from:"Frederick Noronha"

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Miguel, It's very easy to set up a village-based mailing list. And 
you would possibly get (some) participation from overseas Aldonkars, 
if you manage to get your message out to them.

You could set up the list on a friendly server, or opt for 
yahoogroups.com (they place ads below each message). Besides 
Saligao's 135-member-strong Net, Calangutenet is also in operation 
(though this is still rather small). Sancoale-Cortalim-StJacinto Net 
is also working. We tried to set up something for Sanguem, with the 
involvement of Niraj Naik. But that is yet to get activated. 

Even publications (like MapusaPlus) could set up a list that could 
keep readers informed, inexpensively and informally, in between 
issues. Was discussing this with Ilidio and Roque; lists are set up 
and waiting to be activated.

The village-list idea is a good one. It could help to re-build old 
networks, share useful information, throw up positive ideas, and 
build links near and far in a way that something positive flows out 
for the villages concerned. We've had quite a few positive 
experiences on SaligaoNet. But that is another story.

(Membership of Saligaonet is kept widely open -- anyone who is or 
was connected with the village in any way, even if as a student in 
the local schools... all are welcome, but some link with the village 
is essential). I would not hesitate to recommend that anyone 
interested set up lists covering specific geographical areas, or 
niche-interests (your Botanical Society list has really come to 
life!) FN

--

From: "Miguel Braganza" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [GOANET] Welcome new members!
Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 23:07:07 +0530
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

... cheque or cash...once in a lifetime. I do know that the people 
of Saligao have saligaonet.I was wondering whether there would be 
enough Aldonkars worldwide interested in interacting on the 
net.Cecil Pinto,Ashwin Fernandes,Savio Figueiredo,Merwyn Fernandes 
are some of the natural choices.There will be others like myself 
,who are not Aldonkars by birth but associated with the

[GOANET] NEWS: President to open Jesuits' global meet amid RSS protest

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President to open Jesuits' global meet amid RSS protest

>From Indo-Asian News Service

Kolkata, Jan 19 (IANS) President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will inaugurate
 here Tuesday a global meet of the alumni of Jesuit institutions.

The meet, to be held between January 21 and 24 at the St. Xavier's
 College, will see around 100 former students of Jesuit-run
 institutions from 14 countries with 500 Indian delegates.

The conference will see delegates from Australia, Belgium, France,
 Ireland, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Peru, China, Cambodia, Nigeria
 Bhutan, Nepal besides India.

According to the former Indian Army chief, General Shankar
 Roychowdhury, a moving force behind the sixth such global meet, the
 four-day conclave will be a platform for the alumni to network for
 a greater social cause.

"The summit aims at finding a way of improving life. The
 participants will deliberate on vital issues like education,
 business initiative, women's empowerment and environment," said
 Roychowdhury, an alumnus of St. Xavier's College.

The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) is protesting Kalam's plans to
inaugurate the meet.

The organisation described the president's decision to involve with
 "Jesuits who decimate all those who do not follow the Roman
 Catholic religion" as "unfortunate."

RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan's remarks had been widely condemned as the
"undiluted animosity of the organisation (RSS) against minorities."

"His (Sudarshan's) provocative statements have brought the office of
 the president into the controversy," said a statement of the
 All-India Christian Council.

Roychowdhury said that the Jesuit alumni summit was a "secular
 meet."

President Kalam is himself part of the Jesuit fraternity, having
 received part of his education at the St. Joseph's College in
 Tiruchirapalli.

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] Re: 1137 members- how many take active debate with Goan Issues??

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From: "luis godinho" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun Jan 19, 2003 2:59 am 
Subject: [GOANET] 1137 members- how many take active debate with 
Goan Issues??

  ALL:  It's  nice to know that we have 1137 members  
  within the various Goacom members.

  How many take active part with Goa issues??

  Guess there is something wrong somewhere!!!

  Lui

Hi Lui, On any cyberforum (specially one that depends on 
participation, like a mailing-list), one could expect 10% of all 
members to participate. That too, not on a day-to-day basis.

We have tried all possible tricks in the book to enhance 
participation, but undeniably have a long way to go on this front. 
Once some interesting posts come in, it triggers more posts.

We still can't claim that Goanet *really* have something interesting 
worth reading everyday, but there are quite a number of people 
trying behind the scenes to get closer to that. In particular, 
however, my feeling is that we need to make special efforts to 
encourage new members and women (isn't Goa offline too a rather 
patriarchal society anyway... okay, this is a self-acknowledged 
flame-bait, but it is true too) to speak out

Your point that we need to enhance participation is valid; but then 
we can do with less bitter infighting and more enlightened debate. 
Quality of the inputs and decorum is also vital. Of course, so is 
free speech. Likewise, we could do with less HTML messages (these 
really clutter the messages, specially the digest versions, and add 
to the pressure on the network) and long repeat-quotes of messages 
already posted. Agree?

But then, success or lack of it depends on each one of us. How about 
you giving the lead? And, my good friend, what about the Christmas 
present I asked you for -- by way of additional members to widen the 
network? The card you sent will not be treated as something in lieu 
of our blatant demand ;-) 

(If you have already sent it in, please ignore my demanding 
nature... but then you gave us great photographs two decades ago in 
the Herald, so we keep on expecting you to deliver in your usual 
superb form!) FN

PS: There is some confusion over the identity above. Goanet is a 
separate entity and is hosted by GoaCom.

PPS: For anyone not following the second-last para, just check out 
the archives of the Herald dating back to 1983-84. You'll see what a 
great photographer ex-East Africa Lui Godinho was in Goa at that 
time. We lost him to the UK, and are still grieving here...

[GOANET] NEWS: Designer's 'pact' misunderstood, makes headlines

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DESIGNER'S 'PACT', MISUNDERSTOOD, MAKES IT TO HEADLINES NATIONWIDE

PANJIM: It made it to the headlines across the country, but prominent
Goa-based fashion designer Wendell Rodricks is thankful that the Goa press
showed restraint while reporting over this contentious event.

Rodricks, who formalised his gay relationship with with French national
Jerome Marrel on December 26, said some journalists had reported on the
event "without talking" to him and had even called it a "marriage" or
speculated about a "honeymoon".

Under the French legal system, the law allows for two persons staying
together to enter into a 'pact of solidarity' (PACS, as it is called under
its Francophone acronym).

"This can be entered by any two people who opt to live together. It could be
an elderly lady and a young man who may not prefer to marry or adopt. It
applies to heterosexuals or homosexuals," said Rodricks (42).

"There is no exchange of rings, or now vows. I have a big bone to pick with
the 'Indian Express' for its cover story," said Rodricks, when asked about
this during a news conference held on the weekend, over his design-related
research.

The PACS says the two partners agree to live together and share everything,
or their property and financial assets in case of the death of either. "This
is not legal in India. Neither is it illegal in India," said Rodricks. "It's
like an affadivit signed between two people, but can't be contested in
France."

This event has been widely reported on in the outstation media.

Writer Shobhaa De commented: "They (Wendell and Jerome) love each other. And
have for 20 long years. A love that endures two decades and allows the
couple to flower is a love worth celebrating."

"In a world full of hypocrites, they've shown what moral courage really
means. The fashion industry in particular, is full of gay men and women, who
pretend to be straight (what on earth for, I wonder)," De commented in an
article published in Mumbai.

365gay.com, an international website, has also reported that the "first gay
civil union ceremony in India has been held under a glare of media
attention".

365gay.com said that while the Indian government officials refused comment,
"the public act and the publicity that accompanied it puts increased
pressure on the government to strike down the anti-gay laws which date back
to the days of the British Empire". 

Some commentators however saw it as part of trend which counters traditional
values. (ENDS)

[GOANET] FEATURE: Colourful skies at Vagator, kite-fliers promise a return to Goa

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Colourful skies at Vagator, kite-fliers promise a return to Goa

>From Frederick Noronha

PANJIM, Jan 19: Two days of colourful skies ended at Vagator beach on Sunday 
evening, with organisers of the state's first Goa kite carnival promising to 
"come back" if they get the support from the state, sponsors and citizens.

"It's a delicate thing. We don't want it too commercialised, or it will 
become a bummer. Yes, we need some support, but not too much. We definitely 
have no plans to put out advertisements on kites," said Ajay Prakash who is 
CEO of Nomad Travels and behind the event.

French stunt kite fliers -- twins Nicholas and Sylvian Grez, and Ms Aline
Gabillard and Ms Blandine Cambon -- continued to stun the viewers with their
kites in all shapes and designs, including inflatable kites. 

They also undertook a ballet in the skies, with their violet-blue kites 
dancing to the music under control of their skilled hands, as 
incomprehensible instructions were shared via the French language.

Silvan (25) said: "Goa is a good place for kite flying. The wind was 
perfect." They've brought in with them some 180 kilogrammes of kites, both 
light and heavy to cope with strong and mild winds, he told this 
correspondent.

Mikio Toki (52), master kite-maker and painter of kites from Japan, termed 
Goa a place with "very nice wind, very good weather... but a little too hot" 
as he displayed his rather expensive hand-painted exquisite collection of 
'Kabuki' kites. Some of his kites even hum while in flight.

Jaipur kitemaster Ustad Saheb Zade Miyan 'Kitemaker' (62), who makes
colourful motif-laden Indian-style kites with no paints but just adept paper
joints that sell at Rs 1000 apiece, termed the Goan setting 'khubsurat' with 
a lot of "nice people and good wind".

Uwe Groll of Germany -- who with his team-mates has a collection of kites
with famous rock stars depicted, including one of Bob Marley -- explained
how the nylon material and super-light carbon rods made the kites ultra
light but rather costly.

The US has its own foundation for kites -- called the Drachen Foundation.
(Drachen is German for 'kite'.) It is located in Seattle, and promotes
learning about kites, and every thing related to it.

Shailendra Mehta, who coordinated the Goa leg of the three-state kite
festival that Jodhpur, Jaipur and Agra before coming here, said the idea was
to give the state a 'clean' event that offered wholesome entertainment.

"The response is very good. Our motto is 'one sky, one world'. Goa is a
unique example of communal harmony. We would like other parts of India to
follow Goa's example on this," said the former student activist from the
state now based in Mumbai.

"We prefer activity-oriented tourism. People who do something in a country
become more closely bonded than those who come as passive spectators," said
Prakash, who also heads the National Heritage Trust.

"I myself am a kite flier, and I lose a lot of money on it. I've about
180-200 kites from all over the world in my collection, apart from Indian
kites," said he. 

Prakash conceded that Indian kites, while vastly popular in the cities of
northern India, could be lacking in an infusion of modern technology to
catch up with the times. Yet, the powdered-glass-and-glue coated 'manjha'
tradition of making 'Indian fighter kites' were worldclass and second to
none, he argued. (ENDS)

[GOANET] NEWS: Diaspora conference: doubtful decisions and dual loyalties

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Editors: Following is the weekly column written for IANS by J.N.
 Dixit, a former Indian foreign secretary.

India-Diaspora-PIOs (1,270 words)

Diaspora conference: doubtful decisions and dual loyalties

By J.N. Dixit

The much-publicised Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, or Indian Diaspora Day,
 was celebrated this month with the government playing host to
 hundreds of overseas Indians.

The objective of the conference was to affirm that the Indian people
 and government now acknowledge that the Indian diaspora has become
 a significant factor in the country's external relations as well as
 domestic politics.

The diaspora is being perceived as a possible source of influence
 and inputs, both abroad and in India, serving Indian interests.

A number of policy decisions were announced, indicating the
 government's appreciation of the incremental role being played by
 Indians abroad. One of the most important decisions was granting of
 dual citizenship to certain categories of Indians living abroad who
 have acquired foreign citizenship.

The government had earlier decided to issue persons of Indian origin
 (PIO) cards to overseas Indians. During the last four years, the
 government had also extended privileges and facilities with regard
 to grant of visas and education in technical and professional
 institutions for children of non-resident Indians (NRIs) and so on.

The decision to grant dual citizenship has been opposed on various
 grounds, which are rooted in some fundamental questions.

The first question is how granting Indian citizenship to PIOs who
 have acquired foreign nationality would serve India's substantive
 interests. What are the motivations of Indians abroad for demanding
 dual citizenship and of the Indian government for granting it?

The presumption or anticipation is that giving dual citizenship to
 Indians will give them a greater sense of identity with India.
 Secondly, privileges such as travel, acquisition of property and
 extension of educational facilities would result in their becoming
 more obligated and involved in the developmental and economic
 progress of India. Thirdly, grant of such citizenship will increase
 their commitment to India in the countries where they reside.

This raises the question why such decisions should be on a quid pro
 quo basis. Is citizenship an issue to be settled on the basis of a
 bargain?

The objectives behind the decision can be met without the grant of
 dual citizenship if the government is sufficiently flexible in
 providing facilities to PIOs and the latter are sufficiently
 emotionally committed to their linkages with India and India's
 causes.

The fact that the Indian community abroad insists on dual
 citizenship implies that they predicate their involvement with
 India on New Delhi granting them privileges of citizenship despite
 their having acquired foreign citizenship voluntarily. This does
 not show much of a commitment or involvement with India.

The other reason why this is an avoidable gesture is because it is
 being granted on a selective basis. It is not being extended to all
 Indians who are foreign nationals living in all parts of the world.
 Out of 20 million Indians living in different parts of the world,
 dual citizenship is likely to be granted to 4.5 to 5 million
 Indians living in Western Europe, the U.S., Canada and other
 prosperous countries like Japan and Australia.

PIOs in other parts of the world will not be eligible for this
 facility. Then, again, the grant of dual citizenship is a
 conferment of facilities and privileges without obligations on the
 part of Indian beneficiaries abroad.

They will not be part of political processes of India. There will be
 no obligation on their part to serve the Indian government if it
 becomes necessary. They can detach themselves from obligations
 towards India by claiming their basic national identity with a
 foreign country.

Leaving aside some marginal economic and social benefits, the grant
 of dual citizenship results in the phenomenon of ambiguous loyalty
 amongst those who get it.

The resentment and angst the large numbers of PIOs in other parts of
 the world would feel about this selective grant of dual citizenship
 can create tensions in Indian communities abroad as well as
 problems for India's foreign policy. This is apart from the fact
 that a fair segment of Indian public opinion does not see any
 justification for the grant of dual citizenship.

Out of 184 countries that are members of the U.N., only about 40
 countries allow dual citizenship to their communities living
 abroad. Apart from aberrations resulting from dual loyalties,
 travel and property facilities resulting from the grant of dual
 citizenship can create problems of security and socio-econo

[GOANET] LINKS: Goa feasts and zatras...

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SOME feast and zatra days in Goa in the year ahead (2003):

JANUARY: Three Kings Feast at Chandor, Cansaulim,
Reis Magos & Candolim Feast (Jan 6), Fatorpa zatra
(Jan 7 to 11), Makar Sankaranti (14), Bodgeshwar
zatra Mapusa (17), Devki Krishna Marcela zatra (18),
Republic Day, Seraulim and Pilar feasts (26)

FEBRUARY: Verna and Grace Ch Margao feast (Feb 2), Ganesh Jayanti Utsav
Bogda-Vasco and Murgao, Cuncolim and Rachol feasts (5), Nagnath Vetal zatra
(Ghade-Sanvordem) Feb 10-12, Bakr-Id / Maruti zatra Panjim (12), Mangueshi
zatra, Sridev Azoba jatra Keri-Pernem (16), Gangapur yatra (17),
Mahalasa-Mardol zatra (20-25), Mahalaxmi utsav Amona (21), Mandur-Dongri
Shigmotsav (21-26).

MARCH: Mahashivratri andzatras at Shiroda, Ramnathi,
Sanguem, Sancoale, Tambdi Surla, Cortalim  (1), 
Carnival (2-4), Ash Wednesday / Khandola-Marcela zatra (5),
Santeri Pale-Siridao (8), Holi (17-18),  Betal Zatra at
Cola-Canacona (18), Shivaji Jayanti (20), Ranpanchami
and Fatorpa Gulal (22), Jambauli Gulal (25).

APRIL: Guid Padva and Kasarpale zatra (2), Ramnavmi, Partagal and Borim
zatras (11), Ambedkar's birthday (14), Maundy Thursday / Nagueshi,
Sanquelim, Chandranath and Marutigad zatras (17), Good Friday (18), Holi
Saturday (19), Easter (20), Siridao feast (27).

MAY: May Day (1), Parshuram Jayanit (5), Aldona and Majorda feasts /
Lairai zatra Shirgao (6), Id-i-Milad, Veling zatra (14), Goa State
Day (30).

JUNE: Holy Spirit Church Margao Feast (8), Trinity Sunday (15), Corpus
Christie (22), Sacred Heart of Jesus (28). 

JULY: Calangute feast (20), Benaulim feast (26).

AUGUST: Vasco saptah starts (3), Our Lady of Snows Raia feast (5), Arossim,
Agassiam and Sinquetim feasts (10), Nariyal Poornima (11), Raksha Bandhan
(12), Candolim and Velsao feasts (13), Independence Day (15), Assumption of
Our Lady. Panjim, Cortalim, Quelossim feasts (15), Narve zatra (19),
Taleigao feast (21), Chorao feast (24), Bonderam at Divar (30), Ganesh
Chaturthi also Betalbatim and Carmona feasts (31).

SEPTEMBER: Teachers Day (5), Chinchinim feast (7), Anant
Chaturdishi (9).

OCTOBER: Gandhi's birth anniversary (2), Dussehra (4), Majorda and Benaulim
feast (5), Pernem Dusserah (10), San Jose de Areal (19), Colva Fama (20),
Diwali (24), Lakshmipujan (25), Bhaubeej (26), Ramzan (27), Grace Church
Margao feast and Tivim feast (29).

NOVEMBER: All Saints (1), All Souls (2), klkDinid Margao (6), Borim
zatra (8), Nagueshi zatra, Nuvem, Varca, Bastora, Utorda feasts (9),
Children's Day (14), Navadurga Madkai zatra (18), Navelim feast (19), Amona
and Khandepar zatras (22),  Mulgao zatra, Banastari zatra, Loutolim, Guirim,
Benaulim and Cortalim feasts (23), Kapileshwar zatra A(24), Ramzan Id (26),
Anant zatra Savoi Verem (26), Mapusa Santeri (29), Advent season starts,
Vasco feast (30).

DECEMBER: St Xavier's feast (3) and Keri zatra, Navadurga
Kundai zatra, Sanquelim and Murgao utsavs, Immaculate
Conception Holy Spirit Margao, Panjim, Velim, Carmona and
Moira feasts.  Calangute feast (8-10), Curtorim feast
(18), Goa Liberation Day (19), Christmas (25),
Penha de Franca feast (27), Brittona feast (28). ENDS
-- 
Frederick Noronha  Freelance Journalist 
Goa India 0091.832.2409490/2409783
http://www.bytesforall.org
Writing with a difference ... on what makes *the* difference

[GOANET] Indiandiaspora.nic.in

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Please visit this site: http://www.indiandiaspora.nic.in ... it contains
links to expat issues, including a recent report on NRIs and what the
government should be doing for them. FN
-- 
Frederick Noronha  Freelance Journalist 
Goa India 0091.832.2409490/2409783
http://www.bytesforall.org
Writing with a difference ... on what makes *the* difference

[GOANET] OIL TERMINAL AT SANCOALE - GOA'S BHOPAL IN THE OFFING

2003-01-18 Thread Frederick Noronha

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OIL TERMINAL AT SANCOALE - GOA'S BHOPAL IN THE OFFING

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

You must be aware that the Government of Goa has decided to shift
 the Oil Terminal from Vasco da Gama to Sancoale plateau
 (Zuarinagar) because the people of Vasco da Gama are facing the
 hazards of fire, security and environmental hazards. If the oil
 terminal is shifted to Sancoale plateau, will it not create the
 same hazards of fire, security and environmental hazards to the
 people of Sancoale, Velsao, Cansaulim, Cortalim, Bogmallo and other
 nearby villages? The location (Zuarinagar) is the most dangerous as
 it is right on top of the hill.  It is an easy target for
 terrorists and an invitation for the enemy if a war breaks out. 
 Being on top of the hill the oil will flow downward burning to
 ashes the entire villages of Sancoale, Cortalim, Velsao, Cansaulim
 and other nearby villages and pollute the air of entire Goa killing
 thousands of people within a few minutes.  It will be even worst
 than the disaster that took place at Bhopal a decade ago. Another
 danger is that the oil terminal fall right at the center of the
 funnel zone.  The aircrafts fly very low almost touching the tanks
 when landing at the Dabolim Air Terminal.  The recent crashing of
 the two naval aircraft was just a few metres away from the oil
 terminal.  Imagine what would have happened if the tanks were
 filled with oil and the aircrafts crashed on the tanks. The oil
 terminal being on the hilltop, the water contaminated with oil will
 flow downward into the fields thus destroying the livelihood of
 hundreds of farmers.  It will pollute the ground water.  No trees
 will survive and the entire green belt will vanish. Today nobody is
 interested to stay in this beautiful village and people are ready
 to sell off their properties and houses for a song but there are no
 takers. A few years ago there was a proposal to locate the oil
 terminal at Chicalim but the wise people of Chicalim rejected the
 proposal terming it disastrous and polluting project. What is not
 good for the people of Vasco da Gama or Chicalim be good for the
 people of Sancoale, Cortalim, Velsao, Cansaulim and other villages
 around the proposed oil terminal? Why the Government did not
 consult the local people before deciding to shift the oil terminal
 from Vasco da Gama to Sancoale plateau (Zuarinagar).  Why
 everything was decided so secretly in the conference hall of
 hon'ble Chief Minister's residence, Altinho, Panaji? Why the
 project file(s) were not submitted to the Sancoale Village
 Panchayat for approval as required under the Panchayat Raj Act? The
 poor people of Sancoale and surrounding villages do not have the
 financial resources to fight the giant Zuari Indian Oil Tanking
 Ltd., which is illegally constructing the oil terminal without
 license from the Sancoale Panchayat.   No political party or
 politician is willing to open his mouth against this injustice. 
 Now it is left to you and me to fight them.  Shall we fold our
 hands and say" mhaka kiteak poddlam?"  and wait for the disaster to
 happen? The Save Sancoale Committee is doing what it can but lacks
 financial resources.  The Save Sancoale Committee is in need of
 funds to file a case against the ZIOTL to stop the illegal
 construction of the oil terminal. Wake up dear Goan brothers and
 sisters.  Join your hands to ours to fight this monster which some
 day will destroy half of Goa from Salcete to Bardez.

If you wish to offer any financial help or support our cause kindly
 contact:

SAVE SANCOALE COMMITTEE
Phone/fax: 2 550 295
e-mail:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

---

[GOANET] NEWS: Design'ers 'pact' misunderstood... makes headlines

2003-01-18 Thread Frederick Noronha

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DESIGNER'S 'PACT', MISUNDERSTOOD, MAKES IT TO HEADLINES NATIONWIDE

PANJIM: It made it to the headlines across the country, but prominent
Goa-based fashion designer Wendell Rodricks is thankful that the Goa press
showed restraint while reporting over this contentious event.

