CONNECTING INDIA WITH ITS DIASPORA

NALANDA: SEAT OF LEARNING

Vol 1 Issue 7 July 2008

P R AVA S I B H A R AT I YA

N
alanda, founded in the 5th century AD, is well-known the world over as an ancient seat of learning. The
ruins of this erstwhile residential university of Nalanda near Patna, in Bihar, are the silent reminders of the
high levels of accomplishment attained in the field of education and learning in India in the past. Nalanda
was one of the best known universities of its time, attracting thousands of students from far off places. Scholars all
over Asia and other countries in the Middle East had learnt about Nalanda and continued to visit Nalanda till its
destruction by Turkish and Afghan invaders in the 12th century.
Though the Buddha visited Nalanda several times during his lifetime, this famous centre of Buddhist learning shot
to fame much later, during 5th-12th centuries. Hieun Tsang stayed here in the 7th century AD and left detailed descrip-
tion of the excellence of its education system and the purity of monastic life practised here. He also gave a vivid account
of both the ambience and architecture of this unique university. In this first residential international university of the
world, 2,000 teachers and 10,000 monks students from all over the Buddhist world lived and studied here.
The Gupta kings patronised these monasteries, built in the old Kushan architectural style, in a row of cells around
a courtyard. Emperors Ashoka and Harshavardhana were some of its most celebrated patrons who built temples,
monasteries and viharas here. Recent excavations have unearthed elaborate structures here. An International Centre
for Buddhist Studies was established here in 1951. Nearby is Biharsharif, where an annual urs is celebrated at the
Dargah (tomb) of Malik Ibrahim Baya. Baragaon, two kilometres away has a sun temple, famous for its Chhath puja.
The place is now one of the biggest tourist destinations in Bihar and attracts tourists, especially Buddhists, from all
over the world.

The POWER
of GARBAGE
Waste is no mean debri — recycle it
and you have life-sustaining value

Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs

www.moia.gov.in, www.overseasindian.in
M I N I S T R Y O F O V E R S E A S I N D I A N A F FA I R S
 CONNECTING INDIA WITH ITS DIASPORA

PRAVASI BHARATIYA SEWA

If you are an Indian living overseas and
looking at investing in India or crediting
money to banks in India, then log on to
Vol 1 Issue 7 July 2008

www.nriconnect.co.in PRAVASI BHARATIYA

An initiative of the
Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs www.overseasindian.in

Printed and Published by
V. K. Bhatia on behalf of
the Ministry of
Overseas Indian Affairs
Akbar Bhavan, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi - 110021
Website: http://moia.gov.in
www.overseasindian.in
Consulting Editor
K.G. Sreenivas
Printed at
Printech Grafix,
F-148 D, GTB Enclave,
New Delhi-110093
Pravasi Bharatiya is a monthly
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journal are those of the contributors
and do not necessarily reflect the views
of the Ministry of Overseas Indian
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Designed and produced by IANS
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f rom the editor’s desk
W
aste is no longer
waste. Ask Colin
Drummond,
who recently led a group of
British experts to India. He
says that his company Viridor
Waste makes a profit of £45
million (US$88 million) on a £350 million annual
turnover, by managing 87 cubic metres of landfill and
generating 75 MW of energy from it besides. “Profit has
grown by over 20 percent each year since 2000 and the
market value (of the firm) has grown from 200 million
pounds to over a billion pounds,” Drummond says.
Such is the power of waste. While most would hold
their noses at the sight of garbage, Drummond and his
colleagues smell money there. What is more, and per-
haps more importantly, proper and scientific waste man-
agement brings hope of rejuvenation to a world belea-
guered by increasing pollution and toxification of land
and water resources, the all-imperilling spectre of glob-
al warming, and rising sea levels. Britain’s waste man-
agement is a revealing example.
Once the segregation (plastic from other forms of
waste, for example) is carried out, garbage sent to a land-
fill shrinks considerably. Britain cut it from around 16
million tonnes in 2001 to less than 12 million tonnes in
2007 and has set itself a target of reducing it to five mil-
lion tonnes by 2020!
Other statistics open up astonishing vistas. In Britain
again, household recycling and composting rate has
grown from 10 percent in 2001 and 26 percent in 2006
and municipal authorities plan to increase it to 50 per-
cent by 2020, Drummond says. Again, segregated wastes
generate energy both through conventional methods
and by new ones such as pyrolysis and gassification.
Drummond says that power generation from landfill
gas has increased six-fold in Britain to 4,424 Gigawatt
Hours — representing nearly 24 percent of the total UK
renewable energy! Besides, there is considerable reduc-
tion in methane emissions into the atmosphere.
This issue of Pravasi showcases the power of waste.
Alongside Drummond’s is a fascinating story of how
Singapore has raised an island out of rubbish — rooted
in a landfill out in the sea! It is an island where birds nest
and people play… Amazingly, there’s no sight or smell
at Semakau landfill that was once the last depository of
Singapore’s garbage. The place is now a new holiday
spot and today, you can navigate the tides and take in
the mangrove roots, seagrass, coral reefs, crabs, starfish-
es, sponges, shrimps and many other forms of life that
thrive on the island.
Far from home, in distant Haiti, India is one among
three countries helping poor communities in a slum on
the rim of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, manage
garbage through an innovative community-based waste
management project funded by India, Brazil and South
Africa along with the United Nations Development
Programme. The slum dwellers are converting trash to
cash…
There is significant relief for overseas Indian work-
ers in the UAE where the government’s Higher
Corporation for Specialised Economic Zones plans to
build family-styled labour complexes to provide prop-
er residential units for those with limited incomes.
About 40 percent of the labour complexes will be allo-
cated for families. Planned housing complexes will go a
long way in providing a sense of security and comfort
for expatriate Indian workers in the UAE.
On the economic front, inflation has been of key con-
cern. As Pravasi goes to press, the Reserve Bank of India
plans to hold a crucial meeting to discuss further mone-
tary steps to help rein in inflation. Meanwhile, on July
16, oil prices settled sharply lower for a second straight
day — a spectacular drop that left crude more than $10
cheaper in just two days of frenzied trading. Analysts are,
however, unsure if the plunge could usher in a long-term
shift in sentiment or if it was simply a short-term cor-
rection to crude’s bull rally. Nevertheless, it is likely to
determine India’s measures to check inflation and prices.
Kerala is forging ahead in the IT sector and has scored
a first by introducing the Private Public Partnership
model in its own Silicon Valley. “Our idea is to devel-
op IT parks in all districts in the state. The two major
IT parks, Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram, and
Infopark in Kochi, will be the hubs while the proposed
district IT parks will be the spokes,” says N.
Radhakrishnan Nair, director of Kerala State IT
Infrastructure Ltd and chief executive of
Thiruvananthapuram Technopark. Incidentally,
Tiruvananthapuram Technopark is rated the best in the
country. Kerala with its educational infrastructure and
high human development index is sure to attract top tal-
ent in its IT domain, challenging traditional rivals
Bangalore and Hyderabad.
There is fragrant news from the world of diaspora.
Apparently, more and more Australians are getting smit-
ten by the Indian rose! Australia’s The Lynch Group is
signing an MoU with India’s Tanflora to import fresh-
cut flowers. Come Valentine’s Day, Tanflora plans to
export over 10 million roses around the world, includ-
ing Australia.
This issue of Pravasi features Dr. Renu Khator, a
woman who has scripted an unusual journey, one from
moffusil Kanpur to the hallowed environs of Houston
University. Dr. Khator is President and Chancellor of
the university and shares with our readers a life most
dream of emulating.
Happy reading...
>
c.o.n.t.e.n.t.s SHOOTING STAR AIMS HIGHER P 42
Gagan Narang has won a gold for India and set a world record in
the air rifle men’s contest held at Hannover in Germany. Narang’s
score of 704.3 was 1.2 more than the existing world record of
703.1 set by Austrian shooter Thomas Farnik in the World Cup
finals held at Grenada in 2006.

WHAT RUBBISH... OR IS IT? P 12 NRI OF THE MONTH P 36

Rubbish is not rubbish always. In an energy thirsty world, there is a silver lining in Dr. Renu Khator is one of
the heaps of garbage piling up on city outskirts. For, garbage is a major source of the first Indian Americans
renewable source of energy and income... British entrepreneur Colin Drummond to become a provost at a
shows us how. comprehensive research
university in the U.S. She
is now the president and
chancellor of the
University of Houston.
KERALA BETS ON Khator has a doctorate in
PUBLIC-PRIVATE political science from
PARTNERSHIP Purdue University and a
bachelor’s from Kanpur
IN IT P 20 University, India.
God’s Own Country is flexing its
muscles to be a software super
power. A tourist hotspot, it has
all the potential to emerge as the HOUSING IN UAE FOR EXPATS . . . . . . . 8
next best ‘Silicon Valley’ of India.
MANDU P 40 60 BN PETRO COMPLEX IN TN . . . . . 23
Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi
are emerging as major IT hubs of
Mandu was sheer poetry carved in stone, a SALMAN RUSHDIE KNIGHTED . . . . . . 30
monument to life itself... Surrounded by
GENTLE NOOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
>

