[aman2645]

7th jun 2006


Looking back at 9/11 unsentimentally

Hasan Suroor

WHEN IS it the "right" time for a film-maker or a writer to revisit a tragedy such as the 9/11 attacks without appearing insensitive? Indeed, is there a point at all in reopening the old wounds, especially when the bereaved families are still struggling to come to terms with their loss? Does such an exercise simply amount to voyeurism dressed up as creative exploration?

These were the questions British film-maker Paul Greengrass was confronted with when, barely months after 9/11, he thought of making a film recreating the final moments of one of the four planes involved in the attacks. United 93, named after the United Airlines Flight 93 which missed its target and crashed in a field in Pennsylvania killing all the 44 people on board, opened in Britain last week to rave reviews but it was nearly not made.

Mr. Greengrass, one of Britain's most talented film-makers and best known for his gritty docu-drama on the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, had shelved the project after he was warned that American sensitivities on the subject were still too strong and it was not the right time to make such a film. But the idea stayed with him and the July 7 London bombings last year, which affected him personally as he spent a couple of agonising hours wondering about the whereabouts of his son, led him to revive the project because he felt that terror was not simply an issue about American sensitivities.

"It impacts the whole world," he told The Sunday Times recalling his own experience of the London bombings. "My grown-up son was out and about, and I couldn't get hold of him. He did phone... and he was perfectly all right, but I felt fear and anger that such things can happen. That afternoon I decided that I was going to try to make the film," he said.

Still wary of the families' reaction, he sought their cooperation and they agreed to help him establishing the profiles of the passengers on that ill-fated plane. This helped him avoid cinematic clichés such as crying babies and honeymooning couples that are such a staple diet of disaster movies.

But there was still uncertainty how the American public would react and, in fact, when a trailer of United 93 was shown in a theatre in Los Angeles audience reportedly booed and shouted "Too soon." But when the film was released it not only found broad acceptance but was praised for its restraint. Critics were impressed by its honesty with The New York Times, in a left-handed compliment, calling it "the feel-bad movie of the year." This indeed was the purpose — to remind the world of the terrible nature of mindless terrorism.

United Airlines Flight 93 was the only one of the four planes involved in the 9/11 attacks that failed to reach its target and, instead of hitting the White House as it apparently intended to, it crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. None of the 37 passengers, seven crew and four hijackers survived.

But because no damage was done to any high-profile building and there were no casualties on the ground, the tragedy of Flight 93 was overshadowed by the havoc caused by the other three planes, especially those that crashed into the Twin Towers. Families of the Flight 93 victims have often complained that 9/11 has come to be identified only with the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, whereas if there were any heroes that day they were the passengers of Flight 93. It was thanks to their efforts — even if prompted by their own survival instinct — that the aircraft missed the White House by a hair's breadth.

Until this film was made, much of the creative narrative of 9/11— through writings, television documentaries — had focussed on the Twin Towers tragedy. Mr. Greengrass ventured where his American peers either did not care to or believed that it was too early to take a cold, clinical, and non-judgmental look at what, understandably, remains a sensitive subject in America.

United 93 reconstructs the last journey of the flight from the time it takes off from Newark international airport (since renamed Newark Liberty international airport) en route San Francisco and is then hijacked. The mood inside the plane as the hijackers run amuck — hitting passengers, threatening to blow up the aircraft, and then taking over the controls — is interspersed with scenes of confusion and shock and horror in the air-traffic control centre and military headquarters as officials try to make sense of what is happening.

Passengers realise the gravity of the situation when they learn that two planes have already crashed into the twin towers. It is then that they decide to act, but as a struggle ensues hijackers crash the plane to prevent the passengers from taking control.

