[Assam] Paresh executing Bdesh diktat: Army
Pareshexecuting Bdesh diktat:Army By a Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Jan 17: The Army todaysaid that there are clear indicationsthat ULFA commander-in-chiefParesh Baruah is working under Bangladeshs direct diktat. Talking to The Sentinel here today, Brigadier BL Poonia, Deputy GoC, Armys 21 Mountain Division, said, The ULFA has got diluted from its ideology and philosophy. The militant group, which once talked about illegal migration from Bangladesh, is now setting up its bases in the neighbouring country. And its c-in-c Paresh Baruah is working under direct diktat from Bangladesh. About the pro-ULFA sympathy, Poonia said, The ULFA is losing its base among the masses. The Peoples Consultative Group (PCG), the Peoples Committee for Peace Initiative in Asom (PCPIA) etc are overgroundpro-ULFA organizations. Thoughthe PCPIA has the word peace in it, but the committee has not condemned any killing carried out by the militants in the State. But if someone is killed by the Indian Army by mistake, then there comes condemnation from all such quarters. He said such organizations areunder the scanner, but theyhave the liberty to expresstheir views. On the other hand, harping onthe jihadi presence in the State,the Deputy GOC said, Thereis a possibility of such threats in the State. But it is not in an organized manner. But like anywhere else in the country, the threat does exist here too. Anyone who violates the law will be taken into account. The ULFA is now carrying out its activities to prove its existence here. It has lost its base here and out of sheerfrustration and no ideology,the rebel group is trying todisturb peace in the State,he said. Clearly stating that the IndianArmy has no personal
[Assam] Global move to save rhinos
Global move to save rhinos ROOPAK GOSWAMIGuwahati, Jan. 17: The recent rise in rhino killings with the help of new techniques has prompted an international initiative to keep tabs on poachers and maintain a database on incidents of rhino trade in Assam and other parts of the Northeast. The initiative, launched by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) with the support of Save the Rhino International, will involve continued undercover monitoring of routes used for smuggling rhino horns out of Assam. The project, Conservation of rhino in India and strategy framework to reduce rhino poaching in range countries, will be located in Assam and the work will be done by Aaranyak a leading biodiversity conservation society of the Northeast and the London-based David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. Work will start from this month and initially continue for a year, depending upon funds raised for the project. Assam is home to an estimated 70 per cent of the worlds remaining one-horned rhino population, which numbers approximately 2,400. Sources said despite a considerable decline in incidents of poaching in Assam, the illegal trade couldnt be stopped altogether, prompting conservation agencies to address the issue. The number of rhinos being killed now is pegged at seven to 10 in a year. Aaranyaks secretary-general Bibhab Talukdar said they would work in tandem with enforcement agencies to collect information on the poachers arrested. On November 16, Bokakhat police seized a Swiss-made tranquilliser gun, along with accessories and a US-made carbine from a hideout near Kaziranga National Park. A senior forest official had said the new poaching technique was a big a challenge for them. Theres an urgent need to re-examine the entire anti-poaching strategy in Assam, he said. The funds raised by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria( EAZA)with the support of Save the Rhino International will be used to pay salaries of staff and for purchase a patrol vehicle, besides hiring other cars and cash rewards. A publication Rhino Conservation Beyond 2000 will be brought out at the completion of the project. - Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate in the Yahoo! Answers Food & Drink Q&A.___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
[Assam] Rail links to be extended to Kohima & Meghalaya
Rail links to be extended - Kohima, Byrnihat on map NISHIT DHOLABHAI New Delhi, Jan. 17: The railway ministry plans to bring Meghalaya on its map and extend its tracks to Kohima in Nagaland during the eleventh five-year plan, commencing 2007-2008. The ministry has sanctioned two broad-gauge rail link projects one from Dimapur to Zubza near Kohima and another from New Ajra in Assam to Byrnihat in Meghalaya in its supplementary budget for the coming fiscal. At present, Nagaland has only one railway station at Dimapur. The Northeast Frontier Railways had announced a survey for the Dimapur-Zubza project more than two years ago, after which an engineering and topographical survey was undertaken. Now that the feasibility of the project has been established, the railway ministry has sanctioned Rs 850 crore for the implementation of the 40-km line and given a go-ahead for the final location survey for the project. Zubza, a village on National Highway 39, is 25 km from Kohima. Sources said