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By Vijay Kumar SRINAGAR: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that there is a need for formulating a comprehensive health insurance scheme for the poorer sections of the J&K State to help ensure their better healthcare coverage. “A comprehensive and befitting insurance is imperative for ensuring them better medical facilities”, he maintained.

Chairing the 2nd meeting of the Task Force on Health Sector Reforms here today, Omar Abdullah called for optimum utilization of modern health practices to ensure better results. He underlined telemedicine, management and operation of Health institutions, compre-

Health Insurance to Poorer Sections in J&K hensive policy for PPP projects, drug policy and medicines procurement system as thrust areas for reforming.

Omar Abdullah said that the ultimate objective of the government is to ensure cent percent coverage of people especially living in far flung and remote areas under medicare schemes. “The Task Force is to help the Government in making delivery system more vibrant, purposeful and performing.”

The Chief Minister sought concrete suggestions from the Task Force for expanding the orbit of telemedicine network in the State to cover far off areas like Doda, Kup- J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wara, Poonch, Kishtwar, Kargil,

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Omar said that the Rs. 141 crore National Rural Telemedicine Network Project formulated by the SKIMS will be discussed at various levels with the Central Government for its funding.

The Chief Minister approved Rs. 78 lakh scheme for benchmarking 10 hospitals of the State including Srinagar and Jammu Government Medical Colleges as accredited under the norms and procedures of Quality Council of India. The scheme will help in conducting gap analysis in the delivery mechanism and infrastructural requirements,

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so that measures are taken to overcome the short comings and filling the gaps. This will also ensure upgradation in service delivery and health care management The Task Force while taking stock of the action taken on the decisions and recommendations made by this body also discussed issues pertaining to public private partnership policy, feasibility of state university for medical education, ban on private practice, establishment of clinical research centres etc.

The meeting was attended by the Minister for Health, Sham Lal Sharma, Minister for Medical Education, and other senior officers. Ground Report

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Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, june 25 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

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Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

A World Citizen’s Indian Stopover

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How the German head of a sporting company embraced cricket and discovered the country

By Veena Venugopal Andreas Gellner, 41, managing director, Adidas India, claims he is not going to South Africa to watch the football World Cup. That is what he had decided for the last two World Cups too—but not only did he go, he also ended up having some perspective-altering experiences.

“I did not want to go for the 2006 World Cup even though it was being hosted by my home country. I am not too keen to be in Germany, otherwise I would live there. Germans are not known to be fun-loving people so I thought it would be quite boring,” he says. But an Australian colleague insisted (“at gunpoint”) that he accompany him. “I was amazed by what I saw. It was so different from the country I had grown up in. The people were so friendly, there were these fan fests with thousands of people in the public square, there was no aggression. It was just a huge party and I never thought this could happen in Germany,” he says.

Then he tells another story of having to walk to his hotel in a “very tight, like a tank-top” Japanese jersey, the result of a roadside shirt swap with some Japanese fans after watching Germany lose the finals in Tokyo in 2002. I chase away the faintly disturbing mental image of the tall, gymtoned Gellner in a tank top and ask if this pre-tournament denial is a way to preserve his World Cup mojo or an easy way to discourage the “tons” of people who are asking him for free tickets (Adidas is a sponsor). “Never

say never, I am sure some twist will happen,” he winks as he settles back with a glass of Merlot. We are at the Connexions bar in Crowne Plaza hotel, where a TV on the wall is fortuitously tuned to a sports channel.

On paper, it seems a bit bizarre that a sporting goods company in India is run by a European who did not even understand cricket until about six years ago. But Gellner—young, peripatetic and adventurous—is clearly a world citizen, the kind of person who “puts his suitcase down in a new country and feels settled instantly”.

In an accent that is foreign, yet of no fixed antecedence, he says his primary question when he was interviewing with Adidas in 1995 was whether the job would allow him to work abroad. “They said yes and I joined the finance department in Germany. I was lucky that a couple of years later, when a regional finance role became available in Hong Kong, I was asked whether I would like to move,” he says. He spent a couple of years in Hong Kong before coming to the conclusion that finance was not really what he wanted to do. So he asked his boss whether he could switch to a general management position.

“An opportunity came up with Adidas Malaysia. Either there was no one else who wanted to do it or my boss believed in me—which I hope was the case—and I was offered the position. It was a small subsidiary but I felt that I had arrived and that this was the kind of profile I saw myself working in for the next 40 years,” he says.

Incubator: Adidas India offers sports sponsorships for promising tennis players.

Gellner is disappointed that Indian football is not quite there yet. ‘We don’t have a promising talent in football here,’ he says.

Gellner’s first introduction to India was when he was handling it as part of his regional finance role. “This was 1997. India had only a start-up company, small and loss-making.

There was a request that we needed to increase the equity in the company.

So we asked why. The answer was that we had to sign a major contract with the biggest sports symbol in India, his name is Sachin Tendulkar, and he is going to change the fortunes of the company. But right now, the contract is so expensive that we have to increase our equity in India,” he says. He had no idea who this player was and how anybody could be so important for any subsidiary that the equity of the company had to be raised. “After a lot of deliberation, we decided to do it. That was my first experience with cricket,” he says.

When he moved to India six years ago, his team’s first mandate was to teach him cricket. They took him to Eden Gardens in Kolkata to watch an India vs Pakistan match. “It was a fantastic venue, the experience was unbelievable: the passion, the atmosphere. I had a colleague on each side explaining the rules to me. That one match changed my perception of cricket. I also understood 70% of the rules, except Duckworth-Lewis, which I still don’t comprehend. Nobody does, I think,” he says.

Gellner’s new-found love for cricket helps him immensely in his job. After much back and forth between the headquarters and the Indian office, the company now not only produces and sells cricketing gear, it also exports it to the rest of the world. The cricket connect has also helped Adidas move to smaller Indian cities. It’s opening stores in places such as Moga in Punjab, Habsiguda in Andhra Pradesh and Shirdi in Maharashtra.

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, june 25 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

Gellner, who pursued MBA from Portland State University in the US and is a postgraduate in business administration from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, spends a lot of his time in the stores observing and trying to understand the Indian consumer.

“The Indian consumer is demanding, which is a good thing; I am not saying that in a negative context. They want a significant amount of quality, but they also want the lowest price possible,” he says. So he started sourcing from India to sell in India. Today, 95% of the apparel and 60% of the shoes that are sold in Indian stores are manufactured in India. What exasperates him about the Indian consumer, however, is the fact that quite a lot of them write to his global CEO complaining about a shoe whose sole has worn off or some such. “The amount of correspondence that goes to my global CEO is quite amazing, I haven’t seen it in any other country. I wish they would write to me first,” he says.

I ask him about the complaints regarding Jabulani, the ball Adidas has designed for this World Cup. “It has been the same thing for the last two World Cups. You can always question why someone comes up with the comment. It is a Fifa-approved ball— it is built to Fifa scale. If there are any deviations, Fifa would not have accepted it,” he says. As we leave the bar, the TV on the wall behind us is broadcasting a sports report about the same thing. “Another World Cup, same story. Get a life,” he shrugs and stalks out.- Mint

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Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

US Inc Slammed for Not Preferring India

WASHINGTON: American corporate giants faced a tough time on the Capitol Hill as lawmakers grilled them as to why they were opting to do business with communist China over a democratic India. The business captains faced a tough time when they appeared before the Congressional Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday on China’s trade and industrial policies. The questioning apparently was hard in the backdrop of the exit of world’s largest search engine Google from China and jailing of mining executives from Australia.

The lawmakers wanted to know whether it was the attraction of a snap of finger decision in the communist dictatorship that had lured them there or was it the massive market. And to most of these queries, the CEOs of the companies had the stock reply that China, the world’s most populous, was the largest market for US goods.

Robert Hollyman, president and CEO, Business Software Alliance, told the Congressional panel: “China is the number two largest market for personal computers to the US. It is larger than the combined market for India, Brazil and Russia in terms of sales of personal computers.”

“What we need to do is be paid for that,” Hollyman said. Most of the questions were put by the Congressman Jim McDermott who

told the industry leaders that they should start pulling the stuff out of China and putting it somewhere else. “Why doesn’t that happen?”

McDermott asked.

At the face-to-face on the Capitol Hill, McDermott said now executives are talking about the fact that China is the past, and people are now looking at Korea and India because of their rule of law and the fact that one doesn’t get thrown in jail for reasons one can’t understand, as one can in China. Ian Bremmer from the Eurasia Group said the US now needs to focus on countries like India and Indonesia rather than on China. “The US absolutely has to be much more focused on its bilateral relations with those countries that support transparency, rule of law, international governance: countries like India, countries like Indonesia,” he said.

“We have made incremental progress with China; it’s frustrating because it doesn’t change overnight, but I think as everybody on both panels has agreed, there is no magic bullet here.

“The thing is that we have to do the hard work that it takes to go after the issues with the Chinese, but when that fails, when the good faith negotiations fail then we do have to look to WTO consistent trade remedies as we have done,” he said. -IE

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Tata Nano Available off the Shelf Now NEW DELHI: Customers will no longer have to wait for long periods to own the Tata Nano as dealers are now offering almost immediate delivery of the world’s cheapest car.

However, the company is yet to clear a backlog of orders placed by customers.

Due to production constraints, Tata Motors had decided to make bookings through a lottery system and deliver the first one lakh units of the Nano by the end of this year.

While the company had recently stated that open market sales of Nano are likely to begin by August with its Sanand plant going into production mode, dealers said the base model can now be purchased within a period of just two days.

“The base model is almost readily available. You can book today and take the delivery tomorrow,” a staffer at a New Delhi showroom said.

Another dealer said that medium and top-end versions of the car would take longer to deliver.