the state while the proposed new lakes, baobabs and monuments, it is a mar-
district IT parks will be its spokes. vellous throwback to a magnificent past. BOOK REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
N ews
MOIA calls for MoUs on emigration
T
he Ministry of Overseas
Indian Affairs (MOIA) has
asked the state governments
to sign a memorandum of under-
standing (MoU) to facilitate legal emi-
gration and take stringent action
against unscrupulous recruitment
agents. This message was put through
at the Ministry’s two-day consultation
meeting which was attended by offi-
cials from 14 states. According to the
Ministry, the Punjab government has
already signed the first such MoU
with the ministry.
One of the most important steps
would be to set up a nodal cell in the
state capitals to deal with the issues of
overseas Indians. “One of the main
problems was that the states do not
have any dedicated person or depart-
Indian, UAE police fight human trafficking
A nodal police officer in Kerala has
been working in coordination
with police in the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) to check human traf-
ficking and illegal migration.
“A nodal police officer appointed
by the Indian government and based
in Kerala is working in coordination
with police in the UAE to check
human trafficking and illegal migra-
tion,” India’s Consul-General in
Dubai Venu Rajamony said at a con-
ference on labour management in the
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
countries on June 18.
“Through this system, we can ask
police in the UAE to conduct raids to
bust human trafficking and illegal
migration rackets,” he said. Speaking
to reporters on the sidelines of the
conference later, Rajamony said the
nodal officer in India was appointed
around a year ago following a visit of
Kerala’s Home Minister to UAE.
“We took up the issue from there
and the officer was appointed. The
reason he has been based in Kerala is
8 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
ment dealing with Indian nationals
abroad. So, we had to carefully choose
the right officials to come here —
most of them are from the labour
departments,” a senior MOIA official
said Thursday.
An MOIA press release said that a
“nodal department or a nodal cell
would be constituted by the states to
bestow mainstream attention to
these issues”.
Punjab and Kerala are the excep-
tions who have already established a
separate department for NRI affairs.
Besides, the states will also create a
database of overseas Indians from their
territory. One of the important points
of an MoU would be an undertaking
from the statss to monitor prosecu-
tion of offenders under the
because most of the migration from
India to the UAE takes place from
Kerala.” Asked if similar officers
would also be appointed in other
major labour exporting states in India,
he said: “Not nodal police officers.
The Ministry of External Affairs’ rep-
resentatives in Hyderabad (in Andhra
Pradesh) and Chennai (in Tamil
Nadu) are working in coordination
with the officer in Kerala.”
Earlier, during the course of a pre-
sentation on ‘India-UAE Labour
Relations: Striving for a Partnership
and Win-Win Situations’ at the con-
ference, the Consul-General said that
India was taking a very pro-active
approach to make migration an order-
ly process.
To this end the Ministry of
Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) was
taking several steps to promote legal
migration and prevent illegal migra-
tion. “Stringent penalties are imposed
on those indulging in human smug-
gling. In 2007 alone, the licences of six
RAs (recruiting agents) were cancelled
Emigration Act. Overseas Indian
Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said at
the meeting, that there had not been
a single conviction under the
Emigration Act so far, despite the
Ministry forwarding its sanction for
prosecution to the states. Besides, the
states will set up an Overseas Workers
Resource Centre and undertake
awareness campaigns.
It was also decided during the
course of the consultations that the
Ministry and the state governments
would work to develop a platform
to help overseas Indians trace their
roots. They would also consider the
possibility of setting up fast-track
courts for speedy disposal of cases of
Indian women duped or abandoned
by their NRI husbands. —IANS
and efforts are on to make the RA sys-
tem professional and acceptable to all
stakeholders.”
Rajamony said that MOIA had tak-
en several steps to prevent abuse of
Indian domestic maids.
“The minimum wage of Indian
domestic maids in the UAE has been
fixed at $300 a month and the mini-
mum age for domestic maids seeking
employment abroad has been fixed at
30,” Rajamony said.
“Also, employers of such maids
here have to make a security deposit
of $2,500 and provide a SIM card to
the maid. Our missions here run a
24x7 helpline to help domestic maids
in distress.”
The Indian government had start-
ed a compulsory insurance scheme for
all workers going abroad, he said.
India is also implementing the e-
governance process in its migration
system and efforts are on to link the
databases of India and the UAE, the
Consul-General said.
— Aroonim Bhuyan/IANS
Expatriate Indian population MOIA: Emigrants’ skills
upgrade scheme soon
in Bahrain now 290,000 T he Ministry of Overseas
T
he number of expatriate
Indians working and living in
Bahrain has risen to a record
290,000, according to Indian
Ambassador Balkrishna Shetty.
During the course of an embassy open
house for Indian expatriates, Shetty
said around 5,000 Indians have been
arriving in Bahrain every month. “A
few years ago we had around 140,000
people. The increase has been sub-
stantial and is a reflection of the faith,
capacity and discipline of Indian work-
ers.” During the course of an amnesty
Panel on Malaysian Indians’ welfare
M alaysian Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has
formed a new governmental panel to
look into the welfare of Indians that
would study greater training for youth
and micro-credit for ethnic Indians.
The cabinet committee is chaired
by Deputy Prime Minister Najib
Razak and Malaysian Indian Congress
(MIC) president S. Samy Vellu. One
of the issues before the committee
would be to study the fall of Indian
equity ownership from 1.5 percent to
1.1 percent, raising the question
whether the Indian community has
the capacity to absorb more funds.
The other issues to be discussed are
the standard of living of the ethnic
Indian community, estimated at 2.6
million, that is 8 percent of Malaysia’s
offered by the Bahraini
government to illegal for-
eign workers to either reg-
ularise their papers or leave
the country, 8,000 Indians
left the country while
22,000 others regularised
their visas, the ambassador
said. The amnesty had
ended this January 31.
With new labour laws
having come into effect in
Bahrain in July, a total of
52,444 Indians have registered with
the country’s Labour Market
Regulatory Authority (LMRA). They
registered their names in the course
of a labour registration festival organ-
ised in June by LMRA, which will
now be the sole authority on all
labour-related issues in Bahrain.
“The number of expatriates on our
records is nearly 500,000,” reports
quoted LMRA chief executive Ali
Radhi as saying. “These include about
77,000 housemaids, who have not yet
registered.” —IANS
28 million, and ways to improve their
lifestyles, The Star newspaper said.
Badawi said that the formation of the
committee was part of the Mid-Term
Review (MTR) of the Ninth Malaysia
Plan. Denison Jayasooria, a former
executive director of MIC’s Social
Strategic Foundation, noted that the
incidence of poverty had dropped
from 5.7 to 3.6 percent nationally.
The review has made headway in
addressing issues of Indian youth
through skills and entrepreneurship
training. It also breaks new ground in
providing training to over 6,000 youth
and a micro-credit of RM3 million
($900,000). Jayasooria, however, not-
ed that the review continued to reaf-
firm raising the share of Indian equi-
ty ownership to 1.5 percent by 2010.
pravasi bharatiya | july
Indian Affairs (MOIA) will
launch a skills upgrade programme
for potential emigrants. This coun-
try-wide scheme would be
launched in the construction, engi-
neering, manufacturing, nursing
and IT sectors.
The scheme is being imple-
mented with help from the
Ministry of Micro, Small and
Medium Enterprises, state govern-
ments, industry associations and
NGOs. It is part of recent initiatives
that include the Overseas Workers
Resource Centre (OWRC), with a
toll-free helpline to provide infor-
mation to Indian workers planning
to go abroad.
The Ministry is establishing the
Council for Promotion of Overseas
Employment which will serve as a
“strategic think-tank”. A welfare
fund for emigrants to provide
financial support will be established
during this financial year.—IANS
NRIs from Kerala to get
identity cards
A host of programmes are being
worked out for non-resident
Indians (NRIs) from Kerala,
including a welfare scheme. They
would also be issued identity cards,
Chief Minister V.S.
Achuthanandan has said. These
measures would be implemented
by Roots Norka, a state-run organ-
isation that looks after the welfare
of non-resident Keralites (NRKs).
Around two million Malayalis
are settled abroad, with close to 90
percent working in the Gulf.
Manjalamkulam Ali, a legislator and
director of Roots Norka, said that
the “card will also act as an insur-
ance card, where in the case of acci-
dent or death of an NRK, the ben-
eficiary will get Rs.100,000. This
card can also be used as a discount
card at select shops in the state.”
2008 9
N ews
PIO leads breakthrough in AIDS research
A I
group of University of Texas
researchers led by Indian
American Sudhir Paul have
pinpointed the Achilles heel in the
protective mechanism of HIV, the
virus that claims millions of lives
worldwide when it develops into
AIDS. The finding may give hope to
millions of HIV positive people.
The weak spot is hidden in the HIV
envelope protein gp120. This protein
is essential for HIV attachment to host
cells, which initiate infection and
eventually lead to AIDS.
The Achilles heel, a tiny stretch of
amino acids numbered 421-433 on
gp120, is now under study as a target
for therapeutic intervention.
Paul, who led the research and co-
authored the paper said: “Unlike the
changeable regions of its envelope,
HIV needs at least one region that
must remain constant to attach to
cells.” If this region changes, HIV can-
not infect cells, he said, adding:
“Equally important, HIV does not
want this constant region to provoke
the body’s defence system.”
Hollywood tieups to boost Bollywood: WSJ
A recent string of joint ventures and
investments cementing ties
between Bollywood and Hollywood
might turn Indian entertainment
shares of Adlabs Films and UTV
Software Communications into
blockbusters, the Wall Street Journal
has said. Although Viacom has start-
ed a joint venture in India to do tele-
vision and films and Sony Pictures
Entertainment released its first Hindi
10 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
So, HIV uses the same constant cel-
lular attachment site to silence B lym-
phocytes — the antibody producing
cells. The result is that the body is
fooled into making abundant antibod-
ies to the changeable regions of HIV
but not to its cellular attachment site.
“Immunologists call such regions
super-antigens. HIV’s cleverness is
unmatched. No other virus uses this
trick to evade the body’s defences,” said
Paul, an alumni of New Delhi’s All
India Institute of Medical Sciences. For
the same reason, no HIV preventive
vaccine that stimulates production of
protective antibodies is available.
First reported in the early 1980s,
HIV has spread across developing
countries, infecting some 33 million
people by 2007 according to a WHO
report. Paul’s group has engineered
antibodies with enzymatic activity,
also known as abzymes, which can
attack the Achilles heel of the virus in
a precise way.
“The abzymes recognise essentially
all of the diverse HIV forms found
across the world. This solves the prob-
film ‘Saawariya’ this year, the biggest
joint projects are coming from Indian
emerging media powers UTV and the
Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani
(ADA) Group, which aim to become
global media giants. Reliance ADA’s
deal to invest over $500 million to
help build a company with Steven
Spielberg would help Adlabs, its main
listed media unit, the Journal said.
UTV, which is building a media
empire encompassing movies, televi-
sion and the Internet with 32 percent
ownership by Walt Disney Co, is
already producing films in
Hollywood. It coproduced the recent
M. Night Shyamalan’s fairly success-
ful horror flick ‘The Happening’.’
These Indian groups stand to prof-
it more than investors in Hollywood
lem of HIV changeability. The next
step is to confirm our theory in human
clinical trials,” Paul said. A single
abzyme molecule deactivates thou-
sands of virus particles, permanently,
unlike regular antibodies that act only
against a single virus particle, and their
anti-viral HIV effect is weaker.
“The work of Paul’s group is high-
ly innovative. They have identified
antibodies that, instead of passively
binding to the target molecule, are able
to fragment it and destroy its func-
tion,” said Steven J. Norris of the
University of Texas Medical School.
“Their recent work indicates that
naturally occurring catalytic antibod-
ies, particularly those of the IgA sub-
type, may be useful in the treatment
and prevention of HIV infection.”
The abzymes are derived from HIV
negative people with the autoimmune
disease lupus and a small number of
HIV positive people who do not
require treatment and do not get
AIDS. These findings have appeared
in the latest issue of the journal
Autoimmunity Reviews. —IANS
because they can use the US connec-
tions to make more money in India’s
booming media market, WSJ said.
With Indian incomes climbing,
receipts from the domestic movie
industry are rising at 15 percent a year
compared with the US, where the
growth rate is under 5 percent.
The growth inthe Indian market is
marshalled by smarter distribution.
Bollywood producers use DVDs,
cable television, the Internet and even
mobile phones to reach moviegoers to
generate more money out of each
film.
India makes 1,000-odd movies a
year and earns a revenue of $3 billion
while Hollywood makes just 600-odd
movies, earning revenue in excess of
$80 billion.
UAE plans housing for labourers with families
n a move that will benefit thou-
sands of expatriate labourers, the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) is
going to build labour accommodation
complexes to let workers keep their
families too.
The Higher Corporation for
Specialised Economic Zones
(HCSEZ) has announced plans to
build family-styled labour complexes
to provide proper residential units for
those with limited incomes, the state-
run Emirates News Agency.
The HCSEZ has taken regulatory
measures to ensure good environment
for residents at the current labour
accommodations.
The report quoted Khadem
Ravi Seethapathy
Receives Shastri
Institute’s Honour
D r. Gary vanLoon,
President of the
Shastri Indo-Canadian
Institute conferred the
Institute’s Honour
Roll distinction to Mr.
Ravi Seethapathy in
Ottawa on June 12,
2008.
Ravi Seethapathy, an
IIT Kharagpur (India) graduate, has
been involved in developing educa-
tional structure of the country. He is
now the Chair of the Institute’s
Canadian Advisory Council since
2004.
The Shastri Honour Roll distinc-
tion is awarded to individuals who
have made an important contribution
to the advancement of the institute’s
goals of building knowledge and
understanding between Canada and
India through academic partnerships.
Since its founding in 1968, the
Shastri Institute has awarded this dis-
tinction to select individuals
renowned for their knowledge, ded-
ication and service.
Sawayeh Al Muhairi, executive direc-
tor for labour services at HCSEZ, as
saying that the corporation would
construct world-class complexes at
competitive prices for the limited
income categories.
Forty percent of the labour com-
plexes will be allocated for families, he
said, indicating that the corporation at
this moment is seeking to build such
complexes for workers in the indus-
trial sector.
Indian workers comprise 42.5 per-
cent of the total labour force in the
UAE and 65 percent of them are in
the blue-collar category.
The expatriate Indian population in
this Gulf nation stands at 1.5 million.
India to connect with African
hospitals, universities
D isplaying its prowess in the field
of information technology,
India will be setting up an e-net-
working infrastructure in 53 African
nations to share its expertise in the
field of medicine and education.
The government of India initiative
will connect 12 hospitals in the coun-
try with five African hospitals to assist
in remote diagnosis and staff training.
Seven Indian universities will also be
networked with five African univer-
sities for providing tele-education as
part of a $53 billion project. HCL
Infosystems Ltd will be the technical
Obama thanks South Asians for support
D emocratic presidential hopeful
Barack Obama has thanked
South Asians for supporting his cam-
paign and stressed that they played a
big role in enabling the US to “over-
come the politics of division and dis-
traction”. In a letter to South Asians
for Obama (SAFO), a voluntary
organisation, he wrote: “I truly can’t
thank you enough for doing your
pravasi bharatiya | july
New insurance product
LIC (International), the global sub-
sidiary of India’s Life Insurance
Corporation, has launched a new
insurance product targeted at expatri-
ate Indians. Called Fortune Builder,
it is a new units-linked insurance plan
(ULIP) launched to mark LIC’s 20th
year of operations in the Gulf.
“The new product will cater to the
investment as well as insurance needs
of the customers,” said Sudhin Roy
Chowdhury, LIC (International)’s
CEO. “It also provides an option to
take back your money systematically
over a period of five years on maturi-
ty of the policy. The premium paying
terms are also highly flexible.”—IANS
partner in this project setting up.
“There is a huge potential for
increasing the pace of development in
Africa by usage of IT by institutions
of learning,” said Ajai Chowdhry,
chairman and chief executive officer
of HCL.
part and for helping us get this far.”
The organisation is led by national
coordinator Hrishi Karthikeyan,
Dave Kumar, Anhoni Patel and
Nicholas Rathod. “Together, we are
sending the message that ordinary
people can still do extraordinary
things. We are doing something
extraordinary, and you are an impor-
tant part of that,” Obama said.
2008 11
C over Story
What rubbish, it’s money
down the drain!
By Joydeep Gupta

R
ubbish is not rubbish,
it’s just money being
thrown away, says Colin
Drummond, an entrepreneur
from Britain who made his mil-
lions managing waste and gener-
ating electricity out of it.
Drummond, who recently led
a group of British experts in this
field to India, said there that his
company Viridor Waste is now
making a profit of 45 million
pounds ($88 million) on a 350-
million pound annual turnover,
by managing 87 cubic metres of
landfill and generating 75 MW of

The Tama Berin Landfill, England.

12 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 13

 C over Story
energy from it, among other projects.
“Profit has grown by over 20 percent
each year since 2000 and the market val-
ue (of the firm) has grown from 200 mil-
lion pounds to over a billion pounds,”
Drummond told a group of would-be
entrepreneurs from around India.
If you ask the average Indian what
the country’s biggest environmental
problem is, he/she is likely to point to
a garbage dump. The edge of every
human settlement in India is strewn
with solid waste. While others hold
their noses, Drummond and his col-
leagues can smell money there.
“Of course there are some pre-req-
uisites,” Drummond told Indo-Asian
News Service. “The waste has to be seg-
regated. The landfill has to be lined.”
Once the segregation is done, the
amount of garbage sent to a landfill
decreases automatically. Britain
reduced it from around 16 million
tonnes in 2001 to less than 12 million
tonnes in 2007 and aims to reduce it
to five million tonnes by 2020.
At the same time, household recy-
cling and composting rate in Britain
has grown from 10 percent in 2001
and 26 percent in 2006 and the plan is
to increase it to 50 percent by 2020,
Drummond said. Once the landfill
Garbage dump is India’s
biggest environmental
problem. The edge of
every human settlement
in India is strewn with
solid waste. While
others hold their noses,
Drummond and his
colleagues can
smell money there.
gets segregated waste, it can generate
energy both by conventional methods
and by new ones such as pyrolysis and
gassification, he added.
Power generation from landfill gas
has increased six-fold in Britain to
4,424 Gigawatt Hours, said
Drummond. “It represents 24 percent
of total UK renewables, with energy
from waste combustion a further six
percent and anaerobic digestion of
sewage sludge another three percent.
And there is a corresponding reduc-
tion in methane emissions to the
atmosphere.”
Methane is a greenhouse gas 21
times as potent as carbon dioxide.
Methane’s contribution to climate
Garbage island rises from the sea
change is still relatively unstudied.
Other entrepreneurs in the British
delegation were as enthusiastic about
business in India as Drummond was.
Helen Fairfield would like to reit-
erate the benefits of compost with a
little innovation. The firm she works
for has developed a compact com-
posting unit that can handle all the
fruit and vegetable waste from
Manchester’s wholesale market on the
spot, something that would be very
handy in the major markets spread
around India, she pointed out.
Shantanu Banerjee, who works in
Britain-based firm Enviros, has
designed landfills that can provide
energy and clean water in Britain,
Hong Kong, Malaysia and South
Africa. He would now like to do the
same in the land of his birth and says
he now knows the special problems of
designing landfills in the tropics.
“Every sizeable landfill site in the
UK generates power. There is no rea-
son why a similar success story can-
not happen in India,” Banerjee said.
(Joydeep Gupta can be contacted at
joydeep.g@ians.in)

An ariel view of the Semakau Landfill, Singapore.

