Even after the stiff opposition from the DMK government and the slugfest with the AIADMK-BJP combine in Tamil Nadu against conducting NEET exams, a total of 1,10,971 students from the state will take the exam scheduled from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Tamil Nadu has 225 examination centres for NEET. In the state capital, 17,992 students will take the exam in 33 centres.

Students will be allowed into the examination halls on a staggered basis with the first batch to enter classrooms by 10.30 a.m. and this will continue till 1.30 p.m., half an hour before the commencement of the examination.

Strict Covid-19 protocols will be ensured at the examination centres and students will be provided N-95 masks.

Coaching centres and schools had conducted mock examinations on Saturday as last-minute preparation for the mode of exam. Several students complained that by attending the exam wearing N95 masks created problems for them.

M.R. Geetha, a NEET aspirant from Triplicane in Chennai said, "I am attending the coaching classes of a private entrance coaching institute. On Saturday, there was a mock exam at the institute and we were told to wear N 95 masks and for the first one hour, it was fine but later it was irritating. I don't know how I will perform in such a situation."

Many students have been advised to do "Pranayama" by the coaching institutes and schools as a preparation for wearing the mask continuously for three hours and to increase lung power.

Helen David, a teacher of Physics of a prestigious school of Chennai told IANS, "It is indeed a tough proposition for students to take the NEET examination with the N 95 masks on. However, students are geared up and I don't think that they will underperform."

(Courtesy: IANS)

US President Joe Biden's Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry is slated to visit India next week to launch an initiative for mobilising funds for battling climate change ahead of the UN climate change conference in October, according to the State Department.

This will be his second visit to India as Biden's point-person on climate change, a priority area for the President.

Announcing the visit on Friday, the State Department said: "The Special Envoy's travel will bolster the US' bilateral and multilateral climate efforts ahead of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which will be held October 31 to November 12 in Glasgow."

The Climate Action and Finance Mobilisation Dialogue (CAFMD), which will be inaugurated during the trip, is one of the two main tracks of the US-India Agenda 2030 Partnership that Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced at the Leaders Summit on Climate in April, the Department said.

Kerry is coming to India after failing to get any deals on climate change from China.

He met China's climate envoy Xie Zhenhua in Tianjin, away from the capital Beijing, but Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to him only by a video link.

Wang told him that cooperation on climate change cannot happen unless bilateral relations improved overall, according to China's Foreign Ministry.

The US should "cease containing and suppressing China all over the world", Wang reportedly told him as a pre-condition to cooperation on climate change.

While in Delhi, Kerry will meet Indian government officials and private sector leaders "to discuss efforts to raise global climate ambition and speed India's clean energy transition", according to the State Department.

Last month, India's Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav spoke to Kerry on the phone and tweeted afterward that they "discussed at length how the largest and oldest democracies can set examples for other countries on Climate Action. India stands committed to working with the US on Clean Energy".

On another front of the war on climate change, India's Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri worked with US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on developing clean energy, the other track of the India-US partnership.

On Thursday, Puri and Granholm co-chaired the first ministerial meeting of revamped India-US Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP) "to advance the climate and clean energy goals of both countries".

India's Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry said: "The two sides announced the addition of a fifth Pillar on Emerging Fuels, which signals joint resolve to promote cleaner energy fuels. A new India-US Task Force on Biofuels was also announced to build on the scope of work on cooperation in biofuels sector.

"The meeting also reviewed the progress on the India-US civil nuclear energy cooperation."

Ahead of the meeting, Puri spoke to her on Wednesday and tweeted: "We agreed to work closely through the revamped India-US SCEP, as part of the India-US Climate & Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership, scheduled for tomorrow."

Kerry visited India in April before the Climate Leaders Summit that Biden convened virtually to increase commitments to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing the use of clean energy.

The US pressuring India to set a net-zero emissions target that would require it to bring down its greenhouse gas emissions and to neutralise them with carbon and greenhouse gases being absorbed through more forests that absorb them or use new technologies to capture them.