“If booked today, the top-end model can be delivered in 15-20 days,” he added. When asked how they could entertain new bookings

Workers at the Nano plant in Sanand. File Photo: AP

when the first one lakh cars were yet to be delivered by the company, the dealer said that it was being done through “management quota“.

“You have to write an application to Tata Motors and it will be registered for booking... The car will be delivered under management quota,” one dealer official said.

When contacted, a company spokesperson said: “Tata Motors is now engaged in delivering Nanos to those who have already booked, as per schedule, and at the same price as was committed during the booking.” Earlier this month, the company had inaugurated the mother plant for Nano at Sanand in Gujarat. The plant has a capacity of

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2.5 lakh units per annum.

After forced to pull out of West Bengal’s Singur, its first choice, Tata Motors had been producing the car in limited numbers at its Pantnagar facility in Uttarakhand.

Nano was launched on March 23 last year. Bookings for the car opened in April 2009 and deliveries began in July that year. It has delivered over 35,000 units so far.

The company had selected 1.55 lakh customers through a draw, and only the first one lakh customers were declared price protected.

Nano, touted as the world’s cheapest car, is available at Rs 1.23 lakhRs 1.72 lakh (ex-showroom price, New Delhi).- Hindu

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DOHA: QatarAirways announced its expansion program was continuing with vigor with plans to launch six new routes in Europe and Asia from October 2010. The Dohabased airline will phase in the route expansion over a four-month period with daily flights to Phuket - after Bangkok, its second destination in Thailand - kicking off the growth drive on October 11. The new flights will operate via Kuala Lumpur.

Three weeks later, beginning November 1, Qatar Airways adds the Vietnamese capital Hanoi to its network with four flights a week via Bangkok. The new route will support existing services to Vietnam’s commercial centre and largest city of Ho Chi Minh City, where flights will also be stepped up from four-aweek to daily.

November 24 marks the launch of the carrier’s European expansion drive with thrice-weekly flights to the French Mediterranean city of Nice. Operating via Milan, the Nice operation will strengthen Qatar Airways’ services to France, where it al-

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Qatar Airways Announces Six New Routes ready operates to the capital Paris.

The New Year sees Qatar Airways’ entry into eastern Europe with the launch of four flights a week to the Romanian capital of Bucharest, starting on January 17. The services continue on to Budapest, capital city of Hungary.

And with five flights a week from January 31, the Belgian capital of Brussels, home of the European Parliament, rounds off an impressive list of destinations for the airline, which has maintained its strategy of

opening exciting new routes around the world since launching just 13 years ago.

Announcing the expansion at the airline’s annual commercial conference in the Qatari capital Doha today, Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker spoke of the carrier’s commitment to develop its route network far and wide from

its hub.

“Qatar Airways’ track record to grow remains strong and solid,” he said. “The airline is well positioned globally, focusing on a long term strategy that is forward thinking and not one to look back on.

“Budapest, Bucharest, Brussels, Nice, Hanoi and Phuket represent markets underserved so these are excellent opportunities for us to tap into.

“We spend a lot of time diligently analysing new route opportunities and I am pleased to say that the routes being announced today will not only open up new markets, but also strengthen our network strategy

over our Doha hub.”

Added Al Baker: “Today’s route network and fleet size will increase sharply over the next few years and all of us within Qatar Airways rise to the challenge by continuing to give our customers the Five Star level of service they fully deserve.”

By 2013, Qatar Airways plans to serve 120 key business and leisure destinations worldwide with a modern fleet of 120 aircraft. Today, the airline’s fleet stands at 84 aircraft, flying to 90 destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and North America.

This week -starting June 24- Qatar Airways introduces South America into the airline’s family of routes with the launch of flights to the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo and Argentine capital Buenos Aires.

South America represents the latest destination for Qatar Airways this year. Over the past six months, the carrier has introduced flights to Bengaluru (Bangalore), Copenhagen, Ankara, Tokyo and Barcelona.

- Travel Daily News

Indian Oil Corp Losing Rs1.15 Billion Per Day On Fuel Sales

New Delhi: State-run Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the country’s biggest oil retailer, is currently incurring a daily revenue loss of Rs1.15 billion ($24.9 million) on fuel sales in the domestic market, its chairman told reporters on Wednesday.

BM Bansal said petrol prices are currently Rs3.2 per litre below desired market prices, while diesel prices need to be raised by Rs3.4 a litre.

He said a panel of ministers, which would meet on Friday, was

expected to take a decision on the recommendations of a government committee that favoured deregulation of gasoline and diesel prices.

It would be a tough test of the government’s appetite for reforms in the face of high prices.

A decontrol could help state-run oil firms and bolster India’s fiscal health because fuel accounts for a quarter of its estimated subsidy bill of $25.6 billion.

Bansal said he expected the ministerial panel on fuel pric-

ing to lift government control over the retail prices.

He said his company was thinking of raising Rs80 billion through share sales, if the share price cross Rs400 a share. IOC

shares were trading up 1% at Rs345.50 at 1.25pm (0755 GMT).

“For raising money through share sales, we need to have four more independent directors on our board... we need money for

Flexible Yuan Not to Hit Indian Economy Adversely: Pranab Mukherjee WASHINGTON, DC: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said China’s decision to allow its currency, yuan, to appreciate against the US dollar will not hurt the Indian economy.

India is happy over China’s announcement for its flexible policy as far as yuan is concerned and the policy will not hit the Indian economy adversely, Mukherjee said here yesterday. China ended its 23 month peg against the US dollar, which saw the Chinese currency rising more than 0.4% against the

US dollar -- the biggest rise since 2005. It, however, fell 0.2% today after major Chinese banks bought dollar.

Yuan’s appreciation against the US dollar will increase the purchasing power of the Chinese, although it would make imports costlier for the West. On the other hand, increased consumption in China would help US and European exports. Mukherjee said China’s decision will help the global economy and that he is hopeful that China continued on page 33

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, june 25 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

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our various projects,” Bansal said.

The panel had on June 7 deferred a decision to ease government control over fuel pricing because of political pressure over high prices. DNA India

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Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

SOUTH ASIA

India Hands Over 11th Dossier to Pak on 26/11 Attacks NEW DELHI: On the eve of the meeting of Foreign Secretaries, India today handed over the eleventh dossier to Pakistan containing response to points raised by Islamabad over the Mumbai terror strikes and providing “additional information” on those involved in the attacks.

“The Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan was called in the afternoon and handed over a set of responses to the 6 dossiers received from Pakistan on April 25, 2010 on the Mumbai terror attacks,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said.

The dossier was handed over Tuesday by Y K Sinha, Joint Secretary in-charge of Pakistan, Iran and Af-

ghanistan, to Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner Riffat Masood.

Besides containing response to all the queries raised by Pakistan in their 6 dossiers given on April 25, India has also provided “additional information” on those involved in the Mumbai attacks and were operating from Pakistani soil, sources told PTI. The Indian “set of responses” also conveys India’s “mounting unhappiness” with Pakistan’s lack of “concrete action” against Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, a mastermind behind the Mumbai attacks.

In its 6 dossiers given on April 25 to Indian Deputy High Commissioner Rahul Kulshreshth, Pakistan had asked for 3 Indian officials, includ-

ing 2 magistrates and an investigator, to be allowed to travel to that country to testify that they had recorded statement of Ajmal Kasab, sentenced to death for the Mumbai carnage.

Pakistan had also asked New Delhi to hand over Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive during the attacks, to facilitate the trial of LeT’s operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and 6 others charged with involvement in the strikes in a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court. The Indian response comes few days ahead of the talks between Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir on June 24 during which both sides will attempt to bridge “trust deficit”.-Hindu

Remove Entry Fee on Buses to Vaishno Devi, Amarnath: BJP NEW DELHI: BJP on Friday expressed its ire over imposition of entry fee on vehicles carrying pilgrims to Vaishno Devi and Amarnath shrines in Jammu and Kashmir and warned that it will launch an agitation if the “jaziya-like tax” was not withdrawn.

Party general secretary Vijay Goel said for the first time an entry fee of Rs 2,000 has been imposed on all buses carrying pilgrims to any of the two shrines.

“This decision of the Jammu and Kashmir government to impose fee on lakhs of pilgrims going for darshan of Baba Amarnath and Mata Vaishnodevi by their private vehicles is reminiscent of Jaziya

imposed during Mughal period on Hindus,” Goel said.

Rs 2,000 will be charged as entry fee from buses carrying pilgrims to Mata Vaishnodevi shrine and Rs 2,000 more per day if they stay for more than seven days.

Similarly, entry fee of Rs 2,000 will be charged from buses carrying pilgrims of Amarnath Yatra. If people go for pilgrimage of Amarnath for seven or less days by their own vehicles, they would be charged Rs 2,000 as entry fee and if they choose to stay for more than seven days they would be charged Rs 2,000 extra for each additional day.

“If this entry fee is not withdrawn then the people will be forced to go

on an agitation,” Goel warned.

He further alleged that Rs 25,000 was being charged from those who arrange ‘langar’ (community lunches) during Amarnath Yatra.

When informed that restrictions had also been imposed on Haj pilgrims -- liking fixing their number -- Goel said, “We are not in favour of fixing quota in any pilgrimage.”

He called upon the UPA government to direct the Jammu and Kashmir dispensation to desist from making attempts to “discriminate” between followers of various religions.

He asked the Omar Abdullah government not to practice such “shameful politics”.-TOI

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Torrent Terrorizes Mumbai MUMBAI: Sea waves crash into an embankment in rain-lashed Mumbai on Wednesday, the Gateway of India barely visible through a curtain of spray and haze.

Forty-six people, including nine in Mumbai and Thane, were killed in heavy rain since Tuesday evening in Maharashtra. Road, air and rail traffic were affected.