the construction of the Dimapur-Zubza project would take at least seven years to be completed after the final survey because of the tough terrain. Achievement of the long-cherished dream on this route will be a tough challenge for our engineers, a senior official said. The Naga hills are considered young and landslides are common during the monsoon, rendering the task of constructing a railway line more difficult, experts on the issue said. The New Ajra-Byrnihat line, to be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 200 crore, will directly connect Meghalaya, to New Delhi. The North Bank of the Brahmaputra will also be connected through railways by the end of the eleventh plan, which would mean a possible rail link to Itanagar for which the Arunachal Pradesh government has been pressing the Centre. With these projects coming up, only Mizoram will be left unconnected by rail. The Centre has already begun work on the Jiribam-Imphal track, which will connect Manipur by rail. The link line to Agartala in Tripura is nearing completion, sources said. The Planning Commissions prime objective during the eleventh plan would be to break the sense of isolation prevalent in the Northeast. Railway ministry officials said several projects would come up in the region over the next three five-year plans in future. To meet its objective, the Centre is considering attracting investments in the infrastructure sector, especially the railways. - Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business.___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
[Assam] Central package for Barak Valley industry
Central package for Barak Valley industry From Our Correspondent BADARPUR, Jan 17 The Central Government has announced a separate package for the greater development of trade and industry in Barak Valley. In this package, Rs 252 crore has been granted for the development of Barak Valley Tea-industry and Rs 16 crore for the Sutarkandi border trade centre. This was announced by the Union Minister of Commerce (Deputy) Jairam Ramesh, while addressing the inaugural ceremony of International Border Trade Centre at Sutarkandi under Karimganj District recently. Under the presidentship of State Minister of Excise and Border Area Development Gautam Roy and in presence of chief guest of the function, Santosh Mohan Dev (Union Minister of Heavy Industry), Karimganj MP Lalit Mohan Suklabaidya, MLA-Mission Ranjan Das, Anwarool Haq, Kutub Ahmed Mazumder, Congress leader Satu Roy, Karimganj DC Anurug Goel and several other distinguished citizens, intellectuals and mediapersons. Ramesh also said that the Centre has already sanctioned Rs 16 crore for the construction of a cargo terminal to store coal in this border trade centre. This work will be complete within the next 15 years, Ramesh added. Ramesh said that at present the trade of Rs 30 crore is being done per year with Bangladesh through the trade centre of Sutarkandi. Within next three to five years this amount will be doubled. This will bring immense benefits for the economically deprived Barak Valley. Neighbouring States like Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya will also benefit, he added. It is to be noted here that, at present, coal is exported to Bangladesh through this centre, while a large number of litchi juice packets and hilsa fish is imported. Regarding the sick tea industry of Barak Valley, Ramesh said that the Central Government has sanctioned a sum of Rs 252 crore for developing the tea industry of Barak Valley, which will help the industry gain worldwide fame. The minister however warned that the tea-garden authorities will not be allowed to take this money outside. This entire money must be utilised for the development, and standardisation of the industry and in the greater interest of the welfare of 70 thousand poor labour families. He also had a meeting with the Barak Valley tea-industrialists on January 12, night and discussed with them in details regarding the package. He also directly blamed Bangladesh for its unwillingness to step up bilateral trade relations with India. Her unwillingness clearly proves that Bangladesh always likes to stay with poverty, he said adding that in the greater interest of the North-East economy trade expansion with Bangladesh is very much essential. Regarding Silchar-Kolkata-Dhaka bus service and Railway service from Mahisashan to Bangladesh, the Central government will be discussing these issues with Dhaka, he said. He will also raise the issue of the condition of the roads in Barak Valley with the Prime Minister, Ramesh assured. - Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games.___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] Loss of your First Cousin
