The Ghost of Global Warming is haunting every citizen and the media is consistently drawing attention of all those who matter. But so far the ground realities are concerned both the State Governments and the Central continue to abuse the nature left right and center. During sixties in India it was a case of nature against mankind as we as a Nation had to face furry of floods, droughts and natural calamities that aggravated poverty, hunger. Now it is a case of mankind against Nature.
Today’s Planners i.e. Political class and bureaucrats plan massive projects while sitting in Air Conditioned Chambers based on DATA that is invariably outdated and cannot be relied upon. The reasons for such a blunder are that the DATA picked up at the time idea is conceived it is already almost three years old. By the time the plan is prepared the DATA becomes six years old and by the time the plan reaches drawing boards it is older by 9 years and when the actual execution starts the same is aged about 15 years.
It is shameful that both the Apex Court and Central Government are at logger heads on the issue of the powers to protect the forest areas between the?Central Empowered Committee (CEC)
constituted by the Apex Court and?Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) constituted by the Central Government?under the Ministry of Environment &?Forests. The media has reported very ?recently that FAC had accorded approvals to many ill conceived projects?in the Forest Areas without applica?tion of mind. It may also be worth?while to note here that despite presence of Supreme Court Monitoring?Committee in Dehradun Mussoorie? Valley massive deforestation has taken place and forests continue to be ?erased. It is matter of record that the?Apex Court had ignored the recommendations of CEC regarding protection of Forests in the Capital City of Delhi that too in an area that was mandated to be protected under Master Plan of Delhi and squarely covered under the Judgment of Apex Court itself.
All said and done our efforts seems to have lost the track and we continue to deplete the Green Cover without application of mind. One such classic example is missing Public Transport Policy at National Level. The last Public Transport Policy was prepared some where in 1977 and thereafter till date no efforts have been made to prepare policy on Surface Transport at National Level except in 2006 when Draft National Policy on Public Transport has been prepared but without will to implement.
It appears that the lack of will has percolated down from the Apex Planning Body of the Country i.e. National Planning Commission. If we read the Transport Policy of 10th Planning Commission Report one would find that the Plan has been prepared for Civil Aviation, Railways and Shipping. The only reference to the Surface Transport is profitability and operations of State Transport Under takings.
As a consequence to the myopic planning we find Marutas Bullock Carts fitted with Diesel Engines ferrying in many parts of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. One can spot cycle rickshaws fitted with scooters on many roads of almost most of the cities of the country. Needless to say that all the so called improvised vehicle ply on roads without insurance, registration and do not pay any tax. Only GOD can save the victims if any of such vehicle is involved in accident no steps have been taken by the Governments to curb use of such vehicles that are dangerous not only for other road users but also pollute the environment.
In absence of National Policy on Public Transport the Public Transport systems within and Intercity have virtually collapsed. No one seems to be bothered about ever growing number of personal vehicles on the roads leading to multiple problems impact of which has not been even assessed and analyzed till date. The missing Public Transport is one of the major contributors to wards Global warming some of which are as under:-
Increase in Pollution due to emissions at traffic congested intersections and Roads;
No one seems to be bothered about the quality of Fuel produced and sold at Petrol Pumps. Adulteration of Petrol, Diesel seems to be most profitable business. Who cares so long as corrupt continue to make money. The Politicians and Bureaucrats are bothered about wide roads to increase the speed and it hardly matters that the roads are without trees.
If we go around the Country we find that in order to accommodate the ever growing need of space to accommodate ever increasing number of personal vehicles massive deforestation has taken place whether it is Mumbai Pune Expressway or NH- 1 or NH-8. Even accredited NGO without any credible studies and analysis continue to blame the Diesel vehicles responsible for pollution little realizing that world over the Diesel is being
used as one of the fuels for public transport.. During my five days stay at Istanbul with a population almost equal to Delhi, I did not find even a single vehicle on the roads emitting smoke. Even the number of petrol pumps is much less than we have at Delhi. The only reason is that quality of Fuel and vehicles is ensured.
We claim that the only city in the World has entire bus fleet. If we go around the Country we find that in order to accommodate the ever growing need of space to accommodate ever increasing number of personal vehicles massive deforestation has taken place whether it is Mumbai Pune Expressway or NH-1 or NH-8. Even accredited NGO without any credible studies and analysis continue to blame the Diesel vehicles responsible for pollution little realizing that world over the Diesel is being used as one of the fuels for public transport.
operating on Cleanest Fuel is the City of Delhi. We don’t assess the damage to the environment caused by the long queues of vehicles waiting for their turn at such filling stations located on the main City Roads due to congestion on roads. Even the suggestions to the State Government to change the filling timings from peak hours to non peak hours did not find favor. Who cares? Because as and when Bureaucrats, Politicians, Judges or Senior Police Officers pass through particular area their vehicles find smooth traffic as the Traffic cops manage to give them smooth rides.
It is the common citizens who breaths pollution and bears the brunt. The lax attitude of the Ministry of Environment & Forest is clear from the fact that the Ministry of Environment & Forest has issued a White Paper on Pollution in the City of Delhi still the position continues to go from bad to worse.
– OE News Bureau
We need a master plan to increase our water storage capacity, improve irrigation facilities and create water networks across the country that links the draught prone with those experiencing floods. Water is one crucial factor that sustains life on earth. Yet we take water for granted unless of course reminded of its importance by Bollywood actors celebrating water-less Holi. India is estimated to have a mere 4 per cent of global water resources, while it has to support 16 per cent of the world’s population. Merely by that equation India is water stressed if not water starved.
Billion Cubic Metres (BCM) of which three-fourth get precipitated during the monsoon season (June to September). Of this 4000 BCM, it is estimated that approximately 1120 BCM are only utilisable. That in turn adds to the stress. When rains fail, this situation gets compounded. For instance, the rainfall in 2009 in India was a mere 78 percent of the long-term average rainfall. A 22 per cent shortfall is disastrous in such a situation. Coincidentally the UPA under Manmohan Singh was reelected only in May 2009. Was Mother Nature warning us?
Similarly in 2012 we faced “drought like” situations in several parts of India as rainfall was 92 per cent of the long term average. This brings in another dimension to our water crisis. When it rains, it pours during the monsoon. For instance in 2012 nearly 58 per cent districts recorded excess rain causing flood (the balance 42 per cent face moderate to severe shortfall).
It is in this connection that the National Water Policy notes that the availability of water is highly uneven in both space and time. Precipitation is confined to only about three or four months in a year and varies from 100 mm in the western parts of Rajasthan to over 10,000 mm at Cherrapunji in Meghalaya. No wonder India alternates between floods in some part and drought in other. The challenge is to link the two.
That takes me to the Budget of 2004-05 where finance minister P Chidambaram said, “I now turn to one of my big dreams. Water is the lifeline of civiliyation. We have been warned that the biggest crisis that the world will face in the 21st century will be the crisis of water.
“And his response to this “crisis?” “I therefore propose an ambitious scheme. Through the ages, Indian agriculture has been sustained by natural and man made water bodies such as lakes, tanks, ponds and similar structures. It has been estimated that there are more than a million such structures and about 500,000 are used for irrigation. Many of them have fallen into disuse. Many of them have accumulated silt. Many require urgent repairs.”
Absolutely spot on I thought.In fact his proposal captured the imagination of the entire nation then. Proposing to launch “a massive scheme to repair, renovate and restore all the water bodies that are directly linked to agriculture” the FM sought to begin “with pilot projects in at least five districts” one district in each of the five regions of the country.
And once the pilot projects were completed and validated, the government was to “launch the National Water Resources Development Project and complete it over a period of 7 to 10 years.” In conclusion, the FM added “It is my hope that by the beginning of the next decade all water bodies in India will be restored to their original glory and that the storage capacity of these water bodies will be augmented by at least 100 per cent.”
Once again in his Budget speech of 2005-06 the FM visited the subject albeit briefly. The zest that was palpable the previous year was missing. The grand announcement of July 2004 for a pilot project when the Budget was presented was still on the drawing board and expected to be “launched in the month of March 2005.”
That was the last time I heard of the FM speak of his “big dream.” The promise made almost a decade ago on the floor of the Parliament on augmenting the storage capacity of water bodies “by at-least 100 per cent” remains unfulfilled even to this day. So much for government’s concern for farmers, agriculture and creating basic rural infrastructure!
Now to the second leg of the water problem – the need for irrigation facility as delivery mechanism. Once again the FM was spot on with his diagnosis. “The Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) was introduced in 1996-97 and was allotted large funds year after year. Yet, out of 178 large and medium irrigation projects that were identified, only 28 have been completed.” Therefore the UPA government came with a practical proposal to “restructure” AIBP by ensuring “truly last mile projects that can be completed by March 2005 will be given overriding priority, and other projects that can be completed by March 2006 will also be taken up in the current year.”
Well did the government restructure AIBP? The answer lies in the Budget speech of Mr Pranab Mukherjee of 2012 where he adds, “To maximize the flow of benefits from investments in irrigation projects, structural changes in AIBP are being made.” Readers may note the change in semantics: “restructure AIBP” of 2005 had become “structural changes in AIBP” by 2012!
Despite all the bluster of the FM in his Budget, the fact remains that the irrigated land as a percentage to total agricultural land in India has improved marginally between 31.6 per cent in 2004 to approximately 37 per cent in 2011. This eloquently captures the neglect of irrigation in India by UPA to this date.
It is in this connection that a target of creating an additional “irrigation potential” of 10 million hectares (mha) between 2005-06 and 2008-09 was fixed. Interestingly, data with the ministry of water resources claim that the government “achieved” a physical target of 7.3 mha.
How much of this was “actually” achieved and resulted in improving farm production is anybody’s guess. Yet till 2012 since its inception in 1996 the AIBP has an outlay in excess of Rs 55,000 crores either as central grant or loans. While the sums do indeed look massive the fact remains the overall accretion to agriculture lands under irrigation has not improved significantly. Pointing to this anomaly Harish Damodaran in a well researched article in The Hindu Business Line pointed out (March 6, 2007) despite the Centre spending a total of Rs 20,598.48 crore (Rs 205.98 billion) under the AIBP, with the states releasing an additional Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) or so since its inception in 1996.