O nce there was a dirty bit of sea next to the world’s

busiest port here. Today it is an island where birds
nest and people play, though the entire island is made of
rubbish.
Image of An Indian Landfill. You wouldn’t know unless you were told. There’s no
sight or smell at Semakau landfill to indicate it is the last
depository of Singapore’s garbage. The corals and all the
animals of the beach have been fooled too — they think it’s
a natural island, and they have grown in droves around it.
Singapore has been incinerating its waste for decades. A
place had to be found to dump the ash that’s left behind.
Since the city state has hardly any space left, the planners
looked at the sea.
They put a seven-kilometre perimeter wall around 350
hectares, divided up the area inside into small portions,
and started filling it up with ash in April 1999.
Today, four of the portions are full, but the rate at which
the ash is being generated is going down, much to delight
of the municipal authorities. Singaporeans are getting more
aware of the need to recycle what they used to throw away
earlier. At the current rate, the landfill will be operational
till 2045, the planners estimate.
The place is so clean it has turned into a new holiday
spot. School and college students come in droves for inter-
tidal walks where they gawk at mangrove roots, seagrass,
coral reefs, crabs, starfishes, sponges, shrimps and many
other forms of life that thrive in the belt between high and
low tide marks.
Birdwatchers come to glimpse at some of the 66 species
recorded at Semakau, sport-fishermen love its artificial
lagoon and even amateur astronomers prefer it because
they can get away from the glare of the city lights. The last
thing on their minds is that they are standing on an island
made of rubbish... —IANS

14 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 15

C over Story
Gislene La Salle (foreground) and others working at the waste
management plant in the Carrefour-Feuilles district of
Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Photo by Patralekha Chatterjee

India helps
Haiti slum
dwellers turn
trash to cash
H
aiti hits the headlines
with its coups, rebellions,
by Patralekha Chatterjee crushing poverty and
food riots. But now there’s a ray of
hope in one of the toughest slums
of its capital here thanks to a tri-
country initiative that includes India.
Nowhere is gnawing hunger, the
daily struggle through power cuts,
street violence and constant politi-
cal upheavals more apparent than in
the shanties of this fragile Caribbean
island state of almost nine million
people.
However, there are stirrings of
change. India is one among three
countries helping poor communi-
ties in a sprawling slum on the edge
of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian cap-
ital, break through the cycle of
poverty, violence and despair.
“I know we have a bad image. But
the violence is going down in my
neighbourhood,” said Gislène La
Salle, a widow and a mother of six
from Carrefour-Feuilles, the site of
an innovative community-based
waste management project funded
by India, Brazil and South Africa
(the IBSA alliance) along with the
United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP).
IBSA has already committed

16 pravasi bharatiya | July 2008 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 17

 C over Story
C $1.17 million to the project. “India’s
objectives in promoting South-South
cooperation is one of the key factors
behind the project, currently imple-
mented in partnership with UNDP,”
India’s honorary consul in Haiti Eddy
Handal told a visiting Indo-Asian News
Service correspondent.
When the project began in 2005,
Carrefour-Feuilles was synonymous
with guns and gangsters. Today, res-
idents like Gislène who have found
work in the recycling project exude a
hope rare in the impoverished nation.
Gislène was one among the tens of
thousands of street vendors who
make up the informal economy in the
western hemisphere’s poorest coun-
try. “But when the security situation
deteriorated sharply, I could not work
in the streets. Luckily, six months ago,
I found work in this project. Now,
life is more stable. I have a regular
income,” she said.
“The money I earn allows me to
feed my family better and send three
of my six children to school,” Gislène
told Indo-Asian News Service in a mix-
ture of Creole and French.
Georginette is also a widow. Like
Gislène, this mother of seven is
thrilled to find a regular job. “Earlier,
only three of my seven children went
to school. Many children from the
neighbourhood roamed the streets.
But since November 2007 when I
began working here, I can afford to
send five...”
Proud in their cobalt blue uniform,
the two are among the 385 men and
women currently working for the
IBSA-funded waste management
plant.
“Twenty-five persons who work at
the ‘triage centre’ sorting out the
garbage so that it can be recycled or
composted receive $6 per day for an
eight-hour shift,” said Eliana Nicolini,
the UNDP project coordinator.
“The 360 others who work four
hours every day, collecting trash from
the streets, get half that amount. Half
of the workers are women in a neigh-
bourhood where most households are
headed by a single parent. Impressed
18 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
by the positive results so far, the
Haitian government would like to
replicate this model in other regions
of the country,” Nicolini added.
The idea of turning trash into cash
came from watching garbage pile up
along Haiti’s ill-maintained roads.
The waste not only clogged the
capital’s drainage system and canals,
it also posed a security hazard as
armed gangs used the mounds of
trash as barricades, local media reports
suggest.
It was against this backdrop that the
IBSA/UNDP project was conceptu-
alised in 2005.
“Every morning, a group of work-
ers go out and collect waste from
house to house,” said Patrick
Massenat, a local youth heading a
committee created to implement
activities contributing to waste man-
agement and to ensure effective
involvement of governmental insti-
tutions.
“The trash is brougzzzztic, metals
and all that. Then, part of the waste is
made into fuel briquettes. The pro-
ject aims to reduce violence in the
community, clean up the area and to
provide more possibilities to people
so that they can buy something to eat.
That is why the local population is so
happy with the project. It is not easy
to choose who to hire in a place
where so many are desperately in
need of work.
“Many people beg us for work but
we don’t have vacancies at the
moment. If we can hire even 100
more persons, it would solve a lot of
problems,” Massenat said.
But three years and a UN award
down the line, there are concerns
about the continuation of the project.
The first phase is over. “We are
waiting for the results of a feasibility
study before taking a final decision on
the second phase,” Malay Mishra,
Joint Secretary in the Ministry of
External Affairs in New Delhi, told
Indo-Asian News Service.
The results of the feasibility study
are expected in July. The second phase
focuses on marketing the recycled
products.
Paper waste is already being recycled
into fuel briquettes to be sold in local
markets. Money from the sale of these
briquettes will be reinvested into the
project.
“IBSA is committed to the con-
struction of a composting centre, for
which it has already allocated
resources. The procurement process
is under way and completion of work
is now planned for the end of the
year,” said Francisco Simplicio from
UNDP’s Special Unit for South-
South Cooperation.
Workers at the site hope donors
will continue to support the project
that has changed the face of the
Carrefour-Feuilles slum.
Can employment to 385 people
really end vziolence in one of the
most notorious slum areas of Port-
au- Prince?
“Most people in this area never
knew real work. Now, they have
experienced it. They also have fami-
lies. The area is cleaner; the women
who lost their husbands in gang wars
and police firing are happier. It’s a
beginning,” said Massenat. —IANS
Everest turning into world’s highest cesspool
Expedition introduces bio-degradable toilets on Mount Everest
A
deadly peril lurks on Mount
Everest, the highest summit
in the world, which is far
more dangerous than the freezing
cold, gale winds and recently posted
security forces who are empowered to
shoot at the sight of political activities.
The new hazard comes from human
waste scattered along the mountain
slopes, which could run into hundreds
of tonnes.
“Toilet paper and human excreta lit-
ter the Everest base camp (at an alti-
tude of 6,400 metres), the slopes, and
even the summit (8,848 metres) itself,”
says Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of the
Nepal Mountaineering Association,
which is entrusted with promoting
mountaineering in this country.
“In summer, when the snow melts,
the frozen human waste comes into
sight and starts raising a stink. The
grave health and environmental haz-
ard the untreated excreta pose is a mat-
ter of great concern,” Sherpa added.
While conscious mountaineers have
been trying to clear the garbage left on the
mountains, nothing has been done so far
to treat the human waste lying there.
In the past, expeditions have col-
lected used oxygen cans, tents, food
tins and other litter and brought much
of it down but the human waste
remains.
“As it remains frozen during the Mountain Cans” with them, a portable that made them,” Sherpa said.
expeditions, it is very difficult to toilet manufactured by an American Sherpa, who runs Asian Trekking,
remove it and bring it down,” Sherpa company. The bins were lined with one of the leading trekking agencies
told Indo-Asian News Service. bio-degradable bags that decompose in Nepal, said his company would
In a bid to prevent the world’s tallest the human waste deposited in them. henceforth use the cans and urge oth-
mountain from turning into the high- The expedition was armed with 200 er agencies to employ them too.
est cesspool, an expedition is now such bags. The attempt was to remove The expedition that also highlight-
introducing, for the first time in the the frozen waste on the summit, put ed the dangers of climate change in
history of the Everest, bio-degradable it in the bags and bring it down to the the Himalayan slopes, is tying to put
toilets. base camp. into action a banner in Kathmandu
Sherpa’s son Dawa Steven Sherpa The cans, which can be bought for that urges citizens to use garbage
recently led a 24-member Eco Everest $75 a piece in the US, cost a thumping wisely and turn it into money.
2008 expedition to the summit in $150 when brought to Nepal, one of It is offering each climber who
memory of the peak’s greatest bene- the poorest countries in the world. brings down human or other waste
factor, Edmund Hillary, to try and “The cans were gifted by the down from the peak to the base camp
clean the garbage. American Alpine Club, while some of $1 for each kg of junk.
The team carried three “Clean the bags were donated by the factories —IANS
pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 19
E conomy
K
erala would rather emulate
Tamil Nadu than Karnataka
— considered the cradle of
Kerala bets on
India’s information technology (IT)
industry with its own Silicon Valley
in Bangalore — to attract IT infras-
tructure investments.
public-private
“We do not want to repeat
Karnataka’s mistake of promoting just
one city, Bangalore, as the destination
for IT investments. We would rather
partnership in IT follow Tamil Nadu’s model,” N.
Radhakrishnan Nair, director of
Kerala State IT Infrastructure Ltd
(KSITIL), told Indo-Asian News Service.
Tamil Nadu, leveraging the spread
India’s IT sector has set new global of industrialisation across the state, is
promoting Tier-II cities like
benchmarks. And Kerala adds another feather Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiruchira-
in its cap by introducing the Private Public palli as IT park and special economic
zone(SEZ) destinations.
Partnership model in its own Silicon Valley. It is this recipe that Kerala has
decided to follow, said Nair, who is
Venkatachari Jagannathan looks at the also chief executive of Technopark,
emerging IT boom in Kerala. the IT hub in Thiruvananthapuram.
An aeriel view of
Technopark
Thiruvananthapuram
20 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
“Our idea is to develop IT parks in
all districts in the state. The two major
IT parks, Technopark in
Thiruvananthapuram, and Infopark
in Kochi, will be the hubs while the
proposed district IT parks will be the
spokes,” Nair said.
The Kerala government has
acquired land in Kozhikode for a pro-
posed 75-acre IT park, called
Cyberpark. Land is also being
acquired in other districts for setting
IT parks and SEZs.
Similarly, Nair said 100 acres of
land has been acquired for the pro-
posed 500-acre integrated IT town-
ship project, Technocity, on the
Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi highway.
Another 200 acres would be
acquired by the month-end and the
entire land acquisition is expected to
be completed by the year-end, he said.
Unlike Tamil Nadu where several
private promoters have built IT parks,
Kerala’s focus is on public-private
partnerships with KSITIL as the pri-
mary vehicle.
KSITIL is a proposed joint venture
with the Kerala government holding
a 51 percent share and the balance to
be held by private equity investors and
non-resident Indians.
Nair said the process to select a con-
sultant to advice on attracting private
investors is on.
“Once the partner and funds are in
place, separate special purpose vehicles
(SPV) will be formed for each project,
in which KSITIL will hold 26 percent
and private promoters the balance.” This
will be done to help develop the ambi-
tious Technocity project as well.
According to plans, the project land
will be parcelled into six lots and allot-
ted to different private developers.
An SPV will be formed with each
developer, with KSITIL holding 26
percent share and the developer own-
ing 74 percent.
“We have got 10 Requests for
pravasi bharatiya | july
Qualification (RFQ) proposals from
real estate developers, which will now
be scrutinised,” said Nair.
While that is for the future,
Technopark, the single largest IT park
in the country spread out on 260 acres
and generating an annual revenue of
about Rs.400 million ($9.25 million),
will also be expanded.
“In the first phase, we developed
Technopark and rented out the
premises. In the second phase, land
was allotted to companies such as
Infosys Technologies and TCS
which in turn built the infrastructure.
Now, in the third phase, we will
acquire land and develop the infras-
tructure jointly with private players,”
Nair said.
The third phase of expansion will
be on 100 acres, and land acquisition
is about to be completed. According
to Nair, the state has targeted creating
200,000 jobs in IT by 2012, compared
to the 40,000 currently. —IANS
2008 21
E conomy
Medium and
prices of edible oil, food
Tamil Nadu to build Rs.60 billion
More monetary
products, fruit and vegetables
long-term plans
petrochemical mega-complex
and even iron and steel
fuelled the inflation to 11.63
to increase
steps likely
percent and if their supplies
are not maintained, inflation
agricultural will exceed even 12 percent.”
production while
moderating the
as inflation “Rising crude oil prices
and higher food prices inter-
nationally will also further
prices of steel
and cement are
climbs escalate inflation as these are
not showing reversal trends,”
Jindal said, adding that fiscal
also required to steps from the government
to contain inflation may bear
curb inflation fruit in the coming weeks.
The index for primary

I
ndia’s annual rate of infla- food articles comprising tea,
tion for the week-ended fruits and vegetables rose 0.6
June 21 maintained an percent while that of non-
upward trend, rising to 11.63 food articles like raw cotton

percent compared to 11.42 rose 0.4 percent in the week
percent for the week before. under review.
The wholesale price index Some of the items regis-
(WPI) for all commodities tering high price rise for the
released on July 4 by the week-ending June 21 were
Ministry of Commerce and unrefined oil (8 percent),
Industry showed an increase texturised yarn (9 percent),
in the prices of tea, fruits, basic and foundry pig iron (8
vegetables, unrefined oil, percent), steel sheets, plates
tanning materials, texturised and strips (6 percent) and
yarn, tyre cord, steel and components and accessories
chemicals. More monetary of switch gears (10 percent).
measures to rein in inflation G. Srivatsava, director,
may be likely. “The Reserve economic policy,
Bank of India (RBI) will Confederation of Indian
think of monetary steps to Industry, said: “High prices
contain inflationary trends,” of oil and commodities are
a senior official said. driving up inflation.”
The Reserve Bank, India’s The WPI of fuel, power,
T
amil Nadu Industrial
Development Corp Ltd
(Tidco) is planning to devel-
op the Cuddalore-Nagapattinam belt
as a petroleum, chemical and petro-
chemical investment region at an
investment of Rs.60 billion ($1.4 bil-
lion), said a top official.
Talking to reporters after signing a
gas cooperation agreement with Gas
Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) there on
June 6, Tidco chairman and managing
director S. Ramasundaram said that the
state and central governments would
develop the infrastructure while the
prospective investors would have to
source the required land for the facto-
ry. “The infrastructure development
in the region is estimated to require
an investment of Rs.60 billion ($1.38
billion),” he added. However, the pro-
ject needs to be cleared by the central
government. The first meeting with the
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas
was held on June 11.
Ramasundaram added that Tidco
wants to develop a petrochemical plant
at Nagapattinam. Chennai Petroleum
Corp Ltd (CPCL) has been request-
ed to consider Nagapattinam as an
alternative location instead of Ennore
to build its greenfield refinery and
petrochemical complex, he said.
About the gas cooperation agree-
ment, he said that GAIL would con-
duct preliminary techno economic
feasibility study for gas demand poten-
tial in industrial, commercial, trans-
port, residential sectors and evaluate
the medium and long-term gas
demand potential of the state.
GAIL will also assess pipeline infras-
tructure and associated facilities
required for supply of natural gas
including optical fibre network.
“The agreement between GAIL and
Tidco would help in preparation of
the future roadmap for realising the
natural gas potential in Tamil Nadu,”
said GAIL chairman and managing
director U.D. Choubey. —IANS

