Detailed Coverage on Gujarat

Kanchan Gupta, in Pioneer points out the satta Bazaar angle in Gujarat politics:

The satta bazaar went on a roller-coaster ride during the last 72 hours before the results were declared. In the early stages of the campaign, the odds were heavily stacked against the Congress and most people were putting their money on the BJP. After exit polls suggested the Congress was on a comeback trail following the first round of voting, the odds were evenly balanced. The second round of exit polls, which gave Mr Modi a narrow victory margin, saw the odds tilting against the BJP. In the last 72 hours, there was heavy betting with punters putting their money on a Congress win. Newspaper estimates suggest that the bets amounted to Rs 2,400-crore. In the event, those who placed their money on the Congress lost heavily. Some people, though, have made a killing.

Congress’ dismal track record in Gujarat

Arun jaitly says:

since 1985, the Congress has not won a majority in Gujarat, either in the Assembly or in the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress has consistently lost every Assembly and Lok Sabha election. In five consecutive elections since 1990, Congress rivals — on four occasions the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and on one occasion the BJP and the Janata Dal — won nearly two-thirds of the Assembly seats. Except for West Bengal, the Congress has not had such a bad track record in any other state.

Media got it all wrong

Here’s a state in which five out of six regions give a party a 14 per cent lead, yet not one reporter in this country caught it.

Failure of National Media more than the regional one

What you have to do is switch to the regional TV channels. They have reporters at every counting centre and get it right. So while the national channels were showing BJP 40, Congress 30 in the first hour and a half, ETV Gujarati already had BJP 111, Congress 55.

Is the EC biased?

Arun Jaitly says:

The moment Modi gave a reply (to Sonia Gandhi’s comment), the Election Commission issued him a notice within 24 hours. For the next three days there was no notice to either Digvijay Singh or to Sonia Gandhi. Digvijay’s statement was reported in some (sections of the) electronic and print media and Sonia Gandhi’s was reported extensively. This was something the Election Commission had to take suo motu cognisance of. The commission, incorrectly, told the media that it had not taken note of these two speeches because it had not received a complaint.

Winnability factor

Any party will use whatever ‘winnability’ factors it has in an election. When Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leader we used his personality to improve our chances. When Mrs (Indira) Gandhi was the Congress party leader, they used her personality to win an election.

Also, the 2004 elections made one thing very clear: a national election is the net aggregate of state polls. The nucleus of an alliance is one of the two principal parties. If you have a strong nucleus you’ll have a strong United Progressive Alliance (UPA) or a strong NDA built around it. If you have weak Congress or a weak BJP, then you have a United Front kind of an experiment. The nucleus party must be strong enough to attract more allies.

Modi is Pro-women

In the last year, Modi came out with two schemes for women: the first scheme was that any girl child who goes to school will have a fixed deposit in her name. When she reaches Std VIII, she’ll get the amount with interest. The dropout rate collapsed. So he provided an incentive for the education of the girl child. Second, he got private sector medical practitioners, gynaecologists, to deliver children in women’s homes and paid them for it. So infant mortality and maternal death rate came down. Modi didn’t announce the scheme: he held at least 28 women conferences, attended by 50,000-60,000 women each. He used his entire political and governmental machinery in every district for this.

There are 16 women elected to the Assembly of which 15 are from the BJP.

Chidambaram accuses Modi of bad fiscal management

the Modi administration managed its fiscal affairs so badly that the State had run up an accumulated debt burden from Rs. 45,301 crore in 2001 to over Rs. 94,009 crore this year, and earned the dubious distinction of being one of the six “highly indebted States.” The others were West Bengal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Kerala and Maharashtra.

Gujarat spent a mere 31 per cent of the budgetary allocations for the social sector, ignoring the needs of the poor, marginal farmers and the other weaker sections, Mr. Chidambaram said.

