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Sunday, January 30: In the News Today IN THE NEWS I've been spending Sunday in my room reading the newspaper, getting photographs formatted, and trying to ignore the blaring Sunday music coming from all the loudspeakers on the streets. It started at 7 am, ended at 8 am, and then resumed again at 9. It's now 3:30 and it hasn't stopped yet. I'm actually getting used to it. At least it's Indian music, and not ancient recordings of Christmas carols like I heard at 7 am sharp in Chinese villages! Tomorrow I'm going to head to the southern tip of India, Cape Cormorin/Kanniyakumar. It's about a 6 hour drive. Here are some tidbits from today's and yesterday's newspapers: THE HINDU, MADURAI, SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2000 WHEN SAFFRON HEALS ALL Indian art of holistic healing is a premium service in the advanced West. The popularity of healing therapies like Ayurveda. Yoga, massage, and Panchakarma, which claim five thousand years of history, is now evident in the online world too. A website dedicated to Indian holistic healing practices is a barometer to the increasing interest of the world in traditional healing in India. To be launched on Monday at the International Ayurveda Congress currently underway in Chennai, this site, http://www.saffronsoul.com, has nearly 1500 pages on the various disciplines of Indian holistic medicine.... RUSSIA MINTING RUPEES FOR INDIA A Russian mind has been working full steam to fulfill India's order for making 400 million five-rupee coins and hopes to win more contracts from the Indian treasury.... The Moscow Mint beat 27 competitors from Britain, South Korea, South Africa, Germany, Canada, and elsewhere, to win its first overseas contract... MOTORCYCLES RIDE TWO-WHEELER BOOM The two-wheeler market is in the midst of hectic activity and whole players are slugging it out for a larger piece of the pie, new and innovative models are the order of the day. The motorcycle segment has been singularly responsible for the hyperactivity in the industry. Constituting more than 45 per cent of the total two-wheeler sector in terms of sales, this segment has been growing at 25 per cent annually. Motorcycles are categorized into power, economy and combination segments. The economy segment caters to the rural segment while the combination segment is mainly urban and the largest. The power segment constitutes the higher end of the market. According to Mr. V.M. Wabgaonakar, DGM, Marketing, Kinetic, "here is the factor of lifestyle change, Indian road conditions, and the rural boom with consecutive good monsoons..." Hero Honda sold more motorcycles during the nine months ended December 31, 1999 than the entire previous year (5.36 lakh units against 5.30 lakh units in 1998). It has the strongest brand equity in the 4-stroke motorcycle segment.... LML is entering the motorbike segment through five models in the 100 to 150cc four-stroke category beginning march -- three in the 100cc category in mid-2000 and 150 cc four-stroke scooters in the first quarter of 2001... Kinetic is entering the motorcycle market with the 4-stroke Challenger. Foraying into the power segment it is to introduce bikes in the 175cc and 250cc categories over the next 12-18 months... THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS, MADURAI, SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2000 NO MEDDLING IN INDO-PAK AFFAIRS The United States said it has no intention of "meddling" in the affairs of India and Pakistan or countering New Delhi's determination in resolving all outstanding issues with Islamabad bilaterally. President Bill Clinon's statement in his State of the Union Address yesterday that he would like the US to be a peacemaker in the "crises" between India and Pakistan should not be interpreted as "meddling" in Indo-Pak affairs, James O'Brien, deputy director of policy planning in the State Department, said yesterday. FOR US THE BELL TOLLS. CAN ANYONE HEAR? by TJS George .. in the sharpest words ever heard from a President, Narayanan said that, 50 years into India's life as a Republic, justice remained an unrealized dream for millions of our citizens. He contrasted our strengths with our terrible weaknesses: the world's largest reservoirs of technical personnel, but also the world's largest number of illiterates; the world's largest middle class, but also the largest number of people below the poverty line. The greatest national shame, he said, was the status of Indian women. "Fifty years after our Constitution, the plain truth is that the female half of the population continues to be regarded as it was in the 18th and 19th Centuries." Not one of these points is new. But it's the first time a President has made them. And everything he said was true. Never has truth hurt more... 40 PC OF TN POPULATION STILL ILLITERATE Illiteracy in TN [Tamil Nadu] still accounted for 40 per cent of the population inspite of rapid strides made in the field of education.... Literacy in Tamil Nadu at 62.66 per cent was higher than the national average of 52.2 per cent... THE HINDU, MADURAI, SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2000 STEPS ON TO PROTECT INDIAN MEDICINE The Minister [of State for Health and Family Welfare in India] said Ayurveda was a well developed system which treated the mind and the body together. It had a major role the healthcare. He expressed concern about the declining standards of Ayurveda teaching colleges. Steps were being taken to arrest the erosion of standards. HUMANIST MOVEMENT TO EXPAND PROJECT The international organization is the practical expression of the ideal of humanizing the earth. It seeks to overcome pain and suffering in every facet of human life in both the social and personal realms. It accepts and values diversity and believes in equal rights and opportunities for all... The organization accords human beings the highest value in life and encourages people to organize themselves. It believe that international banks, Governments and multinational companies are responsible for the current situation, in which majority of the world's population grows poorer each day, while at the same time, a minority continued to grow richer. 