A boundary wall erected by a construction company caved in on a cluster of huts at Dnyaneshwar Na-

gar in Thane, trapping over a dozen people. Nine people were killed and four were injured.The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation issued a high-tide alert for Wednesday and deployed lifeguards and firemen at the beaches. The state government has announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for each of the families of the dead, Rs 50,000 for each of the seriously injured and Rs 25,000 for each of those who sustained minor injuries.-Telegraph

Pak Sikhs Demand Visa-Free Travel to India PATIALA: Sikh families from Pakistan today appealed to the Indian government to facilitate a visa-free travel to India for pilgrimage and higher studies for their wards.

A 136-member contingent of Sikhs from Peshawar is on a pilgrimage to India which today visited Gurdwara Dukhniwarn Sahib here.

“We want a visa-free zone between India and Pakistan that will facilitate normal visits to India. It will also help build more confidence between the two countries,” Leader of the group, Wazir Singh told PTI. “We got visas after five months for the current visit. The Indian government should grant visas on the pattern of Pakistan government - which gives visas to Indian Sikhs for pilgrimage to the historic places in Pakistan,” he claimed.

Another visitor said that they were

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, june 25 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

mostly traders and wanted to give higher education to their wards, but the Indian government was not giving visas freely.

An older woman said, “We are limited people in the North West Frontier Province and wanted to marry our sons and daughters in India, but the visa restrictions have left no options.”

“We have no threat from Taliban in Peshawar,” another Sikh said, adding that some of their relatives have come to Peshawar and taken shelter in Gurdwara Bhai Joga Singh.

The group has already visited the Golden Temple at Amritsar and Takhat Sri Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo. Now, they have proceeded towards Takhat Sri Keshgarh Sahib at Anandpur Sahib after paying obeisance at the Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib.

Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

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31

South Asia News of the Diaspora

India to Press U.S. Over Bhopal Extradition

By Harmeet Shah Singh NEW DELHI (CNN): India will make “vigorous” efforts to push the United States to extradite the former head of an American chemical company in connection with the 1984 industrial disaster in Bhopal, India, a federal minister, Jaipal Reddy said.

A court in central India ruled earlier this month that seven top executives from Union Carbide India Limited were guilty for their role in a gas leak at the Bhopal plant.

The same court has issued an arrest warrant for Warren Anderson, the former chairman of Union Carbide Corp. But Anderson has been declared an “absconder” -- or a fugitive -- from the indictment, officials say.

Reddy sits on a panel that is recommending that Indian authorities use new evidence in support of the extradition plea: testimonies that the parent company was aware of what investigators believe were defects in its Bhopal plant. The country’s federal cabinet will have the final say.

India’s federal police first requested that the United States extradite Anderson in 1993.

“However, this request remains unexecuted,” India’s Central Bureau

try’s supreme court downgraded the charges to death by negligence in 1996.

Indian authorities blamed the tragedy on the maintenance and design of the site.

Union Carbide, however, has denied the charges, insisting the leak was an act of sabotage by an employee who it said had tampered with the gas tank.

The company, now a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co., paid a $470 million settlement to India in 1989.

But the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal said survivors have received an average of only $500 each in compensation.

Union Carbide says neither the parent company nor its officials are subject to the jurisdiction of Indian courts.

Sixteen years after the leak, Union Carbide became part of the Dow Chemical Corporation. Union Carbide claims the issue has been resolved and Dow has no responsibility for the leak.

Protesters in India demand the extradition of former Union Carbide boss Warren Anderson

120 Million to Join India’s Workforce: Says RBI

of Investigation noted in its statement on the day of the Bhopal ruling this month.

Nearly 4,000 people died in the immediate aftermath of the escape of methyl isocyanate, a chemical used to produce pesticides, from Union Carbide India Limited’s plant in Bhopal in December 1984.

More than 10,000 other deaths have been blamed on related illnesses, with adverse health effects reported in hundreds of thousands of survivors.

Many of them struggle with ailments including shortness of breath,

MUMBAI: Around 120 million young people are likely to join the country’s working population each year, which will drive economic growth but migration of workers from the farm sector to industry and services is essential to sustain high growth, according to Mr Subir Gokarn, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Speaking at a seminar on Friday, Mr Gokarn said, “To achieve high inclusive growth, there is a need to facilitate the transition of workforce from agriculture to services and industrial sectors. If the country is growing, that is not

cancer, near-blindness, fatigue and heart problems.

Indian industrialist Keshub Mahindra, then head of Union Carbide India Limited, six colleagues and their company were convicted earlier this month of negligence causing death, endangering public life and causing hurt.

They were granted bail after a judge imposed a two-year prison term and a fine of about $2,000.

Originally, the Indian defendants were charged with culpable homicide. Following an appeal, the coun-

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, june 25 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

mainly because of agriculture, but because of the services and industrial sectors.” Comparing numbers, Mr Gokarn said, “Nearly 10 million people are likely to join the nation’s workforce each year, much higher than that of China. However, he cautioned that the country needs to expand the capacity and capital intensity in the manufacturing and other related sectors to accommodate the newly joined workforce. While the manufacturing output has risen over the past two decade, there was no corresponding rise in the number of factories or workforce.-IM

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Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

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Why This Man is Ready to Take on the World

Fifteen years ago, BV Ravi Kumar had an HIV test kit ready, but bureaucrats would have none of it. Today, his company services 25 hospitals for brain, eye and other critical infection tests

By Seema Singh BANGALORE: The top floor of Xcyton Diagnostics Ltd at Peenya industrial estate in Bangalore houses the biological safety level, or BSL-3, labs—advanced research centres where some very infectious pathogens are scrutinized. Once commissioned, the lab will aid development of diagnostics for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

As he gives a tour of the labs, founder and managing director B.V. Ravi Kumar relives his roller-coaster ride as an entrepreneur. The 15 years come flooding back, most of it a telling account of how difficult it was, and still is, for start-ups to raise money for developing new products, particularly in life sciences.

“The government agencies then considered the private sector evil.

Venture capitalists (VCs), on the other hand, were scared of product companies,” reminisces Kumar. He says one of the early VCs in Mumbai had told him that his idea of using tissue culture for growing skin for burn transplants looked convincing when he presented his business plan, but called it fiction once he returned to Bangalore.

That observation, in a sense, guided his entrepreneurial direction—from skin to advanced molecular diagnostics. By then, he had already developed the world’s first diagnostic kit for neurocysticercosis (an infection of the central nervous system), while working at Astra Research Centre India, which later morphed into AstraZeneca Plc, the BritishSwedish pharmaceutical company.

It later gifted the neurocysticercosis patent to Xcyton. Pooling Rs51 lakh from 38 friends and acquaintances, including three professors from Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Science (IISc) from where Kumar got his doctoral degree after an MBBS from the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) in Puducherry, he set up Xcyton. In its maiden life sciences funding, the Small Industries Development Bank of India lent him Rs1 crore.

Lost cause

That was in 1995. A year later, he completed product testing of an HIV kit and was raring to go at some AIDS control programmes, only to realize that the bureaucracy of Nirman Bhawan in New Delhi wasn’t easy to deal with.

“The stroke of a bureaucrat’s pen can make or break a company,” he says, recalling his relentless visits to convince officials to look at scientific data and not the age of his company or his caste. He fought for over four years with HIV and hepatitis kits in tow, even pushing reforms in the World Bank tendering process so small Indian companies wouldn’t lose out. Some legislators even raised questions in Parliament on “the injustice done to Xcyton”, Kumar said.

But ultimately it was a losing battle for an entrepreneur, especially when the signs were clear that the margins for such products would not be attractive. In 2002, Xcyton sold its product marketing rights to GlaxoSmithKline Plc, which, in turn, sold them to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. In 2003, disillusioned with the public health system, Kumar decided to switch to niche, critical care diagnostics.

“In the intensive care unit, nobody asks for the price (of a diagnostic test), they only want to save life,” he says matter-of-factly.

Xcyton’s struggle doesn’t surprise many entrepreneurs. “If you ask me if there’s an investment climate for this (advanced molecular diagnostics), my answer is no,” says Suri Venkatachalam, chief executive and cofounder of Connexios Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd, a drug discovery company that recently spun off a diagnostics start-up Achira Labs Pvt. Ltd. The saga continues Twice funded by the New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) programme of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India’s largest public-funded research agency, Xcyton has novel molecular tests for brain and eye infections in the market, including one for endophthalmitis, an infection that occurs in 5% of cataract surgeries but has only been treated

Roller-coaster ride: B.V. Ravi Kumar at his lab in Bangalore.

Kumar set up Xcyton after pooling Rs51 lakh from friends and acquaintances, including three professors from IISc,

empirically so far. If the infection is not diagnosed and treated within 24 hours, the eye loses partial or complete vision.

Though Xcyton’s products would commonly be understood as DNA chip-based diagnostics, Kumar likes to call his technology platform a syndrome evaluation system, or SES. In ophthalmology, he is commercializing an SES that combines 14 different PCRs, or polymerase chain reactions—a type of DNA amplification, with tests developed by several hospitals and research centres, including Sankara Nethralaya in Chennai, LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, and RP Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi.

Similarly, SES’ therapy for acute encephalitis and septicemia (a deadly condition in which infection from any part of the body gets into the blood stream) along with antibiotic resistance tests and a few other diagnostics are in advanced stages of development.

With a product that is techniciandriven and for which hospitals need not make additional investment, Xcyton began offering services in July. It has signed up 25 hospitals

in four cities since. “We have shown that this model works,” says Kumar, conceding that he now needs money to ramp up revenue, to set up labs in major parts of the country so that the samples are collected and results delivered within 24 hours.

