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India’s Surveillance Plan Said to Deter Business

By Vikas Bajaj & Ian Austen NEW DELHI (NYT): In the United States, law enforcement and security agencies have raised privacy concerns with a new proposal for electronic eavesdropping powers to track terrorists and criminals and unscramble their encrypted messages.

Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, says it is willing to meet “the lawful access needs of law enforcement agencies.”

But here in India, government authorities are well beyond the proposal stage. Prompted by fears of digital-era plotters, officials are already demanding that network operators give them the ability to monitor and decrypt

digital messages, whenever the Home Ministry deems the eavesdropping to be vital to national security.

Critics, though, say India’s campaign to monitor data transmission within its borders will hurt other important national goals: attracting global businesses and becoming a hub for technology innovation.

The most inflammatory part of the effort has been India’s threat to block encrypted BlackBerry services, widely used by corporations, unless phone companies provide access to the data in a readable format. But Indian officials have also said they will seek greater access to encrypted data sent over popular Internet services like Gmail,

Skype and virtual private networks that enable users to bypass traditional telephone links or log in remotely to corporate computer systems.

Critics say such a threat could make foreigners think twice about doing business here. Especially vulnerable could be outsourcing for Western clients, like processing medical records or handling confidential research projects, information that is typically transmitted as encrypted data.

“If there is any risk to that data, those companies will look elsewhere,” said Peter Sutherland, a former Canadian ambassador to India who is now a consultant to North American companies

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India’s Surveillance Plan Said to Deter Business

doing business there.

S. Ramadorai, vice chairman of India’s largest outsourcing company, Tata Consultancy Services, echoed that sentiment in a newspaper column on Wednesday. “Bans and calls for bans aren’t a solution,” he wrote. “They’ll disconnect India from the rest of the world.”

Few doubt that India has valid security concerns. In recent years, attacks against India have included the use of sophisticated communications technology — as when the terrorists who stormed Mumbai two years ago communicated with their Pakistani handlers by satellite phone and the Internet. Or when Chinese hackers infiltrated India’s military computer networks this year.

But critics say that India’s security efforts, which they describe as clumsy, may do little to protect the country, even as they intrude on the privacy of companies and citizens alike.

“They will do damage by blocking highly visible systems like BlackBerry or Skype,” said Ajay Shah, a Mumbaibased economist who writes extensively about technology. “This will shift users to less visible and known platforms. Terrorists will make merry doing crypto anyway.Azillion tools for this are freely available.”

Senior Indian officials, though, argue that they have no choice but to demand the data that could help thwart and investigate terrorist attacks.

“All communications which is done

by Indians or coming to and fro into India — and where we have a concern about national security — we should

have access to it,” said Gopal Krishna Pillai, the secretary of India’s Home Ministry, which oversees domestic security.

During the Mumbai attacks, he said, officials could not gain access to some of the communications between the terrorists and their handlers.

Some legal experts indicate that Indian law — which has few explicit protections for personal privacy — is on the government’s side. But they also say India is trying to enforce the law in unnerving ways.

“The concern of corporate users and general users of BlackBerry is that if this is allowed, the government will become the single biggest repository of information,” said Pavan Duggal, a technology lawyer who practices before India’s Supreme Court. “And we have no idea how this information will be used and misused in the future.”

The Indian government has also clamped down on the importation of foreign telecommunications equipment, saying it wants to ensure that the technology does not contain malicious software or secret trap doors that could be used by foreign spies.

The technology and security debates playing out here are not new or unique to India.

During the 1990s, for instance, American security officials tried unsuccessfully to restrict the use of encryption because of worries that law enforcement would not be able to monitor communications. Now, in legislation the Obama administration plans to introduce next year, officials want Congress to require all services

that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail systems like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically able to comply if served with a wiretap order.

Currently, other countries including the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia are trying to impose various measures similar to India’s.

The debate here, though, is complicated by the fact that despite private industry’s technology prowess in this country, in technologies like cryptography Indian law enforcement agencies still lag significantly behind their counterparts in the United States and other advanced countries.

The Indian government says it is intent on improving its code-cracking skills. But “in the interim, it has this very blunt instrument,” said Rajan S. Mathews, the director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India, a trade group. “It comes to the operators and says: ‘I’m going to make you responsible for giving me access,’ ” he said.

Mr. Pillai, the Home Ministry secretary, said the government was not opposed to the use of encryption to protect the privacy of legitimate electronic communications. But he said that as government-licensed entities, network operators were obliged to give law enforcement officials a way to decode messages when required or to block communications that they cannot decipher.

But network providers say they may not always have the technical ability

to do that. In much of the world — including for business users in India — companies and individuals now often use encryption systems that generate new code keys for each message and lack a convenient master key that could unlock everything for government viewing.

Google, for its part, has enhanced the encryption for its Gmail service, making it harder for hackers and the Indian government to read messages.

Mr. Pillai said his ministry had begun conversations with Google and Skype, the Internet phone company, which also uses strong encryption, to provide access to decoded data.

Representatives for Google and Skype said that they could not comment because they had not yet received formal demands from the Indian government.

Meanwhile, government officials have demanded that the maker of BlackBerry, Research In Motion of Canada, set up a server computer in India from which law enforcement agencies can gain access to unencrypted versions of messages when they need to. The government has given R.I.M. until the end of October to comply.

The company has said that it is willing to meet “the lawful access needs of law enforcement agencies.” But the company says it cannot provide unencrypted copies of messages of corporate users because of how the BlackBerry system is designed, noting that even R.I.M. cannot decode them.

“Strong encryption has become a mandatory requirement for all enterprise-class wireless e-mail services

today,” R.I.M. said in a statement in late August, “and is also a fundamental commercial requirement for any country to attract and maintain international business.”

Vikas Bajas reported from New Delhi, and Ian Austen from Ottawa.

Heather Timmons contributed reporting from New Delhi.

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Only Our Fears Can Encircle Us

Instead of being alarmed at China’s growing inroads in the region, India needs to take a hard look at its own role and find new ways to win neighbors and increase influence in the region

By Suhasini Haidar (HINDU): No one would accuse Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of being alarmist. So when, addressing the Heads of Missions last month, he spoke of paying close attention to “global powers exercising influence in the Indian Ocean Region,” it was assumed that the Prime Minister was genuinely concerned about China’s growing role in the region. When he spoke to editors some days later about his concerns on China again, the assumption was sealed.