It is a stark, unsentimental view of the events based on the accounts of the relatives of the victims who were able to speak to them on phone as the plane went down; newspaper reports; and the findings of the 9/11 inquiry commission. But in the end it is about innocent people caught up in a cycle of mindless violence wreaked in the name of religion.


bereaved---to deprive or rob; dispossess:
interspersed---to scatter among other things; put here and there or at intervals

[aman2645]

8th jun 2006


Malaise too deep

It is raining scandal in the Bharatiya Janata Party's backyard — sleaze, murder, and now a suspected case of liquor-and-drug overdose. And who should the latest ignominy involve but the friend and family of Pramod Mahajan, murdered by his own brother for motives that are still unclear. The scandal claimed the life of Bibek Moitra, the senior Mahajan's private secretary, and hospitalised his son Rahul Mahajan — now arrested on serious charges under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Prevention) Act. That the mishap followed a champagne party held the night before Moitra and the younger Mahajan were to leave for Guwahati for the ritual immersion of the slain leader's ashes speaks to the distance the BJP has travelled from its self-righteous `party with a difference' days. Unsurprisingly, the party tried to distance itself by contending that it was a family matter not linked to the party. But l'affaire Rahul Mahajan cannot be so easily dismissed. The young man aspired to fill his father's slot in the party, apparently with some encouragement from helmsman Rajnath Singh. Moitra's association with the parivar goes back a longer way: pre-Mahajan, he was active in the youth wing of the Maharashtra BJP and served as secretary to Gopinath Munde. In a further complication, the former Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who is married to Pramod Mahajan's sister, has aired his belief — against all the current evidence — that Moitra and Rahul were "poisoned" by enemies of the Mahajan family.

Who would gain from eliminating the supposedly all-knowing secretary and son of the BJP's presumptive `man of the future' who was brutally denied that future? Atal Bihari Vajpayee sought to defuse a potentially explosive situation with the statesman-like remark that it was not uncommon for young people to go astray. The BJP's immediate imperative is to bury the past: what better way to do this than to attribute all the recent degenerative ills to the `Mahajan culture'? This is a euphemism for lifestyle changes visible in all sections of the saffron family, including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. It is a different matter that the RSS is in the forefront of an inner-party campaign for `moral cleansing.' The command centre strongly disapproved of Pramod's fast-track life, a stance hardened by the ugliness of the flamboyant general secretary's death and his son's headline-hogging travails. Indeed, it was to please the RSS that a section of the BJP distanced itself from Rahul, projecting him instead as a protégé of the party president. The irony is difficult to miss. Handpicked by the RSS, Mr. Rajnath Singh was thought to be the man to reform a party `gone off course' under Lal Krishna Advani. In its two years out of power, a once-formidable party has lurched from crisis to crisis, unable to perform its role in the opposition and quite the antithesis of an organisation professing value-based politics. The malaise is too deep for any quick fix.



ignominy---loss of one‘s reputation; shame and dishonor;
euphemism---a word or phrase so substituted (Ex.: remains for corpse)
travails---very hard work; toil
malaise---a vague feeling of physical discomfort or uneasiness, as early in an illness




For a fulfilling partnership

V. Jayanth

Industry must give back to education what it is taking away, for the mutual good.

AT LAST, there seems to be a realisation in the Information Technology (IT) and IT Enabled Services (ITES) sector that the industry must give back to education what it is taking away — the cream of graduates passing out every year. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) may be thinking of a faculty improvement programme in institutions of higher education and of encouraging industry employees to pursue postgraduate education.

It has dawned on industry captains and associations that with the mushrooming of engineering colleges, especially in the southern States, there may be a dearth of qualified teachers.

Many of these colleges are perhaps sharing faculty at the top end and in some cases only using some names to gain credibility and recognition for courses. Fresh graduates are handling classes in most institutions, and the colleges try to encourage them to acquire postgraduate qualifications or even pursue a doctorate, if they agree to serve the institutions for at least a few years.

During a recent visit to Chennai, Nasscom president Kiran Karnik discussed this problem at length with The Hindu. He agreed that the IT and ITES industry was siphoning off the cream of talent from the colleges — including Arts and Science graduates for the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. As a result, most students now opt to take up these relatively high-paying jobs instead of pursuing higher education. Given the 25-30 per cent growth in the IT sector, it was expected to continue to absorb fresh graduates at the same pace, if not more. Of late, the industry was finding a section of the graduates "unemployable." As such, there was a realisation that it must step up its interaction with educational institutions and contribute to a faculty improvement programme.

