‘MAKING NEWS FOR PAGE THREE’

HNN Bureau
Many corporates are making news on ‘page three’ as its hotting up for the news. Recently, a media company conducted a ramp show for its employees in their office premises in Hyderabad, according to grapevine, the show went on its peak to catch the glamour. Many of their participants make efforts to appear on PAGE THREE.

When the efforts gone haywire as one of the organizer, event head makes waves on pat with top-ranked DJs and VJs. Many applauded the efforts of ‘Kashif’ as his moves, commentary makes the viewers to hoot. Many shouted, many mismerised and, many gone mad on his looks, style and efforts on presentation. Organizers of this show are very novice, and the judges are tembled with their attire and style.

Participants who shows as team were normal, and the solo-performers makes waves and clinece the prize as well. The coprporate show, which makes others to follow and makes the employees stress-less with their tidious work, week-long.

Experts opined this type of anti-stress programs has to be organized in every company for the sake of health maintenance of their employees and entertainment too.

‘MAKING NEWS FOR PAGE THREE’

HNN Bureau
Many corporates are making news on ‘page three’ as its hotting up for the news. Recently, a media company conducted a ramp show for its employees in their office premises in Hyderabad, according to grapevine, the show went on its peak to catch the glamour. Many of their participants make efforts to appear on PAGE THREE.

When the efforts gone haywire as one of the organizer, event head makes waves on pat with top-ranked DJs and VJs. Many applauded the efforts of ‘Kashif’ as his moves, commentary makes the viewers to hoot. Many shouted, many mismerised and, many gone mad on his looks, style and efforts on presentation. Organizers of this show are very novice, and the judges are tembled with their attire and style.

Participants who shows as team were normal, and the solo-performers makes waves and clinece the prize as well. The coprporate show, which makes others to follow and makes the employees stress-less with their tidious work, week-long.

Experts opined this type of anti-stress programs has to be organized in every company for the sake of health maintenance of their employees and entertainment too.

OUTSOURCING: ARE MAGAZINES NEXT?

By M H AHSAN

“We move medical writing offshore. And for that, I apologize to all the freelance medical writers I have worked with in the past (and paid handsomely!) because now my company can do what they do, but for half the price,” writes Lombardo, whose post-Whittle positions have included editor-in-chief at WebMD. “I won’t be speaking at the American Medical Writers Association meetings anytime soon because I don’t own a Kevlar vest.”

Another American entrepreneur, Ted Fong, sends out letters to small publishers soliciting clients for his Manila-based company, Boma, offering “design, layout, content development and advertising telesales,” at a price that’s half of what it typically costs to have the work done in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Office Tiger, a New York-based publishing services company that does most of its work in Chennai, India, is building a design studio in India and bringing over a designer from the U.S. to run it. The firm hopes to attract more U.S. magazine clients for its full range of production work. “I think where publishers would most likely use us as a starting point would be design execution, where we are working with designs that have been established,” says Michelle Breault, senior vice president of content and prepress services. She expects more publishers to turn to the firm for original work “as we migrate to that broader design capability.”

It’s an increasingly familiar picture: the transfer of work that was once done by full-time employees in the U.S. to overseas contractors for a fraction of the price. It’s a fait accompli in customer service, direct marketing and information technology. Now, it’s the magazine business’s turn. Editorial, design, production and advertising functions are all being performed cheaper – and some contractors and publishers claim better – overseas.

The move abroad is just beginning, but experts believe the shift overseas is inevitable. For publishers that have already slashed staff, reduced editorial pages and shifted work onto freelancers in place of full-time staff, this represents the next frontier in cost-cutting. “I think the opportunity is that one can inherently make a new magazine start-up less expensive,” says Atul Vashista, CEO of outsourcing consultancy firm NeoIT. “One can reduce the production costs of putting a magazine out.”

Clearly, magazine production presents many of the same conditions that provided the offshore opportunity for other industries. Publishers are already accustomed to telecommuting sales reps, near-virtual editorial staff, outsourced art direction and design, outsourced Web programming, outsourced circulation fulfillment, etc. That can put magazine jobs into the great pool of the potentially offshored. According to a report published by the University of California, Berkeley last fall, as many as 14 million jobs could be shifted outside the U.S. by 2015. None of the research focused exclusively on the magazine business, but the report made clear just how vulnerable jobs in the industries that have the following characteristics are: “The lack of face-to-face customer service, work processes that enable telecommuting and Internet work, high wage differentials between countries, a high information content, low social networking requirements and low set-up costs.”

That list applies to a number of jobs in an industry that is increasingly migrating online – especially for a freelance copy editor or proofreader working out of his home for editors he’s never met. Copy editors and graphic designers are among the employees listed as being at moderate risk of losing their jobs to overseas competitors by job counseling Website careerplanner.com. “I was using a copywriter to write a couple of pages for me and I found she was farming some of it out,” says Michael Robinson, founder and owner of careerplanner.com. “Her proofreader was local, but there was no reason she couldn’t send it to India.”

Threat or Opportunity?The current face of magazine offshoring can be glimpsed in the moist puppy dog eyes staring out from the cover of the latest issue of Fido Friendly Magazine, a quarterly for people who travel with their dogs. The magazine’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, Nick Sveslovsky, who started the publication with his mother in 2001, answered a solicitation from Boma last year. He says that since the magazine was created, “I had been doing the design and production all myself, and we just didn’t have the resources financially to outsource to someone in the U.S. where the prices are ridiculous.” Sveslovsky estimates that by using Boma he pays about half what it would cost him to have the work done stateside. He sends Boma the raw material – including a photo of the next issue’s “cover dog” – and designers in the Philippines do the rest. The arrangement frees him up to concentrate on editorial and increasing the magazine’s frequency. “With Boma, it’ll happen a lot sooner than I would have thought, hopefully pretty soon,” Sveslovsky says.

The same offer from Boma evoked a far different reaction when it arrived on the desk of Samuel Pennington, publisher of Maine Antique Digest. “I live in a small town and have employees who have been with me 25 years and longer,” he says. “I just couldn’t see downsizing.” With employee pay and benefits making up more than one-third of his costs, he acknowledges that he probably could save money by outsourcing. But he considers such thinking shortsighted. “If everything is overseas, who’s going to be able to buy anything?” asks Pennington, rhetorically. “Henry Ford shocked everyone by paying his employees a living wage, but he did it because he wanted people to be able to buy his cars.”

Fido Friendly and Maine Antique Digest are typical of the publications Boma is targeting to build its magazine business (until now the company’s main focus had been on preparing marketing materials), in that they have circulations under 40,000 and serve a strong niche market. “Right now we go after the smaller magazines because they’re the ones who have the biggest needs and are the most cost-conscious,” says Fong, who mailed a solicitation to 350 U.S. publishers in January and is preparing to send another.

Boma charges $50 per page for layout and design, a price that includes sending the pages electronically to clients three times for proofing. Fong can afford to keep the price low because he typically pays his employees a fraction of what they would earn for comparable work in the U.S. – about $12,000 a year on average for a job that might pay $60,000 in the states. So far, with only three magazine clients, Boma is tiny, but Fong says he’s in discussions with others and has turned down some interested publishers whom he didn’t consider financially viable. He also has begun offering advertising services to magazines, including design and telephone sales.
With Fido Friendly, he’s using call centers to qualify leads by contacting hotels to find out details, such as whether they allow pets and what kind of accommodation they offer. From there, it’s up to the two full-time telephone sales people Fong employs to close the deal. He admits his sales staff is on a learning curve, but claims he can dramatically cut the costs of bringing in advertising. “The kind of customers we’re going after are not going to hire sales people and send them out on calls,” says Fong. “The way of the future is to close business over the phone, especially for ads that are less than $4,000 or $5,000 a page.”

Offshore Company Has Designs on U.S. MagsIf U.S. magazine workers only had to contend with Boma, there wouldn’t be much to worry about. But there are bigger players moving into this field. Office Tiger, for example, has a staff of 1,650 in India, and offices in New York and London. It was founded in 1999 to provide research, analysis and production services for law firms and investment banks, among other companies. Tiger quickly moved into the production of annual reports and prospectuses. From there, it’s not much of a leap to provide the same type of support for magazines and, in fact, the company has started to do so on a limited basis, says co-CEO and co-founder Joe Sigelman.

With its new design studio, the company will be able to perform many of the functions traditionally done in-house or outsourced to a domestic company, says Breault. That includes high-end creative work. She adds that the company expects to gain a publisher’s confidence by starting out providing routine design and production work, which magazines have plenty of. “If you look at creating a directory, for example, what you do is very much take a style and develop scripts to lay that out and what you’re doing is really merging data to a predefined layout,” she says.

Boma and OfficeTiger reflect a pattern among companies building up a business in offshore magazine work. They have established themselves in other fields – marketing, advertising and financial analysis – that require skills that are transferable to magazine publishing, such as writing, researching, copyediting, layout and design. By the time these companies begin courting magazine publishers, they have not only built up a track record demonstrating those core skills, they have already set up their facilities and technology and their sales and customer services staff. Their ability to transfer their success from related fields into magazine publishing will likely encourage competitors to make the same jump.

But how much of it really translates to magazine work? Can a copy editor in India understand the nuances of style well enough to make the words flow smoothly in, say, a magazine for wine connoisseurs in California? Can a graphic designer in the Philippines create a pleasing look for an American hotel chain’s custom publication? And what about the intangibles – the trust and communication that only comes from face-to-face contact.

“Most of the time, even among bigger accounts that we’ve gone after, you’re really dealing with someone in a very personal one-on-one relationship,” says Rob Sugar, president of Aurus Design in Silver Spring, Md. “So it matters to them that you’re not that far away.” Aurus designs and produces custom publications for organizations including the American Bus Association and the American Film Institute.

He says it would be logistically possible to perform the functions Aurus does offshore (he has clients in other states that he rarely sees in person), but he doubts overseas workers would have the right cultural sensibility for the job. “Knowing [a client] in a more intimate way is something that’s very important. I think there’s no substitute for understanding what their needs are.”
Boma’s employees in the Philippines ran into a cultural barrier when they began producing Fido Friendly. The concept of traveling with dogs was alien to the designers. Fong, who was born and raised in California, says it’s his job to explain such cultural differences to his staff.

Journal Work Migrating OverseasProfessional journals such as Molecular Cancer Research (from the American Association of Cancer Research) and the APG Bulletin) from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists) are already flocking to offshore vendors. Just ask Inera, a Massachusetts company that sells editorial and production software to publishers. “We have one competitor and it’s not another software product. It’s outsourcing,” says Ken Carson, Inera’s vice president. In the last year and a half, the company has lost several big potential deals because publishers found that instead of investing in software, they could outsource work to India or the Philippines and still save up to 80 percent off what it would cost to do the work in-house. Outmatched on price, Inera tries to compete on quality, appealing to publishers who insist on the control of keeping the work in-house, says Carson.

One of the companies giving Inera competition is SPI Publisher Services, which does prepress services such as layout and copyediting, as well as file conversion from print to electronic format for professional and scholarly journals in Manila. SPI’s revenues have been growing 50 percent a year for the past two years and are on track to hit $15 million this year.

“The economy being what it is, the attractiveness of offshore vendors is growing,” says Frank Stumpf, president and COO of the company, which has its U.S. headquarters in Ashland, Va. He maintains that offshore doesn’t just mean cheaper; it can also mean better because overseas companies can afford to put more workers on a project to get a job done faster and with greater attention to detail. So far, the company has not expanded from journals to consumer or trade magazines, but Stumpf says SPI is eyeing such publications for future growth. “I think there’s more and more opportunity,” he says. “Copyediting is one of the more labor intensive parts of the magazine business, so it’s a highly likely thing for people to consider moving offshore.”
But Barbara Wallraff, a language columnist for the Atlantic Monthly and editor of the Copy Editor Newsletter, says copyediting is too sophisticated a function to be farmed out to someone in another country. “If it’s quality that the companies care about for the great majority of copyediting applications, offshoring wouldn’t be the way to go,” she says. “So we need to do a good job of explaining why good, solid domestic editing does have value.”

Wallraff may be right – certainly a top literary/current events magazine like The Atlantic is unlikely to trust the nuance of language of top writers to unseen contractors. But many magazines are looking for something far simpler: clear, error-free copy. For example, Dowden Health Media, a custom publisher of medical information for both professional and consumer audiences, says it is happy to hire doctors in India to fact check its consumer publications.
The doctors check the stories against the medical literature to make sure the articles are scientifically accurate. “There’s an extra level of scrutiny, putting an extra brain on the case for each article,” says Mark Dowden, senior vice president and publisher. “It’s not so much a matter of keeping absolute errors from going through, as it is providing extra editorial input that can be used in final editing to confirm that everything in the article is just so from a scientific viewpoint.” Dowden declined to say how much he pays for the service, but said it’s less than what it would cost to hire a freelance fact checker, let alone an M.D., in the U.S.

Those doctors come by way of MD Writers, the company started by Lombardo. Lombardo says he has six Indian physicians under contract who write, research, copyedit and fact check material for consumer and professional audiences. MD Writers supplies content for Websites, ghost writes articles for peer-reviewed journals and prepares material for continuing education courses.

For one client, a Website for physicians, the doctors under contract with MD Writers review the professional journals each week and write summaries of their findings. Lombardo, who says the company has six clients including Dowden (but declined to name the others), says the only thing medical journalists do that the doctors he works with don’t is call sources to report on a story.
To find doctors who could write, he advertised on two Websites: Monsterindia.com and Timesofindia.com. He got 120 responses. Doctors typically make $1,200 to $2,000 a month in India, so the moonlighting offers an attractive way to supplement their income, says Lombardo. He gave the applicants writing tests. “I thought it would take me 100 tests to find four good writers,” he says. “After 70 tests I stopped. I had a pool of 15 writers.”Granted, the Indian doctors wrote with a British accent, but Lombardo says it took him only three months to train them to write American-style copy. And he did it all by e-mail from his office in Atlanta. Lombardo has never been to India.

INDIA’S TECH RENAISSENCE

By M H AHSAN

The outsourcing boom that has transformed this country’s economy can be traced in part to a technology discovery made in 1995.

That year, engineers at Tata Consultancy Services found that a set of software tools called CasePac, developed to convert code for IBM, could be used to change the date field in other programs.

“We realized this could be used for the Y2K problem,” said Nagaraj Ijari, a senior executive at Tata’s offices, located in this city at the epicenter of India’s thriving technology industry. Companies from around the world sought Tata’s outsourced services to fix the “millennium bug,” and the company’s annual revenue has climbed from less than $170 million to $2.24 billion in the years since.

The success story illustrates how quickly India’s fortunes have changed in just a few short years, as the country’s burgeoning technology industry has provided such services at a fraction of the cost of Western counterparts. Building on this foundation, India is now entering an important new phase in its economic evolution.

Once fairly anonymous organizations hired to run support desks and develop server applications for large multinational corporations, Indian companies are raising their profile as brand name suppliers in hardware design, software development, consulting services and virtually anything else in technology. Infused with new blood from a young tech-savvy work force, the new movement is a major advance toward economic independence that carries broad ramifications for a country whose past includes colonial rule, experiments in socialism and devastating poverty.

“There is a huge Indian domestic opportunity and an export opportunity beyond outsourcing,” said Rishi Navani, managing director of WestBridge Capital Partners, a venture capital firm specializing in Indo-American deals. “Over the next 12 months, you will see three to four new Indian Nasdaq listings.”

India’s growing entrepreneurial spirit is reflected in its forays into consumer electronics–a highly competitive market that has long been considered the province of Japan, China, South Korea and other Asian nations, as well as the United States.

Tata recently won a deal to create an environmentally friendly cell phone for a U.S. carrier, for example, while rival Wipro Technologies is designing MP3 players for Europe and a flat-panel TV for an American company. Such entrepreneurial ventures in the consumer market are not confined to the largest players: Mumbai-based Celetronix produces set-top boxes for a U.S.-based satellite TV carrier.

“Our evolution will be similar to the evolution of Taiwan,” said Ramesh Emani, president of Embedded & Product Engineering Solutions at Wipro, noting that in India, there would be greater emphasis on hardware design than on manufacturing.

As was the case in China, domestic demand is a significant factor in India’s technological expansion.

India has only 100 million phones for its population of 1 billion people–including both cellular and land lines–but that number is expected to grow to 250 million in the next two years. Cellular service costs only about $4 to $7 a month, and future phones will also sport cricket scores, lottery ticket purchases and other types of services seen in South Korea and Japan.
“The volume is enormous,” said Sanjay Nayak, CEO of network equipment specialist Tejas Networks, which has won large contracts in India against multinational competitors.

High growth is also expected for the computer market in India, which counts only 14 PCs for every 1,000 people. Several companies hope to court that market with computers priced at less than $250, many of them packaged with residential broadband service that costs about $12 a month for a 128kbps connection.

“It is our fastest-growing emerging market,” said Ketan Sampat, president of Intel India. “We’ve had a growing middle class. PCs are part of that.”

Beyond the home, some hardware companies are targeting the enterprise market in and outside India. VXL Instruments, for example, delivers stripped-down desktops to the likes of Air France and Goodyear Tire & Rubber.

New Delhi’s FinalQuadrant Solutions sells a server appliance for the travel industry. Travel agents pay only a modest amount for the server but hand FinalQuadrant a small fee for each hotel room night or travel leg booked through the system.

“We’re making every single (travel) reseller as powerful as Expedia,” CEO Anuj Gupta said. The company, which made $1 million in net profit in 2004, has mostly sold its products in Europe and is expanding to the United States.

For India’s service companies, perhaps the most natural expansion is the consulting business. Outsourcing stalwarts such as Tata, Wipro and Infosys Technologies have begun significant consulting operations as outgrowths of their outsourcing work. Each of these “Big Three” companies has seen revenue grow in the 30 to 50 percent range every year for the last five years–a period in which Western companies saw revenue flatten or decline.

Most of their consulting engagements largely address how best to implement services already provided by these companies. But they are nevertheless long-term commitments that will pit them against the formidable white-collar armies at large U.S. companies for years to come.
“We are not McKinsey. We do not want to hand over the report and run away,” Tata’s Ijari said. “Our competitors are Accenture and IBM.”

The new competition on many fronts from India has prompted U.S. companies to increase their presence in the country. Western companies such as Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard have set up shop in India as part of the outsourcing trend, to keep engineering labor costs in line with those of their competitors. But U.S. companies face a problem: Other types of employees, such as managers and sales executives, also have relatively low salaries–meaning they cost India rivals less.

Such concerns explain why U.S. venture capitalists are increasingly insisting that any U.S. start-up seeking funds maintain a presence in India. A company might cost $50 million to $70 million to build in the United States but, with relatively inexpensive labor overseas, might cost $12 million to $20 million in India.

U.S.-Indian businesses can take all manner of hybrid forms. Some were conceived in the United States and have built research and engineering departments in India. Others were born in India but have located high-level executives in America. Still others, such as Tejas and Telsima, are founded and based in India.

Whatever the mix, functions often monopolized by Silicon Valley in the past are now spreading overseas. To lure new investment, for instance, Silicon Valley Bank brought a number of American venture capitalists to India in September 2003 and subsequently opened offices that it lends to visiting VCs and their budding start-ups.

“Before, India was an afterthought,” said Ash Lilani, head of global sales and marketing at Silicon Valley Bank. “Now it is thought of at birth.”

From blackouts to corruptionStill, challenges persist. With an estimated 600 additional cars on Bangalore’s streets every day, traffic has ground to gridlock. The five-mile drive to Electronics City, the main tech hub, can take an hour from the center of town. An express road that was supposed to have been completed last year remains a tangle of rebar and cement pilings.
Electricity is another pressing concern. In nearly every Indian city and state, power outages occur fairly regularly. The lack of an adequate power grid is one reason that no foreign company has built a semiconductor fabrication facility in the country. A South Korean entrepreneur has signed a preliminary agreement to build a chip foundry near Hyderabad, but many sources privately doubt that the project will get far, because of the water and power demands of a modern fab plant.

“The government realizes that there needs to be foreign investment” in infrastructure, WestBridge Capital’s Navani said, adding that development funds are being negotiated with large banks.

Tech companies also routinely complain about India’s tax system. On the plus side, the onerously large import duties of the past are fading away, and the government has passed laws requiring the equivalent of benefits offered by places like China and Taiwan, including one that gives companies exporting tech products a 10-year exemption from income taxes.

Yet executives are well aware that the government has a history of adding taxes through its national budget, as exemplified recently with a so-called fringe benefit tax. Under this provision, companies that throw parties for clients or host them at conferences must pay a tax on the expenses, said Ravi Pradhan, India manager for Via Technologies.

Moreover, as in other parts of the world, corruption remains a problem when it comes to influencing clients and government officials. “In America, you might take them to the Super Bowl. Here, you give them money,” one source said.

And even for Indian entrepreneurs who know how to navigate the unofficial ways of doing business, help from multinational manufacturers is still necessary to build their industry.
“We have engineers who are good technicians, but we need product managers,” said Vinod Dham, founder of NewPath Ventures, a venture capital firm that specializes in Indian investments. The services business, he added, has “made a culture of people who say, ‘Tell me what to do.’”

Reverse outsourcingThis should lead, at least in the near term, to a form of reverse outsourcing, with U.S. experts heading overseas to provide services for Indian businesses. Indian-based companies, for their part, will need to install an increasing number of employees in Europe and North America to land contracts–which means paying higher Western salaries.

“You need guys who worked on Wall Street,” said Jessie Paul, head of marketing for iGate, a Bangalore-based company that provides consulting and other information technology services.
However, while these factors may temporarily slow progress, few expect it to stop the industry. Many Indian companies are becoming more integrated into the business processes of their customers, making offshore outsourcing a permanent arrangement.

“The level of people who are visiting us today is very, very high. They are actually the strategic decision makers. In the dot-com days, it was more reactive,” said Srinath Batni, a board member of Infosys. Outsourcing, he added, “has become a long-term strategy.”

That marathon approach is viewed as a key advantage for India. Many executives and entrepreneurs note that India’s tech boom is driven by a demographic bubble that will be difficult to match for other nations. India has a large population of young people who are driven, well-educated and work for relatively low wages.

“The average age of the working population in India is 27 years,” said Supratim Sarkar, manager of strategic marketing at Wipro. “That is one of the biggest levers we have.”

Not surprisingly, optimism is running high as younger generations come of age. The national exuberance has inspired many entrepreneurs, including Rajesh Jain, who sold an Indian-based Web portal, IndiaWorld, for around $100 million in 2000 and who is now incubating companies that he expects will bring computing to the masses in his country.

“For the first time,” he said, “there is confidence that tomorrow will be better than today.”

INDIA’S TECH RENAISSENCE

By M H AHSAN

The outsourcing boom that has transformed this country’s economy can be traced in part to a technology discovery made in 1995.

That year, engineers at Tata Consultancy Services found that a set of software tools called CasePac, developed to convert code for IBM, could be used to change the date field in other programs.

“We realized this could be used for the Y2K problem,” said Nagaraj Ijari, a senior executive at Tata’s offices, located in this city at the epicenter of India’s thriving technology industry. Companies from around the world sought Tata’s outsourced services to fix the “millennium bug,” and the company’s annual revenue has climbed from less than $170 million to $2.24 billion in the years since.

The success story illustrates how quickly India’s fortunes have changed in just a few short years, as the country’s burgeoning technology industry has provided such services at a fraction of the cost of Western counterparts. Building on this foundation, India is now entering an important new phase in its economic evolution.

Once fairly anonymous organizations hired to run support desks and develop server applications for large multinational corporations, Indian companies are raising their profile as brand name suppliers in hardware design, software development, consulting services and virtually anything else in technology. Infused with new blood from a young tech-savvy work force, the new movement is a major advance toward economic independence that carries broad ramifications for a country whose past includes colonial rule, experiments in socialism and devastating poverty.

“There is a huge Indian domestic opportunity and an export opportunity beyond outsourcing,” said Rishi Navani, managing director of WestBridge Capital Partners, a venture capital firm specializing in Indo-American deals. “Over the next 12 months, you will see three to four new Indian Nasdaq listings.”

India’s growing entrepreneurial spirit is reflected in its forays into consumer electronics–a highly competitive market that has long been considered the province of Japan, China, South Korea and other Asian nations, as well as the United States.

Tata recently won a deal to create an environmentally friendly cell phone for a U.S. carrier, for example, while rival Wipro Technologies is designing MP3 players for Europe and a flat-panel TV for an American company. Such entrepreneurial ventures in the consumer market are not confined to the largest players: Mumbai-based Celetronix produces set-top boxes for a U.S.-based satellite TV carrier.

“Our evolution will be similar to the evolution of Taiwan,” said Ramesh Emani, president of Embedded & Product Engineering Solutions at Wipro, noting that in India, there would be greater emphasis on hardware design than on manufacturing.

As was the case in China, domestic demand is a significant factor in India’s technological expansion.

India has only 100 million phones for its population of 1 billion people–including both cellular and land lines–but that number is expected to grow to 250 million in the next two years. Cellular service costs only about $4 to $7 a month, and future phones will also sport cricket scores, lottery ticket purchases and other types of services seen in South Korea and Japan.
“The volume is enormous,” said Sanjay Nayak, CEO of network equipment specialist Tejas Networks, which has won large contracts in India against multinational competitors.

High growth is also expected for the computer market in India, which counts only 14 PCs for every 1,000 people. Several companies hope to court that market with computers priced at less than $250, many of them packaged with residential broadband service that costs about $12 a month for a 128kbps connection.

“It is our fastest-growing emerging market,” said Ketan Sampat, president of Intel India. “We’ve had a growing middle class. PCs are part of that.”

Beyond the home, some hardware companies are targeting the enterprise market in and outside India. VXL Instruments, for example, delivers stripped-down desktops to the likes of Air France and Goodyear Tire & Rubber.

New Delhi’s FinalQuadrant Solutions sells a server appliance for the travel industry. Travel agents pay only a modest amount for the server but hand FinalQuadrant a small fee for each hotel room night or travel leg booked through the system.

“We’re making every single (travel) reseller as powerful as Expedia,” CEO Anuj Gupta said. The company, which made $1 million in net profit in 2004, has mostly sold its products in Europe and is expanding to the United States.

For India’s service companies, perhaps the most natural expansion is the consulting business. Outsourcing stalwarts such as Tata, Wipro and Infosys Technologies have begun significant consulting operations as outgrowths of their outsourcing work. Each of these “Big Three” companies has seen revenue grow in the 30 to 50 percent range every year for the last five years–a period in which Western companies saw revenue flatten or decline.

Most of their consulting engagements largely address how best to implement services already provided by these companies. But they are nevertheless long-term commitments that will pit them against the formidable white-collar armies at large U.S. companies for years to come.
“We are not McKinsey. We do not want to hand over the report and run away,” Tata’s Ijari said. “Our competitors are Accenture and IBM.”

The new competition on many fronts from India has prompted U.S. companies to increase their presence in the country. Western companies such as Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard have set up shop in India as part of the outsourcing trend, to keep engineering labor costs in line with those of their competitors. But U.S. companies face a problem: Other types of employees, such as managers and sales executives, also have relatively low salaries–meaning they cost India rivals less.

Such concerns explain why U.S. venture capitalists are increasingly insisting that any U.S. start-up seeking funds maintain a presence in India. A company might cost $50 million to $70 million to build in the United States but, with relatively inexpensive labor overseas, might cost $12 million to $20 million in India.

U.S.-Indian businesses can take all manner of hybrid forms. Some were conceived in the United States and have built research and engineering departments in India. Others were born in India but have located high-level executives in America. Still others, such as Tejas and Telsima, are founded and based in India.

Whatever the mix, functions often monopolized by Silicon Valley in the past are now spreading overseas. To lure new investment, for instance, Silicon Valley Bank brought a number of American venture capitalists to India in September 2003 and subsequently opened offices that it lends to visiting VCs and their budding start-ups.

“Before, India was an afterthought,” said Ash Lilani, head of global sales and marketing at Silicon Valley Bank. “Now it is thought of at birth.”

From blackouts to corruptionStill, challenges persist. With an estimated 600 additional cars on Bangalore’s streets every day, traffic has ground to gridlock. The five-mile drive to Electronics City, the main tech hub, can take an hour from the center of town. An express road that was supposed to have been completed last year remains a tangle of rebar and cement pilings.
Electricity is another pressing concern. In nearly every Indian city and state, power outages occur fairly regularly. The lack of an adequate power grid is one reason that no foreign company has built a semiconductor fabrication facility in the country. A South Korean entrepreneur has signed a preliminary agreement to build a chip foundry near Hyderabad, but many sources privately doubt that the project will get far, because of the water and power demands of a modern fab plant.

“The government realizes that there needs to be foreign investment” in infrastructure, WestBridge Capital’s Navani said, adding that development funds are being negotiated with large banks.

Tech companies also routinely complain about India’s tax system. On the plus side, the onerously large import duties of the past are fading away, and the government has passed laws requiring the equivalent of benefits offered by places like China and Taiwan, including one that gives companies exporting tech products a 10-year exemption from income taxes.

Yet executives are well aware that the government has a history of adding taxes through its national budget, as exemplified recently with a so-called fringe benefit tax. Under this provision, companies that throw parties for clients or host them at conferences must pay a tax on the expenses, said Ravi Pradhan, India manager for Via Technologies.

Moreover, as in other parts of the world, corruption remains a problem when it comes to influencing clients and government officials. “In America, you might take them to the Super Bowl. Here, you give them money,” one source said.

And even for Indian entrepreneurs who know how to navigate the unofficial ways of doing business, help from multinational manufacturers is still necessary to build their industry.
“We have engineers who are good technicians, but we need product managers,” said Vinod Dham, founder of NewPath Ventures, a venture capital firm that specializes in Indian investments. The services business, he added, has “made a culture of people who say, ‘Tell me what to do.’”

Reverse outsourcingThis should lead, at least in the near term, to a form of reverse outsourcing, with U.S. experts heading overseas to provide services for Indian businesses. Indian-based companies, for their part, will need to install an increasing number of employees in Europe and North America to land contracts–which means paying higher Western salaries.

“You need guys who worked on Wall Street,” said Jessie Paul, head of marketing for iGate, a Bangalore-based company that provides consulting and other information technology services.
However, while these factors may temporarily slow progress, few expect it to stop the industry. Many Indian companies are becoming more integrated into the business processes of their customers, making offshore outsourcing a permanent arrangement.

“The level of people who are visiting us today is very, very high. They are actually the strategic decision makers. In the dot-com days, it was more reactive,” said Srinath Batni, a board member of Infosys. Outsourcing, he added, “has become a long-term strategy.”

That marathon approach is viewed as a key advantage for India. Many executives and entrepreneurs note that India’s tech boom is driven by a demographic bubble that will be difficult to match for other nations. India has a large population of young people who are driven, well-educated and work for relatively low wages.

“The average age of the working population in India is 27 years,” said Supratim Sarkar, manager of strategic marketing at Wipro. “That is one of the biggest levers we have.”

Not surprisingly, optimism is running high as younger generations come of age. The national exuberance has inspired many entrepreneurs, including Rajesh Jain, who sold an Indian-based Web portal, IndiaWorld, for around $100 million in 2000 and who is now incubating companies that he expects will bring computing to the masses in his country.

“For the first time,” he said, “there is confidence that tomorrow will be better than today.”

SPG PLANS INTERNATIONAL OUTSOURCING FORUM IN AMESTERDAM

By M H AHSAN

The Indian arm of UK-based publishing company SPG Media endorsed a thumping success of a three-day European Outsourcing forum for European and Indian companies in Dubai. European Outsourcing Forum India (EOFI 2005) the industry’s first invitation-only, interpersonal event geared towards ensuring that European business understands how outsourcing in India can enable them to reduce operating costs and increase competitive advantage and customer satisfaction.

Around 45 European companies from banking, insurance, retail, supply chain management and telecom sectors with a turnover of $500 million participated in the forum. Around 15 Indian ITeS and BPO companies used the platform to generate business.

With the continued growth of any new industry comes a variety of new challenges, successes, failures, positive & negative reactions all combining to create new challenges for sustained growth. The International Outsourcing Forum is structured to assist the industry in completing these new challenges by discussing, developing and implementing structure within the industries associations, institutes, key players, leading vendor, consultancy and research companies. SPG plans to launch the International Outsourcing Forum in Amsterdam, next year, to bring Asian ITeS, BPO companies in touch with global companies looking to outsource work to low-cost locations.

An outsourcing forum will be useful to a number of companies in India who wished to penetrate into Europe, where language may be a problem. For Europeans too, coming to India is a difficult proposition. A common meeting ground will benefit both buyers and suppliers in fields such as applications development, bill processing, data warehousing, HR services, IT development, IT services management, records management, and secretarial services.

It is the right time for mid-sized Indian outsourcing companies to shift focus from a declining US market to the EU market. Europe accounts for around 30 per cent of the global IT services market. IT services spending in Western Europe is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11 per cent in the medium term. Unless there is a shift in focus, Indian companies are likely to lose a fair amount of the business opportunity to rivals in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Last year, SPG Media held a similar event called the European Financial Services Outsourcing Forum in Mumbai, targeting the financial sector. Dubai Forum’s scope was broader and, apart from companies in the financial services sector, included companies in the retail, telecom, airlines, logistics and supply management sectors.

Outsourcing is becoming increasingly strategic as it moves further away from commodity outsourcing of simple, non-core activities towards a powerful management tool to transform businesses’ technology infrastructure, business operating model/processes and financial statements. SPG India is also launching Packaging & Conversion Europe (PACE) Forum out of India for Indian & Asian suppliers to meet European buyers. PACE has already attracted over 25 key decision makers from top multinationals. This forum will be held in February 2006 in Rome.

The company organises around 12 forums a year, mostly in Europe. They include the European banking forum, the Leaf Forum for architects and another one for the broadcasting industry.

SHOULD GOOGLE PURCHASE THE BAIDU.COM IN CHINA?

By M H AHSAN

Google Inc, the world’s most powerful search engine will realise its dream of getting a direct and deeper access to the Chinese internet market. The web services provider has got the licence to operate in China, the world’s second largest internet market, only after the US. Google is planning to launch its China office by this year-end.