Dear Das, Very sorry to hear the sad news. May the departed soul rest in peace. Mridul umesh sharma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: May his soul rest in peace and culprits be punished. Umesh "Barua, Rajen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Monoj: Sorry to hear about your personal loss of your first cousin Mr.. Jagannath Chootia. Condolence to the aggrieved family. Hope the GOA will commentate adequately for the sacrifice. Rajen Barua - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Manoj Das Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 11:36 AM To: ASSAMNET Subject: [Assam] Assamese boy Martyred in Bastar Mr. Jagannath Chootia from Bordoloni, Dist. Dhemaji, Assam was killed in an ambush in the remote "Narayanpur" area of Bastar district in Chattisgarh yeaterday between 3-4 pm. Alongwith him OC, Shri Vikas Chander from Bihar and 5 other constables belonging to Chattisgarh police were also annihilated. Jagannath joined 43rd CRPF as constable in 1991. He was posted most of the time at J&K and took part in anti insurgency operations there. Apparently they have fallen into a trap laid by the Naxalites. Sources with CRPF say that the patrol team in which Jagannath was a part of, went to retrieve the bodies of a few policemen killed by the ultras in another ambush. They were ambushed at the same site, and all of them died on the spot. His body will be flown to Guwahati tomorrow from Raipur enroute Delhi and taken to his village in Dhemaji district by road. He is survived by his 2 and half years old son and wife. His mother is quite old and father who was a Rashtrapati awardee teacher expired a few years back of a sudden heart attack. His sacrifice may contribute to make a strong India. He was my first cousin and I am proud of him. -- Manoj Kumar Das New Delhi ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org Umesh Sharma 5121 Lackawanna ST College Park, (Washington D.C. Metro Region) MD 20740 1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone] Ed.M. - International Education Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Class of 2005 weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/ website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep - Web email has come of age. Don't settle for less than the All New Yahoo! Mail.___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org Images by Graphics Factory.com - Any questions? Get answers on any topic at Yahoo! Answers. Try it now.___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] c 1- Indian illiteracy: PreCalc: Roses and Polo(ar) : MIT admissions
In US they really seem to go into detail. Try looking at graph of sin (1/x) at x=0 . it has infinite oscillations there!! Umesh umesh sharma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hi, I took the CLEP exam this friday for Precalculus and got 88% (71/80) in it. But it made me more satisfied than getting 98% (79/80) in Algebra exam in Dec.The reason is that Precalculus needed use of online graphin calculator (link below) and I had never used any grahping (even scientific one) calc. till 3months back. I imagine that 99% of Indian math bachelors/masters grads never use it either. Here they use it since they are 12 years old. Online graphing calculator free download http://www.infinitysw.com/link/ets/trial.html CLEP Pre calculus http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/ex_pcal.html Rose: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Rose.html For me it was pretty stressful and I ended up using the online calculator like ordinary one only - for arithmetic calculations and once for finding a cosine value. I reverted to algebraic skills to solve the paper. Some questions I later realized after racing my braomns all night --needed me to graph the functions to get answers. Some answers I got even without knowing or solving --just plugging the choices into the fucntion and solving. No wonder it was perhaps the toughest paper I have attempted so far. If it had not been for certain professional and personal pressures I would have takne it much after the Calculus exam I am planning to take coming Friday. Indians never use a graphing calculator -do they? Ofcourse, even in US better test of analytical skills demands doing without the calculator. But thats called PreCal. with Analysis. There is no calculator use in Calculus exam. Those who take SAT2 exam for admission to MIT etc must use graphing calculator.No wonder few Indians get in at bachelors level. Do they? Umesh Analogy: I am as good at graphing calculator as a pony rider doing the trot (for power, exponential, log functions) and even full gallop for linear, quadratic and cubic functions --but this online one was like playing polo on an Arabian thoroughbred -with reins (keyboard) in the left hand and trying to shoot the ball in the goal with the stick (mouse) in right hand. And only 2 mins for each question. Umesh Sharma 5121 Lackawanna ST College Park, (Washington D.C. Metro Region) MD 20740 1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone] Ed.M. - International Education Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Class of 2005 weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/ website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep - To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre.___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org Umesh Sharma 5121 Lackawanna ST College Park, (Washington D.C. Metro Region) MD 20740 1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone] Ed.M. - International Education Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Class of 2005 weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/ website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep - To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre.___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] Loss of your First Cousin
