details available about the amount of money deposited from India there, assets held on behalf of foreign clients at the end of June stood at 2,237 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 1,00,00,000 crore), which represented 56 per cent of total assets held in Swiss bank accounts. Out of this, about 694 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 30,00,000 crore) were held by foreign private clients. Speaking at the annual Swiss Bankers Day recently in Geneva, Swiss Bankers Association' CEO Urs P Roth said that the withholding tax would generate revenue to the individual countries from the wealth deposited by their people, without disclosing the identity of the account holder. Roth said that SBA was discussing the model with the Swiss Federal Tax Administration and it had been received with great interest among the Swiss authorities. "The model would generate tax revenues while respecting the privacy of bank clients and it would represent an efficient alternative to a system of automatic information exchange," he noted. If implemented, this proposal would allow banks to tax the earnings generated by the wealth deposited there. The Swiss banks have offered to charge tax directly at source on behalf of the foreign country with which a taxation agreement is in place. The revenue would be forwarded to the Swiss Federal Tax Administration for passing on to the client's country of domicile. However, the concerned client's identity would not be revealed. Indian drug market to triple to $ 20 bn by 2015: Report 27 Sep 2009, 0446 hrs IST, ET Bureau The Indian pharmaceutical market is expected to triple to USD 20 billion by 2015 from USD 7.1 billion in 2007 with a CAGR of 12.3%, and move into The report notes that In 2015, India could be a potential USD 8 billion market for MNCs with patented drugs accounting for nearly 8-10 % of the total market. The reasons are: The advent of the product patent regime in 2005. The patent infrastructure in the country has been appreciably upgraded over the past few years to support new laws with the addition of patent examiners, decentralization of the filing process and digitization of records. Patent-protected products have the potential to capture up to 8-10 % share of the total market by 2015, implying a market size of USD 2 billion . The population in the highest income class is expected to grow to 25 million in 2015 from 10 million today, which will drive the affordability of high value patented drugs. MNCs already present are further consolidating their presence in India while new entrants are increasing. MNCs are increasingly restructuring their operations with global parents increasing their equity stakes in their Indian affiliates. Companies such as BMS and Merck that had exited the Indian market have staged a re-entry . MNCs are acquiring Indian companies to expand their presence, e.g., Daiichi and Ranbaxy. The FICCI-E&Y report mentions that in addition, India also has a significant cost arbitrage in the conduct of clinical trials, including infrastructure, operational, patient recruitment, drug, manpower , data management and processing costs. Indian allied service market is growing at a CAGR of 21% as compared to 7.5% globally. The allied services outsourced market in India was estimated to be USD106m (2008) (1), growing at a rate of 21%. Although initially sponsors and CROs were driven to offshore locations due to their cost advantage , the focus has now shifted to the quality of delivery and responsiveness to business uncertainties . India, due to its proven track record of managing IT/ITES work and growing domain expertise, has emerged as an attractive destination for the entire segment. The FICCI-E&Y report states that India offers a conducive business environment to meet the emerging requirements of the allied services market . Its cost leadership and system capabilities, coupled with an abundant skilled and English-speaking talent pool, has made it a destination of choice for offshoring allied services . | |||||
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Though companies have managed to surprise the market with their performance , it has been largely due to the bottomline story. Even the growth in profits has been on account of severe cost-cutting measures rather than real growth.
The coming quarter could well be an indicator of things to come and if a good number of companies have a better story to tell for investors, it augurs well for the next couple of years. Already, sectors like auto and banking have turned in good performances and the turnaround in the fortunes of auto has been impressive.
The sector has emerged as one of the leaders in the recent rally after a dogged performance in the earlier boom. Though the turnaround was around the corner after a couple of years' lull, the swift recovery has been a surprise.
Another sector that survived the recent crisis and managed to post good returns is banking. The sector in general was in the limelight after the global financial crisis but the regulator's firm handing of the crisis has averted any crisis here. In fact, the rise in lending activities of the banking sector has been heartening and this is reflected in the rising stock prices.
| Also Read |
| → Sentiments keep stock markets up |
| → Should you enter the markets now? |
| → Capital loss can be set-off against gains |
| → Festival season numbers hold cues for investors |
While the going has been good for the markets on the back of a recovery, many stocks are still languishing at discounted values. Investors need to take a message from this environment as the recovery will ensure good times for fundamentally-good stocks. Speculative stocks have their days and may not go back to their old levels without the support of fundamentals. The lack of recovery is not restricted to stocks alone. Even many mutual fund schemes are struggling to reach par value though the indices have gained more than 100 percent since last October.
Going ahead, choose your portfolio's stocks with care as the recent run-up has made the task even tougher. Sectors like information technology, banking, and steel look safe even at current levels if you have the patience to hold them for at least 2-3 years.
The period of holding assumes significance as the rally has shown that those who have the patience have made more money than short-term investors. If you are tempted to dabble in stocks frequently, clearly ear-mark your portfolio into short and long-term .
The profits made out of shortterm trading can be ploughed back in the form of accumulation for long-term picks. Not only will it help in wealth creation but will also ensure that your portfolio retains the equity
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Duration: 00:51
Posted: 25 Sep, 2009, 1403 hrs IST
UNITED NATIONS — Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikha Hasina Wajed called Saturday for the United Nations to adopt Bengali as one of its official languages.
"The language Bangla (Bengali) is spoken by over 250 million people worldwide, primarily in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal," she said in an address before the UN General Assembly.
Noting that Bangladesh's parliament recently adopted a resolution calling on the UN to make Bengali one of its official languages, Wajed asked for the General Assembly to support a push for the language to be recognized.
"Given the rich heritage of Bangla language, and its singular place as a symbol of people's faith in the power of languages to sustain cultures, and indeed the identity of nations, I seek support of the membership of the UN General Assembly for its acceptance as an official language of the United Nations," she said.
While not widely spoken outside the region, Bengali is the language of famed poet Rabindranath Tagore, who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1913.
The world body has six official languages -- English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic. English and French are the daily working languages of the organization, though English is more frequently used than French.
By Sirshendu Panth
Kolkata, Sep 26 (IANS) Once regarded as electorally invincible, West Bengal's ruling Left Front is facing the biggest crisis in three decades with a united opposition determined to dethrone it in 2011.
There are enough signs that the coalition led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is finally facing the heat for the first time since taking office in June 1977.
Left Front veterans admit they are under siege. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee looks as if he is losing his earlier zeal for governance and industrialization.
"The Left is falling apart. They have remained in power so long by adopting strong-arm tactics. The people are fed up and the opposition is united. All their strategies are failing," Trinamool Congress central minister Sougata Roy told IANS.
Added Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee: "Recent trends reflect a general desire among the people for a change of government. People are determined to throw them out in 2011. The Left is in total disarray."
PWD Minister and Revolutionary Socialist Party leader Kshiti Goswami admitted that all was not right in the multi-party Front. "There have been exchanges among us. Some steps were taken which were against the interests of the farmers."
Ever since the CPI-M and its allies suffered a rout in the April-May Lok Sabha polls at the hands of the Trinamool and the Congress, the chief minister has stayed away from CPI-M leadership meetings.
Naturally, there is speculation that he may step down. He has denied this, but the rumours persist.
People who have seen the chief minister for decades insist that his body language and lacklustre speeches betray his drooping spirits.
The main reason for this is the collapse of his dream of making West Bengal an industrial hub again. Instead of boosting the Left's electoral fortunes, it only caused its electoral decimation.
While the government shelved a chemical hub at Nadigram following violent protests led by opposition parties, Tata Motors shifted its famed Nano car project from Singur to Gujarat after a Trinamool-sponsored campaign.
In 15 months, the Left has suffered heavily in all levels of elections.
The Lok Sabha elections saw the opposition grab almost two-thirds of all seats from the state.
Now the opposition is on a high. Ministers are suddenly talking at cross purposes, the CPI-M's allies pillory the government at every opportunity while inertia has gripped the administration.
The Left's downhill journey has continued even after the Lok Sabha ballot.
It fared poorly in civic body polls in June. In August it suffered humiliation when an independent backed by it lost her security deposit in a by-election from Bowbazar in Kolkata — for the first time since 1977.
The Congress-Trinamool alliance wrested the Siliguri Municipal Corporation in north Bengal, ending 27 years of Left hegemony.
Indirectly blaming the CPI-M, Minister Goswami told IANS: "There were issues of attitude. Front partners were not taken into confidence on some decisions. There is no doubt that public support for us has waned."
CPI-M central committee member Mohammed Salim told IANS that it was too early to make any forecast about 2011.
"The Trinamool-Congress combine won in Siliguri by mobilising the votes of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) which was happy to ensure the defeat of the Marxists at any cost.
"We are neither heart-broken nor complacent. We will expose the Trinamool and how it is using Maoists to kill our comrades in the three districts of Bankura, West Midnapore and Purulia," he said. "We are rejuvenating. Come 2011, the scene may be absolutely different."
But Amulya Saha, in his late 20s, wants the Left to go.
"My father was all through a CPI-M supporter. He is also now totally disenchanted. He hates the lack of readiness on the part of CPI-M leaders to carry out development work to benefit all sections."
However, 70-year-old Swapan Giri of West Midnapore still swears loyalty to the CPI-M. "The opposition can never run the government. The Left is the best bet for the toiling masses."
Left Front faces debacle in Siliguri civic body polls - Sep 15, 2009 West Bengal: a story of lawlessness and turf battles (News Analysis) - Aug 25, 2009 CPI-M will make Third Front workable: Biman Bose (Interview) - Apr 29, 2009 Left Front's massive show of strength in Kolkata (Lead) - Aug 31, 2009 Muslim-peasant factor, alliance arithmetic sink Left in Bengal (News Analysis) - May 17, 2009 Hooch tragedy is now poll issue in West Bengal - May 06, 2009 Trinamool ministers plan bounty for Bengal - Jun 14, 2009 700 Trinamool Congress workers join CPI-M in West Bengal - Mar 15, 2009 Mamata complains to governor about 'state sponsored' terrorism - Jun 15, 2009 LF uses Chakraborty's memorial meeting to lift cadres' sagging morale - Aug 15, 2009
Source:IANS
| Bengal CPM for army role in Maoist zone |
| OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT |
| Calcutta, Sept. 25: The CPM finds "little scope for debate" on the Centre's plan to deploy the army to tackle Maoists, but the party is not sure if the Left Front partners would be as welcoming. "Let the Centre decide and put the proposal before the state. But there is little scope for debate on this issue among us. The Maoists are operating as a regular army and they can be dealt with effectively by an army response," said CPM state secretariat member Benoy Konar. Party sources said Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today told his comrades at the weekly party state secretariat meeting that the matter of army deployment in Maoist areas was likely to come up in his meeting with Union home minister P. Chidambaram next month. Bhattacharjee is scheduled to visit Delhi on October 10 to attend a CPM politburo meeting the next day. Other state secretariat members said that the government and party leadership would first have to know the extent of the army's involvement in the operation and consider its political fallout before spelling out its position. A secretariat member brought up the question of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act that allows the army and the paramilitary to arrest, shoot or kill anyone who raises suspicion. "This may be suitable for the Northeast or Maoist-infested Chhattisgarh, but the situation is different in Bengal,'' said the secretariat member. "Nonetheless, we will welcome central action against the Maoists in Jharkhand who are using the state as their hideout and launching attacks across the border in Bengal's tribal zones," he said. The party, however, is not sure how to deal with the political fallout of such a move as its allies — the Forward Bloc, RSP and the CPI — have already opposed the joint operation against the rebels in Lalgarh as well as the banning of the CPI (Maoist). Forward Bloc secretary Debabrata Biswas rejected the idea of any military solution to the Maoist insurgency early this week and urged the government and the front for a political dialogue with the rebels. The RSP and the CPI aired similar views. The CPM state secretariat today also endorsed the "Enayetpur model" of armed resistance against Maoists in West Midnapore as a means to boost the sagging morale of the CPM cadres. Bhattacharjee, apparently under pressure from the rank and file, endorsed the party's preparation for armed "resistance against the Trinamul-Maoist nexus". "We are trying to organise a people's resistance against the Maoists and give them a befitting reply," Konar said. Maoists and CPM cadres fought a night-long gun battle in West Midnapore's Enayetpur on Monday. The rebels failed to overrun the CPM's "resistance". "Since the joint forces of the state and the Centre failed to stop the killing of our workers, the party has the right to self-defence,'' a secretariat member said. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090926/jsp/nation/story_11544701.jsp |
| Vol. XXXIII No. 39 September 27, 2009 |
People's DemocracyEight 'Maoists' Killed In Mass Resistance
B Prasant
THEY came to loot and burn, and they came to kill. They had to leave in a hurry in the face of stiff resistance, mass resistance, from thousands of rural folk who were determined to defend the Enayetpur CPI(M) office in Midnapore west. Biman Basu speaking to PD said that the 'people had maintained, successfully, the sanctity of a Party office above which the Red Flag flutters.'