Google has also started operations on www.google.com.cn. Although it has been operating a Chinese language search engine from September 2000, it had previously been forced to run its China business from Hong Kong, thus limiting its operations to marketing advertising services via its search engine to Mainland Chinese companies.

The US-based Google has already bought an undisclosed stake in Chinese No. 1 search engine, Baidu.com. The deal brought Google much closer to the Chinese internet surfers who number almost 9.4 million. The figure is expected to touch 134 million by the end of 2005.
Google also brings with it the prediction of a tough competition against American rivals like Yahoo Inc, which has 22.7% share in Chinese market against Google’s 21.2%, and MSN. Baidu.com is the Chinese favourite with 36.3% share. Armed with the licence and stake, Google hopes to tap the rapidly growing market in China. At the same time, it faces challenges in the form of censorship and stringent regulations in the Communist-run country. Information related to politics, moral subjects and pornography are blocked in China and a few years ago Google was blacked out for unknown reasons.

Though ruled out by Baidu.com, a complete takeover of the Chinese company by the Californian giant is doing the rounds. This will set revolutionary changes in the market as well as web-based policies of China. Google’s direct presence can also establish a positive bearing on the English-speaking abilities of Chinese, who fare very badly in this area. Its varied range and technological supremacy will offer comprehensive coverage of Chinese sites, setting new standards in access to information in the otherwise media-conservative China.

Google also plans to make inroads into the Chinese domain and culture by making use of Baidu.com as its representative since Baidu has a superior understanding of them. Baidu.com is also preparing to get listed on NASDAQ and some other Chinese search engines are planning a technological revamp.

All these developments indirectly owing to the entry of Google and Yahoo are changing China’s internet habits and market besides giving hints about more flexible government policies. China is already making a name for itself in software sector and exposure to Western search engines will tremendously improve Chinese’s skills. Its businesses can also be marketed worldwide thus competing with India that has English-language advantage.

On the flip side, there is a strong feeling that the American intrusion would affect changes in the conservative and orthodox culture of the country, which is already witnessing a change in the general lifestyle.

Growing pains at Google?

By Charles Cooper

Google reminds me a lot of Microsoft, especially during the early days before Bill Gates became a Davos fixture and started hanging with Bono. The common theme: loads of smart people running around chockablock with big ideas about how technology’s going to change the world.
How rich, then, that Google is realizing Microsoft’s biggest ambition of putting information at your fingertips.

CEO Eric Schmidt no doubt recognizes the delicious irony. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he competed against Microsoft while at Sun and Novell. But each time he was the underdog. Now the shoe is on the other foot.

Google earlier this week rolled out even more additions to its already impressive inventory of Web offerings and shows no sign of slowing down. If you’re Microsoft, this is bad news in bells. And if you’re Yahoo, this is time to sit up and take notice that you’re next.

Google’s newest feature lets people personalize their home pages with different modules that they can drag and drop across their page. The first run of content providers includes the BBC, The New York Times, Slashdot and Wired, but more will follow. Full RSS support will later be included, and advertising will dot the home page. My Yahoo, meet My Google.

Web surfers obviously like what they see from Google, because they keep returning for more. In the roughly nine months that it’s been a public company, Google’s been knocking the ball out of the park each quarter. The stock price is headed toward the outer rung of Jupiter, and you’ve got to wonder whether these guys will ever stub their toes.

Excuse the rhetorical exaggeration. But if there’s one constant in the technology business it’s that the industry is in a state of permanent flux. So history suggests Google’s tumble will come as well. But what beats me is when–next month, or next millennium?

Unlike the phony management teams that stunk up the pre-bubble days, Schmidt and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are hard-core techies with a passion about their business. What’s more, they have figured out a way to flourish within an odd triumverate that I thought would have fractured long ago.

Microsoft’s now trying to make up for lost time with new search features and promises of more when the Longhorn operating system arrives late in 2006. I would never underestimate Microsoft, but Google’s biggest enemy remains itself.

At times, the company’s appetite has overtaken its good sense–Google’s tone-deaf handling of the public uproar over Gmail last year being the most telling example. Privacy advocates flipped out when they learned the company was scanning the content of e-mail messages in order to serve up targeted ads. So much for Google’s pretentious-sounding “do no evil” dictum.

Even if it was a tempest in a teapot, management’s grudging response reminded me of Intel’s painful mismanagement of a famous fiasco in 1994, when a college professor discovered a floating point chip errata in the Pentium. It took several days before Intel realized customers were really outraged by the company’s dismissive silence and finally took action.
But the damage was done, and Intel had to work hard to repair its reputation.

More recently, Google fell into a tiff with French critics of the company’s library digitization plans. The fear is that Google’s plan would further stamp Anglo domination on global culture by giving short shrift to non-English writing. This is a touchy issue that comes during a delicate juncture in Franco-American relations. The company says Brin recently flew across the Atlantic to meet with French officials. The issue continues to simmer, but let’s see how Google handles the pressure.

From a reporter’s vantage point, I can tell you that Microsoft has forgotten more about effective PR than Google’s ever learned.

To wit: Early Thursday, about a hundred or so reporters got bused in by Google for a full-day briefing. I always treat these orchestrated events with great suspicion, but you have to turn up–just in case. Unfortunately, the best I can say about this gabfest is that lunch was swell.
This was a pure PR snow job, where the assembled scribes were forced to suffer through a mind-numbing procession of content-free presentations for the better part of a day. When it comes to explaining what’s really going on at Google, these guys have a lot to learn. I’m not talking about the kissy magazine cover stories PR regularly places. I’m talking about getting the goods.

Microsoft is far savvier about brainwashing the Fourth Estate. And their execs–at least the smarter ones like Steve Ballmer–will occasionally level with us about what’s not working.
Chalk it up then to growing pains. One Google insider privately told me the higher-ups don’t believe in sharing information they aren’t required to by law (especially when it comes to a snoopy press). They’re wrong about playing it so close to the vest, but I understand why. Google’s on a roll now, but I guarantee that mind-set will get an update after the company’s first lousy quarterly report hits the wire.

But these are mere quibbles, and people will forgive Google a lot because they love the story. There is a natural frisson surrounding the company, an upstart that has come so far, so fast. This is indeed an interesting company–arguably the best story to come out of Silicon Valley in the last decade.

How management performs will determine whether Google remains Silicon Valley’s best story a decade hence.

Growing pains at Google?

By Charles Cooper

Google reminds me a lot of Microsoft, especially during the early days before Bill Gates became a Davos fixture and started hanging with Bono. The common theme: loads of smart people running around chockablock with big ideas about how technology’s going to change the world.
How rich, then, that Google is realizing Microsoft’s biggest ambition of putting information at your fingertips.

CEO Eric Schmidt no doubt recognizes the delicious irony. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he competed against Microsoft while at Sun and Novell. But each time he was the underdog. Now the shoe is on the other foot.

Google earlier this week rolled out even more additions to its already impressive inventory of Web offerings and shows no sign of slowing down. If you’re Microsoft, this is bad news in bells. And if you’re Yahoo, this is time to sit up and take notice that you’re next.

Google’s newest feature lets people personalize their home pages with different modules that they can drag and drop across their page. The first run of content providers includes the BBC, The New York Times, Slashdot and Wired, but more will follow. Full RSS support will later be included, and advertising will dot the home page. My Yahoo, meet My Google.

Web surfers obviously like what they see from Google, because they keep returning for more. In the roughly nine months that it’s been a public company, Google’s been knocking the ball out of the park each quarter. The stock price is headed toward the outer rung of Jupiter, and you’ve got to wonder whether these guys will ever stub their toes.

Excuse the rhetorical exaggeration. But if there’s one constant in the technology business it’s that the industry is in a state of permanent flux. So history suggests Google’s tumble will come as well. But what beats me is when–next month, or next millennium?

Unlike the phony management teams that stunk up the pre-bubble days, Schmidt and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are hard-core techies with a passion about their business. What’s more, they have figured out a way to flourish within an odd triumverate that I thought would have fractured long ago.

Microsoft’s now trying to make up for lost time with new search features and promises of more when the Longhorn operating system arrives late in 2006. I would never underestimate Microsoft, but Google’s biggest enemy remains itself.

At times, the company’s appetite has overtaken its good sense–Google’s tone-deaf handling of the public uproar over Gmail last year being the most telling example. Privacy advocates flipped out when they learned the company was scanning the content of e-mail messages in order to serve up targeted ads. So much for Google’s pretentious-sounding “do no evil” dictum.

Even if it was a tempest in a teapot, management’s grudging response reminded me of Intel’s painful mismanagement of a famous fiasco in 1994, when a college professor discovered a floating point chip errata in the Pentium. It took several days before Intel realized customers were really outraged by the company’s dismissive silence and finally took action.
But the damage was done, and Intel had to work hard to repair its reputation.

More recently, Google fell into a tiff with French critics of the company’s library digitization plans. The fear is that Google’s plan would further stamp Anglo domination on global culture by giving short shrift to non-English writing. This is a touchy issue that comes during a delicate juncture in Franco-American relations. The company says Brin recently flew across the Atlantic to meet with French officials. The issue continues to simmer, but let’s see how Google handles the pressure.

From a reporter’s vantage point, I can tell you that Microsoft has forgotten more about effective PR than Google’s ever learned.

To wit: Early Thursday, about a hundred or so reporters got bused in by Google for a full-day briefing. I always treat these orchestrated events with great suspicion, but you have to turn up–just in case. Unfortunately, the best I can say about this gabfest is that lunch was swell.
This was a pure PR snow job, where the assembled scribes were forced to suffer through a mind-numbing procession of content-free presentations for the better part of a day. When it comes to explaining what’s really going on at Google, these guys have a lot to learn. I’m not talking about the kissy magazine cover stories PR regularly places. I’m talking about getting the goods.

Microsoft is far savvier about brainwashing the Fourth Estate. And their execs–at least the smarter ones like Steve Ballmer–will occasionally level with us about what’s not working.
Chalk it up then to growing pains. One Google insider privately told me the higher-ups don’t believe in sharing information they aren’t required to by law (especially when it comes to a snoopy press). They’re wrong about playing it so close to the vest, but I understand why. Google’s on a roll now, but I guarantee that mind-set will get an update after the company’s first lousy quarterly report hits the wire.

But these are mere quibbles, and people will forgive Google a lot because they love the story. There is a natural frisson surrounding the company, an upstart that has come so far, so fast. This is indeed an interesting company–arguably the best story to come out of Silicon Valley in the last decade.

How management performs will determine whether Google remains Silicon Valley’s best story a decade hence.

RIGHT ATTITUDE FOR INTERVIEWS

By M H Ahsan

The most confusing thing for an applicant while going for an interview is whether his interviewer wants him or her to have the right attitude or essential skills for the job. Most employers and professionals believe that the quality rather than quantity of degrees is more desirable in an interviewee. It is the right attitude and optimism, which takes one aspirant far ahead than others. You as a contender might be over qualified for the job that you are applying to but unless you have the confidence you could lose the job even to a less able candidate. Many things have to be kept in mind while preparing for and giving an interview including those mentioned below.

Time of arrival
You should neither arrive too late or too early to an interview. Coming early by one hour or more would send the wrong signal that you are too free for this particular job and are more than eager to join it. Even 30 minutes early would be a bit too much. The ideal time is to reach the place approximately 10 minutes before the interview. If you come at your listed time you might miss on some important announcements that are made at the last minute or you might just panic being in a new environment. So you should be well planned and decide before hand how do you intend to go keeping in mind the traffic and other possibilities. You must by any chance reach the office at least 5 minutes before the interview but the best time is 10 minutes early.

Treatment to the receptionist
You might think that the receptionist is just to attend to your concerns and queries but you are wrong. She is not even there to comfort you. She is an important person in the office and surprisingly has a say in the selection of candidates and thus you should be at your best even in front of her. She should not realize your nervousness and tension as could report it to the officials later on. A receptionist is one who sees you unaware and thus notices your true personality and ideology. So must be extra cautious in front of her as she might prove instrumental in your acquiring of a particular job.

Reason to work for the company
When the company officials ask you why you want the job then you never ought to say that the short distance to the office suits you or that you need the money that you would get as salary. You must never show them that you need their services but try to inculcate the habit of saying that you would like to help the firm or organization by applying your skills and dedication to your job and thus raising their status because the company wants to hire you for their own benefit and not to help you financial or oblige you by giving you the job. They need your services and not provide you facilities. Hence you must show eagerness to help them so that they hire you.

Talking about current boss
While you are being interviewed you might be asked to say something or to give your view point on your current boss as the interviewers try to steal information about your personality in this way. By being negative and complaining you could render negative information about yourself, which could hamper your application. You should convert your sour experiences into learning and positive ones and try to say minimum as you might be cross-questioned which may land you in trouble. You should always try to say best about your current boss and mention his good traits. No matter how strained relationships you might be having with your boss those should never come into acquaintance with your interviewer. Saying badly about others delivers negative about us too.

Reason you left your last job
The reasons you provide to the interviewers for your leaving the current job ought to depict your positive and move ahead in life attitude. Problem with colleagues or other members of organization would give a hint that you are uncooperative and not adjusting no matter what the truth is. You must never blame anybody but say that it is because that you believe in growing that you think that a change in job could help you. Too much expectation as a reason to leave the job sounds as if you run away from responsibilities and are a coward. So you should mention that change in life is only a means to grow and that you would like to work with such a prosperous and growing company like them and also help them with your hard working abilities, unmatched skills and experience.

The questions you should ask When given the opportunity to ask questions you should not give into the flow and ask about benefits and vacation time including salary. You should be neutral and ask general questions. But neither should you say that you have researched too well and need not ask anything as they might cross question you and saying this might also show lack of concern nor should you say that they explained the things too well and you do not need any further assistance. The best possible answer could be to prepare certain logical and business type questions which show your knowledge as well as interest. You should ask these questions only if asked to and not demand an answer. Asking relevant questions is very important. You must prepare these questions beforehand as thinking of a question there and then might make you nervous and lead you to ask irrelevant or unnecessary questions.

Thus while preparing or appearing for an interview you should always be extra cautious as to never concentrate on your degrees but on your ability to reach the pinnacle and your attitude. All the employers are looking for are good able candidates who are willing to work hard and take their company ahead. So you must concentrate on your attitude and not your aptitude.

CONCERN ON THE ENTANGLEMENT OVER THE BAGLIHAR HYDROPOWER PROJECT

By Priya Venkatesh

Entanglement over the Baglihar hydropower project in Kashmir continues as the careens of the nations involved stand differentiated. The situation over the so- called controversial design of the dam has become topsy-turvy and has brought in such ramifications of having a neutral civil Swiss engineer, Raymond Lafitte to sort out the issue!

Despite World Bank negotiations over the disputes that prevailed between India and Pakistan on the utilization of water from the existing facilities way back in 1960 via the Indus Water treaty, its hapless that both nations have again run into a dead lock.

PROVISIONS OF THE INDUS WATER TREATY, 1960
Way back at the time of independence, the boundary line between India and Pakistan was laid right at the Indus River basin. The contraventions that arose over the utilization of water for irrigation from the existing facilities at the Indus river by both the countries climaxed in the signing of the Indus Water Treaty at Karchi on 19th September 1960 by the then President of Pakistan Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan and the then Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru in the presence of Mr.W.A.B.Ill of the World Bank.

The treaty was put into effect from 01 April, 1960.Usage of water from the eastern rivers of the Indus (The Sutlej, The Beas, The Ravi) were apportioned to India and of the western rivers of the Indus (The Chenab, The Jhelum and the Indus) were apportioned on a larger scale to Pakistan allowing a restricted usage of water by India in the latter.

BAGLIHAR HYDROPOWER PROJECT – DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE
In continuation to this, India started off with a double-phase 900MW hydropower project (phase 1 providing a potential of 450MW) in the Chenab River in Kashmir at the southern Doda district in Chandrakot in 1999-2000. The vantages of hydropower are inexplicable. It not only serves as a renewable resource free from pollution but also sustains minimal running costs in the long run.

This project was enquired by the Central Water Commission and a report was prepared by the latter on the same in the year 1984.It also states that the geological investigations were done in 1962-1978 by the geological survey of India and in 1987, The project was reported to have been transferred to NHPC. After almost a decade of dormancy, the construction of the mega hydropower project started in 2000.

Being the only power project of the state, it promises to provide unrestrained electricity to the region which has been incessantly suffering from daylong power cuts.

This project on successful completion anticipates bringing about harmonious developmental strategies with respect to the supply of electricity to the whole of Kashmir and redeems a prosperous socio-economic environment in the otherwise impoverished city of Doda.

LOCATION AND FEATURES OF THE HYDROPOWER PROJECT
As per the data presented by the two small rivers, The Chandra and The Bhaga rising from the South-East and North-West of Baralacha pass at a height of 4,891 meters merge together at a place called Tandi at a height of 2,286 meters and becomes the ChaderBagha river.

This in turn passes through the Chamba district (as the Pangi valley) in HP and enters the Podar valley of Kashmir.

In Kashmir, the Chenab River drops another approx.2000 meters and flows into Pakistan near Akhnur.

India sees this drop in elevation of the Chenab River in Kashmir as a tremendous potential for Hydropower generation. This urged India and led to the idea of the implementation of the gigantic Baglihar Hydropower project.

FRI Reservoir level: 840m
MDDDI Reservoir level: 838m
Average reservoir level: 839m
Submergence area at the full reservoir level: 12994.17 Kanals
Power generation: 450MW

Plans for the Rehabilitation and resettlement of those affected by the construction of this project are in the pipeline.

WORK-FORCE INVOVLVED IN THE PROJECT
As per the reports of the “Daily Times”,

· the project is said to involve 7000 workers including skilled labor and engineers.
· The talks between the Project chief Engineer Ghulam Hassan Rather and Mufti Muhammed Syed during his visit to the site in early may 2005, communicates that the civil works were being executed by contractors Jaiprakash Associates of the Jay Pee group while electric works were being implemented by a German Consortium Voith Siemens & VA Tech. Another German company, Lahmeyer International is supervising the work on behalf of the Kashmir government

PROJECT DESIGN –THE HEART OF CONTROVERSY
The controversy over this started at the design of the Baglihar dam in the Chenab River. The president General Pervez Musharaff approved a plan to coerce India to redesign the project on November 21, 2004 stating that it was a clear violation of the dictates of the Indus Water Treaty, 1960. He made it clear that the intervention of the International court of justice would be sorted to if in case the controversy heightens in spite of political and diplomatic efforts undertaken by both the governments concerned.

Pakistan raised its opposition to the construction of the gate-like structures present in the design stating that it would divert water to India, which otherwise is destined for Pakistan. It also emphasizes the fact that the successful implementation of this project would deprive Pakistan of 6000-7000 cusecs of water per day. It also emphasized in reducing the planned height of the dam(470 feet) for which the Indian authorities allege that the 450MW capacity would come down to a mere 50MW.

India upholds to state that the construction would in no way disrupt the water flow of the river or the canals of Pakistan. India alleges that the problem of augmentation of sludge is overcome only by abnormal flushing which in turn is unfeasible but for the presence of gated spillways.

With reference to this, talks were held between India and Pakistan in July, August and October 2003.But the repercussion was just a stalemate. Formal notices were issued by Pakistan to resolve the issue with the intervention of neutral experts twice in July and October 2003.The deadlines for India’s response were set up at December 31, 2003.

As per the postulation of the Indian government, a 3-day talk between the Indian and Pakistani authorities was convened at the Permanent Commission of Indus Water (PCIW) in January 2004.

The political and diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue broke down even when the stakes to do so at the bi-lateral government level were quiet high. Talks continued again in January 2005 but ended up in vain. The issue still remained a blind alley.

Arbitration by the World Bank was sought for by the Pakistani authorities in early 2005.As a consequence, The World Bank appointed Raymond Lafitte, a Swiss national civil Engineer cum Professor to sort out the longstanding issue on May 10,2005.Professor Raymond Lafitte is with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne. He was a former expert on dam safety with the Swiss government.

Lafitte held confluences with the delegates from India and Pakistan on the assorted issues over the disputed project in Paris, in the wake of June 2005.

A NOTE ON THE TIMEFRAME AND VALUE OF THE PROJECT
The highly controversial Baglihar hydropower project is expected to race towards its completion by June 2006. The Union minister after his recent visit to the site in mid-June 2005 is reported to have said that the project would be completed and dedicated to the nation by June next year.

As per the versions of many leading dailies, out of the estimated overall cost of erection of about 4000-crore, a sum of 2700-crores has already been used up and almost 71% of civil works and 81% of electro-mechanical work of Phase-1 has been completed till date.

WHAT’S ON THE RUN AND WORK AHEAD
As the backwash of the World Bank arbitration towards reaching a consensus in this issue, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, the then Union minister for Water resources confabulated the site of construction on June 17, 2005 to produce a detailed report on the same.

Inspection by the Pakistani delegates and by Lafitte is in the pipeline in the next few months.

It is believed that by resorting to World Bank arbitration, a Pandora’s box has been opened up. Will there be a resolution to this controversy in the nearest future? Much awaited is an accord in this issue between the nations concerned in the nearest future!

Will the World Bank take the quickest measure to resolve the issue? Will a consensus be reached between the two nations still remains an unanswered question!

POSSIBLE ENTAILMENTS OF ARBITRATION
Arbitration on its march ahead may end up with the renegotiation or revocation of the Treaty with the consent of both the nations concerned. Sequel of the treaty and operation within the scope of the Indus Water treaty is a must for the increasingly agriculture dependent Pakistani side. With the declining water storage at the Terbela and Mangla of Pakistan, revocation of the treaty would emphatically not auspicate the Pakistani side positively.

Further delay in sorting out the issue will have bad reflection on the Indians for two reasons. The first being the finance involved in this project that have taken up huge tolls of money and second being the unrestrained supply of electricity that would be available to Kashmir on successful implementation. Arbitration if prolonged will also strain both the nations financially.

Considering the nook and corner of this complex dispute, the candid facts with respect to the issue has to be pondered upon

· Abrogation of the treaty would never have a positive reflection to the Pakistanis and continuance of the arbitration will have negative contemplations on the Indians

· Political tension and administrative friction at the government level has to be swept aside. The functional side of the issue has to be brought under discussion. Negotiations should be concluded within the shortest stint of time and an accord has to become a reality on operational basis.

· Cognitive upbeat decisions must be taken at the functional level scraping out the political differences thus paving way to renegotiations of the Indus Water Treaty.

Whatever be the resolution to this indefinitely unsolved issue, let us hope that it should surface within the shortest possible stint of time and it should be to the fullest benefit of both the countries involved.

THE MAJESTIC TAJ MAHAL

By M H AHSAN

A flawless architectural creation
For centuries, the Taj Mahal has inspired poets, painters and musicians to try and capture its elusive magic in word, colour and son. Since the 17th century, travellers have crossed continents to come and see this ultimate memorial to love, and few have been unmoved by its incomparable beauty.

Taj Mahal stands in the city of Agra, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Yamuna river. It was built in the memory of the beautiful Arjumand Bano Begum, who won the heart of a Mughal prince. She was married at 21 to Emperor Jahangir’s third son Prince Khurram and stayed loyally by his side through good times and bad: in the luxurious royal palaces of Agra as well as the transient tents of war camps.A memorial to his belovedIn AD 1628, Khurram became king after a bloody battle of succession; he took the name Shahjahan or King of the World and showered his beloved begum with the highest titles. She became Mumtaz Mahal, the Exalted of the Palace and Mumtaz-ul-Zamani, the Exalted of the Age. But Mumtaz Mahal was not destined to be queen for long.

In 1631, Shahjahan went on an expedition to the South and, as always, Mumtaz Mahal accompanied him. But she died in childbirth at Burhanpur. She had borne Shahjahan fourteen children, of whom four sons and three daughters survived. When Mumtaz Mahal died, she was just 39 years old. Shahjahan was inconsolable and contemporary chronicles tell of the royal court mourning for two years. There was no music, no feasting, and no celebration of any kind.
Shahjahan, who was a passionate builder, now decided to erect a memorial marble that the world would never forget. The site selected for the tomb was a garden by the Yamuna river, unshadowed by any other structure. The garden had been laid by Raja Man Singh of Amber and now belonged to his grandson, Raja Jai Singh. By a royal firman, Shahjahan gave Jai Singh four havelis in exchange for the garden. The site was also chosen because it was located on a bend in the river, and so could be seen from Shahjahan’s personal palace in Agra Fort, further upstream.
A labour of love
Work on the mausoleum began in 1633 and 20,000 workers laboured for 17 years to build it. The most skilled architects, inlay craftsmen, calligraphers, stone-carvers and masons came from all across India and lands as distant as Persia and Turkey. The master mason was from Baghdad, an expert in building the double dome from Persia, and an inlay specialist from Delhi.
The tomb was completed in AD 1650. But, Shahjahan was deposed by his son Aurangzeb in 1658 and imprisioned in the Agra Fort. He spent his last years in the Mussalman Burj looking downstream at the Taj where his beloved Mumtaz Mahal lay. Sixteen years later he, too, was laid to rest beside her.

The bejewelled Palace
Shahjahan’s two biggest passions were architecture and jewellery and both are reflected in the Taj Mahal. He visualised a building in marble and then had it decorated with semi-precious stones inlaid with the delicacy of handcrafted jewellery. Marble in purest white was brought from Makrana in Rajasthan, yellow marble and rockspar from the banks of the Narmada river, lack marble from Charkoh and red sandstone from Sikri. For the intricate pietra dura the finest gems were collected – crystal and jade from China, lapis lazuli and sapphires from Sri Lanka, jasper from Punja, carnelian from Baghdad and turquoise from Tibet.

Yemen sent agates, the corals came from Arabia, the garnets from Bundelkhand, onyx and amethyst from Persia. Mumtaz Mahal’s final resting-place was ornamented like a queen’s jewel-box.

The Complex
You enter the Taj complex through an arcaded forecourt where some of Shahjahan’s other queens lie buried. The forecourt also has the Jilau Kana, a bazaar with cloisters leading to the main entrance of the tomb. The imposing gateway is made of red sandstone highlighted with marble and has octagonal kiosks on top. The gateway is an imposing 30 metres high and a fitting entrance to the Taj Mahal. The soaring arch is inscribed with a beautiful design of inlaid flowers and calligraphy.

As you enter the dark octagonal chamber under the gateway, the light streaming in from the opposite doorway draws you towards it. Here, framed by the arch of the doorway, the Taj Mahal reveals itself to the viewer with dramatic power. It stands at the end of a long walkway, framed by landscaped gardens and an ever-changing sky, its snowy marble glittering in the sunlight.
Taj Mahal stands at one side of a garden laid in the tradition charbagh style, with its square lawns bisected by pathways, water channels and rows of fountains. Halfway down the path there is a square pool, its limpid waters reflecting the marble tomb. Unlike other tombs, Taj Mahal stands at one end of the garden instead the centre. This was done deliberately, to leave its vista uncluttered by any other building.

The Main Building
The tomb stands on a marble plinth six-metres high. The four minarets at each corner beautifully frame the tomb. The plinth stands on a high standstone platform and at the far ends of this base are two identical sandstone structures, a mosque to the west and its jawab, or echo, to the east. This was the mehman khana or guesthouse. Thus, the main building is not just of great size but beautifully proportioned and balanced in design.

The octagonal central hall has four smaller octagonal halls round it and is decorated with magnificent inlay and dado panels done in high relief. The bulbous, perfectly-balanced double dome rises to a height of 45 metres and the four chhattris flanking and balancing the high drum give it added height. Taj Mahal rises 75 metres high and is, in fact, taller than the Qutb Minar.
An ornate marble screen, carved so fine that it almost has the texture of lace surrounds the cenotaphs in the central hall. However, as was the tradition during Mughal times, the actual graves lie in an underground crypt directly below the cenotaphs.

Intricacy in design
What is most amazing about the Taj Mahal is the fine detailing. The coloured inlay is never allowed to overwhelm the design, as carvings done in relief sensitively balance it. The ornate pietra dura and relief carvings are of floral, calligraphic and geometric designs. However, flowers remain the main decorative element as the tomb depicts a paradise garden. The skill of the inlay worker is so fine that it is impossible to find the joints, even when as many as 40 tiny pieces of semi-precious stones have been used in the petals of a single flower. Some of the best calligraphy of Koranic verses can be seen around the entrance arches and on the two headstones.

The colours of the Taj
Taj Mahal changes its moods with the seasons and the different times of the day. At dawn, the marble has a delicate bloom in shell pink, by noon it glitters majestically white, turning to a soft pearly grey at dusk. On full-moon away against the star-spangled sky. Monsoon clouds give it a moody blue tint and it appears and disappears like a mirage in the drifting mists of winter.

It can be solid and earthbound, fragile and ethereal, white, amber, grey and gold. The many faces of Taj Mahal display the seductive power of architecture at its best.

PROCUREMENT OUTSOURCING: THE NEXT BIG THING?

By M H AHSAN

Procurement outsourcing has become one of the fastest-growing segments within finance and accounting outsourcing. More firms are now looking at outsourcing across the procure-to-pay process to consolidate sourcing, vendor management, and vendors spend. This helps companies realize the benefits of strategic sourcing and leverage sourcing savings that have been identified but have not been used due to lack of communication, processes, and systems. Outsourcing along the procure-to-pay lifecycle has helped clients reduce process costs and cost of services and products purchased, and has provided them world-class technology and human capital, which they couldn’t have otherwise afforded.

These outsourcing initiatives have also enabled internal resources to focus more on strategic procurement activities. The importance of procure-to-pay outsourcing is further highlighted by a recent survey done by Gartner, where it found that although in-house procurement departments had a satisfactory performance on cost reduction, their performance based on contract management, governance, and customer service were extremely lacking. The research clearly shows that internal procurement departments have failed to provide the necessary set of tools and services to reduce costs, manage contracts, and provide good customer service both internally and externally, thus validating the need for an outsourced model. A recent study conducted by EquaTerra indicated that outsourcing providers were able to provide higher savings than internal client set-ups in one of the following ways:
· A lower cost structure and incentive-based employee compensation
· Standardized sourcing methodologies
· Economies of scale in sourcing
· Focus on governance, contracting, and transition

The study also found that providers are able to increase savings by using a multi-shore sourcing approach in low-cost locations. Another important conclusion is that the market size for F&A procurement outsourcing, at present, is approximately $20.1 billion and is growing at a rate of 13.1 percent annually. Several large service providers have extensive procurement sourcing offerings, which leverage the multi-shore model to provide efficient sourcing services to clients at lower costs.

As part of the offering implemented for a leading automotive company, indirect procurement sourcing was offshore to an operations center in India. In an unprecedented outsourcing model, assistant buyers from the providers India facility are able to negotiate with the vendors, manage the catalogs, and order new products through the clients e-procurement system. The approval and contract signing is done by the clients senior buyer in the United States. This model has helped the senior buyers focus on more strategic activities in-house and has dramatically reduced the operational costs for the client.

The provider also leverages its workflow tool to deliver spend analysis to the buyers by commodity and by vendor, so that they are able to leverage their relationships and negotiate better prices with the suppliers. The spend analytics provided in the procurement sourcing offering also provide an opportunity for senior management to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the purchasing organization. Most outsourcing companies also build a vendor portal in their technology offerings to help facilitate ease of use for the vendors and to provide a central repository of information for all the vendor invoices that have been paid or are pending payment. Portals also provide images of all other relevant documents.

The deployment of technology toolsets has greatly assisted companies in effective contract and vendor management. Recent trends and outsourcing deals have shown that procurement outsourcing is growing rapidly and can provide demonstrable savings to clients with relatively less complexity during the transition stage. In all probability, it is fair to state that procurement outsourcing is the next big thing in finance and accounting outsourcing.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A MATURING OUTSOURCING MARKET

By M H AHSAN

Recent market surveys show that almost 80 percent of companies expect to increase their investment in outsourcing both IT operations and business processes. Considering the myriad problems that have plagued sourcing relationships in recent years, that trend might seem problematic. But evidence suggests that the outsourcing marketplace is maturing, and that both clients and vendors are becoming increasingly adept at addressing the fundamentals needed to develop a lasting relationship.

One thing that’s changing is that buyers of outsourcing services are more knowledgeable and savvy in scoping and negotiating their deals. They have learned from experience that simply signing up for the lowest cost is a losing proposition. Although cost remains the single most important factor in most deals, clients are looking beyond the bottom line price tag and targeting the best price/performance combination. Clients are negotiating hard – but fair – with vendors.
Vendors are getting smarter too. They have learned the hard way that “buying the business” is not a good business practice. This strategy – characterized by undercutting the pricing of the competition to the point that the deal became unprofitable – is rationalized by the belief that wonderful things will happen over the life of the agreement to compensate for lost (or low) margins incurred early on to win the contract. What typically happens instead, though, is that the lack of profit prevents the vendor from investing in the relationship. As a result, the vendor doesn’t meet the client’s expectations, the relationship degenerates, and the agreement is renegotiated or terminated. In short, everyone loses.

Mutual BenefitsThe most important lesson learned from the past decade is that an outsourcing deal can only be successful if both client and vendor benefit. Effective negotiations and outcomes result not from the negotiating prowess of one party or the other, but rather from a fact-based and objective appraisal of individual and mutual goals of the parties involved.

On a related point, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the ideal approach to outsourcing negotiations is to take the time needed to get it right the first time – by understanding what is to be outsourced, and by specifically defining expectations from the outset.

Sounds simple enough. But what does that really mean? A thorough pre-outsourcing assessment of an existing environment typically takes about three months to complete, and includes the following (all done in extensive detail):
· identify existing services and supporting processes
understand who does what and how functions would change in an outsourced environment
define current and anticipated service levels
document current and anticipated service volumes
carve out current and projected costs

The bottom line: Understand your current world! This is essential to success going forward, and will establish the foundation for every other outsourcing building block.

Identifying the Outsourcing OpportunityThe difference between a client organization’s existing environment and what the service provider can deliver constitutes the outsourcing “opportunity.” To make an informed decision regarding this opportunity, the client must consider the cost of the transition, along with the impact and the risks. Is there value in proceeding? Is this the right choice at this time? Are the services under consideration the right services to outsource – and why? And to what extent will successful outsourcing of these services contribute to corporate business goals and objectives?

