Glocal Youth Vision – February 2007

GLOCAL YOUTH VISION

ONLINE NEW(s) Letter

http://glocalyouthvision.wordpress.com

February 2007

SPIRITUAL INHERITANCE

Every father likes to grant the very best to his children. Be it expensive toys or mouth-watering chocolates or any special present which costs him. Children too wish to inherit all what the parents possess.  As parents, are we really imparting beautiful and elegant futures to our children? If we evaluate the state of affairs, we will find that we are rendering them a bleak future. It means that the next generation is inheriting violence, environmental pollution, poverty, disasters etc.   In line with this, Kiran Desai named her book as “The Inheritance of Loss”. It got the Man Booker Prize 2006.  Her extraordinary new novel manages to explore, with intimacy and insight, just about every contemporary international issue: globalization, multiculturalism, economic inequality, fundamentalism and terrorist violence.  If we refer to the Bible (Ps. 33), we see that the inheritance of the believers is different from what the world inherits. As believers we can expect to inherit three special things from above.

A. Inherit Lord’s Plan: (v.10)  

          Just as an architect’s plan is postulated for constructing a building, an automobile engineer too needs a plan to assemble a car.  In the same way our creator has a unique design for each one of us.  He reveals His excogitate after foiling the plan of the nations. Many times, our plans crop up from our desires.  These have to be extinguished first, for then only God can reveal His Plan to us.              His Plan stands forever. He maneuvers us from the womb to the grave and from the grave to heaven. In heaven, Jesus promised that He would provide a good place for us (John. 14. 3)

B. Inherit Lord’s Purpose: (v.10)

            A building’s plan reveals its location and dimension. However, it never unveils the purpose of the building. A plan without purpose is vain. In this verse, The Lord reveals His Plan knitted with His purpose from His heart.              There are two purposes in an individual’s life. One is the general purpose which is common to all, while the specific purpose may vary from person to person. The general purpose is to please Him. Each person has to find out his/her specific purpose from God.             God’s purpose is not for one generation only. It has to pass on to successive generations too.  Let us pass on God’s purpose to the next generation!  

C. Inherit God is the Lord: (v.12)   

         Just as an engineer forgets the architect and his plan after constructing the building, we too tend to forget the Provider of the Plan due to our busy schedule and even due to our trying to fulfill God’s purpose in our life. These activities and even the blessings we receive can cloud the Source of the blessings and the Giver of the Plan.            

 Let us make God as the most important priority and thus live a more abundant life as the Lord Jesus promised!

J. Peter Daniel M.E.,

76,Living Spring  Sanjeevipuram, Bagayam,
Vellore 632 – 002, Phone. 0416 3206307, 09443800395.email: peterpearline@yahoo.co.in http://glocalyouthvision.wordpress.com

*************** 

Global News SC clears air on tribal converts
New Delhi, Jan. 7: A person belonging to a Scheduled Tribe (ST) does not lose his tribal status on conversion, the Supreme Court has said, says our legal correspondent.A bench headed by Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said conversion did change the status of a Scheduled Caste person but not the status of tribals who could follow any religion. The court pointed to an earlier ruling holding that a person belonging to the ST community retained his status after conversion if he continued to follow the tribal ways of life.

Brahmins made several bids on 

Mahatma’s life: Tushar Gandhi  New Delhi, PTI: “Gandhi’s killing was not an assassination. It was a premeditated murder. Gandhi was targeted by Brahmins who wanted India should become a Hindu nation and they would remain a dominant community,” said Tushar Gandhi.   The Brahmin community was behind several bids on Mahatma Gandhi’s life as it wanted to make
India a Hindu nation, the great-grandson of the father of the nation claimed today.
“I want to condemn the theory of the Sangh Parivar that Gandhi was killed because he was responsible for the vivisection of the motherland and because he forced the Indian government to give Pakistan Rs 55 crore,” Tushar A Gandhi said at an event where his book “Let’s Kill Gandhi” was launched here. “These are all excuses which are not true … and the Brahmin community, which wanted to make
India a Hindu nation, were behind all the attempts and the murder of the father of the nation,” he said. “Gandhi’s killing was not an assassination. It was a premeditated murder. Gandhi was targeted by Brahmins who wanted
India should become a Hindu nation and they would remain a dominant community. “Before he was eventually murdered (on January 30, 1948), there were several attempts on his life and
Poona was linked to all the attempts on his life,” he said after the book was launched by noted journalist M J Akbar. Presenting facts, Tushar said the first attempt on the Mahatma’s life was made at
Poona, now Pune, in 1935 when a grenade was hurled at him during a Harijan yatra, but Gandhi escaped the attempt. Other bids on his life were made at Panchgani and Wardha in
Maharashtra.
“Narayan Apte, Nathuram Godse and their gang of extremists were involved in the three attempts. Worse, there were a lot of lapses in arrangements made to protect Gandhi,” Tushar said.
The book presents an analysis of events from 1944 to 1949. Tushar started working four years ago on the book, which was written on the basis of archival records, records of the Mahatma’s murder trial and investigation and verbal history. “The attempts on the Mahatma’s life were intended to kill his legacy and subvert his philosophy,” he said. Tushar said the Kapoor Commission, which was constituted in 1968 to investigate the larger conspiracy behind the killing of Gandhi, came out with many “startling” revelations.
He claimed the feeling of “hatred” between Hindus and Muslims still persists in the country and the government needed to take steps for a harmonious relation between both communities. “Hindus and Muslims are still a divided lot. If steps are not taken, the country will be fragmented,” he said.

Akbar said Gandhi had given freedom to the country by empowering the poor and involving them in the freedom movement and political process.

Perform or Rs 1-crore pay packages perish

Kumar Manish

[ 9 Jan, 2007 0121hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]AHMEDABAD: India’s top business school, IIM-Ahmedabad, ought to be feeling good that four of its graduates recently bagged annual packages touching a staggering Rs 1 crore each, but coming from investment banking firms, everyone on campus knows these salaries have a huge downside.
In reality, only about 50 per cent of the package comprises the salary. The rest is performance-based incentive. If the performance of the recruits fails to live up to the company’s expectations, their salary can take a nose-dive at the end of the year. Even IIM-A dons feel that these packages are often ‘over-hyped’.
IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia says, “The Rs 1-crore salary package is inclusive of all incentives and bonuses guaranteed only for the first year. Only 50-60 per cent of the package comprises the actual salary. From the next year onwards, the salary depends upon performance; but IIM-A graduates have mostly performed above expectations.”Jatin Mamtani, an IIM-A student says, “The Rs 1-crore salary package seems astronomical but one requires to excel in the job to get the money.” An investment banker employed by a reputed company in
London, says, “A major part of the package is what might be expected as the yearend performance bonus. The actual salary is not as high as it seems. Yet, investment banking being a very demanding job, is also a highly paying one.” Amit Bordia, an IIM-A graduate and investment banker with Deutsche Bank said, “The job of an investment banker is performance-based but Indian students from top B-schools manage to perform much better than others.” Major investment
banks like Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Barclays Capital have been offering the highest salary packages to IIM-A graduates.

Chinese student wants to ‘rent’ girlfriend
Thursday February 1 2007 00:00 IST

Xinhua

BEIJING: APeking
University student is offering a 1,000 yuan for ten days ‘rental’ of a girlfriend he wants to take home for the holidays to please his parents.

An advertisement posted on a bulletin board by physics student Zhu Lijie was seeking to rent “an honest, kind and similar aged girl with a diploma”.

Zhu told a local reporter that his parents have been pushing him to find a girlfriend and had asked him to bring their “quasi-daughter-in-law” home for Spring Festival.
He tried to explain to his parents that with his nose buried in books he has had no time to make a girlfriend. The parents are apparently not that impressed though he has won the “Excellent Student Award” three times during his four year academic career. 

Zhu told the reporter over the phone that he had received “nearly 20 calls in two days, and I have an agreement with one of my classmates, who will help me accomplish my plan.”When Xinhua tried to follow up the story Zhu’s phone was turned off and no one in the Physics Department had heard of him.

Peking
University officials and
Beijing police warn students, especially young women, to be wary of such advertisements.Yet many believe Zhu was an alias that he used to keep his plan a secret.
Wang Jisheng, a professor with the Psychology Institution of the Chinese Academy Sciences, said the ad shows that Zhu is trying to show filial piety to his parents but he is in fact only cheating them. Chinese boy travels over 1,167 km on top of train

[ 18 Jan, 2007 2107hrs IST PTI ] 

BEIJING: A 12-year-old disgruntled Chinese boy has survived 18 hours of biting cold after he travelled 1,167 kms on top of a running train. The boy was discovered at Jinan railway station in the eastern
shandong province after an 18-hour journey, Qilu Evening News reported. The boy was shivering with cold when found. Police immediately took him to their office to warm up. The boy, identified as Wang, left home in Hangzhou, east China’s
Zhejiang province, in a fit of pique after a quarrel with his family. With no money, he sneaked into the railway station and climbed on to the top of a train heading to the northeastern city Qiqihar.Staff at the
Jinan railway station said the train stopped at the station at 9.23 am. One staff member noticed the boy just as the train was about to depart. The police had already returned the boy to his home. The distance from Hangzhou to
Qiqihar is 2,896 kilometres, a 41-hour train journey

God gets fake notes, lottery ticketsTirupati: They say, it’s all in God’s hands. But did they mean fake currency notes, lottery tickets and land registration deeds? Well, that’s what Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala is getting these days in the hundi (collection box) as donation. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been informed by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) that fake currency notes worth Rs 50 lakh have been recovered from the Sri Vari hundi, along with lottery tickets before draw dates and documents for land registered in the name of the Lord. Though earlier the fake notes amounted to Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000 per day, but the figure has risen to Rs 50,000 per day from, reported officials said. While verifying the documents and lottery tickets, the authorities discovered two demand drafts worth $1,116 totally placed in the collection box.

Half-animal half-woman in Cambodian jungle PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA, JAN 18:  A woman who disappeared in the jungles of northeastern
Cambodia as a child has apparently been found after living in the wild for 19 years, police and a man claiming to be her father said on Thursday. The woman¿believed to be Rochom P’ngieng, who would now be 27 years old cannot speak any intelligible language, so details of her saga have been difficult to confirm. “When I saw her, she was naked and walking in a bending-forward position like a monkey…She was bare-bones skinny,” said Sal Lou, who says he is her father. “She was shaking and picking up grains of rice from the ground to eat. Her eyes were red like tigers’ eyes,” Sal Lou, 45, said at Oyadao district in Rattanakiri province, where the woman was found last Saturday. Rochom P’ngieng, then 8 years old, disappeared in 1988 when she was herding buffalo in a remote jungle area, said Chea Bunthoeun, a deputy provincial police chief. The province is about 325 kilometres northeast of capital
Phnom Penh. Mao San, police chief of Oyadao district, described 0the woman as “half-human and half-animal.” Sal Lou, a village policeman who is a member of the Pnong ethnic minority, said he recognized his daughter by a scar on her right arm, a result of a cut from a knife she played with when she was young.  Hopes from ‘Parzania’

Radha Sharma

[ 18 Jan, 2007 2252hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]  AHMEDABAD: It has been five years since Parsi couple Roopa and Dara Modi lost their son Azhar (14) in the conundrum of 2002 post-Godhra riots in
Gujarat. And yet, they have not lost hope of finding him alive one day. Their hopes are now pinned on the movie ‘Parzania — Heaven and Hell on Earth’ slated for release on January 26. The film, directed by Rahul Dholakia, features actors Naseeruddin Shah and Sarika in a sensitive portrayal of the couple, who survived the bloodshed at Gulbarg Society where 39 people were killed, only to die a thousand deaths, endlessly waiting for their son who is missing ever since. On Thursday, Roopa and Dara, a projectionist in a local movie theatre, along with their daughter Binaifer paid an emotional visit to their home at Gulbarg Society with Naseeruddin and Sarika to shoot promotional material for the film. “I want the entire country to see this movie. One never knows… There might be someone who has met my son, seen him somewhere… The movie will have Azhar’s photograph and our cell phone number so that people can contact us,” an emotional Roopa told TOI. “I also want the people to know what happened that day, the horrors we suffered,” said Roopa. She has still not forgotten how the entire family had huddled in former Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri’s house for safety on February 28, 2002. “I was holding Binaifer’s hand who in turn was holding Azhar. As the fire raged, we thought it fit to run out. In the commotion, Azhar’s hand slipped and he ran out alone. Overwhelmed with fear, I passed out. When I regained consciousness,my son was nowhere to be found. His body too was not found,” says Roopa. Ever since, the desperate parents have left no stone unturned to find their son. They routinely paste Azhar’s posters on trains, buses, outside remand homes, orphanages and even police stations. “We often visit the civil hospital and mental hospital and peep into general wards, just in case our Azhar has been admitted there,” says Roopa. The couple is desperately waiting for the movie’s release. “We firmly believe that Azhar is alive. I pray that he is happy and healthy till we find him,” says Roopa who would be leaving for Mumbai for the film’s premiere on January 22. Last 3 digits: That’s all a credit card thief needs Anahita Mukherji[ 23 Jan, 2007 0103hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]MUMBAI: You don’t need to lose your credit card for a thief to dip into your account. All that a smart thief needs for online transactions is your CVV (card verification valid) number — last three digits at the back of your card — in addition to your credit card number and card expiry date. When you hand your card to a waiter at a restaurant or a retailer at a shop, it’s not hard for him to memorise your CVV number. Your credit card number is on the shop bill anyway, a copy of which is with the retailer. Chandni Parekh (23) learnt this the hard way. Her HSBC Premier credit card was used to purchase 13 airline tickets worth Rs 85,676.49 without her knowledge. She did not lose her card, which was with her during the time the fraudulent transactions were taking place. MRI takes more time, say docs
Kounteya Sinha
[ 28 Jan, 2007 0104hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

RSS Feeds | SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

NEW DELHI: A study has shown that while MRIs detected strokes caused by clots in 41 of 90 subject patients, CT scans could do so for only six.Appreciating the breakthrough study,
India’s renowned cardiologists, however, said MRI results took more time, a delay that could prove deadly to a stroke patient.