150 THATCHED HOUSES GUTTED Vuayawada, Jan 28. One hundred and fifty thatched houses near the Kanakadurgamma Varadhi (bridge) were destroyed in a major fire rendering nearly 200 families homeless. The flames from a cooking fire in a house of the side near the bridge spread due to wind. The thatched houses on the flood bank up to the riverbed were gutted. The fire victims who had little time to move their valuables said a few houses on the west-end could have been saved if the fire engines arrived on time. Fire-fighting was hampered by the power line which got snapped due to heat, but continued to be live. Power supply to the areas was put off only after several calls were made to the police control room and the AP Transco fusecall office. KARMAPA MUST BE ALLOWED TO STAY: DALAI LAMA Bhubanseswar, Jan. 28. The Tibetan spiritual head, Dalai Lama, has said that it would be "a terrible mistake on the part of the Government of India, both in respect of country's image as well as in substance," if Karmapa Urgyen Trinley Dorje, who escaped from Tibet, was not allowed to stay in the country... Stating that he was convinced that the Karmapa had escaped from Tibet because he did not find it possible to pursue his religious studies and practices satisfactorily there, the Dalai Lama said he had evidence that contrary to appearances, there was much restriction and suppression of religious freedom in Tibet... CLINTON TAKES A BOW WITH COFFERS BRIMMING Washington, Jan. 28. With one eye on his own legacy and another on the political aspirations of his Vice-President, the U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton claimed credit on Thursday night for leading the nation on to the broad uplands of unparalleled prosperity and laid out an election-year manifesto for his party... Mr. Clinton listed his economic achievements, as unabashedly as a salesman hawking his wares: rapid growth, low inflation, low unemployment... Mr. Clinton spoke with all the expansiveness of a man who had hit the lottery.... THE INDIAN EXPRESS, MADURAI, SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2000 NON-VEG FOOD TO BE TAGGED New Delhi, Jan 28: The government has issued a notification providing for mandatory labeling of non-vegetarian food on their packages. As per the notification, non-vegetarian food is proposed to be defined as an article of food which contains meat of any origin as an ingredient. Such products will carry on the packages a colour code, indicating its non-vegetarian nature so that consumers may be aware of the contents. Use of colour code will also help communicate the nature of the food product to all sections of society irrespective of their literacy status.... POPULATION EXPLOSION, A HURDLE TO INDIA'S DEVELOPMENT Tirunelveli, Jan 28: Population explosion is the biggest problem faced by India, observed T. Ramesh U. Pai, former Director of Rotary International. Speaking at "Beyond 2000", Rotary District 3210 conference here today he said India's per capita income was the same as that of Japan in 1947. But now Japan, owing to the hard working nature of its people, had a higher per capita income than India. The population explosion in India was a hurdle for the country's development. If women were educated and employed, the average age of marriage would go up and children would be less. Pai called for a simplified form of legal procedure. Unless the laws were readable and understandable to ordinary man it would mean nothing to him. Stating that the country had a very high potential for development, if judiciously tapped, he said what was fast disappearing was value in life. Unless this was checked, development would remain a dream... VEDIC PRINCIPLES NEED FOR HUMANITY'S SURVIVAL Kochi, Jan 28: Humanity has to embrace the principles envisioned in the Vedas if it were to survive in the new millennium. The challenge before India is to create a Vedic society based on the truth as envisaged in the scriptures, according to P. Parameswaran, president of the Vivekananda Foundation, here on Thursday... The West has a dialectic and conflicting approach towards life, while ours is an integral and holistic approach... In his inaugural address, Justice Rama Jois said dharma was a misunderstood term. "It is not a religion, but a righteous code of conduct for all. "The rules of dharma cannot be changed." Dharma, again, was necessary to prevent the humanity from committing a cultural suicide towards which it is moving fast. ' MARIYALS' A BANE, BUT WHO IS TO BLAME? Madurai, Jan 28: The busy Tirupparankundram road is blocked during peak hours. Reason: a college is closed by the management and the teachers come to the roads with students. Traffic on the highly congested Melur road comes to a grinding halt... Road block better known as 'Salai Mariyal' in this part of the State has become the easiest way of registering a protest and drawing the attention of officials and ire of the public... As if this kind of a nuisance is not enough, the politicians despite their contributions to 'mariyals' burn effigies in busy junctions. The reasons are sometimes wild and crazy. For instance, a group of youth burnt the effigy of Bill Clinton expressing protest that he ditched Monica Lewinsky. Where else can such farce happen but in Madurai?... RETURN TO DISPATCHES RETURN TO HOME |