So how much of new “irrigation potential” has been created under the AIBP? According to Harish Damodaran, “The cumulative figure from 1995-96 to 2005-06 comes to 4.04 mha, with another 0.9 mha estimated to be creat- ed this fiscal. All that adds to some five mha over a 11-year span.” While the physical accretion is minimal the amount spent on AIBP is indeed gargantuan. It is in this connection the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its Report No. 15 of 2004 (Civil) commented among other things, it noted that over 35 of the expenditures under AIBP were “diverted, parked or misutilised.”
In short, as the joke goes amongst economists, AIBP is neither accelerated nor does it benefit farmers. At best it is yet another avenue for loot and scoot. That explains why states like Maharashtra despite having several such irrigation schemes, funded both by the state and central government, is perennially water starved. And that would include Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Orissa amongst others.
This in turn leads to farm stress and resultant suicides which in turn trigger another round of committees, reports, schemes, programs and once again loot. It may be noted that India is experiencing its fourth drought in a dozen years. Needless to emphasize, this raises concerns about the reliability of the country’s primary source of fresh water, the monsoon rains. Scientists warn that such trends are likely to intensify in the coming decades because of climate changes caused by the human release of greenhouse gases.
India with large sections of poor is extremely vulnerable to such weather patterns. We need huge quantities of food to feed our population. For that we require water. So would our industry which is expected to grow exponentially. Weather patterns show remarkable departure from the past if it is drought in one part of the country we will have floods. Either way it is a disaster.
Ideally we need a master plan to increase our water storage capacity, improve irrigation facilities and create water networks across the country that links the draught prone with those experiencing floods. Unfortunately the decade of UPA rule, like so many other spheres been a disaster on water management too. Will someone tell the PM that we can have a water-less Holi but not water-less agriculture? Will someone educate the PM that a sustainable development model depends on something as elementary but as crucial as water. For too long we have ignored this fundamental fact. The water-less Holi was a rude wake up call.
– OE News Bureau
Ram Nath Kovind, Governor of Bihar, is the NDA government’s nominee in the Presidential election 2017 is likely to be India’s next President. The decision was taken after a BJP Parliamentary Board meeting headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah with Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari in attendance. Ram Nath Kovind, 70, is a Dalit leader from Kanpur.
A two-time member of Rajya Sabha and former national spokes person for the party, Kovind headed the BJP’s Scheduled Caste Morcha between 1999 and 2002. The voting for the presidential election is scheduled on July 17, while the counting will take place on July 20, four days before current President Pranab Mukherjee’s term ends. While BJP hopes for consensus on its Presidential candidate pick, here are 5 reasons why Ram Nath Kovind was selected :
Kovind has been a crusader for the rights and cause of weaker sections of the society, especially Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/ OBC/Minority/Land Women from his student days. In the year 1997, some Government Orders were issued by the Central Government which adversely affected the interests of employees of the Scheduled Castes/Tribes. Shri Ram Nath Kovind joined the movement of SC/ST employees against the Central Government and consequently succeeded in getting those Government Orders null and void by the passage of three Amendments in the Constitution of India during the first NDA regime. RSS is gradually building a platform to integrate entire hindu population by erasing caste divide.
a) Ram Nath Kovind, served as Member of Board of Management of Dr B.R Ambedkar University, Lucknow.
b) He also served as Member of Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.
c) He represented India in United Nations (New york) and addressed United Nations General Assembly in October 2002.
d) Visited Thailand. Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, France, United Kingdom and the USA on Study Tour as Member of Parliament.
Ram Nath Kovind was elected and became as Rajya Sabha MP in April 1994 from Uttar Pradesh and served for two consecutive terms for 12 years until March 2006. Shri Kovind served as Member on important Parliamentary Committees including Welfare of Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Home Affairs, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Social Justice and Empowerment, Law and Justice and Chairman of Rajya Sabha House Committee.
Ram Nath Kovind, was the Central Government Advocate in Delhi High Court from 1977 to 1979 and Central Government Standing Counsel in Supreme Court from 1980 to 1993. He became Advocate-on-Record of the Supreme Court of India in 1978. He had practiced in Delhi High Court and Supreme Court for about 16 years till 1993.He was enrolled as an Advocate in 1971 with the Bar Council of Delhi.
Ram Nath Kovind, former President of the BJP Dalit Morcha has held a clean record and image and his work has spoken volumes. During his parliamentary tenure of 12 years, he emphasized on the development of basic infrastructure for education in rural areas, and during his Advocacy tenure, he took a leading role in providing free legal aid to the weaker sections of society, especially SC/ST women. These cases have earned him huge respect in the political circles in India.
– Prakhar P Mishra (The writer is our Political Editor)
Uttar Pradesh chief minister yogi Adityanath was sworn in as Uttar Pradesh chief minister at Smriti Upvan,in Lucknow, India, on March 19, 2017. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and other top BJP leadership was present on the occasion. the massive strength presented by BJP was phenomenal and unprecedented to showcase upsurge of right wing party. there are three prominent reasons for putting yogi in command of UP namely keep polarizing Hindu votes, put strong administer and non-compromising leader and to put development agenda upfront. It was analysed that a strong character can address the depleting law and order situation.
From everything we have heard about Yogi Adityanath’s way with votes, it would seem the man has never felt a tinge of electoral insecurity in his 19 year old political career. But it turns out Uttar Pradesh’s new chief minister had to work his way to “electoral invincibility.” Senior journalist Dhirender K Jha’s 35-page book, which reads like a meticulous magazine profile, details the lowest point in the five-time MP’s electoral journey to show why he may never fear losing an election again.
It was between 1998 when 26 year old Adityanath, would be mahant at the Gorakhpur temple, first won the eastern UP Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 26,000 votes, and 1999, when he fought the election again and found his vote margin down to 7339. the plunge in winning margin was especially hurtful because shortly after winning the Gorakhpur seat the first time, Adityanath had launched his first “apolitical” organization, Gau Raksha Manch, to consolidate the Hindu vote. the cow card was apparently not enough to polarize the voters in Gorakhpur. The young MP realized he needed to “develop a wider base among Hindus” to play the power game in UP.
His moment came in 2002. Drawing on the nationwide split between Hindus and Muslims after the riots in Gujarat, Yogi Adityanath decided to hit the ground anew. He began by changing the name of Gau Raksha Manch to Hindu yuva vahini and expanded its jurisdiction beyond cows to anything and everything “that could project minorities as the enemies of Hindus”, from their meat eating habits to their appeal among Hindu women. to give this new outfit a structure and mission, its presence was divided into multi level committees state, district, block and panchayat and young and restless Hindu men in villages in and around Gorakhpur recruited in large numbers. right from the first day, writes Jha, HYV ran a toxic campaign of religious politics, turning the smallest of incidents to sectarian wars. “there were at least six major riots in the region within the first year of HYV’s formation” and “at least 22 major riots in Gorakhpur and the neighboring districts till 2007.”
The plan paid off pretty soon. In 2004, Adityanath won the Gorakhpur seat by a margin of 142,000 votes; five years later, he claimed victory by 300,000 votes. Gau Raksha Peethadhiswar Parampujya Yogi Adityanath Ji Maharaj, as his disciples call him, has been unstoppable since. As Jha painstakingly outlines the saint politician’s “political fortune doesn’t depend on the BJP or the RSS but is fueled by a communal polarization of an extreme kind.”
1. yogi Adityanath was elected as the Member of the 12th Lok Sabha in 1998 from Gorakhpur constituency. He was the youngest legislator of the Lok Sabha. So far he has been MP from the same constituency five times. In 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, Adityanath won the elections by a margin of 1,42,309 votes.
2. Adityanath’s predecessor Mahant Avaidyanath was the president of Hindu Maha Sabha. Both of them kept Hindutva agenda at the forefront of their election campaign. His mission in life is to convert other religious groups back to Hinduism. In 2005, more than 5,000 people were converted in the town of Etah in UP. He reportedly said: “I will not stop till I turn UP and India into a Hindu rashtra”.
3. Adityanath’s original name was Ajay Singh. He changed his name after becoming a ‘sanyasi’. He has got a B.Sc. degree from HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar, Uttarakhand. He is a very good orator and has the ability to attract eyeballs with his fiery speech. He has been quite vocal in the Parliament and has been raising issues with alacrity. It’s not that he raises issues related to Hindutva only. In fact, he has been equally concerned about issues that have the potential of impacting the lives of the poorer strata of the society.
4. In Gorakhpur riots of 2007, a Hindu boy was killed after some people opened fire on a Muslim procession that took place on the occasion of Moharam. When the youth succumbed to the injuries, Adityanath vowed to deliver justice to Hindus. He announced a torchlight procession and a “Shraddhanjali Sabha (pay homage)” on a busy road. The District Magistrate had forbidden him to do so, but regardless of his instructions he and his followers set off. For the first time in his life, Adityanath was jailed under Section 151A of the CRPC only to find later that he has also been booked under Sections 146, 147, 279, 506 of the Indian Penal Code.
5. yogi Adityanath of the BJP has several criminal cases pending against him. Some of the cases where cognizance has been taken are: 3 charges related to rioting (IPC Section-147); 1 charge related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307); 2 charges related to Rioting, armed with deadly weapon (IPC Section-148); 1 charges related to Act endangering life or personal safety of others (IPC Section-336); 1 charges related to every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object (IPC Section-149); 2 charges related to trespassing on burial places, etc. (IPC Section-297); 1 charges related to criminal intimidation (IPC Section-506).
6. yogi Adityanath is the founder of the Hindu yuva vahini. It is a social, cultural and nationalist group of young people. this group is very famous amongst Hindus of east Uttar Pradesh. Hindu yuva vahini has many dalit Hindus. After Adityanath’s arrest in 2007 for inciting Gorakhpur riots, his HYV launched retaliations. two coaches of the Mumbai bound Mumbai Gorakhpur Godan express was set ablaze on 30th January, 2007. Aggression is the hallmark of Adityanath. His opponents often charge Adityanath and his Hindu yuva Vahini of taking law into their hands. The Gorakhpur MP, however, gives diplomatic answer on this question. He says that if the law enforcement agencies fail to do justice to their roles then common man has to think of the alternative ways of getting justice.