What happened at Enayetpur commenced when around five in the afternoon – it was already by then dark in the jangal mahal as the short autumnal day rolled in – a large number of killers trooped in, and their clear, pre-decided aim was to burn the local CPI(M) office, which, Biman Basu reminded us, also acted as the shelter for those ousted from their home-and-hearth in nearby localities by the 'Maoist'-Trinamuli nexus of goons and hoods. Thus, he pointed out, a successful attack would have proved nothing short of a human tragedy of great proportions as the 'Maoist' hired killers are loathe to take prisoners.
As soon as the gangs of armed killers approached the CPI(M) office, firing automatic weapons in the air, holding aloft lit torches, and swinging along large jerry cans filled with kerosene, they ran into a solid wall of maybe ten thousand local villagers, lathis, dahs, and staves at the ready. It was simply a case of resist or be butchered. A struggle ensued that carried on well into the evening. The 'Maoist' killers, self-styled experts as they are in the criminal act of individual assassination, had not known before what mass fury constitutes.
After a brief hand-to-hand, close body contact struggle the 'Maoists' and their Trinamuli lackeys ran away. More than thirty of the villagers were left severely injured. It is also believed that the 'Maoist' attackers lost at least eight persons, dragging their wounded and the rest of the dead away as is their practice.
A large contingent of the joint security forces did make an appearance when the fracas was over and pleaded that the unknown terrain, the pitch-black darkness of the roads also rendered impassable, unfamiliarity of the surroundings, and discretionary caution had prevented then from appearing earlier.
SQUABBLING
Elsewhere the inner-squabbling between once-beloved-of-each-other 'Maoists' and Jharkhandis saw another step mounted as the former killed in cold blood three local level leaders of the latter outfit at Belpahari. In a related development, Asit Sarkar, a 'theoretician' of the 'Maoists' and later a leader of a breakaway Belpahari-based faction of the outfit was brutally done to death in the dark of the night of September 20, 2009.
In the meanwhile, at Sundarpur village in Murshidabad, the happiness of the Eid day was tragically robbed of its glad-tidings when a CPI(M) worker, Comrade Zachariah Sheikh was hacked to a painful demise in broad daylight by goons of the Pradesh Congress. Comrade Zachariah had been instrumental among those CPI(M) workers who had toiled hard to ensure a runaway win, after decades, for the CPI(M), at the Sundarpur Gram Panchayat this time around.
The same evening at Indus in Bankura, a CITU leader, Naba Ghosh was attacked and left with heavily bleeding injuries by the hoodlums in the pay and protection of the Trinamulis. Nanda is recovering in a local health centre.
http://pd.cpim.org/2009/0927_pd/09272009_7.html
West Bengal Economy
The Economy of West Bengal has undergone a roller coaster ride since independence. Considering the strong social and cultural heritage of the state, and also its status during the British Rule, West Bengal Economy has not done justice to its own potential. Moreover, the strong political consciousness of tis residents has often been detrimental to its progress and prosperity.
However, West Bengal (WB) has also had a lot of things in its favor. The state has taken significant decisions in terms of economy and infrastructure on numerous occasions.
Agricultural Sector of West Bengal Economy
Agriculture is the chief occupation of the people of West Bengal and much of this is due to the successful implementation of land reforms and the Green Revolution in the state. Majority of the population are farmers and agricultural laborers. Other characteristics of West Bengal are as follows:
Industrial Sector
West Bengal is known for its position among the leading industrialized states of India. Features of this sector are:
There are over 10000 registered factories in the state. Calcutta city is a major center for industries including the jute industry. There is also a number of steel plants in the West Bengal Economy. The Central Government has set up a number of industries in the areas of tea, sugar, chemicals, and fertilizers. Manufacturing industries like shoes, medicine and pharmaceuticals, weaving of cotton textiles, spinning and weaving of jute, manufacture of fabricated metal products and structural metal products, and production of ice and ink play a vital role in the economic life of the state.
In the past few years, West Bengal Economy has made remarkable progress towards industrialization. The State Government has patronized a lot of IT and IT Enabled Services industries. As a result, the state has been able to attract a considerable amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from various national and international sources. The West Bengal Economy is undergoing a renaissance in industrialization.
http://business.mapsofindia.com/india-state/west-bengal-economy.html
H. K. Bhattacharyya
WITH the Left parties being the major ally of the new Congress-led government at the Centre, it is but natural that they will have a major say in economic policy-making. To gauge the likely fallout of their influence, it may be relevant to see how the bastion of the Left, West Bengal, has been faring on the economic front.
West Bengal has joined the bandwagon of `poor States' — Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Assam and Tripura. The BIMARU States, which included Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, now stands modified to BINABU — with West Bengal replacing Rajasthan.
And among the metros, Kolkata, the pride of the Bengalis, is just about holding out.
Based on 18 indicators, such as income, consumption awareness and market infrastructure, Kolkata ranks third among the major 10 cities — behind Mumbai at the top and Delhi.
On the agriculture front, West Bengal has something to smile about. It is No. 1 in rice production, contributing 14.6 per cent of the country's total production, No. 2 in potato cultivation (34.4 per cent of the total) and No. 1 in jute and mesta, contributing 71.6 per cent of the total output.
But in terms of per capita foodgrains production (2000-01), it ranks eighth and in per capita gross industrial output and value added in industries, 12th.
The Budget for 2004-05 estimates tax and non-tax revenues to grow at 18.4 per cent and 30.4 per cent respectively, generating Rs 1,904 crore.
Though the Budget presents a rosy picture, the reality is not so. The finances are in a shambles.
The revised estimates of Budget 2003-04 show that wages, pension and interest payments constitute 101 per cent of the revenue receipts and, of this, interest liability alone make up 43.3 per cent — the highest among 15 States. In 2003-04, sales tax revenues fell by Rs 36 crore, land revenues by Rs 15 crore, excise Rs 9 crore, revenue from taxes on goods and passengers Rs 4.2 crore and other taxes Rs 28 crore.
However, the revenue from electricity duty rose substantially, by Rs 210 crore. Stamp duty and motor vehicle tax collections also went up, by Rs 14 crore and Rs 40 crore respectively.
In the current year, the estimated annual interest liability is expected to be Rs 13,604 crore and the wage bill for government employees, Rs 12,000 crore; these work out to 35.3 per cent and 3.1 per cent, respectively, of the State's total Budget.
There is hardly any possibility of introducing entry tax, value-added tax and tax on services, but the Government seems optimistic about furthering growth and productivity and generating five-lakh extra jobs through diversification of agriculture; pisciculture, for instance, is expected to create 70,000 jobs.
Cutting subsidies to the State's electricity board and the transport sector, lowering non-Plan expenditure, reducing interest payments gradually, containing the growth in salaries and pensions within 5 per cent and 10 per cent respectively and steadily increasing the State Domestic Product (touching 7.6 per cent) would go a long way in addressing the financial crisis.
Revenue receipts make up more than two-thirds of the total revenue of the State. The other channels of revenue include borrowings from the Centre, the market and the contingency fund and through small savings and remittances.
As the finances are in disarray, the State may find it difficult to focus on developmental work.
In 2002-03, the State Government did not spend Rs 3 crore of `grant allocation' meant for various highway projects; a benefit that would have accrued to the residents.
In a study of 19 States based on 46 parameters, including infrastructure, education, health, investment, consumer market, and law and order, across eight categories, West Bengal was ranked 14 during the period 1991-2001, with Goa placed first and Bihar, the last.
Though the State has an impressive record in land reforms and decentralisation, its economy has slid perceptibly over the years; about 75 per cent of the registered SSIs in the State are sick. The private sector is wary about investing and the gross fiscal deficit as a percentage of State Gross Domestic Product was a whopping 8.5 per cent in 1999-2000, the highest among the States.
Bringing the economy on a par with the advanced States would be difficult unless, of course, the people of Bengal decide to take up the challenge. And this would entail a change in mindset.
(The author is a New Delhi-based project management consultant.)
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/05/18/stories/2004051800011100.htm
Navaratri - Festival of Nine Nights
Navaratri is a composite festival celebrated all over India. Depending on gauna - local tradition, but for most beginning with the New Moon (Amavasya - dark moon night) or for some on the ninth day of the month of Virgo (Kanya) just prior to the Amavasya, or on the first day of the Hindu month of Ashwina (Padmanabha - Vaishnava mase), various ceremonies are performed. T essesnce of this festival consists of fasts and worship of nine aspects of Durga, one on each of the nine days. Navaratri is known as the Festival of Nights honoring the goddesses beginning
Consequently this festival of Navaratri is popularly known as Durga Puja in Bengal. After these nine days comes the Dashami, the tenth day, which is the day of the famous festival of Dussehra or Vijaya Dashami ( the tenth day of victory ). This is the day Lord Rama had killed Ravana, signifying the victory of good over evil. Vaishnavas generally being absorbed in Vijay Dashami rather than Durga puja.
The total period of worship lasts for nine days out of which the first three are dedicated to Durga ( the Goddess of Valor ), the next three to Lakshmi ( the Goddess of Wealth ) and the last three to Saraswati ( the Goddess of Knowledge ). The Deity images of Them are created, worshipped and immersed in a sea or lake. In Gujarat, Garbha dance is performed. In the South, houses are decorated and toys by the name of Bomma Kolam are displayed. Durga has 1008 names or epithets but is worshipped in her nine forms which are sometimes interchangeable since basically they represent only her.
The following are the most popular forms of the goddess under which she is worshipped: Durga, goddess beyond reach; Bhadrakali, the Auspicious Power of Time; Amba or Jagadamba, Mother of the World; Annapurna, Giver of Food and Plenty; Sarvamangala, Auspicious Goddess; Bhairavi, Terrible, Fearful, Power of Death; Chandika or Chandi, Violent, Wrath, Fury; Lalita, Playfulness Personified; Bhavani, the Giver of Existence.
Navratri, is celebrated as the festival of nine nights, and is celebrated differently in different parts of India. In Gujarat, for nine nights, women and girls decked in finery, dance the garba around an earthen lamp or a kalash (pitcher) symbol of divine power, which is decorated with flowers and betal leaves, and has its mouth covered with a coconut. They sing and dance, clapping their hands in rhythmic movements, or do the Dandi dance (stick dance), holding two sticks and striking them to the rhyth, of the music.