India’s growing concern rose from two factors — the first, Beijing’s sudden decision to provide Northern GOC General Jaswal with a stapled visa, saying his command includes a ‘disputed’ region; and the other, newspaper reports that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had approximately 11,000 soldiers in Gilgit-Baltistan, digging tunnels and posing a direct threat to India across

the LoC. string is slowly turning into a choke- Kankesenthurai (KKS). Originally, after the tsunami, the project was Meanwhile, the reported build-up chain for India. in PoK was aggressively denied by At one level, the fears of China handed to the Dutch, but after InBeijing and Islamabad, both insisting overrunning Pakistan to open a front dia showed interest, the Sri Lankan that the troops are there to help con- with India may seem far-fetched, President tore up that contract and tain flood damage, and the impending even hysterical. At another, it may invited India to build the port. Yet 18 threat of the Hunza dam overflowing, be a much needed wake-up call for months later, this harbor near Jaffna has seen little by way of construcand also to work on the Karakoram tion; even a feasibility survey taken Highway project. India’s suspicions in June 2010 has not yet been finalthat China’s army is now securing ized. Meanwhile Hambantota will its land route to the Arabian sea via receive its first ship in November, PoK have nonetheless grown, given some six months ahead of schedthat China has also wrested control ule. The contract for the Colombo of the Gwadar port back from the port has just gone to a Chinese Singaporean Port Authority. The consortium — no Indian company development ties in with the fear of having even tried to bid for it. Given India being choked by a strategic that the National Thermal Power “String of Pearls” — a U.S. Defence Corporation (NTPC)-Sampur coal Department term for China’s ambitions for bases in the Indian Ocean Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with 500-MW plant is already delayed years beyond its 2011 deadline, it Region. With Gwadar in Pakistan, Chinese President Hu Jintao is hoped that other projects India Hambantota in Sri Lanka, Chittagong in Bangladesh, and the Sittwe India to reassess its preparedness has committed itself to including the port in Myanmar, it would seem the to counter an increasingly assertive northern rail line, the Palaly airport Chinese military. At an entirely dif- and the Jaffna stadium will be dealt ferent level, New Delhi’s alarm could with more expeditiously.

In January this year, a historic be most constructive if India takes a agreement with Bangladesh Prime closer look at why China is making Minister Sheikh Hasina seemed to a speedier headway with so many of redefine how India would deal with our neighbors.

Take Sri Lanka that has many rea- its neighbors. Amongst a slew of sons to welcome Indian investment. agreements came India’s $1-billion Whether it has been the tsunami, the credit line — for 14 infrastructural war against the Liberation Tigers of projects. Even while the agreements Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Indian agen- were being finalized — Dhaka delivcies have been at the forefront to help. ered some of the most wanted United And yet, as Sri Lanka recasts itself as Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) the Singapore of the region, it is China militants. Despite opposition cries that is its biggest infrastructural inves- of a sell-out, Sheikh Hasina’s India tor, bagging many coveted projects. deal won her accolades in BanglaMuch of it is a result of Indian apathy desh. Yet it took eight months before – the Hambantota port, for example, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was offered to India first. New Delhi’s flew to Bangladesh to operationalize lack of interest in developing this the credit line, and by the time he strategically located harbor was eas- reached, India had decided to change ily the gain of China, which worked its earlier offer of $1bn at one per cent double time to complete the project interest to 1.75 per cent — terms that with $60 billion funded from China’s took many in Dhaka by unpleasant Exim bank, building the port, the city surprise. Also, unless India relaxes its centre, the airport, a stadium, and a trade barriers to Bangladeshi goods, it massive convention centre. Many will be accused of exploiting the tranin India worry that Hambantota’s sit rights only for its own benefit.

Meanwhile China has moved into future could include a Chinese naval the delay gap on projects like the base too.

While Indian concerns about Ham- Chittagong port with ease, funding bantota are well known, little is spo- much of its refurbishment, as also ken of the port project that India the construction of the second Padma does have, in the northern town of bridge, as it vigorously pushes MoUs on road links via Myanmar and a rail

line connecting Beijing to Dhaka — as part of a $2.2-billion Chinese package on infrastructure.

A bolder move, but one that would win many hearts is to consider lifting tariff and non-tarrif barriers and duties unilaterally in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region altogether. Suspend the reality of our relations with Pakistan for a moment to think about the impact of ending such protectionism in a year that has so devastated Pakistan’s economy. According to estimates, the destruction of standing crops on two million hectares has virtually wiped out Pakistan’s staple revenue from export of cotton, rice, and sugar. With 77 million people likely to go hungry, and Pakistan’s projected growth likely to fall by half to about two per cent, it is only natural that China’s interventions in flood relief, rebuilding destroyed roads, schools and bridges, aid and trade will grow. The question is: will India watch with its customary alarm but do nothing?

On our other frontiers, it must be said, the government has made some moves — increasing development aid to Afghanistan to $1.2 billion and discussing a $1-billion dollar credit line to Myanmar as well. Describing some of these initiatives at Harvard University this month, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said: “Today, with sustained high economic growth rates … India is in a better position to offer a significant stake to our neighbors in our own prosperity and growth.” It is equally important to stand that assumption on its head, and consider India’s stake in the prosperity and growth of its neighbors. Whether it’s Mauritius or Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Afghanistan or yes, Pakistan — these are countries with close cultural, linguistic, historic ties to India no other country can match.

As a result, it shouldn’t be possible for China or any other superpower to encircle a country like India. The only thing that encircles us is our fear that they will.

Suhasini Haidar is the Deputy Foreign Editor, CNN-IBN

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Food Insecurity in Urban India

Considerable sections of the urban population may face serious food insecurity even while the urban economy grows.

By Venkatesh Athreya (Hindu) Over the two decades of rapid growth of the Indian economy, the urban economy is generally perceived as having done very well.

However, high urban economic growth need not by itself imply improved living standards for all urban residents. In particular, the recent and continuing phenomenon of rising food prices reminds us that considerable sections of the urban population may face serious food insecurity even while the urban economy grows rapidly.

Evidence from the National Sample Surveys of 1993-94, 1999-2000 and 2004-05, ably marshaled by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), has shown that the rate of growth of employment in urban India fell sharply between 1993-94 and 1999-2000 as compared to the period 1987-88 to 1993-94, but it picked up smartly in the period 1999-2000 to 2004-05. However, practically the entire growth of employment in this latter period was in informal work, and the quality of employment, as indicated by wage/income levels, insecurity, other conditions of work and coverage in terms of social protection, was extremely poor. This has serious implications for urban food insecurity, since a large segment of the urban working population is mostly without productive assets and relies primarily on wage or marginal self employment to survive. In other words, a large segment of the urban population faces food insecurity in terms of access to food. Such employment-linked food insecurity is especially severe in small and medium towns which have been largely bypassed in the urban growth that has occurred.

Rapid growth of the urban economy, largely unplanned, has also meant haphazard growth of urban centres and proliferation of urban slums lacking in basic amenities such as decent shelter, safe drinking water and toilets and sanitary facilities. This has implications for the absorption dimension of food security, since lack of safe drinking water and sanitation leads to poor biological utilisation of food and repeated episodes of morbidity.

A recently completed study of urban food insecurity explores these issues through an exercise of constructing an Index of urban food insecurity for the major States (M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai (2010), Report on the State of Food Insecurity in Urban India, being released in Delhi on September 25). Using several outcome indicators such as the incidence of anaemia and chronic energy deficiency among women in the fertile age group, and of anaemia and stunting/ underweight among children below three years of age, as well as some input indicators such as the percentage of urban population without access to safe drinking water and that without access to toilets, the study shows that the period of economic reforms and high GDP growth has not seen an

A cartoon depicting the rotten food grains issue, which appeared recently.

unambiguous improvement in urban food security across all States.