Rodricks, who formalised his gay relationship with with French national
Jerome Marrel on December 26, said some journalists had reported on the
event "without talking" to him and had even called it a "marriage" or
speculated about a "honeymoon".

Under the French legal system, the law allows for two persons staying
together to enter into a 'pact of solidarity' (PACS, as it is called under
its Francophone acronym).

"This can be entered by any two people who opt to live together. It could be
an elderly lady and a young man who may not prefer to marry or adopt. It
applies to heterosexuals or homosexuals," said Rodricks (42).

"There is no exchange of rings, or now vows. I have a big bone to pick with
the 'Indian Express' for its cover story," said Rodricks, when asked about
this during a news conference held on the weekend, over his design-related
research.

The PACS says the two partners agree to live together and share everything,
or their property and financial assets in case of the death of either. "This
is not legal in India. Neither is it illegal in India," said Rodricks. "It's
like an affadivit signed between two people, but can't be contested in
France."

This event has been widely reported on in the outstation media.

Writer Shobhaa De commented: "They (Wendell and Jerome) love each other. And
have for 20 long years. A love that endures two decades and allows the
couple to flower is a love worth celebrating."

"In a world full of hypocrites, they've shown what moral courage really
means. The fashion industry in particular, is full of gay men and women, who
pretend to be straight (what on earth for, I wonder)," De commented in an
article published in Mumbai.

365gay.com, an international website, has also reported that the "first gay
civil union ceremony in India has been held under a glare of media
attention".

365gay.com said that while the Indian government officials refused comment,
"the public act and the publicity that accompanied it puts increased
pressure on the government to strike down the anti-gay laws which date back
to the days of the British Empire". 

Some commentators however saw it as part of trend which counters traditional
values. 

This unsual story involved one of Goa's most prominent fashion designer --
-- Wendell Rodricks a returned Goan from Mumbai, who has made this state his
home in recent years. Like many Goans settled outside, Rodricks' family has
been outside Goa for decades.

Rodricks earlier said he was not eager about "communicating to any press".
But he commented that whatever had been write "has been hearsay". This news,
he suggested, had been met with an "overwhelming positive reaction", though
he was a "wee bit concerned" about "some retaliation".

Goa, inspite of its image as being a somewhat hedonistic fun centre, is
actually a society based on fairly conservative mores. Its Westernised style
of celebrating however leads some outsiders, specially the average domestic
tourist from India, to re-enkindle their Bollywood-fuelled images of this
state as a place for hedonism. 

Rodricks has been high-profile in the media, and part of his concern is
believed to stem from his eagerness to be known to the public as a designer,
rather than some "gay flag carrier".

His work has been widely displayed in Goa and across the globe, and his fans
extend far beyond the bold and the beautiful. 

In the past, the Goa government headed by Congress chief minister Pratapsing
Rane engaged Rodricks to re-fashion the Goa police's uniforms from staid
khaki to chic blue-and-white.

But, on ascending to power, BJP's coalition chief minister Manohar Parrikar
rescinded that decision and got the khaki uniforms back, except for the
tourist police. But that did not stop the BJP from using Rodricks' somewhat
pro-BJP pre-elections utterances as a part of their campaign for the May
2002 elections.

365gay.com said that while the Indian government officials refused comment,
"the public act and the publicity that accompanied it puts increased
pressure on the government to strike down the anti-gay laws which date back
to the days of the British Empire". (ENDS)

[GOANET] Check out the power of Free Software...

2003-01-18 Thread Frederick Noronha

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Legal copies of Free Software is available:

o ElxLinux: India's much appreciated desktop GNU/Linux distro.
  Made in Hyderabad!
o Knoppix: See the power of GNU/Linux without even loading it on your
  harddisk. Boots from CD Rom in minutes.
o Dynebolic: Another innovative solution similar to Knoppix.
o Suse8.1: Europe's most popular GNU/Linux distro. This is only an
  evaluation CD. SuSE licenses cost a few dollars each.
o RedHat 7.3 and 8.0: Hundreds and apps and the entire operating
  system.
o Shortly to be acquired: Debian 3.0, Mandrake 9.0 or latter.

Fresh and scratch-free copies of the above CDs have been recently procured
from www.linuxplaza.org. In keeping with the spirit of the Free Software
movement, we believe in sharing software. If you need a limited number, we
can offer to make copies at cost (Rs 14 per CD plus dustjacket Rs 3
each). If you need more copies, we recommend you order from
www.linuxplaza.org (at Rs 35 per CD plus courier charges). This would also
help sustain an affordable commercial service.

This offer is available only in Goa. But linuxplaza runs a service
nationwide. 

For a list of what all is available, please see http://sofall.vze.com -- a
site to share software set up by Ajay Cuncolienkar of Mapusa/Khandola
Government College in Goa. Please enter your contributions there, so that
we can make Free Software go further. FN
-- 
Frederick Noronha  Freelance Journalist 
Goa India 0091.832.2409490/2409783
http://www.bytesforall.org
Writing with a difference ... on what makes *the* difference

[GOANET] NEWS-INDIA: Roma, the lost Indians, face starvation in Europe

2003-01-17 Thread Frederick Noronha

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Roma, the lost Indians, face starvation in Europe

By Sanjay Suri, Indo-Asian News Service

London, Jan 17 (IANS) The Roma tribe, which migrated from present-day
northern India and Pakistan to Europe centuries ago, faces conditions there
as bad as those in sub-Saharan Africa, says a new report.

The report released by the United Nations Development Programme has covered
about 4 to 5 million Roma -- of the estimated eight million in Europe -- in
the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

The report says one out of every two Roma goes hungry at least a few days
every year. One out of six is "constantly starving". Many among them live in
conditions "closer to those of sub-Saharan Africa than to Europe".

"Health in Roma communities sharply deteriorated in the last decade," the
report says. Infant mortality was found to be three times higher than the
national average in the five countries. Life expectancy was on an average
seven years less.

Unemployment among the Roma is as high as 64 percent in Slovakia. Their
gross domestic product (GDP) in the five countries is estimated to be a
third of the national average.

The majority of Roma still speak languages that arose from the India of
yore. That makes them weak in modern European languages.

A third of Roma failed to complete primary education, and more than
two-thirds in a survey of over 5,000 were found not to have completed
secondary education. Many go to Roma schools where they are taught in
languages that arose from the India of the days of the Maurya and Gupta
dynasties.

Eight out of 10 Roma think respect for human rights means finding a job and
living free from hunger.

The survey shows that 61 percent of Roma voted in the last general
elections, but that 86 percent think their interests are not well
represented at the national level, and 76 percent think they are not well
represented at the local community level.

The survey shows that 79 percent of the Roma are not aware of any Roma aid
programmes, and 91 percent cannot name an NGO they can trust.

The report says at present 70 percent of Roma live on money provided by the
state. This makes them "active regarding benefits, limited regarding
contributions", the report says.

"This asymmetry can further promote exclusion and ethnic intolerance."

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] Jorge is right, two crucial words missing...

2003-01-16 Thread Frederick Noronha

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You're right Jorge. It should have read:

... coastal talukas of Pernem, Bardez, Tiswadi and Mormugao AND Bicholim
and Ponda...eastern hinterland areas of Sattari and Sanguem AND Quepem and
Canacona...

Sorry for missing out on those two crucial ANDs at the wrong places.

Trying to complete so many pending writing assignments has its own
hazards.

FN

> --__--__--
> 
> Message: 1
> From: "Jorge/Livia de Abreu Noronha" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: [GOANET] GOA-FEATURE: Ring, ring... telephone tales
> Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 19:29:14 +0100
> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> 
> From: Frederick Noronha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Monday, January 13, 2003 5:48 AM
> >
> >
> > >From the map of Goa showing phone exchanges, it becomes clear that most
> > of the exchanges are in the coastal talukas of Pernem, Bardez, Tiswadi,
> > Mormugao, Salcete, Bicholim and Ponda. There are only a fewer exchanges,
> > spread over wider areas, in the less populated eastern hinterland areas
> > of Sattari Sanguem, Quepem and Canacona.
> >
> 
> Fred: Since when are Bicholim and Ponda "coastal talukas"? And ... is
> Canacona an "eastern hinterland area"? What about Cabo de Rama and the
> Agonda and Palolem beaches - all these in Canacona taluka: are they not
> coastal localities?
> 
> Jorge

[GOANET] More about A.L.Dias, ex-Governor of Bengal

2003-01-16 Thread Frederick Noronha

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Thanks to a Goanetter who filled me in with the following details:

- A. L . Dias was a Poona product, of the same St.
Vincents school that has produced so many prominent
Goans.

- He was the only brother of the famous Dr. Aloysious
(Aloo) Dias, whose clinic was a landmark on Main
Street and who treated generation after generation of
Poona children.

- He was (as far as I can tell) only the second Goan
to enter the ICS, that most prestigious Raj
institution, and remained a senior administrator under
Nehru and particularly Indira Gandhi. Under the
latter, he was Food Minister (at the time one of
India's most prestigious appointments).

- Appropriately, he married the famously attractive
Joan Vaz who was the daughter of the only previous
Goan ICS officer. ICS Vaz and his daughter have
Saligao roots -- their family left Donvaddo sometime in
the mid 1800's.

- Dias had four daughters. The oldest is married to
Peter (Lynn) Sinai, another Goan who starred in the
civil service exams -- he stood first in the IFS exams
and was a Rhodes scholar and then was Indian
ambassador in a number of countries. Another married
into Tara Ali Baig's family. Yet another married a
grandson of the famous Goan artist ("the Indian
Rembrandt") Antonio Xavier Trindade. 

- One of Dias's nieces (via a sister) is Victor
Menezes's mother and the wife of the late Manuel Menezes.

[GOANET] BRIEfnCOUNTERS: Bardez's wings... Goan birdlife

2003-01-16 Thread Frederick Noronha

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-- 
BRIEfnCOUNTERS: BARDEZ'S WINGS... GOA'S BIRDLIFE GOES MOSTLY UNAPPRECIATED
-- 

HARVEY D'SOUZA was a journalist... till he grew wild. The newspaper's desk
is probably too boring a zoo for any kind of animal to inhabit for too long.
But Harvey's latent love was wildlife. (You get a hint of that from his
email address, which is [EMAIL PROTECTED] .)

He has been working hard to make his alternate wildlife tours, primarily
targeted at the tourist, a viable operation. Of late, this has borne fruit. 
Harvey and his partner cum co-villager from Nerul cum friend Neil Alvares
have their work widely appreciated by a younger generation here who have
taken part in their adventure trips across hidden spots in the state.
They're both widely seen as concerned wildlife and nature enthusiasts, not
businessmen out to make a fast buck.

They run a Wild Goa Club "which does give us plenty satisfaction". More and
more concerned nature lovers now come on their wildgoa trips. And, as Harvey
puts it, "we have an interesting job, exploring nature along with others."
 
Harvey spoke out in a recent interview, as yet another green spot -- the
Saligao spring at Salmona -- also comes under the axe of 'development'. He
is interviewed by FREDERICK NORONHA 

-- 
FN: How does the Saligao spring (locally called the 'fountain') rate among
your favourite bird-watching spots? Why?
--

The Saligao spring is one of the best birding spots in Bardez for various
reasons: the forest is moist-deciduous, the spring runs right through the
year, a fact which has not escaped the avian species. Also, some birds
spotted here are hard to find elsewhere.

Indeed birders flock to Saligao to spot the Brown Wood Owl, which roosts in
the trees by the spring for more than six years now. (We have located
another roosting site for Brown Wood Owl -- but we are not telling!) 

You can also reliably locate small numbers of Grey-Headed Bulbul (now
classified as threatened), or even the all-white male Paradise Flycatcher
here. Other examples also exist, which distinguish Saligao as a unique
birding spot as compared to other verdant patches.

--
FN: What are the kinds of birds you've actually seen there?
--

Many, we have a complete checklist, but let's look at the rare and notable
sightings.

One sighting of a Malabar Pied Hornbill sighted on November 4, 2000. Also
sighted by Gordon Frost on different dates. (Then there was the) Malabar
whistling thrush, crimson-backed sunbird (endemic to Western ghats)

Red-winged crested cuckoo (sighted by WildGoa Club on Dec 1, 2002). We know
of no other sighting in Goa. Pair of Brown Wood Owls, Jungle Owlets, Western
Crowned Leaf Warbler, raptors like Booted Eagle, Crested Serpent Eagle,
Short-Toed Eagle, Oriental Honey Buzzard, Black Eagle, Black-Shouldered
Kite, the Plain Flowerpecker, Thickbilled Flowerpecker, Rufous Woodpecker.

--
FN: How uncommon are these?
--

None of the birds stated above are found only at Saligao. However some
birds, such as the Grey Headed Bulbul, are listed as threatened. The Brown
Wood Owl site certainly needs protection. In Scotland, they had a round the
clock team just to protect the nesting site of a pair of osprey! 

What makes it unique is the wide variety of species seen here. Adjacent
forests like even the Calangute spring or Nerul or Betim hill cannot boast
of such a wide variety of birds. How many?  Ours is in no way a
comprehensive list -- but i would say a number of 120 species would be a
workable and realistic number. Worth protecting!
  
--
FN: What are the change you've been noticing at the Saligao spring in recent
years?
--

The litter at the spring does tarnish the pristine beauty. From time to
time, we have observed trees cut down. The last incident -- a whole patch
being cleared (sometime in late 2002) -- was something we could not let
go...

One change we would rather NOT see is development. Let no touris

[GOANET] NEWS: Nobel laureate game theorist Nash finds India hard to fathom

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Nobel laureate game theorist Nash finds India hard to fathom

By Deepshikha Ghosh, Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) He can reduce complex human relationships or
military codes into decipherable mathematical equations but is clearly
stumped by a "complicated" India.

Meet John F. Nash Jr -- Nobel laureate, mathematical genius and recovering
paranoid schizophrenic.

"There are so many things here, it is hard to describe .. India is very
complicated," grins the 74-year-old, who inspired the Oscar-winning "A
Beautiful Mind" on his strange and wonderful life.

Nash blazed the world of mathematics with his dissertation on
"Non-Cooperative Games," written in 1950 at age 21, which won him the 1994
Nobel Prize in Economics.

But at the peak of his career, in 1958, he lapsed into schizophrenia and
lost his job at the Massachusetts Institute of technology. When the Nobel
Prize committee began debating a prize for the game theory, Nash's name was
dismissed - due to his mental state.

On his disease, Nash himself argued that if a cure meant he could no longer
do any original work, then it was probably not worthwhile.

Eventually, he shared the Nobel prize with John C. Harsanyi and Reinhard
Selten for what he felt was his "most trivial work", the 27-page "Nash
equilibrium".

Here to participate in a game theory conference along with other
mathematicians and economists, Nash seems rather lost in thought as he faced
the media at the IBM India Research Lab in the Indian Institute of
Technology, Delhi.

"Cogito Ergo Sum (I think, therefore I am -- Descarte) " he reminded the
gathering, as he recalled his youth when companies encouraged staff to
"THINK" in bold letters.

Fellow mathematician Lloyd S. Shapley, who was also present in the
interaction, asked whether computers thought. Responded Nash:"We define it
to be not thinking, but do ants think? They have brains. You know, we know
less about ants than computers"

The voice drops to a mumble, and Nash withdraws into his inner space.

The 2002 film "A Beautiful Mind" brought his story to millions of households
across the globe. Was he happy with the film and its portrayal of his life?

"Well - a movie has its good and bad sides. The good thing is when you get
money - we have to be happy about that."

It was an oblique hint at his dissatisfaction with the film, which he thinks
was not entirely accurate.

Nash was often known as the "Phantom of Fine Hall," when he returned in the
1970s after his illness.

Students and others at Princeton describe him as a "ghostly figure shuffling
around the corridors of the math and physics building, occasionally writing
numerology treatises on the blackboards".

In the grips of his disease, he was forced out of the circuit for two
decades until he returned to Princeton to quietly return to his work.

Nash associated his madness with his living on an "ultra logical" plane --
"breathing air too rare" for the average human being.

The game theory emanates from the study of games such as chess or poker in
which players have to think ahead - devise a strategy based on expected
countermoves from the other player.

Such strategic interaction also characterizes many economic situations.

Nash introduced the distinction between cooperative games, in which binding
agreements can be made, and non-cooperative games, where binding agreements
were not feasible.

He developed an equilibrium concept for non-cooperative games that later
came to be called Nash equilibrium.

Asked if the game theory could be applied on an individual level, in human
relationships, Nash told reporters: "You might try to conduct human
relationships on the game theory, but you might make a mistake.

"It is better if you behave instinctively or according to cultural mores."

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] QUERY: A L Dias

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This is a belatedly-noticed obit from the National Book Trust (New
Delhi) newsletter of October 2002. Does anyone know more about A L
Dias? He is one of those Goans who seems to be little written about back
home. Had seen some earlier references which came in via Eddie, but these
were from the UK media:

AL Dias passes away: Former Chairman of the NBT (National
Book Trust) and ex-Governor of West Bengal, A L Dias,
died in Mumbai on Sunday. He was 92. Dias had a 
distinguished career in the Maharashtra cadre of the
ICS (the British colonial Indian Civil Service-FN). He
also played a major role in the liberation of Goa from
the Portuguese

[GOANET] NEWS: Pravasi Bharatiya Divas did not live up to expectations

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(Attn Editors: Following is a first person account of the Pravasi Bharatiya
Divas by Fakir Hassen, a South African Indian correspondent for Indo-Asian
News Service)


India-Diaspora-Meet* (1,154 words)

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas did not live up to expectations

By Fakir Hassen

As a third generation South African of Indian origin, with my first
grandchild on the way to make it a fifth since my grandfather landed in
South Africa exactly a 100 years ago from Gujarat, I had perhaps unwarranted
huge expectations of the first Pravasi Bharatiya Divas held in New Delhi
last week.

The hype around the event was huge, creating expectations of serious
attempts by the Indian government to find ways of helping assure the
survival of Indian culture in the diaspora through various means.

But in the end it seemed to be just one big get together aimed at securing
investment in India from NRIs and PIOs, as well as a platform for some local
and diaspora politicians to make statements.

Insufficient time for many panellists who had obviously gone to great
lengths to prepare papers resulted in some not even bring able to speak
because of poor control by chairmen of these panels, and many speakers who
were first on the schedules engaging in something akin to an ego trip.

Mostly, the first speakers were dignitaries and others based in India
itself.

Exacerbating the issue was the fact that there was just one session of
parallel discussions. Many people who had incurred huge costs to get here
wanted multiple sessions on issues like education, culture and media, but
this was not possible.

So what was the actual benefit of having spent perhaps more than 20,000
rands to be at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas for a South African Indian?

While North American, European and Australian delegates were excited at the
announcement that dual citizenship will be permitted, it meant nothing to
me, as I may not even be able to take advantage of this because of South
African laws.

As I reviewed the announcement during my insomniac hours in the wee hours of
the next morning, I wondered what were the practical benefits of the
decision?

A person granted dual citizenship would not be able to cast a vote in India,
thereby making an impact, albeit small, on India's politics and a statement
on the ethnic conflict -- that was almost totally ignored and indeed even
shouted down by some Indian delegates when some prominent NRIs raised it in
sessions.

Having paid my own way to the event, I was perhaps in a more fortunate
position than those delegates who would have been sent by their
organisations or institutions with a mandate to achieve something besides
just networking, which obviously happens at any conference. What would they
be taking back to South Africa to tell their institutions that it had been
money well spent?

As a journalist, questions I raised of the organisers, L.M. Singhvi and J.C.
Sharma, at a press conference, were either fobbed off or ignored.

What, I asked, was their response to a letter written to the committee by
Ela Gandhi, the South African granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, who had
refused to participate in the Pravasi Bharati Divas because it might
increase tensions between South African Indians and Africans and might be
perceived as yet another exclusionist attempt by Indians in the country?

The question was ignored and generated more interest from the scribes in the
room afterwards as they descended on me more than on committee members.

What did the committee think about the comments by South African Fatima
Meer, one of 10 recipients of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards, that she
abhorred the word diaspora? Singhvi failed to answer the question, going
instead into a detailed explanation of the derivation of the word diaspora
from Jewish times.

Why was there only one woman recipient among the 10, I wanted to know. They
could not talk on behalf of the jury, replied Singhvi, with those jury
members nowhere to be found during the conference to answer the question.

At a personal level of interaction, though, I discovered that South African
Indians are not unique in their quest to find ways of ensuring that some
vestiges of Indian culture remain with their future generations.

On the positive side, the cultural programmes and cuisine of the various
states of India arranged by the organisers were fascinating, to say the
least. The 'jugalbandi' (duet) by Ravi Shankar and Bismillah Khan was a
unique experience.

I suppose the worldwide diaspora interest in Bollywood justified the show at
which Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and others thrilled the delegates, many
of whom were from countries where, because of economics, they would probably
never get to see a show like this.

I was a little more fortunate.

[GOANET] NEWS-CHENNAI: Regional passport office provides tele-registration

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Regional passport office provides tele-registration

By Papri Sri Raman, Indo-Asian News Service

Chennai, Jan 15 (IANS) No more long queues or wandering from counter to
counter like a lost soul -- the regional passport office here is introducing
a tele-registration facility from Wednesday.

Tele-registration for passport seekers will include telephone number
facilities that will provide voice responses, giving the time and date for
submitting applications.

"It is part of the modernisation process that has been undertaken by the
regional passport office," says chief regional passport officer G.
Mathivanan.

Last year the regional passport office (RPO) in Chennai was provided the
Tatkal passport issuing facility, a revamped sitting facility and additional
counters to handle large crowds.

The centre caters to the four southern states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra
Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

>From now on people wanting passports can call 28213563 or 28213575, with
state and international codes pre-fixed for outstation calls, to fix up
appointments with the public relations official.

They can also find out details of counter numbers and the time when they
have to be present at the RPO to submit the application.

This will cut down issuing time by half, say RPO officials. Now passports
are issued within 35 days of submitting forms. A reissue is done in 18 days
and the Tatkal passport is issued in three days.

An electronic scanning facility was introduced at the Chennai office in
September 2000 and so far over 35,000 passports with improved security
features have been issued by the RPO, Mathivanan said.

Records available with the RPO since 1995 are being digitally stored. Nearly
one million documents and 400,000 police verifications have been scanned so
far and electronically stored.

Information on applications will soon be made available through the SMS
mobile telephone network, the official said.