“CT scans may be less accurate than MRI, but they are far less expensive and take less time. The time delay between MRI and CT may be around 15 to 20 minutes. CT machines are more widely available in
India in emergency rooms and produce images in just two minutes costing about Rs 100 in AIIMS. MRI scans cost nearly Rs 2,000 and require specialised technicians to operate them and to read the scans,” eminent cardiologist from AIIMS Dr A K Bisoi said.

Dr Ashok Seth from

Max Superspeciality Hospital added, “An MRI is also unsuitable for patients with pacemakers, metal objects like stents and women who are pregnant. It also makes a lot of noise which can make patients claustrophobic. Once a soundless MRI machine, which is as fast becomes a reality, becomes available, it will be a real boon.”

According to Dr Naresh Trehan from

Escorts
Hospital, in comparison to a CT machine, an MRI machine is large, and requires patients to lie still for up to 30 minutes.

Net4 offers international calls at Re 1/mF

riday, 05 January , 2007, 08:48 New Delhi: Net4India Ltd has launched a “One World” plan under which it would offer calls to over 40 countries at Re 1 per minute. Through its calling card, Net4 would facilitate voice calls from a PC to a phone or a mobile, globally. “As a major call centre destination,
India stands to gain a lot from voice communication over the Internet. Our `One World’ plan will be a cost-effective solution for small BPO outfits where significant amount of work depends on outbound calls. By end of this calendar year, we are looking at adding 1,50,000 subscribers,” said Jasjit Sawhney, CEO, Net4. The company’s prepaid calling cards such as One World, Homeland, Gulf Gold and Unlimited are available in the denomination of Rs 100, Rs 250, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. After logging to the Web site (www.phonewalah.com), consumers can download the dialer and enter their user ID and pin. Net4 has also launched customised corporate products with different calling plans for the US, the UK and
Canada.  

No sex please, we’re Indian
Bangalore, Jan. 2: A microphone in his hand, Christian evangelist Aldrin Bogi walks around a college auditorium and gives a fire and brimstone lecture to adolescent girls about the dangers of premarital sex. “Sex before marriage has many dangers associated with it,” Bogi tells his rapt audience. “It leads to many complications and you stand a chance of ending up with deadly diseases. Say no to it, especially if you are a girl.”At the end of Bogi’s hour-long talk, more than 100 girls of Bangalore’s reputed Mount Carmel
College signed a green card pledging sexual abstinence until they marry. Bogi belongs to an outfit called Morelove, an organisation founded by three evangelists, which has launched a campaign on chastity in the high-tech city, home to more than 350,000 young technology workers. “I found many young people being promiscuous without understanding the meaning of it,” said Dominic Dixon, founder of Morelove. “We came up with this idea of abstinence commitment to counter deadly diseases such as AIDS.” “One way to prevent AIDS and other sexual diseases is to abstain from sex until marriage and keeping sex within the context of marriage,” said Dixon, whose campaign has so far netted 2,500 pledges of abstinence from women. The campaign is similar to those launched by US-based groups such as the Pure Love movement of the Roman Catholic Church. Morelove has counsellors based in colleges, schools and call centres in
Bangalore where they advise teenaged girls and women on problems related to sex, unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.“Young Indians are getting adapted to a (Western) culture that is not Indian. When you adulterate an ideology it destroys the values we have as Indians. We want to promote the campaign as a pure India,”
Dixon said. “When you look at young people employed in the call centres there is an increasing need for help. These people out there have so much money and liberty. They do not know how to handle what they have.”In the call centres, there are stories about condoms blocking toilet drains and guards being posted outside toilets during nights. The call for sexual purity had a profound effect on 16-year-old Savya Sherlin, who said that in any premarital relationship in
India it was the girl who has to suffer the consequences. “I think it (abstinence) is very necessary for the youth of
India. Sex is very common. Casually if you ask any friend, she will say she has slept with her boyfriend. They do not know what the consequences are,” this devout Christian said. “Girls have to be more aware of sex. They can be stuck with something, say unwanted pregnancy, and cannot carry on in life,” she said. Holding a card which read “I, Savya Sherlin, commit before God to save the gift of my sexuality from now until marriage regardless of my past”, Sherlin said it was a treasure.Pnath Tudu, who had assured them the children would come back to life after the death of their last child and also bring a lot of wealth and good fortune with them.After killing their sons, the couple was planning to kill their third and youngest child – a three-month-old girl – on Wednesday night.They had kept the two bodies in front of the photographs of several Hindu deities in one small room of their two-roomed mud house. The bodies have been sent for post mortem.
Villagers have been shunning the couple for the past few years for practicing witchcraft. 

R-Day honour for brave girl from Mohali [ 19 Jan, 2007 0252hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]CHANDIGARH: Twelve-year-old Mohali girl, Kashita Singh, would be one among 24 children to be conferred the prestigious Republic Day bravery awards at
New Delhi on January 26. The girl has been chosen for the honour for saving her six-year-old friend, Ishita Singh, from a near death in Mohali in May last year.The two girls were taking a stroll in a park inside the 3rd Commando Battalion complex in Phase XI when suddenly a concrete pavement on which the duo stepped gave way and the two girls found themselves in a nearly 15 ft deep pit full of quicksand. What followed was a near-death experience for the two. Ishita found herself neck-deep in the quicksand, which was fast sucking her inside. Kashita — the taller among the two — managed to get hold of the pavement side which was still intact and told Ishita to catch hold of her leg. But as the younger child did so, Kashita also found herself being sucked into the sand, her grip giving away. However, the girl did not give up, and with great difficulty she caught hold of the other side of the pavement and started screaming for help with full force.
Fortunately for the two girls, Raj Kumar, an electrician working nearby heard their cries and rushed to the spot. He then pulled out the two girls. Investigations made by the officials of the battalion revealed that the underground water and sewerage pipes, installed by the municipal body back in the early 90s, had been leaking for quite some time. And the earth beneath the pavement at the particular spot had turned into quicksand.  

*****************

Glocal Youth Vision – February 2007

GLOCAL YOUTH VISION ONLINE NEW(s) LETTERhttp://glocalyouthvision.wordpress.comFebruary 2007SPIRITUAL INHERITANCE Every father likes to grant the very best to his children. Be it expensive toys or mouth-watering chocolates or any special present which costs him. Children too wish to inherit all what the parents possess.  As parents, are we really imparting beautiful and elegant futures to our children? If we evaluate the state of affairs, we will find that we are rendering them a bleak future. It means that the next generation is inheriting violence, environmental pollution, poverty, disasters etc.  

In line with this, Kiran Desai named her book as “The Inheritance of Loss”. It got the Man Booker Prize 2006.  Her extraordinary new novel manages to explore, with intimacy and insight, just about every contemporary international issue: globalization, multiculturalism, economic inequality, fundamentalism and terrorist violence.  

If we refer to the Bible (Ps. 33), we see that the inheritance of the believers is different from what the world inherits. As believers we can expect to inherit three special things from above.A. Inherit Lord’s Plan: (v.10)            Just as an architect’s plan is postulated for constructing a building, an automobile engineer too needs a plan to assemble a car.  In the same way our creator has a unique design for each one of us.  He reveals His excogitate after foiling the plan of the nations. Many times, our plans crop up from our desires.  These have to be extinguished first, for then only God can reveal His Plan to us.              His Plan stands forever. He maneuvers us from the womb to the grave and from the grave to heaven. In heaven, Jesus promised that He would provide a good place for us (John. 14. 3)B. Inherit Lord’s Purpose: (v.10)            A building’s plan reveals its location and dimension. However, it never unveils the purpose of the building. A plan without purpose is vain. In this verse, The Lord reveals His Plan knitted with His purpose from His heart.              There are two purposes in an individual’s life. One is the general purpose which is common to all, while the specific purpose may vary from person to person. The general purpose is to please Him. Each person has to find out his/her specific purpose from God.             God’s purpose is not for one generation only. It has to pass on to successive generations too.  Let us pass on God’s purpose to the next generation!  C. Inherit God is the Lord: (v.12)            Just as an engineer forgets the architect and his plan after constructing the building, we too tend to forget the Provider of the Plan due to our busy schedule and even due to our trying to fulfill God’s purpose in our life. These activities and even the blessings we receive can cloud the Source of the blessings and the Giver of the Plan.              Let us make God as the most important priority and thus live a more abundant life as the Lord Jesus promised!J. Peter Daniel M.E., 76,

Living Spring Avenue

, Sanjeevipuram, Bagayam,
Vellore 632 – 002, Phone. 0416 3206307, 09443800395.email: peterpearline@yahoo.co.in http://glocalyouthvision.wordpress.com*************** 

Global News 

SC clears air on tribal converts
New Delhi, Jan. 7: A person belonging to a Scheduled Tribe (ST) does not lose his tribal status on conversion, the Supreme Court has said, says our legal correspondent.A bench headed by Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said conversion did change the status of a Scheduled Caste person but not the status of tribals who could follow any religion. The court pointed to an earlier ruling holding that a person belonging to the ST community retained his status after conversion if he continued to follow the tribal ways of life. Brahmins made several bids on Mahatma’s life: Tushar Gandhi  

New Delhi, PTI: “Gandhi’s killing was not an assassination. It was a premeditated murder. Gandhi was targeted by Brahmins who wanted India should become a Hindu nation and they would remain a dominant community,” said Tushar Gandhi.   The Brahmin community was behind several bids on Mahatma Gandhi’s life as it wanted to make
India a Hindu nation, the great-grandson of the father of the nation claimed today.
“I want to condemn the theory of the Sangh Parivar that Gandhi was killed because he was responsible for the vivisection of the motherland and because he forced the Indian government to give Pakistan Rs 55 crore,” Tushar A Gandhi said at an event where his book “Let’s Kill Gandhi” was launched here. “These are all excuses which are not true … and the Brahmin community, which wanted to make
India a Hindu nation, were behind all the attempts and the murder of the father of the nation,” he said. “Gandhi’s killing was not an assassination. It was a premeditated murder. Gandhi was targeted by Brahmins who wanted
India should become a Hindu nation and they would remain a dominant community. “Before he was eventually murdered (on January 30, 1948), there were several attempts on his life and
Poona was linked to all the attempts on his life,” he said after the book was launched by noted journalist M J Akbar. Presenting facts, Tushar said the first attempt on the Mahatma’s life was made at
Poona, now Pune, in 1935 when a grenade was hurled at him during a Harijan yatra, but Gandhi escaped the attempt. Other bids on his life were made at Panchgani and Wardha in
Maharashtra.
“Narayan Apte, Nathuram Godse and their gang of extremists were involved in the three attempts. Worse, there were a lot of lapses in arrangements made to protect Gandhi,” Tushar said.
The book presents an analysis of events from 1944 to 1949. Tushar started working four years ago on the book, which was written on the basis of archival records, records of the Mahatma’s murder trial and investigation and verbal history. “The attempts on the Mahatma’s life were intended to kill his legacy and subvert his philosophy,” he said. Tushar said the Kapoor Commission, which was constituted in 1968 to investigate the larger conspiracy behind the killing of Gandhi, came out with many “startling” revelations.
He claimed the feeling of “hatred” between Hindus and Muslims still persists in the country and the government needed to take steps for a harmonious relation between both communities. “Hindus and Muslims are still a divided lot. If steps are not taken, the country will be fragmented,” he said.