Market access Suri says the odds are doubly stacked against the diagnostics—it’s not only a new product that needs to be validated but it also requires an enormous marketing push. Kumar understands this well. “Launching a new healthcare product is highly expensive today…big pharmaceutical companies have set the trend of lavish conferences and junkets, which a small company cannot afford,” he rues.

In a country set to grow at faster than 8%, there still are low-hanging fruit to be picked and cost arbitrage to be milked, say experts. “It’s the (Café) Coffee Days of diagnostics, the Fortises and the Piramals of the industry that will rule the business,” notes Suri.

Kumar has heard this “high volume, low margin” refrain before— from the investors, that is.

By increasing volumes to do greater than 50,000 tests a year, the price can be reduced by about 50%, but market access is expensive, he argues. For instance, the current meningitis test costs Rs2,500 but has only 8% sensitivity, whereas Xcyton’s tests cost double but have 60% sensitivity.

The services model will work in India but “productization” of technology is another way to make the business model foolproof, suggests Suri. For that, says Kumar, he has the technical road map ready but it will need Rs25-30 crore. “I can then automate the whole system and make it a closed loop.”

If he manages to do that, he would face stiff competition from none other than the leader in the field, Roche Diagnostics, which is likely to enter the market with similar tests for septicemia in 2012. But Xcyton’s system would be at one-eighth the cost of what Roche could offer, Kumar says.

Fund infusion

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, june 25 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

Xcyton’s more than decade-long innovation-to-commercialization travails raise notable questions for the innovation-led growth that the country’s decision makers are talking today. And as Suri says, India needs a few success stories to end the chicken-and-egg situation.

Hari Buggana, managing director of InvAscent, the investment adviser of private equity firm Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund, thinks likewise. Buggana says he is excited about diagnostics but is “frustrated at not finding good, large enough companies to invest in.” By definition, private equity funds cannot make small, early-stage investments, but, he says, “VCs should fund such (Xcyton’s) technologies if they see a business model with an exit for themselves.”

“After all, healthcare services are the fastest-growing segment in the global economy,” he says.

To that end, Xcyton has been approached by healthcare companies in West Asia and Southeast Asian countries for partnerships. But it still needs a funding infusion if it has to be in the septicemia kit race of 2012.

Kumar’s disappointment is apparent: “Nobody, in my opinion, is looking at a 10-year horizon and looking at creating a culture of product-oriented innovation. Such a KPI (key performance indicator) is difficult to quantify and get a pat on the back before you retire.” The government could be the saviour, especially the new Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme (BIPP) of the department of biotechnology, or DBT. “The fact that we started something like BIPP, in a decade you will see great inventions,” Kumar says. “I hope the next guy in the seat at DBT is patient enough to wait for the result instead of terminating the programme prematurely.” Xcyton Diagnostics Started operations (in India) in 1995 Made in India: HIV and hepatitis kits; advanced molecular tests for brain, eye infections and a host of other conditions, offered as services at 25 hospitals and counting. Potential to compete with world leader in septicemia diagnostics at one-eighth the cost.-Mint

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Soul Story of a Fishy Cure

The fourth generation Goud, Bathini Harinath Goud recounts the incredible tale behind the incredible cure but keeps the aura of secret surrounding the family’s cure story intact

By Prabalika M. Borah Long long ago, in what is now called Doodhbowli lived a toddy merchant called Veeranna Goud.

Veeranna was known for his helpful nature. He would spend 25 per cent of his profit from each pot of toddy on the needy.

On a stormy Mrigasira Karti night in the year 1845, a wandering holy man from the Himalayas who was south-bound knocked on his door. He was soaked wet due to train, hungry and requested for shelter.

“My great grandfather offered him shelter, food and some dry clothes.

The sage rested that night and on the following day when he was about to leave, he passed on a secret,” reveals Bathini Harinath Goud. That secret is now what we call the ‘fish medicine’ or the ‘fish prasadam.’ Sounds like a page from grandpa’s tales, but true, vouches Goud. Since then the Goud household has been giving this medicine to those suffering from asthma.

A week ahead of the fish prasadam day on June 8, the Goud household is busy. From children as young as eight years old to the senior most member in the Goud family each one is taking note of every detail that requires attention.

In the living room of their modest house at Kavadiguda, the two youngest kids are glued to Doremon. The hand phone is ringing incessantly; Bathini Harinath Goud takes a break from the preparations and answers the call.

“A caller from Pune is enquiring about the possibility of a vegetarian way to take the medicine. I am the fourth generation person who is administering this medicine. It started with my great grandfather.

Now we are preparing the fifth and sixth generation,” says Bathini Goud, introducing his grandsons.

Of the five brothers and five sisters, Bathini Harinath Goud is the one who took keen interest to the practice when he saw his grandfather administer the medicine. “My brothers know it too and help me on the final day. Initially I assisted my elder brothers but unfortunately after their demise it has come to me. After me it is my nephew who will continue along with his cousins,” says Bathini Goud.

Following the tradition of the family, the ‘secret formula’ of the medicine is only shared with the immediate male members of the family.

The living room of the house is stacked with laminated photographs of the family in action. Photos of prime ministers, presidents, chief ministers and actors jostle for space with trophies, certificates and medals won by Harinath Goud for his service. “We refer to the secret formula as prasadam. Something divine and unadulterated. The sage never came back but he left a secret that helped many people lead normal life,” says Goud.

What about the controversies?

“This is not new. The British threatened our grandfather, our father had

Bathni Harinath Goud

to deal with protests and we had people challenging us with lab tests.

We are not afraid, there is nothing dubious in our medicine,” he smiles.

What about the dwindling numbers? “Very simple, when people get cured there is no need to come back.

Whether we treat one or lakhs of people the satisfaction is boundless,” says Goud.

The prasadam became popular when his great grandfather started giving it to people who suffered from asthma. “The year was 1845. He would help people within the village.

Then came the time of my grandfather. Transport system improved and people came on bullock carts from nearby villages. When it was my father’s time the medicine became a little more popular. Because that was the time when people travelled in buses and trains. And now we have people coming from Australia, the UK and the USA, thanks to the Internet,” he smiles, pointing out his website address on his visiting card. - Hindu

in d ia

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Yuan Not to Hit Indian Economy Adversely: Pranab Mukherjee continued from page

29

will follow the policy keeping in view the interest of the world economy.

“I would hope that China would address the problems in proper perspective and what they have announced (if) they mean it and they would adopt flexibility, (it) will help the world economy,” he said.

“In our bilateral relationship, it is not going to have that much impact. But I do believe, as a major player in economic arena, China should take note of the concern of the world economy and have the flexible (currency),” he added.

Though he said China’s yuan policy will not adversely impact the Indian economy, exporters in India are looking forward for it as they expect to gain from a revalued yuan.

Appreciation of yuan will help Indian exporters compete better with their Chinese counterparts in the global market, especially in areas like textiles, leather and handicrafts. Leaders of the industry and export organisations feel that the Chinese exporters will no more be able to quote artificially low rates to the buyers.

Industry body CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee said that they expect exporters of textiles, chemicals and light engineering goods to benefit from such a move.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations president A Sakthivel said quotations by Chinese suppliers do not reflect the real value of the dollar, hurting Indian interests.

Earlier in the day, the White House said that it would be monitoring the progress on the Chinese assurance that it would be making its currency more flexible.

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Going Gaga Over Desi Food

MUMBAI: If the latest grapevine is to be believed, singer Lady Gaga will be in India soon. And it’s not just one of those pleasure trips. She is planning to come down to India this November and again in February next year.

Lady Gaga is planning a show in Ban-

ente r tain m ent

galore. And two other cities — Delhi and Mumbai — are also likely to feature in her scheme of things. Talk with a Bangalorebased event management company are in the initial stages. Though the show is slated for next year, Lady Gaga wants to undertake a pre-tour travel as well.”

Interestingly, Lady Gaga is quite intrigued with the subcontinent’s culture. It’s been reported earlier that Lady Gaga loves Indian food, with her favourite dish being Pasanda. During tours her favourite pre-concert food is chicken and hummus. Having recently seen a Bollywood show in Paris, Lady Gaga’s interest in India has gone up manifold.

Before her concert tour, she has shown interest in visiting India. Though she knows that her music is quite popular in India, she wants to travel discreetly to gauge her popularity. And obviously tasting authentic Indian food and touring India’s exotic locations also features in her plans.”

After the discreet travel, she will come back in February-end next year if the deal of the concert is finalised. “Going by her whacky taste in fashion, she is very much expected to try something different with Indian clothes,” the source says.

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Anupam Kher Pulls Out of ‘My Friend Hitler’ MUMBAI: Veteran actor Anupam Kher, who was to play the role of Hitler in the Bollywood film My Friend Hitler, has opted out of the movie amid protests by Jewish groups.

Kher said he decided to pull out of the movie because he did not want to hurt the feelings of so many people.“Sometimes human emotions are much more important than cinema. When I signed the film, I did not expect that it will make so many people unhappy,” Kher told PTI. The 55-year-old actor said he was also not happy with the way director Rakesh Ranjan Kumar and the film’s producers were creating a wrong impression about the movie in media.

My Friend Hitler is said to look at Hitler’s

personality as well as his relationship with Eva Braun, to be played by former Miss India, actress Neha Dhupia, and other associates as the Third Reich collapsed. According to director Rakesh Ranjan Kumar, the film’s title is a reference to the two letters written by Gandhi to Hitler before World War II broke out in which he referred the Nazi dictator as “my dear friend”, before pleading that he avoid starting a War. The launch of the movie was covered by international media and invited strong reactions from the Jewish community in India and abroad. Historians too criticized the director for claiming that Hitler was a friend of India.Outlook

Lalu Takes a Bite at Bollywood Movies

Lalu Prasad Yadav claims today’s cinema is not for family viewing.