A comparison of the Index values for the periods 1998-2000 and 200406 suggests a rather modest improvement of the urban food security situation as measured by official data. But there should be a qualifying remark: that the data on access to safe drinking water and to toilets may in many cases overstate the actual access on the ground, in view of the reality of non-functioning or provision, or inadequate functioning or provision.

The overall marginal improvement in urban food security in India as measured by the composite Index in all its variants is accompanied by a significant improvement in the poorer States. The fact that the picture looks much less rosy when a purely outcomes-based measure is used suggests that there is no room for complacency on the issue of urban food security. If anything, it is disappointing that urban economic growth has made little dent on urban food insecurity.

While the poorer States have done better than before, they account for only a small part of the country’s urban population. On the other hand, States such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Haryana, which are relatively more urbanised, have done poorly. This suggests that the food security situation may have worsened rather than improved for a sizeable segment of the urban population between 1998-2000 and 200406. Considering that urban inequality has worsened in the period since 1991, the implications for the food security status of the urban poor or slum-dwellers are worrying.

What can the government do to address the challenge of urban food security?

Points for Action Expansion of productive and remunerative employment needs to be enabled through special assistance to the numerous small and tiny enterprises in the urban economy from credit to marketing support to infrastructure provision, along the lines suggested by the NCEUS. Based on an Urban Employment Guarantee Act, urban employment schemes can be de-

signed and integrated in a synergistic manner with the need to improve urban amenities, especially in the small and medium towns.

Urgent action is needed to improve access to safe drinking water and to toilets. Special attention needs to be paid in this regard to small and medium towns which happen to be most poorly provided for in this respect.

Interventions in flagship programmes such as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and other urban schemes should focus on the needs of small and medium towns and on the

needs of slums in all cities, taking care to address the needs of the poor with regard to shelter, water, sanitation, drainage and nutrition education.

Urban infrastructure cannot and must not mean only flyovers and six-lane roads in the metropolitan cities. The urban Public Distribution System must be made universal. However, it is important to recognise that the PDS is only a part of a comprehensive in The Hindu food security strategy. Policy must address hidden hunger.

It must also address the special needs of the vulnerable sections such as street children, orphans, HIV-AIDS

patients and so on through such initiatives as community kitchens. Designing and implementing a nutrition literacy movement across all urban centres will also be worthwhile.

Promotion of urban and peri-urban agriculture, especially horticulture, can make a vital contribution to food and nutrition security. It can also be a source of sustainable livelihoods.

Issues of governance in urban food and nutrition programmes need to be addressed through, among other things, democratic decentralisation and local body capacity-building.

Finally, urban food security is as much a matter of the fiscal policy framework as it is of programme implementation on the ground, and a precondition to achieve targeted outcomes is adequate outlays. Economic reforms therefore need to be ‘reformed’ if inclusive urban development that addresses the needs of urban food security for all is to occur.

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U.S. Army Quietly Allowing Sikh Soldiers to Enlist in Military WASHINGTON (TOI): Growing up near the air force base in Dayton, Ohio, Tejdeep Singh Rattan knew he wanted to serve in uniform. When the military discouraged him, he persisted but again got a cold shoulder.

When he was turned away a third time, Rattan - an observant Sikh with a turban and beard - became suspicious.

“I was, like, I don’t know what’s going on,” he said. “I was very introverted at the time. I never felt the need to fight back. But I said I really want to do this, and you guys are sending me out again and again.”

The 31-year-old is now US Army Captain Rattan, since July the head dentist at the Fort Drum base in New York.

In what appears to be a quiet shift, the US military since last year has allowed Rattan and two other Sikhs to serve while retaining their turbans and beards, which are required by their faith.

Rattan and another Sikh who received approval last year - Captain Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi, a doctor - said in interviews that their superiors had welcomed them warmly.

Kalsi, 34, said that on his first day of training at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, a first sergeant pulled him out of the crowd and told the soldiers about the Sikh’s long ordeal to enlist. “These were his words: ‘The Army is made up of different shades of green, and if you have any objection to him being here, you need to tell me now,’” Kalsi said.

“It was great; everybody clapped.”

The US Most recently, Sikh comthe Army on Au Aumunity - estigust 30 accommomated at more dated a new recruit, thanhalfamilSimran Preet Singh lion - suffered Lamba, after inihate crimes tially denying him. after the SepLawyers closely tember 11, watched his case 2001 attacks as he will undergo by assailants rank-and-file train trainwho falsely ing and is not in the associated medical field. the religion “I think the founded in Army, and DeIndia with alfense Department Qaida leader more broadly, took Osama bin U.S. Army Capt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan is the first Sikh allowed to nine months to Laden. complete officer basic training while wearing the traditional turban take this decision “I think the and full beard since the Army altered the dress code, which had made because it was a only way for exceptions for Sikh soldiers, in 1984. big decision,” said that percepAmandeep Sidhu, tion to be eliminated is when young the military’s right to prohibit a Jewish a Sikh American lawyer whose firm Sikhs come up and say: I want to serve officer from wearing a yarmulke. In McDermott Will & Emery represents response, Congress approved a law the men pro bono. in the military,” Rattan said.

“For me, I said whatever it takes, I’m requiring the military to approve solSidhu voiced hope that eventually going to fight this thing - I’m going to diers’ religious apparel if it is “neat and the army would “go that one step serve. Maybe if nothing else comes conservative.” further and amend the uniform regula regulaArmy spokesman George Wright tion in a way that would allow Sikhs to out of it, people will know who Sikhs said that it evaluated each Sikh soldier’s serve without having to automatically are,” he said.

Sikhs have a historic military culture request based on “unique facts and go through the extraordinary hoops.” and have long kept their articles of faith individual circumstances.”

Critics have in the past argued that the “It is the Army’s policy to accom accom- military needs to ensure conformity in the militaries of Britain, Canada and modate religious practices as long as and that easing rules could be a slippery India.

Small numbers of Sikhs for years the practice will not have an adverse slope with precedent for other issues. served in the US armed forces without impact on military necessity,” Wright President Barack Obama’s adminisincident. But in the 1980s, the post- said. But lawyers for the men believe tration is cautiously moving to allow guid- gays to serve openly in the military, a Vietnam War military moved to in in- the US military has developed guid crease conformity and banned displays ance - a general guideline, but short hot-button political issue. of an official policy - to accommodate of religious identity for new recruits.

Sikh activists have enlisted the help The Supreme Court in 1986 upheld Sikhs. of the US Congress. Forty-one House

members and six senators wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates last year to voice concern after Kalsi and Rattan initially heard they could not be accommodated.

“No one should have to choose between his religion and service to our country,” said Representative Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat of New York.

Harsimran Kaur, legal director of The Sikh Coalition, a rights advocacy group, hoped that pressure from Con Congress and closed-door talks with the military would bring an official change in policy.