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] E-mail Tips & Techniques - how to send e-mail without burning bridges or closing doors

2003-01-14 Thread FREDERICK NORONHA

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E-mail Tips & Techniques - how to send e-mail without burning
bridges or closing doors

http://www.planetfriendly.net/emailtips.html

"E-mail is so easy to use" ...that we often use it without being
 aware of its limitations. It is easy for your message to be
 ineffective, misunderstood, or even harmful. Messages can be
 missed, ignored, lost, or forgotten. And unless you are careful in
 your wording and etiquette, it's easy to be inconsiderate  or to
 be taken as inconsiderate  without knowing it. Below are a few
 thoughts on how to send e-mail without creating misunderstandings,
 clogging up people's e-mail boxes, or otherwise causing trouble.

http://www.planetfriendly.net/emailtips.html

Contents
(1) Don't send attachments or HTML
(2) Do send Plain Text (and/or create a webpage)
(3) Write a good subject line
(4) Make it readable
(5) Include contact info
(6) Mention the source
(7) Don't spread viruses
(8) Don't "spam" people
(9) Reply to sender or to list?
(10) Choose e-mail software & service provider carefully
(11) Why avoid Microsoft? Why avoid AOL?
(12) Choosing a list host
(13) More tips & resources
(14) Remember the telephone?--

Thanks to George Lessard for sending this across. FN

[GOANET] NEWS-KERALA: Pension scheme for non-resident Keralites launched

2003-01-14 Thread Frederick Noronha

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Pension scheme for non-resident Keralites launched

By Sanu George, India Abroad News Service

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 14 (IANS) Some 1.6 million non-resident Keralites
(NRKs) would be able to subscribe to a pension scheme launched here Tuesday
by Kerala Chief Minister A.K. Antony.

The scheme, which will be jointly operated by the state government and the
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), has been named "Pravasi Swasraya"
or a social security scheme for non-resident Keralites.

"We hope to enrol close to 100,000 policy holders in the first three
months," Minister for NRKs M.M.Hassan said at the launch.

A variety of policies with terms ranging from a minimum of five years to a
maximum of 15 years would be offered. The earliest that annuity would be
paid out would be from age 41 or if the policyholder dies.

However, if the holder dies before the policy has run for five years, the
beneficiary named would get Rs. 100,000 in the case of natural death and Rs.
200,000 in case of accidental death.

Some one million expatriate Keralites who have returned home as also people
from the state who are settled in other parts of India would also be able to
subscribe to the pension scheme, Hassan said.

The scheme would be marketed by the newly launched ROOTS-NRK, a company
floated by the Kerala government. "Talks have commenced with a leading
state-owned bank to circulate details about the scheme among all approved
NRK organisations in Middle East," said ROOTS-NRK chief executive Satish
Nampoodiripad.

Also on offer on payment of Rs. 30,000 will be a health insurance scheme
that will be applicable to four immediate relatives of the policyholder.

"All the profit generated by ROOTS-NRK in the sale of policies would be
reinvested for more welfare schemes for NRK's," Hassan said.

The government of former chief minister E.K. Nayanar had mooted the scheme
but its launch had been delayed for a variety of reasons. Nayanar's
government was voted out in assembly elections in May 2001.

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] NEWS: Congress accuses BJP of hijacking diaspora meet

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Congress accuses BJP of hijacking diaspora meet

>From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) The main opposition Congress party Monday charged
the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with hijacking the Indian diaspora
meet here last week for narrow political ends and basking in policies
formulated by past Congress governments.

Congress spokesman S. Jaipal Reddy criticised the government for allowing
little scope for interaction between the diaspora and key political parties
and letting the BJP to hijack the whole show.

He accused the BJP of trying to reap benefits of past Congress government
policies that had spawned a generation of successful non-resident Indians
(NRIs).

"The entire diaspora in the world has benefited from the high technology
education policy that (India's first prime minister) Jawaharlal Nehru
introduced," he said.

Reddy pointed out that the world was all praise for graduates of Indian
Institutes of Technology who had carved a place for themselves in their
adopted countries.
"The IITs were possible due to the farsighted vision of Nehru," he said.

The Congress leader dismissed criticism that the party, which ruled India
for over four decades, had no policy to engage the diaspora, estimated at
over 20 million spread over 110 countries.

"They (diaspora) are the flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood. Of
course we have very definite ideas for global Indians," Reddy claimed.

He said the Congress welcomed the dual citizenship for NRIs and persons of
Indian origin (PIOs) in select countries announced by Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee on the inaugural day of the convention. It was waiting for
the finer details of its implementation.

The party made its resentment clear during the three-day Pravasi Bharatiya
Divas meet that concluded Saturday, when Congress president Sonia Gandhi
declined an invitation to address a special interactive session on the last
day.

However, after much cajoling, Gandhi consented to attend a reception hosted
for the delegates - nearly 1,400 from 60 countries - the previous day.

The Congress leader, who is also Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had
been tipped to close the conference.

Party leaders accused the government of not seeking Gandhi's formal assent
before printing the schedule announcing her interaction with delegates.

"It is common courtesy that before printing someone's name you at least take
their permission," a Congress functionary told IANS. "You cannot just go
ahead and assume we will do your bidding."

The party maintained that the entire affair was reduced to a BJP show. "It
was only the overseas BJP that was all over the convention."

The embarrassed organisers enlisted the help of top government leaders to
coax Gandhi to participate on the closing day, but to no avail.

Finally, they got her to attend Friday's reception to NRIs and PIOs, many of
whom had expressed keen desire to meet her.

Said a Congress leader: "She went because she was invited properly this
time."

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] NEWS: Indian diaspora seeks parity in hotel tariff, airfares

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Indian diaspora seeks parity in hotel tariff, airfares

>From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Parity in hotel tariffs and airfares with Indian
citizens would make visits of the diaspora more attractive.

At an interactive meeting organised here Monday by leading chamber body
Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), members of
the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) urged that visas
for visits to India should be dropped for them.

They suggested "same air fares, hotel tariffs and taxes be charged from them
in India as applicable to the citizens in the country," according to
ASSOCHAM.

The different taxes charged from GOPIO members, besides the dollar dominated
payment for hotel and air tariff and visa charges make the journey to their
place of origin very costly and in some cases prohibitive, they contended.

"The PIOs also suggested that provision be made in India to receive online
applications for visas, and that these be issued to them without delay or
inconvenience," said Subhash Goyal, chairman of Assocham expert committee on
tourism and aviation.

Criticising the treatment meted out to them in Indian high commissions and
embassies, the GOPIO urged initiating training programmes for immigration,
customs and other officials connected with tourism and aviation when dealing
with them.

The members also sough reduction in the PIO (People of Indian Origin) card
fees from $1,000 to $300, and extending the coverage to their family members
and children.

Charging each member of a family would not be sustainable as all Indians
settled abroad "were not well-off to pay such prohibitive rates".

To Goyal's to promote pilgrim tourism of the country, the GOPIO urged better
infrastructure and provisions to ensure better treatment at the airports and
tourism destinations.

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] GOA-FEATURE: Ring, ring... telephone tales

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RING, RING: CAN GOA GET ITS PHONE DIRECTORIES MORE SPEEDILY AND IN TIME?

>From Frederick Noronha

PANJIM, Jan 13: It is one centimeter thicker than the last time round,
some  240 pages fatter, but many months too late. The Goa Telephone
directory of 2002 has recently been released, but is still to reach the
hands of the average subscriber in this small state of high teledensity.

In recent years, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd -- or Goa Telecom -- has
done a fairly good job in extending its telephone network. But, this has
meant frequent changes in numbers, and the task of publishing its phone
directory on time has long been an unfulfilled agenda.

Goa's last major directory was released in 1999, and that was corrected
upto January 1999. The current one has come out only in end-2002, and is
yet to be made available for circulation. In between a supplement of
additional phone numbers released was also put out.

But in this scattered state, where communication has long been a
hindrance, the need for easy-to-find phone numbers needn't be
over-emphasised. Like the list time, the directory has unfortunately
listed numbers separately for each exchange. This means if you don't know
where someone is located, it could be difficult to find out his or her
number.

"During 2001-2002, 25000 new telephone connections were provided and
reliable transmission media like optical fibre cable, digital radio
systems (were) installed to ensure better services from the exchanges in
the Goa telecom district," comments N Chenchaiah, the Goa general
manager. 

Goa's capacity of the Internet and switches were also augmented.

Believe it or not, Goa has as many as 112 exchanges. This has extended 
connectivity to most areas of the state. But the quality of service is
not always even.

Krishna R. Agarvadekar of Agarvaddo exchange in Pernem taluka is the
first  invidual listed in the new exchange. Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited
at Verna is the last, in the general section of the directory.

There are also the 'blue pages' -- which over some 23 pages cover the
phone numbers of Goa's overinflated bureaucracy. Yellow pages span some
128 pages of business contacts, with an increasing number of advertisers
this time round also including their email addresses and websites.

MARGAO CROSSES: State-capital and administrative HQ Panjim covers some 97 
pages in the new phone directory. Margao, arguably the business capital of 
Goa, covers some 118 pages, excluding the Margao industrial estate.

Rural exchanges like Agarwado (Pernem) and Agonda (Canacona) have, in 
contrast, a little more than two pages of phone numbers. 

By way of an unusual factoid: there are roughly 1300 Fernandes
phone-owners in Panjim.

Adverts prominently displayed give a hint of the priorities in this
state: screens to prevent malaria, academies to prepare for migration
abroad, and luxury hotels that crowd the state's coastline.

>From the map of Goa showing phone exchanges, it becomes clear that most
of the exchanges are in the coastal talukas of Pernem, Bardez, Tiswadi, 
Mormugao, Salcete, Bicholim and Ponda. There are only a fewer exchanges, 
spread over wider areas, in the less populated eastern hinterland areas
of Sattari Sanguem, Quepem and Canacona.

Some of the old mistakes seem to have been corrected; but it will take
time to see whether any new ones have crept in. Ironically, even after
the directory was released, the Goa Telecom had to release some four
pages of 'changed numbers'.

This directory does not incorporate the change of all Goa phone numbers
from six digits to seven, by adding of an additional '2' before every
existing phone number in the state.

Goa is known to have India's second-highest tele-density (number of 
telephones per hundred or thousand people) after only the national
capital of Delhi. 

Send your feedback on the directory to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

ENDS

[GOANET] Info about Indian diaspora

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In response to Cyp's query, please visit the site http://indiandiaspora.nic.in/

QUOTE:

The Indian Diaspora is a generic term to describe the people who migrated from 
territories that are currently within the borders of the Republic of India. It also 
refers to their descendants. The Diaspora is currently estimated to number 
approximately twenty million. Composed of "NRIs" (Indian citizens not residing in 
India) and "PIOs" (Persons of Indian Origin who have acquired the citizenship of some 
other country), the Diaspora covers practically every part of the world. It numbers 
more than a million each in eleven countries, while as many as twenty-two countries 
have concentrations of at least a hundred thousand ethnic Indians.

ENDQUOTE

In particular, don't miss the Report of the High Level Committee on the Indian 
Diaspora (full text in pdf) given somewhere at the bottom right corner of the site. 
Expats might find this of interest... FN

--
*****
Frederick Noronha Journalist
Ph 832.2409490 or 2409783
784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat
PO Saligao 403511 GOA INDIA
*
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[GOANET] NEWS: Keralites ignored by diaspora meet -- Antony

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So were Goans... but was there anyone to speak up for them? FN

Keralites ignored by diaspora meet: Antony

By Sanu George, Indo-Asian News Service

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 10 (IANS) Kerala Chief Minister A.K. Antony is upset
that non-resident Keralites have been ignored by the Indian diaspora meet
under way in New Delhi.

"I fully appreciate the initiative taken by the government to celebrate
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Indian Diaspora Day), but all of us would have been
extremely happy if they had also looked into the issues of those settled in
the Middle East, the majority of whom are from Kerala," Antony told
reporters here.

He hastened to add he was making the statement in his individual capacity
and that it did not reflect the views of his cabinet.

"What I am emphasising is not just that of granting dual citizenship but
other aspects as well," said Antony.

Inaugurating the three-day meet Thursday, Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee announced that NRIs and people of Indian origin (PIO) in select
countries would be granted dual citizenship. They would, however, not get
voting rights. NRIs in the Middle East would not get this benefit.

A long-standing demand by successive governments in Kerala has been the
granting of voting rights to NRIs.

Kerala has said the names of all NRIs from the state be included in the
electoral list and that they be allowed to vote in case they were in the
state on polling day.

According to Kerala Minister for Non-Resident Keralites M.M. Hassan, who is
attending the New Delhi meet, the prime minister has not addressed the needs
of Malayalis in the Gulf.

"Dual citizenship is welcome but it might not have any impact in Kerala,"
said Hassan in a statement released here.

Some 1.6 million Keralites are estimated to be living abroad, a majority of
them in the Middle East, and are a major revenue earner for the country.

According to the latest state-level banker's committee report, deposits by
non-resident Keralites touched an all time high of Rs.257.91 billion in
2002. Over the years, these deposits have soared from Rs.187.24 billion in
2000 to Rs. 214.31 billion in 2001. The total deposits in Kerala banks as on
June 30, 2002, was Rs. 528.22 billion.

Another pending demand of Keralites in the Gulf is a reduction by Air-India
in airfares, especially to the Middle East.

"This is a grave issue. Today, while fares from other cities in the country
to the Middle East is almost the same, a one-way ticket from Kochi to Dubai
on Air-India costs Rs. 10,600 while it is just Rs. 6,500 on Emirates," said
K.V. Muraleedharan, president of the Kerala Association of Travel Agents.

"Precious foreign exchange is flowing out of the country on account of wrong
policies. These are issues which ought to have been addressed at the meeting
in Delhi," he said.

Still Antony is not disheartened.

"We have given several memorandums and representations to the prime
minister. We will continue to do this and we are hopeful the needs of
Keralites settled abroad would be taken care of," the chief minister said.

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] The Jews of India...

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Some interesting insights. Didn't know much of this myself. Is this fairly
accurate? Of course, Gen Jacob is no longer in Goa as Governor. Don't
miss the other Goa connection in the update below. FN

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Goa+%2B+newsgroup&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&selm=faq.7_1041793622%40shelob.pacificnet.net&rnum=3

Subject: Question 13.9: Who Are The Jews of India, And What Are Their
 Origins?

  Answer:
   
   India has a legacy of four distinct Jewish groups: the Bene Israel,
   the Cochin Jews, the Sephardic Jews from Europe, and the "Baghdadis"
   from Iraq. Each group practiced important elements of Judaism and had
   active synagogues. The Sephardic rites predominate among Indian Jews.
   
   One of the most important Jewish peoples of India are the Bene Israel
   ("Sons of Israel"), whose main population centers were Bombay,
   Calcutta, Old Delhi, and Ahmadabad. The native language of the Bene
   Israel was Marathi, while the Cochin Jews of southern India spoke
   Malayalam.
   
   The Bene Israel claim to be descended from Jews who escaped
   persecution in Galilee in the 2nd century BCE. The Bene Israel
   resemble the non-Jewish Maratha people in appearance and customs,
   which indicates intermarriage between Jews and Indians. However, the
   Bene Israel maintained the practices of Jewish dietary laws,
   circumcision, and observation of Sabbath as a day of rest.
   
   The Bene Israel say their ancestors were oil pressers in the Galil and
   they are descended from survivors of a shipwreck. In the 18th Century
   they were "discovered" by traders from Baghdad. At that time the Bnei
   Israel were practicing just a few outward forms of Judaism (which is
   how they were recognised) but had no scholars of their own. Teachers
   from Baghdad and Cochin taught them mainstream Judaism in the 18th and
   19th centuries.
   
   Jewish merchants from Europe travelled to India in the medieval period
   for purposes of trade, but it is not clear whether they formed
   permanent settlements in south Asia. Our first reliable evidence of
   Jews living in India comes from the early 11th century. It is certain
   that the first Jewish settlements were centered along the western
   coast. Abraham ibn Daud's 12th century reference to Jews of India is
   unfortunately vague, and we do not have further references to Indian
   Jews until several centuries later.
   
   The first Jews in Cochin (southern India) were the so-called "Black
   Jews", who spoke the Malayalam tongue. The "Sephardic Jews" settled
   later, coming to India from western European nations such as Holland
   and Spain. A notable settlement of Spanish and Portuguese Jews
   starting in the 15th century was Goa, but this settlement eventually
   disappeared. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Cochin had an influx of
   Jewish settlers from the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain.
   
   The Jews of Cochin say that they came to Cranganore (south-west coast
   of India) after the destruction of the Temple in 70ce. They had, in
   effect, their own principality for many centuries until a chieftanship
   dispute broke out between two brothers in the 15th century. The
   dispute led neighbouring princes to dispossess them. In 1524, the
   Moors, backed by the ruler of Calicut (today called Kozhikode)
   attacked the Jews of Cranganore on the pretext that they were
   "tampering" with the pepper trade. Most Jews fled to Cochin and went
   under the protection of the Hindu Raja there. He granted them a site
   for their own town which later acquired the name "Jew Town" (by which
   it is still known).
   
   Unfortunately for the Jews of Cochin, the Portuguese occupied Cochin
   in this same period and indulged in persecution of the Jews until the
   Dutch displaced them in 1660. The Dutch protestants were tolerant and
   the Jews prospered. In 1795 Cochin passed into the British sphere of
   influence. In the 19th century, Cochin Jews lived in the towns of
   Cochin, Ernakulam, and Parur. Today most of Cochin's Jews have
   emigrated (principally to Israel).
   
   16th and 17th century migrations created important settlements of Jews
   from Persia, Afghanistan, and Khorasan (Central Asia) in northern
   India and Kashmir. By the late 18th century, Bombay became the largest
   Jewish community in India. In Bombay were Bene Israel Jews as well as
   Iraqi and Persian Jews.
   
   Near the end of the 18th century, a third group of Indian Jews
   appears. They are the middle-eastern Jews who came to India through
   trade. They established a trading network stretching from Aleppo to
   Baghdad to Basra to Surat/Bombay to Calcutta to Rangoon to Singapore
   to Hong Kong and eventually as far

[GOANET] FEATURE: Goa's kashti leaves a trail over time...

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GOA'S 'KASHTI' LEAVES A TRAIL OVER TIME, RESEARCH ON GARMENTS FIND

By Frederick Noronha

PANJIM, Jan 11: The humble 'kashti' (loin-cloth), that survived drastic
saratorial changes in Goa till much into the twentieth century, could be the
single most-lasting thread that links generations of inhabitants of this
small region over the ages.

But across the ages, this region has seen widely differing trends in
clothing -- right from jewel-studded attire of the religious hierarchy, to
elaborate silverware that decorated ceremonial elephants, and the quaint mix
of east-west influences as reflected in garments like the women's garment
called the Pano Bajo -- according to fashion designer Wendell Rodricks.

Rodricks is currently finalising a project he started two years ago, on the
history of Goan clothes across the generation. It started after being asked
to write an article for a book edited by journalist Mario Cabral e Sa.

One of India's prominent fashion designers who earned name and fame, says he
has earned the money too, and would like to put back something into society.

Soon, a coffeetable book on the subject is expected to be out, possibly by
the end of 2003. If Rodricks (42), one of the big names among Indian fashion
designers could have his way, he plans to set up a museum of Goan clothes
across the generations.

In this, he has been inspired by Museu Nactional do Traje (Lisbon) director
Dr Madalena Braz Teixeira. She heads the Lusitanian national costume museum,
which has an amazing range of garments bequeathed down over time.

Says he: "I found it so interesting (after writing the initial article on
Goan clothes). Everyone said Goa (did not have costumes) of its own. But
this is not true. We must research this and leave behind some (knowledge
about our) clothing legacy."

Rodricks says he tried to move out of simplistic divisions like dividing Goa
into categories like pre-Portuguese, Portuguese and post-1961. "We started
with the caves of Sattari, and the drawings there, going across the periods
of the Buddhists, Shaivites, Vaishnavites and deities like Betal (till
recent times)," says he.

He also looked at temple sculpture, and etchings by foreign travellers who
came to India, so as to get clues about clothing worn over different periods
of time. "By now, the documentation is quite thick, totalling about four to
five volumes," says Rodricks.

For his work, Rodricks tapped the Porvorim-based Xavier Centre of Historical
Research, the Goa Central Library, the Goa Archives -- one of the oldest in
Asia, which has documents going back to the sixteenth century, notes
Wendell.

"I had to read the life of Vasco da Gama just to understand what they found
when they arrived," says Rodricks, who grew up outside Goa and worked in the
Gulf, before studying fashion and re-settlign back home. Three research
assistants helped with looking at Islamic influences, the Hindu deities and
shoes or jewellery worn.

Study-visits to Portugal and the US (Costume Institute of the Fashion
Institute of Technology at New York) helped trace civil and military
costumes.

Rodricks next dream is setting up a museum of Goan clothes. Some sites have
been visited, during the ten-day programme of Dr Braz Teixeira, who head's
Lisbon national costume museum.

One site was visited at Margao; but it was too close to the road, and prone
to pollution. Rodrick's dream is to convert the old GMC complex -- which
could end up even as a mini brewery, according to some versions -- into a
museum of Goan clothing and also a top-level fashion school for churning out
specialists.

"Money won't be a problem," he says, suggesting that some major firms with a
major stake in the clothing and suiting industry have offered their support.

Of course, age-old clothes need to be protected from light, insects, dust
and even gravity -- "laid flat like babies", says Rodricks. He describes
some amazing sarees of Indian siks at the Mohandas Naik collection in
Margao. 

"Owners can loan us the garments and see how we maintain them. If they are
satisfied, they could donate the same to the museum. Cultural value has
nothing to do with monetary value. Their contribution would be widely
recognised," he suggests.
 
In Goa, the Portuguese curator went to the Viscount of Pernem (MLA
Deshprabhu's) home to see swords in gold, crowns and ceremonial drapes of
elephants. They are due to visit the Rane armoury collection at Sanquelim.

They saw beautiful banners at the Museum of Christian Art. "Of course, the
Goa of the past is not the Goa as we know it today. Its boundaries kept
changing," says Rodricks. "The Konkan coast has been in

[GOANET] NEWS-DELHI: Nostalgia, bouquets and brickbats mark diaspora meet

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Nostalgia, bouquets and brickbats mark diaspora meet (LEADS)

By P. Jayaram, Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Jan 11 (IANS) The curtain fell on the first-ever convention here
of the global Indian diaspora Saturday on a heart-swell of nostalgia,
bouquets and brickbats from some 1,400 participants from 60 countries.

The government made some important announcements aimed at building bridges
between India and the 20 million-strong diaspora, but many delegates to the
three-day meet felt the sops were largely aimed at the well-heeled sections
of overseas Indians "with an eye on their dollars."

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement that India was not
interested in "your riches, only your rich experience," did not impress
many.

The government's decision to grant dual citizenship to persons of Indian
origin (PIOs) only in the U.S, Canada, Britain and some other European Union
countries, besides those from Australia, Singapore and New Zealand drew
mixed reactions.