In Tamil Nadu, the first three days of the festival are dedicated to Lakshmi, Goddess of Beauty and Prosperity; the next three days to Durga, Goddess of Righteousness, and the last three days to Saraswati, Goddess of Music and Learning. These goddesses are the consorts of Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma respectively. A special platform is decorated with the clay figurines of these gods and goddesses. The main room of worship contains a pitcher made of clay, silver or copper, depending on the devotee's financial standing. The pitcher is placed in the centre of the room, its mouth covered with a cocnut and it is worshipped symbolically as Durga. Girls sing and dance before it and in the evening, gifts are exchanged.
In Andhra Pradesh the temple in the house is decorated with clay images of the Deities. A special sweetmeat like laddoos or sweet rice coloured yellow with turmeric, or khir (milk-preparation cooked in rice) is made eve3ry day and after offering to the household gods, is eaten. Everyone wears new clothes and friends drop in to see the family's collection of images.
In Maharastra on the first day of navaratri the idol of Yogeshvari, a benign form of Durga, is installed in the house and the Haldi-Kum kum ceremony is held. Haldi (turmeric) and kum kum (vermilion) is applied on the forehead and sandalwood paste is smeared on the arms of all the invitees as these are considered auspicious.
Durga Puja:
As just mentioned, in Bengal especially where there are many Shaktas (worshippers of the female consort of Lord Shiva - Durga), it is a nine-day festival, when the Shakti or goddess Durga is worshipped, thus it is called Durga Puja. This commemorates the birth of the Mother Goddess, and has an interesting origin. An Asura, Mahisha, was troubling the three worlds of heaven, earthy and the space between. When his atrocities became unbearable, Shiva tried his best to kill him, but without success. The other gods were equally unsuccessful. Then, on Shiva's advice, the devas / demigods performed a sacrifice and put their female shaktis (energies) into the sacrificial fire from where arose a woman of dazzling beauty. As a product of the female energies of the deavas /demigods, she was called Shakti. The demigods requested her to kill Mahishasura. For killing him, she came to be called Mahishasuramardini. Similarly, for killing the demon called Durg, she came to be called Durga.
Months before the festival, a special clay image of the demi-goddess is made showing her in the act of killing the demon Maishasura. The clay for the image is brought from ten places of work: of a farmer, weaver, painter, carpenter, musician, drummer, blacksmith, sweeper, bricklayer and a prostitute. Durga is also called Sarba Jananni, a goddess for all (common folk), and is shown riding her mount, the lion. The image of Durga is lavishly decorated. For nine days, she is worshipped and on Vijayadashami (Dusshera), the tenth day, the day the goddess was victorious over the evil asura, her clay image is immersed in the ocean or river. This immersion symbolises Durga's return to her husband Shiva on the conclusion of her annual visit to her parental house.
During Navratri, Durga is worshipped under different names such as Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri, and Siddhatri. She is also worshipped as Mahakali for killing the demons, Madhu and Kaitabha, who, for thousands of years troubled Vishnu. When they stole the holy Vedas from the hands of Brahma, who was sitting on a lotus stalk arising from Vishnu's navel, Vishnu invoked the goddess and she killed the two demons. She is also worshipped as Chamunda for killing the demons Chunda and Munda; as Nanda for predicting the death of Kansa (Kamsa) at the hands of Krishna; as Sakhambari for protecting the world from famine; as Kumari, the eternal virgin and so on.
Maha-navami:
The culmination of the Navratri festival is Mahanavami when the goddess is worshipped as Durga in the form of Aparajita and sugarcane stalks are offered to her. Sugarcane is harvested at that time. On this day, in rural Kashmir, Punjab, Harayana, Uttara Pradesh and Bihar, Kanya Puja is performed, when nine young virgins, symbolically representing the nine forms of the goddess, are worshipped. Their feet are washed and they are feasted after each has been given new clothes by the worshipper. In some parts of Kashmir, Harayana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharastra instead of Mahanavami, the celebrations end on the astami, the eighth day, as it is the birthday of Parvati, the auspicious form of Durga.(Note, this is also the month of Virgo, the virgin - Kanya)
Dussehra:
While in certain parts of India the cult of the Mother Goddess is strong and Navratri celebrations culminating in Vijayadashami take preceedence over other festivities, in other parts of India Dussehra celebrations are given more importance. Ramalila, the life of Rama as portrayed in the Ramayan is enacted for nine days. Jhankis (tableaux) are taken out in procession, showing on each day one stage of Rama's life. On the tenth day, massive effigies of Ravana, his younger brother Kumbhakarna and son Meghanatha (Indrajit) are erected, stuffed with fire-crackers and set aflame at sundown. The fire is triggered by an arrow shot by the man playing Rama and thus evil in the form of Ravana is destroyed. See the page on Vijay Dashami - victory of Rama for more on this.
In Kulu, Himachal Pradesh, Dussehra takes place three days later. The reason for this goes back to the time of Maharaj Ranjit Singh, the ruler of the Punjab. The hill states of Punjab, now in Himachal Pradesh were under the court at Lahore. The Maharaj expected all his tutelary kings to be present at his court during the Dussehra celebrations. The rulers with their retinues would mount their horses immediately after the celebrations were over at Lahore (presently in Pakistan), and speed back to their hill kingdoms to celebrate Dussehra there. It took them three days to reach their states. And since then the custom of celebrating Dussehra three days late has continued.
Here the unique feature of the festival is that instead of burning effigies of Ravana and his brothers Kumbhakarna and Meganatha as in other places, instead five animals - a cock, a fish, a lamb, a crab and a buffalo – are sacrificed and a pile of wood is burnt seven days later to symbolise the victory of good over evil. Why, we could not find out, even such sacrifice is not sanctioned in this age, still it goes on.
Tastefully decorated idols of village dieites from all over the valley are brought in palanquins to the venue of the festival. The main goddess Hidimbaa (Hidimbi), a form of Durga, demon wife of Bhima and mother of Ghatokacha, is brought in procession from the pagoda structure temple at Dhungri in Manali. The procession is led by musicians and dancers performing the Nati dance which is very popular.
A large fair organised during the celebrations offers the visitors a glimpse of the traditional culture of the distant tribal areas of Lahaul and Spiti, Pangi, Pin and Parvati. Since these areas get snowbound about twenty days later the fair provides the people living across the Rohtang Pass an opportunity to purchase their essential provisions for the long winter months when they are forced to remain indoors (possibly this is where the sacrifice of animals comes in, as for some in these remote and hardy lands they are their livelihood and food).
In Karnataka (South India) lemons are placed on the road in front of the wheels of cars, buses, scooters and the vehicles driven over them. It is also a symbolic representation of sacrifice whereby dhrishti, inauspiciousness is removed. Also, a slit is made in a big gourd and vermilion is spirinkled on it, then the gourd is crushed and the red extract is sprinkled on all vehicles as a symbol of sacrificial blood. Such symbolic sacrifice in this age is prefered to causing harm to other living beings. In Karnataka the great devotee Ananda Tirtha - Madhwacharya fought hard in the 13th century to replace animal sacrifices with such symbolic representations after being instructed to do so by the son of Saci, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as mentioned in Bhavishya Purana, Pratisarga parva, Kali yuga khanda 19th chapter and similarly recorded in his establishment of offerings through the mantra idam krishnaya idan na mama (Sumadhwa Vijay).
Dussehra, associated with the burning of Ravana's effigy, is a public celebration. In homes, the most important article of the household is kept in the place of worship. For instance, the farmer puts his plough; the housewife her churning rod; the weaver his spinning wheel; the soldier his weapons and so on. On the first day of the ten-day festival of navaratri and Dussehra, grains of barley are planted. On the last day, the nine-day old shoots called noratras are placed on the articles to be worshipped along with grains of rice and vermilion poder, all fertility symbols. Noratras are also put on the caps of men, behind their ears, and in books to bring good luck. Sisters apply a tilak (vermilion mark) on the forehead of brothers and put noratras behind their ears and bless them. The head of the family writes down the names of all the family members present on this occasion. It is a method of keeping a record of the family geneaology. Depending upon the family's profession, the current prices are noted down, for instance the goldsmith writes the prevalent prices of gold and silver and the farmer the price of grains and so on. Soon after this festival, the sugarcane crip is harvested, and the winter crops sown (northern hemisphere). (much taken from Shakti M Gupta. 1991. Festivals, Fairs and fasts of India. Pages 124-128.)
Navratri in the Gujarat:
The historical background:
Navratri or the Festival of Nine Nights from Ashvin Sud 1 to 9 (sudha – shukla pratipat to the navami) is devoted to the propitiation of Shakti or Divine Mother. She represents prakriti, counterpart of Purusha jointly making possible the creation of the world according to the religious ideology of Goddess worship. Such worships were prevalent in India even before the so-called advent of the Aryans, who adopted it as a religious practice. References in Vedas and Puranas confirm this opinion. The main temples of mother goddess that are visited by multitude of devotees during Navratri are the shaktipithas, of which there are three in Gujarat. It is believed that Lord Vishnu had to cut the body of Sati into pieces to stop the destruction by Shiva who was perturbed by her death. At fifty-two places these pieces fell, the three in Gujarat being; Ambaji in Banaskantha, Bahucharaji in Chunaval and Kalika on Pavagadh hill in Panchmahals. Others were Kali ghatt in Calcutta, Kanya kumari in the far south, Menekshi Devi at Madurai, and so on.
This festival is essentially religious in nature. It is celebrated with true devotion in the various temples dedicated to the Mother, or Mataji, as she is familiarly called. In some homes, images of the Mother are worshipped in accordance with accepted practice. This is also true of the temples, which usually have a constant stream of visitors from morning to night.
Celebration Galore:
The most common form of public celebration is the performance of garba or dandia-ras, Gujarat's popular folk-dance, late throughout the nights of these nine days in public squares, open grounds and streets. Females wear ethnic Chania Choli and Males wear Dhoti-Kurta and enjoy garba and dandiya ras (dance) the whole Night. The participants move round in a circle around a mandvi (garbo), a structure to hold earthen lamps filled with water and to house the image or idol of mother goddess. A betel nut and a silver coin are placed within the pot, called a kumbh, on top of which a coconut has also been placed. Pandals are erected over these madvis and decorated with asopalav, date palm leaves, flowers and electric light. As the dancers whirl around the pot, a singer and a drummer provide the musical accompaniment. The participants clap in a steady rhythm. The dance usually starts slowly. It gets faster and faster as the music too gets more rapid until the dance abruptly comes to a halt. There is a pause for a while and the dance commences once again, the singer leading with a new song.
Another dance which is also a feature of Navaratri is the dandia-ras or 'stick' dance, in which men and women join the dance circle, holding small polished sticks or dandias. As they whirl to the intoxicating rhythm of the dance, men and women strike the dandias together, adding to the joyous atmosphere. So popular are the garba and the dandia-ras that competitions are held to assess the quality of the dancing. Prizes are given to those judged to be the best. The costumes worn for the dances are traditional and alive with colour. The dances usually commence late in the night and continue until early morning, testifying to their great popularity.
Navratri in Gujarat:
In different parts of the state the celebration of Navratri has different emphasis. In Saurashtra, bhavai, a dance drama is played. At Vadnagar in Mehsana Vada Garbani Sheri is focus of the attention as large number of men and women participate in garba-rasa. In Ahmedabad the fusion of modern music is at its peak and youngsters have gala time. The overnight extravaganza is worth witnessing for pomp, splendour and exhilaration that permeates everywhere. Isanpur near Ahmedabad is famous for its mandvi, which is erected on the thirteenth day with arti being performed the next day early in the morning. Account of Navratri would be incomplete without reference to Vadodara, the city of art and culture. Here, a number of groups perform garba-rasa stick dancing in quite professional manner. A bhavai performance is also held at Baroda's Ambaji temple, during Navratri. The grace and dignity of the performances of Baroda leaves nothing to chance for its perfection.
Navratri is thus the festival that combines religious, devotional, cultural and recreational activities for almost a fortnight in different places for various reasons. As one friend from the Gujarat once said, To be in Gujarat during Navratri is to witness Gujarat at her best.