Serious faculty crunch

Managements of private self-financing colleges confess they are facing a serious crunch when it comes to faculty. "We need more qualified hands to handle the senior classes. With the unfettered growth in the number of colleges and the expansion of existing ones, there is a shortage of postgraduates to teach. Many of the private colleges recruit Professors who retire from government colleges, because we need senior hands with possibly a doctorate to be heads of departments. Except for a couple of really senior hands, there is hardly any middle level in the faculty. Most of them are lecturers who are fresh graduates," said the chairman of a private minority college near Chennai.

It has been possible to handle traditional branches such as Mechanical, Electrical, and Civil Engineering. But when it comes to new areas such as IT, Electronics and Communication or Computer Science, leave alone more specialised branches such as Nanotechnology, there is a problem. Modern technology makes the curriculum obsolete in no time. And the existing faculty can hardly be expected to catch up with the latest in technology and science. They just do not have the time both to teach and learn.

Despite all the talk of industry-institute interaction or collaboration, there have been but a few good examples of a mutually beneficial relationship. Industry and industry associations must realise that it is just not enough to offer training and project work for students; nor will it do to sponsor a few seats in a specialised field of study. Industry should work with academia to reorient the curriculum and offer some of its senior executives to handle practical lessons for the students.

Need for regular interaction

In a four-year graduate programme, at least two semesters in the last two years can be usefully spent in an industry to gain practical experience. And, let industry provide hands-on training for candidates that it can recruit on completion of their education. There has also to be a regular interaction at the management and academic level — with the university itself, or at least with deemed universities and private colleges of their choice.

Such active involvement will lead to a continuing exchange of ideas and constant review of the curriculum and syllabi.

Though salaries have risen to an extent in recent years, the compensation levels for teachers have not kept pace with industry. As such, teaching can hardly be expected to attract talent. There can be no motivation for talented students to take to teaching unless they find it financially attractive and professionally challenging. And it is here that industry must step in and make it attractive.

In the short term, it should lend the services and expertise of its own executives to handle a few classes a week; over the medium and long term it must sponsor lecturers and professors to pursue higher education or even work with the company for a semester to update their knowledge and experience.

Such an approach can lead to a rewarding and mutually beneficial partnership between industry and institute. As government schemes and university programmes for faculty improvement have not met with much success, it is up to industry to get involved in such a drive to upgrade the quality of education and make the graduates and postgraduates who are churned out of colleges every year, more employable.

Ideally, such a collaborative programme must be launched in every city and town. But to start with, it must take shape in known educational centres or university locations. If a few models evolve over the next few years, they can be replicated in more centres. The initiative must come for industry and educational institutions as well as universities must respond swiftly and positively to any such move.


siphoning---to draw off or carry through or as through a siphon
unfettered---free from restraint of any kind; liberate

[gaurav200x]

aman2645, apart from posting the editorial and the difficult words, u should mention the summary and the important points in the editorial. Without that, this section is of NO use!!

[Shrijit_s]

http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/09/stor...0904641000.htm

Poor response to child malnutrition



A recent report on malnutrition by the United Nations Children's Fund drew attention to the worsening crisis of malnutrition among Indian children. They account for one-third of the world's malnourished children, with a shocking 47 per cent malnutrition rate. Now, the World Bank has published a report that provides details of the characteristics of malnutrition in States across India and the effectiveness of the programmes set up to address this problem. This report says undernutrition with micronutrient deficiencies alone may cost the country $2.5 billion annually owing to lowered productivity. Efforts at targeting malnutrition have been in place for several decades and India has the world's largest development programme, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). But the reach of the ICDS has been inadequate, and it has had only limited success. India's progress in reducing malnutrition over the last decade has been much worse than the record of other countries with comparable socio-economic indicators. Unless efforts are greatly stepped up, the country is unlikely to meet one of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals — halving the number of underweight children by 2015. What is worrying is that despite economic growth, the levels of undernutrition are very high, intensified by inequalities across regions and groups; the worst affected are girls and the most marginalised among the rural poor, including Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In six States — Maharashtra, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan — half the children are underweight. Undernutrition, which includes protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies such as iron deficiency, Vitamin A deficiency, and iodine deficiency, is also endemic and has not declined much in the second half of the 1990s. It is clear that the current policy response to this crisis is skewed and inadequate. The Food Insecurity Atlas of Rural India, a valuable initiative of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and the World Food Programme, has pointed out that where child and maternal malnutrition, including micronutrient deficiency, co-exists with high levels of food supply, more attention needs to be paid to food delivery strategies and direct nutritional intervention. The World Bank report also underscores this, finding a mismatch between ICDS intentions and implementation. For instance, not enough attention is paid to child feeding practices, education and counselling for mothers, and service delivery is not sufficiently focussed on children below three. Given the Central Government's proclaimed intention to expedite the expansion of the ICDS and other national nutritional initiatives, the focus for all stakeholders must be on identifying the most important determinants of malnutrition and urgently improving the quality of nutrition delivery to the most vulnerable segments of the population.