Many like Ujjal Dosanjh, former premier of Canada's British Columbia
province and one of 10 eminent overseas Indians honoured for their
achievements with the "Pravasi Bharatiya Samman" Awards at the convention,
praised the decision.

"It will boost ties and bring in more investment into India," Dosanjh said.

But PIOs from Mauritius, Suriname, Trinidad and other smaller islands with
considerable ethnic Indian populations felt a little left out of the
diaspora celebration.

They accused New Delhi of courting overseas Indians, particularly in the
U.S. and Britain, for their dollars.

A key announcement that came from Finance Minister Jaswant Singh was the
government's decision to allow individuals to invest in companies abroad and
double investment limits for mutual funds to $1 billion.

"There is an emphasis here on NRIs (non-resident Indians). You do not want
us, the people of the south. You only want those earning dollars in the
north," said Dhundev Bauhdoor, chairman of the Global Organisation of PIOs,
Mauritius.

He also alleged that the PIOs, whose forefathers had left India as
indentured labour over a century ago and were generally from lower Hindu
castes, were particularly discriminated against.

"My caste left me in my adopted country but does not seem to leave me when I
come to India - even when I have done well for myself," he said.

Of nearly 1,400 PIOs and NRIs attending the event, many undertook the
journey to the land of their forefathers for the first time.

Complaints were inevitable in a family reunion of such a scale, but it did
not take away from the overwhelming nostalgia and belongingness that the
diaspora felt in their country of origin.

There were Indians from the French islands of Reunion, Martinique and
Guadeloupe who were full of nostalgia on their first visit to India since
their ancestors left the country's shores as indentured labour over a
century ago.

The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas began on January 9 marking the day in 1915 that
Mahatma Gandhi returned to India after spending nearly two decades in South
Africa.

Symbolising the importance of preserving cultural ties between India and its
children abroad, the convention kicked off with an inspired double act by
two of India's greatest musicians - sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar and
Shehnai wizard Ustad Bismillah Khan.

Glittering evenings with Hindi film stars such as Shah Rukh Khan and
Aishwarya Rai, apart from other celebrities, generated further warmth as the
NRIs and PIOs experienced the bitter cold that enveloped the capital this
week.

Business was conducted as briskly with delegates hearing luminaries such as
Nobel laureates Amartya Sen and V.S. Naipaul, Mauritius Prime Minister
Anerood Jugnauth and former Commonwealth secretary-general Shridath Ramphal
of Guyana or business and corporate achievers like Rajat Gupta, CEO of
McKinsey, and Hari Harilela (Hongkong) and Manu Chandaria (Kenya).

The panel debates covered a wide range of subjects, although these were too
many speakers, with too little interaction.

Indian politicians used the occasion fully to hog the limelight that left
little time for others to speak. "They are only interested in listening to
their own voices. They seem least bit interested in knowing about us," a
delegate muttered.

Nevertheless, delegates finally had their say as they forced Deputy Prime
Minister L.K. Advani to answer uncomfortable questions about the Gujarat
communal carnage on the second day of the conference.

When Advani asserted that India would always remain a secular nation, Nadira
Naipaul, wife of the great novelist, asked in an obvious reference to the
February-May sectarian violence whether Muslims, Christians and other
minorities were as Indian as PIOs and NRIs.

"I don't blame you. The image that has been

[GOANET] Invite to Colva, Longuinhos...

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One of GoaNet's admin team members, Vivian Coelho and her husband Aristo,
are currently down in Goa. They send out an invite (in the typically
large-hearted Italiana style) to any GoaNetter in the area... do drop in
for lunch between 11 am and 3 pm on Sunday, January 12, 2003 at
Longuinhos-Colva. You can confirm with Vivian at 2750731. FN
PS: Sorry about the short notice; we only spoke earlier this evening...

[GOANET] NEWS-NEW DELHI: India proposes slew of sops for diaspora

2003-01-10 Thread Frederick Noronha

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Indian finance minister proposes slew of sops for diaspora

>From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) Finance Minister Jaswant Singh Friday unveiled a
slew of proposals to ease the regulations on investment into India by people
of Indian origin (PIO) scattered in different parts of the world.

The government proposes to remove the existing limit of $20,000 for
remittances under the employees stock option programme, Singh told a
high-profile three-day event for overseas Indians that started here
Thursday.

Nearly 1,400 non-resident Indians (NRIs) and PIO from 60 countries are
attending the three-day "Pravasi Bharatiya Divas" or Indian Diaspora Day.
Many of them have journeyed to the land of their forefathers for the first
time.

Besides, 600 delegates from India are also participating in the convention.

The conference, being jointly organised by the Indian external affairs
ministry in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce
and Industry (FICCI), is part of a move by the government to form closer
ties with the Indian diaspora.

The event has brought together government leaders, diplomats, politicians,
businessmen, journalists, community leaders and other achievers in a unique
gathering.

"We also propose to allow corporates, who have set up their branches and
offices abroad, to acquire immovable property overseas for their business or
staff residential purposes," Singh said, amid loud applause by the Indian
diaspora.

The mutual funds in India will also be allowed to invest abroad in companies
that are listed on overseas stock exchanges and that have at least 10
percent shareholding in a company listed on a recognised stock exchange in
India on January 1 of the year of investment.

"Apart from companies, individuals are also being permitted to invest abroad
in companies that are listed on overseas stock exchanges, and that have at
least 10 percent shareholding in a company listed on a recognised stock
exchange in India on January 1 of the year of investment," the minister
said.

"With regard to transfer of assets in India, remittance of proceeds up to $1
million is being permitted," he added.

"This is not the end. This is just the beginning. We will progressively make
more such announcements."

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] NEWS-EXPATS: 'We don't want your riches alone', Vajpayee tells NRIs

2003-01-09 Thread Frederick Noronha

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'We don't want your riches alone': Vajpayee tells overseas Indians

>From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Jan 9 (IANS) Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Thursday sought
to dispel any notion that the first-ever gathering of the Indian diaspora
here had been convened with an eye only on investments.

"We do not want your riches, we want the richness of your experience. We can
gain from the breadth of vision that your global exposure has given you,"
Vajpayee said in his inaugural address to the three-day meet, being attended
by some 2,000 delegates from 60 countries across the globe.

"We do not want only your investment, we also want your ideas," he added.

"When you left this country, you carried with you the primary colours of the
Indian ethos. A cross-fertilization of cultures over time has added new
shades to those vibrant hues. Today we invite you to brush in some of these
new colours into the ever-evolving canvas of India's development," the poet
prime minister said.

He said the Indian diaspora could help project the country to the world in a
"credible and effective manner" to correct the "misleading and negative
pictures" that are put out due to bias, ignorance or design.

"You could project a positive image of India - not as propaganda, but as a
true reflection of the reality on the ground," he said and noted India
continues to have one of the fastest growing economies when most developed
economies have slowed down.

Similarly, India's exports grew by 19 percent and the country, which till
recently needed to import food grains to feed its population, exported
grains worth over Rs. 60 billion to 25 countries last year.

He also noted that about a decade ago India had to mortgage its gold to tide
over a difficult balance of payments crisis. "Today we have record foreign
exchange reserves of nearly $70 billion.

"How often have we seen such facts quoted outside the country? It is far
more that mindless political gossip or isolated acts of crime and violence
would dominate the headlines around the world," he said.

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] *** NEWS-PRIORITY: Dual nationality for Indians based in somecountries

2003-01-09 Thread Frederick Noronha

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India fetes its diaspora with dual citizenship (LEADS)

By P. Jayaram, Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Jan 9 (IANS) India feted its 20-million strong global diaspora
Thursday, with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announcing the
government's decision to grant dual citizenship to people of Indian origin
(PIOs) in selected countries and reservation of seats in educational
institutions for children of Indians in the Gulf countries.

The prime minister's announcement, in his inaugural address to a historic
first-ever gathering of overseas Indians here, drew loud applause from the
3,000-strong audience at a specially erected conference hall at the
sprawling Pragati Maidan fairgrounds here.

Nearly 1,400 PIOs from 60 countries are attending the three-day "Pravasi
Bharatiya Divas" (Indian Diaspora Day), many of them undertaking the journey
to the land of their forefathers for the first time.

It was on this day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi returned to India after
spending nearly two decades in South Africa and, in the words of External
Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, changed the course of Indian history.

Perhaps underlining the importance of music in preserving the bond of
cultural heritage between India and the diaspora, the convention started
with an inspired joint performance by two of India's greatest musicians -
sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar and Shehnai wizard Ustad Bismillah Khan.

Khan, 86, and Shankar, 82, had never performed together. But on Thursday
their "heavenly music," as Yashwant Sinha described it, received a standing
ovation, Prime Minister Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani
leading the way.

Vajpayee honoured 10 eminent PIOs, including Mauritius Prime Minister
Anerood Jugnauth, who delivered a special address at the inaugural ceremony,
by presenting them with "Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards."

Vajpayee also announced a compulsory insurance scheme for non-resident
Indians (NRIs) in the Gulf countries and said the government was already
considering a bill to establish a welfare fund for overseas Indian workers.

He said the decision to grant dual citizenship for POIs of certain countries
was in line with the recommendation of a high-level committee headed by
former envoy to Britain, L.M. Singhvi.

"We are now working on the administrative regulations and procedures
governing dual citizenship," he said and added the government would
introduce the relevant legislation in the next session of Parliament in
February.

"The welfare of NRIs (non-resident Indians) in the Gulf region is of utmost
concern to us," he said referring to the three million Indians working in
the region.  "To meet the educational needs of children in the Gulf, we plan
to reserve a certain proportion of seats in our academic institutions for
the children of the Gulf NRIs," he said.

"The odyssey of our people to the four corners of the globe has been a saga
of courage enterprise and character," he said and referred to how Indians
went over a century and a half ago as indentured labour to work in sugar,
tea and rubber plantations in lands as far apart as Fiji and Mauritius,
Suriname and Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Burma, Guyana and Malaysia.

This, he said, was followed by the next wave of emigration by entrepreneurs
and traders and by young professionals in the seventies to the "corporate
boardrooms, research laboratories, engineering workshops and university
faculties."

"Today the success of every category of these emigrants all over the world
testifies to the indomitable spirit, which they carried from Indian soil,"
he said.

"Not many people today remember the painful Kamagata Maru episode of the
early 20th century, when a boatload of Sikhs from India were most brutally
left to fend for themselves on the high seas off the coast of Canada," he
said, and noted that Sikhs from India are among the most prosperous
Canadians and were increasingly influential in Canadian politics.

He said unlike the British, the French, the Dutch and the Germans, India was
never a maritime power. "All the same, Indians ventured forth across the
seas to set up new homes in new lands. They went in peace, often with
nothing more than faith in their destiny.

"No country can claim that Indians entered its territory in the spirit of
colonialism," he said amid applause.

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] NEWS: India needs policy to tap NRI investment

2003-01-09 Thread Frederick Noronha

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India needs policy to tap NRI investment

By Mohammed Shafeeq, Indo-Asian News Service

Hyderabad, Jan 9 (IANS) With a combined wealth of $300 billion, roughly
equal to India's gross domestic product, the vast Indian diaspora across the
world could help turn their native country into an economic force to be
reckoned with.

But this huge potential has not been tapped. And it is not because of an
absence of interest among the diaspora in investing in India but because of
the lack of appropriate policy, says a Confederation of Indian Industry
(CII) study.

Presented at the CII's Partnership Summit which concluded here Wednesday,
the study calls for strong, consistent and attractive investment policies as
well as a smooth implementation process that would prompt ethnic Indians and
non-resident Indians (NRIs) to invest in their native land.

Titled "The role of India Diaspora in accelerating industrial development in
India", the study suggests a 10-point action plan for the government to
increase investment by NRIs or persons of Indian origin (PIOs).

It wants the external affairs ministry to maintain a comprehensive database
of NRIs and PIOs, keep them updated on new economic policies and business
opportunities available in India, create awareness and understanding of the
investment rules, make Indian missions abroad responsible for introducing
the latest policies and foreign direct investment (FDI) targets and
recognise one NRI/PIO association per country.

It recommends that the industry ministry offer consultancy services to NRIs
and PIOs interested in investing in India, reduce procedural delays, set up
state-level bodies to attract investment from the diaspora, bring in labour
reforms and treat NRIs and PIOs purely as financial investors with no
limiting factor of equity cap.

The study -- based on the views of NRIs and PIOs in the U.S., Britain,
Canada, Singapore and 12 other countries -- found that while the diaspora
appreciated the process of liberalisation adopted by the Indian government,
there was a general lack of understanding of most rules.

It says NRIs and PIOs are interested in new technology areas of computer
software, media and telecom, quality control and training. They are also
keen to invest in power, other infrastructure areas and agriculture.

Addressing a session at the Partnership Summit on NRI participation,
prominent expatriates said India needed to do much more to encourage FDI
inflow through NRI investors.

Murali K. Prahlad, director of business development for Sequenom Inc. of the
U.S., called for bridging the credibility gap between what India asks of
NRIs and what it offers in return.

He said India should understand the concerns of second-generation immigrants
and set up institutions to foster emotional, cultural and intellectual links
with them.

CII also made a comparative study of the Indian and Chinese diaspora,
revealing that while China maintained its links with its natives abroad both
culturally and economically, India's focus has been more on maintaining the
cultural link.

According to the report, there are about 18-20 million NRIs and PIOs spread
over 60 countries. Eleven countries have more than half a million NRIs and
PIOs each, 11 about 100,000 each and the rest less than 100,000.

While the government approved proposals envisaging NRI investments of $2.02
billion from 1991 to 2002, NRI inflows were just $1.58 billion. NRI inflows
also came down from an impressive 24 percent in 1996-97 to a low of 1.9
percent of the total FDI inflows in 1999-2000.

In contrast, non-resident Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the rest of
Asia were the largest contributors to the total FDI inflows into their
native country.

Stating that India had many lessons to learn from China, the CII study
points out that Beijing, through a decree passed in 1990, provided for
special rules and regulations to encourage investment by overseas Chinese.

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] NEWS: BJP charms Goa's fourth estate...

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BJP CHARMS GOA'S FOURTH ESTATE, SENDING DISSENT ON HOLIDAY

>From Frederick Noronha

PANJIM: Congress gained a whole lot of friends and 'admirers' in Goa's
Fourth Estate during its long decade-and-half tenure in power here. But the
BJP, heading an hotch-potch coalition since late 2000 has already taken the
art of influencing the media to a new high in this small state.

Goa CM Manohar Parrikar has charmed former pro-Maoist student activists who
are now mediapersons, thrown sops to the journalistic community, accomodated
editors on various official bodies, and in a word placed a lid on the key
quarters capable of fuelling dissent or raise critical questions.

This has seriously impacted the boundaries of discussion on public life here.

More so because the slothful and corruption-prone Congress finds itself
unable to play the role of an Opposition party, its leaders stand attacked
by cases selectively filed -- though probably well justified -- by the
government, and some of its top leaders also face allegations of snuggling
up to the saffron party in power.

In his first year in office, the chief minister unveiled a state-funded
'pension scheme' for private-sector employed journos. But it later became
apparent that after the fanfare, the government lacked the finances or the
political will, or both, to adequately continue funding this scheme.

GUJ, the local journalists body, was also given a spacious premises in the
government-build building in Pato, the extension of state-capital Panjim
which once comprised paddy fields, and now is pretentiously claims to be
Goa's 'Nariman Point'.

But beyond the collective perks, individuals have also sought to be
pandered. One deal for an IT-related project was handed over to the kin of a
journalist, leaving the bewildered Opposition to ask whether any tendering
process had been followed.

Journalists seen as friendly to the government are seen as being accomodated
on official committees, including the recently-reconstituted Right to
Information committee. 

(Goa has an interesting RtI Act, which has been systematically subverted by
reluctant officials and politicians. After a fiery campaign, journalists
have themselves seldom utilised the potentially-utilised law to ferret out
information which could have ensured transparency.)

Editor Chandrakant Keni of the little-read Marathi daily Rashtramath has
been appointed to head the Goa NRI Facilitation Centre, though his link with
the subject remains unexplained. Some other editors have also been similarly
accomodated on official panels.

Prior to Goa's critical May 31 elections last year, a well-timed advert
called for voters to back "stability...at a time when (the) sovereignty of
our nation is being threatened by enemies". It didn't name any party, but
was clearly aimed at boosting the BJP chances. 

This ad, calling on voters to "think twice before casting your vote" also
blasted "tainted elements" and those "defecting" (read Congressmen) and was
signed by three Goa editors -- Sharad Karkanis of Gomantak, Pramod
Khandeparkar of Gomantak Times and Keni of Rashtramath. 

Former Herald chief reporter Julio D'Silva was among the early journos to
side with the BJP, and contested twice the Chandor seat in Catholic-majority
Salcete taluka for the party. 

Another former scribe, Rajesh Singh, has been appointed to head the
long-politicised Department of Information; an appointment which was dragged
to the courts. Singh was press liaison officer to Goa chief minister
Parrikar before being made the information director.

Some scribes perceive this as just a different style of functioning by the
party in power; at least one senior union office bearer termed it a "total
degeneration".  In news conferences, the alliances show up when mediapersons
deflect any attempts at raising critical questions by either 'adjourning'
the session arbitrarily or shifting gears to some other inocuous subject.

Interestingly, the press' capitulation has worsened the lack of an effective
Opposition in the state. Congress' ex-CM Luizinho Faleiro is seen by some
partymen as siding BJP CM Manohar Parrikar for his own political ends.

Former Speaker and long term Congress chief minister Pratapsing Rane's
stance -- and his go-slow in deciding on defection cases, while being
allowed to continue in Speakership by the BJP -- also left its impact.
Currently Rane is Opposition leader. 

Meanwhile, another local satrap, once vehemently critical of the BJP, ex-CM
Dr Wilfred de Souza, has been accomodated by the saffron party as the head
of the state planning board. It could be just a coincidence that this timed
with a sh

[GOANET] SITEWATCH: Link to official Goa websites...

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Thanks to Archana <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for pointing me in this
direction. Below are links to a number of Goa-related official
websites. Including ruralbazaar, citizens' charters and the (often
crowded in the real world) Passport Office. FN

URL :  http://www.goa.nic.in

   
   National Informatics Centre
   
   Goa State Unit
   
 Dedicated to reach the benefits of   I T  to Rural Masses
   
   
  [1]About Us
  [2]Services
 [3]Projects 
[4]Inaugurations 
 [5]Training
   [6]Infrastructure
 [7]Manpower
 [8]Feedback
   [9]Email Directory
 
 
   [nicgoa.jpg]
   
   Websites:
   [10]State Legal Services Authority[11] [new.gif] 
   [12]Institute of Hotel Management   
   [13]Goa Government
   [14]Citizen Charters
   Govt. Polytechnic
  [15]Panaji  [16]Bicholim [17]
   HSSC/SSC Results
   [18]Ruralbazargoa   [19]
   Goa Museum
   [20]SISI Goa
   [21]National Institute of Water sports
   [22]Passport Office
   [23]Goa Tourism
   [24]ICAR RC for GOA
   [25]ETDC
   
Best viewed in IE 4 and above
  with 800X600 Resolution
   
National Informatics Centre
   Goa State Unit
Panaji Residency (Tourist Hostel), 6th Floor
Panaji - Goa., India
 Phone.No: +91-832-2225702,2420150
 Email : [26][EMAIL PROTECTED]
 You are Visitor No:  [nicgsu]
(from 01/01/2002)
   
   
   Copyright © 2002-2003 National Informatics Centre ([27]NIC), Goa State
  Unit, Panaji, Goa, India
   Disclaimer: The contents  of different websites hosted on this server
   are owned by the respective Departments/organisations and they may be
contacted for any further information or suggestion.

References

   Visible links
   1. http://www.goa.nic.in/about.htm
   2. http://www.goa.nic.in/serv.htm
   3. http://www.goa.nic.in/proj.htm
   4. http://www.goa.nic.in/inagurations/index.htm
   5. http://www.goa.nic.in/trai.htm
   6. http://www.goa.nic.in/infr.htm
   7. http://www.goa.nic.in/manp.htm
   8. http://www.goa.nic.in/feedbac.htm
   9. http://www.goa.nic.in/emailadd.htm
  10. http://slsagoa.nic.in/
  11. http://www.gpp.nic.in/
  12. http://ihmgoa.nic.in/
  13. http://goagovt.nic.in/
  14. http://citizenchartersofgoa.nic.in/
  15. http://gpp.nic.in/
  16. http://gpb.nic.in/
  17. http://goaresults.nic.in/
  18. http://ruralbazargoa.nic.in/
  19. http://goamuseum.nic.in/
  20. http://sisigoa.nic.in/
  21. http://niws.nic.in/
  22. http://passport.goa.nic.in/
  23. http://goatourism.nic.in/
  24. http://icarrc.goa.nic.in/
  25. http://etdc.goa.nic.in/
  26. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
  27. http://www.nic.in/

   Hidden links:
  28. http://www.goa.nic.in/about.htm
  29. http://www.gpp.nic.in/

[GOANET] NEWS: Vajpayee likely to announce dual citizenship

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Vajpayee likely to announce dual citizenship

>From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Jan 8 (IANS) Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is expected to
announce the government's decision to grant dual citizenship to people of
Indian origin (PIOs) at their first-ever gathering here Thursday.

Dual citizenship has long been sought, particularly by PIOs in Britain and
the U.S, but there have been serious reservations within the government and
political parties over the issue due to its legal and security implications.

There are an estimated 20 million PIOs spread across the world.

The government has, however, said dual citizenship would be restricted to
countries that grant this on a reciprocal basis and even then it would not
be automatic. PIOs in South Asian countries would not be entitled to dual
citizenship.

It has also clarified that those granted dual citizenship would not be
entitled to take part in Indian elections.

Nearly 1,400 PIOs from 60 countries have confirmed their participation in
the conference and many of them have already arrived, said the organisers -
the external affairs ministry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

While Vajpayee will inaugurate the conference, his Mauritius counterpart
Anerood Jugnauth, currently on a weeklong state visit to India, will deliver
a special address at the inaugural session.

The conference has been organised for the people and authorities to
understand the sentiments of the Indian diaspora and its expectations from
India and evolve a policy framework for sustained interaction.

Culture Minister Jagmohan inaugurated three exhibitions on the eve of the
conference to give the participants a feeling of the common heritage.

The exhibitions are titled: "Our science and technology heritage",
"Pictorial transformations," that detail developments in Indian art since
the 1850s, and "Eternal images of Indian art," which includes a 500-year-old
sculpture of "Mother Goddess" from Harappa, 1st century sculptures of the
Buddha and bronzes of the Chola period.

Officials said the government had waived entry fees for the three
exhibitions for delegates to the conference.