7. In March 2010, Adityanath was one of several BJP MPs who did not adhere to the party whip on the Women’s Reservation Bill. Few years ago, a video surfaced in which Adityanath was seen as saying that if one Hindu girl is converted to Islam then they will convert 100 Muslim women to Hinduism. When Rajat Sharma asked this question to yogi Adityanath in his show ‘Aap Ki Adalat’, an unapologetic Yogi Adityanath said that nobody has the right to practice forcible conversion. The Gorakhpur MP said that a person has to be answered in the same language that he understands.
8. Despite his prominence in the party, he has never been on good terms with the BJP. He has had a strained relation with the party for more than a decade. In 2007 UP Elections, BJP and Adityanath were at conflict. He wanted more than 10 seats in Gorakhpur region to go to candidates selected by him, but the party leadership would not agree. Subsequently a compromise agreement was reached by the RSS. He fielded 8 candidates of his choice. RSS’s intervention normalized yogi Adityanath’s relationship with BJP during the election season.
9. Adityanath, during India TV’s Chunav Manch conclave in February,said that he will make ‘love jihad’ an issue in the polls. Gorakhpur MP has been raising this issue for the past four to five years. He said, “”I have been raising this issue for the past four to five years. The menace first began in Kerala and has now spread to Western UP”. yogi Adityanath says he is not against Hindu-Muslim marriages provided it’s based on mutual trust and there is no element of deceit in that relationship.
10. the BJP had included him in the party’s list of star campaigners for polls. Adityanath raised the law and order situation extensively and made ‘love jihad’ a major poll issue. The BJP’s mega success in the polls has certainly cemented Adityanath’s hold in his party.
10 things UP CM yogi Adityanath did during his first week in office Just a week of Yogi Adityanath as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the 44- year old has hit the ground running, grabbing headlines with a series of decision ranging from banning pan and gutkha at workplaces to cracking down on illegal slaughterhouses.
1)MINISTERIAL INCOMES: An hour after he took oath on March 19, Adityanath ordered all ministers to declare their income, movable and immovable properties within 15 days. He asked them to submit declarations to the CM secretariat. He also made them take an oath of cleanliness and honesty. He conveyed that his government would have zero tolerance on corruption and law and order.
2) CLEANLINESS: yogi Adityanath administered his ministers an oath of cleanliness and honesty. Also he fixed every Friday as the day when the state staff must tidy up work- spaces. He asked them to devote two hours per week to cleanliness. He also asked them to read up BJP’s 2017 poll manifesto and begin mulling over how to implement it in their respective departments. Also asked them to make budgetary provisions for it and begin preparing for the first cabinet meet.
3) PAN BAN: The next day, he ordered a ban on ‘Paan masala, Gutkha’ consumption in government offices, hospitals, schools etc.
4) MEAT CRACKDOWN: He ordered a crackdown on illegal slaughter houses and meat shops, and check cow smuggling. Many meat shops were burnt and businesses on strike with supplies drying up. the government has clarified that only illegal abattoirs would be targeted.
5) ANTI-ROMEO SQUAD: the CM also called for an end to road side boozing and asked for the setting up of ‘anti romeo squads’ across the state. When the anti romeo action created an outrage with the way police responded, Adityanath on March 25 ordered making of guidelines and said police should not be inhuman while implementing it.
6) SETTING AGENDA WITH MODI: On March 21, he went to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss distribution of portfolios to his ministers. He also informed the PM Modi that MPs were lobbying for transfers, postings of officers. Modi, on March 23, ordered all MPs not to interfere in transfers, postings.
7) ACID ATTACK CRACKDOWN: On March 24, Adityanath visited an acid attack survivor. Gave her Rs one lakh aid and ordered the arrest of the culprits.
8) POT-HOLES: On March 25, Adityanth set a deadline of June 15 for making all UP roads pot-holes free.
9) METRO: the new CM has also announced Metro train projects for Gorakhpur (his Lok Sabha constituency) and Jhansi.
10) CRACKDOWN ON LAXITY: During a visit in Gorakhpur, Adityanath said those officers who cannot work 18-20 hours were free to leave. He also said that the state would promote regional dialects.
Inputs from Snigdha Poonam article published in HT & Dr Rahul Misra in Lucknow
In order to attract more international students to Japan, The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT) launched the “Global 30” Project for Establishing Core Universities for Internationalization and select- ed 13 universities to function as core institutions to receive and educate students from abroad. Under the Project, a student can obtain a degree from a prestigious Japanese university by taking programs taught in English, both in undergraduate and graduate levels.
To promote the Project and recruit prospective students, we are advertizing our newly established English courses abroad. Universities under the “Global 30” Project include Tohoku University, University of Tsukuba, The University of Tokyo, Nagoya University, Kyoto University, Osaka University, Kyushu University, Keio University, Sophia University, Meiji University, Waseda University, Doshisha University, and Ritsumeikan University (13 universities total).
Contents of the Seminars included.
(1) Presentations by the “Global 30” Project universities. Universities involved in the “Global 30” Project present brief overviews concerning their education systems, programs, admission procedures, etc.
(2) Lecture demonstrations – We hope participants will actively join in the lectures given by professors of the “Global 30” Project universities.
(3) Individual consultation For questions concerning educational systems and programs, admission procedures, characteristics, etc., the “Global 30? Project universities will have booths for advice and to answer questions of participants who intend to study in Japan. Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) booth will broadly inform participants about Study in Japan.
List of Universities participating in Delhi (India) /Bangalore (India) included:- ” Tohoku University, University of Tsukuba, The University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Osaka University, Kyushu University, Keio University, Sophia University (Bangalore only), Meiji University, Doshisha University, and Ritsumeikan University Japan Student Services Organization(JASSO)
‘Higher Education is Japan core strength that made it a global technology super power’
The iconic face of India in Japan is former Indian Ambassador to Japan Mr Aftab Seth who is playing the role of a catalyst to bridge the gap between unexplored land of opportunity for the Indian Gen-Next. Mr Seth highlights the tremendous depth of Japanese core strength that is yet to be tapped in India Higher education. Here are some of the most fascinating excerpts of his interview with Opinion Express associate editor Dr Rahul Misra.
Q Japan higher education system has been close knit hence globally people are unaware of its merits, kindly enlighten us about the cost factor, and Work culture of Japanese Universities?A. From the time of the Meiji restoration in 1868 the Japanese university system was opened to the world. As the first university was Keio, set up in 1858, 10 years university was Keio, set up in 1858, 10 years before the restoration, it was deeply influenced by knowledge acquired by the founder Yukichi Fukuzawa from the Dutch in Nagasaki in Kyushu. As other universities were set up in 1870s by the Imperial government they depended greatly on professors from the west, USA Britain and for medicine from Germany. Till the early 60s all medical students had to learn German because of the text books. It is thus not quite accurate to call the Japanese university system closed. It became like this later, but the early years were of openness.
So much so, that Tenshin Okakura an art historian and friend of Tagore, was able to write a book on Japanese tea in English and a play the “Silver Fox” in English directly. The xenophobia and hostility towards foreign influences was a product of the military dominated politics of the 20s and 30s and during the war till 1945. Under the American occupation from 1945 to 1952 all institutions including educational ones underwent reform to purge ideas which smacked of the Fascist interwar years. Universities were again open to foreign influence and to student exchanges. Japanese universities as a general rule offer high class education at a price which is less than private universities in the USA. State universities in Japan tend to be reasonable com- pared to top private ones like Keio or Waseda founded by Okuma Shigenobu in 1888.
Q. Japan is center of great cutting edge technologies, R&D labs etc. It is associated with several hi-ttech products and services yet its Universities are not internationally known brands, why?
A. The reason that Universities in Japan are less well known abroad is because of several factors. Japanese universities may not be known in India or the west but in China and the South East they have been well known since 1895 when Japan defeated China and in 1905 defeated Imperial Russia.
Several leading Chinese intellectuals like Sun Yat Sen studied in Japan and were influenced by Japanese ideas. Nationalist leaders of Vietnam struggling against French colonial rule established in the 1880s were deeply inspired by the Russo Japanese war. Phan Boi Chau one such leader traveled to Japan seeking help. Leaders such as Okuma and Inukai gave help by inviting 100 young Vietnamese boys to study at Japanese universities. Japanese technology has been known even before the war in East Asia. Korea a colony of Japan from 1910 to 1945 also had many generations of students who were educated in Japan. It is correct that top places like the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo University, Keio University with excellent R&D faculties are not well known abroad.
Q. English language is a deterrent to study in Japan?
A. The English language has been a deterrent so far. But this is changing. The Japanese have a complex about their inability to master alien tongues. Slowly but surely this changing and Japanese are acquiring huge skills in learning English language.
Q. 4. Group 30 Universities from Japan recently established an office in India to attract Indian students to Japan, why this initiative is taken at this time? What road map and benefits shall be made to Indian students intending to go to overseas destinations with this initiative?
A. The G-30 initiative by PM Fukuda in 2008 is aimed at increasing the number of foreign students in Japan from the present 130000 to 300000 by 2012. The Ritsumeikan office established in October 2010 at the Japan Foundation building is part of this initiative. Waseda has an office in Vietnam and other Universities have been given responsibility for other territories. As part of this work we helped the G30 in January 2011 to invite students from top schools in Delhi and other cities to attend a seminar addressed by the representatives of leading Japanese universities. I inaugurated this seminar. The purpose is to attract young talent to study in Japan. The benefit Indian students would derive from such study are explained at such seminars. To make it easier some universities like Keio have started English medium classes at the Fujisawa campus which teaches all high tech subjects such as IT, Energy, environmental science and others. Keio has a separate initiative GIGA which aims to attract bright youth to study at the undergraduate level. Post graduate schools in many leading universities have been conducting their classes in English for some years now. This is a trend that is growing.
Q. Any synergies that are possible between private universities between India and Japan with this Group 30 University consortium?
A. PM Abe in 2007 organised the first University Vice Chancellors conference in Delhi to bring together leaders of 12 top universities in both countries. The conference which I attended, as the international adviser to Keio which was the Japanese Co Chairman with the UGC Chairman on the Indian side, led to Keio signing MOUs with 11 top Indian universities including 5 IITs. The synergy between our institutions was well demonstrated by this event.
– OE News Bureau
In the early 1930s, when we were born, the world population was just 2 billion; now it is more than two and a half times as large and still growing rapidly. The population of the United States is increasing much more slowly than the world average, but it has more than doubled in only six decades -- from 120 million in 1928 to 250 million in 1990. Such a huge population expansion within two or three generations can by itself account for a great many changes in the social and economic institutions of a society. It also is very frightening to those of us who spend our lives trying to keep track of the implications of the population explosion.