Navratri in Mysore state has its own local significance
India's invisible poor: Child trafficking
Tens of thousands of children in India are trafficked every year. Poor families are most vulnerable after the floods when families become separated. With the rainy season about to begin, what do the elections mean for these children at risk
- Stuart Shahid Bamforth, Lindsay Poulton, Michael Tait and Jacqui Timberlake
- guardian.co.uk,
- Saturday 16 May 2009
Rich bullies, we need you
So the G20 has seen off the G8. But let's not kid ourselves: only the G5 has real global clout
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- guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 September 2009 21.30 BST
- Article history
And then there were 20. From Pittsburgh comes the announcement that the Group of 20 – the world's 20 largest economies – gathered there will permanently replace the Group of Eight as the main global economic forum. There is little doubt that change was needed. The challenges of the 21st century are going to be global. The financial crisis and climate change are not just important in themselves, they are paradigmatic – and suggest the need for more collaboration, rather than conflict, between the United States and China. A world depression would have sunk all boats. If climate change continues unchecked, Florida will be lost to the ocean and the Himalayan snow and ice fields will melt: the two superpowers are going to find themselves on the same side on the key global issues.
The reality is that no G-force will be a panacea for the new global challenges. The necessary globally representative political architecture will never be built as long as national governments remain profoundly unwilling to cede sovereignty – attitudes that are getting yet more entrenched.
In a world that needs collective action but is composed of 194 governments, the overarching problem is free-riding. The burden of global leadership inevitably will fall on those few governments that are manifestly too big to free-ride. There will be only five such governments: America, China, India, Japan and the 27-in-one European Union. Over the next decade each of these governments will realise that it can be a deal-breaker: if it tries to free-ride, the other four will refuse to step up to their responsibilities. These five will be the G5, the group that runs the world.
At the other end of the spectrum, the 60 or so countries of the bottom billion will barely register. Currently, they account collectively for just 1% of world income, and so on most global issues their participation will not be sufficiently important to warrant attention. In some of these issues, as with climate change, global collective action will matter more for them than for the rest of mankind, but they will not be able to influence events.
Between the G5 and the G60 will be the countries that individually can free-ride, but which in aggregate matter a lot for most global issues: the G103. The geopolitics of the 21st century will be a struggle between the G5, who will have no alternative but to behave responsibly, and the G103. While the G5 will perforce be a genuine group, the G103 will be a sack of potatoes: since their only common interest will be to free-ride, they will not even have an incentive to co-operate among themselves.
However distasteful it may be to have the G5 running the 21st century world, it may be a considerable improvement on the 20th century. The G5 will be united only on issues where there is an unmistakable global interest, as with climate change. It is difficult to imagine such a heterogeneous group finding issues on which their joint interest is at the expense of the global interest. Rather, in benefiting themselves they will inadvertently serve the global interest, and especially that of the bottom billion.
The G5 will need to find a mixture of carrots and sticks with which to dissuade the G103 from free-riding. I suspect that carrots will usually prove too expensive: the G103 will collectively be a substantial part of the world economy, and many of them will be richer than China and India, so the appetite for generosity will be limited. So the G5 will be bullies in the global interest. The use of trade restrictions to induce compliance with low-carbon emissions will be a precursor of such strategies. This may initially look very familiar: rich countries bullying the rest. This will be because China and India may take a decade or so to face the reality that they are too big to evade their role.
The bottom billion will face a paradox. Distasteful as it will be, the G5 is likely to evolve into the best available substitute for the utopian idea of global governance. The bottom billion will lack representation, but their core needs for global collective action will be met. Periodically they will ally as the G103 to try to build a more representative global authority, but attempts to replace the G5 will face a grim reality; in practice, the only alternative to the G5 would be a toothless global organisation that could not prevent free-riding.
The 20th century architecture for geopolitics – the G8 – was today all but consigned to history. The G20 may be more fit for purpose, but let's not kid ourselves about what it really is: the G5 plus observers. We will need it again and again.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/25/g8-g2-g5-global-governance
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India can't play the victim on climate change
Its poor may have small carbon footprints, but that is a specious excuse for not taking a global lead on the issue
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- guardian.co.uk, Sunday 27 September 2009 12.00 BST
- Article history
The Copenhagen conference on climate change will most likely fail. And two parties will bear the principal responsibility for its failure: the United States and India. No one should be surprised by President Hu Jintao's pledge to significantly reduce his country's CO2 emissions. Beijing's dictatorship is keen to assuage international anxieties. But Washington and New Delhi cannot indulge international opinion at the expense of alienating their domestic constituencies.
President Obama simply cannot afford to advocate further austerity to Americans reeling under a recession, and Jairam Ramesh, India's pugnaciously articulate environment minister, won't be satisfied unless Obama does precisely that. As Ramesh explained to an American interviewer on Tuesday: "In the United States, emissions are lifestyle emissions. For [India], emissions are developmental emissions. You're asking [India] to compromise on development ... You change your lifestyle and then we'll think of compromising on development."
India's argument resonates throughout the developing world. From Brazil to Bangladesh, Obama's sermon on shared responsibility strikes as an affront, akin to a burglar telling his victim to split the defence costs. The voluptuaries of the west may advocate, without a hint of remorse or irony, that billions of people in India and China and Africa renounce material comforts and advancement which developed nations take for granted; but developing nations seem to be firm in their conviction that, though climate change is a real threat, those who have contributed overwhelmingly to its causes – and continue to pollute the planet in the spirit of carpe diem – must also be the ones to devise and pay for solutions to curb it.
But India has a habit of invoking the injustices of the past to suppress the failures of present. New Delhi repeatedly refers to the fact that, measured by per capita emissions, India ranks near the bottom of the list of worst polluters. This may be true, but it is a disingenuous argument. Per capita figures are meaningless (and unjust) because they are arrived at by apportioning the pollution that is principally produced in the urban centres, where wealth is concentrated, in equal measure to a billion individuals – an overwhelming majority of whom have been denied the dividends of pollution. India is adducing its poor as the reason for its intransigent stand. But its recent history is replete with instances of the state displacing the poor to create vacant lands for wealthy corporations – in effect socialising the costs of pollution while privatising its profits. Unlike corporations, the planet belongs to everyone. So concessions on emissions, if they can be worked out, must be linked to the equitable distribution of profits derived from pollution.
Working to prevent climate change will not be enough. States must actively seek to establish contingency measures to deal with its consequences. Bangladesh's land mass is literally shrinking. It is more than likely that India will have a colossal humanitarian crisis on its hands in the not too distant future, with Bangladeshis crossing the border into West Bengal on a scale that will make 1971 appear puny. India cannot turn them back, but it cannot conceivably bear the cost of their absorption alone. New Delhi should start pushing for a global fund from which it can draw later. As a country that has lost more lives to climate change than any other, India also has a duty to make its rich – the beneficiaries of its emissions, the inhabitants of its mini-Americas – pay the costs.
Regardless of the results of the Copenhagen summit, India must stop playing the victim and take the lead in combatting climate change. It has already made impressive strides, and the government has announced a series of ambitious plans to produce renewable energy and substantially reduce India's dependence on fossil fuels. According to the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi, solar thermal power plants can fulfil India's energy needs. Since sunlight is abundant, the "potential is unlimited". India could electrify not only itself but all of Asia and Africa. In the process, it could help save humankind from extinction. This would be a fitting tribute to its founder, Pandit Nehru, who at the turbulent time of its founding dedicated India to the "larger cause of humanity".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/sep/27/india-climate-change-emissions
G20 Power Shift Boosts India And China
World leaders have declared the Group of 20 nations will become the top economic forum - spreading influence to emerging powers like China and India. Skip related content
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The dramatic shift was announced by the White House as US President Barack Obama hosted his first major summit in Pittsburgh.
A statement said: "Leaders endorsed the G20 as the premier forum for their international economic co-operation.
"This decision brings to the table the countries needed to build a stronger, more balanced global economy, reform the financial system, and lift the lives of the poorest."
The move means the G20 overshadows the G8 - which included only wealthy nations Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and America - and relegates it to become a forum for discussing geopolitical issues.
The Pittsburgh talks have been marred by violent scenes, as anti-capitalist protesters clashed with police on Thursday.
More rallies were expected and riot officers have been preparing for trouble.
Meanwhile, G20 leaders were closing in on a deal to tighten financial regulations after last year's market meltdown.
A draft text said the summit would agree bankers' bonuses should be curbed and call for government stimulus measures to be maintained until the global economic recovery was cemented.
Leaders would advise "limiting bonuses to a percentage of total net revenues when it is inconsistent with maintenance of a sound capital base," a G20 source said, quoting from the draft.
"We'll avoid any premature withdrawal of stimulus," the source said, adding that measures which have seen trillions poured into the key sectors over the past year should be maintained "until a durable recovery is secured".
A Chinese central bank official also predicted a move on International Monetary Fund voting rights, saying developing countries had been under-represented in key financial institutions for too long.
World leaders have pledged to work for comprehensive IMF reform and there is a long-term consensus on the need to address imbalances in voting power.
But some European nations have balked at losing their influence.
For Brazil, China, India and other emerging countries, it is crucial to achieve a breakthrough in negotiations in Pittsburgh, so the IMF can endorse the reform at its annual meeting on October 6 to 7 in Istanbul.
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Air India flights disrupted by pilot protest
State-owned Air India said it cancelled 11 flights on Saturday after some pilots reported sick in protest at a decision by the loss-making airline to slash productivity bonuses. Skip related content
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Air India posted an $875 mln loss in the last financial year The action by the national flag carrier's non-unionised senior pilots came as India's biggest religious festival season of the year got under way, disrupting travel plans.
"We had to cancel 11 flights as some pilots reported sick but we managed to fly over 250 flights," Air India spokesman Jitender Bharghava told AFP.
Airline management would meet with the pilots on Sunday in Mumbai to discuss their complaints, Bharghava said.
The airline, which is struggling to return to profit, announced last Wednesday cuts of 25 to 50 percent in productivity incentives for more than 7,000 employees, including top management, as part of cost-reduction efforts.
Bhargava said Air India, whose once-dominant market share has shrunk to 16 percent in the face of fierce competition from private carriers, needed to cut expenses to keep flying.
"It's pretty well known that as a state-owned carrier we can't retrench people like Japan Airlines," he said, referring to the Japanese airline's announcement this month that it planned to cut 6,800 jobs in a bid to become profitable again.
The flight cancellations came after the senior pilots' representative, Captain V.K. Bhalla, said "the executive pilots have taken a decision to go on strike because nobody is in a state of mind to work due to the salary cuts."
Bhalla said performance-linked pay incentives account for up to 70 percent of total pay of Air India's senior pilots, who are not unionised.
It was not immediately clear how many of the 319 senior pilots would take part in the protest. But the union which represents the airline's lower-ranked pilots would not replace any senior pilots who did not turn up for work, Indian media outlets reported.
"We are morally with the executive pilots as their salary cut is very steep," said Shailendra Singh, president of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association.
The Air India protest follows a mass pilot "sick-in" two weeks ago at India's second-largest carrier Jet Airways that threw the country's airline travel into chaos for five days.
The Jet Airways pilots were protesting against the dismissal of colleagues who started a union.
Air India, which employs over 31,000 people and pays more than 30 billion dollars in wages annually, posted an 875-million-dollar loss in the financial year to March 31, 2009.
Productivity-linked incentives make up the bulk of its payroll expenses.
India's Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has said the airline must "shape up" to receive a government bailout expected to total one billion dollars over three years.
The airline has recently advertised in major newspapers worldwide for a chief operating officer to streamline operations and help it emerge from its financial troubles.