NEW DELHI: He is known for his outspoken nature and blunt words and former Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has now taken aim at the Hindi film industry saying today’s cinema is not suitable for family viewing.

Participants of a TV reality show were asked to interview the Bihar MP as a part of their contest and Lalu answered queries not just about politics but issues related to media itself.

Taking a dig at the film industry, Lalu said that today’s cinema is not suitable for “familyviewing”. He even said that he would clear the mess in the industry if given a chance like he had done in the railways.

“Why can’t I be the CM, is there any problem with me?” shot back Lalu when asked if he or his wife, Rabri Devi, would become the CM in case his party won the next assembly elections in Bihar. The waggishness with which Lalu answered the participants’ queries brought forth peals of laughter from the audience.-Agencies

Raavanan - A Maniratinam Tamil and Hindi Thriller

Dev falls in love with Ragini, a spunky classical dancer who is as unconventional as him. They get married and he takes up his new post in a small town in South India.

A town where the world of law is not the police but Veera, a tribal who has, over the years, shifted the power equation of the place from the ruling to the havenots of the area.

Dev knows that the key to bringing order to any place is not to vanquish the big fish; in this case - Veera. In one stroke Dev manages to rip open Veera’s world, and set in motion a chain of events which will claim lives and change fortunes.

Veera, injured but enraged hits back start-

ing a battle that draws Dev, Veera and Ragini into the jungle. And in this journey they must confront their own truth. A journey which will test their beliefs, convictions and emotions.

Emotions which are as scary and confusing as the forest. The forest becomes the battleground.

The battle between good and evil, between Dev and Veera, between Ram and Raavan.

But when the lines dividing good and evil are blurring fast whose side will you take. When hate turns to love and the good starts looking evil.Which side will you battle for?

Love is the battle that nobody wins but everyone must fight. Even this Raavanan.

- India Syndicate

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India’s Rent-a-Womb Industry Faces New Restrictions

By Hillary Brenhouse Since the day they were delivered more than two years ago, twin toddlers Nikolas and Leonard Balaz have been stateless and stranded in India. Their parents are German nationals, but the woman to whom the babies were born is a twentysomething Indian surrogate from Gujarat. The boys were refused German passports because the country does not recognize surrogacy as a legitimate means of parenthood. And India doesn't typically confer citizenship on surrogate-born children conceived by foreigners. Last week Germany relented, turning over travel visas, and the entire Balaz family is finally going home — though only after a long legal battle that took them deep into the convoluted world of intercountry adoption.

"We can only wish them good luck," India's Supreme Court told local media. But it also reiterated the urgent need for legislation to regulate one of India's fastest-growing industries. Hundreds of foreign tourists spill into the country every year to hire women to incubate their children. India has become the world capital of outsourced pregnancies, whereby surrogates are implanted with foreign embryos and paid to carry the resultant babies to term. In 2002 the country legalized commercial surrogacy in an effort to promote medical tourism, a sector the Confederation of Indian Industry predicts will generate $2.3 billion annually by 2012. Indian surrogate mothers are readily available and cheap. Unlike most countries in which surrogacy is lawful — and bucking the norm in heavily bureaucratic India — the procedure can take place without reams of government red tape.

That may soon change. A draft bill to direct assisted reproductive technology (ART) is likely to be introduced this year in Parliament.

The new legislation will beef up surrogacy guidelines authored by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) that have often gone unheeded by the few hundred Indian fertility clinics accustomed to writing their own rules. Among them is the Akanksha Infertility Clinic in the town of Anand, in the western state of Gujarat, where the Balazs found themselves. "We are lost when there are no laws," says Akanksha medical director Dr. Nayna Patel, who has become the face of the industry abroad since being spotlighted on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007.

"But the people drafting the bill have to remember to take care of the clinics, too."

Patel chooses among the women who appear at the clinic, at least three a day, hoping to hire out their wombs. She pairs the surrogates with infertile couples, catering to an increasingly international clientele base —from 13 foreign couples in 2006 to 85 in 2009. And she oversees the negotiations between them. The entire process costs customers around $23,000 — less than one-fifth of the going rate in the U.S. — of which the surrogate mother usually receives about $7,500 in installments. Patel

Surrogate mothers wait for a checkup at Dr. Nayna Patel’s clinic in Gujarat, India, on Dec. 4, 2007

implants the women with embryos, using specimens from sperm or egg donors if necessary. Once pregnant, the surrogates are housed onsite until delivery, in a dormitory that was once a local tax office, so that they can be supervised. But under the new legislation, Patel will be permitted to supervise nothing but surgery.

The new proposed government bill bans in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics from brokering surrogacy transactions. It also calls for the establishment of an "ART bank" that will be responsible for locating surrogate mothers, as well as reproductive donors. Fertility clinics will only come into contact with surrogates on the operating table. "We need to create a safe distance between the clinic and the surrogate to avoid unethical practices," says Dr. R.S. Sharma, deputy director general of the ICMR and member-secretary of the bill's drafting committee. "IVF clinics should only be concerning themselves with science."

It's a suggestion that has caused a stir in the medical community. Dr. Patel insists that she will not accept a surrogate sent to Akanksha unless she herself is permitted to perform medical and background checks. She maintains that ART banks will not have enough experience to determine whether a woman is fit for surrogacy, let alone to replicate the personal bonds she cultivates with her surrogates. "The trust they have with me is what makes the whole thing secure and safe," she says. "And at the end, when they want to buy a house or a piece of land for farming, we get them the best deal. With this bill, we will not know what they are going to do with such a big amount of money."

Indeed, surrogate mothers are likely to enjoy an unprecedented autonomy.

They'll have more freedom in negotiating their fee and receive mandatory health insurance from the couple or single employing them. Firm legal standards will ensure that medical professionals only be permitted to

implant three embryos in a woman's uterus per attempt. (The American Society for Reproductive Medicine advises doctors to implant just one; until recently, Dr. Patel routinely used five at a time, aborting anything more than two fetuses.) The legislation will only allow a woman to act as a surrogate up to five times, less if she has her own children, and will impose a 35-year age limit. That way, ladies motivated by desperation won't be able to put themselves at risk.

In a push to avoid cases similar to the Balaz family debacle, the bill will also make things more challenging for foreign customers. The new legislation will require that the international couple's home country guarantee the unborn infant citizenship before a surrogacy can even get off the ground.

Such a stipulation will certainly not go over with Germany. "In fact, I'm not sure if any country will be ready to pledge citizenship before birth," says Amit Karkhanis, a prominent Mumbai surrogacy lawyer. Countries accepting of surrogate-born children typically rely on DNA tests done post-delivery to determine the parentage of

the baby.

Same-sex couples — a growing number of whom are relying on Indian surrogates — may not even make it as far as a plea for a government pledge. Just last year, Delhi's High Court overturned a section of the penal code outlawing "carnal intercourse against the order of nature," and the status of gays and lesbians in the country remains unclear. "To-

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, june 25 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

morrow, if the government outlaws gay relations," says Sharma of the bill's drafting committee, "then we will not allow gay couples to hire surrogates. The law of the land will be followed so far as this issue is concerned."

When Australian partners Trevor Elwell and Peter West visited the country nearly two years ago, only one clinic was open to providing them surrogacy services. Now, with their surrogate-born twin girls a year old and their third baby incubating in Mumbai, Elwell estimates that a halfdozen Indian IVF clinics cater to homosexual couples. The men have found it uncomplicated to use Indian egg donors. They've made the switch to a facility where their new surrogate knows they are gay, and is comfortable with it. And they attained Australian citizenship for their children in a process that took no more than a few weeks. For them, as for most who flock to India hoping for a baby, informal surrogacy guidelines have been a blessing. "If the bill does complicate things, people will go to another country," Elwell says. "There will always be somewhere this can be done. This is just the beginning."Time

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Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

society

RELIGIOUS SERVICES

Temple hours: Monday - Saturday: 9am- 11am and 4pm to 7pm; Sandhya Durga Bari Society Aarti 6.30pm. Sunday 9am- 7 pm. www.houstondurgabari.org, Champak 832-347-4003 Sadhu. • 13944 Schiller Road.

Hindu Worship Society Temple

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Fat Loss, Not Weight Loss

How do we know that we are lowering our body fat levels and not just our body weight, when we drop kilos?

Priest – “Bhibhdutt Mishra Ji”. Open for Darshan all days, except Thursday, from 8am -10am & 5pm - 8pm. Sunday 11:30am to 1:30pm – Regular Puja, Religious discourses and Prasad. Website www.hwst.org

Parkash & prayer everyday: 6-7:15am, Evening Diwan: 7:15-8:30pm, Special Sikh Center of Gulf Diwan: Wed: 7-8:30pm, Sun: 10am-1:30pm, Langar everyday. 8819 Prairie Coast Area Dr., Houtson TX 77064, 713-466-6538, 281-635-7466, 832-633-5092 Shri Kripalu Kunj Ashram 713-344-1321

Satsang & spiritual discourses, Sun: 10.30 am.-12.30pm. with simultaneous prog. of Hindi, Sanskrit and Moral science for kids, dance classes for children and adults every Fri:8 pm, www.shrikripalukunj.org

Shri Radha Krishna Four Arti daily: 6:30am , 12 noon, 7pm & 9pm. Tuesday & Saturday 7:10pm.

Sunday Bhajan and Kritan at 6pm. Maha Arti 7pm, More information www.

Temple srkt.org Located at 11625 Beechnut Houston, TX 77072.

281-933-8100

Please note: The above section for Religious Services has been provided as a free service for many years. We are now updating this section to make it informative for our readers. To help provide this service on an ongoing weekly basis, we are making these listings available for a nominal annual charge. Give prominence to your religious services with a special block ad for an annual cost of only $150. That is only $2.88 per week.Thank you for your ongoing support.