Akbar said Gandhi had given freedom to the country by empowering the poor and involving them in the freedom movement and political process.

Perform or Rs 1-crore pay packages perish

Kumar Manish

[ 9 Jan, 2007 0121hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]AHMEDABAD: India’s top business school, IIM-Ahmedabad, ought to be feeling good that four of its graduates recently bagged annual packages touching a staggering Rs 1 crore each, but coming from investment banking firms, everyone on campus knows these salaries have a huge downside.
In reality, only about 50 per cent of the package comprises the salary. The rest is performance-based incentive. If the performance of the recruits fails to live up to the company’s expectations, their salary can take a nose-dive at the end of the year. Even IIM-A dons feel that these packages are often ‘over-hyped’.
IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia says, “The Rs 1-crore salary package is inclusive of all incentives and bonuses guaranteed only for the first year. Only 50-60 per cent of the package comprises the actual salary. From the next year onwards, the salary depends upon performance; but IIM-A graduates have mostly performed above expectations.”

Jatin Mamtani, an IIM-A student says, “The Rs 1-crore salary package seems astronomical but one requires to excel in the job to get the money.” An investment banker employed by a reputed company in
London, says, “A major part of the package is what might be expected as the yearend performance bonus. The actual salary is not as high as it seems. Yet, investment banking being a very demanding job, is also a highly paying one.” Amit Bordia, an IIM-A graduate and investment banker with Deutsche Bank said, “The job of an investment banker is performance-based but Indian students from top B-schools manage to perform much better than others.” Major investment
banks like Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Barclays Capital have been offering the highest salary packages to IIM-A graduates.

Chinese student wants to ‘rent’ girlfriend
Thursday February 1 2007 00:00 IST

Xinhua

BEIJING: A

Peking
University student is offering a 1,000 yuan for ten days ‘rental’ of a girlfriend he wants to take home for the holidays to please his parents.

An advertisement posted on a bulletin board by physics student Zhu Lijie was seeking to rent “an honest, kind and similar aged girl with a diploma”.

Zhu told a local reporter that his parents have been pushing him to find a girlfriend and had asked him to bring their “quasi-daughter-in-law” home for Spring Festival.
He tried to explain to his parents that with his nose buried in books he has had no time to make a girlfriend. The parents are apparently not that impressed though he has won the “Excellent Student Award” three times during his four year academic career. 

Zhu told the reporter over the phone that he had received “nearly 20 calls in two days, and I have an agreement with one of my classmates, who will help me accomplish my plan.”When Xinhua tried to follow up the story Zhu’s phone was turned off and no one in the Physics Department had heard of him.

Peking
University officials and
Beijing police warn students, especially young women, to be wary of such advertisements.Yet many believe Zhu was an alias that he used to keep his plan a secret.
Wang Jisheng, a professor with the Psychology Institution of the Chinese Academy Sciences, said the ad shows that Zhu is trying to show filial piety to his parents but he is in fact only cheating them. 

Chinese boy travels over 1,167 km on top of train [ 18 Jan, 2007 2107hrs IST PTI ] 

 

BEIJING: A 12-year-old disgruntled Chinese boy has survived 18 hours of biting cold after he travelled 1,167 kms on top of a running train. The boy was discovered at Jinan railway station in the eastern
shandong province after an 18-hour journey, Qilu Evening News reported. The boy was shivering with cold when found. Police immediately took him to their office to warm up. The boy, identified as Wang, left home in Hangzhou, east China’s
Zhejiang province, in a fit of pique after a quarrel with his family. With no money, he sneaked into the railway station and climbed on to the top of a train heading to the northeastern city Qiqihar.Staff at the
Jinan railway station said the train stopped at the station at 9.23 am. One staff member noticed the boy just as the train was about to depart. The police had already returned the boy to his home. The distance from Hangzhou to
Qiqihar is 2,896 kilometres, a 41-hour train journeyGod gets fake notes, lottery ticketsTirupati: They say, it’s all in God’s hands. But did they mean fake currency notes, lottery tickets and land registration deeds? Well, that’s what Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala is getting these days in the hundi (collection box) as donation. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been informed by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) that fake currency notes worth Rs 50 lakh have been recovered from the Sri Vari hundi, along with lottery tickets before draw dates and documents for land registered in the name of the Lord. Though earlier the fake notes amounted to Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000 per day, but the figure has risen to Rs 50,000 per day from, reported officials said. While verifying the documents and lottery tickets, the authorities discovered two demand drafts worth $1,116 totally placed in the collection box. Half-animal half-woman in Cambodian jungle PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA, JAN 18:  A woman who disappeared in the jungles of northeastern
Cambodia as a child has apparently been found after living in the wild for 19 years, police and a man claiming to be her father said on Thursday. The woman¿believed to be Rochom P’ngieng, who would now be 27 years old cannot speak any intelligible language, so details of her saga have been difficult to confirm. “When I saw her, she was naked and walking in a bending-forward position like a monkey…She was bare-bones skinny,” said Sal Lou, who says he is her father. “She was shaking and picking up grains of rice from the ground to eat. Her eyes were red like tigers’ eyes,” Sal Lou, 45, said at Oyadao district in Rattanakiri province, where the woman was found last Saturday. Rochom P’ngieng, then 8 years old, disappeared in 1988 when she was herding buffalo in a remote jungle area, said Chea Bunthoeun, a deputy provincial police chief. The province is about 325 kilometres northeast of capital
Phnom Penh. Mao San, police chief of Oyadao district, described the woman as “half-human and half-animal.” Sal Lou, a village policeman who is a member of the Pnong ethnic minority, said he recognized his daughter by a scar on her right arm, a result of a cut from a knife she played with when she was young.  

Hopes from ‘Parzania’

Radha Sharma

[ 18 Jan, 2007 2252hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ] 

AHMEDABAD: It has been five years since Parsi couple Roopa and Dara Modi lost their son Azhar (14) in the conundrum of 2002 post-Godhra riots in
Gujarat. And yet, they have not lost hope of finding him alive one day. Their hopes are now pinned on the movie ‘Parzania — Heaven and Hell on Earth’ slated for release on January 26. The film, directed by Rahul Dholakia, features actors Naseeruddin Shah and Sarika in a sensitive portrayal of the couple, who survived the bloodshed at Gulbarg Society where 39 people were killed, only to die a thousand deaths, endlessly waiting for their son who is missing ever since. On Thursday, Roopa and Dara, a projectionist in a local movie theatre, along with their daughter Binaifer paid an emotional visit to their home at Gulbarg Society with Naseeruddin and Sarika to shoot promotional material for the film. “I want the entire country to see this movie. One never knows… There might be someone who has met my son, seen him somewhere… The movie will have Azhar’s photograph and our cell phone number so that people can contact us,” an emotional Roopa told TOI. “I also want the people to know what happened that day, the horrors we suffered,” said Roopa. She has still not forgotten how the entire family had huddled in former Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri’s house for safety on February 28, 2002. “I was holding Binaifer’s hand who in turn was holding Azhar. As the fire raged, we thought it fit to run out. In the commotion, Azhar’s hand slipped and he ran out alone. Overwhelmed with fear, I passed out. When I regained consciousness,my son was nowhere to be found. His body too was not found,” says Roopa. Ever since, the desperate parents have left no stone unturned to find their son. They routinely paste Azhar’s posters on trains, buses, outside remand homes, orphanages and even police stations. “We often visit the civil hospital and mental hospital and peep into general wards, just in case our Azhar has been admitted there,” says Roopa. The couple is desperately waiting for the movie’s release. “We firmly believe that Azhar is alive. I pray that he is happy and healthy till we find him,” says Roopa who would be leaving for Mumbai for the film’s premiere on January 22. Last 3 digits: That’s all a credit card thief needs Anahita Mukherji[ 23 Jan, 2007 0103hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]MUMBAI: You don’t need to lose your credit card for a thief to dip into your account. All that a smart thief needs for online transactions is your CVV (card verification valid) number — last three digits at the back of your card — in addition to your credit card number and card expiry date. When you hand your card to a waiter at a restaurant or a retailer at a shop, it’s not hard for him to memorise your CVV number. Your credit card number is on the shop bill anyway, a copy of which is with the retailer. Chandni Parekh (23) learnt this the hard way. Her HSBC Premier credit card was used to purchase 13 airline tickets worth Rs 85,676.49 without her knowledge. She did not lose her card, which was with her during the time the fraudulent transactions were taking place. MRI takes more time, say docs
Kounteya Sinha
[ 28 Jan, 2007 0104hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

 

RSS Feeds | SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

NEW DELHI: A study has shown that while MRIs detected strokes caused by clots in 41 of 90 subject patients, CT scans could do so for only six.

Appreciating the breakthrough study,
India’s renowned cardiologists, however, said MRI results took more time, a delay that could prove deadly to a stroke patient.

“CT scans may be less accurate than MRI, but they are far less expensive and take less time. The time delay between MRI and CT may be around 15 to 20 minutes. CT machines are more widely available in
India in emergency rooms and produce images in just two minutes costing about Rs 100 in AIIMS. MRI scans cost nearly Rs 2,000 and require specialised technicians to operate them and to read the scans,” eminent cardiologist from AIIMS Dr A K Bisoi said.

Dr Ashok Seth from

Max
Superspeciality
Hospital added, “An MRI is also unsuitable for patients with pacemakers, metal objects like stents and women who are pregnant. It also makes a lot of noise which can make patients claustrophobic. Once a soundless MRI machine, which is as fast becomes a reality, becomes available, it will be a real boon.”

According to Dr Naresh Trehan from

Escorts
Hospital, in comparison to a CT machine, an MRI machine is large, and requires patients to lie still for up to 30 minutes.Net4 offers international calls at Re 1/mFriday, 05 January , 2007, 08:48 New Delhi: Net4India Ltd has launched a “One World” plan under which it would offer calls to over 40 countries at Re 1 per minute. Through its calling card, Net4 would facilitate voice calls from a PC to a phone or a mobile, globally. “As a major call centre destination,
India stands to gain a lot from voice communication over the Internet. Our `One World’ plan will be a cost-effective solution for small BPO outfits where significant amount of work depends on outbound calls. By end of this calendar year, we are looking at adding 1,50,000 subscribers,” said Jasjit Sawhney, CEO, Net4. The company’s prepaid calling cards such as One World, Homeland, Gulf Gold and Unlimited are available in the denomination of Rs 100, Rs 250, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. After logging to the Web site (www.phonewalah.com), consumers can download the dialer and enter their user ID and pin. Net4 has also launched customised corporate products with different calling plans for the US, the UK and
Canada. No sex please, we’re Indian
Bangalore, Jan. 2: A microphone in his hand, Christian evangelist Aldrin Bogi walks around a college auditorium and gives a fire and brimstone lecture to adolescent girls about the dangers of premarital sex. “Sex before marriage has many dangers associated with it,” Bogi tells his rapt audience. “It leads to many complications and you stand a chance of ending up with deadly diseases. Say no to it, especially if you are a girl.”At the end of Bogi’s hour-long talk, more than 100 girls of Bangalore’s reputed