Refuting Mr. Modi’s allegations of discrimination, he claimed that in the last four years since the UPA government came to power, the Centre had given Gujarat Rs. 14,000 crore as its share in Central taxes and about Rs. 10,000 crore towards plan and non-plan expenditure. This was “the highest amount paid to the State by the Centre” for any four-year block since Independence.

Moily on Modi

Congress media committee chairman Veerappa Moily on Friday described party president Sonia Gandhi as “Goddess Durga” and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a “demon.”

“The major terrorist attacks — be it on the Akshardham temple, Parliament, the Raghunath temple and Amarnath pilgrims — took place during the National Democratic Alliance regime and despite POTA being in place. The demolition of the Babri Masjid, the Kargil war … with these incidents, India became vulnerable.”

Allegations and counter allegations – ad war

There were also two insertions by the newly-created “Brahmins Utkarsha Samiti” appealing to vote out the “anti-Brahmin” Chief Minister, and expressing doubts about the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s consent to publishing an advertisement with his appeal on Thursday to vote for Mr. Modi. The Bharatiya Janshakti Party also appealed to the people to vote against the Modi government.

Mr. Modi, at his public meetings on Friday in Kaira and other central Gujarat constituencies, promptly picked up the Masood Azhar issue and said the publication of the advertisement was proof of the Congress having “lost its head and sense of balance.”

He said it only proved that the Congress had no sentiments for the passengers aboard the plane hijacked to Afghanistan by terrorists.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, that earlier made its stand clear, inserted another advertisement in support of Mr. Modi. But most surprising was an advertisement in the name of a couple of voluntary organisations, which did not talk of any election but recalled the “sacrifices” made by many volunteers for protecting “cows and other innocent animals” during the Bakri-Idd.”

Goodbye, Free Trade; Hello, Mercantilism

To be used in future. This particular piece is biased and presents things after butchering their context. Can't be sure whether it is popular enough to write a critic.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/81372

Here's today's quiz. What do the following have in common: (a) Vladimir Putin; (b) China's currency, the renminbi; (c) the U.S.-Perutrade agreement; (d) Hugo Chávez. Answer: they all reflect the "new mercantilism." It's a significant and ominous development affecting the world economy. Even as countries become more economically interdependent, they're also growing more nationalistic. They're adopting policies intended to advance their own economic and political interests at other countries' expense. As practiced until the mid-19th century, mercantilism aimed to do just that.

Vladimir Putin: TIME magagine's Person of the Year 2007

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/personoftheyear/article/0,28804,1690753_1690757_1696150,00.html

TIME's Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse. It is ultimately about leadership—bold, earth-changing leadership. Putin is not a boy scout. He is not a democrat in any way that the West would define it. He is not a paragon of free speech. He stands, above all, for stability—stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years. Whether he becomes more like the man for whom his grandfather prepared blinis—who himself was twice TIME's Person of the Year—or like Peter the Great, the historical figure he most admires; whether he proves to be a reformer or an autocrat who takes Russia back to an era of repression—this we will know only over the next decade. At significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, he has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power. For that reason, Vladimir Putin is TIME's 2007 Person of the Year.

How to Cash in on a Warming Planet

Information to be used with carbon trading article.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_53/b4065050248104.htm?chan=magazine+channel_investment+outlook+2008

Set aside, for now, the really complex and costly financial implications of climate change. Ignore the tricky abstractions of carbon trading. Forget the worries over flooded cities and the ins and outs of renewable energy.

Instead, consider just a few everyday money-making ideas created by the warming of our planet. For example, oenophiles could short the stocks of vintners in drought-prone areas such as Australia or California and bet on upstarts in Canada and England, where new wineries are sprouting as temperatures rise. Or, since ski resorts are seeing less and less snow, it might make sense to buy and hold manufacturers of snowmakers.