The US paints India as the world's third-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, accounting for 7.17 percent of the world output.

It ranks below the US, which puts out 27.92 percent of the global emissions, and China, which emits 14.5 percent.

But this hides the fact that an Indian's greenhouse gas emission is only 1.91 tonnes per year, compared to 15.52 by an American even as Biden and Kerry press other countries to cut their emission.

Beijing wants everyone to believe that Tibet has been part of China since antiquity — but Tibetans cannot accept this because ‘China did not even exist then, contrary to what the new Emperors would like us to believe.

What is China is a question which has some relevance today, and the answer is important not only for the Communist Party of China (CPC), but the world at large too.

On September 1, Xinhua reported that a series of large exhibitions centered on the theme ‘Ethnic Unity — Casting a Firm Consciousness of the Chinese National Community' sponsored by the National Culture Palace, had officially been launched in Beijing.

It included several displays centred on a multi-ethnic China; the exhibitions were entitled: ‘Treasures of Nationalities'; ‘People of All Ethnic Groups – Hearts to the Party'; ‘National Ethnic Minorities' Gifts to the Party', and ‘Cultural Relics in the Collection of the Palace of Nationalities'.

Why suddenly this emphasis on China's ‘ethic unity' and this after 100 years of the CPC's existence? As always in China, the propaganda's stress is put on something which is missing (‘unity').

Already in August, President Xi Jinping addressed a Central Ethnic Work Conference pleading for solid ethnic work and ‘casting a firm sense of Chinese ethnic community'.

He mentioned 50,000 precious cultural relics, more than 200,000 ancient books, some 400,000 other books and more than 3,000 paintings and works of art, kept in the National Culture Palace "fully reflecting the connotation of national unity and progress, and letting history speak and letting culture speak."Whether these ‘relics' were forceful taken away from minorities' areas, is of course not mentioned.

Has it not been the habit of colonisers to loot their new colonies? Remember the Kohinoor?

Xi spoke of "the beautiful interaction and exchanges among the various ethnic groups in China."

According to the party's General Secretary, the intermingling of the different ‘nationalities' focused on "showing the sons and daughters of all ethnic groups to listen to the Party, feel the Party's grace, follow the Party, hand in hand, to build a great revival of the Chinese dream of the glorious course."

Why wait 100 years to remember that the ‘nationalities' exist?

It further raises another issue, is China a nation or only an amalgam of different nationalities recently assembled together, in which case why have the nationalities not been given their due place during the last century?

To give a concrete example, why are so few members of the ‘nationalities' members of the CPC's Central Committee and not a single one is in the Politburo or the Central Military Commission? Examples could be multiplied. Many see this as Han Chauvinism.

Today, Beijing would like us to believe that China a unified entity which since immemorial times included the Periphery of the Middle Kingdom; it is simply not true.

Already in 2015, in a ‘White Paper on Tibet', Beijing argued that "the only sensible alternative is for the Dalai Lama and his supporters to accept that Tibet has been part of China since antiquity".
Why should the Tibetans accept a lie?

The Chinese publication mentioned: "The wheels of history roll forward and the tides of the times are irresistible. Tibet's path of development is one imposed by history and chosen by the people. Experience proves to us that only by upholding unity and opposing separatism, only by upholding progress and opposing retrogression, only by upholding stability and opposing turmoil, can the future of Tibet be assured. Any person or force that attempts to resist the tide will simply be cast aside by history and by the people."

Any serious student of history is aware that tides come and go; where is the mighty British Empire today?But for the sake of argument, let us accept the Chinese contention, then one should ask: what is China?

A few years ago, Professor Ge Jianxiong, Director of the Institute of Chinese Historical Geography at Fudan University in Shanghai stated in an article in The China Review: "It would be a defiance of history to claim that Tibet has always been a part of China since the Tang Dynasty (7th to 10th century)."