Mount Carmel
College signed a green card pledging sexual abstinence until they marry. Bogi belongs to an outfit called Morelove, an organisation founded by three evangelists, which has launched a campaign on chastity in the high-tech city, home to more than 350,000 young technology workers. “I found many young people being promiscuous without understanding the meaning of it,” said Dominic Dixon, founder of Morelove. “We came up with this idea of abstinence commitment to counter deadly diseases such as AIDS.” “One way to prevent AIDS and other sexual diseases is to abstain from sex until marriage and keeping sex within the context of marriage,” said Dixon, whose campaign has so far netted 2,500 pledges of abstinence from women. The campaign is similar to those launched by US-based groups such as the Pure Love movement of the Roman Catholic Church. Morelove has counsellors based in colleges, schools and call centres in
Bangalore where they advise teenaged girls and women on problems related to sex, unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.“Young Indians are getting adapted to a (Western) culture that is not Indian. When you adulterate an ideology it destroys the values we have as Indians. We want to promote the campaign as a pure India,”
Dixon said. “When you look at young people employed in the call centres there is an increasing need for help. These people out there have so much money and liberty. They do not know how to handle what they have.”In the call centres, there are stories about condoms blocking toilet drains and guards being posted outside toilets during nights. The call for sexual purity had a profound effect on 16-year-old Savya Sherlin, who said that in any premarital relationship in
India it was the girl who has to suffer the consequences. “I think it (abstinence) is very necessary for the youth of
India. Sex is very common. Casually if you ask any friend, she will say she has slept with her boyfriend. They do not know what the consequences are,” this devout Christian said. “Girls have to be more aware of sex. They can be stuck with something, say unwanted pregnancy, and cannot carry on in life,” she said. Holding a card which read “I, Savya Sherlin, commit before God to save the gift of my sexuality from now until marriage regardless of my past”, Sherlin said it was a treasure.Parents held for sacrificing thier kidsFriday January 5 2007 07:27 IST
BHUBANESWAR: The parents of two boys and an occult practitioner were among the 11 arrested in Orissa’s Mayurbhanj district for sacrificing the children in the hope that it would appease the gods, police said on Thursday.Padmalochan Gahan, 36, and his wife Minati, 30, had strangled their eldest son Harishchandra, 9, on Saturday night and their second son Deepak, 7, the following night in their home at Tilopal village in Mayurbhanj district.Padmalochan, his wife, eight relatives and the tantrik have been arrested for not informing police and participating in the gory rituals, officials said.The couple said they committed the crime on the advice of the tantrik, Jagannath Tudu, who had assured them the children would come back to life after the death of their last child and also bring a lot of wealth and good fortune with them.After killing their sons, the couple was planning to kill their third and youngest child – a three-month-old girl – on Wednesday night.They had kept the two bodies in front of the photographs of several Hindu deities in one small room of their two-roomed mud house. The bodies have been sent for post mortem.
Villagers have been shunning the couple for the past few years for practicing witchcraft. 

R-Day honour for brave girl from Mohali [ 19 Jan, 2007 0252hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

CHANDIGARH: Twelve-year-old Mohali girl, Kashita Singh, would be one among 24 children to be conferred the prestigious Republic Day bravery awards at
New Delhi on January 26. The girl has been chosen for the honour for saving her six-year-old friend, Ishita Singh, from a near death in Mohali in May last year.The two girls were taking a stroll in a park inside the 3rd Commando Battalion complex in Phase XI when suddenly a concrete pavement on which the duo stepped gave way and the two girls found themselves in a nearly 15 ft deep pit full of quicksand. What followed was a near-death experience for the two. Ishita found herself neck-deep in the quicksand, which was fast sucking her inside. Kashita — the taller among the two — managed to get hold of the pavement side which was still intact and told Ishita to catch hold of her leg. But as the younger child did so, Kashita also found herself being sucked into the sand, her grip giving away. However, the girl did not give up, and with great difficulty she caught hold of the other side of the pavement and started screaming for help with full force.
Fortunately for the two girls, Raj Kumar, an electrician working nearby heard their cries and rushed to the spot. He then pulled out the two girls. Investigations made by the officials of the battalion revealed that the underground water and sewerage pipes, installed by the municipal body back in the early 90s, had been leaking for quite some time. And the earth beneath the pavement at the particular spot had turned into quicksand.  

 

*****************

 

GLOCAL YOUTH VISION NOVEMBER 2006

Seesaw Christian 

Children are not stable enough to fix their mind in one particular activity for a long time.  They are used to deviate from one type of activity to another activity.    The unstable character in children is depicted in a recent days children’s movie.  I recently saw a movie called ‘Sherk II’ along with my children.   The hero of the movie character started and ended as an Ogre.  In the intermediate period, Ogre changed into a Prince to please his father-in-law -a king to get his blessings.  After overcoming the wicked god mother and villain, he turned again to an Ogre to please his wife who liked him to be Ogre and not a prince.    

The life of believers resembles the Ogre.  They change according to the need of the situation or people.   Their life is like an object floating on the sea shore.  It moves and comes to the same location.  Otherwise, they can be called seesaw Christian.     King David sinned against God.  After that his spiritual life was tossed here and there.  So he penned down Psalm 51.  He pleads God using three important words ‘Create’ ‘Renew’ and ‘grant’  

a. Pure Heart (51:10):        Man can create robots, computers etc. by using God given brains.  He can also mix-up DNA and other characteristics to bring out another Photostat copy of the man by cloning.   But he can’t transplant a pure heart.  This can be done only by the creator. God promised to remove stone heart to give a heart of flesh.  Ezek 36:26.  This heart will receive the word of God gladly and provide the fruit of thirty, sixty and ninety.  Let us ask God to create a pure heart in our lives.  b. Steadfast Spirit (51:10):             “Slow and steady wins the race” – Old statement but it is true in a Christian life.   Christian’s life should be a consistent life till to the end of our life.  Consistency is not in one phase of life but it should be in wholesome development.  Globalization brings consistency in the quality of the product through out the world.  This makes us buy the same product anywhere in the world. . Let us ask God to give us a steadfast spirit to live a consistent life in whatever situation.  

c. Willing Spirit (51:12):             The consistency of a Christian’s life depends upon the Spiritual nourishment. This gives sustainability and growth in our spiritual life.  Let us ask God to grant a willing Spirit to know more about Him by reading the word of God, praying to God and having fellowship with fellow believers.   Let us ask God to create a pure heart to make room for a steadfast and a willing Spirit to dwell in our pure heart.   So that,  we can live a steady life till the end.   

J. Peter Daniel M.E.,

76,Living Spring Avenue

, Sanjeevipuram, Bagayam,
Vellore 632 – 002, Phone. 0416 2282741, 9443800395.email: peterpearline@yahoo.co.in http://glocalyouthvision.wordpress.com 

***************  Global News854 million underfed people in the world[ 1 Nov, 2006 0025hrs IST
REUTERS ]
ROME: Ten years after political leaders pledged to halve the number of underfed people in the world, no progress has been made and the number of hungry people is rising again, a United Nations report said on Monday.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which hosted a 1996 World Food Summit where nations set the target, said there were still 854 million underfed people, and that one in three people in sub-Saharan
Africa lived in chronic hunger.
“I am deeply sorry to report that the situation remains intolerable and unacceptable, and more so because 10 years have passed,” FAO DG Jacques Diouf told a news conference where he presented the report.
At the summit, world leaders pledged to halve the number of underfed people between 1990 and 2015. At the halfway point, the latest figures showed a mere 3 million reduction, not enough to be statistically relevant, FAO said.

Diouf said if the rate of decline seen since 1990 continued, the food summit target would not be achieved before 2150. And the most recent trend pointed to a rise in the number of hungry, he said. At 23, this girl has a Rs 36-lakh job K R SREENIVAS[ 23 Oct, 2006 2337hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ] 

BANGALORE: Here’s another reason for Bangaloreans to cheer. Shruti Chandrashekar, born and brought up in IT City, has landed a Rs 36-lakh-per-annum job with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank, as an investment analyst.
An achievement that she doesn’t consider one. Shruti, 23, who studied at Sophia High School, Bangalore, got admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Harvard, Wharton, Princeton and Caltech University in 2001.
She chose MIT, where she graduated in electrical engineering and management sciences. She received the distinguished scholarship of $40,000 per year for four consecutive years during 2001-05.

Shruti, daughter of P Chandrashekar and Kasturi of R T Nagar, Followed this up with academic pursuits at Harvard Business School,
MIT Sloan School and Cambridge. She was given the AT&T Leadership Award for showing higher promise. Before going to the
US, Shruti received the National Talent Search Contest national merit scholar award in 1999-2000.

She was given the Bell Labs scholarship; awarded to the five brightest high school students in southern India, in 2000; and the National Science Fellowship during 1999-2001. Beginning with a high school students’ programme at IT bellwether Infosys in Bangalore, Shruti did her internship at SurfProtect, Boston, Barclays Capital and Mercer Oliver Wyman before landing the plum job at IFC in Washington DC.
Shruti has been chosen for the Book Paradise-Chambers Academy Young Achiever award 2006. The award will be presented by governor T N Chaturvedi on Wednesday. “I am pleased to get the award and also surprised, but happy,” Shruti told The Times of India .
The search committee that chose Shruti for the award consists of top educationists, journalists and industrialists. This is the first time the Young Achiever award is being given. Another young Bangalorean has arrived. Shruti Chandrashekar will be an investment analyst with the International Finance Corporation.

She studied at  Sophia High School, Bangalore, got admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Harvard, Wharton, Princeton and Caltech University in 2001 Before going to the
US, Shruti received the National Talent Search Contest national merit scholar award in 1999-2000  

Girls take to prostitution to pay fees
[ 8 Oct, 2006 1035hrs IST PTI ]
LONDON: An increasing number of female students in the UK are resorting to prostitution or other jobs in the sex industry to pay rising university tuition fees, a study claimed on Sunday.   Research by Kingston University in southwest
London suggested that there has been a 50 per cent rise in numbers over the past six years in such cases.
In a survey that asked 130 students whether they knew any friends involved in the sex industry, one in ten said that they knew of students who had stripped, lapdanced or worked at massage parlours and escort agencies to support themselves. Just over 6 per cent said that they knew students who worked as prostitutes, The Sunday Times said, quoting the survey.
The academics found that alcohol and mental problems led some women into stripping and lap-dancing. But those resorting to prostitution were simply working to earn money, it said.
University tuition fees, first introduced in 1998 at 1,000 pounds (over Rs 85,000) a year, have risen to 3,000 pounds this year at all but a few universities. The average student loan at graduation last year was 8,948 pounds, but Nat West Bank said that once private debt was factored in, students now in their first year could expect to graduate with liabilities of more than 14,700 pounds.
Dr Ron Roberts, a health psychologist who was the lead author of the study, said: “Our figures represent a 50 per cent increase in the prevalence rates for student prostitution since 2000… given the increasing financial problems experienced by students, this is in line with what we would predict.”

 One in three Americans is black or AsianPosted online: Sunday, October 01, 2006 at 1316 hours ISTWashington, October 1: One third of the US population, which is set to hit the 300-million mark in October, is made up of minorities — either Hispanic, black, Asian or, less often, indigenous Native Americans. Minorities account for 33 per cent (98 million) of the population, according to US Census Bureau figures from 2005, when the US population stood at 296.4 million people. Immigrants for their part represent 12.4 per cent of the population, or 35.7 million people, compared to 2000 when they made up 11.2 per cent of the population. Minorities are set to increase in number in coming years thanks to immigration but also to the higher birth-rate among these populations who are generally younger than white non-Hispanics. Already, nearly half of American children under the age of five are from a minority group. Hispanics in the
United States have outgrown the number of blacks in the country in recent years and account for 14 per cent (42.7 million) of the population. The average age among the Hispanic population is 27 as opposed to 36 for the average American. One third of Hispanics are under the age of 18. And they are the fastest growing segment of the population — 3.3 per cent between 2004-2005, or 1.3 million more, in large part due to births (800,000) followed by immigration (500,000). At this rate, Hispanics are expected to represent 25 per cent of the US population, or 102.6 million people, by 2050, according to the Census Bureau. Woman conned of Rs 1 lakh [ 1 Nov, 2006 0211hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ] 

