Re: [Assam] [assam] Numbers Tell Only Part of David's Story Other Stories in NY Times (14 March 2012)
Dear Friends: Today (14 03 2012) there is a lot as you can see below. -bhuban Recent Posts March 14 Numbers Tell Only Part of Dravid’s Story Rahul Dravid should be remembered for his technique, temperament, team spirit and personality. March 14 In Indian Homes, Phones and Electricity on Rise but Sanitation and Internet Lagging Less than 50 percent of homes have tap water or toilet facilities, but 63 percent have a telephone. March 13 2 Image of the Day: March 13 People throng employment offices in Uttar Pradesh after recent state elections to claim benefits promised by the winning Samajwadi Party. March 13 5 In India’s Northeast, Peace and Foreign Ties Quietly Spread The region's new calm, and border with Myanmar, could spark a jump in trade and diplomacy between Asian nations. March 13 3 Uttar Pradesh Elections Sees Jump in Politicians Facing Criminal Charges Half of the legislators elected from the Samajwadi Party in India's largest state have criminal cases registered against the Out of the above, i would post two items separately because of their importance. ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] [assam] In Indian Homes, Phones and Electricity in Rise, but sanitation Internet Lagging
Dear Friends: This is from New York Times today (14 03 2012). I hope the statistics will be useful to those who are interested. -bhuban In Indian Homes, Phones and Electricity in rise, but sanitation Internet Lagging India’s households have, overall, become more comfortable in the past 10 years, but hundreds of millions of people still lack basics like electricity, toilets and a convenient water source, according the Housing Census that was released Tuesday by Home Secretary R. K. Singh. The survey looks about 330 million households in India. A few highlights: Housing: More than 91 million households live in one room homes, and 179 million homes are two rooms or less. Electricity: Nearly 70 percent of the households use electricity, the census shows, an improvement over 11 percent in 2001. The rural-urban gap for homes with electricity has dropped from 44 percent in 2001 to 37 percent. More than 30 percent of households still use kerosene for light. For cooking, 67 percent of households use firewood, crop residue or cow dung cakes. Only 29 percent of households use cooking gas, biogas or electricity as cooking fuel. Water: Only 43.5 percent of houses have tap water. More than one-third, roughly 36 percent, have to fetch water from source a located within 500 meters (about a third of a mile) from their home in rural areas and 100 meters in urban areas. Nearly 20 percent have to walk farther than that to get water. Communication: A telephone, whether a land line or mobile, is used by 63 percent of total households – 82 percent in urban areas and 54 percent in rural areas, an increase of 54 percentage points from 2001. A mobile phone is owned by 59 percent of households. There has been a huge jump in television ownership – up from 15.6 percent to 43 percent in since 2001. A computer or laptop is owned by 20 percent of the households in urban India and just 5 percent in rural areas. Only 3 percent of overall households have an internet connection. Sanitation: Kitchen facilities are present in 61 percent of households, but 53 percent have no toilet facilities, down from 63 percent in 2001. Just over half of all households, or 51 percent, are connected to some sort of drainage facilities. Bathing facilities are present in 58 percent of homes, up from 21 percent in 2001. Transportation: Just 5 percent of Indian households have a four-wheeled vehicle, or car or truck. More than one-fifth, or 21 percent, have motorcycles or scooters and 41 percent rely on bicycles. Banking: The number of households using banking facilities has jumped substantially, from 27 percent in 2001 to 59 percent in this census. E-mail Print Recommend ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] [assam] Back2music-A unique concept
Dear Arindam What a unique concept indeed and an wonderful innovation. I heard the first song and will listen to the rest later. Thanks and congratulations -bhuban ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] [assam] In India's Northeast, Peace Foreign Ties Quietly Spread
Dear Friends; What an wealth of co-ordinated facts about the Northeast from an ace journalist. I cannot await the next two instalments. It is long and hope it reaches your desk in tact. -bhuban March 13, 2012, 7:14 AM In India’s Northeast, Peace and Foreign Ties Quietly Spread By SAMRAT Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters A man rides his two-wheeler across the Indo-Myanmar border bridge at Moreh in the northeastern state of Manipur, Jan. 25, 2012. In this three part series, the author, a journalist from the Northeast, looks at the quiet transformation happening in once strife-torn region, which could affect trade and geopolitics throughout Asia. Suddenly, there’s a flurry of activity between Northeast India and Myanmar, as barriers have started to lift. On Feb. 22, largely unnoticed by the news media, India’s foreign minister met with Myanmar’s construction minister in Delhi. The two spoke about starting a bus service between Imphal, in India, and Mandalay, in Myanmar, increasing the number of flights, and opening a highway between Moreh, in India, and the Myanmar-Thai border near Mae Sot, according to Vishnu Vardhan Reddy, an under secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. A new route from Kaladan, Myanmar, to Northeast India by water and land was also discussed, he said. Officials from India’s Civil Aviation Ministry are expected to visit Myanmar this month. And the first India-Myanmar car rally flagged off from Guwahati on March 11. Since 1991, India’s central government has had a ‘‘Look East Policy’’ that envisages closer ties with the country’s eastern neighbors. It’s a policy that has made only halting progress, but now the government is clearly looking to ramp up the pace. Work on the Trans-Asian Railway, which aims to connect Asia from Istanbul to Hanoi, is now under way in Manipur. For months, the United Naga Council, an organization of the tribal Naga people in India’s Northeast, had blockaded this. It was an action imposed to push for autonomous administration of Manipur’s hill districts. These districts remain part of Manipur, but the council said that work on the rail link, a project India joined in 2007, could resume. The crucial section that passes through the Naga-inhabited areas in the hill district of Tamenglong in Manipur will link India with Southeast Asia through Myanmar. Northeast Frontier Railways spokesman S. Hajong confirmed that work on the section of railways from Jiribam to Tupul near Imphal is proceeding. At a time when connections are being renewed between Myanmar and the rest of the world, peace is threatening to break out in the historically fractious and insurgency-plagued states of Northeast India. These states, which share a 1,640-kilometer (1,019-mile) border with Myanmar, may be quietly transforming themselves from roadblock to bridge, a shift that could ultimately impact the economies and geopolitics of India, China and Southeast Asia. Several old routes cross the border between Northeast India and Myanmar. Some, like the World War II Stilwell Road, built under the U.S. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, had become “ghost roads,” used mainly by Naga and Kachin insurgents to transport weapons and drugs. For the past few years this road has gradually returned to relatively peaceful and legal uses. The notion that the Northeast could serve as a foundation for regional stability would have been ridiculous until last year. Myriad insurgent groups in the region have battled for ethnic homelands independent of India since the end of British colonial rule 64 years ago. The seven states in the region contain a veritable alphabet soup of insurgent groups at war with India and, often, with each other. But the insurgencies that have dotted the area since the country’s independence from Britain are suddenly at their lowest ebb in decades. The reasons for this in the Indian territories are three-fold: A rise in the amount of government and private money flowing into the region, Bangladesh’s crackdown on insurgency and terrorism in recent years, and a young local population that hungers more for the fruits of a strong economy than for independence from India. The most powerful insurgent group in the region, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), entered a cease-fire with the Indian government in 1997, and has been in peace talks since. Then, in 2008, Bangladesh, where many of the leaders of Northeastern insurgent groups were based, got a new government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which started a crackdown on Indian insurgents on its territory. The first major sign of this crackdown came in December 2009. Arabinda Rajkhowa, the chairman of the United Liberation Front of Asom, the biggest insurgent group from the state of Assam, was caught after 17 years in foreign countries. The official version initially said that he had been found wandering near Dawki in Meghalaya on that state’s border with Bangladesh,
[Assam] NRI Budget 2012
Some points to be addressed for the NRIs: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/NRI-budget-2012. This might be of interest to you to follow up if you have or plan to invest in India. ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] [assam] Imran Khan cancels Delhi appearance ...
Dear Friends: The news below is from the Independent UK today (15 03 2012) sent by Andrew Buncombe. -bhuban Imran Khan cancels Delhi appearance after learning Salman Rushdie was also invited Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has pulled out of a conference in Delhi because the author Salman Rushdie is booked to speak at the same event. In a statement issued by his political party, Mr Khan said he “could not even think of participating in any programme that included Salman Rushdie, who has caused immeasurable hurt to Muslims across the globe”. He apologised to the organisers and said he had only received the full programme the day before and immediately took action. The decision by the former national captain, now riding high in the polls as Pakistan’s most popular politician, was likely taken to pre-empt the controversy that was certain to have been sparked in his country once it emerged that Mr Rushdie was taking part in the event. It is also a reminder, especially to those in the West who like to believe the former sportsman is a progressive bastion, that Mr Khan draws much of his support from religious conservatives and that his position is much more nuanced. He has often called for peace talks with the Taliban. The World Cup-winning captain who heads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, was to have taken part in the upcoming India Today Conclave, organised every year in Delhi by a leading media group and which attracts a range of leading international figures. Mr Khan was to deliver a keynote address. But it then emerged on Tuesday that Mr Rushdie, author of the 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, was also among the guests and that had been invited to speak at a session. Also taking part in that session is Aatish Taseer, son of Salman Taseer, the governor of Pakistan's Punjab province who was killed by his own bodyguard in January 2011 because he had called for the reform of the country’s anti-blasphemy law. “We deeply regret that Imran Khan will not address the India Today Conclave because of Salman Rushdie's participation,” Aroon Purie, Editor-in-Chief, of the India Today Group said in a statement. “The India Today Conclave is a platform for free and frank exchange of ideas. We do not endorse the views of any of our speakers but we do stand for the freedom of expression in all that we do.” The incident follows controversy earlier this year when Mr Rushdie pulled out of the Jaipur literary festival, amid protests from some Muslim groups over The Satanic Verses, which the Indian government still prohibits from being brought into the country. A video link, organised after he said he felt he should not be present in person after receiving threat warnings from the police, was also cancelled. In relation to Mr Rushdie’s decision not to participate in the Jaipur festival, Mr Khan said that no-one had the right to “inflict pain on a society” and described the author’s works as “painful”. On Twitter, Mr Rushdie responded by saying: “30 yrs ago Imran Khan was a fan at my 1982 Delhi lecture and 100 per cent secular. Now my work “humiliates” his “faith”. Which is the real Imran ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] [assam] New York Times on India today (15 03 2012)
Dear Friends The 'Recent Post' in the New York Times has the following today (15 03 2012): Recent Posts March 15 Another Furor Over Planned Appearance by Rushdie Salman Rushdie is scheduled to speak Friday at a conference in New Delhi. March 14 1 Before Applying to U.S. Colleges, Indian Students Should Be Able to Answer ‘Why?’ A native of India who is now a university dean in the United States lists some basic questions prospective applicants to U.S. colleges and universities should be able to answer. March 14 Image of the Day: March 14 Indian railway budget unveiled in Parliament today. March 14 2 In India’s Northeast, Youth Crave Global Links, Development A new mindset in a region where conflicts have long been about separate identities and homelands March 14 Long View: The Origin of the Budget Briefcase The finance minister's brandished briefcase, a staple of budget day in India, has British roots. To this I add: Struggling Indian Airlines Announces Cutbacks. -bhuban ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