This sequel to Paul Ehrlich's 1968 landmark bestseller The Population Bomb examines the critical choices we face today and proposes an agenda for the 1990s to avoid global ecocide. The Population Explosion vividly describes how the Earth's population, growing by 95 million people a year, is rapidly depleting the planet's resources, resulting in famine, global warming, acid rain, and other major problems. Paul and Anne Ehrlich also clearly and concisely point to immediate action that will lessen the threat of ruin and begin to build a more peaceful, sane, and secure world.
A SLOW START
One of the toughest things for a population biologist to reconcile is the contrast between his or her recognition that civilization is in imminent serious jeopardy and the modest level of concern that population issues generate among the public and even among elected officials.
Much of the reason for this discrepancy lies in the slow development of the problem. People aren't scared because they evolved biologically and culturally to respond to short-term "fires" and to tune out long-term "trends" over which they had no control. Only if we do what doesn't come naturally -- if we determinedly focus on what seem to be gradual or nearly imperceptible changes -- can the outlines of our predicament be perceived clearly enough to be frightening.
Our own species, Homo sapiens, evolved a few hundred thousand years ago. Some ten thousand years ago, when agriculture was invented, probably no more than five million people inhabited Earth -- fewer than now live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even at the time of Christ, two thousand years ago, the entire human population was roughly the size of the population of the United States today; by 1650 there were only 500 million people and in 1850 only a little over a billion. Since there are now well past 5 billion people, the vast majority of the population explosion has taken place in less than a tenth of one percent of the history of Homo sapiens.
This is a remarkable change in the abundance of a single species. After an unhurried pace of growth over most of our history, the expansion of the population accelerated during the Industrial Revolution and really shot up after 1950. Since the mid-century, the human population has been growing at annual rates ranging from about 1.7 to 2.1 percent per year, doubling in forty years or less. Some groups have grown significantly faster; the population of the African nation of Kenya^ was estimated to be increasing by over 4 percent annually during the 1980s -- a rate that if continued would double the nation's population in only seventeen years. That rate did continue for over a decade and only recently has shown slight signs of slowing. Meanwhile, other nations, such as those of northern Europe, have grown much more slowly in recent decades.
But even the highest growth rates are still slow-motion changes compared to events we easily notice and react to. A car swerving at us on the highway is avoided by actions taking a few
DEMOGRAPHIC FACTS
Ten Most Populous Countries
Population: 1,338,612,968 (Excluding Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau)
Percentage of World Population: 19.6
Did you know?
Population: 1,163,408,098
Percentage of World Population: 17.1
Did you know?
Population: 300,009,000
Percentage of World Population: 4.4
Demographic Facts:
Population: 230,168,000
Percentage of World Population: 3.4
Did you know?
Population: 191,109,937
Percentage of World population: 2.8
Did you know?
Population: 176,242,949
Percentage of World Population: 2.6
Did you know?
Population: 156,050,883
Percentage of World Population: 2.3
Did you know?
Population: 148,093,000
Percentage of World Population: 2.2
Did you know?
Population: 141,824,280
Percentage of World Population: 2.1
Did you know?
Population: 127,078,679
Percentage of World Population: 1.9
Did you know?
This sequel to Paul Ehrlich's 1968 landmark bestseller The Population Bomb examines the critical choices we face today and proposes an agenda for the 1990s to avoid global ecocide.
The Population Explosion vividly describes how the Earth's population, growing by 95 million people a year, is rapidly depleting the planet's resources, resulting in famine, global warming, acid rain, and other major problems. Paul and Anne Ehrlich also clearly and concisely point to immediate action that will lessen the threat of ruin and begin to build a more peaceful, sane, and secure world.
A SLOW START
One of the toughest things for a population biologist to reconcile is the contrast between his or her recognition that civilization is in imminent serious jeopardy and the modest level of concern that population issues generate among the public and even among elected officials.
Much of the reason for this discrepancy lies in the slow development of the problem. People aren't scared because they evolved biologically and culturally to respond to short-term "fires" and to tune out long-term "trends" over which they had no control. Only if we do what doesn't come naturally -- if we determinedly focus on what seem to be gradual or nearly imperceptible changes -- can the outlines of our predicament be perceived clearly enough to be frightening.
Our own species, Homo sapiens, evolved a few hundred thousand years ago. Some ten thousand years ago, when agriculture was invented, probably no more than five million people inhabited Earth -- fewer than now live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even at the time of Christ, two thousand years ago, the entire human population was roughly the size of the population of the United States today; by 1650 there were only 500 million people and in 1850 only a little over a billion. Since there are now well past 5 billion people, the vast majority of the population explosion has taken place in less than a tenth of one percent of the history of Homo sapiens.
This is a remarkable change in the abundance of a single species. After an unhurried pace of growth over most of our history, the expansion of the population accelerated during the Industrial Revolution and really shot up after 1950. Since the mid-century, the human population has been growing at annual rates ranging from about 1.7 to 2.1 percent per year, doubling in forty years or less. Some groups have grown significantly faster; the population of the African nation of Kenya was estimated to be increasing by over 4 percent annually during the 1980s -- a rate that if continued would double the nation's population in only seventeen years. That rate did continue for over a decade and only recently has shown slight signs of slowing. Meanwhile, other nations, such as those of northern Europe, have grown much more slowly in recent decades.
But even the highest growth rates are still slow-motion changes compared to events we easily notice and react to. A car swerving at us on the highway is avoided by actions taking a few seconds. The Alaskan oil spill caused great public indignation but faded from the media and the consciousness of most people in a few months. America's participation in World War II spanned less than four years. During the last four years, even Kenya's population grew by only about 16 percent--a change hardly perceptible locally, let alone from a distance. In four years, the world population expands only a little more than 7 percent. Who could notice that? Precipitous as the population explosion has been in historical terms, it is occurring at a snail's pace in an individual's perception. It is not an event, it is a trend that must be analyzed in order for its significance to be appreciated.
EXPONENTIAL GROWTH
The time it takes a population to double in size is a dramatic way to picture rates of population growth, one that most of us can understand more readily than percentage growth rates. Human populations have often grown in a pattern described as "exponential." Exponential growth occurs in bank accounts when interest is left to accumulate and earns interest. Exponential growth occurs in populations because children, the analog of interest, remain in the population and themselves have children.
A key feature of exponential growth is that it often seems to start slowly and finish fast. A classic example used to illustrate this is the pondweed that doubles each day the amount of pond surface covered and is projected to cover the entire pond in thirty days. The question is, how much of the pond will be covered in twenty-nine days? The answer, of course, is that just half of the pond will be covered in twenty-nine days. The weed will then double once more and cover the entire pond the next day. As this example indicates, exponential growth contains the potential for big surprises.
The limits to human population growth are more difficult to perceive than those restricting the pond weed's growth. Nonetheless, like the pondweed, human populations grow in a pattern that is essentially exponential, so we must be alert to the treacherous properties of that sort of growth. The key point to remember is that a long history of exponential growth in no way implies a long future of exponential growth. What begins in slow motion may eventually overwhelm us in a flash.
The last decade or two has seen a slight slackening in the human population growth rate -- a slackening that has been prematurely heralded as an "end to the population explosion." The slowdown has been only from a peak annual growth rate of perhaps 2.1 percent in the early 1960s to about 1.8 percent in 1990. To put this change in perspective, the population's doubling time has been extended from thirty-three years to thirty-nine. Indeed, the world population did double in the thirty-seven years from 1950 to 1987. But even if birth rates continue to fall, the world population will continue to expand (assuming that death rates don't rise), although at a slowly slackening rate, for about another century. Demographers think that growth will not end before the population has reached 10 billion or more.
So, even though birth rates have declined somewhat, Homo sapiens is a long way from ending its population explosion or avoiding its consequences. In fact, the biggest jump, from 5 to 10 billion in well under a century, is still ahead. But this does not mean that growth couldn't be ended sooner, with much smaller population size, if we -- all of the world's nations -- made up our minds to do it. The trouble is, many of the world's leaders and perhaps most of the world's people still don't believe that there are compelling reasons to do so. They are even less aware that if humanity fails to act, nature may end the population explosion for us -- in very unpleasant ways -- well before 10 billion is reached.
Those unpleasant ways are beginning to be perceptible. Humanity in the 1990s will be confronted by more and more intransigent environmental problems, global problems dwarfing those that worried us in the late 1960s. Perhaps the most serious is that of global warming, a problem caused in large part by population growth and overpopulation. It is not clear whether the severe drought in North America, the Soviet Union, and China in 1988 was the result of the slowly rising surface temperature of Earth, but it is precisely the kind of event that climatological models predict as more and more likely with continued global warming. In addition to more frequent and more severe crop failures, projected consequences of the warming include coastal flooding, desertification, the creation of as many as 300 million environmental refugees, alteration of patterns of dis-ease, water shortages, general stress on natural ecosystems, and synergistic interactions among all these factors.
Continued population growth and the drive for development in already badly overpopulated poor nations will make it exceedingly difficult to slow the greenhouse warming -- and impossible to stop or reverse it -- in this generation at least. And, even if the warming should miraculously not occur, contrary to accepted projections, human numbers are on a collision course with massive famines anyway.
MAKING THE POPULATION CONNECTION
Global warming, acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, vulnerability to epidemics, and exhaustion of soils and groundwater are all, as we shall see, related to population size. They are also clear and present dangers to the persistence of civilization. Crop failures due to global warming alone might result in the premature deaths of a billion or more people in the next few decades, and the AIDS epidemic could slaughter hundreds of millions. Together these would constitute a harsh "population control" program provided by nature in the face of humanity's refusal to put into place a gentler program of its own. We shouldn't delude ourselves: the population explosion will come to an end before very long. The only remaining question is whether it will be halted through the humane method of birth control, or by nature wiping out the surplus. We realize that religious and cultural opposition to birth control exists throughout the world, but we believe that people simply don't understand the choice that such opposition implies. Today, anyone opposing birth control is unknowingly voting to have the human population size controlled by a massive increase in early deaths.
Of course, the environmental crisis isn't caused just by expanding human numbers. Burgeoning consumption among the rich and increasing dependence on ecologically unsound technologies to supply that consumption also play major parts. This allows some environmentalists to dodge the population issue by emphasizing the problem of malign technologies. And social commentators can avoid commenting on the problem of too many people by focusing on the serious maldistribution of affluence.