MUMBAI: If you have withdrawn a lot of cash from the bank and then driving back to work, don’t stop or step out to speak to a stranger. Vile Parle resident Roshan Sane learnt this the hard way on Tuesday afternoon, as she was conned of Rs 1 lakh by four youth at Parle’s posh Hanuman Road .
After an hour spent at Punjab National Bank, Sane started off for work along with her nine-year-old daughter Paulami. But then she parked a little away from the bank and sent her daughter to the nearby grocery store. Just then, a youngster knocked on the car window and told Sane her chunni was stuck in the car door. She opened the door, only to find that wasn’t true. Before she had time to shut the door, a second youth knocked on the back window to inform her she had dropped some cash on the road.
“I wasn’t sure what he was saying, but I thought I would check it out nevertheless,” said Sane. She got out of the car clutching her purse, which contained the Rs 1 lakh she had withdrawn from the bank, as well as a bag full of documents. “I bent down to see a few Rs 10 notes scattered on the road. While the boy who had told me of the money moved on, another youngster came by, and pointed to some more Rs 10 notes lying ahead.” When Sane realised the notes did not belong to her, she turned to get into her car. She doesn’t quite remember how it happened, but she suddenly realised that she was without her purse and bag. She also remembers seeing another youth riding a bicycle, who came up from behind and collected the notes that were lying on the road.
“I panicked and shouted for help,” said a distraught Sane. By that time, she had lost sight of the youngsters. “While I was shouting, I remember seeing the boy who had told me my chunni was stuck standing at the bus-stop looking at me. By the time I pointed to him and shouted for help, he too disappeared,” she added.
In addition to the cash, she also lost three SBI credit cards, one credit card each from ICICI, American Express, HDFC and HSBC, in addition to her company seal, fixed deposit receipts, cheque books with signed cheques from Cosmos Bank as well as Punjab National Bank and some office agreements. “I don’t even know what else I lost,” she said. Sane distinctly recollects that there were four youths involved in the crime. They had crew cut hair and wore dark, checked shirts,” she added. An FIR has been filed at the Vile Parle police station.
Mukesh Chheda, store-keeper at Ruchi Stores, the shop outside which Sane’s car was parked, says he was serving customers when the incident occurred, and only came to know of the robbery when he saw Sane crying out for help. Yogesh Shetty, a panwalla on the same road, said he saw Sane bend down to look at some cash. “She then signalled frantically towards me and I rushed to the spot to see what had happened. There was a large crowd,” he added. Chheda told TOI that robberies were frequent in the area.   Sane is the director of Control Automation Projects Pvt Limited, an engineering firm based in Andheri, while her husband Sanjay is the MD of the firm. While Sane drops by at the bank every day, she took longer on Tuesday as some of her staffers were to go to a site visit, for which she needed the cash.
India’s rich list: Ambanis push Premji to 3rd slotWednesday, 01 November , 2006, 20:06 Mumbai: The Indian stock market appears in love with the two Ambani brothers — Mukesh and Anil — evident from their personal wealth and that of their respective groups soaring in terms of market cap, but the younger scion is still lagging. RIL’s market value soared past Rs 1,76,000 crore on Wednesday, after the company’s share price hit a life-time high of Rs 1,268 per share, while taking Mukesh Ambani’s net worth to over Rs 74,000 crore based on his holding in three group firms — RIL, RPL and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd (RIIL). Based on their net worth derived from stockholdings in their respective group companies, Mukesh and Anil Ambani have become the country’s two richest individuals, while pushing IT czar Azim Premji to the third slot, based on data available with the stock exchanges. While Mukesh Ambani has further cemented his leadership position with a sharp jump in the market value of his group’s flagship company Reliance Industries (RIL), a scheme of reorganisation in the telecom venture has unlocked significant additional value for Anil Ambani group. Meanwhile, Anil Ambani’s net worth, based on stockholding in four group companies – Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) and Reliance Energy (REL) – and a small stake in RIL has increased to just over Rs 65,000 crore. The sharp increase in the younger Ambani’s net worth follows a surge in Reliance Communications’ market value to nearly Rs 80,000 crore, from Rs 42,000 crore a month ago. PMC prescribes privatisation for civic hospitalsAbhijit Atre[ 1 Nov, 2006 0325hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]PUNE: Pull down old municipal hospitals, construct new ones using taxpayers money and then hand them over to private medical trusts — privatisation has finally made inroads in civic hospitals.
While three major municipal hospital plots are waiting to be handed over to private medical trusts, elected members have begun the process of privatising three newlyconstructed municipal hospitals.
Ironically, while the administration is allotting civic hospital lands and buildings to private trusts, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has demanded that the state government give the 25-acre plot in Yerwada to it for setting up a civic hospital on the lines of the Sassoon hospital.
The civic standing committee approved on Thursday the controversial proposal of handing over the newlyconstructed Dalvi municipal hospital, Shivajinagar, which is one of the oldest municipal hospitals in the city, to M/s Phadnis Clinic Pvt. Ltd. As with most other land deals, the committee’s decision was kept a secret and was not even mentioned in the official statement released to the press.
The civic health department, which was running the 70-bed hospital for the last five decades, has justified the move by saying that the Phadnis Clinic had assured to provide treatment at the prevailing ‘municipal hospital charges’.

Shortage of brides? Buy tribals, say the PatelsPress Trust of IndiaPosted online: Thursday, November 02, 2006 at 1134 hours ISTAhmedabad, November 2: The Patel community in
Gujarat, known for their entrepreneurial skill and its hold over agriculture and business, is facing an unusual sociological crisis — a skewed male-female ratio and having to “buy” tribal brides for their boys.  

“Skewed male female ratio in the Patel community — specially among the Kadva Patels has created a severe sociological problem. There are not enough Patel girls to marry the Patel boys. As a result, they are forced to buy girls from tribal areas of Gujarat to get their boys married ” said Prof Gaurang Jani, a noted sociologist of Gujarat University. Among the Patels, there are two sub-castes — the Leva Patels and the Kadva Patels. Though both of these sections of Patels are enterprising and have made a name for themselves around the world as entrepreneurs and businessmen, the Leva Patels occupy a higher place in the caste hierarchy.  The Leva Patels are also better off economically than the Kadva Patels because the former possess the most fertile lands of Charottar region of Gujarat in Anand and Kheda districts while the latter possess lands in Saurashtra and North Gujarat, which are less fertile and drought-prone. As a result of declining female ratio, the Patels are going to tribal areas of Vadodara, Bharuch, Panchmahals and other district of Gujarat to “buy” tribal girls by paying around Rs 50,000 to Rs One lakh. There are two main reasons why the Patels opt to get their sons marry tribal girls: Firstly, it is the absence of caste structure among the tribals and secondly it is the affinity of the tribals towards agriculture. Moreover a non-tribal cannot buy agricultural land from the tribals–so it also makes better economic sense for the Patels whose root is agriculture, according to Jani. The skewed male female ratio has also given rise to the concept of “Sata Lagna”. A boy from a Patel community, who has a marriageable sister, is more eligible than a boy who does not have one. The idea is an exchange of marriageable girls from one Patel family into another. Sata Lagna is the system of “I will marry your sister if you marry mine”. Normally, a person from Leva Patel community does not marry a person from Kadva Patel. However, this rule is now becoming flexible owing to shortage of girls. One of the main reasons for the aversion towards the female child in the Patel community is the prevalence of dowry system.

************** 

GLOCAL YOUTH VISION NOVEMBER 2006

Seesaw Christian

Children are not stable enough to fix their mind in one particular activity for a long time. They are used to deviate from one type of activity to another activity.

The unstable character in children is depicted in a recent days children’s movie. I recently saw a movie called ‘Sherk II’ along with my children. The hero of the movie character started and ended as an Ogre. In the intermediate period, Ogre changed into a Prince to please his father-in-law -a king to get his blessings. After overcoming the wicked god mother and villain, he turned again to an Ogre to please his wife who liked him to be Ogre and not a prince.

The life of believers resembles the Ogre. They change according to the need of the situation or people. Their life is like an object floating on the sea shore. It moves and comes to the same location. Otherwise, they can be called seesaw Christian.

King David sinned against God. After that his spiritual life was tossed here and there. So he penned down Psalm 51. He pleads God using three important words ‘Create’ ‘Renew’ and ‘grant’

a. Pure Heart (51:10): Man can create robots, computers etc. by using God given brains. He can also mix-up DNA and other characteristics to bring out another Photostat copy of the man by cloning. But he can’t transplant a pure heart. This can be done only by the creator. God promised to remove stone heart to give a heart of flesh. Ezek 36:26. This heart will receive the word of God gladly and provide the fruit of thirty, sixty and ninety. Let us ask God to create a pure heart in our lives.

b. Steadfast Spirit (51:10): “Slow and steady wins the race” – Old statement but it is true in a Christian life. Christian’s life should be a consistent life till to the end of our life. Consistency is not in one phase of life but it should be in wholesome development. Globalization brings consistency in the quality of the product through out the world. This makes us buy the same product anywhere in the world. . Let us ask God to give us a steadfast spirit to live a consistent life in whatever situation.

c. Willing Spirit (51:12): The consistency of a Christian’s life depends upon the Spiritual nourishment. This gives sustainability and growth in our spiritual life. Let us ask God to grant a willing Spirit to know more about Him by reading the word of God, praying to God and having fellowship with fellow believers.

Let us ask God to create a pure heart to make room for a steadfast and a willing Spirit to dwell in our pure heart. So that, we can live a steady life till the end.

J. Peter Daniel M.E., 76, Living Spring Avenue, Sanjeevipuram,

Bagayam, Vellore 632 – 002, Phone. 0416 2282741, 9443800395.

email: peterpearline@yahoo.co.in

http://glocalyouthvision.wordpress.com

***************

Global News854 million underfed people in the world[ 1 Nov, 2006 0025hrs IST REUTERS ]
ROME: Ten years after political leaders pledged to halve the number of underfed people in the world, no progress has been made and the number of hungry people is rising again, a United Nations report said on Monday. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which hosted a 1996 World Food Summit where nations set the target, said there were still 854 million underfed people, and that one in three people in sub-Saharan
Africa lived in chronic hunger. “I am deeply sorry to report that the situation remains intolerable and unacceptable, and more so because 10 years have passed,” FAO DG Jacques Diouf told a news conference where he presented the report.  At the summit, world leaders pledged to halve the number of underfed people between 1990 and 2015. At the halfway point, the latest figures showed a mere 3 million reduction, not enough to be statistically relevant, FAO said. Diouf said if the rate of decline seen since 1990 continued, the food summit target would not be achieved before 2150. And the most recent trend pointed to a rise in the number of hungry, he said.

At 23, this girl has a Rs 36-lakh job K R SREENIVAS[ 23 Oct, 2006 2337hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
BANGALORE: Here’s another reason for Bangaloreans to cheer. Shruti Chandrashekar, born and brought up in IT City, has landed a Rs 36-lakh-per-annum job with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank, as an investment analyst.
An achievement that she doesn’t consider one. Shruti, 23, who studied at Sophia High School, Bangalore, got admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Harvard, Wharton, Princeton and Caltech University in 2001. She chose MIT, where she graduated in electrical engineering and management sciences. She received the distinguished scholarship of $40,000 per year for four consecutive years during 2001-05. Shruti, daughter of P Chandrashekar and Kasturi of R T Nagar, followed this up with academic pursuits at Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School and Cambridge.  She was given the AT&T Leadership Award for showing higher promise. Before going to the US, Shruti received the National Talent Search Contest national merit scholar award in 1999-2000. She was given the Bell Labs scholarship; awarded to the five brightest high school students in southern India, in 2000; and the National Science Fellowship during 1999-2001. Beginning with a high school students’ programme at IT bellwether Infosys in Bangalore, Shruti did her internship at SurfProtect, Boston, Barclays Capital and Mercer Oliver Wyman before landing the plum job at IFC in Washington DC. Shruti has been chosen for the Book Paradise-Chambers Academy Young Achiever award 2006. The award will be presented by governor T N Chaturvedi on Wednesday. “I am pleased to get the award and also surprised, but happy,” Shruti told The Times of India. The search committee that chose Shruti for the award consists of top educationists, journalists and industrialists. This is the first time the Young Achiever award is being given. Another young Bangalorean has arrived. Shruti Chandrashekar will be an investment analyst with the International Finance Corporation. She studied at Sophia High School, Bangalore, got admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Harvard, Wharton, Princeton and Caltech University in 2001 Before going to the US, Shruti received the National Talent Search Contest national merit scholar award in 1999-2000

Girls take to prostitution to pay fees
[ 8 Oct, 2006 1035hrs IST PTI ]
LONDON: An increasing number of female students in the UK are resorting to prostitution or other jobs in the sex industry to pay rising university tuition fees, a study claimed on Sunday. Research by Kingston University in southwest London suggested that there has been a 50 per cent rise in numbers over the past six years in such cases. In a survey that asked 130 students whether they knew any friends involved in the sex industry, one in ten said that they knew of students who had stripped, lapdanced or worked at massage parlours and escort agencies to support themselves. Just over 6 per cent said that they knew students who worked as prostitutes, The Sunday Times said, quoting the survey. The academics found that alcohol and mental problems led some women into stripping and lap-dancing. But those resorting to prostitution were simply working to earn money, it said. University tuition fees, first introduced in 1998 at 1,000 pounds (over Rs 85,000) a year, have risen to 3,000 pounds this year at all but a few universities.
The average student loan at graduation last year was 8,948 pounds, but Nat West Bank said that once private debt was factored in, students now in their first year could expect to graduate with liabilities of more than 14,700 pounds. Dr Ron Roberts, a health psychologist who was the lead author of the study, said: “Our figures represent a 50 per cent increase in the prevalence rates for student prostitution since 2000… given the increasing financial problems experienced by students, this is in line with what we would predict.”