Jianxiong went further and questioned the notion of China: "When discussing the peaceful rise of China and the history of the great powers of the world, it is natural to think of ancient China. Can ancient China be considered a Great Power? If so, how big was it? This is a prerequisite for knowing the history and comparing development."

For the professor, there was no such thing as China, but dynasties who ruled over small or larger areas: "First of all, China (‘Zhongguo') only officially became the name of our country with the founding of the Republic of China in 1912. Before this, the idea of China (‘Zhongguo') was not clearly conceptualised."

Jianxiong said: "The concept of China has continued to expand. From referring specifically to the central plains of China, the concept has since grown to now refer generally to a whole nation. Even during the late Qing, China would sometimes be used as a name to refer to the Qing State, including all the territory within the boundaries of the Qing Empire, but other times it would only refer to the ‘18 Interior Provinces' and not include Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang. Therefore, if we want to understand the extent of ancient China's territory, we can only speak of how large was the actual territory controlled by a particular dynasty at a particular moment."

Jianxiong gave Tibet as an example: "If we ask: How big was 8th century China and if we speak about the borders of the Tang Dynasty, we cannot include the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. This was ruled by Tubo/Tufan [dynasty] and so does not count. Tubo/Tufan was sovereign, independent of the Tang Dynasty. At least it was not administered by the Tang Dynasty; there would have been no need to erect the Tang-Tubo/Tufan alliance tablet [Tibet-Tang Treaty of 821 [AD]. It would be a defiance of history if we claim that since the Tang Dynasty, Tibet has always been a part of China – the fact that the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau subsequently became a part of the Chinese dynasties does not substantiate such a claim."

Jianxiong continued: "Moreover, we must differentiate between territory that was actually under the administrative control of a dynasty, that which was a vassal state, and that which was within the reaches of our prestige."

Tibet has been part of China since antiquity— Tibetans cannot accept this contention, simply because China did not even exist then, contrary to what the new Emperors would like us to believe.

The present leadership in Beijing should do their homework and start studying the history of their ‘empire', before asking the Tibetans, the Uighurs or the Mongols to sign on a dotted line.

And sooner or later, the Communist Dynasty will also collapse, like all other dynasties before; then, the Middle Kingdom will probably shrink again behind the Great Wall.

So why all this noise about ‘ethnic unity' in the Middle Kingdom in the Chinese media?

(The writer is an author, journalist, historian, Tibetologist, and China expert. The views expressed are personal)

New Delhi, Sep 8 (IANS) With the recent takeover by Taliban in Afghanistan, the situation has become dynamic and recent reports indicate a surge in Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) activities, including a series of meetings of JeM top leaders with Taliban Leadership in both Pakistan (Quetta) and Afghanistan (Kandahar). JeM is reportedly pursuing Taliban for a responsible role in Afghanistan and simultaneously seeking help in its operations in Kashmir.

• It was expected that Pak would seek a return of the favour extended to Taliban, and shift the entire terror ecosystem including terror training camps to Afghanistan. Greylisting of Pakistan by the FATF has brought the establishment under consistent strain. A prolonged stay in the list is detrimental to its long term sustainability. On the other hand, the world has realized that keeping the hanging sword of FATF over Islamabad has been the only effective way to put pressure on Pakistan to keep jihadi/ terror groups under rein.

• Taliban under Pakistan's perpetual control is definitely not the vision their leaders would have for Afghanistan. This is another reason why Pakistan would like to keep its militant groups on Afghanistan's soil enabling it to arm-twist the nascent Taliban government should it decide to go against its interests. Islamabad has been a master in the art of creating and managing militant / jihadi groups and putting one against the other. It may be recalled that it had come out with the idea of good Taliban -bad Taliban in order to get rid of the elements who had challenged its authority. The presence of even more radical groups like IS Khurasan and AQ, which have amply demonstrated to be acting as other proxies for Pakistan, is also a reminder for Kabul to realize the limits of its functional autonomy. It is in this background that we need to see the surge in militant and infiltration activities in J&K.