Iran tests new short-range missiles
Iran has tested new missiles as its elite Revolutionary Guards begin several days of war games, state television has reported. Skip related content
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Iran tests new short-range missiles Iran's English-language television channel, Press TV, confirmed the launch of two short-range missiles and showed what they say are the latest pictures of the military exercise.
It comes amid an international row over the country's nuclear capability.
David Miliband warned that the Middle Eastern regime must take "concrete steps" to allay fears that it is building a nuclear arsenal.
The Foreign Secretary insisted that the focus remains on a diplomatic solution after revelations that Iran is building another nuclear facility.
But he repeatedly declined invitations to describe military intervention as "inconceivable".
Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under pressure after the existence of the covert site, buried in a mountainside near the holy city of Qom, was revealed.
Emerging nations big winners at re-born G20
World leaders unveiled a new vision for economic governance, with bold plans to fix global imbalances and give more clout to emerging giants such as China and India. Skip related content
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The Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh committed the International Monetary Fund to shifting at least five percent of its internal voting rights to the developing world and tasked it with a bigger monitoring role.
"The Fund must play a critical role in promoting global financial stability and rebalancing growth," a final statement from leaders of the G20 developed and developing nations said.
Paired with an earlier announcement that the G20 has been promoted over the Group of Eight rich countries to become the world's top economic forum, the two days in Pittsburgh have seen a seismic shift in global economic diplomacy.Facts: Key agreements
President Barack Obama, hosting his first major international summit, said the G20 had agreed landmark reforms that would create the international economic architecture necessary in the globalized 21st century.
"We will bring more transparency to the derivatives market. We will strengthen national capital standards so that banks can withstand losses and pay for their own risks," he said.
"We will create more powerful tools to hold large global financial firms accountable and orderly procedures to manage failures without burdening taxpayers.
"And we will tie executive pay to long-term performance so that sound decisions are rewarded instead of short-term greed."
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh welcomed the decision to replace the G8, which he described as "ill-equipped" to oversee the modern global economy.
"With the rise of Asia, with growth of India, China and Brazil, the economic decision-making has to take into account the views of these countries if it is to have an optimum impact," he said.
Chinese President Hu Jintao said: "Both developed and developing economies should take more solid and effective measures and make greater effort to boost consumption and expand domestic demand."
The G20 also agreed it was too early to begin to scale back the multi-trillion dollar stimulus measures that have helped stave off further economic misery following last year's financial meltdown.
"We will avoid any premature withdrawal of stimulus. At the same time, we will prepare our exit strategies and, when the time is right, withdraw our extraordinary policy support in a cooperative and coordinated way, maintaining our commitment to fiscal responsibility," the final statement said.
During two days of meetings in the aptly chosen re-born former steel city of Pittsburgh, considered a model for economic transformation, there was also tough talk about curbing banking excess, a symbolic issue for many taxpayers.
Leaders, unable to come to enforce measures on the banks, could only muster a pledge -- thin on detail -- to impose "strong international compensation standards aimed at ending practices that lead to excessive risk-taking."
Banks themselves should also expect tighter regulation and monitoring as the excesses of the recent past came in for heavy suspicion in a strongly worded part of the G20 accord.
"We call on banks to retain a greater proportion of current profits to build capital, where needed, to support lending," it said.
"All firms whose failure could pose a risk to financial stability must be subject to consistent, consolidated supervision and regulation with high standards."
The biggest announcement came overnight and was about the Group of 20 itself.
"Today, leaders endorsed the G20 as the premier forum for their international economic cooperation," a White House statement said.
"This decision brings to the table the countries needed to build a stronger, more balanced global economy, reform the financial system, and lift the lives of the poorest."
The G8 -- wealthy nations Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States -- has served in various forms as the premier economic forum since 1975 and holds closely-watched annual summits.
As leaders flew home after a hectic week of international diplomacy that saw them first at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Pittsburgh breathed a sigh of relief after the day passed without violent protest.
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GM to sell cheap electric cars in India
US firm announces joint venture with Reva, the firm behind the G-Wiz, but experts say demand will be low because Indian electricity supplies remain unreliable
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 24 September 2009 15.36 BST
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General Motors, one of the world's biggest carmakers, and the Bangalore-based company behind the G-Wiz electric car have announced a joint venture to produce "affordable" electric cars in India.
The new vehicle, which has been road-tested, will be based on GM's popular Spark hatchback, which in India costs a quarter of a million rupees (£3,000). Neither GM nor its partner, Reva, would be drawn on the electric version's price tag, though both said it would be "competitive and affordable".
GM, which only recently came out of bankruptcy, has developed its own Volt electric-petrol hybrid for sale in 2010 in the US market, and has two car plants in India which can produce 250,000 vehicles a year. But analysts say that the take-up of any new electric model will be in the low thousands unless the Indian government creates a network of charging points.
As an interim measure, say GM executives, charging points could be installed at company dealerships and some petrol pump stations. But experts said an electric version of the Spark would only be attractive to urban drivers who could get reliable supplies of electricity and use the car as a runaround in the city.
Murad Ali Baig, a motoring columnist, said the new GM car would be able to travel "about 200km" without recharging. He added: "Delhi has one electric charging point used by a fleet of buses. There's nothing difficult about setting up a network of such points, but you need politicians to get on with it. In London electric cars get free parking and free power. Any wonder that Reva sells more cars in London than in India?"
Reva said that it had patented a number of new technologies which could assuage some of the concerns. Chetan Maini, Reva's chief technology officer, said: "In our latest models there are even systems where you can send an SMS and we can release a hidden charge remotely to your car, giving you an extra 10km if you are really stuck."
Reva, which styles itself as a technology company, says it also has plans to launch its own new electric car range – aimed initially at the foreign car markets – and has built a new factory able to churn out 30,000 cars a year. The two new models, both hatchbacks, will go on sale for €10,000 (£9,144) and €15,000 next year.
West Bengal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| West Bengal পশ্চিমবঙ্গ Poshchim Bônggo | |
| Location of West Bengal in India | |
| Country | India |
| District(s) | 19 |
| Established | 1960-05-01 |
| Capital | Kolkata |
| Largest city | Kolkata (Calcutta) |
| Governor | Gopalkrishna Gandhi |
| Chief Minister | Buddhadeb Bhattacharya |
| Legislature (seats) | Unicameral (295) |
| Population • Density | 80,221,171 (4th) • 904 /km2 (2,341 /sq mi) |
| Language(s) | Bengali |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+5:30) |
| Area | 88,752 km2 (34,267 sq mi) |
| ISO 3166-2 | IN-WB |
| Portal: West Bengal | |
| Website | www.banglarmukh.com |
 | |
Coordinates: 22°34′11″N 88°22′11″E / 22.5697°N 88.3697°E / 22.5697; 88.3697
West Bengal (Bengali: পশ্চিমবঙ্গ Poshchim Bônggo, IPA: [poʃtʃim bɔŋɡo]) is a state in eastern India. With Bangladesh, which lies on its eastern border, the state forms the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. To its northeast lie the states of Assam and Sikkim and the country Bhutan, and to its southwest, the state of Orissa. To the west it borders the states of Jharkhand and Bihar, and to the northwest, Nepal.
The region that is now West Bengal was part of a number of empires and kingdoms during the past two millennia. The British East India Company cemented their hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, and the city of Calcutta, now Kolkata, served for many years as the capital of British India. A hotbed of the Indian independence movement through the early 20th century, Bengal was divided in 1947 along religious lines into two separate entities, West Bengal—a state of India, and East Bengal, a part of the new nation of Pakistan. Following India's independence in 1947, West Bengal's economic and political systems were dominated for many decades by Marxism, Naxalite movements and trade unionism.
An agriculture-dependent state, West Bengal occupies only 2.7% of the India's land area, though it supports over 7.8% of the Indian population, and is the most densely populated state in India.[1] West Bengal has been ruled by the CPI(M)-led Left Front for three decades, making it the world's longest-running democratically elected communist government. Since the late 1990s, the state has seen a resurgence in its economy after decades of stagnation.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] History
Remnants of civilisation in the greater Bengal region date back 4,000 years,[2][3] when the region was settled by Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic peoples. The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang that settled in the area around the year 1000 BC.[4] After the arrival of Indo-Aryans, the kingdom of Magadha was formed in 7th century BC, consisting of the Bihar and Bengal regions. It was one of the four main kingdoms of India at the time of Mahavira and the Buddha, and consisted of several Janapadas.[5] During the rule of Maurya dynasty, the Magadha Empire extended over nearly all of South Asia, including Afghanistan and parts of Persia under Ashoka the Great in the 3rd century BC.
One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BC. The word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd (Land with the Ganges in its heart) in reference to an area in Bengal.[6] Bengal had overseas trade relations with Java, Sumatra and Siam (modern day Thailand). According to Mahavamsa, Vijaya Singha, a Vanga prince, conquered Lanka (modern day Sri Lanka) in 544 BC and gave the name "Sinhala" to the country. Bengali people migrated to the Malay Archipelago and Siam (in modern Thailand), establishing their own colonies there.
.gif) |  | |
| Pala Empire under Dharmapala | Pala Empire under Devapala |
From the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire. The first recorded independent king of Bengal was Shashanka, reigning around early 7th century.[7] After a period of anarchy, the Buddhist Pala dynasty ruled the region for four hundred years, followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Sena dynasty. Islam was introduced to Bengal in the twelfth century by Sufi missionaries. Subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region.[8] Bakhtiar Khilji, a Turkic general of the Slave dynasty of Delhi Sultanate, defeated Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties of sultans and feudal lords under the Delhi Sultanate for the next few hundred years. In the sixteenth century, Mughal general Islam Khan conquered Bengal. However, administration by governors appointed by the court of the Mughal Empire gave way to semi-independence of the area under the Nawabs of Murshidabad, who nominally respected the sovereignty of the Mughals in Delhi.
European traders arrived late in the fifteenth century. Their influence grew until the British East India Company gained taxation rights in Bengal subah, or province, following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, when Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab, was defeated by the British.[9] The Bengal Presidency was established by 1765, eventually including all British territories north of the Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh), from the mouths of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra to the Himalayas and the Punjab. The Bengal famine of 1770 claimed millions of lives.[10] Calcutta was named the capital of British India in 1772. The Bengal Renaissance and Brahmo Samaj socio-cultural reform movements had great impact on the cultural and economic life of Bengal. The failed Indian rebellion of 1857 started near Calcutta and resulted in transfer of authority to the British Crown, administered by the Viceroy of India.[11] Between 1905 and 1911, an abortive attempt was made to divide the province of Bengal into two zones.[12] Bengal suffered from the Great Bengal famine in 1943 that claimed 3 million lives.[13]
Bengal played a major role in the Indian independence movement, in which revolutionary groups such as Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar were dominant. Armed attempts against the British Raj from Bengal reached a climax when Subhash Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army from Southeast Asia against the British. When India gained independence in 1947, Bengal was partitioned along religious lines. The western part went to India (and was named West Bengal) while the eastern part joined Pakistan as a province called East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan, giving rise to independent Bangladesh in 1971).[14] Both West and East Bengal suffered from large refugee influx during the partition in 1947, leading to the political unrests later on. In 1955, the former French enclave of Chandannagar, which had passed into Indian control after 1950, was integrated into West Bengal; portions of Bihar were subsequently merged with West Bengal.