Consider HSBC's (HBC) Global Climate Change Benchmark Index, which tracks 300 equities, spans 34 countries (11 of which are emerging markets), and includes small, medium, and big companies. Simulations of the 45 months prior to its September debut show the index would have beaten the Morgan Stanley (MS) Capital International (MSCI) global index by 70%. In November, HSBC launched a fund in Europe that focuses on a subset of about 60 companies from the index. A U.S. version, the GIF Climate Change Fund, is due by April.

Deutsche Bank's (DB) DWS Climate Change Fund beat HSBC to the American market last November. It mirrors the German DWS Klimawandel fund, which since its launch last February is up 10.4%. For DWS's U.S. offering, expect somewhat pricey expense ratios of 1.75% to 2.5% of assets.

For a lower-cost approach, stock pickers can follow the pros' logic and make their own calls. Luckily, evaluating equities on their potential to capitalize on climate change is easier than untangling the complexities of global warming. A useful approach is to split the opportunities into two broad groups, explains Mark Fulton, climate-change strategist at Deutsche Bank Asset Management: mitigation and adaptation.

Three years after tsunami, through the lenses of children

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/25/asia/tsunami.php

The disaster is over now, part of the past. But for those who survived it, there is no clear break between what was past and what is now. The tsunami is part of their present and part of their future.

For some, the memories are paralyzing, aid workers say, and a number of programs are in place in affected areas to help people try to recover their lives.

In one such program, the American Red Cross distributed disposable cameras to about 80 children in Aceh and in Sri Lanka and told them to focus on what is happy in their lives.

"Some children after the tsunami, they lost their creativity and lost interest in normal life," said Manan Kotak, a psycho-social program specialist for the American Red Cross in Aceh.

"They are always remembering the day of the tsunami and everything they lost," he said. "So we are trying to bring them out. If they keep it in their minds, it will never come out."

Some, he said, are still too afraid of the waves to visit the seashore.

He said the most difficult moment when the cameras were handed out, and the most exciting, was when the children, pointing them this way and that, wanted to shoot all their pictures at once.

The young photographers, ages 6 to 14, were told to slow down and search out things they like at home, at school and in their neighborhoods.

Program monitors then culled 20 pictures from a deluge of 3,500, many of them shot upside-down or out of kilter or showing an errant finger in front of the lens.

The result is a glimpse of life just as it was before the tsunami - as if there never had been a tsunami - people at work and at play, climbing trees, tending goats, pulling in fishing nets, sitting at school desks, holding children, gazing out across a broad, placid sea.

But in all of them, the horror of that day hovers just below the sun-filled surface.

Ulfa, age 12, photographed two children standing at the end of a dock, waves frothing around them, and titled her picture, "Beautiful View."

A. Akila Nilukshan, 10, photographed a fish market on a shoreline devastated by the waves. "I wanted to show women making money selling fish," he said. "The women were smiling and doing their job so happily."

G.M. Kavinda Krishan Fernando, 10, photographed a laborer near a local market, struggling to survive. "He was a very old man carrying a heavy sack, and I felt sad for him," he said. "But the heavy sack will help him earn money for his livelihood."

Raveen Pramudith, 12, photographed his younger brother sitting on a rock by the seaside. "I wanted to take his picture with the beauty of the beach," he said. "I also remembered the tsunami while taking the photo."

Unlike some other children, he is able to talk about those memories now. "There were so many dead bodies lying on the road," he said. "My family and I were scared to return home. Our village was not as beautiful as it was before, and it was full of darknes

Terms of Use

Widening of health care in U.S. states hits roadblocks

Flagging red, because issue needs a detailed examination and also there is no significant current news with this. It is more of an analysis than current news reporting. Keep a watch on this issue in future.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/25/america/25health.php
A year that began with great ambition for major expansions of health insurance here and in other state capitals is ending with considerable uncertainty, as a second wave of change runs headlong into a darkening economy and political divisions over how to apportion the cost.