One in three Americans is black or AsianPosted online: Sunday, October 01, 2006 at 1316 hours IST

Washington, October 1: One third of the US population, which is set to hit the 300-million mark in October, is made up of minorities — either Hispanic, black, Asian or, less often, indigenous Native Americans. Minorities account for 33 per cent (98 million) of the population, according to US Census Bureau figures from 2005, when the US population stood at 296.4 million people. Immigrants for their part represent 12.4 per cent of the population, or 35.7 million people, compared to 2000 when they made up 11.2 per cent of the population. Minorities are set to increase in number in coming years thanks to immigration but also to the higher birth-rate among these populations who are generally younger than white non-Hispanics. Already, nearly half of American children under the age of five are from a minority group. Hispanics in the
United States have outgrown the number of blacks in the country in recent years and account for 14 per cent (42.7 million) of the population. The average age among the Hispanic population is 27 as opposed to 36 for the average American. One third of Hispanics are under the age of 18. And they are the fastest growing segment of the population — 3.3 per cent between 2004-2005, or 1.3 million more, in large part due to births (800,000) followed by immigration (500,000). At this rate, Hispanics are expected to represent 25 per cent of the
US population, or 102.6 million people, by 2050, according to the Census Bureau.

Woman conned of Rs 1 lakh [ 1 Nov, 2006 0211hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]  

MUMBAI: If you have withdrawn a lot of cash from the bank and then driving back to work, don’t stop or step out to speak to a stranger. Vile Parle resident Roshan Sane learnt this the hard way on Tuesday afternoon, as she was conned of Rs 1 lakh by four youth at Parle’s posh Hanuman Road.
After an hour spent at Punjab National Bank, Sane started off for work along with her nine-year-old daughter Paulami. But then she parked a little away from the bank and sent her daughter to the nearby grocery store. Just then, a youngster knocked on the car window and told Sane her chunni was stuck in the car door. She opened the door, only to find that wasn’t true. Before she had time to shut the door, a second youth knocked on the back window to inform her she had dropped some cash on the road.
“I wasn’t sure what he was saying, but I thought I would check it out nevertheless,” said Sane. She got out of the car clutching her purse, which contained the Rs 1 lakh she had withdrawn from the bank, as well as a bag full of documents. “I bent down to see a few Rs 10 notes scattered on the road. While the boy who had told me of the money moved on, another youngster came by, and pointed to some more Rs 10 notes lying ahead.” When Sane realised the notes did not belong to her, she turned to get into her car. She doesn’t quite remember how it happened, but she suddenly realised that she was without her purse and bag. She also remembers seeing another youth riding a bicycle, who came up from behind and collected the notes that were lying on the road.
“I panicked and shouted for help,” said a distraught Sane. By that time, she had lost sight of the youngsters. “While I was shouting, I remember seeing the boy who had told me my chunni was stuck standing at the bus-stop looking at me. By the time I pointed to him and shouted for help, he too disappeared,” she added.
In addition to the cash, she also lost three SBI credit cards, one credit card each from ICICI, American Express, HDFC and HSBC, in addition to her company seal, fixed deposit receipts, cheque books with signed cheques from Cosmos Bank as well as Punjab National Bank and some office agreements. “I don’t even know what else I lost,” she said. Sane distinctly recollects that there were four youths involved in the crime. They had crew cut hair and wore dark, checked shirts,” she added. An FIR has been filed at the Vile Parle police station.
Mukesh Chheda, store-keeper at Ruchi Stores, the shop outside which Sane’s car was parked, says he was serving customers when the incident occurred, and only came to know of the robbery when he saw Sane crying out for help. Yogesh Shetty, a panwalla on the same road, said he saw Sane bend down to look at some cash. “She then signalled frantically towards me and I rushed to the spot to see what had happened. There was a large crowd,” he added. Chheda told TOI that robberies were frequent in the area. Sane is the director of Control Automation Projects Pvt Limited, an engineering firm based in Andheri, while her husband Sanjay is the MD of the firm. While Sane drops by at the bank every day, she took longer on Tuesday as some of her staffers were to go to a site visit, for which she needed the cash.

India’s rich list: Ambanis push Premji to 3rd slotWednesday, 01 November , 2006, 20:06 Mumbai:

The Indian stock market appears in love with the two Ambani brothers — Mukesh and Anil — evident from their personal wealth and that of their respective groups soaring in terms of market cap, but the younger scion is still lagging. RIL’s market value soared past Rs 1,76,000 crore on Wednesday, after the company’s share price hit a life-time high of Rs 1,268 per share, while taking Mukesh Ambani’s net worth to over Rs 74,000 crore based on his holding in three group firms — RIL, RPL and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd (RIIL). Based on their net worth derived from stockholdings in their respective group companies, Mukesh and Anil Ambani have become the country’s two richest individuals, while pushing IT czar Azim Premji to the third slot, based on data available with the stock exchanges. While Mukesh Ambani has further cemented his leadership position with a sharp jump in the market value of his group’s flagship company Reliance Industries (RIL), a scheme of reorganisation in the telecom venture has unlocked significant additional value for Anil Ambani group. Meanwhile, Anil Ambani’s net worth, based on stockholding in four group companies – Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) and Reliance Energy (REL) – and a small stake in RIL has increased to just over Rs 65,000 crore. The sharp increase in the younger Ambani’s net worth follows a surge in Reliance Communications’ market value to nearly Rs 80,000 crore, from Rs 42,000 crore a month ago.

 

PMC prescribes privatisation for civic hospitalsAbhijit Atre[ 1 Nov, 2006 0325hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

PUNE: Pull down old municipal hospitals, construct new ones using taxpayers money and then hand them over to private medical trusts — privatisation has finally made inroads in civic hospitals. While three major municipal hospital plots are waiting to be handed over to private medical trusts, elected members have begun the process of privatising three newlyconstructed municipal hospitals.
Ironically, while the administration is allotting civic hospital lands and buildings to private trusts, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has demanded that the state government give the 25-acre plot in Yerwada to it for setting up a civic hospital on the lines of the Sassoon hospital. The civic standing committee approved on Thursday the controversial proposal of handing over the newlyconstructed Dalvi municipal hospital, Shivajinagar, which is one of the oldest municipal hospitals in the city, to M/s Phadnis Clinic Pvt. Ltd. As with most other land deals, the committee’s decision was kept a secret and was not even mentioned in the official statement released to the press. The civic health department, which was running the 70-bed hospital for the last five decades, has justified the move by saying that the Phadnis Clinic had assured to provide treatment at the prevailing ‘municipal hospital charges’.

 

Shortage of brides? Buy tribals, say the Patels

Press Trust of IndiaPosted online: Thursday, November 02, 2006 at 1134 hours ISTAhmedabad, November 2:

The Patel community in Gujarat, known for their entrepreneurial skill and its hold over agriculture and business, is facing an unusual sociological crisis — a skewed male-female ratio and having to “buy” tribal brides for their boys.

“Skewed male female ratio in the Patel community — specially among the Kadva Patels has created a severe sociological problem. There are not enough Patel girls to marry the Patel boys. As a result, they are forced to buy girls from tribal areas of Gujarat to get their boys married ” said Prof Gaurang Jani, a noted sociologist of

Gujarat
University. Among the Patels, there are two sub-castes — the Leva Patels and the Kadva Patels. Though both of these sections of Patels are enterprising and have made a name for themselves around the world as entrepreneurs and businessmen, the Leva Patels occupy a higher place in the caste hierarchy.

The Leva Patels are also better off economically than the Kadva Patels because the former possess the most fertile lands of Charottar region of Gujarat in Anand and Kheda districts while the latter possess lands in Saurashtra and
North Gujarat, which are less fertile and drought-prone. As a result of declining female ratio, the Patels are going to tribal areas of Vadodara, Bharuch, Panchmahals and other district of Gujarat to “buy” tribal girls by paying around Rs 50,000 to Rs One lakh. There are two main reasons why the Patels opt to get their sons marry tribal girls: Firstly, it is the absence of caste structure among the tribals and secondly it is the affinity of the tribals towards agriculture. Moreover a non-tribal cannot buy agricultural land from the tribals–so it also makes better economic sense for the Patels whose root is agriculture, according to Jani. The skewed male female ratio has also given rise to the concept of “Sata Lagna”. A boy from a Patel community, who has a marriageable sister, is more eligible than a boy who does not have one. The idea is an exchange of marriageable girls from one Patel family into another. Sata Lagna is the system of “I will marry your sister if you marry mine”. Normally, a person from Leva Patel community does not marry a person from Kadva Patel. However, this rule is now becoming flexible owing to shortage of girls. One of the main reasons for the aversion towards the female child in the Patel community is the prevalence of dowry system.

 

**************

GLOCAL YOUTH VISION

ONLINE NEW(s) LETTERNovember  2006Seesaw Christian  Children are not stable enough to fix their mind in one particular activity for a long time.  They are used to deviate from one type of activity to another activity.   

The unstable character in children is depicted in a recent days children’s movie.  I recently saw a movie called ‘Sherk II’ along with my children.   The hero of the movie character started and ended as an Ogre.  In the intermediate period, Ogre changed into a Prince to please his father-in-law -a king to get his blessings.  After overcoming the wicked god mother and villain, he turned again to an Ogre to please his wife who liked him to be Ogre and not a prince.    

The life of believers resembles the Ogre.  They change according to the need of the situation or people.   Their life is like an object floating on the sea shore.  It moves and comes to the same location.  Otherwise, they can be called seesaw Christian.     

King David sinned against God.  After that his spiritual life was tossed here and there.  So he penned down Psalm 51.  He pleads God using three important words ‘Create’ ‘Renew’ and ‘grant’  

a. Pure Heart (51:10):        Man can create robots, computers etc. by using God given brains.  He can also mix-up DNA and other characteristics to bring out another Photostat copy of the man by cloning.   But he can’t transplant a pure heart.  This can be done only by the creator. God promised to remove stone heart to give a heart of flesh.  Ezek 36:26.  This heart will receive the word of God gladly and provide the fruit of thirty, sixty and ninety.  Let us ask God to create a pure heart in our lives.  

b. Steadfast Spirit (51:10):             “Slow and steady wins the race” – Old statement but it is true in a Christian life.   Christian’s life should be a consistent life till to the end of our life.  Consistency is not in one phase of life but it should be in wholesome development.  Globalization brings consistency in the quality of the product through out the world.  This makes us buy the same product anywhere in the world. . Let us ask God to give us a steadfast spirit to live a consistent life in whatever situation.  

c. Willing Spirit (51:12):             The consistency of a Christian’s life depends upon the Spiritual nourishment. This gives sustainability and growth in our spiritual life.  Let us ask God to grant a willing Spirit to know more about Him by reading the word of God, praying to God and having fellowship with fellow believers. 

 Let us ask God to create a pure heart to make room for a steadfast and a willing Spirit to dwell in our pure heart.   So that,  we can live a steady life till the end.   

J. Peter Daniel M.E., 76,

Living Spring Avenue

, Sanjeevipuram, Bagayam,
Vellore 632 – 002, Phone. 0416 2282741, 9443800395.email: peterpearline@yahoo.co.in http://glocalyouthvision.wordpress.com 

*************** 

Global News854 million underfed people in the world[ 1 Nov, 2006 0025hrs IST
REUTERS ]
ROME: Ten years after political leaders pledged to halve the number of underfed people in the world, no progress has been made and the number of hungry people is rising again, a United Nations report said on Monday.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which hosted a

1996 World Food Summit where nations set the target, said there were still 854 million underfed people, and that one in three people in sub-Saharan
Africa lived in chronic hunger.
“I am deeply sorry to report that the situation remains intolerable and unacceptable, and more so because 10 years have passed,” FAO DG Jacques Diouf told a news conference where he presented the report.
At the summit, world leaders pledged to halve the number of underfed people between 1990 and 2015. At the halfway point, the latest figures showed a mere 3 million reduction, not enough to be statistically relevant, FAO said.