• Pak Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has established a number of terrorist training camps in PoJK, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. Terrorist cadres are mainly recruited from Pak provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, besides those from PoJK being coerced into joining terrorist groups, for jihad' in Kashmir. Indian air strike on Balakot JeM terror camp in retaliation of Pulwama attack in 2019 brought to the fore the open terror activities going on in Pakistan and the patronage of the establishment they enjoy.

• Further, in order to facilitate the infiltration of militants/jihadists into J&K, it has established many Launch Pads (LPs) in PoJK and Pakistan along LoC and International Border with India stretching from higher reaches in Kashmir to the south of Pir Panjal in Poonch and Rajouri and further down to Samba and Jammu area. About 250-300 militants are waiting for infiltration at various launching pads/detts across LoC. Pakistan Army facilitates infiltration of terrorists into the Indian Territory by providing inputs on infiltration routes as well as giving covering fire to the terrorists. While at present about 200 terrorists are active in J&K, around 90 of them are from Pakistan.

• Pakistan has also devised creative ways to take the Kashmiris to PoJK, brainwash them and provide militant training. It has started sponsoring a number of students for getting medical and engineering education in Pakistan and PoJK. However, once these students crossover through legal route, they are taken to training camps and imparted weapons and explosives training. In return, they join the terrorist ranks to wage jihad. J&K police have listed more than 50 such students who had gone to Pakistan to study but later on joined militant ranks. Many of these have been killed in encounters with security forces.

• The ISI is also aggressively smuggling arms & ammunition in J&K, including through drones/quad-copters near the IB/LoC. Recoveries of arms/ammunition near LoC and IB were made in Nowshera (June 4, August 28, September 18-19); Hiranagar (June 20); Samba (September 6 &7); and Akhnoor (September 21/22). A number of sorties of Pak drones were detected in the Jammu region in the recent past as well as along the IB in the Gurdaspur sector of Punjab. The weapons dropped include AK Rifles- 8, M4 Carbines-2, Norinco T97 NSR Rifle-1, Pistols-9, Grenades-14, and ammunition. The drones used in this exercise are sophisticated and expensive. Further the arms and explosives smuggled are also available only to state agencies. Thus it is clearly indicative of the involvement of ISI in pushing the weapons in pursuance of Islamabad's policy of sponsoring terrorism.

• Not only smuggling, but the terror groups operating under the command and control of ISI are devising newer ways of causing terror attacks. The first of its kind of attack using a drone/quad-copter (Jun. 27) by Pak-sponsored terrorist groups on an Indian Air Force facility at Jammu airport has added a new dimension to the security threat. In this attack, two pressure-activated IEDs of 2 kg each were dropped by GPS guided drones targeting a hangar with 7 parked helicopters. Inputs point to the involvement of LeT in the attack. Till now drones were being used to push arms/ammunitions across for terrorists in the valley.

• While a number of incidents have recently been reported which indicate a fresh impetus in the activities of Pak-based terror groups, including increased infiltration attempts, border crossing events, BAT actions etc, it is only an indication of the future plans Pakistan may have prepared for Kashmir. With Afghanistan under its tutelage, it feels emboldened to repeat the same in its jugular vein. Despite setbacks and straight humiliating defeats in the past, its obsession with Kashmir has not dwindled. From its strategy of 'bleeding through a thousand cuts' to the limited war under the nuclear umbrella', it once again appears willing to put at stake its inflated ego even at the risk of being declared a terrorist state.

• In this backdrop, it is heartening to realize that even Afghans are wary of the negative activities of Pakistan and people came on the streets of Kabul (September 6-7) to protest Pakistan's intrusive role in Afghanistan. Covert intrusive involvement in other territories has been an area of expertise for the ISI and their survival hinges on pursuing such activities. J&K could thus remain in their radar.