Though the governors of three big states — California, Illinois and Pennsylvania — proposed sweeping plans to restructure health care this year, none will finish 2007 with bills passed and signed. In each state, the initiatives confronted entrenched opposition from insurance and other business lobbies that made it far more difficult to build a consensus for change than in the smaller New England states that acted in recent years.

The Schwarzenegger-Núñez plan, which passed the Democratic-controlled Assembly last week, expands on the universal coverage law that Massachusetts passed in 2006. That state now requires insurance companies to offer coverage regardless of an applicant's health status and mandates that most residents have insurance by Dec. 31, or face a tax penalty of $219.

State officials project that more than 300,000 previously uninsured people will sign up in time, a third of them in a surge over the last month. That has put Massachusetts more than halfway to its goal of insuring everyone.

The downside, and one noted by states with widening budget gaps, is that the program is expected to exceed its first-year budget by at least $150 million. And state officials are struggling to prevent double-digit premium increases next year.

Whether the momentum that began with State of the State addresses last January will continue into 2008 is not clear. It had been widely felt by health reform advocates that this nonelection year provided the best political climate for change.

Now the focus may shift to the presidential campaign, where the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination have each proposed major overhauls. Some state leaders may be tempted to wait out the year to gauge whether the next president will push for a national health plan that might subsume state efforts.

The essential problem, meanwhile, continues to worsen. The Census Bureau reported that the number of uninsured grew to 47 million in 2006, a one-year increase of 2.2 million. The share of United States residents who had employer-based coverage dropped to 60 percent from 64 percent in 2000, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research group. And though the rate of growth has slowed, the cost of employer-sponsored premiums still rose by 6.1 percent in 2007, more than double the inflation rate, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

A global trek to poor nations, from poorer ones

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/27/america/27migration.php

Across the developing world, migrants move to other poor countries nearly as often as they move to rich ones. Yet their numbers and hardships are often overlooked.

They typically start poorer than migrants to rich countries, earn less money and are more likely to travel illegally, which raises the odds of abuse. They move to countries that offer migrants less legal protection and fewer services than wealthy nations do. Yet their earnings help sustain some of the poorest people on the globe.

There are 74 million "south to south" migrants, according to the World Bank, which uses the term to describe anyone moving from one developing country to another, regardless of geography. The bank estimates that they send home $18 billion to $55 billion a year. (The bank also estimates that 82 million migrants have moved "south to north," or from poor countries to rich ones.)

Nicaraguans build Costa Rican buildings. Paraguayans pick Argentine crops. Nepalis dig Indian mines. Indonesians clean Malaysian homes. Farm hands from Burkina Faso tend the fields in Ivory Coast. Some save for more expensive journeys north, while others find the move from one poor land to another all they will ever afford. With rich countries tightening their borders, migration within the developing world is likely to grow.

"South to south migration is not only huge, it reaches a different class of people," said Patricia Weiss Fagen, a researcher at Georgetown University. "These are very, very poor people sending money to even poorer people and they often reach very rural areas where most remittances don't go."

The Haitian migration to the Dominican Republic, its neighbor on the island of Hispaniola, has been large, longstanding and filled with strife. The Spanish-speaking Dominicans still refer angrily to a Haitian occupation that ended in 1844. The Creole-speaking Haitians point to 1937, when a Dominican massacre along the border is estimated to have taken the lives of tens of thousands of Haitians.

Haitian workers started coming in large numbers nearly a century ago, as seasonal help in sugar cane fields. But many now work year-round on farms or urban construction sites, which raises their visibility and the chance for conflict. Estimates vary greatly, but Dominican officials put Haitian migrants at one million, or 11 percent of the population.

Weakening Dollor

We covered this topic in previous issue. Looks like the debate is heating on.

http://theissue.com/issue/7614.html
To ensure economic stability, countries in South America, Asia, and and the Middle East peg their currency to the US dollar. As the dollar sinks to new lows, many countries are reconsidering their economic allegiance because it devalues and restricts their own currency, often resulting in inflation. Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have already taken steps to revalue their currencies. If enough governments decide to cut ties with the dollar, consequences could be serious: our currency would freefall.