Gandhi’s Key to Self-Understanding

By Rujuta Diwekar “You know, my neighbour, he is, like, stick-thin and he just went through a coronary bypass!” Heard that before, or know someone who’s far from overweight, and yet stuck with one or the other of those “obesityrelated diseases”? It’s no surprise if you do.

Though many of us jump on the weightloss bandwagon to “fix” a bad knee or back, blood pressure problems, diabetes and so on, these problems are not exclusive to overweight people. Those within the “healthy body weight or BMI” range get them too. In fact, body weight is no indicator of fitness, health or wellness. If at all there is an accurate marker of all three, it is your body fat, and not your body weight.

If your last “successful” diet or exercise plan made you lighter on the scales and wallet but heavier on circulating body fat and poorer on lean body weight, you have only

walked a step closer to heart disease and a host of other “obesity-related” ailments. If your goal was to get healthier, and not to just lose weight because you have a wedding to attend, or because you are crossing 40, you need to get on to a sensible fat loss plan.

The question is: How do we know that we are lowering our body fat levels and not just our body weight, when we drop kilos?

I could write a book on that (in fact, I have) but here are some telltale signs that you have dropped fat, not just weight: * Your nails will grow faster than ever. * Your hair looks lustrous. * You are able to lift and move things around effortlessly. * You wake up hungry in the morning, and generally feel more in tune with hunger signals than before. * You no longer feel tired/ bored about going to the gym or for a morning run.-Outlook

Want Happiness? Talk to Your Dad

Mohandus K. Gandhi fought for freedom.

In the spirit of compassion and nonviolence, he worked tirelessly until his death for the independence of his beloved India. He is remembered for his courage, his strength of character and his faith. Clearly, he was a man with unique insight into himself and others.

Here are some of Gandhi’s words about understanding our true natures, leading by example and being the best we can be in any situation: 1. All your scholarship would be in vain if at the same time you do not build your character and attain mastery over your thoughts and your actions.

2. Rule of all without the rule of oneself would prove to be as deceptive and as disappointing as a painted toy mango, charming to look at but hollow and empty within.

3. True morality consists not in following

the beaten track, but in finding out the true path for ourselves and in fearlessly following it.

4. Your character must be above suspicion, and you must be truthful and self-controlled.

5. The truest test of civilization, culture and dignity is character, not clothing.

6. Self-respect and honor cannot be protected by others. They are for each individual himself or herself to guard.

7. One’s everyday life was never capable of being separated from his spiritual being.

8. What I want to achieve, what I have been striving and pining for these 30 years, is selfrealization, that is, to see God face to face.

9. The pleasure lies in making the effort, not in its fulfillment.

10. I would like people to compete with me in my contentment. It is the richest treasure I own.

Do you want to know the secret to happiness? Well, kids, just talk to your dad, says a study.

Researchers at the University of York have found that children who regularly talk to their fathers are happier than those who do not -- the findings are based on an analysis of the British Household Panel survey into 1,200 young people all aged between 11 and 15 years. Young people who said they talked seriously to their dads “most days” gave themselves an 87 per cent score on a happiness scale compared with 79 per cent for those who said they hardly ever spoke to their fathers in this way.

Nearly half of young people -- 46 per cent – said that they “hardly ever” spoke to their fathers about important topics compared with 28 per cent who hardly ever spoke to their mothers about the things that matter most. Only 13 per cent confided in their father “most days”, according to a report.

The study, commissioned by Children’s Society, showed that young people talk less to their fathers about important issues as they get older. The data showed 42 per

cent of 11-year-olds did so more than once a week compared with 16 per cent of 15year-olds.

The analysis suggested there has been little change over the years with the same proportion - 30 per cent – of young people talking to their fathers about something that mattered to them more than once a week in 2007-08 as in 2002-03.

The charity said the findings were “highly significant” as academic research has shown that a child’s well-being later in life depends on their teenage relationship with their father as well as with their mother.

Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of Children’s Society, said: “This research shows that young people’s happiness is closely linked to how often they speak to their fathers about things that matter.”- IE

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British Airways Woos Indian Students With Special Offers MUMBAI: British Airways on Monday announced a special offer to woo Indian students, who are seeking admission to educational institutions in various countries, including the UK and US. Under this offer, Indian students who are flying abroad from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai to the UK, Europe, Canada and USA for studies would be allowed to carry 23 kg of free excess baggage, a press release said.

Students hopping onto a British Airways flight from Hyderabad would be entitled to a discount of Rs. 4,000 on all bookings, it added.

According to the airline, the offer is valid for students holding valid student visas to the UK, Europe, USA and Canada only, and the outbound trip must be undertaken before November 15.

Dependents accompanying the student can also benefit from the free-excess baggage offer. It will also be available for students travelling to the UK for medical examinations (PLAB), the release said.

Besides this, the airline is also providing a range of other offers worth Rs. 10,000 from its various partners, including American Express, Matrix

Under this offer, Indian students who are flying abroad from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai to the UK, Europe, Canada and USA for studies would be allowed to carry 23 kg of free excess baggage, a press release said.

and Safari luggage.

“From experience, we know that students travelling abroad need to take a lot of extra baggage, especially if they are on their maiden trip. But the cost of excess baggage is a serious problem for them. So, with this offer, we have increased the baggage limit for students and dependents travelling with them,” British Airways’ Regional Commercial Manager (South Asia) Judy Jarvis said.

As part of the partner offer, the students would also receive special forex

rates on American Express Traveller Cheques. They would also get a dual-time wrist watch on purchase of cheques worth USD 3,500 and above. In addition, the partner offers provide for free call-back facility to India from the UK (free 255 minutes of talk time worth 89.23 pounds) and USA (free 50 minutes of talk time worth USD 35) on Matrix connections. According to industry statistics, about 1,60,000 students from India go abroad for higher education every year.-PTI

Nissan Fast Charger Revives Batteries in 30 Minutes TOKYO: Japanese carmaker Nissan has unveiled a high-performance charger which can revive the battery pack of the new Leaf electric car in just half an hour.

The “Quick Charger” can restore 80 per cent of battery power within 30 minutes, compared to around eight hours for a conventional recharging station which typically replenishes batteries overnight.

The device looks like a cross between an oversized refrigerator and a fuel station petrol pump. The price of some 21,600 dollars for the device may deter potential customers; especially since they will have already paid more than twice that sum for the car which is due to go on sale in Europe during 2010. An exact intro-

duction date for the model has not been announced.

The Leaf will initially be introduced in Britain, Ireland, Portugal and the Netherlands, with the Netherlands the first European country to get the car.

The mini power An all-electric Nissan Leaf station is aimed primarily at shopping centres or local authorities who might like to underscore a further 200 with the high-perfortheir green credentials by providing mance charger. The Japanese comthe owners of electric vehicles with pany says the network will mean that no owner is further than 40 kilometres an extra recharging service.

Nissan plans to establish 2,200 away from the next public charging conventional charging stations and facility.-Hindu

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Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

Food Talk

Roll Mexican ‘Roti’ With Peruvian Fish In Indian Kitchen All one must have is a creative flair for culinary arts and the enterBringing the flavours of Mexico prise to experiment, the chef said.

For beginners, how about a simand Peru to the everyday Indian kitchen is not very difficult, for ple Molletes (pronounced Moete) the food of these nations share , or a kind of stuffed tortilla, for lunch? striking similarities ‘It is not difwith Indian cuisine. ficult to make,’ The Mexican tortiMurguia said. lla is like the Indian Spread Mozzachapati and Indian rella cheese on spices like cumin, French bread and pepper, cinnamon bake it. Mash a and coriander are bowl of boiled widely used in Pe‘rajmas’ or beans ruvian dishes. and keep aside.

A simple Mexican ‘Prepare a pico or Peruvian table de gallo or a calls for pantry ba- Cebiche a Peruvian fish preparation diced mix of sics like flour, corn, chillies, bell-peppers, capsicums, finely chopped tomato, onions, tomatoes, onions, coriander, Indi- coriander, lime juice and salt. Put an rajma, green beans, lemons and it on the top of the bread with cheese - ingredients that come off cheese. Fry the mashed rajma (beans) lightly and top the salad the neighbourhood vend.

‘Mexican and Indian cuisine have mix with it. Wait for the cheese to several bridges of similarity. In the melt. Cut the bread with toppings Mexican gastronomy, tortilla made into slices and it is ready to eat,’ of corn flour is the equivalent of Murguia, who has created a speIndian ‘chapati’ (flat-bread) made cial menu for the ongoing FIFA of wheat or refined flour while the World Cup. The process can be repeated with basis of all curries - that both the nations like spicy and hot - are on- tortilla, the Mexican avatar of the ions, chillies and tomatoes. Rice is ‘roti’.

‘Put the cheese and veggies in the also common to both the cuisines,’ brand chef Victor Murguia of the tortilla and fold it loosely,’ MurMexican eatery Sancho’s in Con- guia said. The pico de gallo can be naught Place told IANS at a Span- flavoured with a homemade sauce ish fiesta at the Instituto Cervantes or chutney of crushed coriander and pumpkin seeds. this week.

By Madhusree Chatterjee

Quesadilla (pronounced Kesadiya in Spanish and English) is a Mexican dish- corn or wheat tortilla with cheese stuffing. It is cooked until the cheese melts.

While Oaxaca cheese is the most common filling, in some areas of northwestern Mexico, ‘the cheese is supplemented with mushrooms, onions, garlic and peppers’.

‘Oaxaca cheese can be replaced with the Italian mozzarella that is available in super stores across India,’ Murguia said. Two other variations of the dish are the ‘gringa (stuffed and cooked tortillas)’ and the ‘fritas’ - quesadilla fried in oil.