Having gauged that the opportunity is in fact viable and that investment is warranted, the next step is to consider the market. Who is an appropriate partner to address the defined requirements and expectations? How will the two parties work together and how will the deal be structured? A variety of options exist.

To ensure that the outsourcing deal is fair to both client and vendor, the client organization must communicate its requirements – in what may seem at times to be excruciating detail. Expectations (which often go beyond current requirements to the heart of the “spirit and intent” of the desired deal) must also be communicated. The client organization must then listen very carefully to how vendors respond to what becomes in fact an offer on the table to the vendor community.

A client organization that has done its homework knows its requirements (in detail), understands its objectives (specifically), and has defined its expectations (realistically) before even seeing vendor responses. A well-prepared client, moreover, can review a vendor proposal and determine whether prices are exorbitant, unrealistically low, or reasonable.

In other words, the client organization will ideally consider its existing environment in sufficient detail to know what is achievable, what is possible at a stretch, and how movement will be made on the continuum of efficiency and effectiveness, and how outsourcing will translate into definitive and measurable business value and cost reductions.

But what’s in it for the vendor? Whether an outsourcing relationship focuses on commodity services or a strategic business partnership, success is possible only if the interests of both parties are being addressed. Put differently, the best way for a client organization to protect its interests is to ensure that the vendor’s interests are protected. There can be no success of one party at the expense of the other. While hard-fought (and often unreasonable) wins at the negotiating table at the vendor’s expense may be initially gratifying, they often turn into major losses very early on in the life of the agreement. And when this happens, and when mistakes are realized, it’s often too late to recover the squandered good will.

Successful relationships that result in shared successes are built on trust and shared investments. Relationships built on win/lose negotiating battles leave little room for sharing and caring. If one party leaves the negotiation table feeling victorious at the expense of the other, the feeling won’t last.

Monitoring MechanismsA successful relationship requires that mechanisms be in place to monitor and measure the success of the agreement. This includes defining focused goals and priorities on an ongoing basis; assessing that service performance meets defined requirements and expectations; ensuring that price/performance expectations are being consistently met; and assessing the attainment of overall outsourcing goals and objectives – including specified and sustained cost reductions over the life of the agreement.

A client organization should negotiate an agreement on the basis of a realistic and attainable win/win scenario with the vendor. The vendor should make a healthy and sustainable profit (key to business success) and the client should achieve negotiated cost reductions and quality service delivery (key to business success).

Both sides win – this simple formula is the key to success in outsourcing relationships.

Media Matters: FIRST TO THIRD WORLD?

By M H AHSAN

“REUTERS Outsourcing Journalism” made a catchy headline but it was inaccurate. This development has got enormous play, but represents neither outsourcing nor journalism. It is offshoring, creating a captive unit in India, and what Reuters does here is less journalism and more financial research to feed to its data services. Outsourced journalism is a concept with great potential which more Indian publishers would like to crack, but guess what, the First World got there first.

Did you think outsourcing was a first-to-third world concept? It might be for call centres, data services and subscription services. It isn’t for journalism which has to break into a market still dominated by First World journalists. Outsourced journalism, better known as contract publishing or custom publishing is a growth industry in the West.

Not necessarily offshore It does not necessarily mean an offshore operation. The Press Association in the United Kingdom calls itself U.K.’s leading editorial services provider and its customers include HELLO! Magazine, The Guardian, OK! Magazine, The Mirror and a wide range of regional newspapers. “Every page we produce meets the style, format and design guidelines of the individual publication.” They also have clients in Europe.

This is contract publishing, and when it extends to producing entire magazines for commercial clients it is known as custom publishing. Currently there are big names offering custom publishing services: Thompson, Pearson, Ziff Davis Media. That is the market Indian publishers would have to break into.

The scene in India Indians would have a pricing advantage but would they get the same high end work in the international market? They would have to work at it. The company with the best fix on media outsourcing and where India fits into the global scenario, is Cybermedia, located in Gurgaon. A 22-year-old publishing enterprise with nine specialised magazines, it sees outsourcing as packaging or back-ending for books, as well as magazines and newspapers. At the low end you do type setting and data conversion. At the high end you even find the authors. At Cybermedia they want to do value-added stuff and move up the value chain. At the low end, the competition is within India, from outfits in Chennai or Mumbai who would do the job cheaper. At the high end, the competition is currently Australia which is into outsourced book and contract publishing in a big way.

Currently it repurposes, reformats, redesigns and replicates content for an international market, but ideally Cybermedia would like to be in the specialised magazine business, doing content, layouts, page-making and design. However pricing is an issue. Americans see India as a cheap location, but Indian media outfits, are fighting this. “We want a decent price. Americans come and haggle. They squeeze, we d not want to be squeezed. We can may be do it for 50 per cent less, not 75 per cent less. Ireland and Australia are doing outsourced work which could come to India if we offered a better price and got the quality right, and after India, Bangladesh would be waiting. As we go up the value chain, low end work may go away. Someone may set up a cheaper location in Africa,” says Rajiv Seth, Cybermedia’s president for content creation.

It helps first of all to get the terms right: offshoring is the creation of a unit overseas by a publishing company or a news service. Before Reuters it was tried by Britannica which couldn’t get it right and shut down its unit. The option to captive offshoring is to outsource to a third party vendor abroad, something that is seen as being more cost effective and in some ways more painless. Reuters’ Global Head of Content was already complaining at the launch of his centre in Bangalore about wage inflation and poor infrastructure. Had he been outsourcing he wouldn’t have to worry about either.

Both outsourcing and offshoring in journalism is happening from India but it is little known and very small. Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) does contract publishing mainly for non-resident Indian clients. It produces ready-to-print pages for English, Gujarati and Punjabi newspapers in London and New York, not just pages but the entire publication in some cases. Recently in New York, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was proudly presented a copy of one of these, called Sher e Punjab, because he figured on its cover. It is published out of New York and Canada.
IANS also does the same for websites and produces a magazine for a Dubai NRI called Global Indian which is only printed there. From cover design to content and pagination, it is all done from a basement in South Delhi. It also has an Arabic portal which retails its output as news and feature content for Arab clients. It would be happy to move on to custom publishing as well — it can see that there is a future in this whole business if India can get the pricing and quality right.
A different case A rather different example comes from an Indian-owned newspaper in Mauritius called Le Matinal. It was launched last month by Delhi-based Asia Pacific Communications Associates (APCA ) which already runs two newspapers in Nepal. Le Matinal is a broadsheet daily with 16 pages in French and four pages in English on weekdays and Sundays and 16 and eight respectively on Saturdays. The English pages in both cases are produced by a desk at the APCA headquarters and zipped across the Internet to the publishing site in Mauritius. Content comes from AFP, Reuters, IANS, the International Herald Tribune, The Times of India, Economic Times, and King Features.

Why do it from here? Because the Mauritius rupee is harder than the Indian one and the salary bill in Delhi represents a saving of Rs. one lakh per month. You also save on all the things that Mauritius decrees journalists must get: fare to and from work, food after 7.30 pm, a month’s bonus every year and night drops which cost more there. APCA is keen to offer such an offshore service to clients in the United States and has commissioned a study to gauge the potential.
To go up the value chain you need better bandwidth, 512 kbps, which APCA has now, or multiples of that as Cybermedia anticipates it might need. And you need a local interface in the countries you are targeting. Cybermedia has local people in the U,S., the U.K. and Australia to give feedback on quality, so that they get it right. To hire them costs money so you cannot do the job really cheap, only cheaper.
No cause for euphoria then, as yet.

CAN INDIA RETAIN ITS REIGN AS OUTSOURCING KING?

By M H AHSAN

Hardly a day has passed in recent months without an announcement from a major international corporation that it is outsourcing software development to India or investing in building its own software development center there.

Just today, for instance, France-based Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, the world’s fifth-largest information technology services company, opened a new development center in a suburb of Bombay that will house 250 engineers. “We are really looking at this as a stepping stone to build a much bigger presence in India,” said the company.

Major Indian outsourcing announcements have come fast and furious recently: IBM will open a Linux research lab employing 500; Nortel Networks, which already has 1,300 developers in India, will spend $350 million in the next three years and employ 500 additional research and development scientists; Cisco Systems will spend $200 million on a development center; and Deutsche Bank is dropping $4.3 million to build a 50,000-square-foot development center that will eventually house 550 software professionals.

India is clearly on a roll–but how long can it hold onto its crown? With the National Association of Software and Services Companies predicting $6 billion in software exports this year (up from $4 billion last year) and $50 billion by 2008, some are starting to question whether India can maintain its competitive edge. Low-cost technology centers in China, the Philippines, Russia and Pakistan are sprouting up and competing for outsourcing projects, making it increasingly unlikely that India will reach that lofty goal.

The Information Technology Association of America, an industry trade group, estimates that some 840,000 information technology (IT) jobs in the U.S. will go unfilled this year. Those jobs, for a first-year graduate, start out with typical salaries of $45,000 to $50,000 and rapidly escalate. The offshore software outsourcing industry will no doubt continue its hyper-expansion in the next few years as Western firms look for cheap offshore talent to fill that gap, but it is clear that India could stumble and lose its crown.

According to Marty McCaffrey, executive director of Salinas, Calif.-based Software Outsourcing Research, India will likely face troubles ramping up to the projected 2008 level.* He estimates that India would need to have 1 million qualified software engineers to support exports of $50 billion, and the country currently graduates around 110,000 computer science students a year. With a dearth of experienced project leaders already on the horizon, that problem will reach a crisis point as outsourcing continues to expand at a rate of more than 50% a year. Additionally, many of India’s best and brightest will continue migrating to the U.S. in search of higher wages.

When and if India does slip, there are plenty of low-wage countries that would be only too happy to pick up the slack.

Pakistan, for instance, has sought to emulate India’s success by offering similar tax breaks for multinationals and is aggressively modeling their own educational programs in computer and information sciences on India’s.

While China would seem to be the biggest threat, with 400,000 software professionals, only 35,000 of them are qualified to do the kind of high-level, systems-integration projects that are so coveted in India. Most of China’s high-tech laborers are well qualified to work on software applications maintenance and migration projects, and these workers come at a significantly lower salary than do their Indian counterparts doing the same work.

The Chinese environment has traditionally been grounded in manufacturing and hardware, but that appears to be changing, and the Chinese government has recently placed great emphasis on teaching English to students and IT workers, which is an extremely important skill requirement for American firms looking to outsource.

As a former British colony, India has already been extensively educated in that critical skill set, but perhaps not to the extent of the Philippines, a former American colony, where American culture and language is widely emulated. According to some analysts, those cultural and communications skills could prove to be so appealing to American firms that they would outweigh slightly higher labor costs in the Philippines.

As far as Russia is concerned, McCaffrey calls the situation there “murky.” After the fall of the Soviet Union, there were more than 1 million registered engineers, but many of them have since retired, been out of work for long periods of time or don’t have the necessary skill sets. Nevertheless, McCaffrey praised Russia’s university programs in physics and mathematics and noted that the country has “tremendous outsourcing potential” as an alternative to India. While top-notch talent falls into roughly the same price range, programmers can be found in areas outside of Moscow for as low as $3,000 a year per programmer.

Those countries, along with a host of others such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and even Vietnam, will collectively challenge India’s IT prowess in the next few years. Projects that last year and this year went to Bangalore, India’s hi-tech center, might well be going to Manila and Guangzhou, China.

DUPLICATE CONTENT PENALTY – HOW TO LOSE GOOGLE RANKING FAST

By M H AHSAN

Duplicate content penalty. Ever heard of it? This penalty is applied by Google and possibly other search engines when content found on your website is largely the same as what is found elsewhere on your site or on other websites across the internet.

Search engine spam has been common ever since search engines were first invented. Search engine spam describes the practice of making changes to your website that gets you listed high in search engines at the expense of readability by humans. Years ago, you could get ranked high on a search term simply by repeating it as many times as possible in a document. The primitive search engines of the past ranked the importance of a keyword simply by counting the number of times a term appeared on a page. Today’s search engines are much more complex.
Google has been waging war against all kinds of search engine spam and especially against duplicate content in all forms. There are two main types of duplicate content that Google is concerned about.

The first is a website that simply lists the very same page hundreds or thousands of times with simply a few words changed. This is usually done to attain high ranking on a wide range of keywords. It is most often used to get ranked high on a whole bunch of keywords unrelated to your website but can sometimes be done by a site that is on topic but simply offering duplicate content.

The second type of duplicate content that Google is concerned about revolves around affiliate programs. It has been common practice for high traffic websites to establish an affiliate program. Affiliate programs themselves don’t worry Google. What it doesn’t like though, is for an affiliate program to take a template and then offer it to its base of affiliates to use. Some of the higher traffic websites end up with thousands upon thousands of duplicate websites all promoting the very same things and, according to Google, not offering any real value to the internet community. A website offering this type of cookie cutter website can easily find themselves de-listed by Google as happened to Template Monster a while back.

The third type of duplicate content is simply not included in the Google index. This is content that is found elsewhere on the internet at large. Google and the other major search engines are interested in gathering and cataloging as much quality, unique content as possible for human consumption. To this end, they look to minimize the amount of duplicate content they allow in their index. This is why creating a new website and simply filling it with third part content will rarely if ever result in high rankings in the Google index.

The solution? Don’t rely on duplicate content as your main method of driving traffic to your site. Should you avoid all duplicate content? Of course not. What kind of duplicate content is acceptable? Answering this question is easily another article in itself.

WHY GOOGLE SHOULD EMBRACE ETHICAL SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION?

By M H AHSAN

At the outset, I want to stress that this article is not about unscrupulous search engine optimizers who mislead surfers by promoting web pages to the top of search results, only to automatically redirect them to completely off-topic pages and sites. By search engine optimizers, I mean those people who promote relevant web pages and sites to the top of relevant search results for relevant search terms. These constitute the vast majority of search engine optimizers. These are ethical SEOs (search engine optimizers), and are the SEOs refered to in this article.

SEOs have exactly the same aim as Google; that is to see the search results filled with relevant web pages for any given search term. Both SEOs and Google strive for that. The only difference between Google and SEOs is that SEOs want to see one of their relevant pages at or near the top, whereas Google doesn’t care about individual websites. Apart from that, the aims and desires of both Google and SEOs are identical.

I realise that Google would like to index the natural web – a web that hasn’t been tainted by arranged link exchanges and modifications to pages and sites, for the purpose of improving rankings. But the web wasn’t in a natural state when Google arrived, and it will never be in a natural state in the future, so that ideal is something that Google can never have.

The reason that SEOs exist is because of the way that search results are returned – 10 or 20 at a time. It is common knowledge that not many surfers go deeper than the first few pages of results, and it is common sense that no search engine can display all the relevant results for a given search term in those first few pages. It is also common sense that many of the results that don’t make it into the first few pages are equally relevant with those that do make it, and many of them are much more relevant than some of the higher ranked pages.

The difference between those that are ranked at or near the top and those that are not is that the higher ranked pages have more PageRank, or better inbound link text, or their on-page criteria is better suited to Google’s algorithm, or a combination of such factors. Without SEO involvement, all of those things occur by chance, but chance isn’t a very fair way of deciding which pages are ranked highly and which aren’t, and chance isn’t a very fair way of deciding which sites get the traffic, the business and the profits and which don’t. Yes, Google can usually fill the top results with relevant pages, but their algorithm cannot choose fairly when there are many relevant pages. No algorithm can.

Let me give a hypothetical example of a web that hasn’t been touched by search engine optimization. Suppose there are 100 hotels in New York, each having its own website, and suppose a surfer, who is looking for a New York hotel, types “new york hotels” into Google’s search box. Which of the 100 hotel sites does Google list at or near the top, and which of them get buried? Which of them are more relevant to the searcher’s requirements than the others? Of course, none of them are more relevant than the others; they are all equally relevant to the searcher’s search. So which does Google display first? Those that, by chance, just happen have pages with criteria that are the closest to Google’s algorithm. Is that a fair way of doing things? Of course not. The few sites at the top would think it’s fair, but common sense says that there’s nothing fair about that system.

For almost all search terms, there are many sites and pages that are relevant enough to be displayed at or near the top of the rankings, but only a few of them can be chosen – the rest get buried.

The question is raised, why should people accept this unfair ranking system when their own, buried, websites and pages are as relevant to the search terms as those that are ranked at or near the top? The answer is that there is no reason for them to accept the situation, especially when commerce is involved and those at or near the top are taking all the business.
This is where search engine optimization comes in. Search engine optimizers are skilled at making web pages more suited to Google’s algorithm, thereby achieving higher rankings for them. Google should have nothing whatsoever against SEO activity, because all that SEOs can do is gain higher rankings for relevant web sites and pages, which is exactly what Google tries to achieve. SEOs cannot achieve high rankings for off-topic pages because Google’s algorithm simply won’t score off-topic pages very highly for a given search term. Also, SEOs cannot fill the top rankings with their pages because Google lists only two pages per website at the most.
So what is Google’s problem with ethical search engine optimization? They certainly have a problem with it, as their SEO page shows. They put forward several non-SEO tasks as being ethical SEO, but they don’t put forward any normal SEO techniques as being acceptable to them – not even mild-mannered seo-copywriting.

Since Google wants relevant results at the top, and search engine optimizers want relevant results at the top, they are on the same side. They are not against each other. SEOs want what Google wants. SEOs do not want to put non-relevant results at the top. They merely try to have their own relevant pages included with those at the top, and they do it by trying to make them match Google’s algorithm. What possible reason could Google find to object to that?
So there is no reason at all why Google should be against ethical SEO, and they should embrace it. There is too much “us and them” attitude between Google and SEOs and it really isn’t necessary. It doesn’t do Google any good, because SEOs are forced to adopt the attitude of not caring what Google wants – because Google doesn’t care about websites.

Google’s business is parasitical in that their product is harvested freely from websites. Without websites, they have no product and no business, and yet they care nothing for websites or their owners. They aren’t in the slightest bit interested that relevant websites are buried in the rankings by other relevant websites, and even by completely non-relevant websites, but let them find a website using SEO techniques to try to get up the rankings, where it belongs, and Google will penalize/ban it without a second thought. That’s a bad attitude.

Google is known for the relevancy of its search results, but you don’t need to go very far down the rankings before you start finding non-relevant results above very relevant results. In fact, you sometimes find them in the top 10.

E.g. why is there a “world-wide holiday accommodation” site and a “French accommodation” site in the top 10 for the search term, “uk holiday accommodation”. In fact half of the top 10 are a not UK-wide site, and yet there are plenty of UK-wide sites outside of the top 10. So Google hasn’t got it right yet. In this example, why shouldn’t any buried, UK-wide, holiday accommodation site feel aggrieve that they are buried when non-relevant sites fill half the top 10 rankings? Why should Google object if those buried sites use SEO techniques to redress Google’s failings, and put sites that belong at the top for relevancy, at the top? That’s all that search engine optimization does. If Google could place sites by hand, they would change those results. If a search engine optimizer does it, why should they object or penalize? Equally, if a search engine optimizer manages to replace one relevant page in the top 10 with another equally relevant page, what is there for Google to object to?
Google’s algorithm checks for pages that most closely match their chosen criteria of what a relevant page should be for a given search term. Search engine optimizers make or modify the pages of relevant sites so that they closely match Google’s chosen criteria. Can anyone explain why Google objects to search engine optimization, because I can’t see it.

Google and search engine optimizers are on the same side. They strive to achieve the same goal – relevant search results for any given search term, and both focus their efforts on achieving that goal. Google’s algorithms are simply not good enough to rank web pages in relevancy order – no crawling search engine can do that. Google may be one of the better ones but it is obvious to any searcher that they are a long way from getting it right, so they should be very grateful that there are SEOs out there to give them a hand. The “us and them” attitude is unnecessary, and doesn’t do anybody any good. It’s time that Google embraced SEO so that we can begin to co-operate with each other, instead of always being on opposite sides.

OUTSOURCING: ARE MAGAZINES NEXT?

By M H AHSAN

“We move medical writing offshore. And for that, I apologize to all the freelance medical writers I have worked with in the past (and paid handsomely!) because now my company can do what they do, but for half the price,” writes Lombardo, whose post-Whittle positions have included editor-in-chief at WebMD. “I won’t be speaking at the American Medical Writers Association meetings anytime soon because I don’t own a Kevlar vest.”

Another American entrepreneur, Ted Fong, sends out letters to small publishers soliciting clients for his Manila-based company, Boma, offering “design, layout, content development and advertising telesales,” at a price that’s half of what it typically costs to have the work done in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Office Tiger, a New York-based publishing services company that does most of its work in Chennai, India, is building a design studio in India and bringing over a designer from the U.S. to run it. The firm hopes to attract more U.S. magazine clients for its full range of production work. “I think where publishers would most likely use us as a starting point would be design execution, where we are working with designs that have been established,” says Michelle Breault, senior vice president of content and prepress services. She expects more publishers to turn to the firm for original work “as we migrate to that broader design capability.”

It’s an increasingly familiar picture: the transfer of work that was once done by full-time employees in the U.S. to overseas contractors for a fraction of the price. It’s a fait accompli in customer service, direct marketing and information technology. Now, it’s the magazine business’s turn. Editorial, design, production and advertising functions are all being performed cheaper – and some contractors and publishers claim better – overseas.

The move abroad is just beginning, but experts believe the shift overseas is inevitable. For publishers that have already slashed staff, reduced editorial pages and shifted work onto freelancers in place of full-time staff, this represents the next frontier in cost-cutting. “I think the opportunity is that one can inherently make a new magazine start-up less expensive,” says Atul Vashista, CEO of outsourcing consultancy firm NeoIT. “One can reduce the production costs of putting a magazine out.”

Clearly, magazine production presents many of the same conditions that provided the offshore opportunity for other industries. Publishers are already accustomed to telecommuting sales reps, near-virtual editorial staff, outsourced art direction and design, outsourced Web programming, outsourced circulation fulfillment, etc. That can put magazine jobs into the great pool of the potentially offshored. According to a report published by the University of California, Berkeley last fall, as many as 14 million jobs could be shifted outside the U.S. by 2015. None of the research focused exclusively on the magazine business, but the report made clear just how vulnerable jobs in the industries that have the following characteristics are: “The lack of face-to-face customer service, work processes that enable telecommuting and Internet work, high wage differentials between countries, a high information content, low social networking requirements and low set-up costs.”

That list applies to a number of jobs in an industry that is increasingly migrating online – especially for a freelance copy editor or proofreader working out of his home for editors he’s never met. Copy editors and graphic designers are among the employees listed as being at moderate risk of losing their jobs to overseas competitors by job counseling Website careerplanner.com. “I was using a copywriter to write a couple of pages for me and I found she was farming some of it out,” says Michael Robinson, founder and owner of careerplanner.com. “Her proofreader was local, but there was no reason she couldn’t send it to India.”

Threat or Opportunity?The current face of magazine offshoring can be glimpsed in the moist puppy dog eyes staring out from the cover of the latest issue of Fido Friendly Magazine, a quarterly for people who travel with their dogs. The magazine’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, Nick Sveslovsky, who started the publication with his mother in 2001, answered a solicitation from Boma last year. He says that since the magazine was created, “I had been doing the design and production all myself, and we just didn’t have the resources financially to outsource to someone in the U.S. where the prices are ridiculous.” Sveslovsky estimates that by using Boma he pays about half what it would cost him to have the work done stateside. He sends Boma the raw material – including a photo of the next issue’s “cover dog” – and designers in the Philippines do the rest. The arrangement frees him up to concentrate on editorial and increasing the magazine’s frequency. “With Boma, it’ll happen a lot sooner than I would have thought, hopefully pretty soon,” Sveslovsky says.

The same offer from Boma evoked a far different reaction when it arrived on the desk of Samuel Pennington, publisher of Maine Antique Digest. “I live in a small town and have employees who have been with me 25 years and longer,” he says. “I just couldn’t see downsizing.” With employee pay and benefits making up more than one-third of his costs, he acknowledges that he probably could save money by outsourcing. But he considers such thinking shortsighted. “If everything is overseas, who’s going to be able to buy anything?” asks Pennington, rhetorically. “Henry Ford shocked everyone by paying his employees a living wage, but he did it because he wanted people to be able to buy his cars.”

Fido Friendly and Maine Antique Digest are typical of the publications Boma is targeting to build its magazine business (until now the company’s main focus had been on preparing marketing materials), in that they have circulations under 40,000 and serve a strong niche market. “Right now we go after the smaller magazines because they’re the ones who have the biggest needs and are the most cost-conscious,” says Fong, who mailed a solicitation to 350 U.S. publishers in January and is preparing to send another.

Boma charges $50 per page for layout and design, a price that includes sending the pages electronically to clients three times for proofing. Fong can afford to keep the price low because he typically pays his employees a fraction of what they would earn for comparable work in the U.S. – about $12,000 a year on average for a job that might pay $60,000 in the states. So far, with only three magazine clients, Boma is tiny, but Fong says he’s in discussions with others and has turned down some interested publishers whom he didn’t consider financially viable. He also has begun offering advertising services to magazines, including design and telephone sales.
With Fido Friendly, he’s using call centers to qualify leads by contacting hotels to find out details, such as whether they allow pets and what kind of accommodation they offer. From there, it’s up to the two full-time telephone sales people Fong employs to close the deal. He admits his sales staff is on a learning curve, but claims he can dramatically cut the costs of bringing in advertising. “The kind of customers we’re going after are not going to hire sales people and send them out on calls,” says Fong. “The way of the future is to close business over the phone, especially for ads that are less than $4,000 or $5,000 a page.”

Offshore Company Has Designs on U.S. MagsIf U.S. magazine workers only had to contend with Boma, there wouldn’t be much to worry about. But there are bigger players moving into this field. Office Tiger, for example, has a staff of 1,650 in India, and offices in New York and London. It was founded in 1999 to provide research, analysis and production services for law firms and investment banks, among other companies. Tiger quickly moved into the production of annual reports and prospectuses. From there, it’s not much of a leap to provide the same type of support for magazines and, in fact, the company has started to do so on a limited basis, says co-CEO and co-founder Joe Sigelman.

With its new design studio, the company will be able to perform many of the functions traditionally done in-house or outsourced to a domestic company, says Breault. That includes high-end creative work. She adds that the company expects to gain a publisher’s confidence by starting out providing routine design and production work, which magazines have plenty of. “If you look at creating a directory, for example, what you do is very much take a style and develop scripts to lay that out and what you’re doing is really merging data to a predefined layout,” she says.

Boma and OfficeTiger reflect a pattern among companies building up a business in offshore magazine work. They have established themselves in other fields – marketing, advertising and financial analysis – that require skills that are transferable to magazine publishing, such as writing, researching, copyediting, layout and design. By the time these companies begin courting magazine publishers, they have not only built up a track record demonstrating those core skills, they have already set up their facilities and technology and their sales and customer services staff. Their ability to transfer their success from related fields into magazine publishing will likely encourage competitors to make the same jump.

But how much of it really translates to magazine work? Can a copy editor in India understand the nuances of style well enough to make the words flow smoothly in, say, a magazine for wine connoisseurs in California? Can a graphic designer in the Philippines create a pleasing look for an American hotel chain’s custom publication? And what about the intangibles – the trust and communication that only comes from face-to-face contact.

“Most of the time, even among bigger accounts that we’ve gone after, you’re really dealing with someone in a very personal one-on-one relationship,” says Rob Sugar, president of Aurus Design in Silver Spring, Md. “So it matters to them that you’re not that far away.” Aurus designs and produces custom publications for organizations including the American Bus Association and the American Film Institute.

He says it would be logistically possible to perform the functions Aurus does offshore (he has clients in other states that he rarely sees in person), but he doubts overseas workers would have the right cultural sensibility for the job. “Knowing [a client] in a more intimate way is something that’s very important. I think there’s no substitute for understanding what their needs are.”
Boma’s employees in the Philippines ran into a cultural barrier when they began producing Fido Friendly. The concept of traveling with dogs was alien to the designers. Fong, who was born and raised in California, says it’s his job to explain such cultural differences to his staff.

Journal Work Migrating OverseasProfessional journals such as Molecular Cancer Research (from the American Association of Cancer Research) and the APG Bulletin) from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists) are already flocking to offshore vendors. Just ask Inera, a Massachusetts company that sells editorial and production software to publishers. “We have one competitor and it’s not another software product. It’s outsourcing,” says Ken Carson, Inera’s vice president. In the last year and a half, the company has lost several big potential deals because publishers found that instead of investing in software, they could outsource work to India or the Philippines and still save up to 80 percent off what it would cost to do the work in-house. Outmatched on price, Inera tries to compete on quality, appealing to publishers who insist on the control of keeping the work in-house, says Carson.

One of the companies giving Inera competition is SPI Publisher Services, which does prepress services such as layout and copyediting, as well as file conversion from print to electronic format for professional and scholarly journals in Manila. SPI’s revenues have been growing 50 percent a year for the past two years and are on track to hit $15 million this year.

“The economy being what it is, the attractiveness of offshore vendors is growing,” says Frank Stumpf, president and COO of the company, which has its U.S. headquarters in Ashland, Va. He maintains that offshore doesn’t just mean cheaper; it can also mean better because overseas companies can afford to put more workers on a project to get a job done faster and with greater attention to detail. So far, the company has not expanded from journals to consumer or trade magazines, but Stumpf says SPI is eyeing such publications for future growth. “I think there’s more and more opportunity,” he says. “Copyediting is one of the more labor intensive parts of the magazine business, so it’s a highly likely thing for people to consider moving offshore.”
But Barbara Wallraff, a language columnist for the Atlantic Monthly and editor of the Copy Editor Newsletter, says copyediting is too sophisticated a function to be farmed out to someone in another country. “If it’s quality that the companies care about for the great majority of copyediting applications, offshoring wouldn’t be the way to go,” she says. “So we need to do a good job of explaining why good, solid domestic editing does have value.”

Wallraff may be right – certainly a top literary/current events magazine like The Atlantic is unlikely to trust the nuance of language of top writers to unseen contractors. But many magazines are looking for something far simpler: clear, error-free copy. For example, Dowden Health Media, a custom publisher of medical information for both professional and consumer audiences, says it is happy to hire doctors in India to fact check its consumer publications.
The doctors check the stories against the medical literature to make sure the articles are scientifically accurate. “There’s an extra level of scrutiny, putting an extra brain on the case for each article,” says Mark Dowden, senior vice president and publisher. “It’s not so much a matter of keeping absolute errors from going through, as it is providing extra editorial input that can be used in final editing to confirm that everything in the article is just so from a scientific viewpoint.” Dowden declined to say how much he pays for the service, but said it’s less than what it would cost to hire a freelance fact checker, let alone an M.D., in the U.S.

Those doctors come by way of MD Writers, the company started by Lombardo. Lombardo says he has six Indian physicians under contract who write, research, copyedit and fact check material for consumer and professional audiences. MD Writers supplies content for Websites, ghost writes articles for peer-reviewed journals and prepares material for continuing education courses.

For one client, a Website for physicians, the doctors under contract with MD Writers review the professional journals each week and write summaries of their findings. Lombardo, who says the company has six clients including Dowden (but declined to name the others), says the only thing medical journalists do that the doctors he works with don’t is call sources to report on a story.
To find doctors who could write, he advertised on two Websites: Monsterindia.com and Timesofindia.com. He got 120 responses. Doctors typically make $1,200 to $2,000 a month in India, so the moonlighting offers an attractive way to supplement their income, says Lombardo. He gave the applicants writing tests. “I thought it would take me 100 tests to find four good writers,” he says. “After 70 tests I stopped. I had a pool of 15 writers.”Granted, the Indian doctors wrote with a British accent, but Lombardo says it took him only three months to train them to write American-style copy. And he did it all by e-mail from his office in Atlanta. Lombardo has never been to India.

SPG PLANS INTERNATIONAL OUTSOURCING FORUM IN AMESTERDAM

By M H AHSAN

The Indian arm of UK-based publishing company SPG Media endorsed a thumping success of a three-day European Outsourcing forum for European and Indian companies in Dubai. European Outsourcing Forum India (EOFI 2005) the industry’s first invitation-only, interpersonal event geared towards ensuring that European business understands how outsourcing in India can enable them to reduce operating costs and increase competitive advantage and customer satisfaction.

Around 45 European companies from banking, insurance, retail, supply chain management and telecom sectors with a turnover of $500 million participated in the forum. Around 15 Indian ITeS and BPO companies used the platform to generate business.

With the continued growth of any new industry comes a variety of new challenges, successes, failures, positive & negative reactions all combining to create new challenges for sustained growth. The International Outsourcing Forum is structured to assist the industry in completing these new challenges by discussing, developing and implementing structure within the industries associations, institutes, key players, leading vendor, consultancy and research companies. SPG plans to launch the International Outsourcing Forum in Amsterdam, next year, to bring Asian ITeS, BPO companies in touch with global companies looking to outsource work to low-cost locations.

An outsourcing forum will be useful to a number of companies in India who wished to penetrate into Europe, where language may be a problem. For Europeans too, coming to India is a difficult proposition. A common meeting ground will benefit both buyers and suppliers in fields such as applications development, bill processing, data warehousing, HR services, IT development, IT services management, records management, and secretarial services.

It is the right time for mid-sized Indian outsourcing companies to shift focus from a declining US market to the EU market. Europe accounts for around 30 per cent of the global IT services market. IT services spending in Western Europe is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11 per cent in the medium term. Unless there is a shift in focus, Indian companies are likely to lose a fair amount of the business opportunity to rivals in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Last year, SPG Media held a similar event called the European Financial Services Outsourcing Forum in Mumbai, targeting the financial sector. Dubai Forum’s scope was broader and, apart from companies in the financial services sector, included companies in the retail, telecom, airlines, logistics and supply management sectors.

Outsourcing is becoming increasingly strategic as it moves further away from commodity outsourcing of simple, non-core activities towards a powerful management tool to transform businesses’ technology infrastructure, business operating model/processes and financial statements. SPG India is also launching Packaging & Conversion Europe (PACE) Forum out of India for Indian & Asian suppliers to meet European buyers. PACE has already attracted over 25 key decision makers from top multinationals. This forum will be held in February 2006 in Rome.