News Snippets

New Zealand trying to save the kiwi

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/27/asia/kiwi.php
In the thousand or so years since humans discovered the remote islands that make up New Zealand, three out of four of the indigenous bird species have been driven to extinction, and until recently, it looked like the national icon - the kiwi - was headed the same way. But a project is under way that offers some hope of pulling the beady-eyed, flightless bird back from the brink.

Hugh Robertson, who runs the Kiwi Recovery Program of New Zealand's Department of Conservation, estimates that there were as many as five million kiwis when European settlers arrived in 1840 and that the population now stands at 75,000.

"It's because of people and introduced predators - ferrets, stoats, weasels, dogs, cats," said Jeremy Maguire, manager of the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, just outside the town of Christchurch. "They are a species in decline, and if it continues at the current rate, they will become extinct."

Thousands sought over child porn

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7159331.stm

German prosecutors are investigating 12,000 suspected members of a child sex abuse network on the internet - the biggest in the country's history.

A senior public prosecutor said the suspects were accused of downloading or possessing illegal images of children.

The investigation, which has been going on for several months, also points to suspects in about 70 other countries.

An internet provider in Berlin is said to have helped by alerting the inquiry to a huge amount of internet traffic.

"The material was analysed. Then we called for search warrants," said Peter Vogt, head of the central office tackling child internet sex abuse. He was speaking to German radio station Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR).

The suspects include 300 under investigation in the eastern German state of Sachsen-Anhalt.

BMW laying off thousands of workers

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/21/business/bmw.php
BMW, facing rising costs and resurgent competition from rivals like Mercedes, plans to dismiss several thousand workers, its first significant layoff in at least a decade, the company said Friday.

The cuts, which will fall mainly in Germany, are part of a sweeping campaign to restore profits at Bayerische Motoren Werke, which has hit an uncharacteristic rough patch after years of being the most successful German carmaker.

The company declined to confirm a report on the Internet edition of Der Spiegel that 8,000 jobs would be eliminated. A spokesman, Bill McAndrews, said BMW would not disclose numbers until early next year.

Layoffs have become common at German carmakers in the past few years, with Mercedes, Volkswagen and the Opel unit of General Motors all cutting thousands of workers. But BMW has had the opposite problem, trying to churn out more cars without bloating its payroll.

A large number of those affected will be employees with temporary contracts, McAndrews said. BMW will also offer voluntary buyouts and negotiate more flexible working hours with its unions. Layoffs are unlikely in the United States, where BMW is increasing production.

"This will be done with a BMW approach," McAndrews said. "It will be socially acceptable."

Machang, who spent 54 years in jail without trial, dies

http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/28/stories/2007122859141700.htm

Guwahati: Machang Lalung, who spent 54 years in prison without trial, died at his ancestral residence at Silchang in Morigaon district on Tuesday night following a brief illness. He was 79.

He was released in July 2005 on the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) from the LGB Regional Institute of Mental Health at Tezpur.

It was NHRC Special Rapporteur Chaman Lal who brought the shocking neglect of five undertrial prisoners, including Machang, at the hospital to the notice of commission.

NHRC found that Machang, who was only 23 when he was arrested in 1951 from his native village, was never produced in a court though he was declared fit to stand trial after August 9, 1967. He remained an undertrial prisoner in a case under Section 326 of the Indian Penal Code. The NHRC ordered the Assam government to release him immediately.

Later the Supreme Court took a suo motu case and ordered the State government to pay Machang a compensation of Rs.3 lakh and Rs.1,000 every month for life.

Medical and Health Officer, Nellie State Dispensary, Jayanta Kumar Nath told The Hindu that Machang died of “geriatric ailment.”

The funeral was attended, among others, by Guwahati-based filmmaker Aneisha Sharma whose 27-minute film “Freedom at the edge” on Machang’s confinement bagged an award at the Boston International Film Festival this year.