Moser Baer to invest Rs. 20 bn in Tamil Nadu

apex bank, on June 24 hiked
repo rate or lending rate by
50 basis points to 8.5 percent and the
cash reserve ratio or the minimum
balance a bank is required to maintain
to 8.75 percent from 8.25 percent.
The RBI is likely to hold a meeting
on July 29, where the issue of fresh
fiscal measures could be discussed.
“The government needs to evolve
medium and long term plans for agri-
cultural production increase, moder-
ating the prices of steel and cement,”
said Anjan Roy, economic adviser at
the Federation of Indian Chambers
of Commerce and Industry, an indus-
try lobby. “An increase of 0.21 per-
cent in inflation is not alarming, but
calls for measures to bring inflation
down to 10 percent first and finally to
the tolerable level of 5 percent. The
supply side needs to be strengthened,”
Roy told Indo-Asian News Service.
Sajjan Jindal, vice-chairman and
managing director JSW Steel, and
president of the Associated Chambers
of Commerce and Industry
(Assocham), also agrees: “Costlier
light and lubricants declined
0.1 percent, while the index
for manufactured products like oil-
cakes rose 0.5 percent.
The data showed an increase of 4
percent in the price of tea while that of
fruits and vegetables, maize, bajra and
fish marine went up 2 percent each.
The final wholesale price for all
commodities stood at 229.1 points for
the week-ended on April 26 and the
annual rate of inflation based on final
index calculated on point to point
basis stood at 8.27 percent.
—IANS
O ptical storage device major
Moser Baer India Ltd on June 9
signed a memorandum of under-
Department Secretary M.F. Farooqui
and Moser Baer chairman and man-
aging director Deepak Puri in the
standing with the Tamil Nadu gov- presence of Chief Minister M.
ernment to set up a photo voltaic and Karunanidhi and Minister for
nano technology plant at Oragadum, Communications and Information
near Chennai. Technology A. Raja.
The plant, to be set up at an esti- The Moser Baer deal comes after
mated investment of Rs. 20 billion ($476 million), will Signet Solar Inc announced its plans to set up a photo volta-
come up in the Small Industries Promotion Corporation ic product plant at Sriperumbudur special economic zone
of Tamil Nadu (Sipcot) industrial estate there, said a gov- (SEZ) near Chennai at an outlay of Rs. 20 billion ($463
ernment release. The deal was signed by Industries million). —IANS

22 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 23

E conomy
Urban Indian tourists opting for
special interest relaxed holidays
L
uxury tourism is redefining
itself in urban India with spe-
cial interest holiday packages to
meet the mature market needs in which
customers look for “deeper satisfaction”
rather than the usual gamut of vacation
activities.
Such holidays also provide greater
freedom to explore destinations at one’s
own pace and time.
As the high-end leisure segments of
outbound Indian travellers — those hol-
idaying abroad — curtail their holiday
durations because of increased work
pressure, entrepreneurs and travel firms
are going out of their way to come up
with emotionally satisfying “short-haul”
packages to give customers the best and
the most innovative tours that money
can buy.
The cornerstones of the new holiday
packages on the shelves are “freedom,
flexibility, relaxation and space”, unlike
holidays of the past when outbound
tourists packed in the maximum activ-
ities and destinations in their itineraries
to make most of the money spent.
“These specialised and short-haul hol-
idays will drive the Indian tourism
industry in the future,” P. Srinivas,
senior vice-president of SOTC’s Special
Interest Tours, told Indo-Asian News
24 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
Service from Mumbai. To cater to the
growing tribe of special interest tourists,
comprising mostly stressed corporate
executives, double-income working
couples taking a break from work and
affluent baby boomers who have trav-
elled early in life but now want to relax
with their children, Six Senses Resorts
and Spas, a leading wellness holiday
chain, has unveiled a new package called
“Destination Spas”.
The first destination wellness resort,
a place devoted exclusively to wellness
tourism away from the bustle of daily
life and cut off from the mainland, is
Naka Yai, an island off Phuket.
“It is different from other spas. This
wellness centre is a destination in itself
where tourists can avail of complete
therapies of the mind and the body
without interruption throughout their
holidays without having to indulge in
the usual holiday chores like shopping,
sight-seeing, eating out and having to
rub shoulders with the local lot,” says
Vasudha Sondhi, managing director of
Outbound Marketing Private Limited,
which represents the Thailand-based
Six Senses in India.
“It is another world where we do not
allow tourists to smoke on the island
except on designated zones, do not
admit children below 16, do not serve
meat and egg and discourage mobile
phones and contact with the world out-
side,” Sondhi adds.
The pace of life is slow, relaxed and
“disciplined”.
The target audience this year, accord-
ing to Sondhi, is the “moneyed” seg-
ment from Tier-II and III cities across
India.
“We have a fixed clientele in
Bollywood and in the metros, but we
are getting maximum business from
places like Lucknow, Kanpur and cities
in Punjab where travellers are becom-
ing more discerning, hip and informed,”
Sondhi says.
They are the ones who are looking
for more spaced-out holidays at the
moment. “As most of them go on for-
eign holidays at least two to three times
a year now instead of the once-in-a-year
trip till a couple of years ago, there is no
rush to cram holiday schedules with
every major attractions and activity on
the way,” she says.
Her travel firm, which fetched only
five percent of its business from the sec-
ond and third rung towns till 2003, now
generates nearly 35 percent business
from the smaller cities.
“Small-town tourists are opting for
destinations that are isolated and prefer
packages with a lot of space and varia-
tion,” Sondhi says.
Seema Kundra, the chief executive
officer of a public relations firm in the
capital, who is just back from Bali,
agrees. “I just chilled out in my resort.
I did not venture out except for my
meals and to explore the beaches,” says
the genial corporate honcho.
Most vacationers feel that packing a
schedule with too many stops is tiring.
“The traveller returns exhausted. It
requires another holiday to overcome
the fatigue,” Kundra says.
Industry watchers feel that one of the
reasons why special interest holidays is
becoming popular in India is the grow-
ing need to spend quality time with the
family and loved ones, and indulge in
favourite pastimes which are not possi-
ble in the western lifestyle models that
most Indian metros have embraced to
adapt to the new globalised economy.
Mumbai-based SOTC for instance
is cashing in on the Indian passion for
sport. It has launched the country’s first-
ever Formula One sports holiday pack-
age jointly with the Singapore Tourism
Board.
Called the SOTC Sport Abroad, the
holiday schedules will coincide with
Singapore Grand Prix to held September
20 to October 5. It will feature various
Formula One themed entertainment
and lifestyle activities allowing Formula
buffs the freedom to enjoy the races as
part of the holiday packages. Formula
One Singapore Grand Prix is the
world’s very first night-race on the
Formula One calendar.
“More and more Indians are travel-
ling abroad to play or watch sporting
events. Cricket and football are no
longer the main draws and neither is
corporate travel, nor incentives for deal-
ers and employees driving the growth
in sports tourism.
“Instead, groups of friends and fam-
ilies travelling abroad to catch a sport-
ing event form the majority of our
sports tourists,” says Srinivas.
According to him, the SOTC Sport
Abroad packages are not only restricted
to watching the race on the tracks “but
go much beyond this”. —IANS
Kazakhstan wants a Palace
on Wheels along Silk Route
S purred by the success of the
Palace on Wheels and other lux-
ury train services in India, Kazakhstan
has sought help from India’s tourism
ministry for similar packages along the
famous Silk Route that dates back over
two millennia.
“We would like to have a luxury
train along the Silk Route, which is
similar to India’s luxury trains, includ-
ing the Palace on Wheels,” Kazakh
Vice-Minister for Tourism and Sports
Kairbek Uskenbayev said.
“We could even consider joint part-
nerships to improve the quality of our
product,” Uskenbayev told Indo -Asian
News Service after attending a presen-
tation organised there by the Indian
Tourism Ministry.
The presentation, at the invitation
of the Kazakh government, was to
address tour operators, hoteliers,
investors and officials on brand and
logo development for the hospitality
industry and share their expertise in
luxury trains. Officials said a train ser-
vice on the Silk Route via Kazakhstan
runs through Central Asia covering
Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan
and Tajikistan, but the tracks needed
to be standardised to broad gauge and
wagons upgraded.
The new luxury train will be a part
of five tourism projects on
Kazakhstan’s list of priorities for which
it has a budget exceeding $30 billion,
explained the Kazakh tourism and
pravasi bharatiya | july
sports minister. The Silk Route, which
dates back to around 110 BC,
stretched from China and the Indian
subcontinent to Central Asia and
Europe. It was used not only by the
traders to transport their merchan-
dise but also by monks, pilgrims and
soldiers.
Kazakhstan’s economy is expanding
as fast as India’s and China’s with a
growth of 10 percent expected this year,
due mainly to its huge hydrocarbon
reserves and mineral resources.
M.N Javed, Deputy Director with
India’s Ministry of Tourism, said as
part of the growing bilateral ties, a
two-day road show will be held in
Almaty this September to push the
relationship further, especially in the
hospitality sector.
The event will coincide with a
meeting of mayors from cities falling
on the Silk Route train service to dis-
cuss common visas to present the
region as a single tourist destination.
“We would like to learn from
India’s experience in brand building
to build our own brand,” said
Uskenbayev, referring to the
Incredible India campaign of the
Indian tourism ministry that has
secured worldwide acclaim.
At present Kazakhstan receives
around six million visitors a year with
a target to grow to 10 million by
upgrading its infrastructure over the
next four years. —IANS
2008 25
E conomy
India third most attractive Jaguar, Land Rover acting Corporate Snippets

market for apparel retailers CEO to head new Tata-JLR

India’s direct tax
collections up 38%

I I
ndia has emerged the
third most attractive
market destination
for apparel retailers,
according to a new study
by global management
consulting firm A.T.
Kearney.
India comes after Brazil
and China in the A.T. Kearney
Retail Apparel Index, which
looks at ten drivers, including
apparel consumption and
clothing imports/exports, to
rank the top 30 emerging markets for
Indian consumers tend to be more loyal n spite of a slowdown in the
to a specific retailer than to an apparel growth of both industrial pro-
brand. The result is a thriving private label duction and merchandise exports,
apparel market,” the study said. India’s direct tax collections rose by
“Like many developed countries, appar- as much as 38.61 percent in the first
el retail in India is driven by sales pro- quarter of the current fiscal, the
motion,” it added. finance ministry said on July 4.
“The Retail Apparel Index was pub- The direct tax collections,
lished for the first time this year as a com- according to an official statement,
panion to A.T. Kearney’s Global Retail rose to Rs. 573.73 billion ($13.27
Development Index (GRDI), a study of bn) during the period against Rs.
retail investment attractiveness among 30 413.91 billion ($9.5 bn)in the like
emerging markets conducted annually quarter of the previous fiscal.
since 2001,” said Saurine M. Doshi, a
partner of A.T. Kearney India. Daimler Hero to roll out

retail apparel investments.
“In India, apparel is the second largest
retail category, representing 10 percent of
the $37 billion retail market. It is expected to
grow 12-15 percent per year,” said Hemant
Kalbag, principal, Consumer Industries &
Retail Practice, A.T. Kearney.
“The top seven apparel companies
account for less than 10 percent of the
total apparel retail market in India and
Motorola backs Wimax over 3G as India’s
next broadband technology
“The analysis evaluates more than 20
apparel markets to identify the top 10 coun-
tries in terms of market size, growth
prospects and consumer affluence,” Doshi
added.
Turkey, Chile, Romania, Argentina,
Thailand, Russia and the United Arab
Emirates are the other countries in the
top-10 list.
—IANS
T
he Tata group, India’s largest
business conglomerate, on
June 2 said that they had for-
mally acquired British marquees Jaguar
and Land Rover (JLR) from Ford
Motor Company. The business was
acquired at a function in Gaydon,
Britain. JLR’s acting chief executive
officer (CEO) David Smith, who has
had 25 years experience with JLR and
Ford, will be the new CEO of the
business, Tata Motors announced.
The business has been acquired for
$2.3 billion on March 26 in an all-cash
transaction. Ford has contributed
around $600 million in the JLR pen-
$2.3 billion on a cash-free, debt-free
basis. The purchase consideration
includes the ownership by JLR or per-
petual royalty-free licences of all nec-
essary intellectual property rights, man-
ufacturing plants, two advanced design
centres in Britain and a worldwide net-
work of national sales companies.
Tata Motors has also entered into
long-term agreements for supply of
engines, stampings and other JLR
components, plus transition support
from Ford, including IT, accounting
and access to test facilities.
The two companies will continue
their cooperation in areas such as
vehicles in Tamil Nadu
D aimler Hero Motor Corp, a
JV floated by German auto
major Daimler AG and Indian two-
wheeler giant Hero group, on July
7 signed an agreement with the
Tamil Nadu government to man-
ufacture commercial vehicles there.
The JV will set up the manufac-
turing facility at the Sipcot industri-
al estate near Chennai to roll out
70,000 light, medium and heavy
vehicles annually. Daimler holds 60
percent in the new company, with
the Hero group holding the rest.