“A lawsuit is always a means of last resort as it automatically puts both sides in an adversarial posture,” she said.

“We would very much hope that the Army makes this change on its own, because we want them to understand it’s in their best interest as well.”

“It shows folks abroad that the United States and the US Army practice what they preach, that we not only tolerate religious diversity and freedom of religious, but we celebrate it,” she said.

Captain Kalsi, who recently gradu graduated from training and will soon start serving as an emergency doctor at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, said that religious tolerance “goes to the core of being an American.”

And for Sikhs, the military “is in our blood,” said Kalsi, whose father, grand grandfather and great-grandfather served in the Indian or British militaries.

“I want to be able to pass this on,” Kalsi said. “I want my son who’s now a year-and-a-half old to someday say yeah, I’m fifth-generation military.”

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South Asia News of the Diaspora

Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi Sees Great Growth, Hurdles for India ern city of Chennai. “When we talk about reaching every nook and corner of India we need an infrastructure. ...

We need power 24 hours a day in every part of the country. We need water.”

“I’m not saying developments haven’t been made, but it’s not as fast as it needs to be,” added Nooyi, who has a reputation for being a demanding manager.

The next two obstacles are a work force that largely lacks the proper skills and a poor level of health and hygiene, she said “We think that if you improve edu education you can improve the hygiene standards in India and you can reduce the incidence of disease,” said Nooyi.

“And the economy itself will become much more healthy going forward.”

In 1989 PepsiCo established its business in India, where it now has more than 36 bottling plants including 13 owned by the company and 23 that are franchise-owned. In the latest quarter, its beverage sales volume rose at a dou double-digit rate. Nooyi, who played in an all-girl rock band in her youth and now enjoys ballroom dancing, came to the United States to attend Yale School of Management. She graduated in 1980.

Now a US citizen, she has worked for

Indra Nooyi PepsiCo since 1994. She was named to the top job in October 2006.

Nooyi, who turns 55 in October, told Reuters that she is completely focused on making PepsiCo “the defining corporation of the 21st century.”

But further out, she sees a possibility of public service.

“I want to go to Washington and figure out how to give back to the United States,” she said following the panel, which was co-sponsored by theAmerican India Foundation which counts Nooyi’s sister, Chandrika Tandon, as a trustee and board member.

Regarding the US economy and its impact on Pepsi’s business, Nooyi noted some “stabilisation” in the past few weeks.

“The funny part is the traditional economic statistics, whether that’s un unemployment or new business creation, those numbers don’t look very optimistic. But foot traffic in convenience stores is up. People are spending.”

She said high-end consumers are spending “like there’s no end in sight” because they’’re sitting on cash and not investing. On the other hand, lowerincome consumers are shopping “ex-

ceedingly carefully,” she said.

Consumers are putting off purchases of higher ticket items like furniture and cars, and therefore have more money to spend on basic consumable goods like PepsiCo’s soft drinks and snacks, Nooyi said.

“The basic necessity sector is grow growing quite well,” she said. “What I worry about is if the economy does not see growth in construction, manu manufactured goods. ... If those industries don’t come back, what happens to the consumer downstream? That’s the big unknown.”

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NEWYORK (DNAI): PepsiCo Inc chairman and chief executive Indra Nooyi has a clear message for her homeland of India -- improve your infrastructure, work force and sanita sanitation, attract more foreign investment, and develop faster.

At a panel discussion on Tuesday evening hosted by the Yale-India Initiative, Nooyi said it was tough for her to talk about India, since she has “one foot there and one foot here.”

She called India a “must-invest” market, citing its demographics, ample work force and pace of innovation.

“We see a growth market for the next 50 years at least, which is not the case in many of the other markets we participate in,” said Nooyi, the highest-ranking Indian-born woman in corporate America. “We are in India for the long haul.”

Still, Nooyi said she wanted to talk about India constructively in terms of what can be done better, “so you can attract more investment and India itself can develop faster.” The biggest obstacle is infrastructure, she said.

“If I use the word ‘appalling,’ that would be a bit of an understatement,” said Nooyi, who hails from the south south-

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Fast Rising Yamuna River Threatens Floods Near Taj

Visitors to the Taj Mahal in Agra were treated to an unusual sight -- the generally dry Yamuna River rising to a medium flood level of 152 m.

AGRA: The flood situation in theAgra region took an alarming turn as the water level in Yamuna crossed the medium flood level of 152.09 metres Sunday evening, submerging most of the Taj Heritage Corridor and the waterworks, cutting off supplies to half of this Taj city The river level is feared to touch 152.4 metres Monday morning, according to officials here.

More colonies and ghats were under water and the district authorities continued to persuade people to shift to safer areas.

A youth who couldn’t resist the temptation to jump into the swollen river remain untraced.

Police said Ramesh, 25, jumped into the river close to the ‘Gyarah Sirhi’, a historical landmark on the river bank.

Police personnel looked for his body but failed to find it till late Sunday night.

The alarming rise in the river’s level affected the Agra Water Works which failed to supply drinking water to almost half the city.

The Yamuna water submerged most parts of the controversial Taj Heritage Corridor sandwiched between the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal. The Mantola nullah drain water entered the moat of the Agra Fort.

‘The sickening collection of polythene bottles and bags into the drain and the dirty water accumulating in the moat will create enormous problems for the civic administration in the post-flood stage,’ said an official of the municipal corporation.

Water had already submerged the popular Taj

Ganj cremation ghat and the electric crematorium was closed Sunday. The Dussehra ghat adjacent to the Taj was knee-deep in water, while the artificially developed park at the rear of the Taj Mahal was under water, most washed away by the flood fury.

‘Humans could not clean the river Yamuna, but nature has done it for us this year. Heaps of polluted garbage and illegal structures in the flood plains have been washed away. One hopes people will learn a lesson and not play with nature,’ said green activist Ravi Singh Meanwhile tourists visiting the Taj Mahal were advised to stay away from the swollen river. Colonies in the Balkeshwar and Dayalbagh areas have been inundated.

At least a dozen localities along the banks have been badly hit by the floods. In the rural segment, district authorities said the situation was worsening as more villages were cut off.

Crops have been destroyed in Manoharpur, Tanaura, Bahadurpur and parts of Etmadpur tehsil.

In the historic Bateshwar, 70 kms from the city, the 101 Shiva temples along the Yamuna bank have been hit hard and water entered the compounds of many temples threatening the foundations.

More than 30 villages in the Bah tehsil had been badly hit by the Yamuna floods.

The main sewage drains of the city were choked and backflowing, creating hygiene problems.

Wikipedia to Open India Office Soon MUMBAI (TOI): Wikipedia, the world’s free online encyclopedia that is one of most visited sites after Google with 375 million visitors a month, will shortly be launching an India office probably in Mumbai - besides setting up an India Chapter of the Wiki Foundation, the owners of Wikipedia and its other arms, in Bangalore said.

“We will be launching the Wiki Foundation’s India Chapter in Bangalore shortly and an India office of Wikipedia by early 2011,” Wikimedia Foundation Chief Global Development Officer Barry Newstead told PTI in an interaction here today.