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] NEWS: Diaspora award winners have rich, varied background

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Diaspora award winners have rich, varied background

>From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Jan 8 (IANS) Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will honour 10
persons of Indian origin, including Mauritius Prime Minister Anerood
Jugnauth, at the inauguration of a three-day Indian diaspora conference
beginning here Thursday.

Following are the brief profiles of those who will receive the "Pravasi
Bharatiya Samman" (Indian Diaspora Awards).

Sir Anerood Jugnauth:

Jugnauth is leader of the Mauritius Militant Movement. A lawyer by
profession, he was first elected to Parliament in 1963. He was state
minister for development in the government of Prime Minister Sir Seewoosagur
Ramgoolam from 1965 to 1966 and was promoted as labour minister in November
1966.

He joined the Mauritius Militant Movement in the early 70s, becoming its
president. He was re-elected in the 1976 elections and served as the
opposition leader from December 1976 to June 1982. In 1982, he became the
prime minister in a dramatic election in which his radical left-wing
alliance won every single seat in the legislative assembly. He has presided
over the country's rapid industrialisation, the Mauritian economic miracle,
which is the envy of so many countries.

Lord Navnit Dholakia:

Dholakia was born in 1937 and was raised to peerage as Baron Dholakia, of
Waltham Brooks in the Country West Sussex in 1997. Lord Dholakia was
educated in Indian public schools and in Tanzania.

His extensive career background includes heading the administration of
justice section of the Commission of Racial Equality as well as senior
development office of the Community Relations Commission. Within the House
of Lords, Dholakia is a member of the House of Lords Appointments Commission
and is the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Home affairs. He has published
various articles on criminal justice matters.

Rajat Gupta:

Gupta is the MD of McKinsey & Co. Inc. - Worldwide. He joined the firm's New
York office in 1973, assumed leadership of its Scandinavian offices in 1982,
and joined the Chicago office in 1987. He took over the role of Office
Manager there in 1989, was elected managing director of the firm in 1994 and
re-elected twice, once in 1997 and again in 2000.

Gupta is chairman of the board of the Indian School of Business and is
associated with many professional and business affiliations, including a
trustee of the University of Chicago and associate of the Harvard business
School, advisory board at the Kellogg School of Management. Gupta holds a
bachelor of technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian
Institute of Technology and is an MBA from Harvard Business School.


Professor Fatima Meer:

Meer was born in Durban where her father was the editor and publisher of the
Indian weekly, India Views (1914-1965). She has directed and organised a
number of concerts to raise funds in the 1940s and '50s for famine relief in
Bengal, the 1946 Passive Resistance Campaign and the 1956 Treason Trial. She
has also raised funds and written the script for the film, "The Making of
the Mahatma", which has won several international awards.

She is the recipient of a number of awards and honorary degrees nationally
and internationally. In 1999, Indian magazine Femina elected Meer as one of
the "Top 100 Women Who Shook South Africa." She has been banned or detained
repeatedly for varying periods for her support to the anti-apartheid
movement and has suffered two bomb attacks and survived an assassination
attempt.

Kanakshi Gokaldas Khimji:

Khimji, popularly known as Kanakbhai, took over the reigns of the Khimji
Ramdas Group of Companies (KR) in 1970 from his late father Gokaldas Khimji.
Khimji is one of the top business houses in Oman.

In 1975, under his leadership, the Indian Merchants Body in Oman established
the first-ever English medium school in Muscat. Today there are 14 schools
set up by the organisation in the sultanate. Free land and a substantial
amount of funds were generously given by Sultan Qaboos Bin Said to set up
the schools. During the Gujarat earthquake, Kanakbhai with the help of the
merchant community in Oman despatched three shiploads of food, blankets,
tents and other items worth over Rs. 5 million, apart from an equivalent
amount of cash contribution to the victims, through NGOs in Gujarat.

Ujjal Dosanjh:

Dosanjh has the distinction of being elected first Indo-Canadian premier in
Canada when he became British Columbia's 33rd Premier on February 24, 2000.
He had previously served as attorney general and minister in charge of
various subjects, including multiculturalism, immigration, human rights and
sports.

Born in India in 1947, he migrated to England at the age of 17 and to Canada
four years later. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degre

[GOANET] Musings from Salmona... (Saligao)

2003-01-07 Thread Frederick Noronha

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BY THE TIME we reached the Salmona temple, it was nearly 8 pm. There was a
crowd and the speeches were on. If you have a persistent question-asking
four-year-old with you, it's best to stand at a distance

After getting our groundwater stolen in vast quantites from many points in
the village (including just near the MLA's home), and garbage from the
heavy waste-generating  tourism belt dumped alongside the local hillock,
this is the third battle-over-nature that Saligao is now seeing.

Some wise guys have come up with the idea of 'developing' part of the area
around the Salmona spring (locals call it the 'fountain'). They claim to
have got the forest officials' permission to fell trees in this
wooded, cool and green area. But this claim has already been questioned.

For a change, villagers cutting across religious lines were out to make
their views felt. There was a little bit of intrigue at Tuesday night's
meet. The lights mysteriously went off for awhile; was that just another
of our usual power failures? The local panch could not make a speech due
to a throat-problem.

Later, villagers said the meeting had gone on till 9.30
pm. Young environmentalist friends from nearby -- Sandeep Azrencar, Harvey
D'Souza and Nirmal Kulkarni -- among others, were there to voice their
support. On Wednesday morning, 11 am, the minister is expected to visit
the site. --FN

[GOANET] NEWS-GULF: Oman to give visa on arrival to Indians

2003-01-07 Thread Frederick Noronha

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Oman to give visa on arrival to Indians

>From Indo-Asian News Service

Dubai, Jan 7 (IANS) Indian tourists will receive a three-week visa on
arrival in Oman as part of a move to attract visitors to the Muscat Festival
2003.

The Gulf News daily quoted a Muscat Municipality official as saying that
citizens of 65 countries will be given visas on arrival and India is
included in the list. The festival will feature Indian entertainers like
Shah Rukh Khan.

Khalil bin Abdullah Al Balushi, deputy director of information at Muscat
Municipality, said the move coincides with the festival, which opens
Wednesday.

The report said that no formal announcement has been made, but the Tourism
Department has already issued a circular to leading travel agencies in Oman.

The fee for a two-week visit visa is seven Omani riyals and it can be
extended for another week. This visa will be given at Oman's international
airports and the country's land border with the United Arab Emirates (UAE),
the report said.

According to the Times of Oman newspaper, depending on the success of the
issuance of visa on arrival to Indian passport-holders during the Muscat
Festival, the system may become a regular feature.

The report said the Omani government's latest initiative would attract more
affluent Indians towards Oman, which would be beneficial to both countries.

"We have alerted our partners in India about this matter," the official
said.

Meanwhile, Muscat is readying for the 35-day festival, which was first held
in 1998. It was called off last year to show solidarity with the
Palestinians.

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] LINK: Dr Jose Pereira... finalising a couple of books

2003-01-06 Thread Frederick Noronha

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Dr Jose Pereira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> the painter, writer, musicologist,
and man of many other roles has retired from Fordham University in the US in
September 2001, and has since kept very busy with his writing and painting
projects. 

Says he: "I am bringing out a second edition of The Sacred Architecture of
Islam (first edition: Islamic Sacred Architecture, New Delhi 1994). I
visited Russia and the Ukraine in April-May, so that I have by now covered
most of the Baroque world."

Dr Pereira spent October 2002 in Goa. His second volume: 'Song of Goa:Mandos
of Union and Lamentation' is due to be published soon. He informed us
recently that books on Goa are also being currently written by Victor Rangel
Ribeiro (now based in Porvorim, Goa till March 2003) and Aurora Couto (who
has been at Carona, Aldona for some time now).

You can see his work on Borda's S. Joaquim sacristy frescoes online at the
address below. "There is only one picture, that of the vault, but I will
have more pictures put it soon," says he.

http://www.fordham.edu/theology/Faculty/PereiraFrescoes.html

This is one of the senior generation of Goans who's knowledge is vast, and
range of knowledge is really amazing! Sometime back, I wrote on his work and
his paintings, following a couple of interviews with him at Campal and
Borda. You could find them online with a search for Jose + Pereira + Goa on
www.google.com --FN

[GOANET] Place names...

2003-01-06 Thread Frederick Noronha

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> From: "Sunila Muzawar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> pronounced name for our beautiful capital. And while we are at it, we could 
> also alter the horribly English sounding names given to all other Goan 
> places. E.g. Calangute should be Kolngutey and Mapusa should be Mhapshyanh 
> and Margao should be Madgaon, etc. What a relief that would be to finally 
> get rid of the pseudo westernisation of Goan names. While we are at it, 
> maybe we could change the spelling of our language name from Konkani to 
> Konknii. ;-)

Correction, Sunila. Not Kolngutey, Mhapshyanh and Madgaon but Congutti,
Mapshea and Modganv... and surely people like Jorge Abreu Noronha could
give us more phonetically-correct spellings. My own education was mostly
in the phonetically-far-from-accurate English language. (That too, in Goa,
which makes it phonetically even more inaccurate!) 

Devangari to Roman/Latin script renderings tend to be prone to error, 
specially if done without the symbols (these are not practical
perhaps to implement) of the good old colonial times or the International
Phonetic Alphabet and Daniel Jones' Pronouncing Dictionary. 

The other way round, from Roman/Latin to Devanagiri is less prone to
error, since the latter script is more precise as to the exact sound  each
alphabet signifies. Of course, an agrument could be made that Devanagari
too could do with a handful of extra characters to represent the peculiar
sounds of Konkani (or Konknni, if you prefer) speech. 

Incidentally, my earlier suggestion was kind of tongue-in-cheek (going
into the future via the past, etc). But Ivor and others have given it the
seriousness it did not perhaps deserves. All that one was saying was that
different linguistic speakers use their own names for the place. Probably
some are more way-off the mark than others going by what is one the mouth
of the average speaker (for example, both Panaji *and* the Portuguese
Pangim, both very similar... and of course, the English-influenced Panjim). 

To everyone taking part in this debate: Are we willing to take into
account that Goa means different things to different people? Maybe there
are five or six or eight different Goas out there, created according to
the image and likeness of what we have in our imagination. 

These could be defined by geography, gender, caste, religion, and our own
experiences with emigration and colonialism.

The problem is that the expat-imagine Goa is quite a different animal from
what is the current ruling ideology in Goa itself. Likewise, writers (all
of us) are guilty of creating our own realities... These are complexities
which perhaps need to be acknowledged before plunging into the debate.FN

[GOANET] NEWS-DELHI: First Indian diaspora meet will reflect its diversity

2003-01-05 Thread Frederick Noronha

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First Indian diaspora meet will reflect its diversity

>From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Jan 4 (IANS) The "extraordinary diversity" of the Indian diaspora
will be reflected in the three-day meet of persons of Indian origin (PIOs)
here next week, with ethnic Indians returning to their roots from as far
apart as South Pacific islands to the Caribbean.

"We have got about 250 French-speaking people and 75-90 Dutch-speaking
people attending the conference who do not speak English or Hindi. So, we
have engaged a private company to provide the services of interpreters,"
J.C. Sharma, secretary in the external affairs ministry, told reporters.

The three-day meeting from Thursday is being jointly organised by the
ministry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(FICCI).

Sharma said the "extraordinary diversity" of the Indian diaspora would be at
full play at the meeting, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee.

"The Chinese diaspora is larger than ours but they don't have this kind of
global reach and diversity," Sharma added.

Nearly 1,500 PIOs from some 60 countries have confirmed their participation
in the meeting and the figure was expected to go up.

"You know 57 people are attending the meeting from the Reunion Island," an
official connected with the meeting told IANS about the French colony in the
Indian Ocean, which has an ethnic mix of Africans, Indians, Chinese and
Malays.

"They (Indians) speak none of the Indian languages, but still the pull of
the roots has drawn them to the meeting," the official said.

PIOs from obscure French colonies like the Caribbean islands of Martinique
and Guadeloupe and South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu are also attending
the meeting.

L.M. Singhvi, who headed a high-level panel to study the 20-million strong
diaspora spread across the world and recommend steps to forge constructive
ties between India, and PIOs, described them as "pioneer achievers."

The Indians, who were taken from their homes as indentured labour by the
British colonialists to various parts of the world, had come up in those
countries through sheer dint of hard work, he said.

"Indentured labour is only a euphemism for slavery and they had worked in
conditions of great hardship," he added.

He said the diaspora meeting is intended to be a starting point for a
serious dialogue in building a strong relationship between India and its
diaspora.

"This is only a first step in a long journey. This is the first step towards
a comprehensive policy framework for persons of Indian origin everywhere,"
he added.

--Indo-Asian News Service

[GOANET] Condolences: Aloysius and Deepika

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Our sincere condolences to our Aloysius and Deepika, our regular posters
on GoaNet, on the loss of Hazel, Aloysius's wife and Deepika's mum. We
never met Hazel, but seeing the care and concern in this father-daughter
duo it's more than obvious that she was a great wife and mother.

Burma-returned Aloysius has been active on GoaNet, SaligaoNet and a number
of other Goa-related fora. Deepika, for the few who might not know them,
is a Mumbai-based social activist who has taken up a wide range of
concerns dealing with the environment, the law and the rights of the
marginalised. She represents the younger generation of Goan women, who
fought in a patriarchial society to get their voices heard and contribute
in equal measure as (and often, in greater measure than) their menfolk.

May both of these fine people have the courage to bear the loss of their
dear one, knowing that their work is not going unappreciated! FN

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[GOANET] NEWS: Christian separatist group in Tripura target tribal Hindus

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Christian separatist group in Tripura target tribal Hindus

By Syed Zarir Hussain, Indo-Asian News Service

Guwahati, Dec 31 (IANS) Tribal Hindu villagers in India's northeastern state
of Tripura Tuesday vowed to fight back alleged extortion demands by a
Christian separatist group, community leaders said.

Militants of the outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) have
served extortion notices to hundreds of Hindu tribal villagers and
threatened to kill them if they don't pay up soon.

"The notes were served only to Hindu villagers with warnings of capital
punishment to those who violated the diktat," Aswathama Jamatia, head priest
of Jamatia Hoda, an influential tribal Hindu group, told IANS by telephone.

The NLFT, fighting for an independent tribal homeland, is a predominantly
Christian group.

Police have confirmed the extortion demands to Hindu villagers in Tripura.

"We have received some complaints in this regard," said a police official in
Tripura's state capital Agartala.

Community leaders say the NLFT was demanding three percent of the annual
earnings of all government employees as tax, besides charging between Rs.
2,000 and Rs 5,000 from farmers and other businessmen.

Villagers in remote areas have formed vigilante groups to foil the NLFT's
extortion drive.

"People armed with sticks and other crude weapons, including bows and
arrows, patrol vulnerable villages to scare militants who come for extorting
money," said Rampada Jamatia, secretary of Jamatia Hoda. "At no cost are we
going to pay the militants."

Tribal Hindus account for 22 percent of Tripura's 3.2 million people.
Christians are just about eight percent of the state's total population.

Tribal Hindu groups say the NLFT has been converting people to Christianity
at gunpoint.

"We believe up to 5,000 tribal villagers were coerced into converting to
Christianity by the NLFT during the past couple of years," the head priest
said.

Community chiefs and religious heads of 19 tribes, who met recently, formed
a platform called the Tribal Culture Protection Committee to counter the
perceived militant threat.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) ruled government in Tripura has
accused the church of boosting secessionist campaigns in the state.

Police in Tripura in 2002 arrested 10 church leaders on charges of colluding
with separatists in the killing of some CPI-M members.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, however, said his government does not
have "hard evidence" of the Christian missionaries' nexus with rebel groups.

"The fact remains that militant groups have been targeting government
schools and non-Christian people, while institutions run by missionaries are
never touched," he said.

"We want the Christian missionaries to make their stand clear and help us
fight militancy for the greater interest of the state."

Church leaders have denied the allegations.

"In fact, a number of our priests and missionaries have been the target of
attacks by unidentified miscreants over the past couple of years," said Jong
Bahadur Debbarma, a church leader.

"Instead of just accusing the church of having nexus with militants, the
Indian government should initiate a probe and punish the guilty."

The genesis of insurgency in Tripura can be traced back to the massive
influx of Bengali-speaking refugees when East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, was
created during India's partition in 1947.

The indigenous tribal people, who accounted for 95 percent of the Tripura
population in the 1931 census, are now just 30 percent.

More than 10,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in Tripura
during the past two decades.

--Indo-Asian News Service


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[GOANET] Panaji...

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Actually, Panaji (with the second 'a' silent, as it is pronounced) is
rather close to the Portuguese term Pangim (with the 'm' almost
silent). Panjim, preferred by English-language speakers, seems to be of
uncertain origins. If we want to go forward via the past, shouldn't we
all think about the locally more-authentic 'Ponjje'?  FN

> --__--__--
> 
> Message: 4
> From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 2:44:15 -0500
> Subject: [GOANET] Re: referendum for panjim
> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> 
> Dear Goan Brothers & Sisters,
> 
> This "PANAJI" sounds more like "BHAJI".  Maybe it's time for all Goans
> to write to their MLA's that "PANAJI" should be cast to the rubbish bin
> for the original and beautiful sounding name we always had and remember
> about - PANJIM.
> 
> Let us all strive to keep all these "JI'S" sounding names out of
> GOA.  If not GOA may soon be called 'GOAJI".  Now you know what that
> means.  The death of GOA!!
> 
> VIVA GOA! VIVA THE INDEPENDENCE OF GOA!!
> 
> GOA FOR GOANS FIRST.  
> 
> Ivor (Samora).  

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[GOANET] NEWS: India may grant dual citizenship for people of Indian origin

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India may grant dual citizenship for people of Indian origin

>From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Jan 3 (IANS) India is getting ready to grant dual citizenship to
persons of Indian origin (PIOs) in select countries ahead of a global
diaspora meet here next week.

"The granting of dual citizenship has reached an advance stage of discussion
and we have reached a final decision," J.C. Sharma, a secretary in the
external affairs ministry, told reporters here Friday.

He said Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had in "principal
accepted this aspect".

"The discussions are going on at the highest levels of the Indian
government," Sharma said.

He hinted that an announcement granting dual citizenship to some 20 million
PIOs scattered across the world would be made at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
or diaspora day, which will be held here January 9-1.

Some 1,200 people from some 60 countries will attend the meet.

The proposal for granting dual nationality was recommended by a high-level
committee headed by L.M. Singhvi, a former Indian envoy to Britain. The
panel had proposed a $400-fee for the dual citizenship.

The proposal was made after an earlier government scheme to issue PIO cards
for $1,000 to facilitate hassle-free visas found few takers.

While the law ministry thinks that granting dual nationality would entail
amending the constitution, the home ministry has voiced concerns about
security implications of such a move.

The diaspora day meet coincides with the anniversary of the return of
Mahatma Gandhi to India on January 9, 1915, after almost two decades in
South Africa. It is aimed at recognizing the contribution of the Indian
diaspora in political, social, academic and cultural fields.

Mauritius Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth will deliver a special address at
the opening ceremony. Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Pal Chaudhury,
Malaysian Works Minister S. Samy Vellu and a number of prominent NRIs and
PIOs will attend the meeting.

They include Nobel laureates Amartya Sen and V.S. Naipaul, Lord Bhikhu
Parekh of Britain and Deepak Jain, dean of the Kellogg School of Management.

>From India, the participants will include politicians, businesspersons,
bureaucrats and leaders in various fields. Prime Minister Vajpayee will open
the conference.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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[GOANET] NEWS-GULF: 40,000 Indians expect to use UAE amnesty

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40,000 Indians expected to use UAE amnesty

>From Indo-Asian News Service

Dubai, Jan 3 (IANS) Nearly 40,000 Indians are expected to avail themselves
of an amnesty for illegal immigrants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from
January 1, but the rush is yet to pick up.

Indian officials told IANS their embassy was yet to see a rush of Indian
workers seeking emergency certificates (ECs), as this is a holiday period
locally, and the mass migration is expected to begin next week.

About 35,000 to 40,000 Indians residing illegally in the UAE are expected to
exit the country during the four-month amnesty period. A similar amnesty in
1996 saw an exodus of 50,000 Indians.

The UAE has announced the long-awaited amnesty for illegal immigrants, which
will allow them to leave the country without facing punishment or fine. The
amnesty began on January 1 and will conclude on April 30.

The Indian consulate in Dubai has extended its working hours to expedite the
process of issuing ECs and travel permits, facilitating the exodus.

Indian Consul General George Joseph said the consulate had received over
3,000 applications for ECs -- a one-time, one-way passport for people who
have no valid documents to authenticate their identity as Indians -- and
travel permits.

He said as it takes time to process applications, it was in the best
interest of Indians who have no valid proof of their identity to apply as
fast as possible.

The consulate has teamed up with Indian welfare associations throughout the
emirates to set up mini-missions or centres from where EC and travel permit
applications can be forwarded to the consulate.

The consulate as well as the Indian embassy will issue standard
computer-generated ECs, cutting down on the time-consuming and cumbersome
procedures that were involved earlier.

Indian Airlines and Air-India have also set up their counters within the
premises of the Indian consulate in Dubai to offer concessional airfares to
those seeking amnesty.

At least 300,000 illegal immigrants are expected to leave the UAE under the
second amnesty to have been officially declared since 1996. In 1996, about
200,000 illegal immigrants left under the amnesty, which continued for six
months.

The amnesty seekers belong to three categories -- those who have overstayed,
those absconding from sponsors and those who have entered the country
illegally.

The UAE will out phasing out a total of 240,000 private sector workers, who
do not have proper educational qualifications, by focusing on labour and
recruitment policies, reports said.

Illiterate and under-qualified workers form 13.9 percent of the current
expatriate workforce.

Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (AGCC) states are working hard to cut their
dependence on expatriates through jobs-for-nationals programmes but will
have to continue relying on foreign workers for the next one or two decades.

The AGCC states now have a combined population of around 27 million, of
which expatriates account for 35 percent, with a high of around 75 percent
in the UAE and Qatar.

Bahrain has about 30 percent expatriates, while they account for 56 percent
in Kuwait and 27 percent each in Oman and Saudi Arabia.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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[GOANET] NEWS: Goa may get India's first Skybus network

2003-01-02 Thread Frederick Noronha

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Goa may get India's first Skybus network

>From Indo-Asian News Service

Mumbai, Jan 2 (IANS) India's first Skybus project, involving buses on rails
hanging above the ground, may go on stream in one of India's hottest tourist
destinations, Goa.

This was announced Thursday by the Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL)
which is promoting the over Rs.3.5 billion project.

The project will be funded by the central government. Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee gave it the nod during his vacation in Goa this week, KPCL
said in a statement.

The first phase of the project would see state capital Panaji connected with
the commercial town of Mapusa, 12 km away. In the next phase, Panaji would
be connected with the posh Dona Paula neighbourhood, a distance of seven
kilometres.