Indian, Spanish and Hispanic nations have a long gastronomic history that has been subjected to foreign influences.

‘Chef Guido D’Gallia from the institute taught a packed house of Indian gourmet eaters and cooks three simple Peruvian dishes of Spanish origin. He said: ‘Indian spices like cumin, pepper, cinnamon and coriander are widely used to cook Hispanic dishes.’

He cooked Cebiche, a Peruvian delicacy of raw curvina fish marinated with lemon (lime juice), salt, chillies, onions, rock salt and chopped coriander and served with cold potatoes.

‘Blame the Indian-Spanish-Latino gastronomic links to the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, who sailed to India to wrest the spice trade for western and the new world,’ chef Murguia said. -

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Sukham Ayu: Cooking with Ayurvedic Insights Sukham Ayu is a cookbook which gives insights into ayurvedic way of cooking.

Through centuries, great masters

of science and philosophy have interpreted and defined life in myriad ways. According to Ayurveda, ayu or life is an orchestra of body, senses, mind and soul. For sweet music to flow, the body and the senses have to be nurtured in a way that they take care of the mind and soul. Balance, moderation and compatibility are the grand conductors of this heavenly orchestra that steer life away from sickness and suffering, thus leading to a well-lived life of happiness and contentment, or Sukham Ayu. You are what you eat, claims

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, june 25 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

the popular adage. Add to this the knowledge that what you need to eat is not elaborate menus with unavailable and exotic ingredients, but simple home cooked food using regional and seasonal availables that suit your constitution.

This is the quintessence of an Ayurvedic diet in a nutshell.

This collection of recipes consists of daily, simple, vegetarian dishes that all Indian homes are familiar with. A closer look will reveal the fine thread of Ayurvedic insights binding them together, for what makes food healthy and ‘Ayurvedic’ is proper combinations, compatibility and methods of cooking. Thus, these recipes have been included with a clear focus on freshly cooked food, on the correct use of spices to enhance taste and good health, on the right combinations that make them tridoshik, or ‘agreeable to all doshas’.

Slight variations and unobtrusive additions and deletions to daily home cooking, along with Ayurvedic insights, make these recipes worth trying. - Aruna, Guargaon, Indian Cuisine Forum

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F OOD TALK

Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

Caramelized Onion and Parmesan Cheese Soup Ingredients : 2 tbsp olive oil 2 cups sliced onions 2 bay leaves 2½ tsp salt 6 turns fresh black pepper 2 quarts vegeatable stock 2 cups diced day old bread ½ cup heavy cream (malai) ½ cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese 2/3 rd cup peeled garlic cloves 1 tbsp each of fresh chopped basil and coriander 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley Method : In a soup pot, heat the olive oil.

When the oil is hot, add onions, garlic cloves, and bay leaves.

Season with salt & pepper.

Saute the onion mixture until the onions are caramalized, about 7 minutes.

Stir the stock, minced garlic, basil and thyme.

Bring the liquid upto a boil. Reduce to a simmer for 40 minutes.

Turn the heat up and wisk in the bread and cream. Continue whisking until the bread has dissolved into soup for about 10 minutes.

With a hand-held blender, puree the soup until smooth.

Whisk in the Parmigiano - Reggiano cheese and parsley.

Season with salt and pepper.

Caramelized Onion Soup with grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese laced with the heavy flavor of garlic cloves and parsley finely chopped, makes it a total Indian Soup that might challenge the after eating odor experience, but well worth the taste

Roasted Eggplant in Yogurt Eggplant is roasted on direct pierce it several places with a flame till its charred. Then the knife or fork. roasted eggplant is mashed with Place the eggplant directly on the spices and mixed with whisked flame turning occasionally until yogurt. Finally the eggplant mixture is tempered with typical south Indian spices.

Makes: 3 Servings of Roasted Eggplant in Yogurt.

Ingredients: Small Eggplants 2 Medium Yogurt 3/4 Cup • Green Chiles 2 Cumin Seeds 1/4 tsp Urad Dal 1/4 tsp Venkaya Perughu Pachadi also Cumin Seeds 1/4 tsp known as Eggplant in Yogurt Mustard Seeds 1/4 tsp Sauce Broken Red Chiles 2 Asafoetida a big Pinch the skin is completely charred on Curry Leaves 4 • Oil 1 tsp all sides.

Method of preparation: Cool the cooked eggplant and Whisk yogurt well and keep remove the charred skin with the aside. help of wet hands.

Remove stems, wash and finely Remove stem and keep aside the chop green chilies. roasted eggplant.

Wash and dry eggplant.

Heat oil in a pan, add all ingrediApply oil to the eggplant and ents in order.

When mustard seeds start spluttering, remove the tempering from heat.

In a bowl, add green chiles, cumin seeds and salt.

Using a pestle, crush the ingredients well and add the roasted eggplant and turmeric.

Mash the eggplant with crushed ingredients and remove to a vessel.

Add yogurt to the eggplant and mix thoroughly.

Finally when the heated ingredients cool down a bit, add it to the yogurt bowl and stir.

Adjust any seasonings if required and serve roasted eggplant in yogurt with steamed rice.

Note: Make sure eggplant is cooked well.

Suggestions: If eggplant is not cooked well, put it back on heat or cook covered in a pan till done.

Variations: You can also add chopped cilantro to the yogurt. Talimpu

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Babulbhai

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Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

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technology

Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

Super Material Soaks Up Crude Oil tect picked it up and wouldn’t release it.

By Alyssa Danigelis One of the key differences between this The material, called Fibertect, was develmaterial and the more common absorption oped by Seshadri Ramkumar, an associate professor of nonwoven technologies at the materials being employed to mop up oil university’s Institute of Environment and is that it’s made from organic components Human Health. Top and bottom layers are instead of polypropylene, which is derived made from raw cotton to absorb the oil and from petroleum. Granted there are large the center consists of a fibrous activated car- leaps being made with recycling bottles into bon where the oil gets contained, according polypro, but the less processing involved in having to manuto a description from facture cleanup the university. The tools, the better. material, which is bioAnother advandegradable on its own, tage is that these can absorb up to 15 super cotton pads times its weight. can handle toxic Initially Fibertect was gases, which intended to be used by helps protect the U.S. military in cleanup crews case of a chemical or who already have biological attack because it can even ef- Fibertect, developed by Seshadri Ramkumar, a host of horrors fectively trap agents where the top and bottom layers are made from to face. such as mustard gas. raw cotton to absorb the oil and the center I just wish that In late May, the EPA consists of a fibrous activated carbon where Texas Tech University’s profesapproved Fibertect for the oil gets contained, not releasing it sors could figure use cleaning up danout a way to construct enormous, recordgerous materials. Since then its distributor, First Line Technology, has put it to the test breaking rafts wrapped in Fibertect-like maon the front lines of the mind-bogglingly terial that we could use to speed the cleanup. bad oil spill in the Gulf that started two By one academic estimate, oil from the spill is already enough to power at least 38,000 months ago.

Grand Isle, Louisiana, has been so hard cars for an entire year, and that’s a low estihit by the spill that local fisherman Doug mate. We’re going to need all the wipes they Shaw recently described the area as “dead” can make.

Our Front Page Photo: Professor Sesto a New York Daily News reporter. In other words, it’s the right place to try out the ma- hadri Ramkumar who is the inventor of terial. Preliminary tests in Grand Isle dem- the Fibertect to go commercial shortly to onstrated that Fibertect could handle an oily help clean up the damage following the mess. When the material was put on top of spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Credit: First an oil glob that had washed ashore, Fiber- Line Technology. Discovery News

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Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

sports

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Saina Clinches Singapore Open Title

SINGAPORE: Indian badminton ace ter net game and outwitted her rival in ral- run-up to the final. She was in good rhythm and her strokes were falling well. At the Saina Nehwal clinched the second Super lies to emerge triumphant.

Saina said she kept gaining in confidence start, I wasn’t comfortable with her game.

Series title of her career by winning the Singapore Open with a straight-game win over as the match progressed. “I was nervous at She had some tricky shots,” she said.

But as the minutes ticked by, Saina said she qualifier Tzu Ying Tai in the final here on the start of the match, but I maintained my got a hang of her rival’s strategy. “Slowly, strategy of playing more rallies,” she said.

Sunday.

“I was down 8-14 in the first game but I I studied her game. I was down and very Top-seeded Saina took just 33 minutes to nervous that I would lose the match beat Chinese Taipei’s Tai 21-18, but I had the spirit to fight it out,” she 21-15 at the Singapore Indoor said.

Stadium here.

Saina’s ranking is expected to imThe World No. 6 bagged her prove with this triumph but the maiden Super Series title in June Hyderabadi said that climbing the last year when she claimed the charts was not her priority right top honours at the Indonesian now.

Open.

“It will help my rankings but that’s “I never expected to reach the not my focus right now. My focus final as there were two good is on the World championships and Chinese players in the draw, but the Commonwealth Games. I might I believed in myself and got the go into the top four but that doesn’t result I wanted,” the jubilant 20bother me much. I am very happy year-old said. that I won the tournament,” she said.

The in-form Saina came here “Next is the Indonesian Open startafter winning the India Open ing on Wednesday and I want to give Grand Prix title only last week. my best in that,” she said.

“The Indian Open gave me the confidence to play well here,” ON A ROLL: India’s Saina Nehwal made short work of Earlier, Saina rallied to beat fourthChinese Taipei’s Tzu Ying Tai in the final of the Singa- seeded Lan Lu of China 8-21, 21-17, she said.

21-8 in 49 minutes in the semifinals In a match that was a close af- pore Open Super Series. fair to start with, Saina was locked 18-18 just told myself ‘play your best and give on Saturday.