During the 1960s and 1980s, severe power shortages, strikes and a violent Marxist-Naxalite movement damaged much of the state's infrastructure, leading to a period of economic stagnation. The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 resulted in the influx of millions of refugees to West Bengal, causing significant strains on its infrastructure.[15] The 1974 smallpox epidemic killed thousands. West Bengal politics underwent a major change when the Left Front won the 1977 assembly election, defeating the incumbent Indian National Congress. The Left Front, led by Communist Party of India (Marxist), has governed for the state for the subsequent three decades.[16]
The state's economic recovery gathered momentum after economic reforms in India were introduced in the mid-1990s by the central government, aided by election of a new reformist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in 2000. As of 2007, armed activists have been organising minor terrorist attacks in some parts of the state,[17][18] while clashes with the administration are taking place at several sensitive places on the issue of industrial land acquisition.[19][20]
[edit] Geography and climate
West Bengal is on the eastern bottleneck of India, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south. The state has a total area of 88,752 square kilometres (34,267 sq mi).[21] The Darjeeling Himalayan hill region in the northern extreme of the state belongs to the eastern Himalaya. This region contains Sandakfu (3,636 metres/11,929 feet)—the highest peak of the state.[22] The narrow Terai region separates this region from the plains, which in turn transitions into the Ganges delta towards the south. The Rarh region intervenes between the Ganges delta in the east and the western plateau and high lands. A small coastal region is on the extreme south, while the Sundarbans mangrove forests form a remarkable geographical landmark at the Ganges delta.
The Ganges is the main river, which divides in West Bengal. One branch enters Bangladesh as the Padma or Pôdda, while the other flows through West Bengal as the Bhagirathi River and Hooghly River. The Teesta, Torsa, Jaldhaka and Mahananda rivers are in the northern hilly region. The western plateau region has rivers such as the Damodar, Ajay and Kangsabati. The Ganges delta and the Sundarbans area have numerous rivers and creeks. Pollution of the Ganges from indiscriminate waste dumped into the river is a major problem.[23] At least nine districts in the state suffer from arsenic contamination of groundwater, and an estimated 8.7 million people drink water containing arsenic above the World Health Organisation recommended limit of 10 µg/L.[24] West Bengal's climate varies from tropical savannah in the southern portions to humid subtropical in the north. The main seasons are summer, rainy season, a short autumn, and winter. While the summer in the delta region is noted for excessive humidity, the western highlands experience a dry summer like northern India, with the highest day temperature ranging from 38 °C (100 °F) to 45 °C (113 °F).[25] At nights, a cool southerly breeze carries moisture from the Bay of Bengal. In early summer brief squalls and thunderstorms known as Kalbaisakhi, or Nor'westers, often occur.[26] Monsoons bring rain to the whole state from June to September. West Bengal receives the Bay of Bengal branch of the Indian ocean monsoon that moves in a northwest direction. Winter (December–January) is mild over the plains with average minimum temperatures of 15 °C (59 °F).[25] A cold and dry northern wind blows in the winter, substantially lowering the humidity level. However, the Darjeeling Himalayan Hill region experiences a harsh winter, with occasional snowfall at places.
[edit] Flora and fauna
| State Symbols of West Bengal | ||
| Union day | August 18 (day of accession to India) | |
| State language | Bengali | |
| State animal | Bengal Tiger |  |
| State bird | White-throated Kingfisher | .jpg){kind=small} |
| State tree | Devil Tree |  [27] |
| State flower | Night-flowering Jasmine |  [28] |
Owing to the varying altitude from the Himalayas to the coastal plains, the flora and fauna of the state is diverse. Forests make up 14% of the geographical area of West Bengal, which is lower than the national average of 23%.[29][30] Protected forests cover 4% of the state area.[31] Part of the world's largest mangrove forest Sundarbans is located in southern West Bengal.[32]
From a phytogeographic viewpoint, the southern part of West Bengal can be divided into two regions: the Gangetic plain and the littoral mangrove forests of the Sundarbans.[33] The alluvial soil of the Gangetic plain compounded with favorable rainfall make this region especially fertile.[33] Much of the vegetation of the western part of the state shares floristic similarities with the plants of the Chota Nagpur plateau in the adjoining state of Jharkhand.[33] The predominant commercial tree species is Shorea robusta, commonly known as Sal. The coastal region of Purba Medinipur exhibits coastal vegetation; the predominant tree is the Casuarina. The most valuable tree from the Sundarbans is the ubiquitous sundri (Heritiera fomes) from which the forest gets its name.[34] Vegetation in northern West Bengal is dictated by elevation and precipitation. For example, the foothills of the Himalayas, the Dooars, are densely wooded with Sal and other trees of the tropical evergreen type.[35] Above 1000 m, the forest type changes to subtropical. In Darjeeling, which is above 1500 m, common trees typifying the temperate forest are oaks, conifers, and rhododendrons.[35]
The Sundarbans are noted for a reserve project conserving Bengal tigers. There are five national parks in the state[36] — Sundarbans National Park, Buxa Tiger Reserve, Gorumara National Park, Neora Valley National Park and Singalila National Park. Wildlife includes the Indian rhinoceros, Indian elephants, deer, bison, leopards, gaur, and crocodiles. The state is also rich in bird life. Migratory birds come to the state during the winter.[31] The high altitude forests like Singalila National Park shelter barking deer, red panda, chinkara, takin, serow, pangolin, minivet and Kalij pheasants. In addition to the Bengal tiger, the Sundarbans host many other endangered species like Gangetic dolphin, river terrapin, estuarine crocodile etc.[37] The mangrove forest also acts as a natural fish nursery, supporting coastal fishes along the Bay of Bengal.[37]
[edit] Government and politics
West Bengal is governed through a parliamentary system of representative democracy, a feature the state shares with other Indian states. Universal suffrage is granted to residents. There are two branches of government. The legislature, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, consists of elected members and special office bearers such as the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, that are elected by the members. Assembly meetings are presided over by the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker in the Speaker's absence. The judiciary is composed of the Calcutta High Court and a system of lower courts. Executive authority is vested in the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister, although the titular head of government is the Governor. The Governor is the head of state appointed by the President of India. The leader of the party or coalition with a majority in the Legislative Assembly is appointed as the Chief Minister by the Governor, and the Council of Ministers are appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister. The Council of Ministers reports to the Legislative Assembly. The Assembly is unicameral with 295 Members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs,[38][39] including one nominated from the Anglo-Indian community. Terms of office run for 5 years, unless the Assembly is dissolved prior to the completion of the term. Auxiliary authorities known as panchayats, for which local body elections are regularly held, govern local affairs. The state contributes 42 seats to Lok Sabha and 16 seats to Rajya Sabha of the Indian Parliament.[40]
The main players in the regional politics are the Left Front alliance (led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M)), the All India Trinamool Congress, the Indian National Congress, and other major parties. Following the West Bengal State Assembly Election in 2006, the Left Front coalition under Buddhadeb Bhattacharya of the CPI(M) was elected to power(getting 235 seats in the legislature). West Bengal has been ruled by the Left Front for the past 30 years, making it the world's longest-running democratically elected communist government.[16]
[edit] Subdivisions
There are 19 districts in West Bengal — Bankura, Bardhaman, Birbhum, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, East Midnapore, Hooghly, Howrah, Jalpaiguri, Kolkata, Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, North 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur, Purulia, South 24 Parganas, South Dinajpur and West Midnapore. Each district is governed by a district collector or district magistrate, appointed either by the Indian Administrative Service or the West Bengal Civil Service. Each district is subdivided into Sub-Divisions, governed by a sub-divisional magistrate, and again into Blocks. Blocks consists of panchayats (village councils) and town municipalities.
The capital and largest city of the state is Kolkata — the third-largest urban agglomeration[41] and the fourth-largest city[42] in India. Siliguri is an economically important town, strategically located in the northeastern Siliguri Corridor (Chicken's Neck) of India. Asansol, Durgapur and Raniganj are cities in the western industrial belt. Other major cities and towns in West Bengal are Howrah, Haldia, Kharagpur, Burdwan, Darjeeling, Midnapore, Tamluk, Malda and Cooch Behar.
[edit] Economy
| Gross State Domestic Product at Current Prices (93–94 Base)[43] figures in crores of Indian Rupees | |
| Year | Gross State Domestic Product |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 135,182 |
| 2000–2001 | 143,532 |
| 2001–2002 | 157,136 |
| 2002–2003 | 168,047 |
| 2003–2004 | 189,099 |
| 2004–2005 | 208,578 |
| 2005–2006 | 236,044 |
Agriculture is the leading occupation in West Bengal. Rice is the state's principal food crop. Other food crops are pulses, oil seeds, wheat, tobacco, sugarcane and potatoes. Jute is the main cash crop of the region. Tea is also produced commercially; the region is well known for Darjeeling and other high quality teas.[44] However, the service sector is the largest contributor to the gross domestic product of the state, contributing 51% of the state domestic product compared to 27% from agriculture and 22% from industry.[45] State industries are localized in the Kolkata region and the mineral-rich western highlands. The Durgapur–Asansol colliery belt is home to a number of major steel plants.[44] Manufacturing industries playing an important economic role are engineering products, electronics, electrical equipment, cables, steel, leather, textiles, jewellery, frigates, automobiles, railway coaches, and wagons.
A significant part of the state is economically backward, namely, large parts of six northern districts of Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Malda, North Dinajpur and South Dinajpur; three western districts of Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum; and the Sundarbans area.[1] Years after independence, West Bengal was still dependent on the central government for meeting its demands for food; food production remained stagnant and the Indian green revolution bypassed the state. However, there has been a significant spurt in food production since the 1980s, and the state now has a surplus of grains.[1] The state's share of total industrial output in India was 9.8% in 1980–81, declining to 5% by 1997–98. However, the service sector has grown at a rate higher than the national rate.[1]
West Bengal has the third largest economy (2003–2004) in India, with a net state domestic product of US$ 21.5 billion.[45] During 2001–2002, the state's average SDP was more than 7.8% — outperforming the National GDP Growth.[46] The state has promoted foreign direct investment, which has mostly come in the software and electronics fields;[45] Kolkata is becoming a major hub for the Information technology (IT) industry. Owing to the boom in Kolkata's and the overall state's economy, West Bengal is now the third fastest growing economy in the country.[47] However, the rapid industrialisation process has given rise to debate over land acquisition for industry in this agrarian state.[48] NASSCOM–Gartner ranks West Bengal power infrastructure the best in the country.[49] West Bengals state domestic product (SDP) grew in 2004 with 12.7 % and in 2005 with 11.0 % .[50]
[edit] Transport
The total length of surface road in West Bengal is over 92,023 km (57,180 mi);[51] national highways comprise 2,377 km (1,477 mi)[52] and state highways 2,393 km (1,487 mi). The road density of the state is 103.69 km per 100 km² (166.92 mi per 100 sq mi), higher than the national average of 74.7 km per 100 km² (120 mi per 100 sq mi).[53] Average speed on state highways varies between 40–50 km/h (25–31 mi/h); in villages and towns, speeds are as low as 20–25 km/h (12–16 mi/h) due to the substandard quality of road constructions and low maintenance. Total railway length is 3,825 km (2,377 mi).[54] Kolkata is the headquarters of two divisions of the Indian Railways—Eastern Railway and South Eastern Railway.[55] The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) plies in the northern parts of the state. The Kolkata metro is the country's first underground railway.[56] The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, part of NFR, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[57]
The state's only international airport is Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport at Dum Dum, Kolkata. Bagdogra airport near Siliguri is another significant airport in the state and recently it has been upgraded to an international airport. Kolkata is a major river-port in eastern India. The Kolkata Port Trust manages both the Kolkata docks and the Haldia docks.[58] There is passenger service to Port Blair on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and cargo ship service to ports in India and abroad, operated by the Shipping Corporation of India. Ferry is a principal mode of transport in the southern part of the state, especially in the Sundarbans area. Kolkata is the only city in India to have trams as a mode of transport and these are operated by the Calcutta Tramways Company.[59]
Several government-owned organisations operate substandard bus services in the state, including the Calcutta State Transport Corporation, the North Bengal State Transport Corporation, the South Bengal State Transport Corporation, the West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation, and the Calcutta Tramways Company, thus leading to mismanagement. There are also private bus companies. The railway system is a nationalised service without any private investment. Hired forms of transport include metered taxis and auto rickshaws which often ply specific routes in cities. In most of the state, cycle rickshaws, and in Kolkata, hand-pulled rickshaws, are also used for short-distance travel.