Machang saw the film when it was screened in Guwahati on June 29 this year. He was seated in the front row next to the then Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kamrup (Metropolitan), H.K. Sarma, who ordered his release on a token personal bond of Re. 1.

Basix: An organization with a difference?

Basix is an organization that believes in conducting social work like business. Whereas the government and NGO are believed to be largely corrupt and lack transparency, the model of Basix is worth a close look.

The mission of the organization is to promote a large number of sustainable livelihoods, including for the rural poor and women, through the provision of financial services and technical assistance in an integrated manner. Basix claims that they strive to yield a competitive rate of return to its investors so as to be able to access mainstream capital and human resources on a continuous basis.

Basix has acorporate structure, consisting of a number of companies. The website discloses that the unsecured loans have come from Ford Foundation and Swiss Agency for Development

and Cooperation. The loans are rupee denominated and thus do not carry exchange rate risk. Also the interest rate is nominal at 1%. This appears contradictory to their claim of competitive rate of return, at least on the debt, if not in equity.

Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance Ltd.

Samruddhi is registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a Non Banking Finance Company (NBFC), through which credit and technical assistance is delivered. This is the flagship company of the BASIX group. BASICS Ltd earlier owned nearly 100 percent of Samruddhi with an equity base of Rs 4.5 crore at its birth in the year 1997. Samruddhi expanded its equity base to Rs 20.6 crore in 2001. The additional equity came from the IFC, Shorebank USA; Hivos- Triodos Fund, Netherlands; the ICICI and HDFC in India. The investment by BASICS Ltd was also enhanced to Rs 9.7 crore, bringing its share of Samruddhi holdings to 47 percent.

As on June 30th, 2007 Samruddhi was present in 6894 villages in 45 districts spread over Nine states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajahsthan, Chattisgarh and Delhi.

It had cumulatively disbursed over 5,61,600 loans worth Rs 589 crore. The outstanding as on June 30th, 2007 were Rs. 144 crores with 211,550 active loans. The company maintained a high portfolio quality with an on-time repayment rate of 98.7 percent and eventual repayment rate of over 99 percent, with some delay. The company also provides Agricultural & Business Development Services to about one third of its customers through Livelihood Promotion Agents (LPAs) and Institutional Development Services for producers like MACS for cotton producers, dairy cooperatives.

Krishna Bhima Samruddhi Local Area Bank Ltd

The mission of KBSLAB is “to be a sustainable local community based institution providing financial services to the underserved, particularly rural poor and women and to arrange provision of technical assistance and support services to the borrowers with the ultimate goal of promoting a large number of sustainable livelihoods in the area”.

KBSLAB is the first micro-finance bank in the country which was incorporated under the Indian Companies Act of 1956 on February 19, 1999 and was granted license to carry on banking business by the Reserve Bank of India to operate in the districts of Mahabubnagar, Raichur and Gulbarga in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.

The Bank operates through 11 Branches –in Mahabubnagar (Andhra Pradesh) and in Raichur and Gulbarga (Karnataka).

As on March 31, 2006, KBSLAB had a loan outstanding of Rs 189 million and deposits of Rs 126 million. It is catering to more than 22,800 borrowers and 31,859 depositors. The recovery rate of the Bank stood at 95.5% as on March 31, 2006. The average direct loan size stood at Rs 11,276/-.

Indian Grameen Services
IGS is registered as a Section 25, not-for-profit company, involved in carrying out research and development for livelihood promotion.

IGS is focusing on building the knowledge base required for supporting livelihoods and disseminating the knowledge so generated for building the implementation capabilities of various organizations playing a critical role in supporting livelihoods. IGS also carries out human resource and institutional development for the BASIX group as well as for and other rural/micro-finance and community / producers institutions. It also designed and developed financial products for extending credit, evolving distribution channels for delivery of its services and developing necessary systems for service delivery such as accounting and MIS.