My take on this

A report by UNCF indicates that India has 47% malnutrition rate, thus accounting for 33% of world's malnourished children.
Efforts to reduce to reduce this have been in place in India for a long time but it is just not working. India has one of d largest programmes for reducing malnutrition rate, but its reach is limited.
High economic growth rate has not helped in reducing the rate.
Most affected among d malnourished children are girls, and the marginalised sections of the community
Delivery aspect is the troubling aspect in the system and there is a need to overhaul this and the need to educate mothers about right feeding.

Skewed - having an oblique direction

[aman2645]

Time to dismantle the immunity regime

Harish Khare

The Supreme Court has begun the process of bringing the political leader on a par with the citizen.

ON THURSDAY, the Supreme Court directed the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and his family members to explain their income and investments over the last five years. The court directive came in a public interest litigation case. While the court has reserved the option of examining the bona fides of the petitioner, it has directed the income tax authorities to continue with their proceedings against Uttar Pradesh's most important political family. This is not the first time that a Chief Minister has been suspected of having assets disproportionate to known sources of income. The former Chief Ministers of Haryana (Om Prakash Chautala), Punjab (Parkash Singh Badal), and Uttar Pradesh (Mayawati) are some prominent leaders facing similar allegations. What is new in Mulayam Singh Yadav's case is that the apex court has been invoked directly to let the income tax authorities do their job. Ten years ago, a PIL by a BJP legislator became the basis of the long-drawn out "fodder case." That process has now been given a new — and sharper — dimension.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has predictably attributed all these unhelpful directives to the Congress' unfriendly designs. He sees this as a case of political vendetta and a misuse of the Centre's coercive powers. This, too, is commonplace. However, Mr. Yadav has raised an interesting point. He has asked why only his family was being singled out while nobody was asking question of "others" who send their sons and daughters abroad for education.

It must be presumed that Mr. Yadav's lawyers would be able to respond satisfactorily to the apex court's queries and doubts. It may also be possible to argue that the court has once again overreached itself by expanding the scope of its original jurisdiction. There may even be sympathy for Mr. Yadav for all the mental agony he and his family members have been put to. But in his plight one can see the beginning of a much larger and much-needed step towards dismantling the immunity regime that the political class has built for itself over the years. All the devices — including the much abused Prevention of Corruption Act or the election time disclosure of assets by a candidate — have failed to slow down the political class' capacity and innovativeness for self-aggrandisement. The use of the taxman as an instrument of inquiry cannot stop with Mr. Yadav. What is sauce for Mr. Yadav and his family has to be sauce for other political families, sooner or later. And it is about time.

Ever since our polity graduated into the "coalition is inevitable" age, it has become virtually impossible for any Prime Minister to read the riot act to a Cabinet colleague engaged in unethical practices. The incumbent Prime Minister is no exception to this coalition-induced paralysis. The much-touted "coalition dharma" has in practice come to mean that Cabinet Ministers are left pretty much to their own devices and to their own definitions of ethical conduct. Nor can the Centre allow the law to take its course, lest this or that important regional ally (or potential ally) in a State should get offended. Regional parties need not even be part of a ruling coalition at the Centre to earn impunity from the Centre's scrutiny; a precariously perched ruling party is always willing to mollycoddle the tiniest of political outfits. Who knows when this outfit's two Lok Sabha members or that outfit's sole member will come in handy?