May his soul rest in peace and culprits be punished. Umesh "Barua, Rajen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Monoj: Sorry to hear about your personal loss of your first cousin Mr.. Jagannath Chootia. Condolence to the aggrieved family. Hope the GOA will commentate adequately for the sacrifice. Rajen Barua - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Manoj Das Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 11:36 AM To: ASSAMNET Subject: [Assam] Assamese boy Martyred in Bastar Mr. Jagannath Chootia from Bordoloni, Dist. Dhemaji, Assam was killed in an ambush in the remote "Narayanpur" area of Bastar district in Chattisgarh yeaterday between 3-4 pm. Alongwith him OC, Shri Vikas Chander from Bihar and 5 other constables belonging to Chattisgarh police were also annihilated. Jagannath joined 43rd CRPF as constable in 1991. He was posted most of the time at J&K and took part in anti insurgency operations there. Apparently they have fallen into a trap laid by the Naxalites. Sources with CRPF say that the patrol team in which Jagannath was a part of, went to retrieve the bodies of a few policemen killed by the ultras in another ambush. They were ambushed at the same site, and all of them died on the spot. His body will be flown to Guwahati tomorrow from Raipur enroute Delhi and taken to his village in Dhemaji district by road. He is survived by his 2 and half years old son and wife. His mother is quite old and father who was a Rashtrapati awardee teacher expired a few years back of a sudden heart attack. His sacrifice may contribute to make a strong India. He was my first cousin and I am proud of him. -- Manoj Kumar Das New Delhi ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org Umesh Sharma 5121 Lackawanna ST College Park, (Washington D.C. Metro Region) MD 20740 1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone] Ed.M. - International Education Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Class of 2005 weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/ website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep - Web email has come of age. Don't settle for less than the All New Yahoo! Mail.___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
[Assam] Loss of your First Cousin
Monoj: Sorry to hear about your personal loss of your first cousin Mr.. Jagannath Chootia. Condolence to the aggrieved family. Hope the GOA will commentate adequately for the sacrifice. Rajen Barua _ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Manoj Das Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 11:36 AM To: ASSAMNET Subject: [Assam] Assamese boy Martyred in Bastar Mr. Jagannath Chootia from Bordoloni, Dist. Dhemaji, Assam was killed in an ambush in the remote "Narayanpur" area of Bastar district in Chattisgarh yeaterday between 3-4 pm. Alongwith him OC, Shri Vikas Chander from Bihar and 5 other constables belonging to Chattisgarh police were also annihilated. Jagannath joined 43rd CRPF as constable in 1991. He was posted most of the time at J&K and took part in anti insurgency operations there. Apparently they have fallen into a trap laid by the Naxalites. Sources with CRPF say that the patrol team in which Jagannath was a part of, went to retrieve the bodies of a few policemen killed by the ultras in another ambush. They were ambushed at the same site, and all of them died on the spot. His body will be flown to Guwahati tomorrow from Raipur enroute Delhi and taken to his village in Dhemaji district by road. He is survived by his 2 and half years old son and wife. His mother is quite old and father who was a Rashtrapati awardee teacher expired a few years back of a sudden heart attack. His sacrifice may contribute to make a strong India. He was my first cousin and I am proud of him. -- Manoj Kumar Das New Delhi ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
[Assam] Assamese boy Martyred in Bastar
Mr. Jagannath Chootia from Bordoloni, Dist. Dhemaji, Assam was killed in an ambush in the remote "Narayanpur" area of Bastar district in Chattisgarh yeaterday between 3-4 pm. Alongwith him OC, Shri Vikas Chander from Bihar and 5 other constables belonging to Chattisgarh police were also annihilated. Jagannath joined 43rd CRPF as constable in 1991. He was posted most of the time at J&K and took part in anti insurgency operations there. Apparently they have fallen into a trap laid by the Naxalites. Sources with CRPF say that the patrol team in which Jagannath was a part of, went to retrieve the bodies of a few policemen killed by the ultras in another ambush. They were ambushed at the same site, and all of them died on the spot. His body will be flown to Guwahati tomorrow from Raipur enroute Delhi and taken to his village in Dhemaji district by road. He is survived by his 2 and half years old son and wife. His mother is quite old and father who was a Rashtrapati awardee teacher expired a few years back of a sudden heart attack. His sacrifice may contribute to make a strong India. He was my first cousin and I am proud of him. -- Manoj Kumar Das New Delhi ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