The company organises around 12 forums a year, mostly in Europe. They include the European banking forum, the Leaf Forum for architects and another one for the broadcasting industry.

SHOULD GOOGLE PURCHASE THE BAIDU.COM IN CHINA?

By M H AHSAN

Google Inc, the world’s most powerful search engine will realise its dream of getting a direct and deeper access to the Chinese internet market. The web services provider has got the licence to operate in China, the world’s second largest internet market, only after the US. Google is planning to launch its China office by this year-end.

Google has also started operations on www.google.com.cn. Although it has been operating a Chinese language search engine from September 2000, it had previously been forced to run its China business from Hong Kong, thus limiting its operations to marketing advertising services via its search engine to Mainland Chinese companies.

The US-based Google has already bought an undisclosed stake in Chinese No. 1 search engine, Baidu.com. The deal brought Google much closer to the Chinese internet surfers who number almost 9.4 million. The figure is expected to touch 134 million by the end of 2005.
Google also brings with it the prediction of a tough competition against American rivals like Yahoo Inc, which has 22.7% share in Chinese market against Google’s 21.2%, and MSN. Baidu.com is the Chinese favourite with 36.3% share. Armed with the licence and stake, Google hopes to tap the rapidly growing market in China. At the same time, it faces challenges in the form of censorship and stringent regulations in the Communist-run country. Information related to politics, moral subjects and pornography are blocked in China and a few years ago Google was blacked out for unknown reasons.

Though ruled out by Baidu.com, a complete takeover of the Chinese company by the Californian giant is doing the rounds. This will set revolutionary changes in the market as well as web-based policies of China. Google’s direct presence can also establish a positive bearing on the English-speaking abilities of Chinese, who fare very badly in this area. Its varied range and technological supremacy will offer comprehensive coverage of Chinese sites, setting new standards in access to information in the otherwise media-conservative China.

Google also plans to make inroads into the Chinese domain and culture by making use of Baidu.com as its representative since Baidu has a superior understanding of them. Baidu.com is also preparing to get listed on NASDAQ and some other Chinese search engines are planning a technological revamp.

All these developments indirectly owing to the entry of Google and Yahoo are changing China’s internet habits and market besides giving hints about more flexible government policies. China is already making a name for itself in software sector and exposure to Western search engines will tremendously improve Chinese’s skills. Its businesses can also be marketed worldwide thus competing with India that has English-language advantage.

On the flip side, there is a strong feeling that the American intrusion would affect changes in the conservative and orthodox culture of the country, which is already witnessing a change in the general lifestyle.

RIGHT ATTITUDE FOR INTERVIEWS

By M H Ahsan

The most confusing thing for an applicant while going for an interview is whether his interviewer wants him or her to have the right attitude or essential skills for the job. Most employers and professionals believe that the quality rather than quantity of degrees is more desirable in an interviewee. It is the right attitude and optimism, which takes one aspirant far ahead than others. You as a contender might be over qualified for the job that you are applying to but unless you have the confidence you could lose the job even to a less able candidate. Many things have to be kept in mind while preparing for and giving an interview including those mentioned below.

Time of arrival
You should neither arrive too late or too early to an interview. Coming early by one hour or more would send the wrong signal that you are too free for this particular job and are more than eager to join it. Even 30 minutes early would be a bit too much. The ideal time is to reach the place approximately 10 minutes before the interview. If you come at your listed time you might miss on some important announcements that are made at the last minute or you might just panic being in a new environment. So you should be well planned and decide before hand how do you intend to go keeping in mind the traffic and other possibilities. You must by any chance reach the office at least 5 minutes before the interview but the best time is 10 minutes early.

Treatment to the receptionist
You might think that the receptionist is just to attend to your concerns and queries but you are wrong. She is not even there to comfort you. She is an important person in the office and surprisingly has a say in the selection of candidates and thus you should be at your best even in front of her. She should not realize your nervousness and tension as could report it to the officials later on. A receptionist is one who sees you unaware and thus notices your true personality and ideology. So must be extra cautious in front of her as she might prove instrumental in your acquiring of a particular job.

Reason to work for the company
When the company officials ask you why you want the job then you never ought to say that the short distance to the office suits you or that you need the money that you would get as salary. You must never show them that you need their services but try to inculcate the habit of saying that you would like to help the firm or organization by applying your skills and dedication to your job and thus raising their status because the company wants to hire you for their own benefit and not to help you financial or oblige you by giving you the job. They need your services and not provide you facilities. Hence you must show eagerness to help them so that they hire you.

Talking about current boss
While you are being interviewed you might be asked to say something or to give your view point on your current boss as the interviewers try to steal information about your personality in this way. By being negative and complaining you could render negative information about yourself, which could hamper your application. You should convert your sour experiences into learning and positive ones and try to say minimum as you might be cross-questioned which may land you in trouble. You should always try to say best about your current boss and mention his good traits. No matter how strained relationships you might be having with your boss those should never come into acquaintance with your interviewer. Saying badly about others delivers negative about us too.

Reason you left your last job
The reasons you provide to the interviewers for your leaving the current job ought to depict your positive and move ahead in life attitude. Problem with colleagues or other members of organization would give a hint that you are uncooperative and not adjusting no matter what the truth is. You must never blame anybody but say that it is because that you believe in growing that you think that a change in job could help you. Too much expectation as a reason to leave the job sounds as if you run away from responsibilities and are a coward. So you should mention that change in life is only a means to grow and that you would like to work with such a prosperous and growing company like them and also help them with your hard working abilities, unmatched skills and experience.

The questions you should ask When given the opportunity to ask questions you should not give into the flow and ask about benefits and vacation time including salary. You should be neutral and ask general questions. But neither should you say that you have researched too well and need not ask anything as they might cross question you and saying this might also show lack of concern nor should you say that they explained the things too well and you do not need any further assistance. The best possible answer could be to prepare certain logical and business type questions which show your knowledge as well as interest. You should ask these questions only if asked to and not demand an answer. Asking relevant questions is very important. You must prepare these questions beforehand as thinking of a question there and then might make you nervous and lead you to ask irrelevant or unnecessary questions.

Thus while preparing or appearing for an interview you should always be extra cautious as to never concentrate on your degrees but on your ability to reach the pinnacle and your attitude. All the employers are looking for are good able candidates who are willing to work hard and take their company ahead. So you must concentrate on your attitude and not your aptitude.

CONCERN ON THE ENTANGLEMENT OVER THE BAGLIHAR HYDROPOWER PROJECT

By Priya Venkatesh

Entanglement over the Baglihar hydropower project in Kashmir continues as the careens of the nations involved stand differentiated. The situation over the so- called controversial design of the dam has become topsy-turvy and has brought in such ramifications of having a neutral civil Swiss engineer, Raymond Lafitte to sort out the issue!

Despite World Bank negotiations over the disputes that prevailed between India and Pakistan on the utilization of water from the existing facilities way back in 1960 via the Indus Water treaty, its hapless that both nations have again run into a dead lock.

PROVISIONS OF THE INDUS WATER TREATY, 1960
Way back at the time of independence, the boundary line between India and Pakistan was laid right at the Indus River basin. The contraventions that arose over the utilization of water for irrigation from the existing facilities at the Indus river by both the countries climaxed in the signing of the Indus Water Treaty at Karchi on 19th September 1960 by the then President of Pakistan Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan and the then Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru in the presence of Mr.W.A.B.Ill of the World Bank.

The treaty was put into effect from 01 April, 1960.Usage of water from the eastern rivers of the Indus (The Sutlej, The Beas, The Ravi) were apportioned to India and of the western rivers of the Indus (The Chenab, The Jhelum and the Indus) were apportioned on a larger scale to Pakistan allowing a restricted usage of water by India in the latter.

BAGLIHAR HYDROPOWER PROJECT – DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE
In continuation to this, India started off with a double-phase 900MW hydropower project (phase 1 providing a potential of 450MW) in the Chenab River in Kashmir at the southern Doda district in Chandrakot in 1999-2000. The vantages of hydropower are inexplicable. It not only serves as a renewable resource free from pollution but also sustains minimal running costs in the long run.

This project was enquired by the Central Water Commission and a report was prepared by the latter on the same in the year 1984.It also states that the geological investigations were done in 1962-1978 by the geological survey of India and in 1987, The project was reported to have been transferred to NHPC. After almost a decade of dormancy, the construction of the mega hydropower project started in 2000.

Being the only power project of the state, it promises to provide unrestrained electricity to the region which has been incessantly suffering from daylong power cuts.

This project on successful completion anticipates bringing about harmonious developmental strategies with respect to the supply of electricity to the whole of Kashmir and redeems a prosperous socio-economic environment in the otherwise impoverished city of Doda.

LOCATION AND FEATURES OF THE HYDROPOWER PROJECT
As per the data presented by the two small rivers, The Chandra and The Bhaga rising from the South-East and North-West of Baralacha pass at a height of 4,891 meters merge together at a place called Tandi at a height of 2,286 meters and becomes the ChaderBagha river.

This in turn passes through the Chamba district (as the Pangi valley) in HP and enters the Podar valley of Kashmir.

In Kashmir, the Chenab River drops another approx.2000 meters and flows into Pakistan near Akhnur.

India sees this drop in elevation of the Chenab River in Kashmir as a tremendous potential for Hydropower generation. This urged India and led to the idea of the implementation of the gigantic Baglihar Hydropower project.

FRI Reservoir level: 840m
MDDDI Reservoir level: 838m
Average reservoir level: 839m
Submergence area at the full reservoir level: 12994.17 Kanals
Power generation: 450MW

Plans for the Rehabilitation and resettlement of those affected by the construction of this project are in the pipeline.

WORK-FORCE INVOVLVED IN THE PROJECT
As per the reports of the “Daily Times”,

· the project is said to involve 7000 workers including skilled labor and engineers.
· The talks between the Project chief Engineer Ghulam Hassan Rather and Mufti Muhammed Syed during his visit to the site in early may 2005, communicates that the civil works were being executed by contractors Jaiprakash Associates of the Jay Pee group while electric works were being implemented by a German Consortium Voith Siemens & VA Tech. Another German company, Lahmeyer International is supervising the work on behalf of the Kashmir government

PROJECT DESIGN –THE HEART OF CONTROVERSY
The controversy over this started at the design of the Baglihar dam in the Chenab River. The president General Pervez Musharaff approved a plan to coerce India to redesign the project on November 21, 2004 stating that it was a clear violation of the dictates of the Indus Water Treaty, 1960. He made it clear that the intervention of the International court of justice would be sorted to if in case the controversy heightens in spite of political and diplomatic efforts undertaken by both the governments concerned.

Pakistan raised its opposition to the construction of the gate-like structures present in the design stating that it would divert water to India, which otherwise is destined for Pakistan. It also emphasizes the fact that the successful implementation of this project would deprive Pakistan of 6000-7000 cusecs of water per day. It also emphasized in reducing the planned height of the dam(470 feet) for which the Indian authorities allege that the 450MW capacity would come down to a mere 50MW.

India upholds to state that the construction would in no way disrupt the water flow of the river or the canals of Pakistan. India alleges that the problem of augmentation of sludge is overcome only by abnormal flushing which in turn is unfeasible but for the presence of gated spillways.

With reference to this, talks were held between India and Pakistan in July, August and October 2003.But the repercussion was just a stalemate. Formal notices were issued by Pakistan to resolve the issue with the intervention of neutral experts twice in July and October 2003.The deadlines for India’s response were set up at December 31, 2003.

As per the postulation of the Indian government, a 3-day talk between the Indian and Pakistani authorities was convened at the Permanent Commission of Indus Water (PCIW) in January 2004.

The political and diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue broke down even when the stakes to do so at the bi-lateral government level were quiet high. Talks continued again in January 2005 but ended up in vain. The issue still remained a blind alley.

Arbitration by the World Bank was sought for by the Pakistani authorities in early 2005.As a consequence, The World Bank appointed Raymond Lafitte, a Swiss national civil Engineer cum Professor to sort out the longstanding issue on May 10,2005.Professor Raymond Lafitte is with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne. He was a former expert on dam safety with the Swiss government.

Lafitte held confluences with the delegates from India and Pakistan on the assorted issues over the disputed project in Paris, in the wake of June 2005.

A NOTE ON THE TIMEFRAME AND VALUE OF THE PROJECT
The highly controversial Baglihar hydropower project is expected to race towards its completion by June 2006. The Union minister after his recent visit to the site in mid-June 2005 is reported to have said that the project would be completed and dedicated to the nation by June next year.

As per the versions of many leading dailies, out of the estimated overall cost of erection of about 4000-crore, a sum of 2700-crores has already been used up and almost 71% of civil works and 81% of electro-mechanical work of Phase-1 has been completed till date.

WHAT’S ON THE RUN AND WORK AHEAD
As the backwash of the World Bank arbitration towards reaching a consensus in this issue, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, the then Union minister for Water resources confabulated the site of construction on June 17, 2005 to produce a detailed report on the same.

Inspection by the Pakistani delegates and by Lafitte is in the pipeline in the next few months.

It is believed that by resorting to World Bank arbitration, a Pandora’s box has been opened up. Will there be a resolution to this controversy in the nearest future? Much awaited is an accord in this issue between the nations concerned in the nearest future!

Will the World Bank take the quickest measure to resolve the issue? Will a consensus be reached between the two nations still remains an unanswered question!

POSSIBLE ENTAILMENTS OF ARBITRATION
Arbitration on its march ahead may end up with the renegotiation or revocation of the Treaty with the consent of both the nations concerned. Sequel of the treaty and operation within the scope of the Indus Water treaty is a must for the increasingly agriculture dependent Pakistani side. With the declining water storage at the Terbela and Mangla of Pakistan, revocation of the treaty would emphatically not auspicate the Pakistani side positively.

Further delay in sorting out the issue will have bad reflection on the Indians for two reasons. The first being the finance involved in this project that have taken up huge tolls of money and second being the unrestrained supply of electricity that would be available to Kashmir on successful implementation. Arbitration if prolonged will also strain both the nations financially.

Considering the nook and corner of this complex dispute, the candid facts with respect to the issue has to be pondered upon

· Abrogation of the treaty would never have a positive reflection to the Pakistanis and continuance of the arbitration will have negative contemplations on the Indians

· Political tension and administrative friction at the government level has to be swept aside. The functional side of the issue has to be brought under discussion. Negotiations should be concluded within the shortest stint of time and an accord has to become a reality on operational basis.

· Cognitive upbeat decisions must be taken at the functional level scraping out the political differences thus paving way to renegotiations of the Indus Water Treaty.

Whatever be the resolution to this indefinitely unsolved issue, let us hope that it should surface within the shortest possible stint of time and it should be to the fullest benefit of both the countries involved.

THE MAJESTIC TAJ MAHAL

By M H AHSAN

A flawless architectural creation
For centuries, the Taj Mahal has inspired poets, painters and musicians to try and capture its elusive magic in word, colour and son. Since the 17th century, travellers have crossed continents to come and see this ultimate memorial to love, and few have been unmoved by its incomparable beauty.

Taj Mahal stands in the city of Agra, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Yamuna river. It was built in the memory of the beautiful Arjumand Bano Begum, who won the heart of a Mughal prince. She was married at 21 to Emperor Jahangir’s third son Prince Khurram and stayed loyally by his side through good times and bad: in the luxurious royal palaces of Agra as well as the transient tents of war camps.A memorial to his belovedIn AD 1628, Khurram became king after a bloody battle of succession; he took the name Shahjahan or King of the World and showered his beloved begum with the highest titles. She became Mumtaz Mahal, the Exalted of the Palace and Mumtaz-ul-Zamani, the Exalted of the Age. But Mumtaz Mahal was not destined to be queen for long.

In 1631, Shahjahan went on an expedition to the South and, as always, Mumtaz Mahal accompanied him. But she died in childbirth at Burhanpur. She had borne Shahjahan fourteen children, of whom four sons and three daughters survived. When Mumtaz Mahal died, she was just 39 years old. Shahjahan was inconsolable and contemporary chronicles tell of the royal court mourning for two years. There was no music, no feasting, and no celebration of any kind.
Shahjahan, who was a passionate builder, now decided to erect a memorial marble that the world would never forget. The site selected for the tomb was a garden by the Yamuna river, unshadowed by any other structure. The garden had been laid by Raja Man Singh of Amber and now belonged to his grandson, Raja Jai Singh. By a royal firman, Shahjahan gave Jai Singh four havelis in exchange for the garden. The site was also chosen because it was located on a bend in the river, and so could be seen from Shahjahan’s personal palace in Agra Fort, further upstream.
A labour of love
Work on the mausoleum began in 1633 and 20,000 workers laboured for 17 years to build it. The most skilled architects, inlay craftsmen, calligraphers, stone-carvers and masons came from all across India and lands as distant as Persia and Turkey. The master mason was from Baghdad, an expert in building the double dome from Persia, and an inlay specialist from Delhi.
The tomb was completed in AD 1650. But, Shahjahan was deposed by his son Aurangzeb in 1658 and imprisioned in the Agra Fort. He spent his last years in the Mussalman Burj looking downstream at the Taj where his beloved Mumtaz Mahal lay. Sixteen years later he, too, was laid to rest beside her.

The bejewelled Palace
Shahjahan’s two biggest passions were architecture and jewellery and both are reflected in the Taj Mahal. He visualised a building in marble and then had it decorated with semi-precious stones inlaid with the delicacy of handcrafted jewellery. Marble in purest white was brought from Makrana in Rajasthan, yellow marble and rockspar from the banks of the Narmada river, lack marble from Charkoh and red sandstone from Sikri. For the intricate pietra dura the finest gems were collected – crystal and jade from China, lapis lazuli and sapphires from Sri Lanka, jasper from Punja, carnelian from Baghdad and turquoise from Tibet.

Yemen sent agates, the corals came from Arabia, the garnets from Bundelkhand, onyx and amethyst from Persia. Mumtaz Mahal’s final resting-place was ornamented like a queen’s jewel-box.

The Complex
You enter the Taj complex through an arcaded forecourt where some of Shahjahan’s other queens lie buried. The forecourt also has the Jilau Kana, a bazaar with cloisters leading to the main entrance of the tomb. The imposing gateway is made of red sandstone highlighted with marble and has octagonal kiosks on top. The gateway is an imposing 30 metres high and a fitting entrance to the Taj Mahal. The soaring arch is inscribed with a beautiful design of inlaid flowers and calligraphy.

As you enter the dark octagonal chamber under the gateway, the light streaming in from the opposite doorway draws you towards it. Here, framed by the arch of the doorway, the Taj Mahal reveals itself to the viewer with dramatic power. It stands at the end of a long walkway, framed by landscaped gardens and an ever-changing sky, its snowy marble glittering in the sunlight.
Taj Mahal stands at one side of a garden laid in the tradition charbagh style, with its square lawns bisected by pathways, water channels and rows of fountains. Halfway down the path there is a square pool, its limpid waters reflecting the marble tomb. Unlike other tombs, Taj Mahal stands at one end of the garden instead the centre. This was done deliberately, to leave its vista uncluttered by any other building.

The Main Building
The tomb stands on a marble plinth six-metres high. The four minarets at each corner beautifully frame the tomb. The plinth stands on a high standstone platform and at the far ends of this base are two identical sandstone structures, a mosque to the west and its jawab, or echo, to the east. This was the mehman khana or guesthouse. Thus, the main building is not just of great size but beautifully proportioned and balanced in design.

The octagonal central hall has four smaller octagonal halls round it and is decorated with magnificent inlay and dado panels done in high relief. The bulbous, perfectly-balanced double dome rises to a height of 45 metres and the four chhattris flanking and balancing the high drum give it added height. Taj Mahal rises 75 metres high and is, in fact, taller than the Qutb Minar.
An ornate marble screen, carved so fine that it almost has the texture of lace surrounds the cenotaphs in the central hall. However, as was the tradition during Mughal times, the actual graves lie in an underground crypt directly below the cenotaphs.

Intricacy in design
What is most amazing about the Taj Mahal is the fine detailing. The coloured inlay is never allowed to overwhelm the design, as carvings done in relief sensitively balance it. The ornate pietra dura and relief carvings are of floral, calligraphic and geometric designs. However, flowers remain the main decorative element as the tomb depicts a paradise garden. The skill of the inlay worker is so fine that it is impossible to find the joints, even when as many as 40 tiny pieces of semi-precious stones have been used in the petals of a single flower. Some of the best calligraphy of Koranic verses can be seen around the entrance arches and on the two headstones.

The colours of the Taj
Taj Mahal changes its moods with the seasons and the different times of the day. At dawn, the marble has a delicate bloom in shell pink, by noon it glitters majestically white, turning to a soft pearly grey at dusk. On full-moon away against the star-spangled sky. Monsoon clouds give it a moody blue tint and it appears and disappears like a mirage in the drifting mists of winter.

It can be solid and earthbound, fragile and ethereal, white, amber, grey and gold. The many faces of Taj Mahal display the seductive power of architecture at its best.

Zarqawi: Everywhere and nowhere

By M H Ahsan

A remarkable proportion of the violence taking place in Iraq is regularly credited to the Jordanian Ahmad al-Khalayleh, better known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and his al-Qaeda-linked organization in Iraq. Sometimes it seems no car bomb goes off, no ambush occurs that isn’t claimed in his name or attributed to him by the Bush administration. Bush and his top officials have, in fact, made good use of him, lifting his reputed feats of terrorism to epic, even mythic, proportions (much aided by various mainstream media outlets). Given that the invasion and occupation of Iraq have now been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be based on administration lies and manipulations, I begun to wonder if the vaunted Zarqawi even existed.

In Amman, random interviews with Jordanians only generated more questions and no answers about Zarqawi. As it happens, though, the Jordanian capital is just a short cab ride from Zarqa, the city Zarqawi is said to be from. So I decided to slake my curiosity about him by traveling there and nosing around his old neighborhood. “Zarqawi, I don’t even know if he exists,” said a scruffy taxi driver in Amman, and his was a typical comment. “He’s like [Osama] bin Laden, we don’t even know if he exists; but if he does, I support that he fights the US occupation of Iraq.”

Chatting with a man sipping tea in a small stall in downtown Amman, I asked what he thought of Zarqawi. He was convinced that Zarqawi was perfectly real, but the idea that he was responsible for such a wide range of attacks in Iraq had to be “nonsense”. “The Americans are using him for their propaganda,” he insisted. “Think about it – with all of their power and intelligence capabilities – they cannot find one man?” Like so many others in neighboring Jordan, he, too, offered verbal support for the armed resistance in Iraq, adding, “Besides, it is any person’s right to defend himself if his country is invaded.

The American occupation of Iraq has destabilized the entire region.” The Bush administration has regularly claimed that Zarqawi was in – and then had just barely escaped from – whatever city or area they were next intent on attacking or cordoning off or launching a campaign against. Last year, he and his organization were reputed to be headquartered in Fallujah, prior to the American assault that flattened the city. At one point, American officials even alleged that he was commanding the defense of Fallujah from elsewhere by telephone. Yet he also allegedly slipped out of Fallujah, either just before or just after the beginning of the assault, depending on which media outlet or military press release you read.

He has since turned up, according to American intelligence reports and the US press, in Ramadi, Baghdad, Samarra and Mosul among other places, along with side trips to Jordan, Iran, Pakistan and/or Syria. His closest “lieutenants” have been captured by the busload, according to American military reports, and yet he always seems to have a bottomless supply of them. In May, a news report on the BBC even called Zarqawi “the leader of the insurgency in Iraq”, though more sober analysts of the chaotic Iraqi situation say his group, Jama’at al-Tawhid wal Jihad, while probably modest in size and reach, is linked to a global network of jihadis. However, finding any figures as to the exact size of the group remains an elusive task. Former US secretary of state Colin Powell offered photos before the United Nations in February, 2003 of Zarqawi’s “headquarters” in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, also claiming that Zarqawi had links to al-Qaeda.

The collection of small huts was bombed to the ground by US forces in March of that year, prompting one news source to claim that Zarqawi had been killed. Yet seemingly contradicting Powell’s claims for Zarqawi’s importance was a statement made in October, 2004 by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who conceded that Zarqawi’s ties to al-Qaeda may have been far more ambiguous, that he may have been more of a rival than a lieutenant to bin Laden. “Someone could legitimately say he’s not al-Qaeda,” added Rumsfeld. The eternal netherworld of Zarqawi For anyone trying to assess the Zarqawi phenomenon from neighboring Jordan, complicating matters are the contradictory statements Jordanians regularly offer up about almost any aspect of Zarqawi’s life, history, present activities, or even his very existence. “I’ve met him here in Jordan,” claimed Abdulla Hamiz, a 29 year-old merchant in Amman, “Two years ago.” However, Hajam Yousef, shining shoes under a date palm in central Amman, insists, “He doesn’t exist except in the minds of American policy-makers.”

In fact, what little is actually known about Zarqawi sounds like the biography of a troubled but normal man from the industrial section of Zarqa. Thirty-eight years old now, according to the BBC, Zarqawi reportedly grew up a rebellious child who ran with the wrong crowd. He liked to play soccer in the streets as a young boy and dropped out of school when he was 17. According to some reports, his friends claimed that in his teens he started drinking heavily, getting tattoos, and picking fights he could not win. According to Jordanian intelligence reports provided to the Associated Press in Amman, Zarqawi was jailed in the 1980s for sexual assault, though no additional details are available.

By the time he was 20 he evidently began looking for direction, and ended up making his way to Afghanistan in the last years of the jihadi war against the Soviets in that country. While some media outlets, such as the New York Times, claim that he did not actually fight in Afghanistan, there are people in Jordan who believe he did. He is reported to have returned to Jordan in 1992, where he was arrested after Jordanian authorities found weapons in his home.

On his release in 1999, he left once again for Pakistan. When his Pakistani visa expired, expecting to be arrested as a suspect in a terror plot if he returned to Jordan, he entered Afghanistan instead. After supposedly running a weapons camp there, he was next sighted by Jordanian authorities crossing back into Jordan from Syria in September of 2002. Some time between then and May 11, 2004, when he was reported to have beheaded the kidnapped American, Nick Berg, in Baghdad, Zarqawi entered Iraq.

Many news outlets have reported that his goal in Iraq is to generate a sectarian civil war between the Sunni and Shi’ites. In September, 2004, the BBC, among others, reported, “US officials suspect that Zarqawi … is holed up with followers in the rebellious Iraqi city of Fallujah,” though their sources, as is true of more or less all sources in every report on Zarqawi, were nebulous. During the second siege of Fallujah, last November, Newsweek reported that “some US officials say that Zarqawi may actually be directing or instigating events in the town by telephone from elsewhere in Iraq”. Though they, too, cited no specific sources and provided no evidence for this, Newsweek then summed Zarqawi’s importance up in this way: “His crucial role in the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, however, cannot be underestimated.” Meanwhile, the BBC was reporting that his “network is considered the main source of kidnappings, bomb attacks and assassination attempts in Iraq” – another statement made without much, if any, solid evidence. In the end, the vast mass of reportage on Zarqawi amounts to countless statements based on anonymous sources hardly less shadowy – to ordinary readers – than him.

He exists, then, in a kind of eternal netherworld of reportage, rumor and attribution. It could almost be said that never has a figure been more regularly written about based on less hard information. While we have a rough outline of who he is, where he is from, and where he went until he entered Iraq, evidence that might stand up in a court of law is consistently absent. The question that remains to be answered in this glaring void of hard information is: who benefits from the ongoing tales of the mysterious Zarqawi? The search for Zarqawi’s past My own little journey only seemed to repeat this larger phenomenon on a more modest scale.

It was the sort of story where, from beginning to end, no one I met ever seemed willing to offer his or her real name (or certainly let a real name be used in an article). From second one, Zarqawi and an urge for anonymity were tightly – and perhaps appropriately – bound together. Abdulla (not his real name, of course), the man who agreed to drive my translator Aisha and me to al-Zarqa for this excursion, was a Jordanian, by the look of things about 30 years old, who chain-smoked nervously throughout the trip. We decided to go with him after running into him while I was conducting my own informal Zarqawi reality poll in Amman. “I know him personally because we fought together in Afghanistan in the early ’90’s,” insisted Abdulla. “If you like, I can show you where he is from.” When he picked us up on the late afternoon of the next day in his beat-up, rusting taxi, he agreed to a modest fee that was to be paid at the end of our excursion.

As we puttered up a hillside on our venture to Zarqawi’s hometown of al-Zarqa, he promptly pulled out a small stack of photos. I flipped through them as we drove towards Zarqawi’s neighborhood and noted Abdulla standing in front of the huge Faisal mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, a giant beard (no longer present) dominating his flowing dishdasha (robe). Another picture had him in Peshawar, Pakistan, a city near the Afghan border known as a recruiting and staging area for the Taliban. Others seemed to have him in the Philippines standing amid dense forest with a gun slung over his shoulder. In none of them – why should I have been surprised – did he have a companion with the now so globally recognizable Zarqawi sneer.

A little while into our journey, out of nowhere Abdulla suddenly said, “Anyone collaborating with the Americans in Iraq should be killed!” I took this as a sign that he felt like talking, and asked him what he knew of Zarqawi. According to him, he met the mythic terrorist in Peshawar before being sent with him to a training camp on the border of Afghanistan in 1990. “There are several well-known training camps in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he explained, “And we were in one of those, along with freedom fighters from Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon.”

Only fighters for “jihad” were allowed into the camps, he continued proudly. Only fighters who were identified by other well-known mujahideen were granted permission to enter, in an effort to safeguard those camps against spies. After three months of training with machine guns and rocket launchers, Abdulla claims that he and Zarqawi headed for Afghanistan to fight the Russians who remained there. When I looked at him quizzically – since the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan in February of 1989 – he replied, “Many of them stayed after their government announced they had withdrawn – so we were pushing the rest of them out.” This was already a questionable tale, but he went right on. They were given the choice, he claimed, of where to go in Afghanistan, and Abdulla proudly stated that most of the mujahideen went to the “hot” areas where they expected to find fighting.

Our discussion was then interrupted because we had completed the hop to Zarqa and arrived in the neighborhood, so rumor has it, where Zarqawi’s brother-in-law lives. We were dropped off near a small mosque where Zarqawi supposedly used to pray. Abdulla says it isn’t safe for him to linger here – though he doesn’t bother to explain why – and we agree instead that he will call us on my cell phone in an hour to see if we need more time or not. So Aisha and I begin to walk around the quiet, middle-class neighborhood asking people if they know where the brother-in-law lived. Small children play in the streets. Behind them young men and parents sit eyeing us suspiciously.

The wind whips plastic bags along the roads between the usual stone houses of Jordan. Finally, we find an old man with a white, flowing beard and tired eyes sitting in a worn chair at the front of a small grocery stall. He admits to being the imam of the mosque, but when asked if he remembers Zarqawi he dodges the question artfully. “It is probably true that he used to pray in my mosque,” he responds tiredly, “but I can’t say for sure, as my back is to the people whom I lead in prayers.” After this he looks away, down the road. I assume he’s wishing we were gone – undoubtedly like so many Zarqawi seekers before us. So we thank him and walk on. Next we find a woman – no names given – who assures us that Zarqawi is from the Beni Hassan tribe, the largest tribe in Jordan, before pointing to a two-storey white house with a black satellite dish on top.

“That is Ahmed Zarqawi’s home,” she says softly, referring to one of his brothers before warning, “But don’t go there because they will throw rocks on your head. They are sick of the media.” After being sidetracked by being shown his brother’s home, we keep doggedly asking for his brother-in-law, but everyone insists that they simply don’t know where he lives, which seems odd. Just up the hill from his brother’s home, we stumble on a middle-aged man who is willing to be interviewed. He’s a rare find in this village that has certainly been inundated with media, not to speak of far more threatening visits from the intelligence and police personnel of various countries. Like our taxi driver, this man agrees to be interviewed on condition of anonymity.

These are, it seems, a reasonably media-savvy group of villagers. He tells us that Zarqawi’s brother doesn’t know much about the mythic legend of the Jordanian jihadi outlaw, due to the fact that he keeps his distance from all the hoopla. He then laughs and adds, “But all the media went to his brother’s house anyway to film it, because they thought it was Zarqawi’s home!” He then points across a shallow valley where lines of homes sit bathed in the setting sun. “He [Zarqawi] is from that village, lives near a cemetery, and his father is mayor of that district, which is called al-Ma’assoum quarter.”

He claims to have known Abu Musab since he was seven years old, as they went to Prince Talal primary school together. “He was a trouble-maker ever since he was a kid,” he explains, “What the media is saying about him is not true, though. Abu Musab is a normal guy. What the Americans are saying is not true. Most of us who know him here and in his neighborhood don’t believe any of this media.” He tells us that Zarqawi left the neighborhood in the early 1990s to go to Afghanistan, but that he doesn’t believe he is in Iraq. Along with others in the neighborhood, he is convinced that Zarqawi was killed in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan during the US bombings that resulted from the attacks of September 11. “His wife and their three children still live over there,” he adds. “But don’t go talk to them.

They won’t allow it.” He believes Zarqawi was killed, “100%,” and then says emphatically, “If he is still alive, why not show a recent photo of him? All of these they show in the media are quite old.” Like so many Jordanians, he supports the Iraqi resistance, “All Muslims should fight this occupation because every day the Americans are slaughtering innocent Iraqis.” Zarqawi, he tells us, wasn’t a fighter until he went to Afghanistan. “Then his wife covered herself in black and has worn it ever since.”

According to this man, Zarqawi has two brothers named Ahmed and Sail. He says with a smile, “Most of the media coming here are Westerners because I think most of the Arab media know this is all a myth.” He holds up his hands when one of his sons brings us coffee and asks, “When they show hostages in Iraq, why doesn’t he put himself in the film? There is simply no proof he is alive offered by the Americans or the media.” We engage in some small talk while drinking our strong Arabic coffee as we sit under grape vines lacing the terrace over our heads.