The coalition matrix has only deepened an already existing infirmity in our polity. The political class proceeds on the assumption of immunity from the law's scrutiny. It has also perfected the art of shouting "vendetta" if at all an odd taxman or an idealist policeman gathers the courage to do his job. A few months ago, the Samajwadi Party leadership sought to make an issue of the fact that its supporter, Amitabh Bachchan, got an income tax notice while he was in hospital. The principle of immunity was sought to be invoked not only for the political leadership but also for its prominent supporters.

There may or may not be some merit in the Samajwadi Party leadership's contention that the Congress was being vindictive. However, the highest judicial forum's intervention ought to be welcomed not only by civil society but also by the political class. If the political class is incapable of self-correction it should not grudge some other institution doing the job. No thinking leadership can be unmindful of the vast erosion in the political class' reputation and acceptability. This withering away of its credibility can directly be traced to the immunity from law political leaders are seen to enjoy. This erosion has, in fact, become so palpable that it is a pronounced handicap in the purposeful working of our democratic institutions.

Take for instance two recent developments that revealed civil society's disdain for the political leadership. First, the office of profit controversy. The country witnessed for itself how political leaders collectivised in Parliament were prepared to tinker with the law to entrench themselves in positions of privilege. Those who protested in New Delhi were quite happy to practise the same legislative sleight of hand in the States they ruled. This was seen as a cynical class act, with no pretensions to furthering any kind of "public good."

Second, the reservation muddle. While one does not have to endorse the anti-reservation crowd's protests and pretensions, there is no denying the fact that the vast — and critical — segments of our population are no longer willing to accept the political leaders' word or claims or assurances. "The politician" is no longer given the benefit of doubt that he or she will do the "right" thing. This depletion of the citizen's faith in the political leader's claim that he is the most sincere guardian of the public interest can undermine the very edifice of democratic governance.

A democratic polity operates on the assumption that those who work its institutions do so in the interests of society and that they stand above the temptations of sectional interests and personal gains. The Indian state could acquire its legitimacy in the early years of post-Independence only because the political leadership consisted of those who were seen to have made sacrifices in the cause of national liberation. The Mahatma was the icon of this selfless, dedicated, committed political biradari, with a single-minded pursuit of our collective emancipation. It was the credibility and reputation of post-Independence leaders that helped republican values and democratic institutions gain traction. This leadership could dismantle the feudal and princely order because it could legitimately claim to speak in the name of the Indian masses. The same credentials helped the political leadership occasionally to tame big business. The Indian state drew its legitimacy from the simple fact that the masses believed in their leaders.

This faith was gradually betrayed. By the 1990s, the political class could no longer be deemed to have the capacity or credibility to undertake the unfinished task of ushering in an egalitarian social order. Influential sections of society turned to the market and private enterprise. The state was asked to share space with the market. This battle for space is becoming more and more favourable to the market because the political class has lost its reputation of being dedicated to the public good.

The idea of democratic functioning assumes that the public official is committed unreservedly to the idea of welfare for all; but the "public" is no longer willing to concede this claim, mostly on account of the immunities and privileges claimed by political leaders. What has deepened this crisis of faith is the leaders' insistence on disregarding any demand of accountability as inspired either by social prejudices or party calculations.

The Supreme Court's directive to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister to comply with the income tax authorities' requests punctures the politician's penumbra of immunity. Maybe this will open a can of worms, with unintended destabilising consequences. It is possible that the Samajwadi Party might instigate similar public interest litigation against political leaders of other parties, and the judiciary will be even-handed.

The larger interests of the democratic polity will be served if public officials are seen to be well within the reach of the law. The Supreme Court has begun the process of bringing the political leader on a par with the citizen. This is a moment to celebrate.