But scientists studying humanity's deepening predicament recognize that a major factor contributing to it is rapidly worsening overpopulation. The Club of Earth, a group whose members all belong to both the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, released a statement in September 1988 that said in part: Arresting global population growth should be second in importance only to avoiding nuclear war on humanity's agenda. Overpopulation and rapid population growth are intimately connected with most aspects of the current human predicament, including rapid depletion of nonrenewable resources, deterioration of the environment (including rapid climate change), and increasing international tensions.
But even in that narrow context, the assertion is wrong. Suppose food was distributed equally. If everyone in the world ate as Americans do, less than half the present world population could be fed on the record harvests of 1985 and 1986.
Of course, everyone doesn't have to eat like Americans.
About a third of the world's grain harvest -- the staples of the human feeding base -- is fed to animals to produce eggs, milk, and meat for American-style diets. Wouldn't feeding that grain directly to people solve the problem? If everyone were willing to eat an essentially vegetarian diet, that additional grain would allow perhaps a billion more people to be fed with 1986 production.
Would such radical changes solve the world food problem? Only in the very short term. An additional billion people are slated to be with us by the end of the century. Moreover, by the late 1980s, humanity already seemed to be encountering trouble maintaining the production levels of the mid-1980s, let alone keeping up with population growth. The world grain harvest in 1988 was some 10 percent below that of 1986. And there is little sign that the rich are about to give up eating animal products.
So there is no reasonable way that the hunger problem can be called "only" one of distribution, even though redistribution of food resources would greatly alleviate hunger today. Unfortunately, an important truth, that mal-distribution is a cause of hunger now, has been used as a way to avoid a more important truth -- that overpopulation is critical today and may well make the distribution question moot tomorrow.
The food problem, however, attracts little immediate concern among well-fed Americans, who have no reason to be aware of its severity or extent. But other evidence that could make everyone face up to the seriousness of the population dilemma is now all around us since problems to which overpopulation and population growth make major contributions are worsening at a rapid rate. They often appear on the evening news, although the population connection is almost never made.
Consider the television pictures of barges loaded with garbage wandering like The Flying Dutchman across the seas, and news stories about "no room at the dump." They are showing the results of the interaction between too many affluent people and the environmentally destructive technologies that support that affluence. Growing opportunities to swim in a mixture of sewage and medical debris off American beaches can be traced to the same source. Starving people in sub-Saharan Africa are victims of drought, defective agricultural policies, and overpopulation of both people and domestic animals -- with warfare often dealing the final blow. All of the above are symptoms of humanity's massive and growing negative impact on Earth's life-support systems.
RECOGNIZING THE POPULATION PROBLEM
The average person, even the average scientist, seldom makes the connection between such seemingly disparate events and the population problem, and thus remains unworried. To a degree, this failure to put the pieces together is due to a taboo against frank discussion of the population crisis in many quarters, a taboo generated partly by pressures from the Catholic hierarchy and partly by other groups who are afraid that dealing with population is-sues will produce socially damaging results.
Many people on the political left are concerned that focusing on overpopulation will divert attention from crucial problems of social justice (which certainly need to be addressed in addition to the population problem). Often those on the political right fear that dealing with overpopulation will encourage abortion (it need not) or that halting growth will severely damage the economy (it could, if not handled properly). And people of varied political persuasions who are unfamiliar with the magnitude of the population problem believe in a variety of farfetched technological fixes -- such as colonizing outer space -- that they think will allow the need for regulating the size of the human population to be avoided forever.
Even the National Academy of Sciences avoided mentioning controlling human numbers in its advice to President Bush on how to deal with global environmental change. Although Academy members who are familiar with the issue are well aware of the critical population component of that change, it was feared that all of the Academy's advice would be ignored if recommendations were included about a subject taboo in the Bush administration. That strategy might have been correct, considering Bush's expressed views on abortion and considering the administration's weak appointments in many environmentally sensitive positions. After all, the Office of Management and Budget even tried to suppress an expert evaluation of the potential seriousness of global warming by altering the congressional testimony of a top NASA scientist, James Hansen, to conform with the administration's less urgent view of the problem.
All of us naturally lean toward the taboo against dealing with population growth. The roots of our aversion to limiting the size of the human population are as deep and pervasive as the roots of human sexual behavior. Through billions of years of evolution, our reproducing other members of your population was the name of the game. It is the very basis of natural selection, the driving force of the evolutionary process. Nonetheless, the taboo must be uprooted and discarded.
OVERCOMING THE TABOO
There is no more time to waste; in fact, there wasn't in 1968 when The Population Bomb was published. Human inaction has already condemned hundreds of millions more people to premature deaths from hunger and disease. The population connection must be made in the public mind. Action to end the population explosion humanely and start a gradual population decline must become a top item on the human agenda: the human birth rate must be lowered to slightly below the human death rate as soon as possible. There still may be time to limit the scope of the impending catastrophe, but not much time. Ending the population ex-plosion by controlling births is necessarily a slow process. Only nature's cruel way of solving the problem is likely to be swift.
Of course, if we do wake up and succeed in controlling our population size, that will still leave us with all the other thorny problems to solve. Limiting human numbers will not alone end warfare, environmental deterioration, poverty, racism, religious prejudice, or sexism; it will just buy us the opportunity to do so. As the old saying goes, whatever your cause, it's a lost cause without population control.
America and other rich nations have a clear choice today. They can continue to ignore the population problem and their own massive contributions to it. Then they will be trapped in a downward spiral that may well lead to the end of civilization in a few decades. More frequent droughts, more damaged crops and famines, more dying forests, more smog, more international conflicts, more epidemics, more gridlock, more drugs, more crime, more sewage swimming, and other extreme unpleasantness will mark our course. It is a route already traveled by too many of our less fortunate fellow human beings.
Or we can change our collective minds and take the measures necessary to lower global birth rates dramatically. People can learn to treat growth as cancer like the disease it is and move toward a sustainable society. The rich can make helping the poor an urgent goal, instead of seeking more wealth and useless military advantage over one another. Then humanity might have a chance to manage all those other seemingly intractable problems. It is a challenging prospect, but at least it will give our species a shot at creating a decent future for itself. More immediately and concretely, taking action now will give our children and their children the possibility of decent lives.
All too often, overpopulation is thought of simply as crowding: too many people in a given area, too high a population density. For instance, the deputy editor in chief of Forbes magazine pointed out recently, in connection with a plea for more population growth in the United States: "If all the people from China and India lived in the continental U.S. (excluding Alaska), this country would still have a smaller population density than England, Holland, or Belgium."
The appropriate response is "So what?" Density is generally irrelevant to questions of overpopulation. For instance, if brute density were the criterion, one would have to conclude that Africa is "underpopulated," because it has only 55 people per square mile, while Europe (excluding the USSR) has 261 and Japan 857. A more sophisticated measure would take into consideration the amount of Africa not covered by desert or "impenetrable" forests. This more habitable portion is just a little over half the continent's area, giving an effective population density of 117 per square mile. That's still only about a fifth of that in the United Kingdom. Even by 2020, Africa's effective density is projected to grow to only about that of France today (266), and few people would consider France excessively crowded or overpopulated.
When people think of crowded countries, they usually contemplate places like the Netherlands (1,031 per square mile), Taiwan (1,604), or Hong Kong (14,218). Even those don't necessarily signal overpopulation--after all, the Dutch seem to be thriving, and doesn't Hong Kong have a booming economy and fancy hotels? In short, if density were the standard of overpopulation, few nations (and certainly not Earth itself) would be likely to be considered overpopulated in the near future. The error, we repeat, lies in trying to define overpopulation in terms of density; it has long been recognized that density per se means very little.
The key to understanding overpopulation is not population density but the number of people in an area relative to its resources and the capacity of the environment to sustain human activities; that is, to the area's carrying capacity. When is an area overpopulated? When its population can't be maintained without rapidly depleting nonrenewable resources (or converting renewable resources into nonrenewable ones) and without degrading the capacity of the environment to support the population. In short, if the long-term carrying capacity of an area is clearly being degraded by its current human occupants, that area is overpopulated.
By this standard, the entire planet and virtually every nation are already vastly overpopulated. Africa is overpopulated now because, among other indications, its soils and forests are rapidly being depleted and that implies that its carrying capacity for human beings will be lower in the future than it is now. The United States is overpopulated because it is depleting its soil and water resources and contributing mightily to the destruction of global environmental systems. Europe, Japan, the Soviet Union, and other rich nations are over-populated because of their massive contributions to the carbon dioxide build-up in the atmosphere, among many other reasons. Almost all the rich nations are overpopulated because they are rapidly drawing down stocks of resources around the world. They don't live solely on the land in their own nations.... they are spending their capital with no thought for the future.
This "carrying capacity" definition of overpopulation is the one used in this book. It is important to understand that under this definition a condition of over-population might be corrected with no change in the number of people. For instance, the impact of today's 665 million Africans on their resources and environment theoretically might be reduced to the point where the continent would no longer be overpopulated. To see whether this would be possible, population growth would have to be stopped . . .
Similarly, dramatic changes in American lifestyle might suffice to end overpopulation in the United States without a large population reduction.
It is with great pleasure that, at Opinion Express, we have learned that Mr. Rajkeswar Purring has been elected fifth president of the Republic of Mauritius. It is, we feel, the culmination of a rich political career after he has served as Speaker of the National Assembly. It is said of him that he exercised his duties as Speaker with objectivity and impartiality and this goes to his credit. From modest beginnings, Mr. Purryag has patiently worked his way up to reach where he now is. This is no mean achievement. Mr.Purryag can serve as an example for those who have a goal in life. He illustrates what can be achieved with dedication and a sense of purpose.
Mr.Purryag became an attorney in 1973 and joined the Labor Party. He stood as a candidate for the general elections in 1976. He occupied different ministerial posts in the course of his political career. We can recall that he was Minister of Social Security from 1980 to 1982, Minister of Health from 1984 to 1988, and Minister of Economic Development and Telecommunications from 1995 to 1997. From 1997 to 2000 he was Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Commerce. He became Speaker in 2005.