Diouf said if the rate of decline seen since 1990 continued, the food summit target would not be achieved before 2150. And the most recent trend pointed to a rise in the number of hungry, he said.

At 23, this girl has a Rs 36-lakh job K R SREENIVAS[ 23 Oct, 2006 2337hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ] 

BANGALORE: Here’s another reason for Bangaloreans to cheer. Shruti Chandrashekar, born and brought up in IT City, has landed a Rs 36-lakh-per-annum job with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank, as an investment analyst.
An achievement that she doesn’t consider one. Shruti, 23, who studied at Sophia High School, Bangalore, got admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Harvard, Wharton, Princeton and Caltech University in 2001.
She chose MIT, where she graduated in electrical engineering and management sciences. She received the distinguished scholarship of $40,000 per year for four consecutive years during 2001-05.

Shruti, daughter of P Chandrashekar and Kasturi of R T Nagar, followed this up with academic pursuits at
Harvard
Business
School,
MIT
Sloan
School and
Cambridge.
She was given the AT&T Leadership Award for showing higher promise. Before going to the
US, Shruti received the National Talent Search Contest national merit scholar award in 1999-2000.

She was given the Bell Labs scholarship; awarded to the five brightest high school students in southern
India, in 2000; and the National Science Fellowship during 1999-2001.
Beginning with a high school students’ programme at IT bellwether Infosys in Bangalore, Shruti did her internship at SurfProtect, Boston, Barclays Capital and Mercer Oliver Wyman before landing the plum job at IFC in
Washington DC.
Shruti has been chosen for the Book Paradise-Chambers Academy Young Achiever award 2006. The award will be presented by governor T N Chaturvedi on Wednesday. “I am pleased to get the award and also surprised, but happy,” Shruti told The Times of India .
The search committee that chose Shruti for the award consists of top educationists, journalists and industrialists. This is the first time the Young Achiever award is being given. Another young Bangalorean has arrived.
Shruti Chandrashekar will be an investment analyst with the International Finance Corporation.

She studied at
Sophia
High School, Bangalore, got admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Harvard, Wharton, Princeton and

Caltech
University in 2001
Before going to the
US, Shruti received the National Talent Search Contest national merit scholar award in 1999-2000  

Girls take to prostitution to pay fees
[ 8 Oct, 2006 1035hrs IST PTI ]
LONDON: An increasing number of female students in the UK are resorting to prostitution or other jobs in the sex industry to pay rising university tuition fees, a study claimed on Sunday.  

Research by
Kingston
University in southwest
London suggested that there has been a 50 per cent rise in numbers over the past six years in such cases.
In a survey that asked 130 students whether they knew any friends involved in the sex industry, one in ten said that they knew of students who had stripped, lapdanced or worked at massage parlours and escort agencies to support themselves. Just over 6 per cent said that they knew students who worked as prostitutes, The Sunday Times said, quoting the survey.
The academics found that alcohol and mental problems led some women into stripping and lap-dancing. But those resorting to prostitution were simply working to earn money, it said.
University tuition fees, first introduced in 1998 at 1,000 pounds (over Rs 85,000) a year, have risen to 3,000 pounds this year at all but a few universities.
The average student loan at graduation last year was 8,948 pounds, but Nat West Bank said that once private debt was factored in, students now in their first year could expect to graduate with liabilities of more than 14,700 pounds.
Dr Ron Roberts, a health psychologist who was the lead author of the study, said: “Our figures represent a 50 per cent increase in the prevalence rates for student prostitution since 2000… given the increasing financial problems experienced by students, this is in line with what we would predict.” One in three Americans is black or AsianPosted online: Sunday, October 01, 2006 at 1316 hours ISTWashington, October 1: One third of the US population, which is set to hit the 300-million mark in October, is made up of minorities — either Hispanic, black, Asian or, less often, indigenous Native Americans. Minorities account for 33 per cent (98 million) of the population, according to US Census Bureau figures from 2005, when the
US population stood at 296.4 million people. Immigrants for their part represent 12.4 per cent of the population, or 35.7 million people, compared to 2000 when they made up 11.2 per cent of the population. Minorities are set to increase in number in coming years thanks to immigration but also to the higher birth-rate among these populations who are generally younger than white non-Hispanics. Already, nearly half of American children under the age of five are from a minority group. Hispanics in the
United States have outgrown the number of blacks in the country in recent years and account for 14 per cent (42.7 million) of the population. The average age among the Hispanic population is 27 as opposed to 36 for the average American. One third of Hispanics are under the age of 18. And they are the fastest growing segment of the population — 3.3 per cent between 2004-2005, or 1.3 million more, in large part due to births (800,000) followed by immigration (500,000). At this rate, Hispanics are expected to represent 25 per cent of the
US population, or 102.6 million people, by 2050, according to the Census Bureau. Woman conned of Rs 1 lakh [ 1 Nov, 2006 0211hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ] 

MUMBAI: If you have withdrawn a lot of cash from the bank and then driving back to work, don’t stop or step out to speak to a stranger. Vile Parle resident Roshan Sane learnt this the hard way on Tuesday afternoon, as she was conned of Rs 1 lakh by four youth at Parle’s posh

Hanuman Road

.
After an hour spent at Punjab National Bank, Sane started off for work along with her nine-year-old daughter Paulami. But then she parked a little away from the bank and sent her daughter to the nearby grocery store. Just then, a youngster knocked on the car window and told Sane her chunni was stuck in the car door. She opened the door, only to find that wasn’t true. Before she had time to shut the door, a second youth knocked on the back window to inform her she had dropped some cash on the road.
“I wasn’t sure what he was saying, but I thought I would check it out nevertheless,” said Sane. She got out of the car clutching her purse, which contained the Rs 1 lakh she had withdrawn from the bank, as well as a bag full of documents. “I bent down to see a few Rs 10 notes scattered on the road. While the boy who had told me of the money moved on, another youngster came by, and pointed to some more Rs 10 notes lying ahead.” When Sane realised the notes did not belong to her, she turned to get into her car. She doesn’t quite remember how it happened, but she suddenly realised that she was without her purse and bag. She also remembers seeing another youth riding a bicycle, who came up from behind and collected the notes that were lying on the road.
“I panicked and shouted for help,” said a distraught Sane. By that time, she had lost sight of the youngsters. “While I was shouting, I remember seeing the boy who had told me my chunni was stuck standing at the bus-stop looking at me. By the time I pointed to him and shouted for help, he too disappeared,” she added.
In addition to the cash, she also lost three SBI credit cards, one credit card each from ICICI, American Express, HDFC and HSBC, in addition to her company seal, fixed deposit receipts, cheque books with signed cheques from Cosmos Bank as well as Punjab National Bank and some office agreements. “I don’t even know what else I lost,” she said. Sane distinctly recollects that there were four youths involved in the crime. They had crew cut hair and wore dark, checked shirts,” she added. An FIR has been filed at the Vile Parle police station.
Mukesh Chheda, store-keeper at Ruchi Stores, the shop outside which Sane’s car was parked, says he was serving customers when the incident occurred, and only came to know of the robbery when he saw Sane crying out for help. Yogesh Shetty, a panwalla on the same road, said he saw Sane bend down to look at some cash. “She then signalled frantically towards me and I rushed to the spot to see what had happened. There was a large crowd,” he added. Chheda told TOI that robberies were frequent in the area.  

Sane is the director of Control Automation Projects Pvt Limited, an engineering firm based in Andheri, while her husband Sanjay is the MD of the firm. While Sane drops by at the bank every day, she took longer on Tuesday as some of her staffers were to go to a site visit, for which she needed the cash.
India’s rich list: Ambanis push Premji to 3rd slotWednesday, 01 November , 2006, 20:06 Mumbai: The Indian stock market appears in love with the two Ambani brothers — Mukesh and Anil — evident from their personal wealth and that of their respective groups soaring in terms of market cap, but the younger scion is still lagging. RIL’s market value soared past Rs 1,76,000 crore on Wednesday, after the company’s share price hit a life-time high of Rs 1,268 per share, while taking Mukesh Ambani’s net worth to over Rs 74,000 crore based on his holding in three group firms — RIL, RPL and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd (RIIL). Based on their net worth derived from stockholdings in their respective group companies, Mukesh and Anil Ambani have become the country’s two richest individuals, while pushing IT czar Azim Premji to the third slot, based on data available with the stock exchanges. While Mukesh Ambani has further cemented his leadership position with a sharp jump in the market value of his group’s flagship company Reliance Industries (RIL), a scheme of reorganisation in the telecom venture has unlocked significant additional value for Anil Ambani group. Meanwhile, Anil Ambani’s net worth, based on stockholding in four group companies – Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) and Reliance Energy (REL) – and a small stake in RIL has increased to just over Rs 65,000 crore. The sharp increase in the younger Ambani’s net worth follows a surge in Reliance Communications’ market value to nearly Rs 80,000 crore, from Rs 42,000 crore a month ago. PMC prescribes privatisation for civic hospitalsAbhijit Atre[ 1 Nov, 2006 0325hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]PUNE: Pull down old municipal hospitals, construct new ones using taxpayers money and then hand them over to private medical trusts — privatisation has finally made inroads in civic hospitals.
While three major municipal hospital plots are waiting to be handed over to private medical trusts, elected members have begun the process of privatising three newlyconstructed municipal hospitals.
Ironically, while the administration is allotting civic hospital lands and buildings to private trusts, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has demanded that the state government give the 25-acre plot in Yerwada to it for setting up a civic hospital on the lines of the Sassoon hospital.
The civic standing committee approved on Thursday the controversial proposal of handing over the newlyconstructed Dalvi municipal hospital, Shivajinagar, which is one of the oldest municipal hospitals in the city, to M/s Phadnis Clinic Pvt. Ltd. As with most other land deals, the committee’s decision was kept a secret and was not even mentioned in the official statement released to the press.
The civic health department, which was running the 70-bed hospital for the last five decades, has justified the move by saying that the Phadnis Clinic had assured to provide treatment at the prevailing ‘municipal hospital charges’. Shortage of brides? Buy tribals, say the PatelsPress Trust of IndiaPosted online: Thursday, November 02, 2006 at 1134 hours ISTAhmedabad, November 2: The Patel community in
Gujarat, known for their entrepreneurial skill and its hold over agriculture and business, is facing an unusual sociological crisis — a skewed male-female ratio and having to “buy” tribal brides for their boys.  

“Skewed male female ratio in the Patel community — specially among the Kadva Patels has created a severe sociological problem. There are not enough Patel girls to marry the Patel boys. As a result, they are forced to buy girls from tribal areas of Gujarat to get their boys married ” said Prof Gaurang Jani, a noted sociologist of

Gujarat
University. Among the Patels, there are two sub-castes — the Leva Patels and the Kadva Patels. Though both of these sections of Patels are enterprising and have made a name for themselves around the world as entrepreneurs and businessmen, the Leva Patels occupy a higher place in the caste hierarchy.  

The Leva Patels are also better off economically than the Kadva Patels because the former possess the most fertile lands of Charottar region of Gujarat in Anand and Kheda districts while the latter possess lands in Saurashtra and
North Gujarat, which are less fertile and drought-prone. As a result of declining female ratio, the Patels are going to tribal areas of Vadodara, Bharuch, Panchmahals and other district of Gujarat to “buy” tribal girls by paying around Rs 50,000 to Rs One lakh. There are two main reasons why the Patels opt to get their sons marry tribal girls: Firstly, it is the absence of caste structure among the tribals and secondly it is the affinity of the tribals towards agriculture. Moreover a non-tribal cannot buy agricultural land from the tribals–so it also makes better economic sense for the Patels whose root is agriculture, according to Jani. The skewed male female ratio has also given rise to the concept of “Sata Lagna”. A boy from a Patel community, who has a marriageable sister, is more eligible than a boy who does not have one. The idea is an exchange of marriageable girls from one Patel family into another. Sata Lagna is the system of “I will marry your sister if you marry mine”. Normally, a person from Leva Patel community does not marry a person from Kadva Patel. However, this rule is now becoming flexible owing to shortage of girls. One of the main reasons for the aversion towards the female child in the Patel community is the prevalence of dowry system.************** 

 

glocal youth vision August 2006

FIVE PRECIOUS STONES

                                                                                                                                                -

In the 18^th century, buyer did not have freedom to choose

products according to their desires.  They had to abide by the market availability. (Sellers’ market).  In the 19^th Century, the situation changed a bit in favour of buyers.  In the 20^th century, the option has wide opened to the need of the buyers.  The buyers have a lot of choices to make.  Due to these recent changes, the business man has found it difficult to penetrate into the market.