On whether opening an India office involves setting up a server here, he said, “Our servers are based in the US only, and India will have a caching centre to make the site faster.”

“We have already registered the India Chapter

under the Karnataka Charitable Societies’ Act and soon we will be launching this actively,” Newstead said further.

On the location of the proposed office, he said, it could be either in Mumbai, New Delhi or in Bangalore as it is yet to be finalised.

Newstead, who left his plum job with the Boston Consultancy Group to join the executive management team of Wikimedia as chief global development officer in June 2010, is here to scout for a national programme director for India and to choose the best city to open the India office.

“I always have a passion for education and knowledge, and hence my decision to make a career working on social issues,” is how Newstead described his decision to quit his BCG job and take up this low-paying job.

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in d ia

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Schools Re-open in Kashmir After Three Months SRINAGAR: It was one of a series of measures announced by the government to address the surge in violence in the region.

But there were reports of limited attendance at the schools after a leading separatist leader called on parents to keep children at home.

More than 100 civilians have been killed since June.

The BBC’s Altaf Hussain in Srinagar says most school teachers have turned up for work, ignoring hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s call to stay at home.

But students said they were having a difficult time reaching their schools because of the lack

of transport and stone-throwing protesters in some areas.

“The decision to open schools is stupid. My daughter has gone to school. What happens if she is hit by a stone on the way back?” said Bashir Ahmed, a parent.

Over the weekend, the central government announced a raft of steps to address the dramatic surge of violence in the valley.

The government’s measures include compensation for families of those killed during the recent months of violent clashes between pro-separatists and Indian security forces.

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food corNEr

Indo American News • Friday, October 01, 2010

ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com

• Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. ~Voltaire • It would be nice if the Food and Drug Administration stopped issuing warnings about toxic substances and just gave me the names of one or two things still safe to eat. ~Robert Fuoss

FOOD QUOTES TO PONDER ON:

• Welcome to the Church of the Holy Cabbage.

Lettuce pray. ~Author Unknown • Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables.

They probably get jet-lagged, just like people. ~Elizabeth Berry

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INDIA

Indo American News • Friday, October 01 , 2010

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India in Pictures

A teacher supervises a class as students returned to schools, which were closed for more than 100 days, in Sringar. Photo: AP

School children, with their family, try to make way through barbed wires in Habbakadal area of Srinagar on Tuesday. Photo: Nissar Ahmad

A securityman with a sniffer dog patrols outside the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. Photo: PTI

India’s ace shooter Gagan Narang holds the Queen’s Baton for Commonwealth Games 2010 in Hyderabad.

Photo: K. Ramesh Babu <<<

The Patel Chowk Metro Station. Delhi Metro will reserve a coach exclusively for women from October 2. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar Rapid Action Force jawans patrolling in Lucknow outside the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court just after the verdict of Supreme Court in the deferment case on Ayodhya. Photo: Subir Roy

A Kashmiri man walks in front of closed shops during curfew in Srinagar last week. Photo: Nissar Ahmad

>>>

Send your travel photos to: indoamericannews@yahoo.com

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Indo American News • Friday, October 01 , 2010

I ndia - E c o n o m y

The Walmart Foundation to Increase Women’s Development Partnership New funding applies successes and learnings from prior programs to educate and empower more women in Peru, Bangladesh and India ference we have made in the lives of women through the work we have done in partnership with CARE and are looking forward to building on these successes to do even more,” said Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of Walmart and CARE board member. “These projects will create new jobs and advancement opportunities for women in the work place, as well as help to build and improve their confidence.”

In Bangladesh, the new funding will enable 2,500 women to take advantage of an expanded curriculum to build their reading, writing, math and analytical skills, as well as promote health and nutrition awareness. With this addition, a total of 5,000 women will build life-long skills that will increase their income-earning potential.

In India, Walmart and CARE President and CEO, Helen Gayle is CARE will create additional happy with Wal-mart’s decision to fund women owned-and-operatliteracy and job training programs for ed cashew processing instiyoung and middle aged women in Peru, Bangladesh and India. The programs help tutions, expanding into 18 women to expand their reading, writing, new villages. This extension math and analytical skills, while promoting will help an additional 500 health and nutritional issues as well. These women in the cashew farmwomen are being taught life skills that will ing and processing sector help them keep earning incomes to sustain achieve more equitable and their families for life. consistent incomes, totaling 1,250 women impacted opment partnership with CARE to $3 through the partnership.

In Peru, the project will extend its million, expanding its $1 million, oneyear partnership initiated last year. The work into more provinces and new funding will empower women in Peru, products, helping in total more than Bangladesh, and India by developing 1,600 households improve their agnew skills and creating new opportuni- ricultural operations and creating apties through education, literacy and job proximately 700 new jobs in the region. training programs in agriculture and The project also includes strategies to empower women to take a stronger factory settings.

“We are excited by the positive dif- leadership role in their family farms BENTONVILLE, (PRNewswire): The Walmart Foundation announced plans to increase its women’s devel-

and communities, including training in how to better market their produce and support in implementing women’s business networks.

“Walmart’s support has made a significant difference in the lives of thousands of women, and their families, in Bangladesh, India and Peru,” said Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE. “This new funding is a testimony of Walmart’s long-term commitment to provide women with the skills, knowledge and opportunities that will enable them to reshape the future for themselves and their families. By leveraging our collective resources, we can bring about lasting impact in the fight against poverty.”

Globally,womenmakeup70percent of the one billion people living on less than a dollar a day, work two-thirds of the working hours, produce half of the world’s food, yet earn only 10 percent of the world’s income and own less than 1 percent of the world’s property.

Equipped with the right tools, research shows that women are the solution to breaking the cycle of poverty.

Together, Walmart and CARE are working hard to ensure women are part of the solution in the fight against global poverty.

Eduardo Castro-Wright, Vice Chairman of Wal-mart and board member of CARE feels that these programs will help create more equal opportunities for women in these nations

Quotes on India: A Nation That’s Going Places

• “The market outlook for renewable energies in India is extremely positive and we see huge potential for the wind and solar business in the near future.” - Dr. Armin Bruck, Managing Director, Siemens • “India has a huge opportunity to become a food basket for the world.” -Scott Price, President and CEO, Wal-Mart, Asia

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India’s Rich to Retain Superfast Growth MUMBAI: With the high networth individuals (HNWIs) population showing a robust growth of 33.2 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region last year, India and China are likely to remain the fastestgrowing HNWI segment in the world, a report said.

Emerging Asia (China, India, Indonesia and Thailand) is fast becoming the main engine of growth in the Asia-Pacific region and its HNWI segment showed a robust growth of 33.2 per cent in 2009, with wealth up 40.4 per cent, according to the 2010 Asia-Pacific Wealth Report released by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini, in Mumbai.

India and China were the only two major Asia-Pacific countries in which industrial production actually rose in 2009, as they enjoyed a more diversified export market and broader domestic demand.