[Assam] Power and Its Abuse
It is a thought provoking article. We have talked about lack of accountability many times in this net.If you read the article to the end, you will find this article provides some details of the mechanism that results in lack of accountability. Dilip From the Assam Tribune: EDITORIAL - Are we moving towards a police state? Poonam I Kaushish Its a scene straight out of a bizarre psychopath movie. A macabre crime saga, a la Hitchcock. Thirty-eight children vanished from Nithari village next to Noidas 31 Sector over the last two years. A well-educated industrialist, Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surender allegedly slaughtered 30 of them, after sexually abusing them. The police recovered skeletal remains, blood-stained clothes, footwear, school belts and socks of at least 20 children most of them girls and boys between 4-12 years old from a drain behind the house of the industrialist. The world gasped in disgust and horrow. It all started with a tenacious fathers refusal to buy the police version of his missing daughter Payals happily-married-in-Mumbai line. His dogged persistence forced the cops to act which, in turn, enabled them to stumble on the serial murders. Payals mobile phone was found on Pandhers servant who reportedly confessed to having murdered her and six of the missing children. An aghast nation watched as the till-now-deaf-and-dumb police, which had refused to record the FIRs of the parents of the missing children got cracking. The UP State Government sacked six policemen and suspended three others for dereliction of duty. The Central Government set up a high-level four-member committee to probe the killings and give its recommendations in two weeks. Quick-fix solutions for chronic maladies. More. In an era when political image is branded like detergents, leaders of all hues and colours, shapes and sizes fell over themselves to visit Nithari to make political capital out of the horror crimes. They demanded a CBI probe and accused the Mulayam Singh Government for the deteriorating law and order. Never mind the angry taunts of the parents of the slain kids, You are here for the sake of politics. Have you come to count the bones? Arguably, one can understand the coldness of a man who sexually abused and then killed children he had lured into his lair. But what explains the heartlessness of the police? That it doesnt care a damn? Does it take bagfuls of bones to get it to act? The moot point: Are we slowly but surely moving towards a police State? The Noida-Nithari murders have exposed as never before how the police has become not only more and more powerful but also less and less accountable. Turn to any mohalla, district, or State in the country, the story is tragically the same. Be it a minor offence or a major crime. Brutality and bestiality have become synonymous with the police. Want to get rid of somebody? Call up the police. From bride burning to road rage to out-of-court settlements, fake encounters and torture deaths. It has trapped all with bullet-proof precision. Sending petrified shivers down ones spine. An example: A complainant goes to file an FIR. The SHO refuses to record the complaint if it pertains to the rich and powerful or demands money, threatens and shoos him away. A woman complainant is molested and raped, as happened in Bihar recently. If the FIR is against a corrupt policeman, God help. Who will investigate it? How will evidence be collected? As none of his tribesmen will do so given the general tendency to protect ones own. Leaving the complainant with limited options. Highlight his plight in the media or write to a higher authority and hope to hell that somebody will pay heed. What of our polity? All know what is happening and discuss it. Committee after committee is set up to spotlight the malaise and offer remedies. So far umpteen Police Commissions have been set up and more than eight reports presented. Yet, all have been dumped in the raddi and merrily forgotten. Why? At the crux: Who should control the police? The State Government or an independent body? A Catch-22 question for our power-greedy polity to honestly answer and for us to stupidly expect. Witness our leaders ruckus over the implementation of the Supreme Courts landmark judgement last September, directing drastic changes in the police administration to make it more accountable and to protect it from political interference. Virtually overhauling the outdated, 145-year-old Indian Police Act, the Court ordered the Centre and the States to implement its seven-point directive to prevent politically engineered mass transfer of officers on change of a Government. It called for setting up of a national security commission to ensure that the selection of chiefs of Central police organisations was fair with a fixed two-year tenure. And a State security commission
[Assam] Who Rises to Power in American Business?