vendetta---any bitter quarrel or feud
impunity---freedom or exemption from punishment, penalty, or harm
mollycoddle---a man or boy used to being coddled, or protected, pampered, etc.; milksop
tinker---to make clumsy or tentative attempts to mend or repair something
entrench---to encroach or infringe
muddle---to mix up in a confused manner; jumble; bungle
edifice---any elaborately constructed institution, organization, etc.
traction---a pulling or drawing,

personal review
this article generally refers to the state of political parties and politicians today.the author gives various examples to further his point.the example given are the recent court directive to mulayam singh to file his IT papers for last 6 years.in turn mulayam singh accused others of singling him out.the author says that of late there is a paradigm shift in the thinking of political parties.they think being part of ruling party(coalition) gives them freedom to do anything and safeguard them from any ill.
the author further lists two recent developments that highlight the sad story of politics in india today.the first being office of profit where polotical leaders were ready to mend the constitutional law for their own good.
the second example being given is that of reservation policy.
the last portion of this article compares the leaders of today to that of pre independence time.times have surely changed.while leaders in the past had just one thing on their minds and that was to serve the nation but the political leaders of today are just filling their pockets.
one of the remedy seen of the problem may be that the political leaders should be made equal to common man.that is why the author hails the SC order to UP CM as a step in right direction

[aman2645]

Diary of doctor makes war real

the article has not been published on the online hindu edition on hindu.com

words
intertwining---together;
longing---strong desire; yearning
pantheon---a temple for all the gods


personal review
the article is about a young soldier D T Tram of vietnam war and a diary written by the soldier about daily hapeenings.
the writer is serving in the war-zone clinic and she gives a daily updates about what is happening in the war.
the writer is there in the war for two reasons.one to fight bloodthirsty americans and second to follow her childhood love.
the whole article talks about difficuilties faced by her and how she toils to serve her country.
the diary was returned to her mother last year in US and the article captures her feelings in a way as she says it feels like holding my daughters soul.

[Shrijit_s]

http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/13/stor...1302830800.htm

Intimations of greatness



Sometimes in sport the cinders of an incandescent future are evident in the grey ashes of defeat. And so they are in the failure of Michelle Wie to become the first woman to play in the U.S. Open — one of golf's most prestigious tournaments. The precociously talented 16-year old — who teased and tantalised the golfing world before stumbling in the end at the back nine — played far from badly alongside the men in the sectional qualifier at Canoe Brook. She matched the competition in the drives off the tees and fairways, but her short game let her down at critical moments. She made the cut, which was creditable; unfortunately, this was not good enough to make a gender-defying appointment with history. Any discussion of Wie's talent and future raises the question: is the willowy lass, with a $10 million a year endorsement package, the product of media hype? The cynicism about Wie in certain quarters is based on facts such as the following. She has failed to win a significant women's professional tournament yet; performances by other women golfers such as the hugely talented Annika Sorenstam, who has nine majors under her belt, speak for themselves; Wie has repeatedly failed to make the cut in men's tournaments, with the exception of a relatively obscure one in South Korea. But to dismiss her as an over-hyped under-achiever on such grounds is grossly unfair. Players take much longer to mature in golf than in most other sports. Therefore Wie's skills and accomplishments need to be judged in relation to those of other golfers at the same age. In any such head-to-head comparison, Wie easily comes out on top. At the age of 10, the Hawaiian schoolgirl became the world's youngest player to qualify in a USGA amateur championship. At 12, she was the youngest ever to qualify for a women's professional tour event. Tiger Woods, another child prodigy, did not play his first PGA Tour until he was 16; Wie did that at the age of 14. Her parents have chosen an unconventional path for her progress. Rather than take the slow but conventional road as an amateur and then establish her on the women's professional circuit, the goal is to take on the big boys of the PGA tour. This is an audacious strategy. Whether it is a good one for a young woman golfer, only time will tell. Six-foot-and-one inch tall Wie drives the ball an astonishingly long way, distances that compare favourably with the men on the professional tour. Ironically, it is in the shorter and more delicate version of the game — the chips and the putts — that her present game falls short. Wie may not be winning but she is competing fiercely and showing greater maturity with every passing year. The intimations of greatness are there for everyone to see. What she needs to do is stay the course and retain her belief that she can do what no woman golfer has done before. Bravo Michelle, you can make it to the U.S. Open next year


My take on this

Michelle Wie, though an exceptioncally talented golfer has failed to make it big in the major tournaments, especially men's tour. She has also failed to win any significant women's tour. This raises the question whether her talent has been overrated.

To just dismiss her as an underachiever is unfair. Her talents needs to be compared to other golfers of the same age to get a better idea. This comparison proves that she is right on top. Her strategy is not on establishing herself on thw women's circuit, but she likes to defeat the big boys. Whether that happens is to be seen. In the meanwhile, she should believe that she can do it.