T elecommunications giant Motorola Inc., a Fortune 100

company, says that the newer Wimax technology scores
over 3G in data transmission capabilities and that it’s the
broadband route India needed to take.
Wimax or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave
Access is a non-cellular telecommunications technology,
which like 3G has the capability to transfer data wireless-
ly over long distances. But while 3G offers speeds in the range
of 5.8-14.4 mega bits a second, Wimax has the potential to
“deliver 70 mega bits over the same spectrum”, a senior
Motorola executive says.
“This technology enables better speeds than the stan-
dard 3G and even traditional broadband connections,”
Tarvinder Singh, Motorola India’s head of marketing and
product management, told Indo-Asian News Service.
Incidentally, the Department of Telecom will auction
the 2.1 GHz and higher spectrum band — which will sup-
port both the technologies — some time this month. And
Singh says service providers winning the bids ought to opt
for Wimax. His assertion comes on the heels of the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) induct-
ing the Wimax technology as part of its 3G standard, the
first non-cellular telecommunication technology to get
ITU approval.
Researchers at Nokia-Siemens Networks and Heinrich
Hertz Institute have showcased a futuristic 3G technolo-
gy, the Long Term Evolution or LTE, which has a trans-
fer speed of 100 mega bits per second.
But Singh is unimpressed. “Those who swear allegiance
to 3G bank upon its development into LTE, which is still
in its development stage and cannot be introduced before
2011 commercially,” he added.
Singh said India could not wait till 2011 to provide
Internet access and modern technology to its towns and
villages. “We are already lagging behind other nations.
Wireless broadband in the form of Wimax can solve the
problem of building infrastructure for wired Internet
access.” —IANS
sion plans, the announcement said.
Ford Motor Company’s executive
vice-president and chief financial offi-
cer Lewis Booth, who looks after the
company’s responsibilities for Europe,
Volvo and JLR, was present at the June
2 ceremony at JLR headquarters.
Describing it as a “momentous
time” for Tata Motors, Tata Group
chairman Ratan Tata said that Jaguar
and Land Rover are two iconic British
brands with worldwide growth
prospects. Tata Motors would extend
full support to the JLR team to realise
their competitive potential and help
retain their distinctive identities and
continue to pursue their respective
business plans as before, Tata said.
JLR has been acquired at a cost of
design and development through
sharing of platforms and joint devel-
opment of hybrid technologies and
Tata Motors launches
fuel efficient buses
powertrain engineering.
The Ford Motor Credit Company
will also continue to provide financ- T ata Motors, the world’s sec-
ond-largest bus and fourth-
largest truck manufacturer, is intro-
ing for JLR dealers and customers for
a transition period. Tata Motors is ducing a new range of fuel-efficient
negotiating with leading auto finance Super Milo buses with a starting
providers to support the JLR business price of Rs. 8,50,000 ($19,795).
in Europe and the US and is likely to Available in two variants, City
select financial services partners soon. and Highway, the buses will have
customised parameters, fuel effi-
The JLR deal catapulted Tata
cient and eco-friendly engines
Motors, India’s largest automobile
which will result in better pick-
company with revenues of $8.8 bil-
up and mileage, the company’s
lion in 2007, to international headlines
executive director for commercial
when it announced the Ford deal in
vehicles business unit P.M.
March-end 2008.
Telang said on July 8. —IANS
—IANS

26 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 27

D iaspora
The Hanuman factor
in Indian support to
Barack Obama!
! WASHINGTON
I
ndian Americans are switching
their loyalties from the Clintons
to the likely Democratic presi-
dential nominee Barack Obama,
thanks to Hanuman, so suggests a
columnist in the Washington Post.
When it comes to American politi-
cians, former U.S. President “Bill
Clinton has been the darling of India”,
wrote Matthew Mosk in his column
titled “Indian Americans Take Note
of Obama, Thanks to Hanuman” —
with a picture of the Hindu monkey
god.
“That love extended to Hillary
28 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
Clinton during the Democratic
primaries — especially so with respect
to fundraising among Indian
Americans, who grew to become a
significant base of support for her
White House bid.”
“But now a surprise revelation
during an off-the-cuff exchange in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, has
turned Barack Obama into the talk of
the Indian news media,” he said
referring to the brouhaha in India
over one of the lucky charms that the
Democratic nominee reportedly
carries. “One of the trinkets, it turns
out, was a tiny figurine of Hanuman
— the Hindu monkey god,” said
Mosk definitively though the first
media reports described it only as
what looks like a “tiny monkey god”.
Neither Obama nor his campaign has
acknowledged if the figurine was
indeed that of Hanuman.
More likely it was just a trinket
given by one of his supporters. As the
columnist recalled it was at a town
hall meeting a woman asked Obama
what kept him grounded, and in
response he emptied his pockets.
“People are so generous to me,
investing their hopes in me,” he said,
holding up a cupped hand full of
trinkets.
“This I usually don’t show in these
town hall meetings. I have all these
things that people give me — all these
different little good luck charms.”
But for the Indians “It’s a big deal,”
said the Post citing Bhavna Pandit, 28,
a political fundraising consultant
based in Washington “who thinks the
revelations will lead to new interest in
Obama among Indian American
donors”. The daily quoted Pandit as
saying “news of the Obama trinket
has swept across Indian American
living rooms and through Indian
newspapers and TV networks.
She said the people she knows as
“aunties and uncles” — women and
men from her parents’ generation —
are suddenly taking note of Obama
in a way they had not done before.
“They think it’s kind of neat. They
rarely see our religion played out in
the mainstream media in America.”
And, she said according to the post,
“In India, they’re like, ‘Wow! The
person who can be the president has
a connection to us that’s very
personal. Commenting on the
column, a reader ‘Chaya’ reminded
Pandit that ‘Obama was given these
trinkets and I wouldn’t be surprised if
he did not know who Hanuman is’.”
“Let us not be too dumb to think
this somehow connects Hindus to the
senator,” said a blogger. “His policies
and his abilities to bring change
should bring Indians closer to the
president, not a trinket. That’s where
Clintons proved themselves and are
loved by Indians.”
Sunita Williams receives
Padma Bhushan
! WASHINGTON
I
ndian-American
astronaut Sunita
Williams has
received India’s third
highest civilian award,
the Padma Bhushan, for
her feat of completing
the longest space flight for a woman.
“It is a great honour. I am elated,”
said Williams as she received her
award from Indian Consul-General
S.M. Gavai at a function in Houston
on July 4.
Among this year’s Republic Day
honourees, she could not receive the
award in person from Indian
President Pratibha Devisingh Patil in
New Delhi.
Recounting her 195 days stay in
space, she said: “The Earth looks
beautiful from space as there are no
borders on the planet. Sometimes we
think we have borders because we are
male, female, of different religions or
have differently coloured skin. Well,
Ravi Shankar honoured in US
! NEW YORK
I
ndian spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi
Shankar has been honoured by
the New Jersey general assembly
and by the city of Edison for his
organisation’s initiatives in the U.S.
and its service to the world at large.
The state assembly passed a resolu-
tion acknowledging that the guru, in
the US recently, has been “furthering
the best of human instincts, traits and
characteristics, and promoting sus-
tainable growth in poor rural com-
munities”.
It also praised his Art of Living
Foundation, “which assists at-risk
youth in turning away from gang vio-
lence, drugs and alcohol towards a life
of greater generosity and service”.
you don’t, they are just
in your mind and they
are not real. I could see
this borderless world
only after I went to
space, but there are
people like Mahatma
Gandhi, who could
visualise all this even
without going to space. Gandhiji’s
vision of keeping people at peace
together is really a cornerstone of
humanity,” Williams added.
Launched to the International
Space Station on space shuttle
Discovery on December 9, 2006, she
returned to Earth on June 22, 2007,
after 195 days in space. She also set a
world record for women with four
spacewalks totalling 29 hours and 17
minutes. Astronaut Peggy Whitson
subsequently broke the record in
2008 with five spacewalks.
Among the personal items Williams
took with her on the flight were a copy
of the Bhagwad Gita, a small figurine
of Ganesha and samosas.
The Foundation’s projects in the
US include inner city youth leader-
ship programmes, free trauma relief
for survivors of tragedies such as
Hurricane Katrina and the Virginia
Tech shootings, special programmes
for returning war veterans, prisoner
reform, stress-elimination pro-
grammes for corporations and work-
ing adults, and human-values based
programmes for children and youth.
pravasi bharatiya | july
US organisation
honours Sikhs
T he US-based Sikh Council on
Religion and Education
(SCORE) held a function in
Chandigarh on July 6 to honour
prominent Sikh personalities and
organisations for excellence in their
fields and humanitarian service.
“In America we have been work-
ing for the past five years to bring
Sikhs in the mainstream of the soci-
ety,” Rajwant Singh, chairman of
Washington-based SCORE said.
“American Sikhs have done won-
ders in the fields of Information
Technology, electronics, agriculture
and education so we are just trying
to underline their contributions
among the political leaders of
America,” he said. “Our endeavour
is to honour those people who have
created a positive image of the Sikh
community and those who have
been doing pioneering work in dif-
ferent areas,” he added.
Sikhs were honoured at the
‘Excellence among Sikhs’ pro-
gramme. Many Indians residing in
countries like Canada, the US and
Britain, attended the event.
Indian student in US
television show
D elhi-bred Kunal Nayyar went
to the US to study marketing,
but as luck would have it he became
an actor and now features in the
popular American TV show “The
Big Bang Theory” as Rajesh
Koothrappali.
“It is quite crazy and weird. I went
there as a student and became an
actor,” said Kunal. “It is interesting
to play Rajesh as I see him not as a
character but as a person trying to fit
in America,” Kunal said.
He says that there are lots of sim-
ilarities between him and his char-
acter. “I also have a lot of nerdy ele-
ments in me and at the same time I
act as a geek like him. I love playing
video games and just like him I also
like a lot of epic stuff.”
2008 29
D iaspora
Mittal buys third house on
London Billionaire’s Row
! LONDON
J ust a month after
buying Britain’s
most expensive home,
India-born billionaire
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal
has reportedly acquired
a third house on
London’s costliest street
for £70 million.
The house in
Kensington Palace
Gardens is the former
Philippine embassy and
looks on to Kensington Palace, home
of the late Princess Diana, the Evening
Standard reported. It is the third
acquisition on the street for Mittal,
chairman of steel giant ArcelorMittal,
with a fortune of £27 billion. He
paid £117 million a month ago for a
home for his son Aditya in Palace
Green, an extension of Kensington
Palace Gardens.
The industrialist himself lives in a
large house in Kensington Palace
Salman Rushdie is finally knighted
I ndian-origin author
Salman Rushdie
received a knighthood
for services to literature
from Britain’s Queen
Elizabeth II on June 25,
saying he was proud of
the honour and had “no
regrets” over the
controversy sparked by
his work.
Sir Salman, as the Anglo-Indian
writer will now be known, said the
knighthood was in recognition “not
for any specific book but for a very
long career in writing and I’m happy
to see it recognised”.
Speaking after the ceremony, and
displaying his knighthood medal, he
said: “I’m very proud, very happy.”
30 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
Gardens that he
bought for £57 million
in 2004.
The paper quoted a
spokesman for a top-
end estate agent in
London as saying that
Mittal had already
raised the value of his
main property.
“The Mittals have
carried out substantial
improvements to their
main home, which is
probably the largest
private house in Central London after
the Buckingham Palace,” said Noel
de Keyzer, a director at Savills. “I
would put its current value at close to
£250 million.” The paper said the £70
million price tag for Mittal’s latest
property was all the more remarkable
since the former Philippines embassy
was in need of modernisation.
“The 16,250 square feet home is
also not the largest on the road but it
looks on to Kensington Palace.”
“It’s been a long time — my first
novel was published 33 years ago but
I think the thing you hope to do as a
writer is leave behind a shelf of inter-
esting books and it’s great just to have
that work recognised.”
Asked about the recent controver-
sy surrounding his knighthood, he
said: “At this stage, you know, it’s cer-
tainly not a day to talk about contro-
versy, it’s a day for myself and my
family to celebrate this.”
Asked if, with hindsight, he had any
doubts about writing the controver-
sial Satanic Verses, Rushdie said: “I real-
ly have no regrets about any of my
work. If you’re lucky enough to have
one book that gets into people’s con-
sciousness in that way then it’s fortu-
nate,” said Rushdie.
Mittals now eye
country hotels in UK
A fter stately homes, the Mittals
are now eyeing heritage hotels
of Britain. One of the world’s rich-
est families, they are considering
investing in the company behind
upmarket country hotels including
Cliveden, near Heathrow, and The
Royal Crescent in Bath. An agency
representing Mittals is said to be in
talks with Von Essen Hotels, one of
Britain’s largest privately-owned
collections of luxury hotels.
The hotels are seeped in British
history. Cliveden House, set amid
376 acres of formal gardens, has a
past going back 300 years. Several
prominent persons have called it
their home over the years, the most
famous being Nancy Astor, the first
woman MP of Britain. Queen
Victoria, a confidante of the origi-
nal owner, the Duchess of
Sutherland, used to drop in for a
cup of tea. Guests have included
every British monarch since George
I as well as Charlie Chaplin,
Winston Churchill, Harold
Macmillan, Roosevelt, George
Bernard Shaw, to name a few.
Indian doctor turns
film star in Britain
D octor by profession, actor by
accident. An Indian-born
British radiologist became the cyno-
sure of all eyes as his debut film,
‘Accident’, premiered in London on
July 4. Mahesh Kumar Neelala Anand
from Oldham, near Manchester, plays
the role of a singing, dancing, mur-
dering gangster in the Kannada film,
said to be a success in India.
Anand is the head of radiology at
Pennine Acute Trust, which runs
hospitals in Oldham, Rochdale, Bury
and north Manchester. He tem-
porarily traded in the radiology rooms
to travel to Bangalore last October
when his friend Ramesh Aravind, a
successful Indian film director,
offered him the role out of the blue.
! LONDON
T
he United Breweries Group
of India has been granted a
US patent for manufactur-
ing diet whisky and vodka, chairman
Vijay Mallya said in what he described
as an example of “thinking out of the
bottle”.
The flamboyant Indian
entrepreneur told students at the
London Business School that his
Vittal Mallya Scientific Research
Foundation (VMSRF) in Bangalore
had developed the technology to
convert the active ingredient of an
Indian fruit that helps fight obesity
into a safe liquid version. The plant
Indian poet felicitated by
Romanian Writers Union
! BUCHAREST
I ndian poet, writer and journalist
Surender Bhutani was felicitated
by the Romanian Writers Union on
July 5 when a collection of his poems
was released in Romanian language.
George Anca, an Indologist, has trans-
lated Bhutani’s poems from English
and Urdu into Romanian.
Bhutani’ s earlier works have been
translated into Polish. A known Urdu
poet, Bhutani has written six volumes
in the language and has now started
writing in English also.
“It was a sheer delight for me to
translate his amazing poetry into
Romanian. I felt privileged when I
started receiving his poems and imme-
diately I started working on his poet-
ry. The universal appeal of his poetry
warms the heart of every poetry lover
whatever may be his language,” said
Anca during the book release cere-
mony.
Mallya to make diet whisky
and vodka, has US patent
called Garcenia contains some nat-
ural substances that works on your
digestive system and actually breaks
down your sugar cells and fat cells,”
Mallya said.
“It has been used in the United
States health food industry for
decades. But making this Garcinia sol-
uble in liquid is a technology that we
have developed and patented in the
US,” he added. “So we now have a
legitimate diet whisky and a legitimate
diet vodka which had been success-
fully tested for calories. We sent it to a
lab to check the calorific value and we
proved it,” Mallya said.
Mallya said manufacturing and
marketing was delayed “because of the
fighting with the European Union
over classification”. “All of this was
developed by us in India. We do think
out of the box — no, make that out of
Kumar Sanu brings Toronto show alive
! TORONTO
B ollywood singer Kumar Sanu
brought the 23rd annual North
American Bengal Conference
(NABC) alive in Toronto with his
high-voltage performance.
By belting out his hit Bengali and
Hindi numbers, the playback singer
on July 6 night provided a befitting
finale to the North American Bengali
mega-show which came to town after
10 years. Singing to a packed house at
the Metro Toronto Convention
Centre, the Bengali heartthrob had
the audience shouting for encore as
he regaled them with Bollywood hits
— ‘Ek Sanam Chahiye’, from the
1990 musical hit ‘Aashqui’, and ‘Ek
Ladki Ko Dekha’, from ‘1942: A Love
Story’ — and Bengali versions of
Kishore Kumar’s hit songs.
Before him, Arnab Chakrabarty had
the audience spell-bound with his
renderings of some of Rabindranath
Tagore’s musical compositions.
pravasi bharatiya | july
the bottle,” he said during a lecture
and interaction session with LBS stu-
dents — an event organised by the
UK India Business Council and the
business school’s India Business
Forum.
Research by VMSRF has centred
around a fruit from the Garcinia fam-
ily, the Malabar Tamarind (biological
name, Garcinia Cambogia), whose
primary acid, hydroxycitric acid
(HCA), can help bring about weight
loss.
Garcinia fruits have been used as a
common natural food flavouring
agent on the Malabar coast “for ages”,
VMSRF says on its website.
The research says it has developed
a unique soluble salt after extracting
HCA acid from the Malabar tamarind,
which not only lowers appetite but
also helps control cholesterol.
The famous
Calcutta Choir
performed the
closing ceremo-
ny by creating a
riveting display
of colour, dance
and puja, making
Bengali expatri-
ates nostalgic
about life back
home in its all aspects.
Conceptualised by Calcutta Choir,
the show by Toronto dancers sent the
6,000-strong gathering away with
sweet memories of “Bangala
Sammelan”. The highlight of the last
day of the three-day conference was
NextGen events.
Under the event called Ice Breaker,
second-generation Bengali youth met
with one another to network.
Under Speed Dating, they were
encouraged to know the opposite sex
to find — if possible — their perfect
match.
2008 31
D iaspora
Minimum wage fixed for Indian Australians want Indian roses
domestic workers in Oman ! SYDNEY
“The Taj Mahal variety will be available in the retail