"The concept, developed by the Konkan Railway Corporation, is an interesting
and innovative approach to deal with the challenges of urban mass
transportation," Vajpayee said in a statement released by KRCL.

This concept should be implemented on a pilot basis on a small scale, said a
statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office and quoted by KRCL.

"I endorse this view," Vajpayee said, adding: "The state government wishes
that Goa be considered for the experimental project".

The Skybus is installed hanging on rails, which are placed nearly two meters
from the ground. The infrastructure for the Skybus would be installed over
road dividers on existing roads, as a result of which no land acquisition is
required.

Supporters of the project say traffic on these roads would not be disturbed.
The coaches would be air-conditioned and would have automatic sliding doors.
The stations would be located eight metres above the ground and can be
accessed by stairs and elevators.

According to sources, the distance between stations would be small to
increase accessibility. There would be buses every two minutes and the
operations would be handled from a control room.

The Skybus would travel at an average speed of 45 km an hour. Each bus would
carry around 125 passengers. An average fare of 15 paise per km has been
calculated at present rates.

Freight transport has been proposed at night when passengers are fewer.

According to KRCL officials, the central government has cleared the Skybus
proposal for implementation in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore,
Pune, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

But governments in states like Maharashtra are keen on having an underground
railway system for big cities like Mumbai along the lines of the Delhi
Metro, which was inaugurated last month.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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[GOANET] NEWS-DUBAI: NRI slams Indian panel's tax reform suggestion on NORstatus

2003-01-01 Thread Frederick Noronha

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NRI slams Indian panel's tax reform suggestion on NOR status

>From Indo-Asian News Service

Dubai, Jan 2 (IANS) A prominent expatriate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
has warned that remittances from non-resident Indians (NRIs) may be hit if
the suggestions of a panel to impose tax on Non-Ordinary Resident (NOR)
Indians is accepted.

Bharatbhai Shah, a businessman and social worker, says the suggestions of an
Indian government-appointed panel to do away with NOR status for NRIs will
discourage remittances and investment back home.

The committee, which submitted its report on December 27, has suggested a
slew of radical measures including lowering of corporate and personal tax
with an aim to rationalise the tax structure and boost government revenue.

The recommendations of the panel, headed by Vijay Kelkar, an adviser to the
finance ministry, was set up six months ago to prepare a roadmap for
initiating sweeping reforms in the complex Indian taxation structure.

According to Shah, NOR status has been beneficial to both NRIs and India as
it encourages returning expatriates to bring all their savings back.

"The NOR status has been a positive policy initiative that has always
encouraged NRI investors to participate in the development of India,
something seen by the unexpected success of the Resurgent India Bond and the
Millennium Deposit Fund to which NRIs contributed over $12 billion," Shah
told IANS.

"The removal of NOR status will be detrimental to the interest of NRIs who
may, due to some unforeseen circumstances, become resident (by staying more
than 183 days a year in India), if the Kelkar committee recommendations are
implemented," he pointed out.

Shah said many NRIs would be forced to keep their funds outside India, while
some would not even declare their funds in India.

It would also deter NRIs from making further investments in industry and
business in the country and may lead to the withdrawal of technically
qualified and competent NRI professionals from assignments in India.

Shah says some of the inconveniences NRIs would have to face if NOR status
was removed include losing the right to be exempted from income tax in
respect of their non-resident external rupee account and foreign currency
non-resident account deposits.

Such deposits would have to be converted to Indian rupees under the existing
rules of the Reserve Bank of India.

He added that the move would also have an impact on the Overseas Corporate
Body (OCB) owned and controlled by NRIs as members would be treated at par
with companies resident in India.

The NRIs would also lose the benefits they derive from holding, owning,
possessing or transferring foreign exchange, foreign security or immovable
property situated outside India, Shah said.

There would be also a setback to investments that NRIs and OCBs do on a
repatriable basis. The benefits of remittance of income on non-repatriable
investments, which NRI and OCBs are entitled to, would also not be available
to them, he added.

But prominent non-resident Indians in the UAE have welcomed the Kelkar panel
report for its bold approach to taxation reforms.

B.R. Shetty, vice chairman and managing director of New Medical Centre
Group, said the recommendation to bring the agricultural income of
non-agriculturists under the tax bracket would certainly reduce frivolous
agriculturists.

He said another welcome recommendation was the identification of issues on
taxation of non-residents.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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[GOANET] EXPATS-KERALA: Expat issues to be taken up with Delhi

2003-01-01 Thread Frederick Noronha

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Kerala to take up expatriate issues with New Delhi

By Sanu George, Indo-Asian News Service

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 1 (IANS) Kerala is taking up issues related to its
non-residents in right earnest, alarmed at reports that a large number of
expatriates will return from the Middle East this year.

Chief Minister A.K. Antony said this here Wednesday after the cabinet
decided to appoint a five-member ministerial committee to start talks with
New Delhi and the Middle East where most of Kerala's expatriate population
is settled.

Reports that nearly 25,000 Keralites are likely to return from the United
Arab Emirates (UAE) before April this year have alarmed the government.

"The urgent attention is due to news reports that there will be a mass
exodus from the UAE soon. Close to 25,000 Keralites are likely to return to
the state, following an amnesty that is being extended to all people
residing there without proper documents," said Antony.

"The five-member ministerial delegation will soon start talks with all
concerned within India and outside." The state Minister for Non-Resident
Affairs M.M. Hassan will head the team.

Reports indicate that the government is also mulling having a panel of
leading lawyers with experience in international labour laws in case
Keralits who have to leave the Middle East have a problem in realising wage
arrears.

Among other issues that will be taken up by the committee with the federal
government is a probable reduction of airline fares for those who cannot
afford air tickets up to Mumbai from the Gulf on their way to Kerala.

The committee is also expected to have discussions with the railway ministry
to make arrangements for returnees from Mumbai to Kerala on special trains.

Separate cells are also expected at the three international airports in
Kozhikode, Kochi and this capital city with more counters to handle the
sudden rush.

Every year the state receives close to Rs.35 million from the nearly 1.6
million non-resident Keralites, mostly settled in the Middle East.

The number of Keralites in the UAE is estimated to be around 500,000.

Antony also plans to take up recommendations of the Kelkar Committee on the
imposition of tax on non-resident Indians (NRIs).

"This is like killing the duck that lays the golden egg. At no cost are we
going to allow this because then the entire state economy would crumble,"
said Antony.

"But that does not mean that we are going to oppose all the recommendations
of the Kelkar Committee.  All those which are detrimental to the interests
of the state like the tax on NRIs will be strongly opposed."

--Indo-Asian News Service

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[GOANET] NEWS: 2300 images of a deity to mark the New Year

2003-01-01 Thread Frederick Noronha

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2003 images of a deity to mark the New Year

>From Frederick Noronha

PANJIM, Jan 1:  Thousands entered the New Year in the tourist-destination
of Goa by bursting colourful midnight fireworks. But Raviraj Naik spent
hours prior to the event piecing together an unusual work of art to the
deity he adores.

This 21-year-old electronics student from the North Goa town of Mapusa,
eight kms from here, put together a computer-art painting with some 2003
images of Ganesh, the god of good enterprise and one of the most popular
deities of western India.

Using the computer and tricks of digital art, the Goan student welded
together 2003 images of the deity "using software like Photoshop and
PaintShop Pro", he told IANS here.

"It took me 10 hours and 10 minutes to do this," says he.

In actual size, the image is 40 inches x 40 inches.

Naik is a devotee of Ganesh, and has been in the news earlier for unusual
artistic work related to his favourite deity. He is an avid devotee of
Ganesh, and has used media such as canvas, oil paint, plain paper, digital
tools, insense sticks, stone, and clay for portraying his favourite subject.

Recently, he displayed how even junked CDs (compact discs) could be used to
carve out images of Lord Ganesh. Some time back he put 65 small and
scattered images of Ganapati tightly fitting into each other, to create a
larger one. 

Now, with the new year 2003, he hopes his new achievement would take him to
the record books.

Lord Ganesh, or Ganesha, is also the god of practical wisdom, the remover of
obstacles and the god of scribes invoked at the beginning of books. Some
will place offerings near his statue before setting off on a journey,
opening a new business or undertaking wedding negotiations. 

Some of his work is visible at www.jaishreeganesh.org.  (GoaNet)

CopyLeft FN 2003. May be reproduced provided entire text is kept intact.

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[GOANET] Foreign exchange... Central grants...

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Without getting caught into the debate below, I'd like to point to some
inconsistencies in arguments put forward:

* Foreign exchange earnings are a notional concept. If Goa earns foreign
  which goes to New Delhi, it does not necessarily mean that Goa is/was
  being bled by the latter. After all, foreign exchange only allows one
  to decide priorities on what such (once-scarce) foreign-currency 
  resources should be used for, internationally. It is not 
  the equivalent of actual earnings.

  Take the case of mining -- it brought in a lot of 'foreign exchange' for
  Goa, which then went to Delhi's common kitty. This does not mean that
  the money itself was taken away -- it stayed in the pockets of
  private mine-owners in Goa. Only that, the Yen, D-Mark, Dollars or
  whatever went to Delhi, and the private mineowners got rupees instead.
  (The environment got nothing..., but that is another matter completely
  being overlooked by this emotive debate. Whether mining-workers gained
  or lost, and whether local communities paid the price by way of 
  increased TB, etc is an issue that neither side of the 1961-gap
  seems to be focussing on... From a Goa perspective, these are critical
  issues.)

  Same is the case with tourism or expat remittances (while the
  positive benefits of this is clear, there are arguable also some
  negative fallouts -- the dependency syndrome, inflation... probably
  one of the factors in making Goa one of the costliest states in India).

* There are other issues which need to be better understood.
  Understanding shrouded-in-mystery state finances are a complex
  affair. Just because the Centre repeatedly pointed to the
  grants it gave Goa, does not mean that it was actually subsidising
  the existance of post-1961 Goa. Colonial Portugal too made similar
  claims (that retaining Goa was costing them money), but fought
  tooth-and-nail to stay on.

  What about the fact that the decision to have an over-bloated
  bureaucracy seems to have got the political support from 
  governments both at Delhi and Goa? Or that political
  corruption has been tolerated for long years? Or the reality
  that even under colonial rule, Goa's per capita income (of course,
  a misleading figure in itself) was significantly higher than that
  of neighbouring states or of most other regions? Today, Goa is
  staying afloat economically with a hugh debt burden.  Liquor is also
  a major source of revenue for the government. A closer study of
  how-the-rupee-comes and how-the-rupee-goes from the state exchequer
  (assuming this reflects a realistic picture) would give a deeper
  insight.

Once we decide which side of the debate we are on, it's convenient perhaps
to find suitable arguments to back our stand. But these are not
necessarily an accurate reflection of reality. Terms like 'invasion' and
even 'Liberation' tend to have emotive overtones. Perhaps the question we
need to be asking is how Portuguese colonialism and post-1961 change have
affected Goa and her people (not just *us*, but all sections). It's
not as one-sided as made out to be. This is a complex,
yet-to-be-understood balance sheet that needs to be drawn up. This is a
difficult task; not simply because different segments got affected in
disparate ways, but they also *feel* and *believe* that they got affected
in diverse ways. 

Other viewpoints/corrections to the above welcome. FN 


> --__--__--
> 
> Message: 5
> From: "Nagesh Bhatcar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Goa has certainly been one of the big contributors to India's Foreign
> Exchange, due to a lot of remittances from overseas. However, there are
> a lot of misconceptions about the revenue generation from Goa and its
> industries. In the 80s when Goa was on the verge of getting a statehood,
> the biggest problem for the Central Government was to see how Goa could
> survive by generating its own revenue. I had met the Dy. Director of
> Accounts just before Goa's statehood and he told me that of the entire
> Goan budget of 100 crores, 80 crores used to come from the Centre! 80%
> of the money had to come from Delhi, because Goa did not have the
> infrastructure to generate such revenues! This high percentage of
> funds allocation to Goa, was by virtue of its being a Union Territory!
> I know that at the time of granting the Statehood, some arrangement
> was worked out to provide Goa with the necessary cash.
> 
> I do not know what the present arrangements are between the Centre and
> the Goa Government. But, it would be wrong to infer that Goa is being
> ripped off by the rest of India!

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[GOANET] NEWS: Goan to the Gulf -- there's no easy road either way

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GOAN TO THE GULF: THERE'S NO EASY ROAD EITHER WAY

By Frederick Noronha

PANJIM, Dec 31: From the time they leave home, to getting education for
their children, and catching a flights home (and even in times of the
occasional case of shipping a dead body back) Goa's Gulf-based expats have
to put up with a number of difficulties.

"(We have taken up these issues repeatedly in recent years) but not much
could be achieved due to the frequent changes in the Government of Goa over
the last several years," said Alex Wilson Coelho and Rabindra Pimenta, two
Gulf-based expats who highlighted the emigrant community's woes here.

Their appeal came during the recently-held Overseas' Goan Convention. A
detailed listing of the Gulf Goans' grievances was put up by them on behalf
of the Goan Welfare Society in Kuwait (www.goa-world.net/gws/)

Some issues raised include:

PROFESSIONAL SEATS: Access to seats for NRI Goans in professional colleges
has long been sought. Domicile rules -- meant to protect the interest of
locals -- seem to be cutting into the interest of those who migrate from
Goa, a state with a high level of out-migration.

Expats say they are willing to pay the higher fees for the same. In any
case, they point out, some expat parents are paying high amounts for seats
in nearby Karnataka, and would not mind coping with the more reasonable
fees-structure for non-aided professional colleges in India itself.

Ironically, engineering education in Goa has expanded vastly in recent
years; and there are now three degree engineering colleges as against the
earlier one. 

(Educators fear they would run short of students, even as an industrial
group is planning to open another 600-seat engineering college -- admission
on an all-India basis, with some 10% promised to Goans. But it is not clear
whether there are domicile, and other roadblocks, which stop NRI Goan
students from taking up such seats.)

But the seats should be open to students passing out of the CBSE Board, they
Gulf-based expats say. In addition, they point out that degrees of the Goa
University are "not being recognised" by educational institutions in Kuwait
and other Gulf countries.

FLYING BACK: Expats also want that the Gulf-Goa route be thrown open to
other airlines, apart from Indian-Airlines or Air-India, which have only a
limited number of flights each week and are seen by them as charging
passengers on this route exorbitant fees.

Said the Goa Welfare Society memorandum, a copy of was made available here:
"A time has come when other airlines, such as Kuwait Airways, Gulf Air,
Emirates Airlines, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines Airlines,
etc, should be given the option to operate their flights directly to Goa."

Expats voiced concern over the location of a new airport at Mopa, in an
extreme corner of remote northern Goa's Pernem taluka. This, they said, was
unfortunate as a "majority of Goans in the Gulf hail from the south of Goa
and quite a large hail from the central part of Goa, leaving those of the
extreme north to a very small number".

They argued that out of over 150,000 Goans living in the entire Gulf region
-- Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Iraq and Iran -- some
"ninety percent" come from south and central Goa. 

"Needless to say, a huge number of Goans will be subjected to undue
suffering if the present airport is shifted to Mopa. Dabolim airport has
been servicing the needs of the entire population for several decades, and
hence there is absolutely no need to shift the same to any other place,"
argues the petition.

On the issue of transporting bodies of those who die abroad, the Goan
Welfare Society pressed for the Goa government to provide free
transportation of human remains through Air India and Indian Airlines. 

This should be done, they contended, "in consideration of the economic
growth of the state of Goa through the foreign remittances of savings of the
Gulf Goans".

FACILITIES SOUGHT: The Gulf-based expats asked the Goa government for an
allocation of suitable land to build their own NRI City "with full-fledged
infrastructure without any hindrance to the Government of Goa".

They sought a social security fund for those returning, a group
life-insurance for NRI Goans, and better attempts to maintain detailed
records of countrywide expat Goans scattered across the globe. This could be
done through Indian missions abroad, they suggested.

Also mooted was an NRI Goans Forum -- to deal with the needs of the tens of
thousands settled abroad from this region that has been emigration-prone for
many decades, if not centuries. For this purpose, a special cell needs be
opened with some N

[GOANET] NEWS: Hindutva is secularism, says Vajpayee in his musings

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Hindutva is secularism, says Vajpayee in his musings

>From Indo-Asian News Service

Panaji, Dec 31 (IANS) Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Tuesday
defended and broadened the political concept of "Hindutva", saying it was
not "antithetical" to secularism.

In his annual musings, issued from idyllic Goa where he is holidaying to
mark the advent of 2003, Vajpayee also asserted that Pakistan's efforts at
breaking Jammu and Kashmir from India were doomed to failure.

But his 2,200-word statement sought to emphasize the organic link between
Hindutva - which critics say is synonymous with Hindu supremacy - and
secularism, a constitutional part and parcel of India.

"Secularism is pitted against Hindutva, under the belief that the two are
antithetical to one another," he said. "This is incorrect and untenable.

"Secularism is a concept of the state, enjoining upon it the duty to show
respect for all faiths and to practise no discrimination among citizens on
the basis of their beliefs," he pointed out.

"In this sense, India has been secular since the beginning of her known
history. We chose to remain wedded to secularism even when Pakistan was
carved out on the basis of the spurious and communal two-nation theory. This
could not have been possible if the majority of Indians were not secular."

"On the other hand," he said, "Hindutva, which presents a 'viraat darshan'
(broad, all-encompassing view) of human life, is being projected by some
people in a narrow, rigid and extremist manner - an unfortunate and
unacceptable interpretation that runs totally contrary to its true spirit.

"Hindutva is an integral understanding of the entire Creation, showing the
way both to the Here and the Hereafter. It emphasizes the inseparable
relationship between the individual and society, as well as between man's
material and spiritual needs. Hindutva is liberal, liberating and brooks no
ill will, hatred or violence among different communities on any ground."

Critics of Hindu groups such as the Rashtraiya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the
ideological mentor of Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), say Hindutva
is a rightwing concept that underlines the supremacy of the Hindu religion
over all others in multi-religious India.

Vajpayee challenged such a definition.

"We need to affirm and promote that true understanding of Hindutva which is
forward-looking, not one that seeks to take us back; that which makes us
capable of meeting the challenges of the modern world, not one that is stuck
in the grooves of the past; that which is reform-minded, and not one that
protects obscurantism and injustice, against which all the reformers of the
past have fought.

"If understood and practised in this enlightened sense, which is how Swami
Vivekananda (the early 20th philosopher-saint) and other great patriots
propounded it, the current controversy over Hindutva will be seen as wholly
unnecessary.

"There is no difference between such Hindutva and
'Bharateeyata'(Indianness), since both are expressions of the same 'chintan'
(thought). Both affirm that India belongs to all, and all belong to India.

"It means that all Indians have equal rights and equal responsibilities. It
entails recognition of our common national culture, which is enriched by all
the diverse religious and non-religious traditions in India."

Vajpayee utilized the opportunity to hit out at Pakistan for "targeting
India with terrorism, inspired by religious extremism.

"Innocent children, women and men are being routinely killed, temples are
stormed, our symbols of democracy are attacked, and our security forces are
challenged - all in the name of a 'holy religious war' and 'freedom
struggle'.  This campaign of jehadi terrorism, too, is doomed to fail."

He added: "I am convinced that some day - hopefully soon - the people and
rulers of Pakistan will realize the futile and counter-productive nature of
its Kashmir policy."

Vajpayee called upon Pakistan to "stop cross-border terrorism and abandon
its insistence on the 'centrality' of the Kashmir issue. Let our two
countries agree to promote mutually beneficial trade and economic ties,
strengthen cultural relations, and encourage greater people-to-people
contacts.

"Once our two peoples experience the fruits of a tension-free and
cooperative environment, we will be able to see the Kashmir issue in its
proper dimension and arrive at an amicable and lasting solution."

The prime minister also dwelt on the achievements and plans for the future
of his multi-party coalition government that took power in 1998 and stormed
back to power the next year again.

He said his government was engaged in a "Connectivity Revolution", which
covered rail and air transport, the telecom sector, Internet and IT, the
country's numerous rive

[GOANET] NEWS: Vajpayee's presence keeps Gujarati new year revellers off Goa

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Vajpayee's presence keeps Gujarati New Year revellers off Goa

By Sukrat Desai, Indo-Asian News Service

Ahmedabad, Dec 31 (IANS) The tight security in balmy Goa, where Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is ringing in the New Year, has prompted many
Gujaratis to cancel their customary yearend celebrations in the tiny coastal
state.

Hundreds of affluent Gujaratis as well as their relatives and friends in
Mumbai go to Goa every year for joint New Year celebrations, but the heavy
security on account of the prime minister's presence there has forced many
to change their plans this time.

Destinations in Gujarat and the adjoining coastal territories of Daman and
Diu have emerged as the favourite alternatives.

For instance, Mumbai resident Anosh Joshi is exploring the wild in Gujarat
this year on the invitation of his friend Jayesh Shah.

"Though Goa is usually our destination for New Year celebrations, this time,
considering the tight security, we had a change of mind," Shah said.

Added Joshi: "Jayesh invited me to spend New Year's eve with flamingos in
the Little Rann of Kutch. Being an avid bird watcher, this idea appealed to
me so much that I decided to stay away from alcohol and wild partying and
preferred the serene company of birds."

Suketu Thakkar, another Mumbai resident, will be welcoming the New Year in
picturesque Diu, a federally administered territory off the Saurashtra
coast, along with his Gujarati friend.

"My friend Himanshu Vyas invited me to Gujarat. He was concerned about the
tight security measures on the prime minister's visit to Goa and told me
that it might play spoilsport," Thakkar told IANS.

Said Vyas: "I told Thakkar that Goa would be an expensive affair. As it is
it gets costlier on New Year's eve. I suggested Diu because it is cheaper as
far as accommodation, food and alcohol are concerned."

Thakkar jumped at the suggestion. "I was excited about Diu as I heard it was
like Goa, with sprawling beaches and cheap alcohol."

Some also headed for Daman, another tiny federally administered territory
bordering south Gujarat.

Mumbai resident Dinesh Lakhtaria will be in Daman on the invitation of his
business partner Sameer Nayak.

"Alcohol is cheap and the beaches are also on the lines of Goa in Daman. So
why waste money when there are chances of the prime minister's visit playing
spoilsport in Goa?" said Lakhtaria.

Vajpayee and his family are spending their yearend vacation on a pristine
beach in south Goa. Other top personalities like Deputy Prime Minister L.K.
Advani are also ringing in the New Year in Goa, sending the local security
apparatus into a tizzy.

Ahead of the yearend holidays, Israel had warned that its citizens
vacationing in Goa for the New Year might become the targets of a terrorist
attacks.