Our best wishes are with Mr.Kailash Purring now that he is President of our Republic. We have no doubt that he will “uphold the standard of the Presidency with a decorum that his office demands” as the Jon. Prime Minister, Dr. Navinchandra Ramona said in the Assembly. Opinion Express congratulates Mr.Rajkeswar Purring wholeheartedly. His loyalty to the Labor Party has been rewarded. We have no doubt that he will exercise his new responsibilities with joy and the acumen that goes with them. He is well aware of the task that awaits him as he embarks on another stage of his already rich career. We are aware that he reads Opinion Express regularly. This, no doubt, adds to our pleasure that he is now at Le Redid.
KP. Yes, I think the relationship between India and Mauritius has been further consolidated by Dr. Navin Ramgoolam and we are working together to set the economic sector within the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation and we know this initiative was put forward by Mauritius, and that today Mauritius, India, Australia and other member states of the Indian Ocean Rim are playing a very important role to promote the economic interest of the member states. I think within that association, our relationship is further consolidated in the economic sector. As for our tourist sector, we have recently received many Indian businessmen who have come to Mauritius to invest in the tourist sector and I know one or two groups who are actually constructing hotels. Once this construction is over, it will enhance the relationship between our two countries.
KP. Yes, you see that Mauritius has done very well not for the last two or three years but in the last two decades.
Since our independence, we are striving very hard to put in place a strategy for the socioeconomic development of the country and after thirty years of independence, today we can say that we have achieved a certain level of economic development as you know and today Mauritius is considered as a success story of the African continent. Earlier Mauritius was known neither in the African continent nor in the international community. It is now that Mauritius is being cited in all forms despite being a small island, we have achieved tremendous growth on the economic front. Therefore, we are doing everything possible within our means today to position ourselves as a hub of economic activities and poised to become a gateway between Asia and Africa. In that context, we are creating a free port, as the Government of Mauritius has invested a lot of money in the port of Mauritius just to create support to attract business here and we are trying to develop a very strong service economy. So, we are trying to re-engineer our economy in such a way that we have skills in Mauritius to be able to become a service economy and to provide the necessary manpower. Again I must say that we have come out with a plan of action to review our educational system so as to adapt it to our concept of economic development and cater to our needs both in terms of infrastructure as well as human resource development. We are doing a lot of work to prepare ourselves in order to position Mauritius as a hub to provide a link as a gateway between Asia and Africa.
KP. You have rightly said Mauritius is an international tourist hub. Today we receive more than 500,00 tourists mainly from Europe. From India, we have very little tourist inflow. We are doing our best to get Indian tourists to come to Mauritius but it all depends on the tourists themselves.
Mauritius has established a reputation as a tourist destination which is known in India. I think that the Ministry of Tourism will perhaps hold certain manifestations in India to promote Mauritius as a tourist destination in the Indian community.
KP. There is a package of incentives that have been put in place to attract businessmen in Mauritius, especially in MOBAA. We have a bilateral agreement with India, which is one of the most favorable agreements. I think we have a very interesting package that has to be taken into account by future investors who want to invest in Mauritius.
KP. Well, we must say that India has made a lot of progress in the industrial field and the progress has been so much that India today has become an industrial power in the world. India is an economic power in waiting, what is important is unity, peace, and stability along with economic progress because unless you have peace, stability and unity, economic progress in a real sense can not be achieved. Similar conditions are existing in Mauritius, for example, in coordination with all the main communities here, we have been able to create political and social stability in order to make economic development. So I think that India since independence has made a lot of progress that needs to make more progress in order to cater to its population and for this you need to have peace, stability and unity.
-BY PRASHANTR TEWARI & RAJIV AGNIHOTRI FOR OE NEWS BUREAU AT MAURITIUS
Emirates Center for strategic studies and Research ECSSR is an independent organization, an intellectual arm of the UAE government. ECSSR conducts studies and research on topics relevant to the national security and socioeconomic well-being of the United Arabic Emirates in specific and the Gulf region in general with relevant international concerns. ECSSR provides community services with highly scientific activities with the convening of symposia lectures and conferences on topics related to the research agenda and actively assists the professional development of UAE nationals through training programs. ECSSR support to the government decision progress by preparing reports for the best policy scenario mix and ECSSR provides qualitative research for the decision-makers.
In a rapidly changing world, with new horizons and challenges expanding the scope of human activity at every turn, the wise leadership of the United Arab Emirates envisioned the creation of an advanced and independent research institution that would not only keep abreast with new developments at the political, economic and social spheres of human endeavor, but would also formulate the most suitable responses and strategies for keeping the UAE society ahead in the race of modernity.
It was with this vision that the UAE President, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, established the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR), a premier institution of its kind in the Middle East, which has ever since set new benchmarks of excellence and expertise in the field of strategic studies and research.
At the heart of the Center’s mission is its adoption of a strategic and rational approach to addressing today’s and tomorrow’s pivotal and pressing issues. It also places a premium on rigorous discipline in the triumph of the academic and scientific enterprise. In addition, the ECSSR’s core research group involves a cadre of well-educated nationals that derive a qualitative benefit from a specially designed program. The dedication and sense of duty that characterize these young professionals are remarkable. In their development, they have cultivated a sense of initiative and courage that will undoubtedly light the path to an even greater future. H.H. His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, appreciates the role of ECSSR in imparting quality planning to the government for delivering world-class governance to its people. According to the President of UAE, “As the United Arab Emirates is not isolated from these developments, it has striven to adopt essential measures for keeping pace with the requirements of the age, including the establishment of a prominent scientific research institution, the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR). The Center has demonstrated in past years that it is one of the most dynamic and effective bodies in the United Arab Emirates in monitoring global events.
The Center is concerned with tracking, analyzing, and investigating local, regional, and international developments on a structured scientific and methodological basis that guides appropriate decision-making. This process is inspired by the sound directives and the exclusive, unstinted support given to ECSSR by the UAE government, borne of the need to earnestly enhance the intellectual skills of UAE citizens and help them develop their potential as progressive citizens of the modern world.
Through its many concrete achievements, ECSSR has proven its ability to surmount all challenges and obstacles and has consequently become a well-established intellectual institution not only in the United Arab Emirates but also in the Gulf and the Arab world. Furthermore, ECSSR has acquired distinguished academic and research status at the international level. Hence, there is a need to continue our support for the Center within the context of strengthening scientific and intellectual traditions that lay the foundation for the building of modern societies that aspire to follow the path of accelerated development and progress.
Dr Jamal Sanad Al Suwaidi Director General ECSSR, the visionary intellectual brain behind ECSSR has pioneered a great road map for framing policies that created UAE in recent times. Dr Jamal spoke about ECSSR and the role of the ruler of Abu Dhabi ” Center?’s varied achievements and contributions could not have been realized without the honorable patronage of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the constant support and laudable interest of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
They have also spared no effort in supporting ECSSR, sponsoring its various activities and closely monitoring them with great interest, enriching the Center’s course with their sound directives, and promoting its activities and achievements. God willing, this support will help the Center to enhance its performance towards achieving excellence. The visionary leadership of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed government of Abu Dhabi with Dr. Jamal Sanad-Al Suwaidi have envisioned making the ICT sector the fifth pillar of the economy. With the advent of the Abu Dhabi knowledge hub, Opinion Express Group of companies has presented its solutions with programs that can enhance bilateral ties between UAE and India in the Information Technology sector. Mr Prashant Tewari Executive chairman of Pantal Technologies and Opinion Express group of companies visited Dr. Jamal Sanad Al-Suwaidi with Dr Mohiba Khalil to present IT solutions in the ICT sector that can cover health care, Bio-matrix identity cards, micro-credit scheme and cashless society, national security services and national identity cards and similar possibilities. This will lead to better ties between the two friendly nations. According to Dr KhalilUAE society is shifting towards the knowledge domain, the vision of its great leader Sheikh Zayed had laid the foundation years ahead. Mr Prashant Tewari strongly feels that the ICT sector can fuel the tremendous growth of the UAE economy. Pantel Technology with its consortium partners would like to coordinate with ECSSR to facilitate the following reference to achieve the objective.
Excellent IT and Communication infrastructure
Infrastructure facilitating good quality of life
Availability of skilled human resources for all categories of IT jobs.
Cost-effective operations
Facilitative policy, regulatory and institutional framework
The UAE is setting a pioneering model for constructive interaction between the leadership and the people gives top priority to the interests of the citizens and spares no effort in providing them with a decent life. highly appreciated by the citizens who are willing to play an active role in national development and boost nations of the world.
The interaction of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu D Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, with UAE citizens in Al Dhaid on Friday is an example of the close leaders and the people and a true reflection of the policy of openness which this relationship is based Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who was keen to learn about the needs of the citizens, said that His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and Supreme Commander of the (God protect him) to public concerns, and His Highness the President believes in providing a decent considers the true treasure of this nation.”
The UAE’s wise leadership strongly believes that human capital is the most invaluable resource and contribution to the development process is the means for national progress and prosperity. His Highness Gbin Zayed Al Nahyan’s statement made in Al Dhaid that “our leaders are keen to communicate with the p them a better service to both the nation and citizens” demonstrates the UAE citizen as central to the vision of our wise leadership.
Human resources, the main engine of development, are the country’s most invaluable asset. These wise leaders listen to the citizenry and make efforts to promote their welfare, in areas such as modern medical care and social services to provide citizens with a decent life. It is the tangible manifest. Stage launched by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan by “providing an empowerment of citizens in order to contribute to their social and political life.”
During their meeting with His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, citizens express satisfaction and loyalty. There was reciprocity of mutual affection and appreciation between the leaders the magic mantra for the security, stability and welfare of the UAE.
– Report filed by Mohiba Khalil from ECSSR HQ, Abu Dhabi
I am not a soft engineer and so cannot speak with authority on the global significance of late Steve Jobs' contributions to information technology. But, I do use the computer for a lot of my research activities, as also for writing the first electronic book on agriculture in the world on important tree crops of the developing world, followed by another on the world's two most important spices - black pepper and cardamom - and the most recent planned one on medicinal spice plants.
And I am working with the most advanced Microsoft system, and I know how tiresome, mentally and physically, it can get at times, sitting in front of the monitor for something like 15-16 hours a day, with just half an hour break for lunch or dinner, compiling such a vast body of scientific information onto the electronic pages.