As the sun begins to set, we thank him for the talk and the coffee, and head off as our taxi driver phones. I am walking quickly through the streets to meet him when Aisha, whom I’ve worked with often in Baghdad, reassures me: “You can slow down, Dahr, we are not in danger here. This isn’t like Baghdad where we’ll be killed after dark.” Shortly thereafter we meet our driver.

“They didn’t tell you where his brother-in-law is because his home has been raided so many times,” he states as a matter of fact. “By both Jordanian and US intelligence.” Our driver insists that Zarqawi is alive and well in Iraq. “I’m certain of it, because if he was dead they would show his picture and make the announcement. He has always been so strong. When we were in Afghanistan, any time we got a new machine to learn or French missiles, he was the first to learn them.”

He drives us by another mosque Zarqawi is also supposed to have attended. We are in the al-Ma’assoum quarter now and our driver tells us that a sister of Abu Musab is the head of the Islamic Center of the district. He then adds, somewhat randomly, that he himself has been in different prisons for a total of seven years – one of those statements you can’t decide whether you wished you had never heard or are simply relieved you didn’t hear hours earlier just as you were beginning. “In Afghanistan when we beheaded people it was to show the enemy what their fate was to be. It was to frighten them.” I think to myself grimly: well, it works. He adds, “The jihad in Iraq is not just Zarqawi. It is up to Allah if we prevail, not dependent on the hand of Zarqawi. If he is killed, the jihad will continue there.” I ask him about civilian casualties.

Does he think Zarqawi cares about the killing of innocent people? “I have had so many discussions with Iraqis to tell them that Zarqawi doesn’t instruct his followers in the killing of innocent people. If he did this, I would be the first to turn against him. He only targets the Americans and collaborators.” He’s still chain smoking as we drive through the darkness back to Amman.

I pay him as we thank him for taking us to Zarqa, and then his beat up taxi rolls off down the busy street. The eerie blankness of Zarqawi After discussions with our driver and other Jordanians, the only thing I feel I can say for sure is that Zarqawi is a real person. Whether or not he is alive and fighting in Iraq or not, or what acts he is actually responsible for there, is open to debate. On one point, I’m quite certain, however: reported American claims that Zarqawi has affiliations with the secular government of Syria make no sense.

Just as Saddam Hussein opposed the religious fundamentalism of Bin Laden, the Syrian government would not be likely to team up with a fundamentalist like Zarqawi. As Bush administration officials have falsely claimed Saddam had links to bin Laden and to Zarqawi, they have also conveniently linked Zarqawi to a Syrian government they would certainly like to take out. Similarly, Bush officials continue to link Zarqawi to the Iraqi resistance – undoubtedly another bogus claim in that the resistance in Iraq is primarily composed of Iraqi nationalists and Ba’athist elements who are fighting to expel the occupiers from their country, not to create a global Islamic jihad.

Thus, even if Zarqawi is involved in carrying out attacks inside Iraq and is killed at some future moment, the effect this would have on the Iraqi resistance would surely be negligible. It would be but another American “turning point” where nothing much turned. Right now, when you try to track down Zarqawi, a man with a $25 million American bounty on his head, or simply try to track him back to the beginnings of his life’s journey, whether you look for him in the tunnels of Tora Bora, the ruined city of Fallujah, the Syrian borderlands, or Ramadi, you’re likely to run up against a kind of eerie blankness.

Whatever the real Zarqawi may or may not be capable of doing today in Iraq or elsewhere, he is dwarfed by the Zarqawi of legend. He may be the Bush administration’s terrorist of terrorists (now that bin Laden has been dropped into the void), the Iraqi insurgency’s unwelcome guest, the fantasy figure in some jihadi dreamscape, or all of the above. Whatever the case, Zarqawi the man has disappeared into an epic tale that may or may not be of his own partial creation. Even dead, he is unlikely to die; even alive, he is unlikely to be able to live up to anybody’s Zarqawi myth.

Whoever he actually may be, the “he” of jihadi websites and American pronouncements is now linked inextricably with the devolving occupation of Iraq and a Bush administration that, even as it has built him up as a satanic bogeyman, is itself beginning to lose its own mythic qualities, to grow smaller. I’m sure we’ll continue to hear of “him” in Iraq, in Jordan, or elsewhere as his myth, perhaps now beyond anyone’s control, continues to transform itself as an inextricable part of the brutal, bloody occupation of Iraq where the Bush administration finds itself fighting not primarily Zarqawi (or his imitators) but the Iraqis they allegedly came to liberate.

Why Indians love America so much

By Siddharth Srivastava

A recent survey concerning India and the United States has set off a debate here. Contrary to opinions in many other countries, especially Muslim-majority ones, the survey by the Washington-based Pew Global Attitudes Project states that America’s image is the best in India. “Fully 71% in India express a positive opinion of the United States, compared with 54% three years ago,” the survey says.

Favorable opinion of the US in India was higher than any of the countries surveyed, including Canada (where it declined from 72% three years ago to 59%) and the United Kingdom, where it dipped considerably from 75% to 55%. Indians also had the most favorable opinion of the American people – 71% compared to 70% in Britain, 66% in Canada, 65% in Germany, 64% in France, 61% in Russia and 43% in China. The survey was conducted among 17,000 people in the US and 15 other countries from April 20 to May 31. A healthy majority of Indians view Americans as “inventive” (86%), “hard-working” (81%) and “honest”. Fewer than half associate the negative traits “greedy” (43%), “violent” (39%), “immoral” (33%) and “rude” (27%) with Americans. Indians, however, echoed similar sentiments that at least one more country should check US military might. In India, 81% want a rival to US, compared to 74% in China and Russia.

There was also dwindling support in India for the US-led “war on terror” (52%) , as well as the invasion of Iraq. Though the survey was released in the second half of June, discussions continue to range about why Indians view America in such high regard, and better that what the rest of the world thinks. Some of the logic is rooted in the socio-economic interactions between the two countries. Indian-Americans: Ethnic Indians in the US number a healthy 2 million, creating a conservative constituency of over 10 million friends and relatives back home who have a direct stake due to the benefits flowing from the US, such as in money sent “home”.

It helps matters that Indians in America are doing quite well for themselves, raising aspirations. A study titled, “We the People: Asian Americans in the United States”, released by the US Census Bureau, confirms that Indians are the best-educated, highest-earning, youngest and most likely white-collar workers among all major ethnic groups in the US, including native-born Americans. They are also among the top earners. Indian men had the highest year-round full-time median earnings ($51,900), more than the Japanese ($50,900) and well ahead of the national average ($37,057) and the Asian average ($40,650). Overall, the Japanese have the highest median family income ($70,849) followed closely by Indians ($70,708). Both were way ahead of the national average of $50,046. Business Process Outsourcing: To add to the economic benefits is India’s BPO outsourcing industry, which is growing courtesy of the US economy.

Despite a virulent anti-outsourcing campaign in the US, a couple of daring financial frauds orchestrated by Indian call center executives as well numerous instances of abusive and racist hate-calls, there is a lot at stake. A recent McKinsey report on the information technology-enabled (IT) sector has revised the previous global figure of US$17 billion to $21-24 billion by the year 2008, with India slated to garner 25% of the offshore market, of which the US is the largest source (60%). Estimates suggest that 200,000 to 400,000 jobs, mostly for a young international population, have moved from the US since the outsourcing trend began in the 1990s.

The highest projection is by Forrester Research – a loss of 3.3 million jobs by 2015, including 1.7 million back-office jobs and 473,000 IT jobs – which will create a dent in the US job market of 140 million, and not the wreck everyone fears. Apart from creating a section of the Indian population that has directly benefited from the US economy, there are other reasons for Indian affinity towards America. It is to do with culture, foreign policy, the command of the English language and the American way of life. Quest for excellence: India until the 1990s was a different country. It modeled itself on socialist Russia, its Cold War ally since independence in 1947, where the individual was subsumed by the might of the state and bureaucracy. In the 1970s and 1980s, the only way to breach the stranglehold of the state was to move to the West or the Gulf countries, where Indian entrepreneurs excelled.

Doctors and engineers were in demand in the West, but formed a very small percentage of the youth who wanted to break the shackles that forced everyone to conform to an abstract higher good dictated by the thoughts of Karl Marx and the rest. This, many observers say, was a complete antithesis of the way Indians are and have been for centuries. Like Americans, Indians have done best when allowed to excel in an uncluttered environment where individual excellence is recognized. The pursuit of high performance and efficiency, rooted in liberal values and individual rights and democratic principles, is where India and US stand on similar ground.

The 1990s brought in change, economic liberalization and a management ethic. Giants such as General Electric and IBM set up offices in India, and other symbols of American gastronomy jumped in – Pepsi and Coca-Cola, Pizza Hut, KFC and McDonald’s have fed an army of Indian kids. Television: Another great binder has been television, and similar entertainment tastes due to the absence of a language barrier. Just a decade back there were no foreign channels in India, only boring government-controlled television. Satellite television has brought symbols of American life into Indian homes, including kids grown up on MTV lingo, Friends and HBO and who sound more American than the Americans. CNN and Fox are staple channels. They follow Christiane Amanpour in Africa as much as a pregnant Britney Spears or a heart-broken Jennifer Aniston. Mr and Mrs Smith registered a good opening, while Angelina Jolie is the woman most Indian men would like to possess (Brad Pitt remains the perfect hunk). Talk show host Jay Leno’s jokes, including his takes on the Michael Jackson trial, abound. Foreign policy: One critical aspect has also been American foreign policy in the past few years.

Despite the revelations of the snide Richard Nixon-Henry Kissinger remarks against Indians in the early 1970s, there is a growing realization in India that the US wants to move beyond its Pakistan fixation of the past. There is more sensitivity to India’s fight against terrorism. The tag of being the big bully of the world and the criticism of the invasion of Iraq remains. But Indians, too, now see foreign policy as such – an instrument through which a country should further and secure its own benefits. This has been the one basic tenet of American foreign policy for a long time, and one which now brings the two countries closer.

Zarqawi: Everywhere and nowhere

By M H Ahsan

A remarkable proportion of the violence taking place in Iraq is regularly credited to the Jordanian Ahmad al-Khalayleh, better known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and his al-Qaeda-linked organization in Iraq. Sometimes it seems no car bomb goes off, no ambush occurs that isn’t claimed in his name or attributed to him by the Bush administration. Bush and his top officials have, in fact, made good use of him, lifting his reputed feats of terrorism to epic, even mythic, proportions (much aided by various mainstream media outlets). Given that the invasion and occupation of Iraq have now been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be based on administration lies and manipulations, I begun to wonder if the vaunted Zarqawi even existed.

In Amman, random interviews with Jordanians only generated more questions and no answers about Zarqawi. As it happens, though, the Jordanian capital is just a short cab ride from Zarqa, the city Zarqawi is said to be from. So I decided to slake my curiosity about him by traveling there and nosing around his old neighborhood. “Zarqawi, I don’t even know if he exists,” said a scruffy taxi driver in Amman, and his was a typical comment. “He’s like [Osama] bin Laden, we don’t even know if he exists; but if he does, I support that he fights the US occupation of Iraq.”

Chatting with a man sipping tea in a small stall in downtown Amman, I asked what he thought of Zarqawi. He was convinced that Zarqawi was perfectly real, but the idea that he was responsible for such a wide range of attacks in Iraq had to be “nonsense”. “The Americans are using him for their propaganda,” he insisted. “Think about it – with all of their power and intelligence capabilities – they cannot find one man?” Like so many others in neighboring Jordan, he, too, offered verbal support for the armed resistance in Iraq, adding, “Besides, it is any person’s right to defend himself if his country is invaded.

The American occupation of Iraq has destabilized the entire region.” The Bush administration has regularly claimed that Zarqawi was in – and then had just barely escaped from – whatever city or area they were next intent on attacking or cordoning off or launching a campaign against. Last year, he and his organization were reputed to be headquartered in Fallujah, prior to the American assault that flattened the city. At one point, American officials even alleged that he was commanding the defense of Fallujah from elsewhere by telephone. Yet he also allegedly slipped out of Fallujah, either just before or just after the beginning of the assault, depending on which media outlet or military press release you read.

He has since turned up, according to American intelligence reports and the US press, in Ramadi, Baghdad, Samarra and Mosul among other places, along with side trips to Jordan, Iran, Pakistan and/or Syria. His closest “lieutenants” have been captured by the busload, according to American military reports, and yet he always seems to have a bottomless supply of them. In May, a news report on the BBC even called Zarqawi “the leader of the insurgency in Iraq”, though more sober analysts of the chaotic Iraqi situation say his group, Jama’at al-Tawhid wal Jihad, while probably modest in size and reach, is linked to a global network of jihadis. However, finding any figures as to the exact size of the group remains an elusive task. Former US secretary of state Colin Powell offered photos before the United Nations in February, 2003 of Zarqawi’s “headquarters” in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, also claiming that Zarqawi had links to al-Qaeda.

The collection of small huts was bombed to the ground by US forces in March of that year, prompting one news source to claim that Zarqawi had been killed. Yet seemingly contradicting Powell’s claims for Zarqawi’s importance was a statement made in October, 2004 by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who conceded that Zarqawi’s ties to al-Qaeda may have been far more ambiguous, that he may have been more of a rival than a lieutenant to bin Laden. “Someone could legitimately say he’s not al-Qaeda,” added Rumsfeld. The eternal netherworld of Zarqawi For anyone trying to assess the Zarqawi phenomenon from neighboring Jordan, complicating matters are the contradictory statements Jordanians regularly offer up about almost any aspect of Zarqawi’s life, history, present activities, or even his very existence. “I’ve met him here in Jordan,” claimed Abdulla Hamiz, a 29 year-old merchant in Amman, “Two years ago.” However, Hajam Yousef, shining shoes under a date palm in central Amman, insists, “He doesn’t exist except in the minds of American policy-makers.”

In fact, what little is actually known about Zarqawi sounds like the biography of a troubled but normal man from the industrial section of Zarqa. Thirty-eight years old now, according to the BBC, Zarqawi reportedly grew up a rebellious child who ran with the wrong crowd. He liked to play soccer in the streets as a young boy and dropped out of school when he was 17. According to some reports, his friends claimed that in his teens he started drinking heavily, getting tattoos, and picking fights he could not win. According to Jordanian intelligence reports provided to the Associated Press in Amman, Zarqawi was jailed in the 1980s for sexual assault, though no additional details are available.

By the time he was 20 he evidently began looking for direction, and ended up making his way to Afghanistan in the last years of the jihadi war against the Soviets in that country. While some media outlets, such as the New York Times, claim that he did not actually fight in Afghanistan, there are people in Jordan who believe he did. He is reported to have returned to Jordan in 1992, where he was arrested after Jordanian authorities found weapons in his home.

On his release in 1999, he left once again for Pakistan. When his Pakistani visa expired, expecting to be arrested as a suspect in a terror plot if he returned to Jordan, he entered Afghanistan instead. After supposedly running a weapons camp there, he was next sighted by Jordanian authorities crossing back into Jordan from Syria in September of 2002. Some time between then and May 11, 2004, when he was reported to have beheaded the kidnapped American, Nick Berg, in Baghdad, Zarqawi entered Iraq.

Many news outlets have reported that his goal in Iraq is to generate a sectarian civil war between the Sunni and Shi’ites. In September, 2004, the BBC, among others, reported, “US officials suspect that Zarqawi … is holed up with followers in the rebellious Iraqi city of Fallujah,” though their sources, as is true of more or less all sources in every report on Zarqawi, were nebulous. During the second siege of Fallujah, last November, Newsweek reported that “some US officials say that Zarqawi may actually be directing or instigating events in the town by telephone from elsewhere in Iraq”. Though they, too, cited no specific sources and provided no evidence for this, Newsweek then summed Zarqawi’s importance up in this way: “His crucial role in the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, however, cannot be underestimated.” Meanwhile, the BBC was reporting that his “network is considered the main source of kidnappings, bomb attacks and assassination attempts in Iraq” – another statement made without much, if any, solid evidence. In the end, the vast mass of reportage on Zarqawi amounts to countless statements based on anonymous sources hardly less shadowy – to ordinary readers – than him.

He exists, then, in a kind of eternal netherworld of reportage, rumor and attribution. It could almost be said that never has a figure been more regularly written about based on less hard information. While we have a rough outline of who he is, where he is from, and where he went until he entered Iraq, evidence that might stand up in a court of law is consistently absent. The question that remains to be answered in this glaring void of hard information is: who benefits from the ongoing tales of the mysterious Zarqawi? The search for Zarqawi’s past My own little journey only seemed to repeat this larger phenomenon on a more modest scale.

It was the sort of story where, from beginning to end, no one I met ever seemed willing to offer his or her real name (or certainly let a real name be used in an article). From second one, Zarqawi and an urge for anonymity were tightly – and perhaps appropriately – bound together. Abdulla (not his real name, of course), the man who agreed to drive my translator Aisha and me to al-Zarqa for this excursion, was a Jordanian, by the look of things about 30 years old, who chain-smoked nervously throughout the trip. We decided to go with him after running into him while I was conducting my own informal Zarqawi reality poll in Amman. “I know him personally because we fought together in Afghanistan in the early ’90’s,” insisted Abdulla. “If you like, I can show you where he is from.” When he picked us up on the late afternoon of the next day in his beat-up, rusting taxi, he agreed to a modest fee that was to be paid at the end of our excursion.

As we puttered up a hillside on our venture to Zarqawi’s hometown of al-Zarqa, he promptly pulled out a small stack of photos. I flipped through them as we drove towards Zarqawi’s neighborhood and noted Abdulla standing in front of the huge Faisal mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, a giant beard (no longer present) dominating his flowing dishdasha (robe). Another picture had him in Peshawar, Pakistan, a city near the Afghan border known as a recruiting and staging area for the Taliban. Others seemed to have him in the Philippines standing amid dense forest with a gun slung over his shoulder. In none of them – why should I have been surprised – did he have a companion with the now so globally recognizable Zarqawi sneer.

A little while into our journey, out of nowhere Abdulla suddenly said, “Anyone collaborating with the Americans in Iraq should be killed!” I took this as a sign that he felt like talking, and asked him what he knew of Zarqawi. According to him, he met the mythic terrorist in Peshawar before being sent with him to a training camp on the border of Afghanistan in 1990. “There are several well-known training camps in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he explained, “And we were in one of those, along with freedom fighters from Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon.”

Only fighters for “jihad” were allowed into the camps, he continued proudly. Only fighters who were identified by other well-known mujahideen were granted permission to enter, in an effort to safeguard those camps against spies. After three months of training with machine guns and rocket launchers, Abdulla claims that he and Zarqawi headed for Afghanistan to fight the Russians who remained there. When I looked at him quizzically – since the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan in February of 1989 – he replied, “Many of them stayed after their government announced they had withdrawn – so we were pushing the rest of them out.” This was already a questionable tale, but he went right on. They were given the choice, he claimed, of where to go in Afghanistan, and Abdulla proudly stated that most of the mujahideen went to the “hot” areas where they expected to find fighting.

Our discussion was then interrupted because we had completed the hop to Zarqa and arrived in the neighborhood, so rumor has it, where Zarqawi’s brother-in-law lives. We were dropped off near a small mosque where Zarqawi supposedly used to pray. Abdulla says it isn’t safe for him to linger here – though he doesn’t bother to explain why – and we agree instead that he will call us on my cell phone in an hour to see if we need more time or not. So Aisha and I begin to walk around the quiet, middle-class neighborhood asking people if they know where the brother-in-law lived. Small children play in the streets. Behind them young men and parents sit eyeing us suspiciously.

The wind whips plastic bags along the roads between the usual stone houses of Jordan. Finally, we find an old man with a white, flowing beard and tired eyes sitting in a worn chair at the front of a small grocery stall. He admits to being the imam of the mosque, but when asked if he remembers Zarqawi he dodges the question artfully. “It is probably true that he used to pray in my mosque,” he responds tiredly, “but I can’t say for sure, as my back is to the people whom I lead in prayers.” After this he looks away, down the road. I assume he’s wishing we were gone – undoubtedly like so many Zarqawi seekers before us. So we thank him and walk on. Next we find a woman – no names given – who assures us that Zarqawi is from the Beni Hassan tribe, the largest tribe in Jordan, before pointing to a two-storey white house with a black satellite dish on top.

“That is Ahmed Zarqawi’s home,” she says softly, referring to one of his brothers before warning, “But don’t go there because they will throw rocks on your head. They are sick of the media.” After being sidetracked by being shown his brother’s home, we keep doggedly asking for his brother-in-law, but everyone insists that they simply don’t know where he lives, which seems odd. Just up the hill from his brother’s home, we stumble on a middle-aged man who is willing to be interviewed. He’s a rare find in this village that has certainly been inundated with media, not to speak of far more threatening visits from the intelligence and police personnel of various countries. Like our taxi driver, this man agrees to be interviewed on condition of anonymity.

These are, it seems, a reasonably media-savvy group of villagers. He tells us that Zarqawi’s brother doesn’t know much about the mythic legend of the Jordanian jihadi outlaw, due to the fact that he keeps his distance from all the hoopla. He then laughs and adds, “But all the media went to his brother’s house anyway to film it, because they thought it was Zarqawi’s home!” He then points across a shallow valley where lines of homes sit bathed in the setting sun. “He [Zarqawi] is from that village, lives near a cemetery, and his father is mayor of that district, which is called al-Ma’assoum quarter.”

He claims to have known Abu Musab since he was seven years old, as they went to Prince Talal primary school together. “He was a trouble-maker ever since he was a kid,” he explains, “What the media is saying about him is not true, though. Abu Musab is a normal guy. What the Americans are saying is not true. Most of us who know him here and in his neighborhood don’t believe any of this media.” He tells us that Zarqawi left the neighborhood in the early 1990s to go to Afghanistan, but that he doesn’t believe he is in Iraq. Along with others in the neighborhood, he is convinced that Zarqawi was killed in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan during the US bombings that resulted from the attacks of September 11. “His wife and their three children still live over there,” he adds. “But don’t go talk to them.

They won’t allow it.” He believes Zarqawi was killed, “100%,” and then says emphatically, “If he is still alive, why not show a recent photo of him? All of these they show in the media are quite old.” Like so many Jordanians, he supports the Iraqi resistance, “All Muslims should fight this occupation because every day the Americans are slaughtering innocent Iraqis.” Zarqawi, he tells us, wasn’t a fighter until he went to Afghanistan. “Then his wife covered herself in black and has worn it ever since.”

According to this man, Zarqawi has two brothers named Ahmed and Sail. He says with a smile, “Most of the media coming here are Westerners because I think most of the Arab media know this is all a myth.” He holds up his hands when one of his sons brings us coffee and asks, “When they show hostages in Iraq, why doesn’t he put himself in the film? There is simply no proof he is alive offered by the Americans or the media.” We engage in some small talk while drinking our strong Arabic coffee as we sit under grape vines lacing the terrace over our heads.

As the sun begins to set, we thank him for the talk and the coffee, and head off as our taxi driver phones. I am walking quickly through the streets to meet him when Aisha, whom I’ve worked with often in Baghdad, reassures me: “You can slow down, Dahr, we are not in danger here. This isn’t like Baghdad where we’ll be killed after dark.” Shortly thereafter we meet our driver.

“They didn’t tell you where his brother-in-law is because his home has been raided so many times,” he states as a matter of fact. “By both Jordanian and US intelligence.” Our driver insists that Zarqawi is alive and well in Iraq. “I’m certain of it, because if he was dead they would show his picture and make the announcement. He has always been so strong. When we were in Afghanistan, any time we got a new machine to learn or French missiles, he was the first to learn them.”

He drives us by another mosque Zarqawi is also supposed to have attended. We are in the al-Ma’assoum quarter now and our driver tells us that a sister of Abu Musab is the head of the Islamic Center of the district. He then adds, somewhat randomly, that he himself has been in different prisons for a total of seven years – one of those statements you can’t decide whether you wished you had never heard or are simply relieved you didn’t hear hours earlier just as you were beginning. “In Afghanistan when we beheaded people it was to show the enemy what their fate was to be. It was to frighten them.” I think to myself grimly: well, it works. He adds, “The jihad in Iraq is not just Zarqawi. It is up to Allah if we prevail, not dependent on the hand of Zarqawi. If he is killed, the jihad will continue there.” I ask him about civilian casualties.

Does he think Zarqawi cares about the killing of innocent people? “I have had so many discussions with Iraqis to tell them that Zarqawi doesn’t instruct his followers in the killing of innocent people. If he did this, I would be the first to turn against him. He only targets the Americans and collaborators.” He’s still chain smoking as we drive through the darkness back to Amman.

I pay him as we thank him for taking us to Zarqa, and then his beat up taxi rolls off down the busy street. The eerie blankness of Zarqawi After discussions with our driver and other Jordanians, the only thing I feel I can say for sure is that Zarqawi is a real person. Whether or not he is alive and fighting in Iraq or not, or what acts he is actually responsible for there, is open to debate. On one point, I’m quite certain, however: reported American claims that Zarqawi has affiliations with the secular government of Syria make no sense.

Just as Saddam Hussein opposed the religious fundamentalism of Bin Laden, the Syrian government would not be likely to team up with a fundamentalist like Zarqawi. As Bush administration officials have falsely claimed Saddam had links to bin Laden and to Zarqawi, they have also conveniently linked Zarqawi to a Syrian government they would certainly like to take out. Similarly, Bush officials continue to link Zarqawi to the Iraqi resistance – undoubtedly another bogus claim in that the resistance in Iraq is primarily composed of Iraqi nationalists and Ba’athist elements who are fighting to expel the occupiers from their country, not to create a global Islamic jihad.

Thus, even if Zarqawi is involved in carrying out attacks inside Iraq and is killed at some future moment, the effect this would have on the Iraqi resistance would surely be negligible. It would be but another American “turning point” where nothing much turned. Right now, when you try to track down Zarqawi, a man with a $25 million American bounty on his head, or simply try to track him back to the beginnings of his life’s journey, whether you look for him in the tunnels of Tora Bora, the ruined city of Fallujah, the Syrian borderlands, or Ramadi, you’re likely to run up against a kind of eerie blankness.

Whatever the real Zarqawi may or may not be capable of doing today in Iraq or elsewhere, he is dwarfed by the Zarqawi of legend. He may be the Bush administration’s terrorist of terrorists (now that bin Laden has been dropped into the void), the Iraqi insurgency’s unwelcome guest, the fantasy figure in some jihadi dreamscape, or all of the above. Whatever the case, Zarqawi the man has disappeared into an epic tale that may or may not be of his own partial creation. Even dead, he is unlikely to die; even alive, he is unlikely to be able to live up to anybody’s Zarqawi myth.

Whoever he actually may be, the “he” of jihadi websites and American pronouncements is now linked inextricably with the devolving occupation of Iraq and a Bush administration that, even as it has built him up as a satanic bogeyman, is itself beginning to lose its own mythic qualities, to grow smaller. I’m sure we’ll continue to hear of “him” in Iraq, in Jordan, or elsewhere as his myth, perhaps now beyond anyone’s control, continues to transform itself as an inextricable part of the brutal, bloody occupation of Iraq where the Bush administration finds itself fighting not primarily Zarqawi (or his imitators) but the Iraqis they allegedly came to liberate.

Why Indians love America so much

By Siddharth Srivastava

A recent survey concerning India and the United States has set off a debate here. Contrary to opinions in many other countries, especially Muslim-majority ones, the survey by the Washington-based Pew Global Attitudes Project states that America’s image is the best in India. “Fully 71% in India express a positive opinion of the United States, compared with 54% three years ago,” the survey says.

Favorable opinion of the US in India was higher than any of the countries surveyed, including Canada (where it declined from 72% three years ago to 59%) and the United Kingdom, where it dipped considerably from 75% to 55%. Indians also had the most favorable opinion of the American people – 71% compared to 70% in Britain, 66% in Canada, 65% in Germany, 64% in France, 61% in Russia and 43% in China. The survey was conducted among 17,000 people in the US and 15 other countries from April 20 to May 31. A healthy majority of Indians view Americans as “inventive” (86%), “hard-working” (81%) and “honest”. Fewer than half associate the negative traits “greedy” (43%), “violent” (39%), “immoral” (33%) and “rude” (27%) with Americans. Indians, however, echoed similar sentiments that at least one more country should check US military might. In India, 81% want a rival to US, compared to 74% in China and Russia.

There was also dwindling support in India for the US-led “war on terror” (52%) , as well as the invasion of Iraq. Though the survey was released in the second half of June, discussions continue to range about why Indians view America in such high regard, and better that what the rest of the world thinks. Some of the logic is rooted in the socio-economic interactions between the two countries. Indian-Americans: Ethnic Indians in the US number a healthy 2 million, creating a conservative constituency of over 10 million friends and relatives back home who have a direct stake due to the benefits flowing from the US, such as in money sent “home”.

It helps matters that Indians in America are doing quite well for themselves, raising aspirations. A study titled, “We the People: Asian Americans in the United States”, released by the US Census Bureau, confirms that Indians are the best-educated, highest-earning, youngest and most likely white-collar workers among all major ethnic groups in the US, including native-born Americans. They are also among the top earners. Indian men had the highest year-round full-time median earnings ($51,900), more than the Japanese ($50,900) and well ahead of the national average ($37,057) and the Asian average ($40,650). Overall, the Japanese have the highest median family income ($70,849) followed closely by Indians ($70,708). Both were way ahead of the national average of $50,046. Business Process Outsourcing: To add to the economic benefits is India’s BPO outsourcing industry, which is growing courtesy of the US economy.

Despite a virulent anti-outsourcing campaign in the US, a couple of daring financial frauds orchestrated by Indian call center executives as well numerous instances of abusive and racist hate-calls, there is a lot at stake. A recent McKinsey report on the information technology-enabled (IT) sector has revised the previous global figure of US$17 billion to $21-24 billion by the year 2008, with India slated to garner 25% of the offshore market, of which the US is the largest source (60%). Estimates suggest that 200,000 to 400,000 jobs, mostly for a young international population, have moved from the US since the outsourcing trend began in the 1990s.

The highest projection is by Forrester Research – a loss of 3.3 million jobs by 2015, including 1.7 million back-office jobs and 473,000 IT jobs – which will create a dent in the US job market of 140 million, and not the wreck everyone fears. Apart from creating a section of the Indian population that has directly benefited from the US economy, there are other reasons for Indian affinity towards America. It is to do with culture, foreign policy, the command of the English language and the American way of life. Quest for excellence: India until the 1990s was a different country. It modeled itself on socialist Russia, its Cold War ally since independence in 1947, where the individual was subsumed by the might of the state and bureaucracy. In the 1970s and 1980s, the only way to breach the stranglehold of the state was to move to the West or the Gulf countries, where Indian entrepreneurs excelled.

Doctors and engineers were in demand in the West, but formed a very small percentage of the youth who wanted to break the shackles that forced everyone to conform to an abstract higher good dictated by the thoughts of Karl Marx and the rest. This, many observers say, was a complete antithesis of the way Indians are and have been for centuries. Like Americans, Indians have done best when allowed to excel in an uncluttered environment where individual excellence is recognized. The pursuit of high performance and efficiency, rooted in liberal values and individual rights and democratic principles, is where India and US stand on similar ground.

The 1990s brought in change, economic liberalization and a management ethic. Giants such as General Electric and IBM set up offices in India, and other symbols of American gastronomy jumped in – Pepsi and Coca-Cola, Pizza Hut, KFC and McDonald’s have fed an army of Indian kids. Television: Another great binder has been television, and similar entertainment tastes due to the absence of a language barrier. Just a decade back there were no foreign channels in India, only boring government-controlled television. Satellite television has brought symbols of American life into Indian homes, including kids grown up on MTV lingo, Friends and HBO and who sound more American than the Americans. CNN and Fox are staple channels. They follow Christiane Amanpour in Africa as much as a pregnant Britney Spears or a heart-broken Jennifer Aniston. Mr and Mrs Smith registered a good opening, while Angelina Jolie is the woman most Indian men would like to possess (Brad Pitt remains the perfect hunk). Talk show host Jay Leno’s jokes, including his takes on the Michael Jackson trial, abound. Foreign policy: One critical aspect has also been American foreign policy in the past few years.

Despite the revelations of the snide Richard Nixon-Henry Kissinger remarks against Indians in the early 1970s, there is a growing realization in India that the US wants to move beyond its Pakistan fixation of the past. There is more sensitivity to India’s fight against terrorism. The tag of being the big bully of the world and the criticism of the invasion of Iraq remains. But Indians, too, now see foreign policy as such – an instrument through which a country should further and secure its own benefits. This has been the one basic tenet of American foreign policy for a long time, and one which now brings the two countries closer.

Ayodhya’s original security lapse

By Manoj Mitta

The success of the Central paramilitary forces in repelling a terrorist attack in Ayodhya in 2005 exposes the “security lapse” engineered at the same site by the BJP and Congress in 1992. If the security men could ensure that no harm was done to the makeshift Ram Janmabhoomi temple in the face of sophisticated firearms and explosives, it is safe to assume that they could have been as effective in protecting the solid Babri Masjid structure from vandals who happened to be equipped with nothing more than basic implements. If the nation has instead had to suffer a chain of mass killings triggered by the demolition of the mosque and, indeed, hasn’t still recovered from its communal hangover, it is because the Narasimha Rao government at the Centre and Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh had hampered the security forces in their own different ways.

The compromises made at that turning point in our history are worth recalling to put in perspective the recurring debates on national security and secularism.We must bear in mind that the forces that are now being feted in the context of the terrorist attack were not even allowed to be there when the so-called kar sevaks struck on December 6, 1992. Oddly enough, the forces could not enter the site and take charge of it until the night between December 7 and 8 — ie, more than 24 hours after the demolition of the mosque.

The Ayodhya issue might not have gone away but it would certainly have been in a different shape but for that delay in letting the paramilitary forces take over the disputed site. For, it was then that the kar sevaks built the makeshift temple that still stands and was recently the target of the terrorist attack.Had the Rao government reacted with alacrity to the demolition that began around noon on December 6, the Babri Masjid would have no doubt still suffered extensive damage. But the ruins of the structure would have probably still been standing on the disputed site and, more importantly, the idols would not have been there any longer.