According to reports, the presence of VIPs and the threat perception has
meant constant patrolling of Goa's golden beaches by security personnel and
armed cops and frequent frisking of vacationers, somewhat dampening the
holiday mood.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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[GOANET] NEWS-DELHI: Over 1200 delegates to attend diaspora meet

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Over 1,200 delegates to attend diaspora meet

>From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Dec 30 (IANS) The prime minister of Mauritius, a former prime
minister of Fiji and a Malysian cabinet minister are among the 1,200 people
of Indian origin (PIOs) and non-resident Indians (NRIs) who will attend the
first-ever meeting of the Indian diaspora here January 9-11.

The external affairs ministry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (FICCI) -- organisers of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, or
Diaspora Day -- said Monday that they expected the number of participants to
go up substantially before the meeting, described as the "largest gathering
of the global Indian family".

The meeting coincides with the anniversary of the return of Mahatma Gandhi
to India on January 9, 1915, after almost two decades in South Africa and is
aimed at recognising the contribution of the Indian diaspora in the
political, social, academic and cultural fields.

Mauritius Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth will deliver a special address at
the opening ceremony. Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Pal Chaudhury,
Malyasian Works Minister S. Samy Vellu and a number of prominent NRIs and
PIOs will attend the meeting.

They include Nobel laureates Amartya Sen and V.S. Naipaul, Lord Bhikhu
Parekh of Britain and Deepak Jain, dean of the Kellogg School of Management.

>From India, the participants in the meeting, to be inaugurated by Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, will include politicians, businesspersons,
bureaucrats and leaders in various fields.

"The inspiration behind Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is to foster the bond
between Indians worldwide, provide all people of Indian origin with the
opportunity to renew ties with their ancestral land and build up new
alliances and explore new avenues of cooperation," FICCI secretary general
Amit Mitra said.

"It will further encourage and increase the share of foreign direct
investment of our diaspora, resulting in a beneficial and interactive impact
on the Indian economy as has happened in the case of China," he added.

The three-day meet will include discussions on topics of interests to the
diaspora and a cultural fiesta representing India's vibrant heritage of
music culture and cinematic extravaganza.

The inaugural session will be marked by an invocation by two greats of
Indian music, sitar maestro Ravi Shankar and shehnai exponent Bismillah
Khan.

The focus of the plenary session on the opening day will be: "India and the
diaspora - forging a constructive relationship" and  "Science and
Technology."

On January 10, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani will interact with the
delegates. The plenary session on that day will cover "Culture, language,
literature, films and the diasporic identity," "Voluntary sector and
development: Diaspora and the emerging challenge in India's social
development - Role of Pravasi Bharatiyas," and "Science and technology-
networking for excellence".

On the final day, the meeting will discuss "Indian states, leveraging the
diaspora" and opportunities in defence and homeland security research and
development.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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[GOANET] NEWS-AP: India-Christmas

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NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Bittoo Kapoor, an accountant and devout
Hindu, never starts her day without lighting an incense stick and
offering prayers to her favorite Hindu deity.

But come December, Kapoor begins planning for Christmas -- buying
presents, baking cakes and planning parties.

"It doesn't matter if I'm a Hindu. Christmas stands for love,
affection, sharing, renewing family bonds. It's a festival for
everyone," Kapoor said as she shopped for tree decorations at New
Delhi's upscale Ansal Plaza mall.

In predominantly Hindu India, a rise in militant Hindu nationalism has
been matched by a growing enthusiasm for celebrating Christmas with
all the trimmings.

Equally surprising, perhaps, is that Hindu militants, who in recent
years have taken to opposing Christian missionaries and the church,
don't seem to bothered by the growing popularity of Christmas.

Not surprisingly, however, are the many echoes of complaints heard in
the West about Christmas becoming commercialized.

"The world over, the profound message of social justice symbolized by
the birth of Jesus Christ is being overtaken by consumerism. And that
is what you're getting to see here as well," Swami Agnivesh, a Hindu
theologian and social activist, said Friday.

As satellite television and free markets have opened India to outside
influences, the Christmas culture has rushed in.

With the approach of Bada Din, or "big day" as Christmas is called in
the Hindu language, shops fill with Christmas decorations, shiny
silver bells, stars and twinkling lights.

Shopworkers dress up in Santa costumes and beards, ringing bells to
draw in shoppers. Flower shops do brisk business with Christmas trees,
both real and fake, while perpetual Christmas favorites such as
"Jingle Bells" ring out in elevators and telephones.

"Every year the demand for trees goes up. Earlier, I'd get real pine
trees from the Himalayan foothills. Now we get these real-looking
trees from China," said Suresh Gupta, pointing to the neat row of
collapsible plastic trees outside his shop.

"Christmas, for me, is a festival like any Hindu festival. I do want
my son to get to know other traditions," said Kitty Tawakley, a New
Delhi resident, balancing armloads of Christmas gifts at the end of a
daylong shopping spree.

The popularity of Christmas does not extend to the religious themes
associated with the festival. It's only Christians who attend midnight
church services on Christmas Eve and nativity scenes can be seen only
in Christian institutions and churches.

Agnivesh, the theologian, doesn't think the rise of Christmas suggests
greater openness or tolerance. He ascribes it to the rise of the
Indian middle class.

"These very people will be out on the street tomorrow, forcing the
slogan of Hindutva (Hindu-ness) on us," he said.

Christians account for only 2.4 percent of India's 1 billion
population. Christians are the majority only in Nagaland and Mizoram,
two small states in India's remote northeast. Christians are a third
of the population in the southern states of Kerala and Goa.

Most Hindus dismiss apprehensions about nationalism by pointing to
India's centuries-old diversity of religions and sects, and the fact
that India has been officially and constitutionally secular since
gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

"Celebrating Christmas doesn't reduce my faith in Hinduism. If
anything, it makes us more generous, more loving to each other. That's
what I want my children to learn," Kapoor said.

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[GOANET] NEWS-GOA: Goa: A success story in uniform civil code

be retrogate step if Goa too were to give up 
uniformity in its personal laws which it now possseses.
 
 

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[GOANET] NEWS: PM... in Goa

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PM working on musings

Agencies/Panaji

As is his wont in the past, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is holidaying
here, is also working on "musings", similar to the ones he had penned at Kumarakom in
Kerala in 2000.

"The Prime Minister is not merely holidaying in Goa, he is also working on some
musings," PMO sources said Monday.

The sources said his writings would be released Tuesday.

Vajpayee arrived here Sunday on a four-day holiday to Goa.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=FLASH&file_name=cap2%2Etxt&counter_img=2

PM at Parashurams beachhead
FREDERICK NORONHA

Vajpayee
Panaji, Dec. 29: The Goa seafront Atal Bihari Vajpayee has chosen on his way down from
vacation spots among the mountains was also the destination of an arrow shot by
another Brahmin.

Benaulim, a former fishing village in southern Goa where the Prime Minister reached
today for a four-day holiday, is supposed to be the place where the arrow of the fiery
Parashuram considered an incarnation of Vishnu is supposed to have fallen, making
the coast recede.

The name Benaulim is believed to have been derived from bana (bow) and halli (the
Kannada-influenced word for village). The legend goes that Parashuram fought back the
Kshatriyas along the west coast and invited Brahmin settlers.

The last time Vajpayee had taken a vacation near waters was in 2000 in Keralas
backwater-ringed Kumarakom. He had then penned the famed Kumarakom Musings, through
which he sought to re-establish his secular credential after a series of ambiguous
statements.

Since then, he had picked Manali for his holidays. Vajpayees return to the south
coincides with another and more polarised round of debate about secularism in the
wake of the Gujarat poll results. It was not known whether the Prime Minister would
use the four days to pen more musings, but officials were quick to underscore that
there would not be any official engagements during the vacation.

The Prime Ministers touchdown also marks the beginning of a steady flow of VIPs to
Goa, despite an alert by Israeli intelligence of a possible terrorist strike during
the Christmas-New Year season.

Vajpayees deputy, L.K. Advani, is expected to follow on January 2. Besides, 20 other
Union ministers are also planning to visit Goa.

Vajpayee, who arrived at 1.20 pm, is scheduled to stay in the Taj Exotica hotel in
South Goa, a newer entrant in the tourism sector compared to North Goa. While the
north entered the global tourism arena in the sixties, the south started exploring its
tourism potential only as late as the eighties.

Some of these areas, particularly around Salcete and Canacona, are still sylvan and
palm-fringed. This contrasts starkly with the cluttered North Goa coast.

Delhi has projected the Prime Ministers visit to Goa as a boon for tourism. However,
residents are gearing up for New Year celebrations cramped by the heightened security
because of the high-profile visits.

Two companies of a Central paramilitary force have been brought in to enhance security
during Vajpayees four-day visit. Machine gun-toting policemen have been posted on
some beaches, while Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed at some popular tourist
locations.

The Goa government has said Vajpayees visit would send out the signal that things are
under control in the state.

On his arrival at the INS Hansa airport at Dabolim, Goas only airport, the Prime
Minister was greeted by the entire state Cabinet. He then took a helicopter to
Benaulim, which lies 15 km further south.

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[GOANET] Currency rates...

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This is the worth of the Indian rupee against international currencies as of
today: AED (UAE) 13.056440; AUD (Australia) 27.056211; BHD (Bahrain)
127.201592; BRL 13.565771; CHF (Switzerland) 34.428171; DEM (Germany)
25.583127; DKK (Danmark) 6.738092; ESP (Spain) 0.300724; EUR (Euro)
50.036247; FRF (France) 7.627977; GBP (UK) 76.900638; IQD (Iraq) 153.899230;
IRR (Iran) 0.006001; ITL (Italy) 0.025842; JOD (Jordan) 67.589852; JPY
(Japan) 0.400945; KES (Kenya) 0.616785; KWD (Kuwait) 160.010010; MOP
6.001952; NLG (Netherlands) 22.705459; NOK (Norway) 6.865229; NZD (New
Zealand) 24.998942; PKR (Pakistan) 0.824323; PTE (Portugal) 0.249580; QAR
(Qatar) 13.172641; RUB (Russia) 1.502679; SAR 12.787318; SEK (Sweden)
5.456873; SGD (Singapore) 27.642956; TZS (Tanzania) 0.049387; USD$ 47.955000
-
PS: Could someone help fill in the missing abbreviations? We at GoaNet 
need a volunteer to give regular updates on currency rates and other
financial updates... FN

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[GOANET] Mando Festival in Goa on Jan 4

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The 36th Mando Festival gets underway at the Kala Academy at 3.30 pm on
January 4, 2003. Some 15 groups are expected to take part. There will
senior and juniors and original and traditional categories. -FN


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[GOANET] BRIEfnCOUNTERS: Being prey to the corrupt... is not fun --Aires

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BEING PREY TO CORRUPT POLITICIANS AND BUREAUCRATS... IS NOT FUN: AIRES
--

Aires Rodrigues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> has long been a man of many roles.
Student leader, rabble-rouser, a youngster growing up in the confused
'seventies searching for a role in life, expat Goan, public-spirited lawyer,
the helpful soul... you could see in him one or more of these identities,
depending on which face of Rodrigues you've encountered.

One of the few Goan expats who actually returned back -- to live with all
the myriad of difficulties of a dysfunctional, far-from-efficient Third
World society -- Rodrigues was one of the key moving spirits behind trying
to network Goan expats in the late 'nineties.

Once seen as a supporter of the BJP when he was based in the UK, leading to
a whisper campaign that he was eyeing a career in politics, Rodrigues was
quick to change his stand on returning home and encountering the reality
more closely. 

In actual fact, he has emerged as one of the sharpest critics of the BJP
political agenda and chief minister Manohar Parrikar's stands and styles.
This is not common in a state where much dissent has simply been
incorporated, bought-over, silenced or side-lined -- in a process underway
since the corruption-fuelled days of the early 'nineties political
instability, but which has touched new highs in recent years.

So, his conspicuous absence from the 2002 Overseas Goan Convention on Sunday
didn't come as a big surprise. But perhaps this occasion could be a peg on
which to hang on a Q-and-A to gain an understanding of how he perceives
issues.

One may not agree with everything he suggests -- just imagine a
government-sponsored news service, even our so-called commercially-run press
in Goa has been largely unable to maintain a discreet distance and avoid
undue influences. But Rodrigues does have interesting viewpoints on other
issues. Excerpts from the interview:

--
Q: Please give us a little background of your role in campaigning for the
NRI department or facilitation centre?
--

Having lived overseas for years I was able to get to know the  problems
faced by overseas Goans.  After I returned to Goa, I helped to organise the
International Goan Conventions.

There has been a unanimous demand from the expats for a NRI Facilitation
Centre.  I have myself experienced the problems of keeping in touch with
Goan affairs and of re-establishing myself in Goa.  Being prey to corrupt
politicians and bureaucrats is not my concept of fun!

--
Q: What's your feeling of the direction in which Facilitation Centre is
taking? Is it going along the right road? 
--

It was hoped that this would be a Facilitation Centre and not a Felicitation
one.  There is no evidence of any progress made in the last twelve months. 
The centre should issue regular newsletters, by e-mail, to overseas Goans.

Knowledge of Goa is an essential pre-requisite to action.

--
Q: Why did you move out of it?
--

I could not be a Government tool and at the same time express my opinions
freely.  As a practicing lawyer, it inhibited my duty to speak out and take
action regarding impropriety.

--
Q: If you had a say, what direction would you have preferred that it take?
--

It would have been nice to see a NCI Facilitation Centre without any
political maneuvering.  The Centre should be an independent and powerful
body capable of moulding policies and influencing the Government.  Instead
we have lip service being paid to the needs of the NRIs.

--
Q: What prompted you to push for such a body, four years and more ago?
--

The cause of NRIs was apparent to me.  I was also aware of the successful
establishment of such centres in other parts of India.

--
Q: What was achieved since? Was the pace of work done okay? Why or why not?
--

Those managing th

[GOANET] NEWS: Give safety, good infrastructure, expats tell Goa govt

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Give us safety and good infrastructure, Goan expats tell govt

By Frederick Noronha

PANJIM, Dec 29: Goa wants to lure back expat interest in Goa, to bring in
investments and skills. But expats are telling the state to pull up its
socks and improve things, and deliver results instead of promises.

>From problems (and even fraud)  with banks, to threats to their ancestral
properties, and the growing urban chaos... expats had a lot to complain
about, as a one-day overseas Goan convention turned sharply critical of the
failure of governance in India's smallest state.

Sunday's gathering was the fourth annual event of its kind. It was smaller
than earlier years' gatherings, but organisers argued that this event was
qualitatively different in that it had the official state-government backing.

Earlier in the day, the limited number of expats -- mingling with a larger
crowd of officials and local participants in the Kala Academy Black Box --
heard out what was being offered to them. Banks, insurance companies and
other institutions made offers to attract expat interest.

Goa also offered to help those expats in need (specially less-affluent Gulf
workers) and harness the skills of those who have achieved education and a
wide range of professions abroad.

NRI Goa Facilitation Centre chairman and local 'Rashtramath' Marathi daily
editor Chandrakant Keni, remarked to this correspondent that chief minister
Manohar Parrikar had promised to actively promote the non-resident Goan
involvement in Goa. 

It was possible that the cell could grow into a corporation or some such
body, he suggested.

But expats voiced their concern over the way in which things were sliding,
and sharply voiced their need for a fair deal.

Panjim-based J.Silveira, who spent 33 years in Dubai, explained how he had
returned home in an emergency once, and the bank manager where his
fixed-deposits were kept had failed to give him a small loan against his
deposits.

"I asked the branch manager if he could lend me Rs 30,000 against my deposit
of Rs 250,000. He said there was no rule to do so," said Silveira. "This is
what we get as an NRI-reception from the ban. We don't want any favours or
special treatment (but just our due)."

He explained how the collapse of the rupee against the dollar meant that he
would be heavily penalised for an insurance policy which he had to pay for
in dollars, being an NRI.

He criticised former chief minister Luizinho Faleiro for not taking any
initiative over his proposal to invest in Goa. "I've been out (of Goa) for
33 years. We lost, lost and lost. In banking we have no respect, in LIC we
lose, and in the government, we have no respect either," he complained.

Vivian D'Souza, a US-returned expat based in Socorro, called himself a
victim of the 'bhailo' syndrome, where he was being treated as an
'outsider'.

To laughter and ire, he narrated how he tried to buy a scooter, for which he
needed a ration card, and on going to the panchayat and mamlatdar, he was
told he was a "bailo". Said Vivian: "I love Goa, this is my land."

"What is a ration card? I don't know what it is because they won't give it
to me. It seems like anything I do, I'll need a ration card," he commented. 

Wilson Coelho of Curtorim and the Kuwait-based Goan Welfare Society
suggested that the needs of the Gulf-based Goan was different from that of
Goans in the West. 

"We do need such assurances (like the newly unveiled group insurance
policies). Our (less-fortunate) brothers in the Gulf need safety," he said.
Coelho noted that the stay of Goans in the Gulf was temporary, and as long
as they held on to their jobs. 

"Once your job is gone, you need to pack your bag and baggage and come
home," he noted.

In a sharp presentation, he suggested that NRIs could build their own
township if the government helped them with getting land. 

Coelho criticised Indian Airlines for "monopolising" the Kuwait-Goa route
and over-charging. "It costs 212 Kuwaiti Dinars (nearly Rs 40,000) for the
four hour flight. For the Kuwait-Toronto flight, which is nearly 18 hours
long, it costs just 250KD," he added.

He suggested that Air-India, Kuwait Airways or Gulf Air or Emirates be
given slots to fly on the Gulf-Goa sector. "There are not less than 30,000
Goans in Kuwait alone," he said, indirectly questioning the earlier estimate
of cell officials that there are just about 70-100,000 people of Goan origin
settled globally.

"We don't want orations. We want action," he said.

Coelho argued that tourism needed a good communication infrastructure, good
roads, and somethi

[GOANET] NEWS-CONVENTION: Goans across the globe have diverse problems...

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GOANS ACROSS THE GLOBE HAVE DIVERSE PROBLEMS, IN VARYING SHAPE

>From Frederick Noronha

PANJIM, Dec 29: Like the blind men of Hindoostan, the authorities trying to
map out the problems and needs of Goa's expat communities are facing a tough
time in defining the problem. 

So, a voluntary group based in South Goa's Margao town, one of the focal
points of migration out of Goa, had some tips on what needs to be done.

>From unscrupulous recruitment agents, to harrowing experiences at the local
Passport Office, the sense of insecurity, difficulties with their properties
back home, road-blocks in setting up their businesses... these are just some
of the many problems that expat Goans face.

The South Goa Public Interest Action Group's president Terrence Mazarello
and program co-ordinator Godfrey J.I.Gonsalves made a detailed listing of
these problems in a memorandum handed over at Sunday's Overseas Goans
Convention.

Non-resident Indians of Goan origin are settled mainly in Africa, Australia,
Brazil, Canada, France, the city of Karachi, New Zealand, Portugal, the UK,
USA, UAE and among sea-farers traversing the globe's oceans, they noted.

"There is a Central law in place to regulate recruitment. Yet, unscrupulous
recruiting agents are successful in duping job seekers. The lengthy
litigation, often well beyond one's lifetime, (and) abetment of law
enforcing authorities, dissuade the hvictims from filing complaints," the
action group complained. 

This is particularly felt in the case of Gulf job seekers.

They pointed out that intending migrants face a 'harrowing experience' at
the Passport Office. Problems are caused due to requirements of multiple
documents, 'emigration-clearance required' status being erroneously stamped,
and insistence of employers' certificates even from private organisations.

"CDC (shipping) applicants have to run to the Director General of Shhipping
at Mumbai, time and again. Medicals are done in Mumbai alone. These could be
done in Goa now that we are full-fledged state," said the action group.

Besides, visa requirements are considered only at the respective consulates
in Mumbai. Due to the lack of a Protector of Emigrants Office in Goa,
intending migrants hhave to make a bee-line to Mumbai.

Laws granting Goa employees a lien on their job -- in case they wish to
migrate -- are not implemented in letter and spirit. 

Immigration is being tightened by many countries, but Goa lacks the power to
absorb jobseekers. After struggling to earn and save, NRIs wish to build up
assets in Goa or set up businesses, but this proves to be a difficult job
too.

SGPIAG pointed to teh "time-consuming running around" that NRIs have to do
for the partition of their property, mutation, sanad conversion, approval of
plans, conveyance, numerous affidavits, and the grant of powers of attorney.

"Falsified documents and unreliable title deeds, even after validation by
advocates, have resulted in several cases filed by NRIs in the consumer
forums against builders, for defective titles," the group reminded.

"Advocates, notaries, civil engineers, realtors, architects, evaluators,
surveyors, talathis, politicians -- there is no difference. Each one demands
his point of flesh, knowing fully well that thhe NRI's visit is
short-lived," said the action group.

It also detailed problems in expats setting up enterprises; hassles in
getting birth and death certificates; difficulty in getting admission or
coping with languages like Devanagari Konkani or Hindi; and even the fact
that the elderly are becoming vulnerable to crime in Goa.

"Dead bodies are disposed off abroad (in case expats die in harness). There
is no support service either from the Indian Embassy officials or
intervention to pursue compensation claims specially in cases of death under
mysterious circumstance," said theh action group. 

This action group pointed to problems faced in retrieving ancestral
property.

"Eviction of persons encraching on lands of absentee NRIs is a
time-consuming ordeal. Inventory proceedings are long drawn in the absence
of judges. Archaic legal procedures have frustrated NRIs and compelled them
to abandon ancestral land and house property, or sell them to builders or
non-Goans for a song," said the SGPIAG.

Much of Goa's emigration took place in the pre-1961 era when Goa was under
Portuguese colonial rule, or after the 1974 oil embargo, they said. (ENDS)

-

NEW DELHI SEEKS TO DRAW PARTICIPATION OF GOAN NRIs

>From Frederick Noronha

PANJIM, Dec 29: New Delhi is planning to host a meet of NRIs who trace their
origins to different parts of India from Jan 9-11, and the

[GOANET] A High-Tech Fix for One Corner of India

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Of course, some of these controversial politicians have the way of
becoming the darlings of the Western media. Anyway, here goes one
story...FN

A High-Tech Fix for One Corner of  India

An Indian politician has moved decisively to transform
Hyderabad into a computer programming and pharmaceuticals hub
that is trying to rival Bangalore.

[ Full story at...(requires free registration)... .ed ]  
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/27/technology/27RUPE.html?today
sheadlines

December 27, 2002

A High-Tech Fix for One Corner of India

By KEITH BRADSHER




HYDERABAD, India  Soon after N. Chandrababu Naidu became 
chief minister of the state of Andhra Pradesh in August 1995, he 
ordered that a partly built and abandoned government building here 
on the edge of the city be finished and turned into a college for 
computer software engineers.

Today, the building houses one of 300 institutions of higher learning 
in a state that graduates 65,000 engineers a year, compared with 
7,500 when Mr. Naidu took office. The institute is one example of 
how Mr. Naidu has moved decisively to transform Hyderabad from 
the quiet administrative center of an agricultural state into a 
computer programming and pharmaceuticals hub that is trying to 
rival Bangalore, nearly 300 miles to the south.