M
! DUBAI during 2007 it registered 7,797 labour ore and more Australians may soon be market later this month,” informs Khan, who migrated to
contracts of household workers from expressing their enduring love with roses from Australia in 1986 from Hyderabad and is one of the largest

I
ndia has fixed the minimum
wage for Indian domestic
workers in Oman at 75 Omani
riyals ($195) per month, effective
from June 1. “The Embassy of India
in Muscat, Oman, has, under the
instructions of the Government of
India, decided to raise the wages of
Indian house maids coming to the
Sultanate from the existing RO50
($130) per month to RO75 per
month with effect from June 1, 2008,”
the Indian Embassy said.
India’s Ambassador to Oman, Anil
Wadhwa, said in the statement that
this was necessitated by inflation and
rising cost of living worldwide,
particularly in Oman, as the wages of
Indian household workers have
remained static for over 15 years.
Other countries supplying
household workers in Oman are the
Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal,
Indonesia, Tanzania and Bangladesh.
The Embassy also stated that
Musician magician unravels superstitions
India and helped in repatriating home
65 household workers who were
facing problems.
According to Wadhwa, the
Embassy was also taking several steps
for the welfare of Indian household
workers in that Gulf nation. These
include making prior attestation of
labour agreements by the Embassy
mandatory to allow household
workers to leave India. An orientation
programme for household workers
prior to their leaving India and a
contract signed by the sponsor
agreeing to provide a pre-paid mobile
phone to the household worker on
arrival have also become mandatory.
The sponsor must also allow the
household worker to report to the
Embassy within four weeks of his/her
arrival in Oman. They will also be
provided free legal and other
assistance should they be ill-treated
while the Embassy will pay for
medical treatment and airfare in
deserving cases. The Embassy, in
collaboration with Oman’s Ministry
of Manpower, has also prepared flyers
in six languages, including four Indian
regional languages, containing ‘dos
and don’ts’ for Indian household
workers in Oman.
These have been placed at all
immigration counters and in
commercial aircraft, which are
normally used by Indian household
workers coming to Oman.
India as a delegation heads to Bangalore to
facilitate a joint venture between India’s largest producer
of fresh cut roses, Tanflora, and Australia’s largest provider
of floral bouquets, The Lynch Group.
“The aim is to increase the market shares of Indian roses
in Australia and make them more affordable and
accessible,” director of Sydney-based Roses Galore, M.A.
Khan, who first introduced Indian flowers to Australia in
1996 and is helping to facilitate the joint venture, said.
Tanflora is preparing to export 10 million roses all over
the world, including Australia, come Valentine’s Day 2009.
In recent years, there has been a growing demand for
Indian producers to meet the Australian flower industry
requirements.
Every day, roses, gerberas, lilies, carnations and other
fresh flowers from India are sold at Australia’s largest
trading market for fresh flowers, the Flemington markets
in Sydney. The Moorebank-based Lynch Group, the
dominant suppliers of fresh flowers to the Australian
wholesale market, recently launched Tanflora’s new
premier red rose variety named ‘Tajmahal, Symbol of
Love’, in Sydney.
Texas man fulfilling ex-Assam militant’s dream
! NEW DELHI home to the ground early this year.
But a ray of hope has appeared for
importers of fresh flowers from India.
“This exclusive rose variety, with its unique colour,
shape, vase life, stem length and overall vigour, for which
Tanflora holds world rights, has been received with great
enthusiasm by local buyers,” said Khan, who is also one
of the 25 growers at Tanflora’s 50 hectare facility and has
been closely linked with the formation of the company.
A joint venture between the Tamil Nadu Industrial
Development Corporation Ltd. (TIDCO) and the
Agricultural & Processed Food Products Development
Authority (APEDA), Tanflora floriculture facility is based
in Hosur (Tamil Nadu) with an annual production
capacity of 70 million roses.
In May, a memorandum of understanding was signed
between TIDCO, Tanflora and the Lynch Group on
strengthening ties and introduction of value added
products in the rapidly growing Indian and Australian
markets. Tanflora, which is among the top five rose
growers of the world, is hoping to reach the top spot with
a proposed expansion of an additional 300 hectares in the
next five years and boosting production to a million stems
per month.
Bora’s effort has not gone unno-
ticed. The Association for India’s

A
task left unfinished by a mil- Prajnalaya after Bora stepped in to Development (AID), a US-based
! KOZHIKODE formed,” Ummer said. Ummer, who Ummer, who is in his 40s, says itant-turned-good Samaritan provide solace to the children. organisation, has also vouched to help
teaches the harmonium, keyboards schools are free to raise funds through in the little village of Bora recently donated a sum of rebuild the children’s home.

U
mmer Bhai teaches music
at a school in the United
Arab Emirates (UAE). But
back home in Kerala he dons the robe
of a magician to tell children the truth
behind superstitions and black magic.
Ummer, who is based in the Umm
al-Quwain emirate, has taken four
months’ leave to spend time in his
native state, but he has no time to sit at
home as he prepares to stage magic
shows in the schools of Malappuram
and Kozhikode in northern Kerala.
“Sometimes tricksters tell a person
that his neighbour has tried to poison
him through black magic and even
pretend to draw out the poison. But I
show children how such a trick is per-
and even vocals at a school in Umm
al-Quwain, takes his role as a magi-
cian seriously and does not even take
remuneration for his performances
except the transport cost to the venue.
One magic show costs around
Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 3,000, which he
spends from his own pocket.
“This year I will be here for four
months. I have plans to conduct 100
shows. This will cost more than Rs.
150,000,” he says. In the last nine
years, he says, he has spent around Rs.
1 million performing such shows. “I
have already covered 50 percent of the
schools in Malappuram district. This
year I am planning to concentrate on
schools in Kozhikode district.”
his shows.
“I do not take any money for the
shows. If any amount is collected, it is
given back to the school authorities to
buy books for the school library or to
help poor students.
“If a show is organised to mobilise
funds, children’s parents are also
encouraged to attend,” Ummer says.
He said the maximum he has raised
from a show so far is Rs. 35,000.
School officials where his pro-
gramme is staged vouch that his
programme is good even if it did not
raise much funds. “His programme
was good. He did not take any mon-
ey,” said a school principal in
Malappuram district.
Saraipani in Assam has now become
the “mission” of a Texas-based IT
professional of Indian origin.
After the untimely death of surren-
dered United Liberation Front of
Assam (ULFA) militant Jugal Bhuyan
in March last year, Ankur Bora, a
native of Assam, has now pitched in
to help Prajnalaya, a home for desti-
tute children that was set up in 2002.
The orphanage, now home to 115
children, was built by Bhuyan on the
banks of the Saraipani river in Jorhat
district. The death of Bhuyan — he
died of a massive heart attack — left
the orphanage without a mentor. To
make things worse, a high intensity
storm almost razed the children’s
$5,000 to rebuild the damaged struc-
ture of Prajnalaya.
The 41-year-old IT professional
participated in the AT&T Austin
Marathon race in February to raise
money. Asha Austin, a US-based
NGO, supported Bora’s run.
“It was during my visit to Assam to
participate in Bhogali Bihu festivities
in January this year that I came to
know about the plight of Prajnalaya.
Almost instantaneously I decided to
do something to help the children,”
Bora said. “Now I am also trying to
motivate the entire Assamese com-
munity based in the US to generous-
ly donate money to help rebuild the
orphanage,” he added.
“We are thankful that several US-
based organisations have come for-
ward to help us. After Jugal’s death the
home was facing several crises and the
financial part hurt us all,” said Maina,
Bhuyan’s widow.
Like many idealistic college-goers,
Bhuyan wanted to work for an egali-
tarian society. He joined the rebel
group in 1989 with the aim of chang-
ing society. But after roughing it out
in the jungles for two years, he became
disillusioned and subsequently sur-
rendered.
Initially Jugal built a bamboo hut for
the children in his own ancestral land
and he refused money from any gov-
ernment or private body.