Hong Kong and India, which experienced the world\’s largest decline in HNWI population and wealth in 2008, experienced the strongest resurgence in 2009. The population of HNWIs grew 104.4 per cent in Hong Kong, almost reaching pre-crisis levels and 50.9 per cent in India, the report said.

HNWI wealth in Hong Kong and India jumped 108.9 per cent and 53.8 per cent, respectively, amid strong growth in both markets and macro-economic drivers of wealth.

“The strong economic resurgence in India has been boosted primarily by the country\’s stock market capitalisation which more than doubled in 2009 after dropping 64.1 per cent in 2008,” Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, India, Chairman, Pradeep Doka-

nia, said.

“The increased confidence by Indian HNWIs facilitated by the strength of the underlying economy which grew 6.8 per cent in 2009 has resulted in a surge in HNWI wealth in the region,” Dokania said.

“China and India will lead the way in the Asia-Pacific region with economic expansion and HNWI growth is likely to keep out-pacing more developed economics,” he said.

China\’s rapid GDP growth is expected to slow a little to 8.3 per cent in 2011. Going forward, China is expected to focus on balancing its economy by boosting the service sector and driving private consumption.

However, India\’s growth is expected to keep accelerating with GDP forecast to expand 8.1 per cent in 2011 after a gain of 7.8 per cent in 2010 due to the significant expansion of private consumption and investment, the report said.

The report said the Reserve Bank of India is expected to tighten monetary policy progressively in 2010 to make sure its economy does not overheat as the global financial crises recedes.

The proportion of Asia-Pacific HNWI assets allocated to cashbased instruments dropped to 22 per cent in 2009 from 29 per cent in 2008 and fixed income investments accounted for only 20 per cent of assets, unchanged from 2008.

However, HNWIs from China and India allocated a very high 85 per cent and 82 per cent, respectively, to the home region investments, it said.

Why India is the Place for Business • “India is a very important market for Ford Motor company. We are here in a big way. We are doubling our plant capacity in Chennai.”

- Mark Bentley, Manager, Ford Global Licensing • “Given the rapid development of India’s economy and infrastructure, this is exactly the right time to bring the world’s greatest motorcycle to one of the world’s largest motorcycling nations.” - Matthew Levatich, President and COO, Harley-Davidson Motor Company • “Compared to China, India has a much stronger and self-sufficient skill base... India is truly the powerhouse of the future.” - Michael Maedel, President, JWT Worldwide

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Wildlife

India to Move all Zoo Elephants to Wildlife Parks the elephants to wildlife preserves, many of which are under pressure from encroaching human habitation.

“Special facilities have to be created, perhaps outside the wildlife sanctuaries. It may add to the pressures faced by natural habitats,” said Raman Sukumar, a professor of ecology at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Increasingly, research shows that elephants in the wild have longer life spans and better health and reproductive records than those in captivity, Sukumar said.

Zoo elephants often die prematurely and contract diseases or suffer obeElephant camps are being organized by the government’s forest department sity and arthritis more which are located near protected areas and national parks, where elephants frequently than in their can be safe under the watchful eyes of their trainers natural habitats, he said.

India has an estimated animals can graze more freely, of- to “elephant camps” run by the 28,000 wild elephants living in government’s forest department forest reserves and national parks, ficials said.

The decision affects around 140 and located near protected areas mainly in the southern and northelephants in 26 zoos and 16 circus- and national parks. There they eastern parts of the country. Anothes in the country, said B.K. Gupta, would be able to roam and graze er 3,500 elephants live in captivity, an officer at India’s Central Zoo freely, but “mahouts,” or tradi- many of them in temples, or worktional elephant trainers, would ing in logging camps where they are Authority. used to lift timber. No decision has The order followed complaints still keep an eye on them.

Some elephant experts, howev- been made about them. from animal rights activists about elephants that are kept in captivity er, were skeptical about moving NEW DELHI (AP): All elephants living in Indian zoos and circuses will be moved to wildlife parks and game sanctuaries where the

and often chained for long hours, Gupta said.

The elephants currently living in zoos or circuses are to be moved

Indo American News • Friday, October 01 , 2010

Floods Affect Wildlife Sanctuary Known for One-Horned Rhinos GUWAHATI: (NTI) An incessant downpour over the past fortnight has inundated the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam. Wildlife wardens have moved the animals to safer places.

The Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary is famous for its one-horned rhinoceros.

Reportedly, the gushing waters of the River Brahmaputra have submerged 95 percent of the area.

This in turn has prompted game wardens and rangers to initiate possible remedial measures to save the animals and stop them from wandering away from their regular habitat that encompasses over 38 square kilometres of area.

The Conservator of Forests, the chief wildlife warden, forest rangers, security personnel and villag-

ers are keeping a round-the clock watch on animal movement.

This is the third time this year that the River Brahmaputra has inundated the sanctuary.

“The entire Pobitora is submerged in flood waters. In fact, just two or three camps are saved, or else are submerged in the floods,” said Deepak Mahanta, a game warden.

“For the past seven to eight days, we all are on continuous duty for the safety of animals of the sanctuary. I got the information that the rhinos are moving out of the wildlife preserve,” said Sukleshwar Rajbongshi, Deputy Game Warden of the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary.

The sanctuary is located around 60 kilometres from Guwahati.

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The one-horned rhino at the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary is now safe thanks to the game wardens and rangers who have moved the animals to safe ground even before the Bhramaputra river could endanger the lives of the many animals that live there

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m o v ie r e v iew

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One-Minute Films: Bell Bajao! (Ring the Bell) against Violence on Women

By Dr. Shoma Chatterji KOLKOTA (IT): One out of three women faces violence behind closed doors, but even a very small intervention can help in overcoming this. A brilliant audiovisual campaign called Bell Bajao!

(Ring the Bell) urges men to take a stand against domestic violence.

Ring the bell and intervene in a situation of abuse - the campaign’s premise is that this simple act is all it takes to bring domestic violence to a halt.

Bauddhayan Mukherji is the man behind Little Lamb Films, founded in 2008. The firm makes advertising films and is deeply involved in public service advertising. Among its memorable assignments is a film for a project called Friends Without Borders where kids from India and Pakistan write letters to each other. “Some of these have won awards as well but that is not what keeps us going. The motivation comes from the work itself,” says Mukherji. He is currently in the limelight because his Bell Bajao! series of one-minute films on domestic violence has not only won numerous prestigious awards, but has also been screened at Cannes 2010.