Words
Cinders - A burned or partly burned substance
Incandescent - Very bright
precociously - Early development
willowy - tall n slender
audacious - bold

["DHRUV"]

Inflation worries

On Friday, the day after the Government announced a package of measures to counter the rising prices, the weekly data on inflation confirmed what was widely anticipated. The wholesale price index (WPI), the most widely used measure to track inflation on a year-on-year basis, breached the psychologically important mark of 5 per cent for the first time in 50 weeks to touch 5.24 per cent on June 10. The previous week, it was 4.72 per cent; a year earlier 4.5 per cent. As Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was quick to point out, the current spurt in inflation is due to "the pass through" of high petroleum prices. Indeed it is the first time official inflation data have captured the recent rise in the prices of transportation fuels. On June 5, the retail prices of petrol and diesel were increased by Rs.4 and Rs.2 per litre. The index for fuel, power, light and lubricants, which has a weight of 14 per cent in WPI, rose by 1.7 per cent. The higher transportation costs are reflected in the higher prices of food and other items of everyday use. Primary articles (including food), which have a 22 per cent weight in WPI, rose by 0.2 per cent. Even the index for manufactured goods recorded an increase of 0.2 per cent. The ripple effects of the higher petroleum prices will be felt for a long time. Equally ominously for India, despite the recent increase, consumer prices of petroleum products are still out of line with international prices, which have been marked by a great deal of uncertainty.

This rise in inflation is a global phenomenon. Along with many other countries, India is learning that there are no simple solutions. Restraining credit growth by raising interest rates has not always been feasible. Although the Reserve Bank of India recently signalled higher short-term interest rates, by and large it has preferred to restrain an explosive growth of bank lending only in certain sectors where bubbles are seen to be developing. The central bank has to strive for a balance between the imperatives of holding the price line and meeting genuine credit requirements. For policy makers, supply side solutions involve the balancing of conflicting interests. The Government has decided to allow the import of wheat, pulses, and sugar under certain conditions while temporarily barring the export of pulses. Evidently the Government would have tried to balance the interests of domestic producers and consumer. Policy makers already face this dilemma in fixing procurement prices, minimum support prices, and the price charged for wheat through the public distribution system. The import of food items is a temporary solution. The way forward is stepping up investment in agriculture to improve its growth rate from the present 2 per cent level. The Government expects inflationary expectations will come down with the imports and one hopes it is proved right. However, the major threat of higher petroleum prices will not go away.




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Stand ...
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The inflation rise has instigated government to take up serious measures pertaining the control of the same .The measure of inflation is reflected in the Wholesale Price Index , which has for the first time in 50 weeks crossed over the % point mark ....as compared to the 4.72 of the last week ....and 4.5 of the last year ...
The major contributer being the price hike in Petrol nd fuel ..wherein the petrol witnessed a rise of Rs4/lt and diesel of Rs2/lt. This has in turn triggered the transport rates going high , reulting in increase in the hike of food product and consumer good prices ..Also the price for manufactured goods have increased . The consumer price for petroleum products is still not in line wid the international prices .
Along with other Nations India is understanding and learning the Inflation problem wrt the solutions and obviously that solution is not easy. Increasing the intrest would restrain the Credit growth but it has not always been feasible.... RBI had increased its short term intrests to shorten the credit growth and limit it to certain sectors only , where the find development .
The govt as of now has given weightage to importing wheat grains ,pulses etc and at the same time banned the export of pulses .Basically ,it is trying to balance the domestic production as well as the import export to minimise the Inflation .The hope is that , it would help alleviating the inflation problem to an extent .But it has its own barriers.One thing that can be done is put more investment in the agriculture side and try to ensure an increase in the growth rate .
The belief is , inflation would be brought under control to an extent still being skeptic of the perilous price increase of petrol in the future.


Words to watch out:
Ominously -> threatning or foreshadowing evil

[archbishop]

Hi guyz....

I guess in addition to Hindu editz...analysing essays is also a good way to develop a better and faster comprehension. Inorder to complement your preparation for RC's the following thread can be of some help .... lotsa topics covered there....

http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-an...les-edits.html

We have tried to cull in essays and articles from a variety of sources and analyse them.....so see u there...