This is because the kar sevaks had, at an early stage of the demolition, taken the idols away for their safety. If the Central forces had been given a free hand to stop the demolition, the Ayodhya movement would have taken a different turn, since the vandalised Babri Masjid would have been separated from the idols of Ram after 40 years.The Rao government did not however display any inclination to turn the tables on the kar sevaks. For the record, it sent as many as 195 companies of paramilitary forces to Faizabad, the twin town of Ayodhya, in the build-up to the December 6 crisis. All that the Centre instructed its forces to do was to respond immediately to the state Government’s request for assistance without waiting for the Centre’s clearance. Far from making such a request, the Kalyan Singh government publicly protested the Centre’s decision to station its forces near Ayodhya without the consent of the state.

Kalyan Singh’s adverse reaction to an obvious security measure should have alerted the Centre to the complicity of the state government with the organisers of what was supposed to be a “symbolic” kar seva. After all, an earlier kar seva held in 1990 did see an abortive attempt to damage the mosque as a few hotheads climbed the domes.Subsequent to the demolition of the three domes of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, the kar sevaks brought back the idols to the site around 6.30 pm and put them exactly where they had stood for four decades. Shortly, thereafter, they began the construction of the temporary structure for the idols.

Nothing was allowed to come in the way of that construction. Not even the fact that the Central forces had by then entered Ayodhya. Not even the fact that the state had been brought under President’s rule by 9 pm on December 6. The Central forces were allowed to take charge of the site only after the construction ended more than 24 hours later and the kar sevaks delivered a fait accompli in the form of the makeshift temple.Apparently, the Centre’s overweening concern was to avoid a repetition of the bloodshed that followed the Mulayam Singh government’s forceful response to the 1990 kar seva. In its White Paper, the Rao government sought to justify its inaction in this manner: “The officers commanding the security forces decided to move the force in the night of 7th and 8th December so as to use minimum force.

Action was taken accordingly, and the Ram Janmabhoomi- Babri Masjid area was quickly secured. This was managed without having to resort to firing.” The subtext is: the two big parties colluded in sacrificing security and secularism at the altar of Hindutva. The nation is still paying for it.

Turn the clock back

By Ila Patnaik

The agenda for economic reforms in India today consists of turning the clock back to 1969. Economic policy of the 1969-1976 period consisted of enormous powers being usurped by the state. From 1969, Indira Gandhi turned left seeking political support, and India witnessed an unprecedented increase in control raj. Economic enterprise and private initiative were sharply restricted. Most of the policies of the period are still with us.

Small scale industry reservation: in 1969, the policy of explicitly reserving certain items for production by small companies was created. Indian industry lost out enormously because of being unable to harness economies of scale. Consumers were the biggest losers. India missed the bus of the enormous rise in exports, which was harnessed by East Asia, in these labour-intensive items. While the list of reserved items has become shorter, what is really needed is a complete repeal of the Act which gives the government such intrusive powers.

Industrial Disputes Act (IDA): factories with over 1000 workers used to require government permission for layoffs. The size threshold was amended in 1976 to 300. In 1982, when Indira Gandhi was back in power, this was further reduced to 100. This is now one of the most damaging elements of Indian law about companies.Bibek Debroy, Director of Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, has drawn attention to Chapter V-B which was introduced into the IDA in 1976. The provisions Chapter V-B/Sections 25-K, 25-L, 25-M, 25-N and 25-0 apply to industrial establishments that require prior permission of the appropriate government before layoffs, retrenchment and closure.

Most problems connected with the Industrial Disputes Act arise, according to Debroy, from Chapter V-B, since the government becomes a third party to the dispute even if the employee is satisfied with the severance package. These sections of the Act need to be considered along with Section 2-A, which makes any dispute between an employer and an individual workman an industrial dispute regardless of the fact that no other workman nor any trade union is a party to the dispute.However, the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) clearly states that the IDA will not be reformed.

Thus, it is likely that progress on this front can only come about after the UPA government goes.FERA: draconian currency controls and restrictions on foreign investment came about when the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) was passed in 1973. While FERA has been supposedly replaced by a “more liberal” FEMA, the mentality of controls is very much there in FEMA as well. No modern market economy in the world has a law like FEMA. An army of 7,286 babus at RBI continue to operate hundreds of rules that meddle with India’s engagement with the world.

Urban land ceilings: on February 17, 1976 the Urban Land Ceiling Act was passed. It covered 73 towns and cities and imposed a ceiling of 500 to 2000 square metres on urban land holdings. It constitutes a major distortion of the urban land market. Incidentally, this was a state subject, but the Constitution allows Parliament to pass a bill if more than two states agree, and this path was chosen during the emergency.MRTP: the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Bill was proposed in 1967.

It became an act and came into force from June 1, 1970. The MRTP Act, which gave huge powers to the government, sought to check the expansion of large industrial houses with assets over Rs 1 crore in businesses where their share in the market exceeded 33 per cent. The MRTP was mercifully scrapped; it was replaced by the Competition Act in 2002.Bank nationalisation: Indira Gandhi nationalised all big banks. There is now a considerable consensus amongst economists that the government has no business to be in commercial banking. However, the legacy of this action is still with us.In these columns, Shekhar Gupta proposed a hypothesis (‘Emergency’s Reality Czech’, IE, June 25): when we think of the emergency our dark memories are mostly about the denial of political freedom.

We tend not to notice what we lost of our economic freedom. While there was an uproar among politicians- judiciary-media, whose freedoms were denied, no such uproar took place on the loss of economic freedom.We keenly notice that there was an effort to grab power and make India into a communist-style state in the political sphere, and we resent that. But we tend not to notice that there was an equally damaging effort to grab power, to make India into a communist-style state in the economic sphere. We tend to not notice the loss of political freedom that comes from a government that has a big say in the economy.In the political sphere, every element of the emergency has been reversed. Comparable progress has not taken place in bringing back economic freedom.

Apart from the repeal of the MRTP Act, all the other draconian acts are still in force. The Constitution was amended by Indira Gandhi’s rubberstamp Parliament to call India a “socialist” republic, and that word still stands.

The most striking illustration of the lack of opposition to the principle of state usurping economic power is the acceptance of bank nationalisation. Imagine if tommorow morning you woke up to headlines that India’s major private sector banks had been nationalised using a midnight ordinance. This is what happened on July 19, 1969. At one stroke, the ordinance gave the government control over a big chunk of the savings of the Indian people.What has changed since the days when banks were private is that instead of industry, today the government is the main borrower from these banks.

More than half of the deposits in PSU banks go to the government to fund its deficits. Earlier, the private owners of banks used to steal from them. Now, there is a new owner of the banks — the government — which steals from them. If the clock is to be turned back, PSU banks must be privatised.If India is to become a fast growing economy, utilising the powerful forces that freedom of enterprise unleashes, the clock must be first turned back to the pre-Indira Gandhi policies, before immense economic power was usurped by the state.

Gimmick in Kerala

The resignation of nine MLAs owing allegiance to K.Karunakaran is a logical corollary to the formation of a new party, the National Congress Indira (NCI), by the latter and ends the protracted proxy war between the MLAs and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Without resigning, these MLAs could not have remained in the Assembly and escaped the clutches of Anti-Defection Act if they had defied a party whip. But why Karunakaran waited so long to allow his MLAs to put in their papers is significant. Originally, he had the support of 27 MLAs and was nursing the hope that a majority of them would stand behind him when he split the Congress party.

This did not happen. Power is a great cementing factor and the Chief Minister won over many Karunakaran loyalists by dangling the spoils of office. That the ‘leader’ could ultimately keep only a small flock of eight MLAs with him is a personal setback for him, which would considerably reduce his clout in the days to come. Karunakaran has come a full circle with the number of MLAs supporting him having come down to the same number in the autumn of his political career.The MLAs have only willy-nilly allowed themselves to become pawns on the political chessboard of Karunakaran.

The resignation will in no way threaten the stability of the Chandy government, which still has the support of 89 MLAs in a house with a reduced strength of 130. But Karunakaran has risked the political careers of his nine loyal MLAs by asking them to quit their Assembly membership. If the Election Commission decides to hold byelections in their constituencies, there is little chance that they would be returned to the house, unless the Opposition LDF decides not to put up a fight against the UDF, which is a remote possibility.

The resignation has come when President A.P.J Abdul Kalam is scheduled to address the House on July 18 and finding nine seats empty will be an embarrassment for the Chandy government. The stage also is now set for more complex political manoeuvres. The immediate priority for both the fronts will be civic elections this year followed by the Assembly polls next year. While the NC(I) has a wide menu of issues for target practice, the Congress is left with very few options.

Editorial: Give us better access to cleaner technologies

As he intervenes in the global debate on climate change at Gleneagles, Scotland — which begins today — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has an opportunity to give pragmatism a chance in recasting energy use around the world. Tony Blair, the prime minister of Great Britain, who is hosting this year’s G-8 summit, argues that global warming is the single biggest threat to humanity today. Blair is trying, heroically, to put together a new consensus by trying to bridge the apparently irreconcilable positions of Europe and America on the issue. Europe backs the Kyoto Protocol, that calls for energy demand management through international quotas for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.

The Bush administration has rejected the Kyoto Protocol and insists on supply side solutions through the introduction of new energy technologies like nuclear power and hydrogen fuel for automobiles.The decision by the G-8 to invite the leaders of five emerging economies to join the discussion on climate change recognises the importance of countries of the size of India and China in matters dealing with the threat of global warming.

India believes energy demand management is the responsibility of the world’s rich nations and not of the poor, who need greater energy consumption to fuel development. At Gleneagles, the G-8 is not seeking to bind the emerging economies to new commitments on carbon emissions. This provides the right ambience for Singh to make a strong case not only for the greater use of emission-free nuclear power but also for relaxing the current international restrictions on atomic energy cooperation with India.While India’s interest lies in backing the supply side line on promoting nuclear power and other clean energy technologies, it must go further than Washington.

Singh must propose ways and means to provide India and other developing countries greater access to these new technologies. Avoiding the old divisive rhetoric, Singh must focus on practical outcomes — the creation of new networks of international energy cooperation, putting new and clean technologies in the public domain by squaring the circle of intellectual property rights and establishing a new window to finance clean energy development in the emerging economies.

INDIA, SINGAPORE INK PACT

By Indrajit Basu

KOLKATA – In their first experiment of economic cooperation, Singapore and India formally entered into an agreement this week, with the two respective prime ministers signing a pact that has a mouthful of a name, the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). This formal pact ends a courtship lasting almost a decade, including two years of hard negotiations, which frequently raised doubts about whether the two countries would ever get to sign the CECA at all.

The agreement signed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is the first of sorts for India, in the sense that it is structured as a package of several agreements involving trade in goods, services, investments and economic cooperation in fields such as education, science and technology, air services, and even intellectual property and flow of human resources. “This is not a simple free-trade agreement,” said India’s Commerce Minister Kamal Nath. “It is an economic cooperation pact; an economic engagement in various facets covering technology, industry and human resources.”

Indeed the CECA is hugely different from traditional free-trade agreements (FTAs), particularly the one India signed with Thailand in 2003, which primarily involves the movement of goods. The CECA is remarkable as much for its Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement – similar to the DTAA India has with Mauritius – as for its trade-related clauses as well as for the sops it gives to the financial sectors of both countries. Under the DTAA, India and Singapore have agreed to lower the withholding tax on royalties and fees for technical services, and Singapore has agreed to exempt its own foreign institutional investors (FIIs) from capital gains tax on income from the sale of shares in India.

The DTAA thus carries two benefits: one that helps Indian software companies selling in Singapore gain from a 5% reduction in tax liability (such companies gain from a drop in the withholding tax on royalties and fees for technical services from 15% to 10% that the revised DTAA provides); and Singapore becomes a preferred destination for financial investors. Until now, FIIs were using Mauritius (for equity investments) and Cyprus (for debt investments) for avoiding taxes on Indian investments, since these two countries’ DTAAs with India were the most attractive for FIIs. Following the CECA, experts say, the routing of FII funds could shift significantly from Mauritius and Cyprus, since Singapore is already a hub for many of the FIIs active in India. However, the maximum gains of the financial sectors of both countries do not quite lie in the DTAA.

The CECA gives Singaporean banks unrestricted access to the Indian market if they set up full subsidiaries, and, as a quid pro quo, gives Indian banks full banking status in Singapore. Already three Singapore banks – DBS Holdings Ltd, Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation and United Overseas Bank – have been allowed to establish 15 branches within four years and start an insurance company each, provided none of them hold more than 26% equity. “In the same way that India has given access to Singapore banks, Singapore too will open up its banking system to Indian banks. Indian banks would be able to set up in Singapore qualified financial banks and enjoy the same benefits of a local bank,” said George Yeo, Singapore’s trade minister.

As part of the deal, India has also allowed the two Singapore state-owned investment companies, Temasek and Singapore Government Investment Company (GIC), to invest up to 20% in listed Indian companies. Individually, however, their investments cannot exceed 10% in a company. India has also committed to allowing Singapore-based entities a 49% stake in local telecom companies and a 74% stake in Internet-related sectors. Similarly, Singapore has permitted Indian mutual funds – based either in India or Singapore – to invest $250 million in equities and other instruments in the Singapore Stock Exchange (SSE). This means that now each Indian mutual fund can invest up to $250 million in SSE-listed investment instruments versus the cap of $1 billion.

Small wonder then both India and Singapore feel large chunks of money to flow between the two countries. “Prime Minister Lee told me that after CECA, one can expect a larger flow of investments from Singapore and through Singapore,” said India’s Finance Minister P Chidambaram. “Singapore offers a large basket of financial services which can be leveraged to channel investment to India.”

According to India’s industry lobbies such as FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) and ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India), Singapore’s cumulative investment in India, which is around $3 billion, is expected to go up to $5 billion by 2010 and to $10 billion by 2015. But the deal is equally important for Singapore, which will derive maximum benefits from the implementation of tariff concessions on goods by India and from the flow of qualified Indian professionals to power its own economy.

The CECA mandates that India, from August 1, scrap customs duties on 506 products imported from Singapore, while duties on 2,202 product lines will be reduced to zero by April 1, 2009, and duties of another 2,407 products will be reduce by 50% by the same date. According to FICCI, the initial list of 506 includes a plethora of products from the electronic, electrical, instrumentation, pharmaceutical and publishing industries, which form 80% of India’s current imports from Singapore.

This tariff-less access to Indian markets would be the biggest gain for Singapore, said Prime Minister Lee, adding that Singapore had also offered entry of all products made in India at zero duty, which will help developing supply chains from India since Singapore is a trading hub. According to the two countries, this clause would ramp up India-Singapore bilateral trade to $10 billion by the end of this fiscal and to $50 billion by 2010.

Two-way trade between the countries was $7 billion in 2004-05, with a reported trade surplus of $1.2 billion in favor of India. The other significant aspect of the CECA is that the two countries have agreed to ease visa restrictions on 127 categories of professionals and would recognize the degrees of their respective universities and technical educational institutions. “There is a feeling that this easing benefits India more than Singapore,” said an analyst with the industry lobby FICCI. “But while it is true that Indian professionals would benefit from this clause, it is also true that perhaps our professionals would be of greater help to Singapore to power its growing economy.”

Industry sources say this helps information technology professionals, apart from zoologists, botanists, surveyors, pharmacists and the like as well as service industry professionals like those from the advertising and tourism sectors and accountants to take up jobs in Singapore (the only notable exclusion is journalists), who were earlier denied jobs due to a few salary benchmark norms that the CECA now removes. Despite its widespread benefits, however, not everyone is happy. And the manufacturing sector in India is suffering from the old fear that the CECA could be yet another vehicle for cheap Chinese-made products to swamp the local markets. “It cannot be denied that some manufacturing sectors in India may initially take a hit,” said T K Bhaumick, a policy adviser at the industry lobby CII (Confederation of Indian Industry). But, he added, “the important thing here is, India is expected to gain from other sectors (such as services, foreign direct investment and FII flows) that could compensate for whatever losses the country has to suffer in manufactured products.”

Commerce Minister Nath, however, assures the treaty has built-in safeguards such as strict rules of origin norms – that mandate a minimum value addition of 40%, which would discourage swamping of cheap Chinese products in India. There is also a negative list of over 6,500 “sensitive items” that do not come under any tariff reduction commitment. But even as the protectionists debate the strength of these safeguards, nobody denies that the CECA is of huge strategic importance to the country.

Singapore is a dominant player in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region and India has been pushing to get more integrated with ASEAN for some time now, with limited success, as is evident from the Indo-ASEAN free-trade agreement negotiations that have not made much progress. With the CECA, “India is now firmly anchored in the ASEAN region through its presence in Singapore,” said Lee. And India is hoping that this presence will act as an impetus to Singh’s “Look East” policy, and make the CECA a model for other regional trade agreements.

Indrajit Basu is a Kolkata-based equity-analyst-turned-journalist with more than 12 years of experience in business/finance and technology journalism. Besides writing for HNN, he also writes for US-based publications, as well as IT companies.

INDIA, SINGAPORE INK PACT

By Indrajit Basu

KOLKATA – In their first experiment of economic cooperation, Singapore and India formally entered into an agreement this week, with the two respective prime ministers signing a pact that has a mouthful of a name, the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). This formal pact ends a courtship lasting almost a decade, including two years of hard negotiations, which frequently raised doubts about whether the two countries would ever get to sign the CECA at all.

The agreement signed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is the first of sorts for India, in the sense that it is structured as a package of several agreements involving trade in goods, services, investments and economic cooperation in fields such as education, science and technology, air services, and even intellectual property and flow of human resources. “This is not a simple free-trade agreement,” said India’s Commerce Minister Kamal Nath. “It is an economic cooperation pact; an economic engagement in various facets covering technology, industry and human resources.”

Indeed the CECA is hugely different from traditional free-trade agreements (FTAs), particularly the one India signed with Thailand in 2003, which primarily involves the movement of goods. The CECA is remarkable as much for its Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement – similar to the DTAA India has with Mauritius – as for its trade-related clauses as well as for the sops it gives to the financial sectors of both countries. Under the DTAA, India and Singapore have agreed to lower the withholding tax on royalties and fees for technical services, and Singapore has agreed to exempt its own foreign institutional investors (FIIs) from capital gains tax on income from the sale of shares in India.

The DTAA thus carries two benefits: one that helps Indian software companies selling in Singapore gain from a 5% reduction in tax liability (such companies gain from a drop in the withholding tax on royalties and fees for technical services from 15% to 10% that the revised DTAA provides); and Singapore becomes a preferred destination for financial investors. Until now, FIIs were using Mauritius (for equity investments) and Cyprus (for debt investments) for avoiding taxes on Indian investments, since these two countries’ DTAAs with India were the most attractive for FIIs. Following the CECA, experts say, the routing of FII funds could shift significantly from Mauritius and Cyprus, since Singapore is already a hub for many of the FIIs active in India. However, the maximum gains of the financial sectors of both countries do not quite lie in the DTAA.

The CECA gives Singaporean banks unrestricted access to the Indian market if they set up full subsidiaries, and, as a quid pro quo, gives Indian banks full banking status in Singapore. Already three Singapore banks – DBS Holdings Ltd, Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation and United Overseas Bank – have been allowed to establish 15 branches within four years and start an insurance company each, provided none of them hold more than 26% equity. “In the same way that India has given access to Singapore banks, Singapore too will open up its banking system to Indian banks. Indian banks would be able to set up in Singapore qualified financial banks and enjoy the same benefits of a local bank,” said George Yeo, Singapore’s trade minister.

As part of the deal, India has also allowed the two Singapore state-owned investment companies, Temasek and Singapore Government Investment Company (GIC), to invest up to 20% in listed Indian companies. Individually, however, their investments cannot exceed 10% in a company. India has also committed to allowing Singapore-based entities a 49% stake in local telecom companies and a 74% stake in Internet-related sectors. Similarly, Singapore has permitted Indian mutual funds – based either in India or Singapore – to invest $250 million in equities and other instruments in the Singapore Stock Exchange (SSE). This means that now each Indian mutual fund can invest up to $250 million in SSE-listed investment instruments versus the cap of $1 billion.

Small wonder then both India and Singapore feel large chunks of money to flow between the two countries. “Prime Minister Lee told me that after CECA, one can expect a larger flow of investments from Singapore and through Singapore,” said India’s Finance Minister P Chidambaram. “Singapore offers a large basket of financial services which can be leveraged to channel investment to India.”

According to India’s industry lobbies such as FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) and ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India), Singapore’s cumulative investment in India, which is around $3 billion, is expected to go up to $5 billion by 2010 and to $10 billion by 2015. But the deal is equally important for Singapore, which will derive maximum benefits from the implementation of tariff concessions on goods by India and from the flow of qualified Indian professionals to power its own economy.

The CECA mandates that India, from August 1, scrap customs duties on 506 products imported from Singapore, while duties on 2,202 product lines will be reduced to zero by April 1, 2009, and duties of another 2,407 products will be reduce by 50% by the same date. According to FICCI, the initial list of 506 includes a plethora of products from the electronic, electrical, instrumentation, pharmaceutical and publishing industries, which form 80% of India’s current imports from Singapore.

This tariff-less access to Indian markets would be the biggest gain for Singapore, said Prime Minister Lee, adding that Singapore had also offered entry of all products made in India at zero duty, which will help developing supply chains from India since Singapore is a trading hub. According to the two countries, this clause would ramp up India-Singapore bilateral trade to $10 billion by the end of this fiscal and to $50 billion by 2010.

Two-way trade between the countries was $7 billion in 2004-05, with a reported trade surplus of $1.2 billion in favor of India. The other significant aspect of the CECA is that the two countries have agreed to ease visa restrictions on 127 categories of professionals and would recognize the degrees of their respective universities and technical educational institutions. “There is a feeling that this easing benefits India more than Singapore,” said an analyst with the industry lobby FICCI. “But while it is true that Indian professionals would benefit from this clause, it is also true that perhaps our professionals would be of greater help to Singapore to power its growing economy.”

Industry sources say this helps information technology professionals, apart from zoologists, botanists, surveyors, pharmacists and the like as well as service industry professionals like those from the advertising and tourism sectors and accountants to take up jobs in Singapore (the only notable exclusion is journalists), who were earlier denied jobs due to a few salary benchmark norms that the CECA now removes. Despite its widespread benefits, however, not everyone is happy. And the manufacturing sector in India is suffering from the old fear that the CECA could be yet another vehicle for cheap Chinese-made products to swamp the local markets. “It cannot be denied that some manufacturing sectors in India may initially take a hit,” said T K Bhaumick, a policy adviser at the industry lobby CII (Confederation of Indian Industry). But, he added, “the important thing here is, India is expected to gain from other sectors (such as services, foreign direct investment and FII flows) that could compensate for whatever losses the country has to suffer in manufactured products.”

Commerce Minister Nath, however, assures the treaty has built-in safeguards such as strict rules of origin norms – that mandate a minimum value addition of 40%, which would discourage swamping of cheap Chinese products in India. There is also a negative list of over 6,500 “sensitive items” that do not come under any tariff reduction commitment. But even as the protectionists debate the strength of these safeguards, nobody denies that the CECA is of huge strategic importance to the country.

Singapore is a dominant player in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region and India has been pushing to get more integrated with ASEAN for some time now, with limited success, as is evident from the Indo-ASEAN free-trade agreement negotiations that have not made much progress. With the CECA, “India is now firmly anchored in the ASEAN region through its presence in Singapore,” said Lee. And India is hoping that this presence will act as an impetus to Singh’s “Look East” policy, and make the CECA a model for other regional trade agreements.

Indrajit Basu is a Kolkata-based equity-analyst-turned-journalist with more than 12 years of experience in business/finance and technology journalism. Besides writing for HNN, he also writes for US-based publications, as well as IT companies.

A STING IN A STORY

Are exposes good journalism? Who exactly should media organisations be trying to inform and what is the information they should bring to their audiences? Darryl D’Monte finds himself in an unexpectedly pleasant bookshop in Mumbai, at a panel discussion on sting journalism.

It’s not often these days that bookshops are opening – rather than closing. And, what’s more, are spacious enough to accommodate a sufficient number of interested people to hold a discussion around books or writerly pursuits. So it was a pleasant surprise recently to step into a spanking new shop in Santa Cruz, in suburban Mumbai, called The Reader’s Shop for a panel discussion on “Media! Where is thy sting?” The store’s basement had hundreds of books along the walls, and was liberally strewn with cane chairs that would permit people to read at leisure.

The panel was organised by Humanscape magazine, and consisted of three journalists. Arun Sadhu, a veteran who has now retired from active journalism, spoke first and was very much the old school. He deplored sting journalism in general and even questioned Arun Shourie’s celebrated expose of Maharashtra Chief Minister Antulay in the early 1980s. One can still recall the title of the first part of the searing front-page series in the Indian Express, which was “Indira Gandhi as Commerce”. The series revealed how the wily CM was taking a percentage of every bag of cement sold for an Indira Gandhi Pratishtan, a somewhat ham-handed method of raising funds for the Congress party. Antulay had to resign for his misdemeanours; his reputation was already dubious even before this, but with the expose he was well and truly finished politically.

According to Sadhu, Shourie was not quite the media knight in shining armour. There were dissensions within the Congress party, and the anti-Antulay faction engineered this investigation. Nor was this a closely-held secret: to anyone connected with the building trade, it was open knowledge at the time. All the same, Sadhu was probably protesting too much: it is one thing to be aware of some scandal somewhere, and quite another to publish it. Precisely the same situation arose at a morning editorial conference of The Times of India early in 1977, when Mrs. Gandhi was to call elections to legitimise her emergency.

That morning, the story had been scooped by Kuldip Nayar in the Indian Express – come to think of it, so many exclusives, including the Bhagalpur blindings and, more recently, the murder of Satyendra Dubey, the junior engineer who exposed corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral project, have featured in this intrepid newspaper, which must be a tribute to its feisty founder, the late Ramnath Goenka. At the morning conference, ToI editor Girilal Jain poured scorn over the story, remarking that everyone (who mattered, obviously!) in Delhi knew about it. An otherwise taciturn Assistant Editor, \r\nG.M. Telang, piped up: “But he had the courage to publish it!” – which was surely the point. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n And for that matter, the dissensions within a political party – or any other major establishment, including corporate bodies – is surely the stuff of which scoops are made. Everyone talks about Deep Throat, the mysterious and unidentified source who fed Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the intrepid reporters of the Washington Post who broke the Watergate story and ultimately brought President Richard Nixon down. Deep Throat, recently revealed to be former FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt, was obviously disenchanted with “Tricky Dickie\’s” misdemeanours in bugging the Democrat\’s party office in the Watergate hotel and telling outright lies about other matters. He would not have been operating on his own, but representing an entire section of the administration who objected to such underhand methods. But that ought not in any way detract from the two reporters\’ devastating scoop. \r\n\r\n \r\nWhile there are many misgivings about Shourie\’s ideological predilections – incidentally, his latest book, Governance, waxes eloquent about the NDA government\’s initiatives with his ministry\’s disinvestment of public sector enterprises, but has been overshadowed by the current scandal surrounding the sale of the Juhu Centaur hotel – one should give the devil his due for unseating Antulay. Many have also forgotten that when he was the Executive Editor of the Indian Express earlier, he published.

That morning, the story had been scooped by Kuldip Nayar in the Indian Express – come to think of it, so many exclusives, including the Bhagalpur blindings and, more recently, the murder of Satyendra Dubey, the junior engineer who exposed corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral project, have featured in this intrepid newspaper, which must be a tribute to its feisty founder, the late Ramnath Goenka. At the morning conference, ToI editor Girilal Jain poured scorn over the story, remarking that everyone (who mattered, obviously!) in Delhi knew about it. An otherwise taciturn Assistant Editor, G.M. Telang, piped up: “But he had the courage to publish it!” – which was surely the point.

And for that matter, the dissensions within a political party – or any other major establishment, including corporate bodies – is surely the stuff of which scoops are made. Everyone talks about Deep Throat, the mysterious and unidentified source who fed Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the intrepid reporters of the Washington Post who broke the Watergate story and ultimately brought President Richard Nixon down. Deep Throat, recently revealed to be former FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt, was obviously disenchanted with “Tricky Dickie’s” misdemeanours in bugging the Democrat’s party office in the Watergate hotel and telling outright lies about other matters. He would not have been operating on his own, but representing an entire section of the administration who objected to such underhand methods. But that ought not in any way detract from the two reporters’ devastating scoop.

While there are many misgivings about Shourie’s ideological predilections – incidentally, his latest book, Governance, waxes eloquent about the NDA government’s initiatives with his ministry’s disinvestment of public sector enterprises, but has been overshadowed by the current scandal surrounding the sale of the Juhu Centaur hotel – one should give the devil his due for unseating Antulay. Many have also forgotten that when he was the Executive Editor of the Indian Express earlier, he published an article by
\r\n \r\nThe second speaker was the well-known columnist V. Gangadhar, who quite rightly ridiculed the “couching cast” sting, which was virtually entrapment. It may have earned India TV a few TRPs for some moments of glory, but it has done the channel far more harm than good for calling into question its credibility, which is by far the most precious thing that any mass media enjoys. The third speaker, Thomas Abraham, who edits the website \r\nindiantelevision.com, also queried why there was no public curiosity when Indian TV exposed politicians in earlier sting operations, which this correspondent was even unaware of. \r\n\r\n \r\nThere were, inevitably, many references to the Tehelka operation, where BJP politicians, George Fernandes, and several senior army brass were exposed in an undercover operation. This would constitute a legitimate exercise, but the speakers questioned the validity of such stings, considering that the only casualty was the BJP Treasurer, since Fernandes was subsequently reinstated as Defence Minister. Ironically, the only other casualty was Tehelka itself, which was hounded into bankruptcy, along with a couple who ran a finance company which had in good faith invested in the pioneering website.

Abraham made a controversial presentation, where he stressed how readers now had the choice of choosing between different media: newspapers, according to him, were almost passé; there were TV channels, websites and blogs, where one could fashion the news to suit oneself. He emphasised that news could be directed at the level of communities, rather than some amorphous mass readership, which he believed would be more relevant. But the newspaper\’s job is to inform the mass of people and help them make up their minds on issues of national and global importance. They were failing to do so, but if anything the websites and blogs were only targeting individuals, not society as a whole, and could not replace the mass media. Abraham\’s plea sounded suspiciously like the campaign for DNA – Daily News & Analysis, the forthcoming Mumbai daily – to the effect that it would speak directly to the reader, who could dictate the content.

K.F. Rustomji, a member of the National Police Commission, about the abysmal plight of undertrial prisoners in prisoners. From memory, a public interest litigation was filed on their behalf and around 30,000 such prisoners, who had served more than the sentence they would have received had they been convicted, were let off, which is surely a big achievement on the part of any journalist.

The second speaker was the well-known columnist V. Gangadhar, who quite rightly ridiculed the “couching cast” sting, which was virtually entrapment. It may have earned India TV a few TRPs for some moments of glory, but it has done the channel far more harm than good for calling into question its credibility, which is by far the most precious thing that any mass media enjoys. The third speaker, Thomas Abraham, who edits the website indiantelevision.com, also queried why there was no public curiosity when Indian TV exposed politicians in earlier sting operations, which this correspondent was even unaware of.

There were, inevitably, many references to the Tehelka operation, where BJP politicians, George Fernandes, and several senior army brass were exposed in an undercover operation. This would constitute a legitimate exercise, but the speakers questioned the validity of such stings, considering that the only casualty was the BJP Treasurer, since Fernandes was subsequently reinstated as Defence Minister. Ironically, the only other casualty was Tehelka itself, which was hounded into bankruptcy, along with a couple who ran a finance company which had in good faith invested in the pioneering website.

Abraham made a controversial presentation, where he stressed how readers now had the choice of choosing between different media: newspapers, according to him, were almost passé; there were TV channels, websites and blogs, where one could fashion the news to suit oneself. He emphasised that news could be directed at the level of communities, rather than some amorphous mass readership, which he believed would be more relevant. But the newspaper’s job is to inform the mass of people and help them make up their minds on issues of national and global importance. They were failing to do so, but if anything the websites and blogs were only targeting individuals, not society as a whole, and could not replace the mass media. Abraham’s plea sounded suspiciously like the campaign for DNA – Daily News & Analysis, the forthcoming Mumbai daily – to the effect that it would speak directly to the reader, who could dictate the content.

This would amount, if one can paraphrase the ads, to DNA addressing itself only to those readers who could afford to buy the goods and services that would be advertised in this medium, whatever the protestations to the contrary. In a globalised world, the idea that a newspaper would speak to the nation or city as a whole, for most classes, seems to have fallen by the wayside. This is a pernicious doctrine, as pernicious as the assumption that globalisation is here to stay and to entrench itself even more strongly in the hearts and minds only of those who are already well-to-do.

This would amount, if one can paraphrase the ads, to DNA addressing itself only to those readers who could afford to buy the goods and services that would be advertised in this medium, whatever the protestations to the contrary. In a globalised world, the idea that a newspaper would speak to the nation or city as a whole, for most classes, seems to have fallen by the wayside. This is a pernicious doctrine, as pernicious as the assumption that globalisation is here to stay and to entrench itself even more strongly in the hearts and minds only of those who are already well-to-do.

SECURITY ALERT SOUNDS IN ENTIRE INDIA

An alert was sounded in major capitals and sensitive towns across the country following the terror attack on the makeshift temple in Ayodhya on Tuesday morning.

Security was particularly tightened around important temples and other places of worship across the country in view of the targeting of the makeshift shrine where once the disputed Babri Masjid structure stood and the possible repercussions it may have.

In Delhi, security was beefed up near the temples and the RSS headquarters in Jandewalan area in a crowded area in the central part. Additional personnel of police and para-military forces have been mobilised in Delhi and patrolling has been intensified.In Mumbai, the scene of serial blasts and riots after the December 1992 demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya, security was beefed up. “We have taken special measures outside temples and other religious places in the city following the Ayodhya incident,” Police Commissioner A.N. Roy said.

Additional forces have been deployed at prominent temples and other places of worship. Security has also been beefed up at the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) installations across the country, Chief Security Officer of DAE N C Gop said.Security was also alerted across West Bengal with special emphasis on communally-sensitive areas.