What I wish to write about in this article is the frenzy one sees in the world today about Steve Jobs, and his unfortunate, though anticipated by himself, death in October. Some of his global admirers almost want "sainthood" bestowed on him! As he said, he considered every day of his life, after he was diagnosed for a malignant and incurable tumour in his pancreas, as the last day of his life and so worked with devilish frenzy.
Take these examples. A young boy in China sold one of his kidneys in order to afford to buy an I-pod, one of Jobs' supposedly "miraculous" products. His biography by Walter Isaacson is selling like hot cakes in China. At close to Rs 800 a piece, here in India, almost every "IT techie" or " IT coolie" (as someone very respected and knowledgeable here in India referred to our IT engineers working in the US - please note, the term is not mine) would grab a copy of the book.
I have often reflected about life and what it does to people. Sometimes "greatness" gets thrust upon oneself, birth being the common route - "born with a silver or golden spoon", as the case may be. Sometimes "greatness" is achieved, and only those who achieve it know what it takes to "achieve". In a number of cases, however much one tries to achieve greatness, one is swept down by the winds of hostile history. A common factor in all these cases, more often than not, is that the public at large sees only what it is told to believe. Here in India today, the media plays a pivotal role in the "making" or "breaking" of someone, depending on whether it "likes" or "dislikes" the individual involved.
Only when the person is no more, real skeletons fall out of the cupboard! It might interest the reader here to note that, when Walter Isaacson set about writing the biography of Steve Jobs, the latter was quite indifferent at first. But a point came when Jobs insisted on knowing every bit of detail in the planned book, so posterity would know what Jobs had done. Six months before he passed away, Jobs said at one of his public meetings "Remember, there is only one Steve Jobs". What a gigantic ego! So, let us take a look at what Jobs had done. Here I go.
Jobs' most important contribution was to adapt technology to human needs, make it abundantly simple, rather than the normally path of technology companies trying to educate people to use their products via a two inch thick tome - the "user manual". Take the case of the desktop computer. Without spending so many hours to educate myself, I could not have started using the most advanced Microsoft system to enable me to write the electronic book I am now writing. If one critically examines all the desktop computers available in the market today, all are basically the same in technical construction, not adding any significant or unique pride in their ownership, because there is nothing new or very unique about the new model.
But in the field of IT technology, Jobs brought a unique "individual touch" to the product he designed. He did this through Jony Ive, head of the design section of Apple. Jony Ive was almost ready to quit Apple in the mid-1980s when Steve Jobs persuaded him not to quit. Jony Ive was inspired by a German designer who had worked for the famous German electronics company Braun, whose driving principle in design was "Less but Better". This is what Jony Ive and Steve Jobs tried to accomplish together. Would Jobs have been able to replicate the same individuality in, say, an industry like automobiles or fashion designing? No. He would have ended up being "one" among the very best, but, never the "only one".
To go further in critically looking at Jobs' contributions to IT, one has to understand what was happening in mid-1990s when internet simply did not exist. In 1993, John Sculley, a top employee of Apple (the company Steve Jobs and his high school friend Steve Wozniack founded in the 1970s in a car garage) brought out the "Newton", which formed the core idea for the development of the subsequent I-phone and I-pad, the I-series, which is now is the craze of the world.
Unfortunately, today no one remembers John Sculley, and all credit goes only to Steve Jobs. Talking about "Newton", John Sculley had said in the 1990s when it was just launched, that "people need to communicate quickly in highly informal network-based organizations". That Newton did not live to fulfill its promise was because there was no technology to support it - mainly because, internet was not invented at that time. Were it so, it would have been John Sculley who would have ruled the world of IT innovation, and not Steve Jobs.
It is a great pity that neither Steve Jobs nor anyone in Apple has acknowledged the revolutionary role Newton played in the production of I-pads and I-phones ("I" devices) that we have now come to accept as simply Steve Jobs creations! That is the irony of life, of great inventions and discoveries.
Today in the world of science, quite often the reward of a Nobel Prize may not reach the simple technician working in a team from whose brain the best idea might have originated. The prize always goes to the team "Leader". Steve Jobs was that kind of a "Leader", driven by a maniac desire to rule and win - no matter how much he trampled on the minds of people around him.
The clearest proof of this is seen in the outburst of John Sculley's wife, who said in 1993 when Steve Jobs was pushed out of Apple as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), "When I look into the eyes of most people, I see a soul. When I look into your eyes, I see a bottomless pit, an empty hole, a dead zone".
What insightful words coming from a lady whose husband created the unique Newton, but who failed to live up to the glory of inventing such a unique piece of technology!! That was Steve Jobs. Working in the 1980s as a Professor in the world-renowned Justus von Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, where the chemistry department had more than 25 Nobel Prize winners over the years, I used to be wonderstruck by the brilliance of some technicians. But, the "Leader" always usurped the idea of the lowly technician!
The material success of Steve Jobs was a ruthless combination of the "burning desire to be number one in the world". Many have wondered how, behind a company that makes products which mean so much to people around the world, there was someone as mean as Steve Jobs.
Even his family members wondered whether he simply lacked the filter that restrains people from venting their wounding thoughts on others, or will-fully bypassed them. I have often thought that sometimes you need to be brutally honest to get where you want to be. And Steve Jobs was honest to the core, in that sense. He wanted to make the best product in the world, wanted to be the number one in the world in his chosen field, and wanted the world to remember even after he left it.
And, of course, wanted all the money that poured out of it. If not, why would he take the production unit to the suburb of Shanghai in China, where dawn-to-dusk, lowly paid Chinese workers whose individual dignity was trampled down, sweated it out to make all the I-devices? He didn't want the production unit to be located in the USA.
Perhaps it is because of that burning passion for an "afterlife" (he was never sure whether God existed or not - it was always 50:50 for him!) that he never wanted an "On -Off" switch in his products. The urge to live on, at least in his consciousness, after the body is gone… Seems closest to what Krishna told Arjuna in the eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita!
The author is an international agricultural scientist.
The insurgencies that impacted the Indian landscape till early this decade were generally in isolation. Though, they like all insurgencies had external links, the internal linkages between them were at best tenuous.
The Khalistan insurgency could be extinguished because of its unidimensional nature. It was confined to a specific geographic area and was supported by a specific group of people, easy to identify. Their cadre base was low.
The Kashmir militancy had not fully reared its head. The ISI patronage and support was well-known. The pioneering ideologues of the movement were based abroad and did not belong to the segment of the community, which provided the foot-soldiers.
The objective of the insurgency was to carve out another theocratic state.
The same can be said about insurgencies in the Northeast (NE). They too were supported by China, but in a manner that the deniability factor could be maintained. A separate country was their objective and not the destruction of the Indian state. The acts of terrorism in these insurgencies were to intimidate the local populace and preempt any support to the security forces.
Over the years, there is fusion of insurgency and terrorism. It first took the shape of proxy war with territorial objectives. Therefore, when the Indian Security establishment was faced with the Kargil misadventure, it initially appeared bewildered because it could not appreciate that a low-intensity conflict could assume the shape of a conflict, which was constricted in limit and scope due to internal and external considerations and pressures.
The overall military superiority that India enjoyed vis-a-vis Pakistan could not deter the latter.
Convergence of Terror
The proxy war waged by Pakistan and China are now converging on Delhi. This proxy war has various terrorist groups as its main tool. The main instruments of this war are none other but some Indians who are allured by ideology or money or both.
They have been convinced that India in its present form is a demonic state and needs to be destroyed.
The Maoists, Pakistan based terrorist groups, and terrorist groups in Northeast, Punjab and J&K are now in collaboration. They have forged a nexus for training, procurement of arms, establishing external linkages and providing safe-havens to each other. They are leveraging on one another's strength and reach.
Their common objective is to destroy the Indian State.
When the Army Chief talks about a two-front situation, he must realize that India is already facing a multi-front situation in terms of proxy war being waged by China, Pakistan and other inimical powers. This multi-front proxy war is rendering the country hollow from within. The inimical elements within the country are debilitating both our military resolve and our conventional capability.
The security of a country is the harmony between internal security and external security. Pakistan is collapsing because it always viewed internal security from the prism of external security. India on the other hand has been notorious in ignoring the external dimensions of internal security problems and treating them as that of law and order.
If the Maoists, who are trampling the heart of India, and the Pak sponsored jihadis of Kashmir as well as terrorists groups in Punjab, and the China-backed insurgent groups of Northeast, who have been trying to severe the head and limbs respectively, are now acting in concert, the internal security situation is grim.
A Super Power like the Soviet Union with its massive military capability, col-lapsed because it could not harmonize internal security with external security. India must not repeat the mistake. The Indian Army must revisit its threat perception and the very definition of 'enemy'.
Joint terrorist training camps
The arrest of two Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) leaders of Manipur Arun Kumar Singh and Dalip Singh in October 2011 exposed the emerging links between the militant organizations in the NE, Kashmir, LeT, and the Maoists. They revealed the ongoing effort on part of these groups to form a 'Strategic United Front' since they had the common objective to overthrow the Indian government.
They reckon that it is only collectively that they would be able to take on the might of the Indian State. They also revealed the plans of setting up a 'Joint Training Camp' in Myanmar. The Times of India on 08 October 2011 quoted official sources "ISI and PLA are in-touch and supply Maoists with arms. They are supposedly using China as the alternative route."
The official sources also claim to have photographic evidence of Maoist cadres from six Indian states being trained by the PLA of Manipur, in Orissa and Jharkhand.
This author has learnt through top intelligence sources that the Chinese have supplied a weapon manufacturing facility to the Kachin Insurgents in Myanmar. This facility is manufacturing replicas of AK-47, which is being supplied to all terrorist groups in India including the Maoists.
The latest recovery of explosives from a car on 12 October 2011 has also exposed the links between ISI, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Babbar Khalsa. Their objective was to target Delhi.
Taking into consideration, the seizures made by the security forces in the last few years, two important facts emerge - first, that Babbar Khalsa, the militant outfit, which carried out the killing of the Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh has been under the revival mode, under the patronage of ISI, and second, that the organization has no dearth of sophisticated arms and explosives supplied by the ISI.
The revival of Babbar Khalsa and Khalistan insurgency received impetus after the creation of the Pakistan Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee under the Chairmanship of Lt Gen Javed Nassir, former ISI chief. He is instrumental in forging the link between LeT and the Babbar Khalsa.