[gaurav200x]

Loan Waiver Not Enough

The government appears to have woken up to the problem of acute agrarian distress. In a flurry of activity surrounding the prime minister's visit to Vidarbha, the government has declared its intent to seek remedies for the crisis affecting the peasantry, symbolised by the spate of farmers' suicides over the last few years.

This is indeed welcome, though the response should have come sooner. Reports and studies from various sources, including government commissions, on far-mers' suicides and their proximate causes have analysed the issue to the bone.

What was missing was concerted action on the part of the Centre. The package being put together now recognises that the immediate problem is not one of access to credit or the level of the interest rate (though these are indeed medium-term issues) but of a legacy of debt that cannot be borne.

Low farm gate prices, rising input costs and inadequate increases in productivity have combined to make interest and debt repayment commitments too onerous to bear.

This explains the government's decision to write off debt at least in the case of marginal and small farmers, and, if the finance ministry agrees, to insure them against crop failure so as to prevent the legacy of debt from becoming an unbearable burden for many more.

These are significant steps forward. However, the government also adopts policies that militate against long-term redressal of the agrarian crisis that underlies farmers' distress.

The first of these is a fiscal policy stance that precludes the adoption of mea-sures that are crucial to revitalise agriculture: Massive public investment in rural infrastructure, including irrigation, drainage and flood control; lowering of input costs through subsidies where necessary; and a hike in expenditures to restructure the provision of a host of extension and support services to improve agricultural productivity.

With the government focused on fiscal deficit reduction rather than on raising India's abysmal tax-GDP ratio and expanding much-needed expenditures, these measures are being virtually ignored.

Rather the emphasis, as reflected in this year's budget for example, is on increasing the flow of credit to rural areas, without recognising why even the current limited flow has taken the farming community into a debt trap. The second is the decision to use free imports as a means to dampen inflation. The evi-dence on inflation is clear.

While aggregate inflation on an annual point-to-point basis (as measured by the official Wholesale Price Index) stood at just 5.24 per cent over the week ending June 10, 2006, the rate of inflation in the case of individual essential commodities was much higher: Between 9 and 10 per cent in the case of wheat, fuel and sugar and as much as 35 per cent in the case of pulses.

A factor underlying these trends is long-term deterioration in agricultural performance. In most cases, lower demand resulting from limited purchasing power among some sections of the population has ensured that poor agricultural performance has yet to result in a shortfall in supply relative to demand. Even so, speculative hoarding has indeed resulted in an artificial shortfall.

Speculation has been aided by a number of decisions of the government such as removal of controls on the movements of agricultural commodities and liberalisation of rules relating to the operation of private traders and agribusiness firms, which in turn have resulted in the failure to procure adequate government stocks at the minimum support price where applicable.

The government has sought to respond to the situation by seeking to augment supply with imports. Besides deciding in February to import wheat to replenish dwindling government stocks, it has now decided to permit private actual users of wheat like flour millers, biscuit manufacturers and bread makers to import wheat duty free till the next rabi harvest.

It has also allowed customs duty-free import of sugar till the beginning of the next crushing season which starts in October. And it has put a ban on exports of pulses.

This effort to enhance domestic supply with imports may be successful in dampening inflationary expectations and holding the price level in the short run.

But it could also adversely affect revenues garnered by the already-distressed peasantry, with attendant implications for private expenditures needed to sustain and improve agricultural production.

For example, reliance on PL-480 imports in the 1950s and early 1960s, while dampening price inflation during the second Plan years, was partly responsible for the inadequate yield growth that preceded the agrarian crisis of the mid-1960s.

Reliance on imports to dampen price increases can, therefore, worsen the agrarian crisis and the distressed condition of farmers in the medium term.

What is needed is to directly curb speculative activity, reverse policies with regard to freer agricultural trade that have brought in large private players driven by opportunities for profit and combine this with an investment-led agricultural strategy.

If not, the small relief being offered by the prime minister to farmers in the worst affected areas would amount to little other than temporary relief and a declaration of concern.

The writer is professor of economics at JNU.
Source - TOI