In Surat, where the RSS is holding a conclave, a security cordon was thrown around the venue of the meeting.

BIG FIRMS DIG INTO INDIA RICE BOWL

By M H Ahsan

Control over rice, Asia’s staple food, is steadily passing into the hands of transnational corporations that are based far away in Europe and the United States and that use unfair patents and genetic modification, food-security experts have warned. As the world marks the International Year of Rice, agribusiness giants led by Du Pont in the United States are working overtime to select rice genes they reckon would be commercially useful from among the estimated complement of 50,000 genes.

The scramble for monopoly control over rice genes began two years ago after the Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta and Myriad Genetics Inc in the United States announced the sequencing of 99.5 percent of rice DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Internationally known food-security expert Devinder Sharma says that since then some 900 genes, representing a variety of traits such as resistance to droughts, pests, pesticides and salinity and higher yield and nutritional characteristics, have already been patented by various multinationals. Du Pont, he says, tops this list. “In the next three years, as a result of the mapping of the rice genome by Syngenta, a majority of the rice patents [will] be in the lap of a handful of multinational agribusiness corporations,” Sharma predicted. He says what has made the “daylight robbery of genetic wealth” possible is the “connivance of top scientists, international organizations and policymakers”. They ignore the rights of Asia’s farmers who toiled for generations to produce 140,000 rice varieties, critics add. “The Rockefeller Foundation, the Convention on Biodiversity, the World Intellectual Property Organization and even the Food and Agricultural Organization and the United Nations Development Fund failed to stand up against these private companies,” Sharma said. But the worst betrayal, as Sharma sees it, is by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which controls the world’s biggest rice germplasm collection. “The CGIAR not only welcomed the patenting but has even accepted Syngenta on its board, ensuring free access to the world’s biggest rice germplasm collections,” he said.

Syngenta is better known for the patents it took out in 2000 on genetically modified “golden rice”. This had been touted as having enough extra vitamin A to prevent blindness caused by dietary deficiency in developing countries – but was roundly denounced as a hoax by leading food-security activists such as Vandana Shiva. \r\nShiva\’s charges were endorsed by an embarrassed Rockefeller Foundation, which funded the development of genetically modified rice but was forced to admit that the so-called golden rice was no solution to mass vitamin A deficiency as claimed by Syngenta. \r\nThe negative publicity over golden rice proved costly for Syngenta. By 2002 it was forced to pull out of a hugely controversial commercial-collaboration deal it managed to enter into with the famed rice repository at the Indira Gandhi Agricultural University (IGAU) at Raipur in central India in 2002. Syngenta had come within a whisker of gaining commercial rights to some 19,000 strains of local rice put together by IGAU scientists. \r\nIndia\’s premier rice variety, basmati, has not been so lucky. In 2001, the Indian government lost a battle at the US Patents Office to prevent the Texas-based company RiceTec from selling pirated hybrids of the country\’s prized aromatic grain, often referred to as the champagne of rices.

According to Suman Sahai, convenor of the voluntary agency Gene Campaign, there is concrete evidence that RiceTec used genetic material from a CGIAR gene bank, where India had deposited the material in trust, to produce its copycat hybrid version. \r\n”The source of RiceTec\’s basmati is undoubtedly the gene bank at Fort Collins in the US, which acquired samples from the CGIAR gene bank at the International Rice Research Institute [IRRI] at Los Banos in the Philippines,” Sahai said. \r\nIRRI has also been accused of passing on the germplasm of Thailand\’s equally famed jasmine rice to US researchers. Despite protests from Indian and Thai farmers, RiceTec was allowed to market its Kasmati and Texmati hybrids and market them as “superior to Syngenta is better known for the patents it took out in 2000 on genetically modified “golden rice”.

This had been touted as having enough extra vitamin A to prevent blindness caused by dietary deficiency in developing countries – but was roundly denounced as a hoax by leading food-security activists such as Vandana Shiva. Shiva’s charges were endorsed by an embarrassed Rockefeller Foundation, which funded the development of genetically modified rice but was forced to admit that the so-called golden rice was no solution to mass vitamin A deficiency as claimed by Syngenta. The negative publicity over golden rice proved costly for Syngenta. By 2002 it was forced to pull out of a hugely controversial commercial-collaboration deal it managed to enter into with the famed rice repository at the Indira Gandhi Agricultural University (IGAU) at Raipur in central India in 2002. Syngenta had come within a whisker of gaining commercial rights to some 19,000 strains of local rice put together by IGAU scientists. India’s premier rice variety, basmati, has not been so lucky. In 2001, the Indian government lost a battle at the US Patents Office to prevent the Texas-based company RiceTec from selling pirated hybrids of the country’s prized aromatic grain, often referred to as the champagne of rices.

According to Suman Sahai, convenor of the voluntary agency Gene Campaign, there is concrete evidence that RiceTec used genetic material from a CGIAR gene bank, where India had deposited the material in trust, to produce its copycat hybrid version. “The source of RiceTec’s basmati is undoubtedly the gene bank at Fort Collins in the US, which acquired samples from the CGIAR gene bank at the International Rice Research Institute [IRRI] at Los Banos in the Philippines,” Sahai said. IRRI has also been accused of passing on the germplasm of Thailand’s equally famed jasmine rice to US researchers. Despite protests from Indian and Thai farmers, RiceTec was allowed to market its Kasmati and Texmati hybrids and market them as “superior to basmati”.

RiceTec ignored protests from Indian and Thai farmers over the marketing of its “Jasmati” brand, which it describes in advertisements as “The American Jasmine Rice”. Three-quarters of the rice now grown in the United States is based on germplasm provided by the IRRI, experts say. \r\nSimilarly, the Swiss food giant Nestle has been granted European process patents for parboiled rice that has been made and eaten for centuries in India. Nestle\’s process copies the traditional method of parboiling rice by steaming and drying the grains before milling to improve taste and texture and facilitate storage. \r\nAfter the “Green Revolution” technologies of the 1970s ensured the disappearance of thousands of valuable varieties from Asian rice paddies, an even more sinister threat to Asian rice genes is being posed by possible genetic contamination from genetically modified (GM) rice. \r\nGene Campaign and the Friends of the Earth in Europe are now jointly opposing a proposal by the Germany-based transnational Bayer Crop Science AG to import herbicide-tolerant GM rice especially grown in developing countries to be used as cattle feed in Europe.

“Bayer doesn\’t intend to grow this GM rice in Europe and threaten rice already being cultivated in member states like Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and France,” Gene Campaign\’s Sahai said. Alarmed that India and other Asian rice-growing countries could be induced by Bayer to produce GM crops for the EU market, Gene Campaign is seeking a moratorium on the cultivation of GM crops in centers of origin and diversity because of the threat of genetic contamination through cross-pollination. \r\nResearch in China has demonstrated that transgene escape from cultivated rice to wild rice does occur. Studies in Latin America have shown that herbicide-tolerant gene transfer can easily take place. “What is not realized is that if the genetic integrity of Indian rice is not maintained, it could end up threatening global food security itself,” said Sahai. All rice is classified into two broad varieties – Japonica, which originated in Japan, and Indica, which originated in India basmati”.

RiceTec ignored protests from Indian and Thai farmers over the marketing of its “Jasmati” brand, which it describes in advertisements as “The American Jasmine Rice”. Three-quarters of the rice now grown in the United States is based on germplasm provided by the IRRI, experts say. Similarly, the Swiss food giant Nestle has been granted European process patents for parboiled rice that has been made and eaten for centuries in India. Nestle’s process copies the traditional method of parboiling rice by steaming and drying the grains before milling to improve taste and texture and facilitate storage. After the “Green Revolution” technologies of the 1970s ensured the disappearance of thousands of valuable varieties from Asian rice paddies, an even more sinister threat to Asian rice genes is being posed by possible genetic contamination from genetically modified (GM) rice.

Gene Campaign and the Friends of the Earth in Europe are now jointly opposing a proposal by the Germany-based transnational Bayer Crop Science AG to import herbicide-tolerant GM rice especially grown in developing countries to be used as cattle feed in Europe. “Bayer doesn’t intend to grow this GM rice in Europe and threaten rice already being cultivated in member states like Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and France,” Gene Campaign’s Sahai said. Alarmed that India and other Asian rice-growing countries could be induced by Bayer to produce GM crops for the EU market, Gene Campaign is seeking a moratorium on the cultivation of GM crops in centers of origin and diversity because of the threat of genetic contamination through cross-pollination.

Research in China has demonstrated that transgene escape from cultivated rice to wild rice does occur. Studies in Latin America have shown that herbicide-tolerant gene transfer can easily take place. “What is not realized is that if the genetic integrity of Indian rice is not maintained, it could end up threatening global food security itself,” said Sahai. All rice is classified into two broad varieties – Japonica, which originated in Japan, and Indica, which originated in India.

Sahai said it was intriguing why Bayer has insisted on importing GM rice when it is still cheaper in Asia to produce ordinary varieties that do not attract royalties. “Surely the cows are not particular that they get the GM variety,” she added. Sahai said it was intriguing why Bayer has insisted on importing GM rice when it is still cheaper in Asia to produce ordinary varieties that do not attract royalties. “Surely the cows are not particular that they get the GM variety,” she added.

INDIA LEAVES OCEAN TO UNITED STATES

By Seema Mustafa
India has virtually agreed to joint policing of international waters with the United States in the 10-year defence agreement signed between the two governments in Washington. The agreement is being seen as a “back-door entry” for India into the US-led 11-nation Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) that is now claiming the right to stop and search ships not merely in coastal waters, but also on international waters, merely on the suspicion that a vessel could be carrying missile shipments.

India, which has opened its waters over the past few years to the United States, is now readying for a more substantive “engagement” that has been legitimised in the defence agreement as conducting joint exercises, collaborating in multinational operations, strengthening the militaries’ capabilities to defeat terrorism and enhancing capabilities to combat proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The 11 nations in the PSI include the US, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Australia, Poland and the Netherlands. Asian and African countries have kept out of the initiative so far.

The provisions of the PSI allow the member nations to stop and search air, sea and land cargo based on mere suspicion that these could be linked to WMDs. Such searches can be conducted in sovereign waters and airspace. The proposal has evoked sharp reactions from the Indian strategic establishment with experts pointing out that the deployment of the Indian Navy and Air Force for PSI interdiction activities carries a major security and strategic risk for the country. It has also been pointed out that the intervention will not be accepted by major countries in Asia, including China, and India as a participant would stand the risk of isolation in her own neighbourhood.

The Americans have, in the meanwhile, lured India into joint cooperation with its Navy. The days when the mere movement of the US Seventh Fleet in the Indian Ocean elicited strong comments from India are long over. The CPI(M) protest three years ago against the docking of two US vessels, USS Garry and USS Vandegrift, at Kochi is also now a matter of the past with American ships docking with increasing regularity at west coast ports. “Exercise Malabar” opened Indian waters to American vessels two years ago with over 2,000 Navy personnel and state-of-the-art warships from the US and India involved in the joint naval exercise at Kochi, Kerala.

The joint exercise, pedalled as a major step forward in US-India relations, was designed, for the record, to increase “interoperability” between the two Navies. It also helped legitimise joint cooperation to a point where the Indian Navy Chief, Admiral Arun Prakash, in a recent interview to a newspaper said the Indian Navy would like to participate in the PSI as a “core” country. He said India’s inclusion was a political decision, but that the Navy was ready and willing. Some of the provisions of the PSI allow the 11 nations and other potential members to take the initiative to board and search any vessel under their jurisdiction in another state\’s waters suspected of carrying targeted cargoes, allow its own vessels to be boarded and searched by other states when targeted cargo is suspected, take steps to board and search other states\’ vessels in a state\’s territorial waters and harbours as well as inspect the suspected cargo craft and seize such cargo in their ports, airfields or other facilities.

In other words, under the PSI a nation\’s sovereignty over its waters is given up entirely with Indian ships, ports and aircraft all being as liable for search and action as any other on the mere hint of suspicion. The Indian Navy also earned hostile reactions from Malaysia, Indonesia, and even China, when it responded to a US suggestion for joint patrolling in the Malacca Straits. Three years ago, Indian and US Navy ships participated in joint escort duties in the Malacca Straits using the excuse of checking piracy and terrorism to justify this action.

The Americans have, in the meanwhile, lured India into joint cooperation with its Navy. The days when the mere movement of the US Seventh Fleet in the Indian Ocean elicited strong comments from India are long over. The CPI(M) protest three years ago against the docking of two US vessels, USS Garry and USS Vandegrift, at Kochi is also now a matter of the past with American ships docking with increasing regularity at west coast ports. “Exercise Malabar” opened Indian waters to American vessels two years ago with over 2,000 Navy personnel and state-of-the-art warships from the US and India involved in the joint naval exercise at Kochi, Kerala.

The joint exercise, pedalled as a major step forward in US-India relations, was designed, for the record, to increase “interoperability” between the two Navies. It also helped legitimise joint cooperation to a point where the Indian Navy Chief, Admiral Arun Prakash, in a recent interview to a newspaper said the Indian Navy would like to participate in the PSI as a “core” country. He said India’s inclusion was a political decision, but that the Navy was ready and willing. Some of the provisions of the PSI allow the 11 nations and other potential members to take the initiative to board and search any vessel under their jurisdiction in another state’s waters suspected of carrying targeted cargoes, allow its own vessels to be boarded and searched by other states when targeted cargo is suspected, take steps to board and search other states’ vessels in a state’s territorial waters and harbours as well as inspect the suspected cargo craft and seize such cargo in their ports, airfields or other facilities.

In other words, under the PSI a nation’s sovereignty over its waters is given up entirely with Indian ships, ports and aircraft all being as liable for search and action as any other on the mere hint of suspicion. The Indian Navy also earned hostile reactions from Malaysia, Indonesia, and even China, when it responded to a US suggestion for joint patrolling in the Malacca Straits. Three years ago, Indian and US Navy ships participated in joint escort duties in the Malacca Straits using the excuse of checking piracy and terrorism to justify this action.
The Indian Navy ship INS Sharda was pressed into service to escort American commercial vehicles carrying “high value” goods through the strait. It was intended to be an exercise to literally test the waters with the Indians beating a retreat following strong objections from the neighbouring countries. But the idea has not been given up with external affairs minister Natwar Singh more recently reiterating the offer to provide security in the Malacca Straits at an Asean regional forum meet in Jakarta last year. \r\nHe said it was in India\’s national interest to ensure that the strait remained a crime-free sea lane. There were no takers although the Indian Navy is very keen to expand its area of operation and join the US to flex some of its visible muscle on the high seas.

The Indian Navy ship INS Sharda was pressed into service to escort American commercial vehicles carrying “high value” goods through the strait. It was intended to be an exercise to literally test the waters with the Indians beating a retreat following strong objections from the neighbouring countries. But the idea has not been given up with external affairs minister Natwar Singh more recently reiterating the offer to provide security in the Malacca Straits at an Asean regional forum meet in Jakarta last year. He said it was in India’s national interest to ensure that the strait remained a crime-free sea lane. There were no takers although the Indian Navy is very keen to expand its area of operation and join the US to flex some of its visible muscle on the high seas.

AYODHYA SHAKES WITH MILITANT ATTACK

By Udit Khanna

Six terrorists today made an abortive attempt to storm the high-security Ram Janmabhoomi complex in Ayodhya. All six of them were shot dead in a one and a-half hour encounter with the security forces guarding the complex.There has been no damage to the make-shift shrine at the religious site.The attackers had hired a taxi on the pretext of doing sight seeing around Ayodhya.

Once in the car, they forced the driver away from the wheel and took control.Breaching the wallOn reaching the temple complex, they set off a jeep loaded with the explosives to blast a hole through the boundary wall and made their way inside. They opened indiscriminate fire from AK 47 and AK 56 rifles, but were stopped at the Sita Rasoi, outside the periphery of the disputed site. Security forces engaged the militants in a gunbattle, at the end of which all six militants were killed.”After the blast, there was an opening through which the terrorists entered. That is when the CRPF got alert and retaliated,” said Jyoti Kumar Sinha, director general, CRPF. One unidentified person was killed in the crossfire while three security personnel were injured. The driver of the vehicle that was hired by the attackers has been detained for questioning. He told the police that the militants had hired his vehicle for Rs 1,300 from Lucknow but he was not aware of their motive.

Cabinet meet Later the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil briefed the Union Cabinet on the terrorist attack in Ayodhya. Intelligence reports so far indicate that Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) could be behind the attack.In view of the incident, a red alert has been sounded in state capitals across the country.This is the first terrorist attack on the disputed complex, since the makeshift temple came up after the demolition of Babri masjid in December 1992.

Prior informationHome Secretary Vinod Duggal has said that there was prior information that religious sites could be targetted and the information had been passed to all states. “The information had come in late May. Subsequent to that, I had a meeting with the DG, CRPF and with the chiefs of central security forces that militants would be targeting some religious place and some military installations,” Duggal said at a press conference.”So we had to be alert. That input had come in from intelligence agencies. Such alertness is what helps in countering attacks like these.”

A STING IN A STORY

Are exposes good journalism? Who exactly should media organisations be trying to inform and what is the information they should bring to their audiences? Darryl D’Monte finds himself in an unexpectedly pleasant bookshop in Mumbai, at a panel discussion on sting journalism.

It’s not often these days that bookshops are opening – rather than closing. And, what’s more, are spacious enough to accommodate a sufficient number of interested people to hold a discussion around books or writerly pursuits. So it was a pleasant surprise recently to step into a spanking new shop in Santa Cruz, in suburban Mumbai, called The Reader’s Shop for a panel discussion on “Media! Where is thy sting?” The store’s basement had hundreds of books along the walls, and was liberally strewn with cane chairs that would permit people to read at leisure.

The panel was organised by Humanscape magazine, and consisted of three journalists. Arun Sadhu, a veteran who has now retired from active journalism, spoke first and was very much the old school. He deplored sting journalism in general and even questioned Arun Shourie’s celebrated expose of Maharashtra Chief Minister Antulay in the early 1980s. One can still recall the title of the first part of the searing front-page series in the Indian Express, which was “Indira Gandhi as Commerce”. The series revealed how the wily CM was taking a percentage of every bag of cement sold for an Indira Gandhi Pratishtan, a somewhat ham-handed method of raising funds for the Congress party. Antulay had to resign for his misdemeanours; his reputation was already dubious even before this, but with the expose he was well and truly finished politically.

According to Sadhu, Shourie was not quite the media knight in shining armour. There were dissensions within the Congress party, and the anti-Antulay faction engineered this investigation. Nor was this a closely-held secret: to anyone connected with the building trade, it was open knowledge at the time. All the same, Sadhu was probably protesting too much: it is one thing to be aware of some scandal somewhere, and quite another to publish it. Precisely the same situation arose at a morning editorial conference of The Times of India early in 1977, when Mrs. Gandhi was to call elections to legitimise her emergency.

That morning, the story had been scooped by Kuldip Nayar in the Indian Express – come to think of it, so many exclusives, including the Bhagalpur blindings and, more recently, the murder of Satyendra Dubey, the junior engineer who exposed corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral project, have featured in this intrepid newspaper, which must be a tribute to its feisty founder, the late Ramnath Goenka. At the morning conference, ToI editor Girilal Jain poured scorn over the story, remarking that everyone (who mattered, obviously!) in Delhi knew about it. An otherwise taciturn Assistant Editor, \r\nG.M. Telang, piped up: “But he had the courage to publish it!” – which was surely the point. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n And for that matter, the dissensions within a political party – or any other major establishment, including corporate bodies – is surely the stuff of which scoops are made. Everyone talks about Deep Throat, the mysterious and unidentified source who fed Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the intrepid reporters of the Washington Post who broke the Watergate story and ultimately brought President Richard Nixon down. Deep Throat, recently revealed to be former FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt, was obviously disenchanted with “Tricky Dickie\’s” misdemeanours in bugging the Democrat\’s party office in the Watergate hotel and telling outright lies about other matters. He would not have been operating on his own, but representing an entire section of the administration who objected to such underhand methods. But that ought not in any way detract from the two reporters\’ devastating scoop. \r\n\r\n \r\nWhile there are many misgivings about Shourie\’s ideological predilections – incidentally, his latest book, Governance, waxes eloquent about the NDA government\’s initiatives with his ministry\’s disinvestment of public sector enterprises, but has been overshadowed by the current scandal surrounding the sale of the Juhu Centaur hotel – one should give the devil his due for unseating Antulay. Many have also forgotten that when he was the Executive Editor of the Indian Express earlier, he published.

That morning, the story had been scooped by Kuldip Nayar in the Indian Express – come to think of it, so many exclusives, including the Bhagalpur blindings and, more recently, the murder of Satyendra Dubey, the junior engineer who exposed corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral project, have featured in this intrepid newspaper, which must be a tribute to its feisty founder, the late Ramnath Goenka. At the morning conference, ToI editor Girilal Jain poured scorn over the story, remarking that everyone (who mattered, obviously!) in Delhi knew about it. An otherwise taciturn Assistant Editor, G.M. Telang, piped up: “But he had the courage to publish it!” – which was surely the point.

And for that matter, the dissensions within a political party – or any other major establishment, including corporate bodies – is surely the stuff of which scoops are made. Everyone talks about Deep Throat, the mysterious and unidentified source who fed Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the intrepid reporters of the Washington Post who broke the Watergate story and ultimately brought President Richard Nixon down. Deep Throat, recently revealed to be former FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt, was obviously disenchanted with “Tricky Dickie’s” misdemeanours in bugging the Democrat’s party office in the Watergate hotel and telling outright lies about other matters. He would not have been operating on his own, but representing an entire section of the administration who objected to such underhand methods. But that ought not in any way detract from the two reporters’ devastating scoop.

While there are many misgivings about Shourie’s ideological predilections – incidentally, his latest book, Governance, waxes eloquent about the NDA government’s initiatives with his ministry’s disinvestment of public sector enterprises, but has been overshadowed by the current scandal surrounding the sale of the Juhu Centaur hotel – one should give the devil his due for unseating Antulay. Many have also forgotten that when he was the Executive Editor of the Indian Express earlier, he published an article by
\r\n \r\nThe second speaker was the well-known columnist V. Gangadhar, who quite rightly ridiculed the “couching cast” sting, which was virtually entrapment. It may have earned India TV a few TRPs for some moments of glory, but it has done the channel far more harm than good for calling into question its credibility, which is by far the most precious thing that any mass media enjoys. The third speaker, Thomas Abraham, who edits the website \r\nindiantelevision.com, also queried why there was no public curiosity when Indian TV exposed politicians in earlier sting operations, which this correspondent was even unaware of. \r\n\r\n \r\nThere were, inevitably, many references to the Tehelka operation, where BJP politicians, George Fernandes, and several senior army brass were exposed in an undercover operation. This would constitute a legitimate exercise, but the speakers questioned the validity of such stings, considering that the only casualty was the BJP Treasurer, since Fernandes was subsequently reinstated as Defence Minister. Ironically, the only other casualty was Tehelka itself, which was hounded into bankruptcy, along with a couple who ran a finance company which had in good faith invested in the pioneering website.

Abraham made a controversial presentation, where he stressed how readers now had the choice of choosing between different media: newspapers, according to him, were almost passé; there were TV channels, websites and blogs, where one could fashion the news to suit oneself. He emphasised that news could be directed at the level of communities, rather than some amorphous mass readership, which he believed would be more relevant. But the newspaper\’s job is to inform the mass of people and help them make up their minds on issues of national and global importance. They were failing to do so, but if anything the websites and blogs were only targeting individuals, not society as a whole, and could not replace the mass media. Abraham\’s plea sounded suspiciously like the campaign for DNA – Daily News & Analysis, the forthcoming Mumbai daily – to the effect that it would speak directly to the reader, who could dictate the content.

K.F. Rustomji, a member of the National Police Commission, about the abysmal plight of undertrial prisoners in prisoners. From memory, a public interest litigation was filed on their behalf and around 30,000 such prisoners, who had served more than the sentence they would have received had they been convicted, were let off, which is surely a big achievement on the part of any journalist.

The second speaker was the well-known columnist V. Gangadhar, who quite rightly ridiculed the “couching cast” sting, which was virtually entrapment. It may have earned India TV a few TRPs for some moments of glory, but it has done the channel far more harm than good for calling into question its credibility, which is by far the most precious thing that any mass media enjoys. The third speaker, Thomas Abraham, who edits the website indiantelevision.com, also queried why there was no public curiosity when Indian TV exposed politicians in earlier sting operations, which this correspondent was even unaware of.

There were, inevitably, many references to the Tehelka operation, where BJP politicians, George Fernandes, and several senior army brass were exposed in an undercover operation. This would constitute a legitimate exercise, but the speakers questioned the validity of such stings, considering that the only casualty was the BJP Treasurer, since Fernandes was subsequently reinstated as Defence Minister. Ironically, the only other casualty was Tehelka itself, which was hounded into bankruptcy, along with a couple who ran a finance company which had in good faith invested in the pioneering website.

Abraham made a controversial presentation, where he stressed how readers now had the choice of choosing between different media: newspapers, according to him, were almost passé; there were TV channels, websites and blogs, where one could fashion the news to suit oneself. He emphasised that news could be directed at the level of communities, rather than some amorphous mass readership, which he believed would be more relevant. But the newspaper’s job is to inform the mass of people and help them make up their minds on issues of national and global importance. They were failing to do so, but if anything the websites and blogs were only targeting individuals, not society as a whole, and could not replace the mass media. Abraham’s plea sounded suspiciously like the campaign for DNA – Daily News & Analysis, the forthcoming Mumbai daily – to the effect that it would speak directly to the reader, who could dictate the content.

This would amount, if one can paraphrase the ads, to DNA addressing itself only to those readers who could afford to buy the goods and services that would be advertised in this medium, whatever the protestations to the contrary. In a globalised world, the idea that a newspaper would speak to the nation or city as a whole, for most classes, seems to have fallen by the wayside. This is a pernicious doctrine, as pernicious as the assumption that globalisation is here to stay and to entrench itself even more strongly in the hearts and minds only of those who are already well-to-do.

This would amount, if one can paraphrase the ads, to DNA addressing itself only to those readers who could afford to buy the goods and services that would be advertised in this medium, whatever the protestations to the contrary. In a globalised world, the idea that a newspaper would speak to the nation or city as a whole, for most classes, seems to have fallen by the wayside. This is a pernicious doctrine, as pernicious as the assumption that globalisation is here to stay and to entrench itself even more strongly in the hearts and minds only of those who are already well-to-do.

BIG FIRMS DIG INTO INDIA RICE BOWL

By M H Ahsan

Control over rice, Asia’s staple food, is steadily passing into the hands of transnational corporations that are based far away in Europe and the United States and that use unfair patents and genetic modification, food-security experts have warned. As the world marks the International Year of Rice, agribusiness giants led by Du Pont in the United States are working overtime to select rice genes they reckon would be commercially useful from among the estimated complement of 50,000 genes.

The scramble for monopoly control over rice genes began two years ago after the Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta and Myriad Genetics Inc in the United States announced the sequencing of 99.5 percent of rice DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Internationally known food-security expert Devinder Sharma says that since then some 900 genes, representing a variety of traits such as resistance to droughts, pests, pesticides and salinity and higher yield and nutritional characteristics, have already been patented by various multinationals. Du Pont, he says, tops this list. “In the next three years, as a result of the mapping of the rice genome by Syngenta, a majority of the rice patents [will] be in the lap of a handful of multinational agribusiness corporations,” Sharma predicted. He says what has made the “daylight robbery of genetic wealth” possible is the “connivance of top scientists, international organizations and policymakers”. They ignore the rights of Asia’s farmers who toiled for generations to produce 140,000 rice varieties, critics add. “The Rockefeller Foundation, the Convention on Biodiversity, the World Intellectual Property Organization and even the Food and Agricultural Organization and the United Nations Development Fund failed to stand up against these private companies,” Sharma said. But the worst betrayal, as Sharma sees it, is by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which controls the world’s biggest rice germplasm collection. “The CGIAR not only welcomed the patenting but has even accepted Syngenta on its board, ensuring free access to the world’s biggest rice germplasm collections,” he said.

Syngenta is better known for the patents it took out in 2000 on genetically modified “golden rice”. This had been touted as having enough extra vitamin A to prevent blindness caused by dietary deficiency in developing countries – but was roundly denounced as a hoax by leading food-security activists such as Vandana Shiva. \r\nShiva\’s charges were endorsed by an embarrassed Rockefeller Foundation, which funded the development of genetically modified rice but was forced to admit that the so-called golden rice was no solution to mass vitamin A deficiency as claimed by Syngenta. \r\nThe negative publicity over golden rice proved costly for Syngenta. By 2002 it was forced to pull out of a hugely controversial commercial-collaboration deal it managed to enter into with the famed rice repository at the Indira Gandhi Agricultural University (IGAU) at Raipur in central India in 2002. Syngenta had come within a whisker of gaining commercial rights to some 19,000 strains of local rice put together by IGAU scientists. \r\nIndia\’s premier rice variety, basmati, has not been so lucky. In 2001, the Indian government lost a battle at the US Patents Office to prevent the Texas-based company RiceTec from selling pirated hybrids of the country\’s prized aromatic grain, often referred to as the champagne of rices.

According to Suman Sahai, convenor of the voluntary agency Gene Campaign, there is concrete evidence that RiceTec used genetic material from a CGIAR gene bank, where India had deposited the material in trust, to produce its copycat hybrid version. \r\n”The source of RiceTec\’s basmati is undoubtedly the gene bank at Fort Collins in the US, which acquired samples from the CGIAR gene bank at the International Rice Research Institute [IRRI] at Los Banos in the Philippines,” Sahai said. \r\nIRRI has also been accused of passing on the germplasm of Thailand\’s equally famed jasmine rice to US researchers. Despite protests from Indian and Thai farmers, RiceTec was allowed to market its Kasmati and Texmati hybrids and market them as “superior to Syngenta is better known for the patents it took out in 2000 on genetically modified “golden rice”.

This had been touted as having enough extra vitamin A to prevent blindness caused by dietary deficiency in developing countries – but was roundly denounced as a hoax by leading food-security activists such as Vandana Shiva. Shiva’s charges were endorsed by an embarrassed Rockefeller Foundation, which funded the development of genetically modified rice but was forced to admit that the so-called golden rice was no solution to mass vitamin A deficiency as claimed by Syngenta. The negative publicity over golden rice proved costly for Syngenta. By 2002 it was forced to pull out of a hugely controversial commercial-collaboration deal it managed to enter into with the famed rice repository at the Indira Gandhi Agricultural University (IGAU) at Raipur in central India in 2002. Syngenta had come within a whisker of gaining commercial rights to some 19,000 strains of local rice put together by IGAU scientists. India’s premier rice variety, basmati, has not been so lucky. In 2001, the Indian government lost a battle at the US Patents Office to prevent the Texas-based company RiceTec from selling pirated hybrids of the country’s prized aromatic grain, often referred to as the champagne of rices.

According to Suman Sahai, convenor of the voluntary agency Gene Campaign, there is concrete evidence that RiceTec used genetic material from a CGIAR gene bank, where India had deposited the material in trust, to produce its copycat hybrid version. “The source of RiceTec’s basmati is undoubtedly the gene bank at Fort Collins in the US, which acquired samples from the CGIAR gene bank at the International Rice Research Institute [IRRI] at Los Banos in the Philippines,” Sahai said. IRRI has also been accused of passing on the germplasm of Thailand’s equally famed jasmine rice to US researchers. Despite protests from Indian and Thai farmers, RiceTec was allowed to market its Kasmati and Texmati hybrids and market them as “superior to basmati”.

RiceTec ignored protests from Indian and Thai farmers over the marketing of its “Jasmati” brand, which it describes in advertisements as “The American Jasmine Rice”. Three-quarters of the rice now grown in the United States is based on germplasm provided by the IRRI, experts say. \r\nSimilarly, the Swiss food giant Nestle has been granted European process patents for parboiled rice that has been made and eaten for centuries in India. Nestle\’s process copies the traditional method of parboiling rice by steaming and drying the grains before milling to improve taste and texture and facilitate storage. \r\nAfter the “Green Revolution” technologies of the 1970s ensured the disappearance of thousands of valuable varieties from Asian rice paddies, an even more sinister threat to Asian rice genes is being posed by possible genetic contamination from genetically modified (GM) rice. \r\nGene Campaign and the Friends of the Earth in Europe are now jointly opposing a proposal by the Germany-based transnational Bayer Crop Science AG to import herbicide-tolerant GM rice especially grown in developing countries to be used as cattle feed in Europe.

“Bayer doesn\’t intend to grow this GM rice in Europe and threaten rice already being cultivated in member states like Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and France,” Gene Campaign\’s Sahai said. Alarmed that India and other Asian rice-growing countries could be induced by Bayer to produce GM crops for the EU market, Gene Campaign is seeking a moratorium on the cultivation of GM crops in centers of origin and diversity because of the threat of genetic contamination through cross-pollination. \r\nResearch in China has demonstrated that transgene escape from cultivated rice to wild rice does occur. Studies in Latin America have shown that herbicide-tolerant gene transfer can easily take place. “What is not realized is that if the genetic integrity of Indian rice is not maintained, it could end up threatening global food security itself,” said Sahai. All rice is classified into two broad varieties – Japonica, which originated in Japan, and Indica, which originated in India basmati”.

RiceTec ignored protests from Indian and Thai farmers over the marketing of its “Jasmati” brand, which it describes in advertisements as “The American Jasmine Rice”. Three-quarters of the rice now grown in the United States is based on germplasm provided by the IRRI, experts say. Similarly, the Swiss food giant Nestle has been granted European process patents for parboiled rice that has been made and eaten for centuries in India. Nestle’s process copies the traditional method of parboiling rice by steaming and drying the grains before milling to improve taste and texture and facilitate storage. After the “Green Revolution” technologies of the 1970s ensured the disappearance of thousands of valuable varieties from Asian rice paddies, an even more sinister threat to Asian rice genes is being posed by possible genetic contamination from genetically modified (GM) rice.