[edit] Demographics
| [show]Population Growth | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1951 | 26,300,000 | | |
| 1961 | 34,926,000 | 32.8% | |
| 1971 | 44,312,000 | 26.9% | |
| 1981 | 54,581,000 | 23.2% | |
| 1991 | 68,078,000 | 24.7% | |
| 2001 | 80,176,000 | 17.8% | |
| Source:Census of India[60] | |||
The vast majority of the 80,221,171 people of West Bengal[61] are Bengalis.[62] The Bihari minority is scattered throughout the state and communities of Sherpas and ethnic Tibetans can be found in regions bordering Sikkim. Darjeeling district has a large number of Gurkha people of Nepalese origin. West Bengal is home to indigenous tribal Adivasis such as Santals, Kol, Koch-Rajbongshi and Toto tribe.
The official language is Bengali. Hindi and English are also used commonly. Nepali is spoken primarily in the Darjeeling district. Languages such as Rajbongshi, Santali and Ho are used in some parts of the state.
Hinduism is the principal religion at 72% of the total population, while Muslims comprise 23%; Sikhism, Christianity and other religions make up the remainder.[63] West Bengal has a population density of 904 inhabitants per square kilometre (2,341.3/sq mi) making it the most densely populated state in India.[64] The state contributes 7.81% of India's population.[65] The state's 1991–2001 growth rate of 17.84% is lower than the national rate of 21.34%.[61] The gender ratio is 934 females per 1000 males.[61]
The literacy rate is 69.22%.[61] Data of 1995–1999 showed the life expectancy in the state was 63.4 years, higher than the national value of 61.7 years.[66] About 72% of people live in rural areas. The proportion of people living below the poverty line in 1999–2000 was 31.85%.[1] Scheduled Castes and Tribes form 28.6% and 5.8% of the population respectively in rural areas, and 19.9% and 1.5% respectively in urban areas.[1]
The crime rate in the state in 2004 was 82.6 per 100,000, which was half of the national average.[67] This is the fourth-lowest crime rate among the 32 states and union territories of India.[68] However, the state reported the highest rate of Special and Local Laws (SLL) crimes.[69] In reported crimes against women, the state showed a crime rate of 7.1 compared to the national rate of 14.1.[68] West Bengal was the first Indian state to constitute a Human Rights Commission of its own.[68]
[edit] Culture
The Bengali language boasts a rich literary heritage, shared with neighboring Bangladesh. West Bengal has a long tradition in folk literature, evidenced by the Charyapada, Mangalkavya, Shreekrishna Kirtana, Thakurmar Jhuli, and stories related to Gopal Bhar. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, Bengali literature was modernized in the works of authors such as Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Jibananda Das and Manik Bandyopadhyay.
The Baul tradition is a unique heritage of Bengali folk music, which has also been influenced by regional music traditions.[70] Other folk music forms include Gombhira and Bhawaiya. Folk music in West Bengal is often accompanied by the ektara, a one-stringed instrument. West Bengal also has an heritage in North Indian classical music. "Rabindrasangeet", songs composed and set into tune by Rabindranath Tagore and "Nazrul geeti" (by Kazi Nazrul Islam) are popular.
Also prominent are other musical forms like Dwijendralal, Atulprasad and Rajanikanta's songs, and "adhunik" or modern music from films and other composers. From the early 1990s, there has been an emergence and popularisation of new genres of music, including fusions of Baul and Jazz by several Bangla bands, as well as the emergence of what has been called Jeebonmukhi Gaan (a modern genre based on realism). Bengali dance forms draw from folk traditions, especially those of the tribal groups, as well as the broader Indian dance traditions. Chau dance of Purulia is a rare form of mask dance.[71]
Mainstream Hindi films are popular, as are films from the Bengali cinema industry, dubbed "Tollywood". Tollygunj in Kolkata is the location of Bengali movie studios and the name "Tollywood" (similar to Hollywood, USA) is derived from that name. The Bengali film industry is also known for art films or Indy films. Its long tradition of filmmaking has produced acclaimed directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha and Ritwik Ghatak. Contemporary directors include Buddhadev Dasgupta, Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen and Rituparno Ghosh.
Bengal had been the harbinger of modernism in fine arts. Abanindranath Tagore, called the father of Modern Indian Art had started the Bengal School of Art which was to create styles of art outside the European realist tradition which was taught in art colleges under the colonial administration of the British Government. The movement had many adherents like Gaganendranath Tagore, Ramkinkar Baij, Jamini Roy and Rabindranath Tagore. After Indian Independence, important groups like the Calcutta Group and the Society of Contemporary Artists were formed in bengal which dominated the art scene in India. Since 1990, Indian economy has been liberalized gradually which helped many Indian artists like Paresh Maity, Devajyoti Ray, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Kaushik Bannerjee, earn international reputation.[citation needed]
Rice and fish are traditional favorite foods, leading to a saying in Bengali, machhe bhate bangali, that translates as "fish and rice make a Bengali".[72] Bengal's vast repertoire of fish-based dishes includes hilsa preparations, a favorite among Bengalis. Bengalis make distinctive sweetmeats from milk products, including Rôshogolla, Chômchôm, Kalojam and several kinds of Pithe. Popular street food includes Beguni, Kati roll, and phuchka.[73][74] Panta bhat (rice soaked overnight in water) is a traditional dish consumed in rural areas.
Bengali women commonly wear the shaŗi , often distinctly designed according to local cultural customs. In urban areas, many women and men wear Western attire. Among men, western dressing has greater acceptance. Men also wear traditional costumes such as the panjabi with dhuti , often on cultural occasions. Durga Puja in October is the most popular festival in the West Bengal.[75] Pohela Baishakh (the Bengali New Year), Rathayatra, Dolyatra or Basanta-Utsab, Nobanno, Poush parbon (festival of Poush), Kalipuja, Saraswatipuja, Laxmipuja, Christmas, Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha are other major festivals. Buddha Purnima, which marks the birth of Gautama Buddha, is one of the most important Hindu/Buddhist festivals while Christmas, called Bôŗodin (Great day) in Bengali is celebrated by the minority Christian population. West Bengal has been home to several famous religious teachers, including Sri Chaitanya, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, and Paramahansa Yogananda.
[edit] Education
West Bengal schools are run by the state government or by private organisations, including religious institutions. Instruction is mainly in English or Bengali, though Hindi and Urdu are also used. The secondary schools are affiliated with the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE), or the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. Under the 10+2+3 plan, after completing secondary school, students typically enroll for 2 years in a junior college, also known as pre-university, or in schools with a higher secondary facility affiliated with the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education or any central board. Students choose from one of three streams, namely, liberal arts, commerce or science. Upon completing the required coursework, students may enroll in general or professional degree programs.
West Bengal has eighteen universities.[76][77] The University of Calcutta, one of the oldest and largest public universities in India, has more than 200 affiliated colleges.[78] The Bengal Engineering & Science University and Jadavpur University are prestigious technical universities.[79] Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan is a central university and an institution of national importance.[80] The state has higher education institutes of national importance including the Indian Statistical Institute, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (the first management institute in India of its kind) and the National Institute Of Technology, Durgapur (formerly Regional Engineering College, Durgapur).
[edit] Media
West Bengal had 505 published newspapers in 2005,[81] of which 389 were in Bengali.[81] Ananda Bazar Patrika, published from Kolkata with 1,234,122 daily copies, has the largest circulation for a single-edition, regional language newspaper in India.[81] Other major Bengali newspapers are Aajkaal, Bartaman, Sangbad Pratidin, Uttarbanga Sambad and Ganashakti. The Telegraph, The Statesman, Asian Age, Hindustan Times and The Times of India are some of the newspapers published in English. Vernacular newspapers such as those in Hindi, Gujarati, Oriya, Urdu, Punjabi and Nepali are also read by a select readership.
Doordarshan is the state-owned television broadcaster. Multi system operators provide a mix of Bengali, Nepali, Hindi, English and international channels via cable. Bengali 24-hour television news channels include STAR Ananda, 24 Ghanta and Kolkata TV. All India Radio is a public radio station. Private FM stations are available only in cities like Kolkata, Siliguri and Asansol. BSNL, Reliance Infocomm, Tata Indicom, Vodafone Essar, Aircel and Airtel are available cellular phone operators. Broadband internet is available in select towns and cities and is provided by the state-run BSNL and by other private companies. Dial-up access is provided throughout the state by BSNL and other providers.
[edit] Sports
Cricket and football (soccer) are popular sports in the state. Kolkata is one of the major centers for football in India[82] and houses top national clubs such as East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting Club. Indian sports such as Kho Kho and Kabaddi are also played. Calcutta Polo Club is considered as the oldest polo club of the world,[83] and the Royal Calcutta Golf Club is the oldest of its kind outside Great Britain.[84]
West Bengal has several large stadiums—The Eden Gardens is one of only two 100,000-seat cricket amphitheaters in the world.[85] Salt Lake Stadium—a multi-use stadium—is the world's third highest-capacity football stadium.[86][87] Calcutta Cricket and Football Club is the second-oldest cricket club in the world.[88] National and international sports events are also held in Durgapur, Siliguri and Kharagpur.[89] Notable sports persons from West Bengal include former Indian national cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, Olympic tennis bronze medallist Leander Paes, chess grand master Dibyendu Barua. Sourav Ganguly is the most successful left hand batsman of India. With Sachin Tendulkar he formed the most successful One Day opening batting pair and he also has 11 363 runs in ODI.[90][91]
[edit] See also
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[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d e f "Introduction and Human Development Indices for West Bengal" (PDF). West Bengal Human Development Report 2004. Development and Planning Department, Government of West Bengal. May 2004. pp. pp4–6. Archived from the original on 2006-11-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20061108072306/http://www.undp.org.in/hdrc/shdr/WB/WB+HDR+2004/Chap1.pdf. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- ^ "History of Bangladesh". Bangladesh Student Association. http://www.orgs.ttu.edu/saofbangladesh/history.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "4000-year old settlement unearthed in Bangladesh". Xinhua. 2006-March. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/12/content_4293312.htm.
- ^ James Heitzman and Robert L. Worden, ed (1989). "Early History, 1000 B.C.-A.D. 1202". Bangladesh: A country study. Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/bdtoc.html.
- ^ Sultana, Sabiha. "Settlement in Bengal (Early Period)". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. http://www.banglapedia.net/HT/S_0221.HTM. Retrieved 2007-03-04.
- ^ Chowdhury, AM. "Gangaridai". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/G_0019.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-08.
- ^ "Shashanka". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/S_0122.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "Islam (in Bengal)". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/I_0103.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ Chaudhury, S; Mohsin, KM. "Sirajuddaula". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/S_0411.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ Fiske, John. "The Famine of 1770 in Bengal". The Unseen World, and other essays. University of Adelaide Library Electronic Texts Collection. http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/f/fiske/john/f54u/chapter9.html. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ (Baxter 1997, pp. 30–32)
- ^ (Baxter 1997, pp. 39–40)
- ^ Sen, Amartya (1973). Poverty and Famines. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-828463-2.
- ^ Harun-or-Rashid. "Partition of Bengal, 1947". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/P_0101.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ (Bennett & Hindle 1996, pp. 63–70)
- ^ a b Biswas, Soutik (2006-04-16). "Calcutta's colourless campaign". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4909832.stm. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- ^ Ghosh Roy, Paramasish (2005-07-22). "Maoist on Rise in West Bengal". VOA Bangla. Voice of America. http://www.voanews.com/bangla/archive/2005-07/2005-07-22-voa10.cfm. Retrieved 2006-09-11.