One film from the series was screened in Cannes 2010 last month as one out of six short films chosen for a section called “Speak Out Against Domestic Violence” Short Films Contest with entries from the Netherlands, Mexico, the UK and the US. It has won a gold and a silver at Goafest (2009), two golds at the Indian Documentary Producers Association Awards, a

Spikes Asia Gold, a Community reach it, at times we fail. On Bell point of view. It is an awareness Engagement Award at the Media Bajao, I think everything just fell and intervention campaign. The That Matters festival in New York, in place. A rare occurrence I must second season of the campaign is a special jury mention at the Ex- say,” says a happy Mukherji. now on, and is also done by Baudpression En Corto Film Festival These films are almost without di- dhayan Mukherji. How does it difin Mexico and the Best Public alogue, with powerful visuals that fer from the first season? Mukherji Service Advertisement award at strike home instantly. The man’s says, “One shows an old retired the UNFPA-Laadli Media Awards, shouts rip through the neighbour- man coming to a neighboring door India, 2009. with the excuse of The Bell Badelivering a wrongly jao! campaign delivered letter. It is was launched by just an excuse for him Breakthrough in to ring the bell. What August 2008, he comes up with is a in collaboration blank postcard. That is with the Miniswhen the penny drops try of Women for the abuser, whose and Child Develrealization is now exopment. Breakplicit - he knows that through is a the old man knows!.

New York-based “Season One was NGO working the initial campaign. in India. The Post-release of the campaign is an same made the enentire series of Bell Bajao, (Ring the Bell) on women abuse urges action on the part tire nation stand up brief films, each of men and society, who have kept silent far too long. and watch Bell Baone featuring a jao! People actually man, who, alerted by a woman’s hood that could be yours or mine. walked across and rang the bell. screams, walks over to the house As he screams at and thrashes a Season Two picked up three real and rings the bell on a variety of woman, the character played by life incidents and reconstructed pretexts such as asking for a cup of actor Boman Irani can’t take the them. These were chosen from the milk or retrieving a lost ball. The injustice of domestic violence, hundreds of ‘excuses’ we received campaign asks men to do their part and he walks over and rings the in the mail,” explains Mukherji. to ensure women live a violence- bell. Under the pretext of requestThe campaign echoes the sentifree life. ing to use the telephone, he drives ments of a small section of men “Before Bell Bajao, I had worked home the point that he knows the who feel they have a role to play in with Breakthrough on their pre- shameful secret of the husband addressing violence against womvious campaign for HIV AIDS who opens the door: the man is a en. In India, traditional efforts to and Women. It was critically ac- wife-beater. As Irani walks away, tackle violence against women claimed and won awards. Bell Ba- you get the feeling that one bell have concentrated on empowering jao happened next. Breakthrough and a severe look will make sure women to assert themselves and had briefed its agency Ogilvy on it was the last time the man raised prevent violence. This approach the campaign. The concept came his hand on the woman. excludes men from the process from the Ogilvy team. Each projThe campaign looks at domestic of transformation and binds them ect has equilibrium. At times we violence from the sensitive man’s to their patriarchal mould. There

is a lack of safe, non-threatening platforms for men to talk about problems that lead to violent behaviour including issues of gender and sexuality. There is the need for positive role models among men, who assert a gender sensitive society and can engage other young men in the discourse.

“The campaign asks you to take a stand. It eggs men on to kill the ‘It is not my business’ mentality,” explains Mukherji. Sonali Khan, Director, Creative Communications, Breakthrough, says, “Ending violence against women has been a focus of women’s organizations because women are both victims as well as survivors of violence.

Women have agency.

The campaign hands men the responsibility of a proactive role. It uses the power of popular culture, media, and education to transform public attitudes and promote values of equality, justice and dignity.

Sonali did fret for a while over whether this was taking away from women a chance to raise their own voice. “I realized that when it comes to violence faced by women, men too need a voice. They experience violence and imbibe violence as a behavioral norm. This vicious cycle has to be broken.”

That’s why the campaign makes men the natural allies of violated women. It is for “the silent men, who are not violent themselves but hesitate to take action. What if they take a stand? What if they start ringing the bell?” Well, they would save many women from being thrashed behind closed doors.

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Indo American News • Friday, October 01 , 2010

S P OR T S

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India vs. Australia Test Series: Going from Hardship to Hunger for Success

By Dileep Premchandran NEW DELHI (Cricinfo): There was a time when an Australian tour of India was a rarity, a brief shower after seasons of drought.

After Richie Benaud and Neil Harvey triumphed in India at the end of the Eisenhower era, it was another decade before their successors made a successful journey back across the Indian Ocean.

Messrs Lawry, Chappell, McKenzie and Mallett won a hard-fought series, but it had its share of controversies, especially off the field, where Doug Walters was accused

by India’s reds of having a quarrel with the Vietcong.

Another 10 years would pass before a side without stars - who were busy being part of Kerry Packer’s revolutionary caravan - came over and were easily beaten.

The likes of Greg Chappell and Dennis Lillee never played a Test in India, and it was quite an achievement when their unheralded successors came over in 1986 and drew a three-match series that included a memorable tie on the Coromandel coast.

By then, touring India had become less of a hardship and more of an adventure. The 1969 tourists once jeered their own manager after he thanked their hosts in Guwahati and hoped to be back soon. By the time Allan Border’s men crisscrossed the subcontinent to win the World Cup in 1987, the players were more used to the unique rhythms of subcontinent life, less prone to lose focus over heat, dust or an upset tummy. It still took another decade for the Test side to return, though, and a heavy defeat in the Nayan Mongia Test of 1996 showed how much remained to be done if Australia were to become masters of all they surveyed.

These days, any talk of India and Australia tends to end up with a discussion of the epic 2001 series, but if anything, it was the crushing defeat in 1998 that forced Australia to rethink their India strategies.

Thrashed in Chennai despite hav-

Uneasy lies the head ... Ricky Ponting puts on his helmet before a session at the nets in Mohali.

ing taken a first-innings lead, and hammered out of sight in Kolkata - Sachin Tendulkar had scores of 155 not out, 79 and 177 in the series - it took an exceptional spell of swing bowling from Michael Kasprowicz in Bangalore to lend the scoreline some respectability.

For an Australian team that had slowly and methodically ticked all the boxes on the road to greatness, it was a devastating blow, even if the absence through injury of Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie was a mitigating factor.

They had won three successive Ashes series in England, while the Waugh twins’ defiance at Sabina Park had finally ended two decades of West Indian hegemony in 1995. More importantly, they had seen off the challenge of South Africa, with Steve Waugh and Greg Blewett imperious at the Wanderers, and Mark Waugh playing an innings for the ages in Port Elizabeth in 1997.

A few months after India, they would go to Pakistan and win there too. The set was complete, or nearly so. India remained unconquered, the final frontier for a side that Mark Taylor and Waugh led to greatness after the years of revival and consolidation under Border.

With neither side possessing imposing bowling strength, this should be a series dominated by the bat. For Australia, much as in 1986, this is a time to build up and look to the future. For India, this and the forthcoming series are a chance to consolidate the No.1 ranking It’s easy to forget how close they came to ending the jinx in 2001. A dazzling counterattack from Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden saw them romp home in Mumbai, and despite the dramatic defeat in Kolkata, it appeared to be business as usual in Chennai once Hayden found his range and started to hammer away like a blacksmith on an anvil.