In the men’s singles, India’s P. Kashyap lost with her rival after trailing 8-14 at one stage. your 100 per cent’ I think that really worked to seventh-seeded Indonesian Sony KunBut Saina clinched the opening game with well for me,” she added.

Saina said her opponent, despite being a coro 19-21, 20-22 in a hard-fought semifinal seven smash winners to show against her mere qualifier, had some tricks to unsettle that lasted 48 minutes. Sony went on to beat rival’s three.

In the second game, Saina displayed a bet- her. “She defeated a few good players in the Thailand’s Boonsak Ponsana 21-16, 21-16 in the final. — PTI

Federer Survives First Round Scare

LONDON: Roger Federer averted one of the biggest shocks in Wimbledon history when he recovered from two sets down to beat Colombia’s Alejandro Falla in the first round.

The Swiss top seed seemed woefully out of form as his unfancied opponent, the World No.60, stunned the crowd by taking the first two sets in the opening match. But the six-time Wimbledon champion recovered to win 5-7, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(1), 6-0.

Federer, who is chasing a record-equalling seventh Wimbledon men’s title, has only lost once at the All England Club since 2002, when he lost the 2008 final to Rafael Nadal. But he avoided becoming only the third ever defending men’s Wimbledon champion to lose in the first round. Federer broke in the first and third games of the fifth set, and finally began to dominate his opponent, eventually showing the form that has made him an all-time Wimbledon great as he at last exerted his superior skill.

Houston Cougars Beat Houston West Indies by 10 Runs HOUSTON: This first division game was from HWI side, he took 4 for 54. Vincent played at Jeff Bush Park, home ground of and Varun took 2 wickets each.

HWI. Cougars batted first and scored 251 Once again it was not very easy for HWI runs all out in 37.4 overs. to chase in hot and humid conCougars opening pair, Musditions. Their opening pair did tafa Himani and Ali Manji not do well either and got out could not give cougars the cheaply. HWI were 6 out for 75 start they wanted and Manji runs and cougars were sighting departed after making only the victory until Naville (60) six runs. Satish was the next and Dumar (41) tried to turn batsman to go and cougars the game in favor of HWI, but lost two quick wickets. Then luck was in favor of Cougars came the pair of Waleed Ahas HWI fell short of 10 runs mad and Mudassar Sajjad and Waleed Ahmad an out- and got all out on 241 loosing gave cougars a strong partner- standing batsman and the game by only 10 runs. Qaship. Waleed scored 79 with 8 versatile bowler helped mar was very impressive with fours and Mudassar scored 42. topple the Houston this spell (6.5-0-37-4); Waleed With the help of this partner- West Indies team took 2 wickets including the ship cougars made a competiprice wicket of Naville. tive total of 251.

Credit: www.cricketusamag.com ContribDesmond was the most successful bowler uted by Raheel Khan

India will stay focused - Harbhajan Singh Harbhajan Singh, who hit the winning six in the see-saw match against Pakistan, has said India won’t lose their focus in the Asia Cup after the high of beating their arch-rivals. He had launched the penultimate ball of Saturday’s contest to pull off a thrilling victory which secured India’s place in the

final against Sri Lanka.

“You obviously feel proud and happy that we won the game against Pakistan, but this tournament isn’t over yet,” Harbhajan said after India’s practice session. “There are two more important matches to play, and we are looking to finish the tournament on a good note.”

Harbhajan also stressed that his focus was mainly on his bowling and not on his batting. “I’m not an all rounder,” he said.

“Firstly, I’m a bowler who can bat a bit and I want to keep it like that. I don’t take too much of pressure on myself by being called an allrounder.”

Ahead of the Asia Cup, MS Dhoni had spoken about the dearth of quality fast-bowling all rounders in India, and Harbhajan also highlighted the lack of multi-skilled cricketers. “There was only one allrounder India has produced, that was Sir Kapil Dev,” he said. “After that forget Kapil Dev, we haven’t even produced an allrounder half as good as Kapil.”

The visitors’ chances received a blow when experienced opener Virender Sehwag was forced out of the tournament by a hamstring injury. The Indian squad had a new member joining them on Monday morning after Dinesh Karthik was flown in as a replacement. Karthik and Saurabh Tiwary, one of whom is likely to take Sehwag’s place in the XI for India’s two remaining matches, both had lengthy batting sessions in the afternoon.

Harbhajan remained confident of a good performance despite missing three of their most experienced players. “All the players who are here have performed well whenever given the chance, whether it’s Pragyan Ojha, Dinesh Karthik or Virat Kohli,” he said.

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Education

Indo American News • Friday, June 25 , 2010

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Making English Language Teaching Effective

India’s school education system stands on the threshold of real progress, if it has the courage to continue reform.

By Hugo Williams There is a nagging, uncomfortable question that must be addressed despite the optimism rightly created by the implementation on April 1 of the Right to Education Bill: it is not simply “can we get all of India’s children into school?” but rather “will they learn something when they get there?”

The current system of state education in Tamil Nadu is vital in helping to provide an answer to this second question. One of the leaders in the “silent revolution” in Indian primary education, since 2007 it has introduced the progressive Activity Based Learning system (ABL) for standards 1-4, and Active Learning Methodology (ALM, a sort of big brother to the ABL system) to standards 6-8. These new teaching methodologies stress greater inclusion and interaction of children in the learning process, aiming to bring variety and enjoyment back into the classroom.

The state government, the SSA (“the government’s flagship programme for delivering universalisation of Elementary Education”) and UNICEF have all been delighted with the impact of these reforms in Tamil Nadu. They have seen a marked improvement not only in the academic capabilities of primary school children under the new system, but also in their levels of confidence and their willingness to be involved in the learning process. Following the success of the Tamil Nadu reforms, nearly all other states have followed suit, or are planning to, in implementing similar methodologies.

However, success in the state primary sector also serves to highlight the existing failure at secondary level, where teaching methods remain archaic. The learning experience for these children is passive and uninspiring. Frequently, the onus is placed overwhelmingly on passing exams, for which they need only memorise the contents of their textbooks, rather than actually teaching them the skills they need.

As an illustration of the outdated model, take the current system of English language teaching in the Tamil Nadu secondary sector, where

the government directly runs 61 per cent of all schools.

Reading the IX standard English textbook provided by the state board is like travelling back in time. Students are instructed to match everyday words like “philatelist”, “numismatist”, and “ornithologist” to their correct meanings (I only managed one). One chapter explains at length the exact steps that need to be followed when sending a telegram, almost as vital a skill for the 21st century as knowing how to ride a penny farthing.

lakh. These textbooks are, after all, the predominant teaching resources which are intended to prepare schoolchildren for their X and XII standard public exams — tests considered of such great importance that 2008 alone counted 264 exam-failure-related suicides across all state and private schools in Tamil Nadu.

The questionable benefits of the Tamil Nadu examination system call to mind the story of Dr. Yip, a Malaysian who has committed to memory the entire 57,000 word Oxford English-Chinese dictionary. The fascinating thing

Students now learn to speak English better having access to language learning software through personal computers in Indian schools The book even refers to black people as “negroes” in one exercise, without providing adequate context for the uninitiated English learner, who would not know that the term is now widely considered a racial slur in the Western world (and has been for the past 20 years).

Supplying six million students every year with such outdated, error-strewn learning materials (even their title pages contain typos) is lazy and unacceptable, particularly when you consider that the 2009-2010 budget for secondary education in the state is a hefty Rs. 4,27,211

Shiv Sagar

about Dr. Yip is that although he knows many more words than the average native speaker of English, he can’t actually speak the language any better because of it.

The same logic can be applied to the average Indian secondary student. Instead of memorising a dictionary, they memorise a textbook.

Learning the meaning of a “philatelist” (a stamp collector in case you’re still guessing), and being able to recite poems and stories by heart in no way guarantees, or even makes it more likely, that you will end up being able to communicate

in English. A recent ASER study backs up this conclusion: it found that a quarter to a half of 8th standard children in Tamil Nadu could not read or understand even very simple English sentences. However, in failing to test the actual language skills of children, state exams do little to flag up these huge shortcomings.

Of course, the problems of the secondary system, and this includes matriculation and AngloIndian schools, extend far beyond the teaching methodology alone. Many, but by no means all teachers, simply do not have the required level of training that is necessary to handle a more interactive, inclusive teaching style. Deviating from the textbook is a frightening prospect unless you are completely comfortable with your subject.

As the lingua franca of the international community, and as the only language that links all the states of India together, the benefits of teaching Indian children to speak English are huge. The ever-increasing BPO sector, the largest employer in the private-sector economy, constantly bemoans the insufficient English language skills of Indian graduates, an elite minority themselves, claiming that only 15 per cent have the required level to work in business services without first undergoing major additional training. If it is to really mean something, The Right to Education Act must include in it the Right to Decent English Teaching, given the social, educational and career benefits that proficiency in the language can bring.

In a very promising recent development, the Tamil Nadu government has drawn up fresh plans to collaborate with the SSA and The British Council in providing English language teacher training for all state schools across standards VI-VIII. This would be in addition to the English language project already underway for the V standard, for which 60,000 teachers have already been trained up (training for the next 60,000 will be undertaken this year).

Tamil Nadu is finally starting to eschew the archaic and ineffective approach to language teaching that has prevailed for so long. It is now looking to replace it with one which concentrates on communicative as well as literary aspects of language, and so better addresses the modern educational needs of Indian schoolchildren.

The next step is for it to extend these changes once again, this time all the way up through the secondary system. If it does this, Tamil Nadu will become a paradigm for how English language teaching should be carried out in India.

If quality English teaching can permeate the Indian school system, the economic and social benefits for the country will be incalculable.

India will be able to capitalise on its youthful population, and leave the rest of the world behind in its tracks, gasping for breath.-Hindu

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