- ^ "Maoist Communist Centre (MCC)". Left-wing Extremist group. South Asia Terrorism Portal. http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/terroristoutfits/MCC.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-11.
- ^ "Several hurt in Singur clash". rediff News (Rediff.com India Limited). 28 January 2007. http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jan/28singur.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ "Red-hand Buddha: 14 killed in Nandigram re-entry bid". The Telegraph. 15 March 2007. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070315/asp/frontpage/story_7519166.asp. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ "Statistical Facts about India". www.indianmirror.com. http://www.indianmirror.com/geography/geo9.html. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "National Himalayan Sandakphu-Gurdum Trekking Expedition: 2006". Youth Hostels Association of India: West Bengal State Branch. http://yhaindia.org/sandakphu_trek.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "Alarming rise in bacterial percentage in Ganga waters". The Hindu Business Line. 4 August 2006. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/08/04/stories/2006080402921900.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
- ^ "Groundwater Arsenic Contamination Status in West Bengal". Groundwater Arsenic Contamination in West Bengal - India (17 Years Study). School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University. http://www.soesju.org/arsenic/wb.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
- ^ a b "Climate". West Bengal: Land. Suni System (P) Ltd. http://www.webindia123.com/westbengal/land/climate.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
- ^ "kal Baisakhi". Glossary of Meteorology. American Meteorological Society. http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?id=kal-baisakhi1. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
- ^ http://www.flowersofindia.net/misc/state_flora.html
- ^ http://www.flowersofindia.net/misc/state_flora.html
- ^ "Flora and Fauna". calcuttayellowpages.com (P) Ltd. http://www.calcuttayellowpages.com/flora.html. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
- ^ "Environmental Issues" (PDF). West Bengal Human Development Report 2004. Development and Planning Department, Government of West Bengal. 2004 [2004]. pp. 180–182. ISBN 81-7955-030-3. http://www.undp.org.in/hdrc/shdr/WB/WB%20HDR%202004/Chap9.pdf. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- ^ a b "West Bengal: General Information". India in Business. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. http://www.indiainbusiness.nic.in/indian-states/westbengal/General.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
- ^ Islam, Sadiq (June 29, 2001). "World's largest mangrove forest under threat". CNN Student Bureau (Cable News Network). http://archives.cnn.com/2001/fyi/student.bureau/06/29/sundarbans/index.html. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
- ^ a b c Mukherji, S.J. (2000). College Botany Vol. III: (chapter on Phytogeography). Calcutta: New Central Book Agency. pp. 345–365.
- ^ Snedaker, Samuel (2006-08-29). "Notes on the Sundarbans" (HTML). http://www.smartoffice.com/Tiger/Snedaker.html. Retrieved 2006-10-02. .
- ^ a b "Natural vegetation". West Bengal. Suni System (P) Ltd. http://www.webindia123.com/westbengal/land/forest.htm#N. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
- ^ "West Bengal". Directory of Wildlife Protected Areas in India. Wildlife Institute of India. http://www.wii.gov.in/envis/envis_pa_network/page_states_ut.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ a b "Problems of Specific Regions" (PDF). West Bengal Human Development Report 2004. Development and Planning Department, Government of West Bengal. 2004 [2004]. pp. 200–203. ISBN 81-7955-030-3. http://www.undp.org.in/hdrc/shdr/WB/WB%20HDR%202004/Chap9.pdf. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- ^ "West Bengal Legislative Assembly". Legislative Bodies in India. National Informatics Centre. http://legislativebodiesinindia.gov.in/States%5Cwestbengal%5Cwesbengal-w.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-28.
- ^ "Election Database". Election Commission of India. Archived from the original on 2006-08-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20060818182708/http://eci.gov.in/DataBase/DataBase_fs.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- ^ "West Bengal". India Together. Civil Society Information Exchange Pvt. Ltd. http://www.indiatogether.org/states/bengal.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- ^ "India: metropolitan areas". World Gazetteer. http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=&men=gcis&lng=en&dat=32&geo=-104&srt=pnan&col=aohdq&va=&pt=a. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "India: largest cities and towns and statistics of their population". World Gazetteer. http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=&men=gcis&lng=en&dat=32&geo=-104&srt=npan&col=aohdq&pt=c&va=&srt=pnan. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "Gross State Domestic Product at Current Prices (93–94 Bae". National Accounts Division: Press release & Statements. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India. http://mospi.nic.in/6_gsdp_cur_9394ser.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
- ^ a b "Economy". West Bengal. Suni System (P) Ltd. http://www.webindia123.com/westbengal/economy/economy.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
- ^ a b c "The State Economy" (PDF). Indian States Economy and Business: West Bengal. India Brand Equity Foundation, Confederation of Indian Industry. pp. 9. http://www.arc.unisg.ch/org/arc/web.nsf/1176ad62df2ddb13c12568f000482b94/43cf0caeed566faac12571d30061daac/$FILE/India%20Symposium_IBEF_State%20Reports_Westbengal.pdf. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
- ^ "Basic Information". About West Bengal. West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation. Archived from the original on 2006-11-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20061128184808/http://www.wbidc.com/about_wb/index.html. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
- ^ "Consul General Henry V. Jardine to The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, 19 October 2005". http://kolkata.usconsulate.gov/19oct2005.html. Retrieved 2006-04-11.
- ^ Ray Choudhury, R (27 October 2006). "A new dawn beckons West Bengal". The Hindu Business Line. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/10/27/stories/2006102700080100.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
- ^ "West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Ltd." (PDF). India @ Hannover Messe 2006. Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), India. pp. 303. http://www.indiaathannover.org/pdf/exhibitorslist.pdf. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
- ^ >"Statement: Gross state domestic product at current prices". Directorate of Economics & Statistics of respective State Governments, and for All-India. http://mospi.nic.in/6_gsdp_cur_9394ser.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-02.
- ^ "West Bengal: Infrastructure". Public Private Partnerships in India. Dept of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. http://www.pppinindia.com/states_wb_infrastructure.asp. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
- ^ "List of State-wise National Hoghways in the Country". National Highways. Department of Road Transport and Highways; Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways; Government of India. Archived from the original on 2007-01-20. http://web.archive.org/web/20070120041217/http://morth.nic.in/nh_length.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
- ^ Chattopadhyay, Suhrid Sankar (January–February 2006). "Remarkable Growth". Frontline (Chennai, India: The Hindu) 23 (02). http://www.flonnet.com/fl2302/stories/20060210004209800.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-31.
- ^ "West Bengal". Indian States-A Profile. Indian Investment Centre, Government of India. http://iic.nic.in/iic2_bwb.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-01.
- ^ "Geography : Railway Zones". IRFCA.org. Indian Railways Fan Club. http://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-geog.html. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
- ^ "About Kolkata Metro". Kolkata Metro. http://www.kolmetro.com/. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
- ^ "Mountain Railways of India". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/944. Retrieved 2006-04-30.
- ^ "Salient Physical Features". Kolkata Port Trust. Kolkata Port Trust, India. http://www.kolkataporttrust.gov.in/index_new.html. Retrieved 2007-06-09.
- ^ "Intra-city train travel". reaching India. Times Internet Limited. http://timesfoundation.indiatimes.com/articleshow/657741.cms. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
- ^ "Census Population" (PDF). Census of India. Ministry of Finance India. http://indiabudget.nic.in/es2006-07/chapt2007/tab97.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- ^ a b c d "Provisional Population Totals: West Bengal". Census of India, 2001. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 2007-08-07. http://web.archive.org/web/20070807110706/http://www.censusindia.net/profiles/wbe.html. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- ^ "West Bengal". Infobengal.com. http://www.infobengal.com/html/openingpage.html. Retrieved 2006-09-13.
- ^ "Data on Religion". Census of India (2001). Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 2007-08-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20070812142520/http://www.censusindia.net/religiondata/. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- ^ "Press Release - Provisional Population Results - Census of India 2001". Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. March 26, 2001. Archived from the original on 2007-08-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20070808122134/http://www.censusindia.net/press/pr260301.html. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- ^ Population of West Bengal (80,221,171) is 7.81% of India's population (1,027,015,247)
- ^ "An Indian life: Life expectancy in our nation". India Together. Civil Society Information Exchange Pvt. Ltd. http://www.indiatogether.org/health/infofiles/life.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- ^ National Crime Records Bureau (2004). "Crimes in Mega Cities" (PDF Format). Crime in India-2004. Ministry of Home Affairs. p. 158.
- ^ a b c "Human Security" (PDF). West Bengal Human Development Report 2004. Development and Planning Department, Government of West Bengal. May 2004. pp. pp167–172. Archived from the original on 2006-11-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20061108072244/http://www.undp.org.in/hdrc/shdr/WB/WB+HDR+2004/Chap8.pdf. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
- ^ National Crime Records Bureau (2004). "General Crime Statistics Snapshots 2004" (PDF Format). Crime in India-2004. Ministry of Home Affairs. p. 1.
- ^ "The Bauls of Bengal". Folk Music. BengalOnline. http://bengalonline.sitemarvel.com/bengali-folklore.asp?art=baul. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "Chau: The Rare Mask Dances". Dances of India. Boloji.com. http://www.boloji.com/dances/00109.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-22.
- ^ Gertjan de Graaf, Abdul Latif. "Development of freshwater fish farming and poverty alleviation: A case study from Bangladesh" (PDF). Aqua KE Government. http://govdocs.aquake.org/cgi/reprint/2003/1201/12010300.pdf. Retrieved 2006-10-22.
- ^ Saha, S (18 January 2006). "Resurrected, the kathi roll - Face-off resolved, Nizam's set to open with food court". The Telegraph (Kolkata). http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060118/asp/calcutta/story_5733258.asp. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "Mobile food stalls". Bangalinet.com. http://www.bangalinet.com/mobile_foodstalls.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "Durga Puja". Festivals of Bengal. West Bengal Tourism, Government of West Bengal. http://www.wbtourism.com/fairs_festivals/durga.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-28.
- ^ "UGC recognised Universities in West Bengal with NAAC accreditation status". Education Observer. http://www.educationobserver.com/resources/universsities/west_bengal.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "West Bengal University of Health Sciences". West Bengal University of Health Sciences. http://www.thewbuhs.org/. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "List of Affiliated Colleges". University of Calcutta. http://www.caluniv.ac.in/coll.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
- ^ Mitra, P (31 August 2005). "Waning interest". Careergraph (The Telegraph). http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050831/asp/careergraph/story_5174502.asp. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "Visva-Bharati: Facts and Figures at a Glance". Visva-Bharati Computer Centre. http://www.visva-bharati.ac.in/at_a_glance/at_a_glance.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-31.
- ^ a b c "General Review". Registrar of Newspapers for India. https://rni.nic.in/pii.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
- ^ Prabhakaran, Shaji (January 18, 2003). "Football in India - A Fact File". LongLiveSoccer.com. http://www.longlivesoccer.com/indiafootball.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "History of Polo". Hurlingham Polo Association. http://www.hpa-polo.co.uk/about/history_polo.asp. Retrieved 2007-08-30.
- ^ "Royal Calcutta Golf Club". Encyclopaedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-511285/Royal-Calcutta-Golf-Club. Retrieved 2007-08-30.
- ^ "India - Eden Gardens (Kolkata)". Cricket Web. http://www.cricketweb.net/country/venue.php?CategoryIDAuto=12&VenueIDAuto=26. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
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- ^ Raju, Mukherji (March 14, 2005). "Seven Years? Head Start". The Telegraph. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050314/asp/opinion/story_4428341.asp. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ "Sports & Adventure". West Bengal Tourism. http://www.wbtourism.com/sports_adventure/index.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-22.
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[edit] References
[edit] External links
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