At 340 for 3, it was Australia’s Test to lose. Then Steve Waugh bizarrely handled the ball off Harbhajan Singh and the game changed. With the crowd suddenly rediscovering its voice, Australia were bowled out for 391 and India’s batsmen, confidence skyhigh after Kolkata, pushed forward ruthlessly. It was still a tense finish, though, with an unbelievable Mark Waugh catch to dismiss Laxman inducing an almighty stutter before Harbhajan, hero of the Indian Lazarus act with 32 wickets,

steering one behind point for the winning runs.

McGrath, who lost kilos to dehydration on that final afternoon, and Gillespie bowled magnificently.

They would have their retribution three years later, in a series where fortunes ebbed and flowed. Beaten easily in Bangalore, India were frustrated by rain on the final day in Chennai. There’s no guarantee that they would have chased down a tricky target, but with Sehwag in resplendent form, it was the cricket lover who was the loser once the heavens opened.

Then came Nagpur and greenwicketitis. History records that it was India’s heaviest defeat, by 342 runs, but six years on we still have no answers to why a pitch was prepared that so blatantly favoured the opposition’s strengths.

Gillespie, then bowling like the best in the world rather than the knackered Ashes misfit of the following year, took nine and India’s unbeaten home record against Australia was history.

The controversy didn’t end there. If Nagpur played into the pacemen’s hands, the pitch at the Wankhede was so loaded in favour of spin that even Michael Clarke took 6 for 9. Australia should have won easily, but lost their nerve while chasing a miniscule target, as they had at both The Oval and Sydney nearly a decade earlier.

Given the excitement and drama of the three previous series, the one played in 2008 was a damp squib.

Once India escaped with a draw in Bangalore, courtesy a doughty rearguard from Harbhajan and Zaheer Khan, it was pretty much one-way traffic. Delhi produced a high-scoring draw, but either side of it, India won handily in Mohali and Nagpur. That Brett Lee managed just eight wickets and that Cameron White, an object of some derision in the Indian changing room, was the only Australian slow bowler to feature in all four games, said plenty about Australia’s travails, and whinges about

Indian tactics in Nagpur, justified or not, spoke of a team that couldn’t wait to head home.

Two years on, Australian cricket is still in a transitional phase. The bowling is far short of the standards set in the McGrath-Warne era, and a batting line-up with the inconsistent Marcus North at No. 6 no longer intimidates as it once did.

Ricky Ponting appears to have left his best years behind him - mind you, people said the same of Tendulkar before his Indian summer - while the retirements of Hayden and Gilchrist have robbed the side of two of the biggest game-changers of the modern era.

What Australian cricket’s relative decline has also done is allow India a glimpse at its own future.

Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman won’t be around forever, while Anil Kumble has already gone.

Yuvraj Singh already appears to have been filed under the could’vebeen-a-contender category, while none of the young bowlers has strung together even two seasons of consistent achievement.

Dileep Premachandran is an associate editor at Cricinfo

CSK Become T20 Champs

JOHANNESBERG: Chennai Super Kings achieved the double — the Indian Premier League and Champions League titles — when it outplayed Eastern Cape Warriors by eight wickets in the final at the Wanderers.

The Chennai outfit, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, carried too many punches for the Warriors.

First, Warriors was restricted to 128 for seven. Then CSK cantered home after Michael Hussey (51 not out) and M. Vijay put on 103 for the first wicket in 14.5 overs.

This said, it was spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Ravichandran Ashwin who turned the title clash CSK’s way. The in-form Davy Jacobs had blitzed a 21-ball 34 when Ashwin consumed him on the reverse sweep. The Warriors never really recovered.

Babulbhai

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Indo American News • Friday, October 01 , 2010

Julia Roberts: “India is a Magical Place”

By Noel De Souza raphers, other parents or any sort India is a magical place. I’ve CANCUN (TOI): I met Julia at of perimeter entity. been there a number of times, and the Ritz Carlton in Cancun Mexico, When you want quiet time, where every time I go, it’s a whole new dressed in an ETRO outfit, Marni do you go? experience. I was there at the beshoes and her own personal jewelThere’s one little room in my ginning of this year as my husband lery by Me@Ro. Currently riding house that’s filled with all my clut- was working there, so the kids and high on the success of her latest ter, my sewing machine and knit- I joined him. Visiting new places film Eat, Pray, Love, Julia talks ting stuff—that is my quiet spot. and sharing it with the family was about her numerous experiences Sadly, I don’t get to spend much really special. India is a relentless while filming, her domesticated time there. place, in a positive and negative life and journey of way. But the self-discovery... people here are Your character kind and generin the film enjoys ous, and we refood; tell us about ceived tremenyour own relationdous support as ship with food? a film crew that I love to cook and we just couldn’t I love to eat, so it’s ask for more! a close, producYou wear a tive relationship. sari in the film; My mom was a did you select great cook and she it? raised us on really No, I didn’t good food. So, it’s get to pick it, just about knowbut I’ll let you ing how to handle in on a little sefood and prepare cret. Since it’s it with fresh and so time consumyummy ingrediing to put it on ents. Plus, I have and take it off, Columbia Pictures Plan B they managed my own vegetable garden.

With Julia Roberts, the sky is the limit, literally speaking. She has to construct it Now to the sub- proven beyond doubt that she is an actress par excellence. For her as one piece ject of love, what India is a magical place, a whole new experience each time she visits so that I could does it mean to it. “India is a relentless place, in a positive and negative way” snap in and out you? of it easily!

It means just being there absoWhat does self-discovery mean You’ve been in the movie busilutely; no limits to what you would to you? ness for two decades, but the star give, receive or be open for another It is hoping to get to a place where system is now obsolete as stars person in your life. you are comfortable with who you don’t guarantee a movie’s success How drastically has your life really are, what that means to you, anymore. What are your thoughts changed after marriage and kids? the kind of person you’re going to on the current trends in the film I don’t have the luxury of sitting be, what your moral compass is industry? around too often, but honestly, I and the road that goes alongside.

Show business has certainly don’t know what I did with all my One never ever stops pursuing the changed and I think a lot of that spare time! I had tons of it and I greater understanding of them- has to do with the amount of medidn’t appreciate it. But it’s terrific selves and the world. dia and media outlets that exist. now. I can’t always get a pedicure, Did you ever take a trip to help It’s not really treated in a magical but I’m so happy that I don’t care if you discover yourself? way anymore. Everybody wants to my feet look bad.

I used to go on a vacation every know how the tricks are done and Being Julia Roberts, how dif dif- year by myself; it worked as a re- what the actors do 24 hours a day; ficult is it for you to be a regular start button to evaluate the time it kind of takes out the fun of the mom in your daily life? that had gone by. I’d read a good movie-going experience.

It’s not difficult; I have no com- book, get a suntan and just connect What according to you was a plaints about it. We, as a family, with myself. I don’t think you nec- life-altering experience? lead a balanced, regular life, like essarily have to travel to do that, I’ve had so many! Meeting my all other families on our street and but just take a moment to simply husband, having my children, at the school. I am very clear about exhale. being best friends with my best being treated like everybody else What is your impression about friends since I was a child; these in this regard, whether to photog- India? are the things that shape your life.

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