32 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 33

F amous Pravasi
Tobago, Noor Hassanali, made
highest office by two different
ruling political parties for two
President Noor Hassanali
and First Lady Zalayhar
Hassanali at President
House in 1996.
34 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
Gentle
NooR
A person of high integrity,
former President of the
Republic of Trinidad and
history by having been
appointed to the nation’s
consecutive terms...
N
oor Mohammed Hassanali
was the second President of
the Republic of Trinidad and
Tobago (1987 to 1997). A retired High
Court judge, President Hassanali was the
first Indo-Trinidadian to hold the office
of the President and was the first Muslim
head of state in the Americas. The sixth
of seven children, Hassanali, descended
from Indian forbears, was born in San
Fernando and was educated at Canaan
and Corinth Canadian Mission (now
Presbyterian) Primary Schools and
Naparima College. After graduating he
taught at Naparima from 1938 to 1943.
In 1943 he travelled to Canada, where
he read law at the University of Toronto.
While in Canada he served as a member
of the Canadian Officers Training Corps
from 1943 until the end of the war in
1945. He was called to the bar at Gray’s
Inn in London in 1948.
Hassanali worked as a lawyer in pri-
vate practice from 1948 to 1953, when he
was appointed as a magistrate. In 1960,
he was appointed senior magistrate and
later that year was appointed Senior
Former First Lady Zalayhar
at the funeral of her
husband, former President
Noor Hassanali.
Crown Counsel in Attorney-General’s Chambers. In 1965,
he was appointed Assistant Solicitor-General and the fol- As a Muslim, Hassanali chose not
lowing year he was appointed Judge of the High Court. In
1978 he was appointed to the Court of Appeal, after which to serve alcoholic beverages at
he retired on April 14, 1985.
President’s House. Despite
He was elected President in 1987 following elections
which brought the National Alliance for Reconstruction reservations on the part of then-
(NAR) to government. Although the office of President
was largely ceremonial (similar to that of Governor General Prime Minister A.N.R. Robinson,
before the country became a republic), he was such a pop- the decision was never seen as
ular national figure and he was re-elected in 1992 by the
People’s National Movement (PNM) administration. controversial by Trinidadians.
Hassanali was described as “one of the most neutral,
reserved, and dignified figures in the history of the Republic
of Trinidad and Tobago politics”. When he was inaugu-
rated as President in 1987 he was described as “a person of
impeccable credentials who has a reputation for honesty
and humility of the highest order”.
As a Muslim, Hassanali chose not to serve alcoholic bev-
erages at President’s House. Despite reservations on the
part of then-Prime Minister A.N.R. Robinson, the deci-
sion was never seen as controversial by the public.
He was married to Zalayhar Mohammed and had two
children, Khalid and Amena Hassanali-Sutton. Together Sir George
with his brothers, Noor Hassanali was an avid and skilful with Noor
footballer, playing both for Naparima College and for his Hassanali
club Spitfire. Hassanali got double first class colours for
football and cricket at Naparima College, and was also a who was an Olympic long-distance runner, and Dr. Jean
member of the Southern Amateur Football Association Ramjohn-Richards, First Lady of Trinidad and Tobago and
Team. He also played in national inter-league competition. wife of its fourth President, Professor George Maxwell
In 2003 he published a book of his speeches entitled Richards. Hassanali succeeded acting president Michael
Teaching Words in conjunction with the Naps Charitable Williams and was himself succeeded by Arthur N.R.
Foundation. His brother, Fyzul Hassanali has written two Robinson (President 1997-2003).
books on cricket. His cousins include Manny Ramjohn Hassanali died on August 25, 2006, aged 88.
pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 35
N RI of the Month
A journey from
Kanpur to
Houston Her credo: When life gives you lemons and
everyone else is busy making lemonade,
think about making margaritas.
S
he was just 18 years when
she left India as a young
bride and is today among
America’s premier university
administrators. Dr. Renu Khator
is one of the first Indian
Americans to become a provost
at a comprehensive research uni-
versity in the United States. She
is now the President and
Chancellor of the University of
Houston.
Khator has a doctorate in polit-
ical science from Purdue
University and earned her bach-
elor’s degree from Kanpur
University in India. She has
served as Provost at South Florida
since 2003, and was Dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences for
three years before that.
Author or editor of five scholar-
ly books and numerous articles
concerning global public adminis-
tration, environmental policy and
South Asian politics, Khator came
to the US in 1974 after her marriage
to Suresh Khator. Both pursued
graduate degrees at Purdue
University and later accepted teach-
ing positions at the University of
South Florida.
36 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
She enjoys writing poetry and short
stories, several of which have been
published. In addition to her duties as
provost, she has been teaching a
course in Hindi at the University of
South Florida this year.
The Khators were honoured by
India in 2007, receiving the ‘Jewel of
India’, a special award recognising
non-resident Indians for making out-
standing contributions in their field.
The US Citizenship and
Immigration Services included Renu
Khator among its 2006 Outstanding
American by Choice awardees. The
award recognises outstanding achieve-
ments of naturalised US citizens.
Also in 2006, Khator received the
Distinguished Alumnus Award from
Purdue University’s College of Liberal
Arts and the Outstanding Educator
Award from the American Foundation
for Greek Language and Culture for
enhancing Hellenic studies.
Khator and Suresh have two daugh-
ters, both of whom are ophthalmol-
ogists.
Her life philosophy, she says, is
simple: “When life gives you lemons
and everyone else is busy making
lemonade, think about making mar-
garitas.”
‘Indians are known
for their intelligence’
It is the “fire in Indian students’ belly” that defines their character and
pushes them towards greater heights. It is not just their dream but
of their families’, said Dr Renu Khator keeping Indian value high
in an e-mail interview with Indo-Asian News Service.
Q What were your thoughts ed and large university system. This
milestone has been possible only
things, new approaches and new ideas
that America had to offer. But since I
when you as the first Indian were because I did not take this journey brought a strong sense of culture and
named the president of the alone. Many people — my parents, values from India, I was able contextu-
Houston University System? What siblings, husband, daughters, teachers, alise everything within this learned
was the sense of it all? Did you ever mentors, friends, and family — all have framework. Looking back, I feel that I
imagine that you would one day been part of this exciting and unbe- was able to get the best of both of the
come to occupy such a significant lievable journey. worlds. I quickly learned the American
Q
position in the American educa- way of connecting with people — at
tional system? Dr. Khator, travelling back in tailgate parties with casual conversa-
A I felt honoured, humbled, and
time, how did you manage the
transition from India to the US —
tions and by respecting others’private
space. Among the things that I had to
elated all at the same time. Having that is, how did you successfully unlearn were showing affection
grown up in a small town in India and strike roots in an alien society and through food, and giving unsolicited
having come from the “Marwari” clan culture? What were the ‘unlearn- advice. The most important thing for
where I had few role models if any, it ings’ and learnings? me was to observe, learn, and respect
A
was impossible for me to have dreams American ways without being judg-
that expanded to becoming I came to the United States as a mental. Today, I am equally comfort-
Chancellor/President of such a reput- teenager. I was fascinated by new able at a football game and at a havan.
pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 37
N RI of the Month
Q How would you describe the
differences in the education sys-
tems of India and the US?
A The two systems have their own
strengths. The most striking differ-
ences relate to (i) curriculum; (ii) gov-
ernance; and (iii) partnerships.
In terms of curriculum, I find the
Indian education system to be theory-
based, while the American education
system to be translational. College edu-
cation is approached in a structured
and specialized way in India while the
approach in America is more compre-
hensive and unstructured. For exam-
ple, an aspiring scientist and engineer
in India selects his/her path in the 9th
grade, while an American student does
not have to make such a decision until
after completing two years of college
38 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
education. All college students, irre-
spective of their intended degree, must
complete two years of common
coursework which includes liberal arts,
humanities, and sciences. Furthermore,
the American system allows a person
to enter college at any age and change
his or her mind during the course of
the degree. I have seen grandmothers
and granddaughters receiving degrees
at the same commencement and I have
seen people completing their Ph.D well
into their 70s.
In terms of governance, the
American system seems to enjoy more
autonomy and flexibility than its Indian
counterpart. Academic decisions are
controlled by the faculty with as little
intrusion from political and social influ-
ences as possible.
In terms of partnerships, the
American system relies heavily on the
private sector to build its resource
base. The top public universities today
are receiving only 10-15 percent of
their budgets directly from the gov-
ernment. Private philanthropy supports
educational mission as does the con-
tributions from the alumni who take
pride in building their alma matter.
Industry also plays a significant role in
defining educational needs and then
supporting the quality of the outcome.
Q A Indians are held in the high regard
Would you at some point of
time collaborate with Indian insti-
tutions?
A
The University of Houston is cur-
rently in conversation with more than a
dozen universities in India. We are
exploring joint degree programmes as
well as seamless pathways for students
to travel between India and the United
States to meet their educational needs.
There are several complications, includ-
ing accreditation and tuition, which
need to be worked out, but I am con-
vinced that we will be able to accom-
plish the goal in the very near future.
Q would belong to India and China. United States of America.
What aspects of the Indian
education system you think could
perhaps in some substantive way
contribute to the American system
of education?
A The Indian education system has by their American colleagues. They are
a lot of offer to the world. The Indian
Institutes of Technologies and the
Indian Institutes of Management are
among the world’s best institutions. I
personally found that my theoretical
background, which I acquired in India,
was extremely strong and helped me
grasp the practical components better.
Q Indian students are among
ence and engineering fields as gover-
nors, newscasters, directors, artists,
the best in US universities. What painters and poets. I think they are
work ethic or ethos drive such being noticed and it will help change
excellence? the stereotypes.
A Indian students who come to the Q India stands on the cusp of
United States are crème of the crème. significant transformation — in
They are intelligent, hardworking, tena- terms of its economic and political
cious, and focused. Most are willing to clout. Have you ever felt you could
sacrifice common pleasures, consid- perhaps participate in some man-
ered to be necessities in America ner in the story that India repre-
(Friday night clubs or Saturday night sents today?
football games), in order to accomplish
their goals. They are not easily dis- A I feel that I do participate albeit
tracted because they are looking to ful- from afar. I am proud to see the trans-
fill not just their dream but that of their formation and do not fail to avail any
families’. It is the “fire in their belly” opportunity to educate people about
that defines their character and push- it in any part of the world.
Q Your most defining moment
es them toward greater heights.
Q
It is said that the century as a person of Indian origin in the
mould contemporary perceptions A From the visibility point of view,
What are the perspectives that
about India in the West, particu- I must say that the appointment as
larly America? Chancellor/President of the University
of Houston topped everything. The
story was covered in over 165 news-
papers, radios and television stations
known for their intelligence, work in many parts of the world and was
ethics, and loyalty. Indians face stereo- hailed as the “American Dream”.
types as well, the strongest one being However, at a personal level, I would
that all Indians are math wizards. say that the most defining moment was
Sometimes, it prevents children of when I heard American students, who
Indian immigrants from finding their did not know how to say “Namaste”,
true potential in non-math fields. carry on a 10-sentence conversation in
Lately, I see Indians shining in non sci- Hindi at the end of my Hindi 101 class.
pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 39

T ravel
MANDU:
Hidden &
Forgotten
Mandu is a celebration in stone,
of life and joy, of the love of the
poet-King Baz Bahadur for his
beautiful consort, Rani Roopmati...
40 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
M
andu, known as ‘the city of joy’, is sit-
uated in the central Indian state of
Madhya Pradesh. Its origins are
uncertain. However, available liter-
ary and archaeological references date
it to the end of the first millennium, when the Palmara
rulers in the Malwa region took advantage of its natural
defences and built a fortified place under the name of
Mandovgarh, the capital of some of their short-lived king-
doms. At the end of the 14th century, the city fell to
Dilawar Khan Ghori, the governor of Malwa, who was at
the service of the Sultanate of Delhi. He took advantage
of the circumstances of the siege of Delhi by the Mughal
troops of the fearsome Tamerlain, to become indepen-
dent, nominating himself as the first Sultan of Malwa, and
establishing his capital in Mandu. The city was then
renamed Shadiabad or the ‘City of Joy’.
Today, a traveller can see even in the middle of nowhere
curious baobabs beside the walls and domes of any of the
countless cenotaphs, graves, huge stepwells or small
mosques, sometimes almost overrun by weeds. It is almost
baobab country...
A walk through the different monumental areas from
the north on the road to Indore through one of the strong
gates (Alangir or Bangui) takes one to the ‘Royal Enclave’
where lie some of the most impressive palaces of Mandu.
The Jahaz Mahal or the ‘Ship Palace’, long as a ship and
situated in the middle of two artificial lakes, welcomes the
beholder, and in the full-moon night and romances him
with the oriental flavours of the tales of the thousand and
one nights. The fourth Mughal emperor, Jahangir, a great
admirer of the site, was reported to have often talked about
its beauty. Nur Jahan, the most famous of his wives, also
admired the beauty of the place.
Not far from there, is the Hindola Mahal, a palace with
a strange architectural attraction, built in an odd style that
from the outside reminds one of a ptolomeic temple, with
successive archs looking like small viaducts in the interior.
It was here that the king gave an audience to his subjects.
A few metres further, the Nilakanta temple melds with
a curious fountain designed like a snake. Not far from there
are two big baolis or step-wells, Ujala Baoli and Champa
Baoli. These huge step-wells with several rooms and halls
were used by the royalty to rest in the hot days of summer.
From there can be seen the remains of old palaces like Gada
Shah Shop and the Royal Palace next to the northern lake.
The mosque of Dilawar Khan is another monument
whose ruins are scattered in the area.
In the middle of the village stands out the huge Jama
Masjid, inspired by the great mosque of Damascus. The
Masjid is regarded as the finest example of Afghan art in
India. Its considerable size together with the austere ele-
gance of its interiors holds out an aweseome architectural
effect. Inside are 17 polychrome mihrabs, the biggest of
them in the middle preceded by a graceful pulpit with dec-
Tomb of Hoshang Shah
The Tomb of Hoshang Shah is made of
white marble and was one of the sources
of inspirations for the famous Taj Mahal
of Agra. It is said that Shah Jahan sent
four of his architects to Mandu to study
the architecture of the mausoleum.
orated steps. In front of the façade is the tomb of Mahmood
Shah Khilji and the Palace of the Golden Coins or Ashrafi
Mahal, originally an important madrassa. Today, only one
of the eight towers remains of the celebrated Victory
Tower, commemorating Khilji’s famous victory against
the king of Mewar. The tower, still bearing polychrome
marble etchings, was perhaps the most important monu-
ment in Mandu.
Behind the Jama Masjid is another jewel of Mandu —
the Tomb of Hoshang Shah. This mausoleum is located in
the middle of a big courtyard with four towers in the cor-
ners of a cloister with arcaded galleries. The ‘tunnel vision’
effect created by row after row of carved columns seeking
to converge on an infinite point is reminiscent of the Great
Mosque of Cordoba.
The main building houses the tomb of Hoshang Shah as
well as five other smaller graves of his family. The build-
ing is made of white marble and was one of the sources of
inspirations for the Taj Mahal. It is said that Shah Jahan
sent four of his architects to Mandu to study the mau-
soleum’s architecture.
Another beautiful monument is the Roopmati Pavilion.
People in Mandu say that they still hear the echoes of songs
about the love of Roopmati and poet-king Baz Bahadur!
Roopmati’s Pavilion was built over an old fort. From there
she looked north at the palace of her beloved king and from
the other side longingly gazed at her birth place — the val-
ley of River Narmada.
Today, Mandu is located in an evergreen plateau in the
middle of lush vegetation. Surrounded by lakes, exotic
baobabs and splendorous monuments, it is an astonishing
throwback to a magnificent past.
pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 41
 S port
Gagan sets world
record at Olympic test
I
ndian shooter Gagan Narang
won the gold and surpassed the
air rifle men’s world record at an
Olympic test event held at Hannover
in Germany.
Narang’s score of 704.3 was 1.2
more than the existing world record
of 703.1 set by Austrian shooter
Thomas Farnik in the World Cup
finals held at Grenada in 2006.
Gagan shot a score of 599 in the
India to host Commonwealth
Basketball Championship
I n a major boost to basketball in
the country , the International
Basketball Federation (FIBA)
declared that India will
host the first
Commonwealth
Basketball
Championship
Bob
in July 2010.
FIBA President
Elphinston
hoped that the tourna-
ment will popularise the
sport in India and help
it close the gap with
other Asian giants like
China.
“We thought the
best way to popu-
larise the sport in
India is to hold big
tournaments and so
42 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
qualifications and then followed it up
with an excellent score of 105.3 in the
final round on July 2. In the sixth
qualification series he shot 9.9 which
prevented him from obtaining a per-
fect score of 600/600.
“By any standard this is a wonderful
performance and it is above the world
record score. The range authorities
were naturally happy with this high-
est ever score made by anyone in their
we decided to have the first
Commonwealth Championship here
in India. The youth here will know
that basketball is a prominent sport
across the world. And hosting it
before the Commonwealth Games
(CWG) in Delhi is the best way to go
about it.”
“Basketball is not included in the
Commonwealth Games in Delhi in
2010. But the Indian Olympic
Association (IOA) has told us that it
will extend all possible support for
basketball,” Elphinston saidduring his
three day visit to India.
Eight teams will feature in the tour-
nament, including Canada, New
Zealand, Nigeria, England, South
Africa and hosts India. BFI secretary-
general Harish Sharma said the tour-
nament will help the sport grow in
the country. —IANS
range and I feel it might take a lot of
time before anyone can break this
record,” said national coach Sunny
Thomas.
“I am happy he is training and shap-
ing very well for Beijing Olympics.
There is a lot of difference between
shooting a high score in a training ses-
sion than that from shooting it in a
competition. But I am very sure that
this will boost Gagan’s confidence and
inspire him to shoot a great score in
the Olympics,” he added. —IANS
Indian woman runs in
Olympic torch relay
in China
B usiness executive Meena Barot
on July 7 created history by
becoming the only Indian to take
part in the Olympic torch relay in
China, a moment she called the
“most beautiful” in her life.
Cheered and clapped by thou-
sands of Chinese and a handful of
expatriates, Barot, 36, who lives in
China, ran with the Olympic torch
for around 50-60 metres in Lanzhou
city in Gansu province around 8.30
a.m. (6 a.m. IST).
“It was like a celebration. I have
never seen anything like this in my
life,” an excited Barot said after her
run that lasted just a minute but is
sure to remain etched in her memo-
ry all her life. Barot, who moved to
China in March 2005 and speaks
Mandarin fluently, was ecstatic that
she got to keep the torch. —IANS
IPL likely to be the part
of ICC calendar
T I
he International Cricket
Council (ICC) is likely to
include Indian Premier
League (IPL) in its calendar.
The multi-million dollar Twenty20
tournament has been included in the
final draft of a radical proposal to
revamp ICC’s international pro-
gramming. The suggested sched-
ule includes IPL and will be
presented to the ICC’s exec-
utive board, reports The
Australian.
Leading players and player
associations have demanded
a space for the IPL for fear
that emerging crick-
Podium for Karun
in GP2 Feature race
I ndia’s Karun Chandhok has struck
a purple patch at Silverstone, U.K
with a stunning drive that saw him
starting 10th on the grid and finishing
third in the GP2 Feature race. The 24-
year-old from Chennai, who is backed
by Red Bull, Punj Lloyd, JK Tyre,
Amaron, ICSA Logistics and Sidvin,
added to his previous podium finish
eters will abandon playing for their
country and instead take the big mon-
ey on offer in the IPL.
A recent survey by the Federation
of International Players Associations
(FICA) showed that more than half
of the 64 players polled from seven of
the nine active Test countries, includ-
ing Australia, were willing to sacrifice
the end of their international career
for IPL money.
The new proposal has each of the
nine active Test nations playing each
other over a two-year period in three-
Test series. The top four nations
would then play semi-finals and a final
in the third year, while the fourth
year of the cycle would be kept
free for “icon” series such as the
Ashes. The current future-tours
program, which runs on a six-
year cycle, does not end until
2012 but the ICC has already
begun discussing what will
replace it. —IANS
this year (at another classic track in
Monaco) with a stunning perfor-
mance on July 6 that included a vast
array of passing manoeuvres.
“That has to be my best race ever
in GP2,” said Karun, the iSport
International driver who is already a
winner in Formula 1’s feeder formu-
la after his victory at Spa-
Francorchamps last year.
“I was quicker than Lucas di Grassi,
who finished second, but I just did not
have the time to catch him. But to fin-
ish third from 10th on the grid after
passing a lot of guys feels awesome,”
he added. —IANS
pravasi bharatiya | july
In Brief
India wins four gold at
Asian Youth Judo Champ
ndian judokas won eight medals,
including four gold, at the Asian
Youth Judo Championships in
Sana’a, Yemen. Balinder (boys,
42kg), Amit Kumar (boys, 50kg),
Sandhya Devi (girls, 48kg) and
Pooja Dhanda (girls, 57kg) won the
gold medals for India on July 3.
Ichal Devi (girls, 63kg) won the
silver while Neha Thakur (girls,
40kg), Sushila Devi (girls, 44kg) and
Romen Singh (boys, 60kg) won the
bronze medal. The 12-member
Indian team were second in both
the boys and girls sections.
Tendulkar named best
Asian batsman
A t a glittering ceremo-
ny held at the majes-
tic 19th century Mohatta
Palace on July 6 night, the
Indian players cheered as
Sachin Tendulkar’s name
was announced by Rameez Raja as
the continent’s best one-day bats-
man at the inaugural Asian Cricket
Council (ACC) awards ceremony.
Former India and Pakistan captains
Sunil Gavaskar and Imran Khan
were also honoured with special
awards titled “legendary cricketers”
of the neighbouring countries.
Professional basketball
league soon in India
A fter football, now the profes-
sional basketball league in the
country. The Basketball Federation
(BFI) is ready with the blueprint for
a pro league and is in the process of
tying up sponsorship deal. FIBA
president Bob Elphinston told
reporters in New Delhi on July 4
the world body will do everything
it can to raise the standard of the
game in the country.
The BFI is ready with a six-team
league and it is in the process of
finalising a sponsor. —IANS
2008 43
B ollywood
‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ shines Star Buzz
at National Film Awards South Indian composers
create music for Oympics
Marathi film ‘Shevri’. The