With a businesslike, long-term approach to public policy in a 
country long bedeviled by populists pursuing short-term fixes, Mr. 
Naidu, who is 52, has become the darling of Western governments 
and corporations.

He has emerged in their eyes as one of the most promising local 
leaders not just in India but in the developing world. Big 
international companies like Microsoft and Oracle have been setting 
up operations here in Hyderabad, even though Andhra Pradesh has 
long been one of the poorest states in India.

"It's only the last four or five years that this place is booming," said 
Maruvada V. Raman, the executive officer of the college, the 
International Institute of Information Technology. "These things 
might not have happened if someone else were in his place."

Mr. Naidu's successes have made him a hit for the last six years at 
World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, Switzerland, and 
elsewhere, where he has moderated panels and been praised as an 
example for other leaders of poor regions. His agreeing to appear is 
a breakthrough of sorts for the chief minister of an Indian state. 
Other chief ministers  whose responsibilities are similar to those 
of a governor of an American state  have avoided the event for 
fear of hurting populist credentials by hobnobbing with corporate 
leaders.

"They are all thinking, `We will get a negative image,' " Mr. Naidu 
said. "It is not true."

Mr. Naidu added, "If you do not meet business people and rich 
people, you will not get investment."

He has watched the success of Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, 
and tried to turn Hyderabad into sort of a Route 128 high-
technology region to match.

Andhra Pradesh has been developing so quickly that although rural 
areas in the state still have many problems, the departing Treasury 
secretary, Paul H. O'Neill, quipped in a visit here last month that the 
state no longer even seemed to need foreign aid. "I don't think he 
needs any help at all," Mr. O'Neill said. "I was really impressed with 
him and what he is doing."

That was an exaggeration. Hyderabad, home to about 6.6 million 
people, has become a green, prosperous hub for computer 
programming, telephone call centers and drug manufacturing. But 
most of the state's 76 million people still live in rural villages where 
change has been slow, and where a two-year drought has brought 
considerable suffering.

Andhra Pradesh is nonetheless becoming an international model for 
certain public policies. Some involve little details, like using 
automation to cut the time needed to get a new driver's license to 
two hours from two days, or quintupling the number of trees in 
Hyderabad to make it one of India's greenest, most livable cities.

Mr. Naidu has also been one of the first Indian politicians to tackle a 
problem that has effectively bankrupted most of the country's state 
governments: electricity subsidies. State politicians across India 
have long won elections by promising cheap electricity, a middle-
class subsidy in a country where the poor have no access to 
electricity at all.

Electricity has been kept so cheap in most of the country that it has 
been uneconomical to build new power plants or even maintain 
many power cables, resulting in frequent lengthy blackouts that 
force businesses to buy and run their own diesel generators. Murky 
laws have long discouraged private investment in power generation 
and distribution, although efforts are now under way in New Delhi to 
cha

[GOANET] NEWS: Goa still groping to find out size and spread of its diaspora

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Goa still groping to find out size and spread of its diaspora

By Frederick Noronha

PANAJI (Goa), Dec 28 -- Goans have been migrating overseas for
generations now, but India's smallest state still lacks statistics on how
many people of Goan origin are scattered across the globe.

"We don't even know how many non-resident (Goan) accounts are existing in
Goa. Yet in one branch at Palolem in Canacona (a remote south Goan
beach-village in an area where migration has picked up in recent decades)
there are as many as 4000 non-resident accounts," said NRI Goa Facilitation
Centre chairman Chandrakant Keni.

Keni, editor of the local Marathi newspaper 'Rashtramath', says the NRI-Goa
F.C.  is looking at the policies of other Indian states to see
what would be a suitable model for Goa to adopt for its own expats.

This facilitation centre was set up recently by Goa's BJP government,
following requests by expat groups.

Incidentally, the scattered Goan 'diaspora' has itself been clueless of its
size or potential clout back home.

Many among overseas Goan communities came a bit closer together following
Internet-based voluntary initiatives starting in the mid-nineties that
boosted global communication networking among expats from this small region
which currently covers an area of 3700 sq.km and has 1.35 million (rpt 1.35
million) residents.

Goans have been migrating since the late nineteenth century in large
numbers, with some even leaving local shores on the South Asian west coast
since the seventeenth century. 

Early Portuguese colonialism, which set up base here in 1510, meant
international connections were strong at an early point of history.
Education, but a lack of job opportunities in a stagnant colony, lead to
large-scale migration over the past couple of centuries.

Some books also talk about skilled goldsmiths landing in Portugal in the
seventeenth century, while other historians speculate that early travellers
from Goa could have reached Africa in as early a period.

Goans have found their migration mecca in places like East Africa, Burma
(now Myanmar), Karachi, Portugal, South America, many major Indian cities,
and more recently in UK, North America, Australia and New Zealand.

"Ours is just a six-month-old initiative (at listing Goans)," says Keni, as
the NRI-FC goes about trying to list Goans scattered across the globe. 

He admitted it was a difficult task, but others like Economic Development
Corporation managing director A.V.Palekar suggest that it might be easier to
reach out to the overseas diaspora via the many Goan organisations globally.

Some of these organisations also represent villages and sports club, which
have closely-knit loyalties and identities.

For the fourth year in succession, Goa is hosting an Overseas Goan
Convention on December 29. A 'social security scheme' for NRI Goans will be
unveiled. This is aimed mainly at Gulf-based Goans, whose needs caused by
sometimes insecure job conditions are vastly different from those of expats
based in North America or the UK.

This is largely a group insurance scheme, underwhich expats, their
dependents and family, would be covered for accident and family health, on
payment of a premium. It will be unveiled by Goa chief minister Manohar
Parrikar.

Goa's NRI-FC estimates that there are "anywhere between 70,000 to 100,000"
overseas people of Goan origin, though this could be an underestimate with
reports suggesting there are around 10,000 Goans in the Canadian city of
Toronto itself, and some believing that Lisbon is home to more Goans than
even the state-capital of Panaji. 

Goa's officially-named committee has declined to take a stand on the
much-debated proposal for permitting overseas Indians to have 'dual
nationality'. 

"I don't think the states have anything to do with that (proposal)," said
Keni. "Our area of work has already been well-defined." Keni pointed to the
Person of Indian Origin (PIO) scheme which rebuilds local ties while "it
does not give the expat political rights". 

>From the issues on which the state government is making promises to the
expats, it is also emerging that those overseas have concerns over their
properties back home in a Goa which passed controversial homestead tenancy
laws in the 1960s, that cut into the migrating middle-classes while larger
landlords apparently managed to side-step the same. (ENDS)


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Jan  18-19: International kite carnival at Morgim beach, Pernem

[GOANET] NEWS: Vajpayee to ring in New Year in balmy Goa

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Vajpayee to ring in New Year in balmy Goa

By P. Jayaram, Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Dec 27 (IANS) Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has chosen the
coastal paradise of Goa for a New Year holiday that officials said would be
strictly a family affair.

The prime minister will leave for an undisclosed "quiet beach resort" on
Sunday and return to the capital on New Year day, a senior aide told IANS.

He said Vajpayee had been flooded with requests from various state
governments to spend his customary New Year holiday in their state.

"One of the reasons is that having the prime minister as a guest has done a
world of good to tourism in the state, especially the locations where he had
spent the New Year in the past few years," the aide said.

He noted that the prime minister's holiday at picturesque Kumarakom in
Kerala, from where he penned his "musings" in December 2000, had made the
place a famous tourist destination that has attracted a stream of celebrity
visitors since.

Among them were former Beatle Paul McCartney and actor Sean Connery, the
"original" James Bond, who reportedly thoroughly enjoyed their holidays.

The aide said Manali and Nainital, where the prime minister had spent
holidays in the last two years, had also experienced a spurt in tourist
arrivals.

"People seem to think if the Indian prime minister considers a place worth
spending a holiday at, it must be really good."

He said only Vajpayee's foster family members and close personal staff would
accompany him to Goa on the holiday.

"There are no special arrangements being made, like setting up camp office
or anything, in Goa as it is just a two-day holiday," the aide said,
referring to the fact that Vajpayee would be at the resort effectively for
two full days.

The prime minister would, however, be kept informed about day-to-day
developments by officials, he added.

The holiday will be timely for Vajpayee as he has a hectic January ahead
with his counterparts from Singapore and Mauritius and the president of Iran
due to pay official visits to India and he himself scheduled to undertake a
series of tours to the states.

Vajpayee will hold talks with Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong January
4-5 and with Mauritius Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth January 8-9.

Iranian President Mohammed Khatami will be the chief guest at the Republic
Day celebrations here on January 26.

Vajpayee will pay a three-day visit to the federally administered Andaman
and Nicobar islands from January 17, his second to the scenic coral
archipelago in the Bay of Bengal as prime minister.

He is also scheduled to visit Bangalore on January 3-4 to inaugurate the
Indian Science Congress. This apart, he will be visiting Mumbai and Pune on
January 8 and 9 and Kochi on January 15.

"The prime minister does not have any time for rest in January. You can see
his calendar is full," the aide said.

--Indo-Asian News Service

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Copyright 2002, Indo-Asian News Service. For permission to reproduce 
please contact ians at del2.vsnl.net.in or kpk.kutty at eians.com 
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

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[GOANET] NEWS: Nepal's alternative to Goa -- Pokhara

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Nepal's alternative to Goa - Pokhara

By Sudeshna Sarkar, Indo-Asian News Service

Kathmandu, Dec 27 (IANS) Taking a leaf out of the Indian state of Goa, Nepal
is attempting to project Pokhara as the hottest destination for travel
junkies.

A unit of the Restaurant and Bar Association of Nepal (REBAN) along with the
Nepal Tourism Board has started the Pokhara campaign.

Patterned on the carnivals of Goa, street festivals are planned in Pokhara,
a five-hour drive from Kathmandu.

The Annapurna mountain range, serene waterfalls and caves are the major
attractions of Pokhara. It is also the starting point for many of Nepal's
trekking and rafting destinations.

Considered to be safer and warmer than the capital Kathmandu, Pokhara boasts
of a divine and long nightlife.

"We've been receiving complaints from tourists that Goa is getting too
crowded and too expensive," said Prozol B. Shrestha, coordinator of the
three-day festival that will commence Monday.

"Besides, during the carnival time in Goa you have to book hotels two months
in advance.

"We thought, if Goa can be a festival destination, so can Pokhara. Here we
are with our very own carnival that has ethnic dances, live bands, contests,
local and international cuisine and fun galore."

But, unlike Goa, where prices peak during festivities, Pokhara is planning
to dish out special discounts to attract tourists.

The street festival hopes to offer a 25 percent discount on food, drinks,
handicrafts and hotels.

An added incentive for adventure lovers is a 30 percent discount on
paragliding and ultra flights - flights in light, single-engine aircraft.

The December-January period tends to be quiet in this Himalayan kingdom with
a slump in the number of tourists. The situation has been aggravated by the
spectre of insurgency hanging over the country for over six years.

With the Maoist guerrillas having called a strike in Kathmandu Sunday and
Monday, the festivities would be affected in the valley.

Kathmandu's loss would be Pokhara's gain. "We hope people will decide to
spend the New Year eve in Pokhara," said Shrestha.

"It may not be good for the country but it certainly is a big mileage for
our festival. Pokhara is considered one of the safest places in the kingdom.
We've never had any violence.

"Last time, we had an unprecedented turnout of over 100,000 people. This
time too we hope it would be the party of a life-time."

--Indo-Asian News Service

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[GOANET] COMMENT... The Goa Agenda meet

2002-12-26 Thread Frederick Noronha

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Express Computer editor Val Souza comments on the recent Goa Agenda meet. 

http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20021223/opinion1.shtml
   
   Goas got IT on its agenda now
   
   When you proclaim you're 365 days on a holiday, it's kind of dodgy
   to--in the same breath--ask businesses to come set up serious shop in
   your State. They'd assume you'd been out sunbathing a tad longer than
   sensible. That's perhaps one of the reasons why Goa has been late off
   the blocks in wooing the IT services and IT enabled services
   industries to set up base on its pristine shores; and been reluctant
   too to hold out a begging bowl, like some other states unabashedly do,
   each time a visiting CEO is doling out the dollars.
   
   Of course it didn't help much that while the rest of the country was
   going gaga over the success of the Indian software industry, Goan
   politicians were busying themselves in toppling each other over--13
   chief ministers in a decade, surely that's Guinness-world-record level
   material.
   
   But it's been 26 months now that the BJP government, headed by
   IIT-Bombay alumnus Manohar Parrikar, has held its own in Goa. And over
   this time, albeit in its inimitably unhurried style, Goa has been
   working on policies and initiatives that seem set to make the tiny
   state a model for the rest of India to follow, in terms of utilisation
   of information technology to meet the needs of society.
   
   Sounds fishy? Well, for starters, Goa's draft IT Policy is
   refreshingly different from what most others have put out. The broad
   mission is to enhance the state's capacity for "quality decisions" in
   every sphere, whether at the government, corporate or individual
   level. There's an InfoTech Corporation that has been set up to serve
   as a single window for implementation of all IT initiatives by the
   government, and an InfoTech Council to facilitate creation,
   development and implementation of India's first R&D park, co-locating
   several R&D laboratories on a single campus.
   
   Throughout, the emphasis of the policy is on IT for development rather
   than a blind leap onto the software exports bandwagon. Yes, the
   document does talk of investment incentives and concessions, but the
   difference is that everything's directed at making Goa the R&D hub of
   the country.
   
   The behind-the-scenes groundwork done so far culminated earlier this
   month in the hosting of The Goa Agenda--a conference jointly organised
   by the Goa Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the government--that
   brought together powerful minds from all over the country to
   deliberate on how the state should take the lead in utilising IT for
   the benefit of the common man in its society.
   
   Good intentions have already been translated into actual action in
   some areas. For instance, every single one of the secondary schools in
   Goa has at least one computer in place. Some have many more, thanks to
   the largesse of expatriate Goans and other well-wishers abroad--almost
   400 donated computers were distributed to schools via the Goa Sudharop
   NGO and the Goa Schools Computers Project recently. And next year,
   every student in the science stream at the pre-university level will
   be eligible to purchase a computer from a government agency for a
   paltry thousand rupees.
   
   Interestingly, many of these computers in the schools run the
   open-source alternative operating system Linux. One local expert
   estimates that Goa has the highest density of Linux-based PCs and
   users in the country. Complementing this alternative experiment is the
   fact that Goa is getting wired up pretty quick, with optical fibre
   criss-crossing the state and high bandwidth availability already a
   reality. It's been suggested that Goa should go all out to provide
   WiFi Hotspots (802.11 access points to use with wireless LAN devices)
   across the state as soon as the 2.4 GHz band of the spectrum is
   completely delicensed for outdoor use.
   
   Goa is an ideal state in which to experiment taking IT to the masses
   with these alternative technologies and innovative devices, for
   several reasons. For one, it's tiny--just about 105 km long and 35 km
   wide, with a population of around 1.4 million spread over only about
   2,000 square kilometres of the entire area. Literacy is over 80
   percent, with a high proportion of English-language fluency and a per
   capita income double the national average.
   
   Can Goa become India's first "intelligent" state, completely IT
   literate and fully wired? Well, The Goa Agenda showed that quite a few
   intelligent and dedicated individuals are working towards this dream.
   But they will have to go far beyond pitching Go

[GOANET] LINK: GNU/Linux meeting in Goa on Dec 28... all welcome

2002-12-26 Thread Frederick Noronha

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Dec 28 is the last Saturday of the last month of 2002. We're planning some
talks to draw diverse interests during our GNU/Linux meet that is being
held from 2 pm to 6.30 pm at the CSI office. Please note we start early,
in view of the extra number of talks volunteered.

Programme is as follows:

o 2 pm - 4 pm: Trevor Warren (to be confirmed) of Media Lab Asia on
embedded computing, GNU/Linux initiatives in Mumbai, Bombay LUG's college
initiatives, lobbying with governments, and the importance of LUGs.

o Demo of Knoppix, courtesy Ashutosh Naik, with support from Animesh
Nerurkar.

o Arvind Yadav: How Small Can You Get... a surprise talk and demo.

o Blinston B2: Talk on stack overflow security exploits... "I can run you
through how they are done... how to write them.. and how to check and
correct your code for possible exploitable sections. The target audience
would be people working with C."

o FN will put up a demo on 'freely borrowable and copyable GNU/Linux CDs,
magazines and books'. 

TALKS FOR FUTURE: Arvind Clement has offered to do his 'anatomy of a
security attack' demo in Panjim. This is slated for a future meeting.



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[GOANET] NEWS: European football league is a bit hit on Delhi campuses

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Europe football league is a big hit on Delhi campuses

By Raghu Menon, Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Dec 26 (IANS) Cricket might still be a religion in India but
among college youth, particularly in Delhi, football is increasingly carving
a niche for itself.

European leagues and club championships have become the flavour of the youth
in university campuses in the Indian capital. With most weekends heavily
booked for watching league fixtures broadcast live on sports channels,
sports viewing and following have taken on new proportions.

"The game, the atmosphere and the rivalry in these football leagues is
simply awesome," said Abbas Khan, a journalism student in Delhi University.

"Europe offers the crème de la crème of world football, so why wouldn't
football fanatics anywhere in the world be attracted?"

"I find football more lively than cricket," contended Arun Vishwanathan of
the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). "The professionalism, much more than
the big bucks, is what draws me and scores of others towards the game."

Says another student, Snehasish Das of Hansraj College: "Football classifies
as a fast game and that is primarily why this defection towards the game."

Europe arguably has the finest football leagues in the world. Even among
them, the English Premier League (EPL), the Spanish La Liga and the Italian
Serie A are followed the most in the universities.

The EPL, by and large, is the favourite among students. "EPL appeals to most
people due to the glamour, money and teams at stake," said Ishan Russell, an
English literature student of Delhi University.

"Besides, it's the only league that's televised extensively."

Gaurav Bansal of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, believes
that "EPL has its shortcomings like the domination by four major teams. The
'La Liga' is really exciting as the big teams are so often upset while the
'lesser' teams quite often showcase some invigorating football.

"Club football is a big hit with students in IIT as the game, especially in
Europe, is just so fascinating."

On how football, at least in colleges, is scoring over cricket there are
various theories.

"Football is a shorter game (90 minutes) while cricket occupies almost the
entire day," said Jyoti Kocchar, another Delhi University student who does
not share the average Indian's passion for cricket.

"The aim in these leagues is to come out victors at the end of the rigorous
year-long season and not just the one-off or five-day period contests."

Football fever grips India once in four years during the World Cup, although
the game has large following in West Bengal, Kerala and Goa. However sports
channels broadcasting some of the league events live, the fast-paced game
has gained new following across India.

"To follow a club's exploits around the season is a religion in itself,"
said Das. "The way I follow Arsenal is matched by fans of Liverpool and
Manchester United, and that just adds an interesting angle to our small
football talks."

Club jerseys are another craze on the campus. Although not many sports
stores in the Indian capital stock them, the few which do a decent business.

"Club jerseys are an example of the loyalty that's building towards the game
in general and clubs in particular," said Sourav Datta, an economics
student.

"It just might be the latest haute couture for some but the ones who worship
the game know what the colour means to them."

Mention of India's own National Football League is brushed off with an
amused look by most.

"A few days back I was watching a league clash between a depleted East
Bengal and an equally under strength Mohun Bagan in Kolkata," narrated Das.
"After watching European league matches, I was appalled at the standard of
the game."

"European football is fast emerging as a popular sport across India due to
the advantage of accessibility," a spokesperson for ESPNSTAR told IANS.

"No longer do football fans need to wait for delayed broadcasts of important
fixtures as most of the action is live these days."

--Indo-Asian News Service

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[GOANET] NEWS-GULF: UAE declares amnesty for illegal immigrants

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UAE declares amnesty for illegal immigrants

By Mridula Krishna, Indo-Asian News Service

Dubai, Dec 25 (IANS) The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced a
long-awaited amnesty for illegal immigrants, including many Indians,
permitting them to leave the country without punishments or fines.

The amnesty will run January 1-April 30.

The official Emirates News Agency said the ministry had extended the
deadline to four months to give illegal expatriates enough time to either
regularise their residency status or leave.

"As part of the ministry of interior's keenness to implement all the
immigration laws, and in view of the presence of large numbers of violators
of the Residency Law, it has been decided that an amnesty be granted to
these violators, provided that they leave the country within a grace period
that will start from January 1 until April 30, 2003," the ministry said in a
statement.

The statement said that the ministry would take action against those who
remain in the country at the end of the grace period.

Around 300,000 illegal immigrants are expected to leave under the second
amnesty to be officially declared since 1996. In 1996, about 200,000 illegal
immigrants, including 50,000 Indians, left the country under a six-month
long amnesty.

Earlier this month, Indian Ambassador K.C. Singh said the embassy was ready
to handle the expected rush in emergency certificates, a one-way and
one-time passport for people in UAE without authentic documents to travel to
India.

He had said fewer Indians were expected to avail the amnesty this time.

According to George Joseph, Indian consul general in Dubai, around 35,000
Indians staying in UAE without any valid documents are likely to seek
amnesty.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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[GOANET] NEWS: Thousands pray for peace on Christmas

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Thousands pray for peace on Christmas

>From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Dec 25 (IANS) Thousands of Christians as well as people of other
faiths celebrated Christmas Wednesday in the Indian capital and prayed for
peace and tranquility.

Churches across the city were decorated with colourful lights and people
gathered there Tuesday evening to light candles and greet each other.

At a special inter-religious prayer meeting at the Sacred Heart Cathedral on
the eve of the Christmas, people prayed for peace, brotherhood and religious
tolerance.

Archbishop of Delhi, Vincent M. Concessao, appealed to the people to respect
each other's feelings and forget the sectarian violence that gripped Gujarat
earlier this year.

"We should look at the horizon and pray for the future. The year has been
full of violence and attack on various institutions that has pained all
right thinking people," said Concessao.

"But let us forget all that and think of the poor and unfortunate brothers
and sisters. There are so many orphans and homeless people facing problems
in the winter season. Lets pray for them."

Religious leaders of different faiths attended the prayer meeting.

Midnight mass, carols, plum cakes and fraternal feelings marked the
festival. Services were also offered at churches dotted throughout the city.

Santa Claus was seen all over the city, especially at shopping plazas and
market areas, greeting Merry Christmas to everyone.

The city is home to over 100,000 of India's 24 million Christians.

They participated in the reading of scriptures and the singing the carols
and distributed cakes and sweets.

Said college student Joshua Ebenezer: "The festivities begins with Christmas
and continues till the New Year. It's a good time to meet friends and
remember old ones."

"Sending and receiving greeting cards, gifts and sweets keeps you busy
throughout the festival."

--Indo-Asian News Service


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[GOANET] RandomSiteWatchGoa: Remembering college days on a hilltop