In October 2010, the Indian government had alleged that the Maoists of Nepal (PLA) had been imparting training to Indian Maoists on Nepal's soil. Further, the Maoists were receiving training from LeT instructors in these camps. There was information of 234 Maoists training in Nepal under the supervision of Naxalite leaders like Vinod Gurung, Prakash Mehto and LeT members like Razak Khan and Latif Khan, who hail from Karachi. In August 2010, Karnataka and Andhra Police, following four arrests in Hyderabad and two in Bangalore that the ISI through the 'D-company' had managed to establish links with the Maoists terrorists in the country. There were plans to invite Maoist leaders to Dubai to coordinate terrorist activities in India.
The spearheads of the modern terror network are people, who enjoy or have been conferred respectability by way of international awards or member-ship of NGOs ostensibly engaged in public cause. Some of these ideologues are active in forging links between various military groups. A noted Human Right activist, based on telephonic intercepts, has come under the scanner of intelligence agencies for trying to bring together various terrorist groups at the behest of Pakistan.
Even in the national capital the ideologues of the Maoists, Kashmiri and NE separatists have come together on a common platform on many occasions.
Their agenda is common, i.e. to weaken the resolve of the Indian State to fight terrorism. It is in this backdrop that their diatribes against the state, the security forces, and the Armed Forces Special Power Act should be viewed. This Act, they feel is the most robust tool in preserving the unity of India.
The Maoist agenda
It is pertinent to note that when Anna's agitation was at its peak, the eternal fast of Sharmila Irom of Manipur, was consistently highlighted. The focus was not she, but the removal of Armed Forces Special Power Act from Manipur.
One of the active members during the agitation is known for his ULFA links. During the same period, the so-called Lawyer civil activist and core member of the Team Anna, in one of the television channels, had categorically stated that the days of elected representatives are over, thereby implying that the India must jettison multiparty democracy.
He was only articulating the Maoist agenda. He also had then spoken that it is the Kashmiris who should decide whether they want to be part of India or not. Such was the hysteria during that period that these statements were lost in the din and did not receive adequate attention. The same gentleman has now advocated plebiscite in Kashmir and repealing of the Armed Forces Special Power Act.
One of the members of the Team of interlocutors on Kashmir has enjoyed the hospitality of Fai Foundation, headed by Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai the face of the Kashmir separatist cause in the United States. The Fai Foundation is funded by the ISI. It was a foregone conclusion that the team of interlocutors would recommend more autonomy for Kashmir. The timing of the submission of the report and utterances of the lawyer is not a mere coincidence.
The most formidable spearheads for convergence of terror in India are there in the media and amongst people who fancy to be called as intellectuals. The 'terrorism economy' is also formidable and has the ability to sustain some big media houses and other public platforms. They decry the Indian State, but 'Misuse the Freedom of Speech'.
The entire region in the surround of India is in unprecedented geopolitical flux. The US-Pakistan strategic partnership, which ensured the survivability of the latter since its inception is now under tremendous strain, arguably on the verge of collapse.
The internal problems of Pakistan seem to be intractable. The specter of the country's split is haunting. Pakistan's strategic maneuver space is getting increasingly constricted. The conventional tools available in the hands of Pakistan in leadership to alter the dangerous geopolitical discourse are in disarray or blunted.
It is not India, but Pakistan's machinations in Kashmir and Afghanistan, which has brought the country to this juncture. The emerging strategic partnership between India and the US, and India and Afghanistan has unnerved a tottering Pakistan. The only recourse available to Pakistan is to destabilize India by leveraging on all terrorist groups, i.e. the Maoists, who are active in one- third of India, and the terrorist groups in Kashmir, Punjab, Northeast, and Pak based terrorist groups and crime syndicate of the Dawood Ibrahim.
In this there is a congruency of interests between Pakistan and China. China too is not comfortable with the Indo-US strategic partnership and consequently the direction of the geopolitical discourse in the region. It has very high strategic stakes in Pakistan as well as in the Indian Ocean, particularly in the Bay of Bengal, where it is seeking presence by way of ports on Myanmar's western coast for convenient supply of oil from Gulf for its energy needs.
It is for this reason that China is engaged in thwarting India's 'Look East' outreach by increasingly brazen sup-port to Northeast terrorist groups and the Maoists.
Economic consequences
The convergence of Pakistan and China backed terror and spearheaded by the ideologues has dangerous portends for India. While the aim of this terror is to paralyze India, its main focus is shifting to its heart, i.e. the National Capital. In all probability terrorist attacks in India are likely to become more vicious, more deadly, more wide-spread and more frequent.
This proxy war has disastrous economic consequences. There is a thriving parallel terrorist economy. The Maoists are disrupting train services at will. Bandhs orchestrated by Maoists are having crippling effect on the economy and the livelihood of the people.
Corporate houses are paying ransom to the Maoists because the State cannot enforce its writ in large chunks of the hinterland. The Maoists menace is making thermal power plants starve for coal. India is becoming a dangerous place on this earth. Investors are being deterred. The Indian state machinery has become inured to the insecurity of the people. It probably feels that time itself will resolve the problem. The internal war against terror is being fought in a disjointed and half-hearted manner. The resolve mechanism and instruments to fight this convergence of terror is in disarray.
If this war is not won, India despite its conventional war-making capability, will collapse. We are fighting the war with wrong tools, wrong mindset, and misplaced ideas of war, oscillating between law and order approach and internal security approach. While there is convergence of various terrorist groups, the Indian authorities have a compartmentalized approach on the specious argument of federalism.
It's a war and given its import and spread, the internal enemies can only be defeated, if the Indian Army is in the forefront.
The writer is a former military intelligence officer who later served in the Research and Analysis Wing, or R&AW. The author of two books: Asian Strategic and Military Perspective and Military Factor in Pakistan, he is also Associate Editor, Indian Defence Review.
The iconic face of India in Japan is former Indian Ambassador to Japan Mr Aftab Seth who is playing the role of a catalyst to bridge the gap between unexplored land of opportunity for the Indian Gen-Next. Mr Seth highlights the tremendous depth of Japanese core strength that is yet to be tapped in India Higher education. Here are some of the most fascinating excerpts of his interview with Opinion Express associate editor Dr Rahul Misra.
Q Japan higher education system has been close knit hence globally people are unaware of its merits, kindly enlighten us about the cost factor, and Work culture of Japanese Universities?
A. From the time of the Meiji restoration in 1868 the Japanese university system was opened to the world. As the first university was Keio, set up in 1858, 10 years university was Keio, set up in 1858, 10 years before the restoration, it was deeply influenced by knowledge acquired by the founder Yukichi Fukuzawa from the Dutch in Nagasaki in Kyushu. As other universities were set up in 1870s by the Imperial government they depended greatly on professors from the west, USA Britain and for medicine from Germany. Till the early 60s all medical students had to learn German because of the text books. It is thus not quite accurate to call the Japanese university system closed. It became like this later, but the early years were of openness.
So much so, that Tenshin Okakura an art historian and friend of Tagore, was able to write a book on Japanese tea in English and a play the “Silver Fox” in English directly.
The xenophobia and hostility towards foreign influences was a product of the military dominated politics of the 20s and 30s and during the war till 1945. Under the American occupation from 1945 to 1952 all institutions including educational ones underwent reform to purge ideas which smacked of the Fascist interwar years. Universities were again open to foreign influence and to student exchanges.
This trend continues to grow.Japanese universities as a general rule offer high class education at a price which is less than private universities in the USA. State universities in Japan tend to be reasonable compared to top private ones like Keio or Waseda founded by Okuma Shigenobu in 1888.
Q. Japan is center of great cutting edge technologies, R&D labs etc. It is associated with several hi-tech products and services yet its Universities are not internationally known brands, why?
A. The reason that Universities in Japan are less well known abroad is because of several factors. Japanese universities may not be known in India or the west but in China and the South East they have been well known since 1895 when Japan defeated China and in 1905 defeated Imperial Russia.
Several leading Chinese intellectuals like Sun Yat Sen studied in Japan and were influenced by Japanese ideas. Nationalist leaders of Vietnam struggling against French colonial rule established in the 1880s were deeply inspired by the Russo Japanese war. Phan Boi Chau one such leader traveled to Japan seeking help. Leaders such as Okuma and Inukai gave help by inviting 100 young Vietnamese boys to study at Japanese universities. Japanese technology has been known even before the war in East Asia. Korea a colony of Japan from 1910 to 1945 also had many generations of students who were educated in Japan. It is correct that top places like the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo University, Keio University with excellent R&D faculties are not well known abroad.
Q. English language is a deterrent to study in Japan?
A The English language has been a deterrent so far. But this is changing. The Japanese have a complex about their inability to master alien tongues. Slowly but surely this changing and Japanese are acquiring huge skills in learning English language.
Q. 4. Group 30 Universities from Japan recently established an office in India to attract Indian students to Japan, why this initiative is taken at this time? What road map and benefits shall be made to Indian students intending to go to overseas destinations with this initiative?
A. The G-30 initiative by PM Fukuda in 2008 is aimed at increasing the number of foreign students in Japan from the present 130000 to 300000 by 2012. The Ritsumeikan office established in October 2010 at the Japan Foundation building is part of this initiative. Waseda has an office in Vietnam and other Universities have been given responsibility for other territories.
As part of this work we helped the G30 in January 2011 to invite students from top schools in Delhi and other cities to attend a seminar addressed by the representatives of leading Japanese universities. I inaugurated this seminar. The purpose is to attract young talent to study in Japan. The benefit Indian students would derive from such study are explained at such seminars. To make it easier some universities like Keio have started English medium classes at the Fujisawa campus which teaches all high tech subjects such as IT, Energy, environmental science and others. Keio has a separate initiative GIGA which aims to attract bright youth to study at the undergraduate level. Post graduate schools in many leading universities have been conducting their classes in English for some years now. This is a trend that is growing.
Q. Any synergies that are possible between private universities between India and Japan with this Group 30 University consortium?
A. PM Abe in 2007 organised the first University Vice Chancellors conference in Delhi to bring together leaders of 12 top universities in both countries. The conference which I attended, as the international adviser to Keio which was the Japanese Co Chairman with the UGC Chairman on the Indian side, led to Keio signing MOUs with 11 top Indian universities including 5 IITs. The synergy between our institutions was well demonstrated by this event.
-BY OPINION EXPRESS
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