Bangkok
film’s producer Vidhu Vinod
Chopra and director Raj
Kumar Hirani will get a
Swarna Kamal and a cash
O
riginal tracks by south Indian
composers, Lekha Rathina
Kumar, have been chosen for the
gymnastics events at the Beijing

Indians award of Rs. 200,000 each.

Malayalam
‘Pulijanmam’, directed by
film
Olympics, starting August 8.
“While my music available in the
Germany-based Sonoton Library

go ga-ga over B
ollywood blockbuster ‘Lage Priyanandanan, bagged the best fea- was selected earlier for the warm-
Raho Munna Bhai’, based on ture film award. The film, based on up events, I am composing original
Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology, the eponymous play by N. tracks to suit gymnasts’ body lan-

Bollywood idols
hit the jackpot by winning four
national awards.
Starring Sunjay Dutt and Vidya
Balan, the film was cited for “revali-
dating the philosophy of non-violence
Prabhakaran, portrays the relentless
struggle between oppressors and those
who have the courage to resist them.
Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee
won the best actor award for his role
guage during the Olympics,” said
Kumar. The special symphony is
being created by Kumar in collab-
oration of keyboard player Mani
Sharma, flautist Sudhakar and sitar

S
cores of fans, mostly young, gathered outside the
Dusit Thani Hotel, one of the oldest five-star hotels
in Bangkok, to catch a glimpse of the stars during
the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards, the
June 6-8 extravaganza that drew the cream of Bollywood
led by the Bachchan clan. From Amitabh Bachchan,
Abhishek, Aishwarya Rai, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena
Kapoor to Fardeen Khan, Akshay Kumar, Govinda, Zayed
Khan, Katrina Kaif and Vivek Oberoi — people went ga-
ga over the superstars as well as budding actors. But the
Bachchan family was the most popular of them all. Fans
turned out in huge numbers to see the Bollywood’s most
sought after couple Aishwarya and Abhishek — they had
the longest line of autograph seekers.
“IIFA means a lot for us Indians living here. It is a per-
fect showcasing of India in terms of our stars and glam-
our,” said Ravi Mathur, who works as general manager in
a company in Bangkok.
Thailand has a nearly 85,000-strong Indian diaspora,
the moon as her autograph book was full. She said: “It is in a strife-torn world and helping in debutant director Suman Ghosh’s maestro Janardan.
like a dream come true for us. We usually see them (stars) rediscover the Gandhi within the ‘Podokkhep’. Tamil actress Priyamani
in films and admire them. But the experience of meeting common man”. Besides, Abhijat Joshi, claimed the best actress award for her Amitabh voted Asia’s
them in person is ecstatic. I can’t explain in words how I am Raj Kumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod acclaimed performance in Ameer sexiest vegetarian
feeling right now. And Bollywood stars were at their best Chopra got the best screenplay award. Sulthan’s ‘Paruthiveeran’.
behaviour and went all out to please their NRI fans, who
came in droves and stood outside the main IIFA venue for
hours to see them.”
The best lyricist went to Swanand
Kirkire for the song ‘Bande Mein Tha
Dum - Vande Mataram’.
The three-member jury for the
awards comprises Buddhadeb
Dasgupta, K. Bikram Singh and
L egendary
Bollywood actor
Amitabh Bachchan has
The IIFA, which has Amitabh as its brand ambassador, Dilip Prabhavalkar was adjudged Madhu Jain. The awards were been voted Asia’s sexi-
has till date been held in nine different locations across the best supporting actor for his roles in announced on June 10 are for films est vegetarian male in a
world, including Dubai, Sun City and Singapore. ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ and in the made in 2006. survey conducted by
“I am so happy that IIFA happened here this year. When animal rights group
I watched the award function in London, I never thought
it will come here this time. Finally, it happened here. I am Yash Raj Films to create People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (PETA).
so delighted,” said Richa Sachdev, who runs a provision
shop in Bangkok. The grand IIFA awards ceremony was entertainment district in Dubai While Hong Kong’s actress Faye
Wong was voted Asia’s sexiest veg-
held at Siam Niramik on the evening of June 8, complete
with glitzy performances and Boman Irani and Riteish
Deshmukh as hosts had the crowd in splits with their easy
T op Indian entertainment house Yash Raj Films (YRF)
has entered into a multi-million-dollar joint venture
with investment firm Dubai Infinity Holding (DIH) to
etarian female in the poll conduct-
ed among members of PETA .

with families of many having settled in the country three-
four generations ago. Ashima, a young woman, was over
repartee.The 2,000-capacity hall was full, with a majority create an entertainment district in this West Asian metropo- DQ Entertainment ties
of the audience comprising the Indian community. lis. To be called Yash Raj Films Entertainment District, it
will comprise theme park attractions, a movie palace,
up with MoonScoop
unique hotel concepts and Indian genre entertainment con-
cepts, according to a DIH statement. All the components of the entertainment
district will be themed around the YRF banner.
H yderabad-based animation
entertainment company DQ
Entertainment International (DQE)
“Bringing such a honoured name into the UAE (United Arab Emirates) has has entered into a strategic five-year
been a strategic move as it attracts the core demographic of the country,” DIH alliance with Paris-based entertain-
chief executive Samira Abdulrazzak said in the statement. ment company MoonScoop to
“Furthermore Indian cinema has an increased general following within the jointly produce television pro-
region, as cinema statistics highlight that Bollywood films gross higher than grammes and feature films, includ-
Western films. This will be a one-of-a-kind partnership here in the UAE, which ing those with Indian mythology
we are very proud to be associated with,” she added. and stories. MoonScoop group is a
The UAE is home to around 1.5 million expatriate Indians. leading worldwide brand manage-
“DIH is a dynamic investment company and what really counts is that we ment and entertainment company
share a similar vision,” YRF head Yash Raj Chopra said. The first phase of the engaged in the production, distri-
Yashraj Entertainment District is scheduled to be completed by 2012. bution of animated creations.

44 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008 45

B ook Review
Author: Amitav Ghosh
Publisher: Penguin Viking
Price: Rs.599.00; Pages: 528
T
he 1800s were a time of
enormous social disrup-
tion and displacement in
large parts of India.
Poverty and loss of land holdings
forced people to move to distant
places. In his latest book Sea of Poppies,
best-selling author Amitav Ghosh
draws a connection between large-
scale opium cultivation in India for the
Chinese market and the beginnings of
the indenture system, which took over
a million Indians through a span of 90
years to work on plantations in new
colonies of the imperial powers.
Ghosh brings it together, painting a
wide canvas of life in northern India
in early 19th century in a saga full of
action, drama and adventure.
He reveals a little known fact of the
history of opium cultivation in 19th
century India — it formed about 20
percent of the country’s revenue till
the 1920s. It was grown in India under
an extreme form of contract farming
in parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar in the 1830s to be sold by the
East India Company (EIC) to China.
The large-scale enforced farming of
a single cash crop disturbed the sub-
sistence agriculture of the region for
it did not allow the farmers to grow
food for their own consumption.
Opium cultivation impoverished the
farmer as the monopolistic EIC
offered low returns for the poppy
46 pravasi bharatiya | july 2008
The world of
‘girmitiyas’
From enforced opium cultivation, Indian
indentured workers forge a world far
from their homes in Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar — amid the expanse and nether
shores of the Indian Ocean...
crop. The trade declined after the
Chinese banned its import and the
British launched the opium wars to
force open the Chinese market.
It was about that time when slavery
was abolished in the British Empire
and plantation owners in Mauritius
and other colonies urgently required
workers to replace the newly freed
slaves on the sugarcane plantations.
The slave ships were quickly divest-
ed of their chains and shackles and
perfunctorily refurbished to carry the
indentured workers to Mauritius. The
social and economic disruption caused
by the colonial policies resulted in
many people accepting the indenture
contract and eastern Uttar Pradesh
and Bihar became the epicentre of the
indenture movement.
During his research, Ghosh discov-
ered that contrary to popular percep-
tion, many people came back home
after completing their contract, though
most people chose not to return to
India. Some of those who returned
went back later to Mauritius.
He also found letters written by
people in Mauritius inviting their rel-
atives and friends to join them. It was,
in fact, those who had returned home
that became the most actively involved
in the organisation of migration in
India. Another myth of indenture is
that it was mainly the lower castes who
migrated, but Ghosh discovered many
Making investment in India easier for overseas Indians.
Brahmins and other upper castes
among the indentured workers. There
were also a large number of Bengalis.
The moment of departure was a
time of loss and displacement, but the
indentured ‘girmitiyas’ found the
means to endure it — their greatest
resource was their capacity to take
pleasure in the little things of life, in
their songs and rituals...
The sailing ship Ibis had a varied
group of characters among whom
were the girmitiyas, who were thrown
together in cramped conditions in the
ship. It was an alien world out at sea
with a frightening, unknown destiny
awaiting them. But they slowly forged
new relationships, enmities and rival- For details contact:
ries also sprang up. The girmitiyas also
forged the beginnings of a new com- Col. Harmit Singh Sethi
munity — they become ‘jahazi bhai Chief Executive Officer - OIFC &
and behen’ (ship brothers and sisters).
Director, CII
Sea of Poppies links the decline of the
249-F, Sector 18, Udyog Vihar, Phase IV
opium trade and the emergence of the
Gurgaon - 122 015, Haryana, INDIA
Tel: +91-124-4014060-67 / 4014071
indenture migration with the rollick-
Fax: +91-124-4014070
ing world of the lascars — the Asian
Website: www.oifc.in
sailors of Indian, Malay and Javanese
origin who ruled the Indian Ocean
and beyond.
The first part of Ghosh’s planned
trilogy ends with a violent falling-out
on the ship — a small group stealthi-
ly departs in the ship’s longboat by
night, leaving the reader eagerly await-
ing the second instalment of the saga.
—By Shubha Singh Ministry of Overseas Confederation of
Indian Affairs Indian Industry
 CONNECTING INDIA WITH ITS DIASPORA

NALANDA: SEAT OF LEARNING

Vol 1 Issue 7 July 2008

P R AVA S I B H A R AT I YA

N
alanda, founded in the 5th century AD, is well-known the world over as an ancient seat of learning. The
ruins of this erstwhile residential university of Nalanda near Patna, in Bihar, are the silent reminders of the
high levels of accomplishment attained in the field of education and learning in India in the past. Nalanda
was one of the best known universities of its time, attracting thousands of students from far off places. Scholars all
over Asia and other countries in the Middle East had learnt about Nalanda and continued to visit Nalanda till its
destruction by Turkish and Afghan invaders in the 12th century.
Though the Buddha visited Nalanda several times during his lifetime, this famous centre of Buddhist learning shot
to fame much later, during 5th-12th centuries. Hieun Tsang stayed here in the 7th century AD and left detailed descrip-
tion of the excellence of its education system and the purity of monastic life practised here. He also gave a vivid account
of both the ambience and architecture of this unique university. In this first residential international university of the
world, 2,000 teachers and 10,000 monks students from all over the Buddhist world lived and studied here.
The Gupta kings patronised these monasteries, built in the old Kushan architectural style, in a row of cells around
a courtyard. Emperors Ashoka and Harshavardhana were some of its most celebrated patrons who built temples,
monasteries and viharas here. Recent excavations have unearthed elaborate structures here. An International Centre
for Buddhist Studies was established here in 1951. Nearby is Biharsharif, where an annual urs is celebrated at the
Dargah (tomb) of Malik Ibrahim Baya. Baragaon, two kilometres away has a sun temple, famous for its Chhath puja.
The place is now one of the biggest tourist destinations in Bihar and attracts tourists, especially Buddhists, from all
over the world.

The POWER
of GARBAGE
Waste is no mean debri — recycle it
and you have life-sustaining value

Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs

www.moia.gov.in, www.overseasindian.in
M I N I S T R Y O F O V E R S E A S I N D I A N A F FA I R S