The scenario is similar in India. As higher education became available to the lower middle class and the socially deprived due to government subsidy and sponsorship, more "outsiders" are getting into managing Indian business. Ambanis lead Reliance but "outsiders" run the Reliance business units. I have a question - what happened to the DCM group? Were they taken over by another company? I don't hear much about the ShriRam family anymore. Dilip = From the Harvard Business School news-letter : Research & Ideas Who Rises to Power in American Business?Q&A with: Anthony Mayo Published: January 8, 2007Author: Sean Silverthorne Executive Summary: Business leaders in the United States have usually been white men who were blessed with the right religion, family, or education. But "outsiders" have also created their own paths to leadership, a trend on the rise today. Paths to Power is the first book in fifty years to exhaustively analyze the demographics of leadership and access in business in the U.S., and how the face of American leadership might be changing. A Q&A with Anthony J. Mayo. Key concepts include: Paths to power in American business have followed two tracks: The inside track favors white males with the right connections. The outside path is forged by individuals who overcome significant odds to achieve success. Over the last seventy-five years, education has become more critical in creating a path to power; religion and family ties less so. Access to power appears to be widening. In the future, individuals who can operate and lead in a complex global world will be at an advantage in gaining leadership positions. About Faculty in this Article: Nitin Nohria is the Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. More Working Knowledge from Nitin Nohria Nitin Nohria - Faculty Research Page About Faculty in this Article: Anthony Mayo is a lecturer in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School. More Working Knowledge from Anthony Mayo Anthony Mayo - Faculty Research Page Who achieves success and power in the United States? In the twentieth century, the easiest path to power was available to certain individualsmainly men, mainly whitewho were otherwise favored with the right religious, family, geographic, and educational ties. But a significant number of "outsiders," such as Elizabeth Arden, created their own road to success, overcoming significant odds. The new book Paths to Power: How Insiders and Outsiders Shaped American Business Leadership explores the demographics of leadership in the U.S. over time and offers lessons for the next generations. What doors are opening? Which remain closed? The book, written by Harvard Business School's Anthony J. Mayo and Nitin Nohria, and Boston College's Laura G. Singleton, is the second in a trilogy on leadership and leaders from the HBS Leadership Initiative. In this Q&A, Mayo discusses what their research tells us about who makes it to the top of the American business ladder, how access to power appears to be widening today, and how the face of leadership might change in the future. Sean Silverthorne: Your research suggests that for the first three quarters of the past century, the Horatio Alger stories had it wrongaccess to positions of power and leadership in America was not available to all equally. Who was favored during that time? Anthony Mayo: It's not that the Alger stories were wrong, it's just that the focus has always been on the individual who overcomes seemingly intractable obstacles to achieve great success. What is often overlooked or forgotten in the Alger stories is that the individuals who "came up from their bootstraps" did so with the assistance of an important and influential benefactor. Yes, they often possessed incredible perseverance and determination, but the benefactor helped to channel that energy into an opportunity with potential. In a sense, this personal network or connection helped to facilitate access to others in positions of influence which in turn provided opportunities for advancement. In the early decades of the twentieth century, social networks played a significant role in who had access to power in business. Social networks were defined by who you were (your race and gender), where you were born, what religion you practiced, and how wealthy you were. In almost all cultures, there is a pervasive sense that some individuals have won the "ovarian lottery." These winners or insiders have the right parents, obtain the right education, have the right skin color, are the right gender, and belong to the right institutions. Doors open. Opportunities emerge. Success seems predestined. While there are no real guarantees, being born as a
[Assam] International conference
Dear Netters: As you are aware, we are organizing an international conference called "Epigenesis Assam 2007" to focus on development of Assam. The details of the conference are enclosed. We would like you to kindly put this on all the Assam related net groups of which I may not be a member. As you may note the conference will have three main sessions. Normally we find that it is very tiresome for most participants to sit through two days of conference attending. Thus we see the audience dwindling as the conference proceeds. We would there fore like that if necessary interested persons may attend only those sessions they may feel relevant. For example, I am inviting all the NRIs of Assam origin who may be in Guwahati at that time to attend the session on 30th January from 1.30 PM. This session would examine how to leverage the presence of NRIs of Assam origin in diverse fields and places. Similarly the first session on 29th January afternoon may attract economists and academicians. The second session on 30th morning at 10.00 Am may be of interest to entrepreneurs, corporate personnel, industrialists etc. Since we want the sessions to be interactive too, we feel a focused group of audience may be able to make constructive contributions to the discussions. We woulod like to have your views. Regards. Shantikam Hazarika Assam Institute of Management EPIGENESIS ASSAM.doc Description: MS-Word document ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