Gene Campaign and the Friends of the Earth in Europe are now jointly opposing a proposal by the Germany-based transnational Bayer Crop Science AG to import herbicide-tolerant GM rice especially grown in developing countries to be used as cattle feed in Europe. “Bayer doesn’t intend to grow this GM rice in Europe and threaten rice already being cultivated in member states like Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and France,” Gene Campaign’s Sahai said. Alarmed that India and other Asian rice-growing countries could be induced by Bayer to produce GM crops for the EU market, Gene Campaign is seeking a moratorium on the cultivation of GM crops in centers of origin and diversity because of the threat of genetic contamination through cross-pollination.

Research in China has demonstrated that transgene escape from cultivated rice to wild rice does occur. Studies in Latin America have shown that herbicide-tolerant gene transfer can easily take place. “What is not realized is that if the genetic integrity of Indian rice is not maintained, it could end up threatening global food security itself,” said Sahai. All rice is classified into two broad varieties – Japonica, which originated in Japan, and Indica, which originated in India.

Sahai said it was intriguing why Bayer has insisted on importing GM rice when it is still cheaper in Asia to produce ordinary varieties that do not attract royalties. “Surely the cows are not particular that they get the GM variety,” she added. Sahai said it was intriguing why Bayer has insisted on importing GM rice when it is still cheaper in Asia to produce ordinary varieties that do not attract royalties. “Surely the cows are not particular that they get the GM variety,” she added.

INDIA LEAVES OCEAN TO UNITED STATES

By Seema Mustafa
India has virtually agreed to joint policing of international waters with the United States in the 10-year defence agreement signed between the two governments in Washington. The agreement is being seen as a “back-door entry” for India into the US-led 11-nation Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) that is now claiming the right to stop and search ships not merely in coastal waters, but also on international waters, merely on the suspicion that a vessel could be carrying missile shipments.

India, which has opened its waters over the past few years to the United States, is now readying for a more substantive “engagement” that has been legitimised in the defence agreement as conducting joint exercises, collaborating in multinational operations, strengthening the militaries’ capabilities to defeat terrorism and enhancing capabilities to combat proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The 11 nations in the PSI include the US, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Australia, Poland and the Netherlands. Asian and African countries have kept out of the initiative so far.

The provisions of the PSI allow the member nations to stop and search air, sea and land cargo based on mere suspicion that these could be linked to WMDs. Such searches can be conducted in sovereign waters and airspace. The proposal has evoked sharp reactions from the Indian strategic establishment with experts pointing out that the deployment of the Indian Navy and Air Force for PSI interdiction activities carries a major security and strategic risk for the country. It has also been pointed out that the intervention will not be accepted by major countries in Asia, including China, and India as a participant would stand the risk of isolation in her own neighbourhood.

The Americans have, in the meanwhile, lured India into joint cooperation with its Navy. The days when the mere movement of the US Seventh Fleet in the Indian Ocean elicited strong comments from India are long over. The CPI(M) protest three years ago against the docking of two US vessels, USS Garry and USS Vandegrift, at Kochi is also now a matter of the past with American ships docking with increasing regularity at west coast ports. “Exercise Malabar” opened Indian waters to American vessels two years ago with over 2,000 Navy personnel and state-of-the-art warships from the US and India involved in the joint naval exercise at Kochi, Kerala.

The joint exercise, pedalled as a major step forward in US-India relations, was designed, for the record, to increase “interoperability” between the two Navies. It also helped legitimise joint cooperation to a point where the Indian Navy Chief, Admiral Arun Prakash, in a recent interview to a newspaper said the Indian Navy would like to participate in the PSI as a “core” country. He said India’s inclusion was a political decision, but that the Navy was ready and willing. Some of the provisions of the PSI allow the 11 nations and other potential members to take the initiative to board and search any vessel under their jurisdiction in another state\’s waters suspected of carrying targeted cargoes, allow its own vessels to be boarded and searched by other states when targeted cargo is suspected, take steps to board and search other states\’ vessels in a state\’s territorial waters and harbours as well as inspect the suspected cargo craft and seize such cargo in their ports, airfields or other facilities.

In other words, under the PSI a nation\’s sovereignty over its waters is given up entirely with Indian ships, ports and aircraft all being as liable for search and action as any other on the mere hint of suspicion. The Indian Navy also earned hostile reactions from Malaysia, Indonesia, and even China, when it responded to a US suggestion for joint patrolling in the Malacca Straits. Three years ago, Indian and US Navy ships participated in joint escort duties in the Malacca Straits using the excuse of checking piracy and terrorism to justify this action.

The Americans have, in the meanwhile, lured India into joint cooperation with its Navy. The days when the mere movement of the US Seventh Fleet in the Indian Ocean elicited strong comments from India are long over. The CPI(M) protest three years ago against the docking of two US vessels, USS Garry and USS Vandegrift, at Kochi is also now a matter of the past with American ships docking with increasing regularity at west coast ports. “Exercise Malabar” opened Indian waters to American vessels two years ago with over 2,000 Navy personnel and state-of-the-art warships from the US and India involved in the joint naval exercise at Kochi, Kerala.

The joint exercise, pedalled as a major step forward in US-India relations, was designed, for the record, to increase “interoperability” between the two Navies. It also helped legitimise joint cooperation to a point where the Indian Navy Chief, Admiral Arun Prakash, in a recent interview to a newspaper said the Indian Navy would like to participate in the PSI as a “core” country. He said India’s inclusion was a political decision, but that the Navy was ready and willing. Some of the provisions of the PSI allow the 11 nations and other potential members to take the initiative to board and search any vessel under their jurisdiction in another state’s waters suspected of carrying targeted cargoes, allow its own vessels to be boarded and searched by other states when targeted cargo is suspected, take steps to board and search other states’ vessels in a state’s territorial waters and harbours as well as inspect the suspected cargo craft and seize such cargo in their ports, airfields or other facilities.

In other words, under the PSI a nation’s sovereignty over its waters is given up entirely with Indian ships, ports and aircraft all being as liable for search and action as any other on the mere hint of suspicion. The Indian Navy also earned hostile reactions from Malaysia, Indonesia, and even China, when it responded to a US suggestion for joint patrolling in the Malacca Straits. Three years ago, Indian and US Navy ships participated in joint escort duties in the Malacca Straits using the excuse of checking piracy and terrorism to justify this action.
The Indian Navy ship INS Sharda was pressed into service to escort American commercial vehicles carrying “high value” goods through the strait. It was intended to be an exercise to literally test the waters with the Indians beating a retreat following strong objections from the neighbouring countries. But the idea has not been given up with external affairs minister Natwar Singh more recently reiterating the offer to provide security in the Malacca Straits at an Asean regional forum meet in Jakarta last year. \r\nHe said it was in India\’s national interest to ensure that the strait remained a crime-free sea lane. There were no takers although the Indian Navy is very keen to expand its area of operation and join the US to flex some of its visible muscle on the high seas.

The Indian Navy ship INS Sharda was pressed into service to escort American commercial vehicles carrying “high value” goods through the strait. It was intended to be an exercise to literally test the waters with the Indians beating a retreat following strong objections from the neighbouring countries. But the idea has not been given up with external affairs minister Natwar Singh more recently reiterating the offer to provide security in the Malacca Straits at an Asean regional forum meet in Jakarta last year. He said it was in India’s national interest to ensure that the strait remained a crime-free sea lane. There were no takers although the Indian Navy is very keen to expand its area of operation and join the US to flex some of its visible muscle on the high seas.

EDITORIAL: CITADEL SHAKES

The first week of July has begun on a sombre note. Two former chief ministers stand expelled from their respective parties, while the RSS-BJP rift has claimed a victim in an office-bearer of the BJP who also doubled as the party chief’s adviser. The common thread in these developments, each otherwise unrelated to one another, is that all the three leaders concerned have attracted “punishment” for their alleged anti-party activities.

Mr Sudheendra Kulkarni’s exit as BJP national secretary, member of the national executive and Mr Advani’s political adviser, is a direct fallout from the Jinnah controversy. Mr Kulkarni has had to pay a price for thinking “out of the box” in charting a course for the BJP independent of its mentor, the RSS. The expulsion of the Asom Gana Parishad founder president and former two-time Assam chief minister Mr Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, climaxes the four-year-old war of attrition between him and the current AGP leadership of whose style of functioning he has been highly critical.

He had to quit the presidentship in 2001 following a bigamy scandal and has had a strenuous relationship with the party he founded two decades ago. He has threatened to float a new party. The most serious of the three developments, however, is the crisis within the hitherto highly regimented Shiv Sena caused by the exit of the former two-time Maharashtra chief minister Mr Narayan Rane who has lost both his party membership and the Leader of the Opposition post in the State Assembly.

Rumbles within the Sena began with the ouster of Mr Chhagan Bhujpal some years ago, but Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray managed to contain them with an iron hand. The recent exit of Mr Sanjay Nirupam was another jolt. However, Mr Rane’s expulsion may well shake the Sena citadel especially since he commands a mass base and political clout in his own right in the Konkan region and can effectively lead a revolt against Mr Thackeray.

The Sena chief has also to contend with factionalism and inner-party discontent after naming his son Uddhav as his political heir and successor in preference to the more popular nephew Raj. Though Balasaheb Thackeray has predictably taken his son’s side in the Uddhav-Rane confrontation and has put a brave face on the latest setback for his party, it is clear that the Tiger’s roar is progressively weakening because of his dynastic leanings. With Mr Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party waiting in the wings to absorb the Sena rebels, politics in Maharashtra promises to turn livelier in the near future.

COMMUNISTS FAIL TO FIRE MAO’S GUN

By Siddhartha Reddy

Even now Indian Communists find their inspiration from the relics of a long destroyed cult — from Mao, Stalin, and Lenin. Mao said power flows from the barrel of the gun, so CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, emulating Chairman Mao, holds the Communist gun to Sonia Gandhi’s head, threatening to blow the UPA government into powerlessness. But aware that Karat would not pull the trigger, Sonia Gandhi continued with her Shimla holiday, briefly interrupting her vacation with a phone call to pacify Karat.

Long-dead Communist leaders must be turning in their graves at Karat’s willingness to wait for Sonia Gandhi’s holiday to be over. Imagine Prakash Karat and A.B. Bardhan leading the French Revolution. They would have gladly accepted Queen Marie Antoinette’s dictate, “If you don’t have bread, eat cake.” Sonia Gandhi knows that the Communist gun does not have any ammunition. The comrades just want to impress their voters with loud rhetoric, forcing the Congress to roll back lucrative disinvestments.

The moment the Bhel sell-off is shelved, the Communists will drop the gun, threatening to light the fire later. A good government would never sell Bhel. But if necessary, it would have to convince the Communists behind closed doors. Public squabbling would not help. Sonia Gandhi has massaged the Communist ego and has saved the UPA government. P.V. Narasimha Rao, in 1991, launched the liberalisation-economic reforms process by selling off our nation’s assets.
Public money started going into private pockets. What was worth Rs 100 was sold for a song, fetching not more than Rs 10. Devious evaluators assess public assets at a low price to facilitate private gains. Successive governments have merrily sold precious mega-employment generating institutions to businessmen in the name of disinvestment.

As for Bhel, the Communists are searching for a needle in the haystack. Those who voted for the Communists, expected their MPs to put pressure on the government, and to expose the intensity of the fraud that has taken place in the disinvestment process from 1991-2005, quantifying the actual loss to the exchequer, and recover the money diverted and punish the culprits. They expected them to prevent such future robbery of public funds. Nothing of that sort happened. Instead, there’s a meaningless spectacle of a pro- and anti-disinvestment divide, with high noise but no sensible reform.

The Communists should have listed the governmental posts which are a huge drain on the exchequer. They should have forced the government to amend the Constitution to do away with the posts of the vice-president, governor, also Rajya Sabha members, Sonia Gandhi’s advisory council members, Planning Commission members, apart from those belonging to the numerous advisory councils and committees and inquiry commissions. There are hundreds of high-spending bureaucratic positions in every department, institution and enterprise which can be done away with.

A lot of money is spent on providing security to corrupt politicians and to facilitate holidays on government expense. But it’s beyond Karat’s capabilities to launch such a mammoth activity. Karat is busy making an MP out of his wife Brinda Karat, and cutting down to size a sulking Sitaram Yechury. Pontificating is easy, but reform is difficult. Imitating Mao is easy, but replicating Deng Xiaoping is difficult.

The Communists are yet to realise that by supporting the UPA government’s policies they are making the people of West Bengal and Kerala turn away from them. In Bengal, Communist complacency comes from the disarray in the BJP-Trinamul camp, and the 20,000 bogus voters enrolled in most constituencies cushioning the impact of the anti-government vote. Fair elections are feasible only if electoral lists are revised by authorities from other states, under President’s Rule.

The Communist-Congress hysteria against Jinnah will prove costly. Muslim vote is turning against the Communists. And the Hindu vote will go to the Trinamul. The middle classes are not happy that the Left is supporting a government under which the country is witnessing an all-round price rise. The lower classes too are suffering. Their jobs are vanishing because of a flood of Bangladeshi immigrants, willing to be underpaid and overworked. Both Muslims and Hindus are angry with the Left for allowing immigration to swell the number of bogus voters.

A certain Communist victory next year can end up being a hung Assembly, or an upset defeat. Complacency unseated Haryana’s Om Prakash Chautala, Andhra’s Chandrababu Naidu and Karnataka’s S.M. Krishna. Buddhadeb should be wary, Mamata can still be Chief Minister if she keeps her mouth shut and allows Karat and A.B. Bardhan to topple Buddhadeb by continuing to support the UPA government.

As for Kerala, the anti-Congress vote would have gone to the Communists, had the Congress not split in that State. There is resentment against the corrupt Congress State government and fury against the Communists for supporting the Central government. From a sure win, the Communists have now deteriorated to a hung Assembly situation. If this trend continues, then Hindus and Muslims could combine to surprise aged Karunakaran’s Nationalist Congress (Indira) with unexpected victory.

By talking about secularism, by saying that it is keeping the BJP away from power, the Left can impress the party circuit, the anti-saffron columnists and the JNU crowd, however, election results will prove that voters in Bengal and Kerala do not approve of the Communist support to a capitalist UPA government. Then Karat and Bardhan will be as surprised at the self-goals they have scored as Vajpayee and Advani were when they lost their government last year. Karat and Bardhan will belatedly realise that power flew out of Communist reach for they failed to fire the Maoist gun.

T R S GAMBLE

By Syed Amin Jafri

Monday was a day of swift and dramatic developments. The final break betwe-en the Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samiti came when, in a unilateral action, five TRS ministers pulled out from the first coalition government led by Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy in Andhra Pradesh. More significantly, the sixth TRS minister S. Santosh Reddy, an ex-Congressman, raised a banner of revolt against the TRS leadership and refused to resign. More dissensions are likely to be witnessed in the TRS with some more legislators queering the pitch for party boss K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Though relations between the two partners were estranged for some time now and a war of words was on between them, the TRS withdrawal from the State Cabinet has come faster than expected. In fact, the hostile attitude of the Chief Minister was evident in abundance when he summarily rejected the concerns of TRS leaders regarding Pulichintala and Polavaram irrigation projects which are meant to benefit coastal Andhra. His administration also goofed up on his promise to tap waters of the Pranahita river for Telangana.

These could be the factors that contributed to the mistrust of TRS leaders. On the issue of separate Telangana, the views of Dr Rajasekhar Reddy were no different from his Telugu Desam predecessor N. Chandrababu Naidu. An integrationist at heart, Dr Reddy harped on the need for constituting a second States Reorganisation Commission to go into the demand for Telangana as a ‘dilatory’ tactic.

Whereas Mr Naidu openly favoured a Samaikhya Andhra Pradesh. The stand of both these leaders from Rayalaseema was resented by the TRS leadership, with Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr A. Narendra lashing out at them frequently. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao insisted that there would be no second SRC since the Congress-led UPA had given an unequivocal commitment to fo-rm a separate Telangana State.

Also, TRS and Congress leaders had developed serious differences on the Naxalite issue. Before the Assembly polls, the Congress had promised to end the “bullet for bullet” policy pursued by the TD vis-à-vis the Naxalites and launch a peace initiative to resolve this longstanding problem. The TRS had promised to work to lift the ban on the People’s War Group. The Congress and TRS entered a poll alliance for the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls on the understanding that they would work for the creation of a separate Telangana. The Naxals supported their alliance in the polls.

The Congress stormed into power in the State and the TRS also gained significance in Telangana winning five Lok Sabha and 26 Assembly seats. The TRS joined the Union Cabinet and the State ministry with two ministers at the Centre and six in the State. This was the time when dissension between the electoral partners arose. Some Congressmen resented the Cabinet berths for the TRS while the party leaders from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema resisted the separate Telangana demand.

In the meantime, the Rajasekhar Reddy regime initiated the peace process with the Naxalites by agreeing to a ceasefire. The government lifted the ban on the PWG in July 2004 and the first round of peace talks were held with PWG and Janashakti leaders in the city in October 2004. The Congress had second thoughts on the peace talks for two reasons. One was the merger of the PWG and the MCCI of Bihar to form the CPI-Maoist. The other was the attempt by the Maoists to expand their base into coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema and augment their strength through huge collections of party funds, acquisition of modern weapons and equipment and recruitment of cadres.

The peace initiative crumbled and combing operations were launched in a big way to counter Naxal violence in January 2005. Thereafter, the Maoists and Jan-ashakti Naxalites began mounting their pressure on TRS and Congress leaders at the local level to prevail upon the government to resume the peace talks. As encounters occurred with monotonous frequency, the Maoists set a deadline for TRS to sever ties with the Congress and pull out of the Congress-led ministries at the Centre and in the State. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao sought to placate the Maoi-sts by urging them to kill him and spare his partymen.

About 500 local level elected functionaries of the TRS quit their posts, bowing to Maoist diktat. As relations soured with the TRS, veteran Congress leader G. Venkatswamy and senior minister M. Satyanarayana Rao mounted a tirade against Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and his men. Incidentally, both of them claimed to have played a role in forging the Congress-TRS alliance for the last year’s polls.

Mr Venkatswamy thought that if Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr Narendra could be eased out of the Union Cabinet, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh could induct senior Congressmen like him in the impending reshuffle. Mr Satyanarayana Rao, on the other hand, has no specific grouse against Mr Chandra-sekhar Rao, except that the latter was as much a loudmouth as him!
A one-time Telangana protagonist, Mr K. Keshava Rao changed his colours soon after his nomination as APCC president. He also began harping on the second SRC and joined issue with Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr Narendra many a time. Other Telangana supporters among the Congress leaders and legislators also became lukewarm towards the TRS and separate Telangana as the loaves of power came their way.

So, this convinced the TRS leadership about the antagonistic attitude of the Congress towards its core demand for Telangana State. The return to lawlessness in Telangana with the resumption of police operations and Naxalite violence came as a cause of worry to the TRS which has been advocating a peaceful settlement on the issue to put a fullstop to the bloodshed in this region.
In this backdrop, the killing of Janashakti leader Riyaz in an ‘encounter’ in Karimnagar district last Friday after he was picked up by police in Hyderabad brought the uneasiness in TRS-Congress ties to a flashpoint. To add insult to injury, Dr Rajasekhar Reddy chided the TRS leaders for “their doublespeak” on the Naxalite issue.

“They tell me one thing but they say something else outside just to save their lives (from the extremists). There is no point talking about them” was his cryptic comment when the TRS ministers voiced their threat to quit the Cabinet if the encounter killings continued.
The alleged neglect of the interests of the backward Telangana region also caused heartburn to TRS leaders. They felt that the Rajasekhar Reddy regime was not sincere in implementing the Girglani Commission report on GO 610, which seeks repatriation of non-local government employees working in Telangana to their respective regions.

They also had apprehensions that Dr Rajasekhar Reddy was keen on completion of irrigation projects in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema while paying lip sympathy for the Telangana region. They had misgivings that Dr Rajasekhar Reddy was seeking the inter-basin transfer of Godavari waters to Krishna river to help coastal belt.

So, water, jobs and peace were the issues that weighed with the TRS in determining the longevity of its ties with the Congress. All these factors cumulatively led to the dramatic pull-out of TRS ministers from the State Cabinet. Curiously, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr Narendra have not yet taken the decision to quit their Union posts and withdraw support to the UPA government. This emboldened Mr Santosh Reddy to defy Mr Chandrasekhar Rao’s diktat to leave the State Cabinet.

In a bid to quell the disquiet in the TRS camp, the Congress leadership in New Delhi has launched a fire-fighting operations to mollify Mr Chandrasekhar Rao. How long Mr Chandrasekhar Rao’s honey-moon with the Congress central leadership will last is anybody’s guess. The immediate impact of the TRS-Congress break-up will be felt in the municipal elections slated in September 2005 though the TRS pull-out from the government will not affect the stability of either the Dr Rajasekhar Reddy government or the Dr Manmohan Singh government.

EDITORIAL: CITADEL SHAKES

The first week of July has begun on a sombre note. Two former chief ministers stand expelled from their respective parties, while the RSS-BJP rift has claimed a victim in an office-bearer of the BJP who also doubled as the party chief’s adviser. The common thread in these developments, each otherwise unrelated to one another, is that all the three leaders concerned have attracted “punishment” for their alleged anti-party activities.

Mr Sudheendra Kulkarni’s exit as BJP national secretary, member of the national executive and Mr Advani’s political adviser, is a direct fallout from the Jinnah controversy. Mr Kulkarni has had to pay a price for thinking “out of the box” in charting a course for the BJP independent of its mentor, the RSS. The expulsion of the Asom Gana Parishad founder president and former two-time Assam chief minister Mr Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, climaxes the four-year-old war of attrition between him and the current AGP leadership of whose style of functioning he has been highly critical.

He had to quit the presidentship in 2001 following a bigamy scandal and has had a strenuous relationship with the party he founded two decades ago. He has threatened to float a new party. The most serious of the three developments, however, is the crisis within the hitherto highly regimented Shiv Sena caused by the exit of the former two-time Maharashtra chief minister Mr Narayan Rane who has lost both his party membership and the Leader of the Opposition post in the State Assembly.

Rumbles within the Sena began with the ouster of Mr Chhagan Bhujpal some years ago, but Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray managed to contain them with an iron hand. The recent exit of Mr Sanjay Nirupam was another jolt. However, Mr Rane’s expulsion may well shake the Sena citadel especially since he commands a mass base and political clout in his own right in the Konkan region and can effectively lead a revolt against Mr Thackeray.

The Sena chief has also to contend with factionalism and inner-party discontent after naming his son Uddhav as his political heir and successor in preference to the more popular nephew Raj. Though Balasaheb Thackeray has predictably taken his son’s side in the Uddhav-Rane confrontation and has put a brave face on the latest setback for his party, it is clear that the Tiger’s roar is progressively weakening because of his dynastic leanings. With Mr Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party waiting in the wings to absorb the Sena rebels, politics in Maharashtra promises to turn livelier in the near future.

COMMUNISTS FAIL TO FIRE MAO’S GUN

By Siddhartha Reddy

Even now Indian Communists find their inspiration from the relics of a long destroyed cult — from Mao, Stalin, and Lenin. Mao said power flows from the barrel of the gun, so CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, emulating Chairman Mao, holds the Communist gun to Sonia Gandhi’s head, threatening to blow the UPA government into powerlessness. But aware that Karat would not pull the trigger, Sonia Gandhi continued with her Shimla holiday, briefly interrupting her vacation with a phone call to pacify Karat.

Long-dead Communist leaders must be turning in their graves at Karat’s willingness to wait for Sonia Gandhi’s holiday to be over. Imagine Prakash Karat and A.B. Bardhan leading the French Revolution. They would have gladly accepted Queen Marie Antoinette’s dictate, “If you don’t have bread, eat cake.” Sonia Gandhi knows that the Communist gun does not have any ammunition. The comrades just want to impress their voters with loud rhetoric, forcing the Congress to roll back lucrative disinvestments.

The moment the Bhel sell-off is shelved, the Communists will drop the gun, threatening to light the fire later. A good government would never sell Bhel. But if necessary, it would have to convince the Communists behind closed doors. Public squabbling would not help. Sonia Gandhi has massaged the Communist ego and has saved the UPA government. P.V. Narasimha Rao, in 1991, launched the liberalisation-economic reforms process by selling off our nation’s assets.
Public money started going into private pockets. What was worth Rs 100 was sold for a song, fetching not more than Rs 10. Devious evaluators assess public assets at a low price to facilitate private gains. Successive governments have merrily sold precious mega-employment generating institutions to businessmen in the name of disinvestment.

As for Bhel, the Communists are searching for a needle in the haystack. Those who voted for the Communists, expected their MPs to put pressure on the government, and to expose the intensity of the fraud that has taken place in the disinvestment process from 1991-2005, quantifying the actual loss to the exchequer, and recover the money diverted and punish the culprits. They expected them to prevent such future robbery of public funds. Nothing of that sort happened. Instead, there’s a meaningless spectacle of a pro- and anti-disinvestment divide, with high noise but no sensible reform.

The Communists should have listed the governmental posts which are a huge drain on the exchequer. They should have forced the government to amend the Constitution to do away with the posts of the vice-president, governor, also Rajya Sabha members, Sonia Gandhi’s advisory council members, Planning Commission members, apart from those belonging to the numerous advisory councils and committees and inquiry commissions. There are hundreds of high-spending bureaucratic positions in every department, institution and enterprise which can be done away with.

A lot of money is spent on providing security to corrupt politicians and to facilitate holidays on government expense. But it’s beyond Karat’s capabilities to launch such a mammoth activity. Karat is busy making an MP out of his wife Brinda Karat, and cutting down to size a sulking Sitaram Yechury. Pontificating is easy, but reform is difficult. Imitating Mao is easy, but replicating Deng Xiaoping is difficult.

The Communists are yet to realise that by supporting the UPA government’s policies they are making the people of West Bengal and Kerala turn away from them. In Bengal, Communist complacency comes from the disarray in the BJP-Trinamul camp, and the 20,000 bogus voters enrolled in most constituencies cushioning the impact of the anti-government vote. Fair elections are feasible only if electoral lists are revised by authorities from other states, under President’s Rule.

The Communist-Congress hysteria against Jinnah will prove costly. Muslim vote is turning against the Communists. And the Hindu vote will go to the Trinamul. The middle classes are not happy that the Left is supporting a government under which the country is witnessing an all-round price rise. The lower classes too are suffering. Their jobs are vanishing because of a flood of Bangladeshi immigrants, willing to be underpaid and overworked. Both Muslims and Hindus are angry with the Left for allowing immigration to swell the number of bogus voters.

A certain Communist victory next year can end up being a hung Assembly, or an upset defeat. Complacency unseated Haryana’s Om Prakash Chautala, Andhra’s Chandrababu Naidu and Karnataka’s S.M. Krishna. Buddhadeb should be wary, Mamata can still be Chief Minister if she keeps her mouth shut and allows Karat and A.B. Bardhan to topple Buddhadeb by continuing to support the UPA government.

As for Kerala, the anti-Congress vote would have gone to the Communists, had the Congress not split in that State. There is resentment against the corrupt Congress State government and fury against the Communists for supporting the Central government. From a sure win, the Communists have now deteriorated to a hung Assembly situation. If this trend continues, then Hindus and Muslims could combine to surprise aged Karunakaran’s Nationalist Congress (Indira) with unexpected victory.

By talking about secularism, by saying that it is keeping the BJP away from power, the Left can impress the party circuit, the anti-saffron columnists and the JNU crowd, however, election results will prove that voters in Bengal and Kerala do not approve of the Communist support to a capitalist UPA government. Then Karat and Bardhan will be as surprised at the self-goals they have scored as Vajpayee and Advani were when they lost their government last year. Karat and Bardhan will belatedly realise that power flew out of Communist reach for they failed to fire the Maoist gun.

T R S GAMBLE

By Syed Amin Jafri

Monday was a day of swift and dramatic developments. The final break betwe-en the Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samiti came when, in a unilateral action, five TRS ministers pulled out from the first coalition government led by Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy in Andhra Pradesh. More significantly, the sixth TRS minister S. Santosh Reddy, an ex-Congressman, raised a banner of revolt against the TRS leadership and refused to resign. More dissensions are likely to be witnessed in the TRS with some more legislators queering the pitch for party boss K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Though relations between the two partners were estranged for some time now and a war of words was on between them, the TRS withdrawal from the State Cabinet has come faster than expected. In fact, the hostile attitude of the Chief Minister was evident in abundance when he summarily rejected the concerns of TRS leaders regarding Pulichintala and Polavaram irrigation projects which are meant to benefit coastal Andhra. His administration also goofed up on his promise to tap waters of the Pranahita river for Telangana.

These could be the factors that contributed to the mistrust of TRS leaders. On the issue of separate Telangana, the views of Dr Rajasekhar Reddy were no different from his Telugu Desam predecessor N. Chandrababu Naidu. An integrationist at heart, Dr Reddy harped on the need for constituting a second States Reorganisation Commission to go into the demand for Telangana as a ‘dilatory’ tactic.

Whereas Mr Naidu openly favoured a Samaikhya Andhra Pradesh. The stand of both these leaders from Rayalaseema was resented by the TRS leadership, with Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr A. Narendra lashing out at them frequently. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao insisted that there would be no second SRC since the Congress-led UPA had given an unequivocal commitment to fo-rm a separate Telangana State.

Also, TRS and Congress leaders had developed serious differences on the Naxalite issue. Before the Assembly polls, the Congress had promised to end the “bullet for bullet” policy pursued by the TD vis-à-vis the Naxalites and launch a peace initiative to resolve this longstanding problem. The TRS had promised to work to lift the ban on the People’s War Group. The Congress and TRS entered a poll alliance for the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls on the understanding that they would work for the creation of a separate Telangana. The Naxals supported their alliance in the polls.

The Congress stormed into power in the State and the TRS also gained significance in Telangana winning five Lok Sabha and 26 Assembly seats. The TRS joined the Union Cabinet and the State ministry with two ministers at the Centre and six in the State. This was the time when dissension between the electoral partners arose. Some Congressmen resented the Cabinet berths for the TRS while the party leaders from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema resisted the separate Telangana demand.

In the meantime, the Rajasekhar Reddy regime initiated the peace process with the Naxalites by agreeing to a ceasefire. The government lifted the ban on the PWG in July 2004 and the first round of peace talks were held with PWG and Janashakti leaders in the city in October 2004. The Congress had second thoughts on the peace talks for two reasons. One was the merger of the PWG and the MCCI of Bihar to form the CPI-Maoist. The other was the attempt by the Maoists to expand their base into coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema and augment their strength through huge collections of party funds, acquisition of modern weapons and equipment and recruitment of cadres.

The peace initiative crumbled and combing operations were launched in a big way to counter Naxal violence in January 2005. Thereafter, the Maoists and Jan-ashakti Naxalites began mounting their pressure on TRS and Congress leaders at the local level to prevail upon the government to resume the peace talks. As encounters occurred with monotonous frequency, the Maoists set a deadline for TRS to sever ties with the Congress and pull out of the Congress-led ministries at the Centre and in the State. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao sought to placate the Maoi-sts by urging them to kill him and spare his partymen.

About 500 local level elected functionaries of the TRS quit their posts, bowing to Maoist diktat. As relations soured with the TRS, veteran Congress leader G. Venkatswamy and senior minister M. Satyanarayana Rao mounted a tirade against Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and his men. Incidentally, both of them claimed to have played a role in forging the Congress-TRS alliance for the last year’s polls.

Mr Venkatswamy thought that if Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr Narendra could be eased out of the Union Cabinet, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh could induct senior Congressmen like him in the impending reshuffle. Mr Satyanarayana Rao, on the other hand, has no specific grouse against Mr Chandra-sekhar Rao, except that the latter was as much a loudmouth as him!
A one-time Telangana protagonist, Mr K. Keshava Rao changed his colours soon after his nomination as APCC president. He also began harping on the second SRC and joined issue with Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr Narendra many a time. Other Telangana supporters among the Congress leaders and legislators also became lukewarm towards the TRS and separate Telangana as the loaves of power came their way.

So, this convinced the TRS leadership about the antagonistic attitude of the Congress towards its core demand for Telangana State. The return to lawlessness in Telangana with the resumption of police operations and Naxalite violence came as a cause of worry to the TRS which has been advocating a peaceful settlement on the issue to put a fullstop to the bloodshed in this region.
In this backdrop, the killing of Janashakti leader Riyaz in an ‘encounter’ in Karimnagar district last Friday after he was picked up by police in Hyderabad brought the uneasiness in TRS-Congress ties to a flashpoint. To add insult to injury, Dr Rajasekhar Reddy chided the TRS leaders for “their doublespeak” on the Naxalite issue.

“They tell me one thing but they say something else outside just to save their lives (from the extremists). There is no point talking about them” was his cryptic comment when the TRS ministers voiced their threat to quit the Cabinet if the encounter killings continued.
The alleged neglect of the interests of the backward Telangana region also caused heartburn to TRS leaders. They felt that the Rajasekhar Reddy regime was not sincere in implementing the Girglani Commission report on GO 610, which seeks repatriation of non-local government employees working in Telangana to their respective regions.

They also had apprehensions that Dr Rajasekhar Reddy was keen on completion of irrigation projects in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema while paying lip sympathy for the Telangana region. They had misgivings that Dr Rajasekhar Reddy was seeking the inter-basin transfer of Godavari waters to Krishna river to help coastal belt.

So, water, jobs and peace were the issues that weighed with the TRS in determining the longevity of its ties with the Congress. All these factors cumulatively led to the dramatic pull-out of TRS ministers from the State Cabinet. Curiously, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr Narendra have not yet taken the decision to quit their Union posts and withdraw support to the UPA government. This emboldened Mr Santosh Reddy to defy Mr Chandrasekhar Rao’s diktat to leave the State Cabinet.

In a bid to quell the disquiet in the TRS camp, the Congress leadership in New Delhi has launched a fire-fighting operations to mollify Mr Chandrasekhar Rao. How long Mr Chandrasekhar Rao’s honey-moon with the Congress central leadership will last is anybody’s guess. The immediate impact of the TRS-Congress break-up will be felt in the municipal elections slated in September 2005 though the TRS pull-out from the government will not affect the stability of either the Dr Rajasekhar Reddy government or the Dr Manmohan Singh government.