Similarly the 21st century students have varieties of fields, colleges and courses to select and pursue their career. Moreover the question pattern for the examination has changed into multiple choice questions from conventional types.

Today, many of them are living in this 21^st century with the 18^th century outlook. Shalini, a believer from a staunch Christian family secured high percentage in the pre-university exams. She wanted to pursue her career in engineering field, especially in the IIT.  She applied only to the IIT and not to any other engineering college or other degree courses.  The entrance results were published.  She failed to get through the exams.   Now she can not enter into other engineering or  degree colleges since all of them have closed their admissions.  

  

Like Shalini, many people have damaged their careers due to the wrong teaching of “ask in faith, God will give whatever your request” by some of the believers.  This type of teaching has no room for God to intervene in our life.  If you refer to the Bible, we can see lot of examples where people kept the options open.

1.      David went with an option:

David ventured into the battle field with five precious stones instead of one stone, even though God promised him to handover Goliath. For this, we can’t brand David as a sinner or faithless person.

God has promised the victory but He hasn’t given a blueprint to fight.  David used three important T’s – Trust, Tools and Training to win the battle. As a believer, follow the footsteps of this great king to face this competitive and contemporary world.  Let us keep our options open so that God can fulfill His will in our lives.

2        Five wise virgins went with an option:

 Matt 25:1-13, describes that ten virgin’s had gone to meet the bridegroom. Among them, five were wise and the other five were foolish.  These wise virgins kept a jar of oil as an option to rekindle the fire. The bridegroom came and took the wise virgins for the wedding banquet.  The door was shut for the foolish virgins.     

Let us go with our options open and with a open heart to God our Saviour.  He will do miraculous things in our lives.

J. Peter Daniel, 76,

Living Spring Avenue

, Bagayam, Sanjeevipuram,
Vellore 632 – 002. Phone no. 0416 2260066, 9443800395, email: peterpearline@yahoo.co.in

Website: htt://glocalyouthvision.wordpress.com

Schools to SMS parents on homework and fees

AZMATH
[ 18 Jul, 2006 0023hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

BANGALORE: Beep, beep… This is for parents. The next time there’s an SMS, don’t ignore it. It could be alerting you on how your children have missed the class.

Or, it could tell you on the homework assigned for the day. If you still haven’t got the message, read on. Schools will soon start sending SMS to parents on practically everything – from sending exam alerts, marks updates and fee dues.

The same facility will be available on the website too. Each child will be allotted a unique ID which will enable the parent to log on to the website www.mylyceum. Net  and get the latest on their wards. Students, too, can register.

More than 60 schools in Bangalore, including Bishop Cotton Boys & Girls Schools, Sophia High School, Frank Anthony Public School and  Cathedral School, have tied up with Pac Soft Solutions Ltd to offer this facility.

Schools will post the information on the portal. There’d be options whereby parents could receive an SMS which would be a reminder to go to the website and access complete information.

Or an entire message is sent on SMS itself like declaration of results or about a new circular. This would allow parents to get the whole message on the move, without having to visit the website.Sophia School sent a dossier to parents on Monday, asking them to avail of this facility. Parents are thrilled.“It helps me to know instantly whether my child is attending class or how s/he is doing academically,” a parent said

‘Screen 3′ tech new hit in mobile industry
Bhaskar Roy
[ Tuesday, June 27, 2006 11:41:09 pm TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

SINGAPORE: Cellphones are no longer smart, cute, sleek toys making a lifestyle statement. Within a few months, the little instrument will power-drive the trajectory of the upwardly mobile in
India.

Already off the shelf, the ‘Screen 3′technology is promising to make the old familiar world of the cellphone history by opening up a new range of exciting possibilities.

If experts assembled here from different continents for the CommunicAsia exhibition are to be believed, this new phone recently introduced in US is sure to make the next technological leap of faith.

Screen 3 will fascinate the gizmo-loving rich, but more importantly, it will redefine connectivity, says Motorola V-P Steve Lalla.

A fine specimen of the third generation technology, it connects the phone to the Internet, or to any other source of information.

On his way to work, a financial expert can have on his phone screen information about the trading at stock exchange, says Scott P Martin, another Motorola top honcho.

With 10 mega bytes of memory, the phone can store immense data.Encouraged by the initial response in US, the Screen 3 phone is being positioned for its launch in
India later this year.

Experts believe that the new technology has the promise to bridge the divide between two segments — the high end and the common man.

An executive can access information from a TV network or a news agency on his mobile phone, while a farmer in a small town can get the day’s quotes from the grain market anywhere in
Asia, Lalla points out. Experts see Screen 3 as the most exciting find among the latest technologies showcased here.

 

Soon: Computer that reads your mind
[ Tuesday, June 27, 2006 01:39:24 am REUTERS ]

London: A raised eyebrow, quizzical look or a nod of the head are just a few of the facial expressions computers could soon be using to read people’s minds.

An “emotionally aware” computer being developed by British and American scientists will be able to read an individual’s thoughts by analysing a combination of facial movements that represent underlying feelings.

“The system we have developed allows a wide range of mental states to be identified just by pointing a video camera at someone,” said Professor Peter Robinson, of the
University of Cambridge in England.

He and his collaborators believe the mind-reading computer’s applications could range from improving people’s driving skills to helping companies tailor advertising to people’s moods.

“Imagine a computer that could pick the right emotional moment to try to sell you something, a future where mobile phones, cars and websites could read our mind and react to our moods,” he added.

The technology is already programmed to recognise different facial expressions generated by actors. Robinson hopes to get more data to determine whether someone is bored, interested, confused, or agrees or disagrees when it is unveiled at a science exhibition in
London on Monday

Treat 9-yr-olds as adolescents, CBSE tells schools
Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey
[ Wednesday, June 21, 2006 12:56:26 am TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

KOLKATA: Do not consider your nine-year-old students as “babies” or “kids”. They are actually adolescents and are gradually becoming sexually active, schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) have been told.Under the aegis of the Union HRD ministry, CBSE has decided to lower the adolescent age to nine years from conventional 13 years. Accordingly, the Board has started a nationwide awareness programme involving principals and teachers.

A whole range of problems, from why the adolescent age has come down due to hormonal changes and how this even results in the diet going awry and how teachers have to handle adolescents are being discussed by Board officials with city teachers, who have gathered at the Birla High School since Monday.

The manual for this has been prepared by Delhi’s Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences.

“Kids are losing their childhood fast and adolescence is setting in as early as nine years, when the child is barely in Class V. This is because of the extreme stress, both educational and familial, that children are being subjected to,” said Gitanjali Kumar, who has come from Delhi to train city teachers.

Survey finds most city girls victims of abuse
Friday July 7 2006 11:25 IST

BANGALORE: Seventy-five percent of girls in 14 colleges surveyed in
Bangalore have been victims of sexual harassment, according to the findings of Samvada, a voluntary organisation, which is engaged in a campaign against sexual abuse.

The girls, the organisation’s volunteers spoke to, said they suffered molestation than react for fear of consequences by the men.

Out of this, 55 per cent of them had been attacked by family members including father, grandfather, brother and uncle. The other 20 per cent were people whom the girls were familiar with, which included friends and acquaintances.

When a girl experiences a horrendous sexual attack, the society has taught her to suppress the pain. She hesitates to talk about it to family members. But, when given a platform these girls are ready to attack the opposite sex and question them, say psychologists.

More than 80 per cent girls in the city have experienced sexual attacks between the ages 0-14 years. Counsellor in Samvada, Lucy Kumar said that students in government schools and colleges are ignorant to the word ‘sexual abuse’ as they are scared to share their experiences.

Psychologists say that it is very difficult to break the silence of girls in schools and colleges. Psychologist at NIMHANS Dr Shreekala Bharath said that when given the courage, these girls can revolt.

When this website’s newspaper spoke to students in Gangamma
Hombegowda College (BMP college) they said that they were ready to fight against sexual abuse. More that 78 students studying in II PU in the college said that they would involve in campaigns to educate girls in other government colleges and attempt to change the scenario.

The frequent questions asked by students are ‘why is a woman considered as impure after she indulges in a sexual act, with or without her consent, while a man escapes? How do we know the number of women the man has involved with? Why is marriage a ‘license’ for a woman to involve in sexual acts, while a man does not have anything called ‘virginity’?

Dr Shreekala said that the need is to turn individual experiences into social issues and educate the youth about it. Students do accept that the problem starts from home and it is their parents who have to be counselled first.

Hi-tech newspapers soon
[ Tuesday, June 13, 2006 11:01:29 pm REUTERS ]

NEW YORK: The newspapers of the future – cheap digital screens that can be rolled up and stuffed into a back pocket – have been just around the corner for the last three decades.

But as early as this year, the future may finally arrive. Some of the world’s top newspapers publishers are planning to introduce a form of electronic newspaper that will allow users to download entire editions from the Web on to reflective digital screens said to be easier on the eyes than light-emitting laptop or cellphone displays.

Flexible versions of these readers nay be available as early as 2007. The handheld readers couldn’t come a moment too soon for the newspaper industry, which has struggled to maintain its readership and advertising against competition from online rivals.

Publishers Hearst in the US, Pearson’s Les Echos in
Paris and Belgian financial paper De Tijd are planning a large-scale trials of the readers this year.

Earlier attempts by book publishers to sell digital readers failed due to high prices and a lack of downloadable books.But a new generation of readers from Sony and iRex, a Philips Electronics spin-off, have impressed publishers with their sharp resolution and energy efficiency, galvanising support for the idea again.

This could be a real substitution for printed paper,” Jochen Dieckow, head of the news media and research division of Ifra, a global newspaper association based in
Germany, said

Stem cells regrow nerves in rats, hope for the paralysed
[ Tuesday, June 20, 2006 11:45:30 pm REUTERS ]

WASHINGTON: Stem cells taken from mouse embryos have helped paralysed rats move again, US researchers said on Monday.

The study was the best evidence so far that controversial embryonic stem cells might be used to treat people with spinal cord and other traumatic injuries, the researchers said.

“This study provides a ‘recipe’ for using stem cells to reconnect the nervous system,” Douglas Kerr of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said in a statement.

“It raises the notion that we can eventually achieve this in humans, although we have a long way to go … We found that we needed a combination of all of the treatments in order to restore function.”

Kerr and colleagues used a soup of compounds called growth factors to cause stem cells from the mouse embryos to develop into a type of nerve cell called a motor neuron.

Writing in the Annals of Neurology, they said the transplanted cells, combined with the right mix of compounds, helped paralysed rats regrow some of their nerve cells and use their hind legs

NRIs send home a whopping $21 billion
[ Tuesday, June 13, 2006 01:09:16 am TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: For Indians, the umbilical cord with home is never severed.
India is the largest recipient of remittances by overseas workers, estimated at $21 billion — up from almost 150% since 1995, says a study by investment bankers J P Morgan. The Indian diaspora is estimated at 20 billion. Six of the 100 best paid executives in
Silicon Valley are Indians, according to a survey in the San Jose Mercury News.

Ranked at 61 is Rajiv Dutta of eBay and at 71 is Vyomesh Joshi, HP’s EVP. Others on the list include Abhijit Talwarkar, LSI Logic CEO, at 89 and Kamal Agarwal of National Semiconductors at 99.

Experts point out that softer immigration laws in the
US and the search for better economic opportunities have fuelled a surge in overseas migration of Indians.

Unlike previous phases of migration, better educated Indians went abroad in the last decade, especially to US, UK and
Canada.

The JP Morgan study reaffirms RBI figures released recently that found remittances were double the amount of net foreign institutional investor inflows and one-fourth of the merchandise export earnings of the country.

The study reports that stock of deposits by NRIs amounts to around $32 billion or 23% of foreign exchange reserves. Portfolio and real estate investment has been largely concentrated in the IT space.While the report notes that diaspora can act as a “powerful catalyst”, even helping
India realise and perhaps exceed its aspiration of 10% annual GDP growth, the onus for better capitalisation lies on the Indian government.

It is no wonder that the government is keen to recognise and pander to the interests of the growing diaspora.
Overseas Indian affairs minister Vyalar Ravi has already mooted a plan to set up a ‘welfare fund’ for the overseas workers.

The ministry plans to use this fund for compulsory health insurance of the overseas worker and his family and extend other facilities.
Ravi has already prepared a report and submitted it to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently.

 

*****************

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!