The main sub-sectors in which action research has been initiated are:

• Dairy, Groundnut, Cotton, Soyabean
• Rural electric power (distribution reforms).Water for irrigation (borewells, lift irrigation, drip systems, watersheds), Retailing and mutual marketing by self-help group.

The financials of the company indicate that it might be passing through a rough patch as of now. Comparing the results of 2006-07 with the previous year shows that the worth of net assets has dropped to more than half. Income from all heads, except ‘others’, has dropped. This includes the contributions from different agencies and the revenues from internal activities.

Expenditure, on the other hand has increase, as compared to the previous year and is more than the income, which means that the company would have to aggressively search for more funds to avoid getting into debt, from a financial point of view.

Some news items

SC stays Sabarmati ashram demolition
Daily News & Analysis - 7 hours ago
NEW DELHI: The supreme court on Tuesday restrained Gujarat government from demolishing some parts of Sabarmati Harijan Ashram Trust, where Mahatma Gandhi spent 13 years of his life during the freedom struggle, to pave way for roads which form part of ...
SC tells Guj to reconsider road through Sabarmati Times of India
Spare Sabarmati Ashram from road planning: SC The Tribune
Calcutta Telegraph - Earthtimes - Times of India

Villagers at Posco site refuse to meet Medha Patkar
Zee News - 11 hours ago
Nuagaon, Dec 11: Villagers around the proposed Posco plant site in Jagathsingpur district on Tuesday refused to meet social activist Medha Patkar who immediately cancelled her programme and left for an undisclosed destination.
Medha's plan to spend the night at pro-POSCO village opposed Daily News & Analysis
Patnaik asks Medha not to oppose mega industries in Orissa Hindu
Calcutta Telegraph - KalingaTimes - The Statesman - Monsters and Critics.com

Dyer’s portrait in Golden Temple shocks Sikhs
Daily News & Analysis - 5 hours ago
CHANDIGARH: Hardly had the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandak Committee wriggled out of the controversy regarding putting up of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s picture in the Sikh museum gallery in Golden Temple, Amritsar, than it finds itself in the middle yet ...
SGPC removes Dwyar's portrait from Sikh museum Hindu
Dyer’s portrait removed, demand for Bhagat Singh’s picks up Chandigarh Newsline
PunjabNewsline.com - Monsters and Critics.com - Chandigarh Newsline
all 10 news articles »

Time frame sought for GHG emission control
Hindu - 7 hours ago
- Photo: PTI TALKING CLIMATE CHANGE: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee with Confederation of Indian Industry president YC Deveshwar at the second Sustainability Summit Asia 2007 in New Delhi on Tuesday.
India’s per capita GHG 25% of world average Indian Express
People’s participation key to sustainable development Moneycontrol.com
Bloomberg - Hindu - Hindu - Hindu
all 11 news articles »

Media has 'vested interests' in attacking me: Ramadoss
Hindu - 15 hours ago
New Delhi (PTI): Continuing his criticism against the media in Delhi, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss on Tuesday charged them with having "vested interests" in attacking him and said changes in the AIIMS were aimed at ridding it of casteism and ...
Is AIIMS losing its autonomy? Daily News & Analysis
Ramadoss terms Media as casteist Newstrack India
CNN-IBN - Hindustan Times - Sahara Samay - Daily News & Analysis
all 16 news articles »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7140168.stm
Guatemala tightens adoption rules

Guatemala's Congress has passed a new bill that it hopes will tighten adoption rules in the country.

The new law will eliminate mediators, create a federal adoption agency and prohibit birth parents from receiving financial compensation.

The government has been under pressure to curb a controversial trade where intermediaries are paid up to $40,000 (£19,600) to arrange an adoption.

Almost 5,000 Guatemalan babies were adopted by foreigners in 2006.

The UN says most of the children went to the United States, making Guatemala the second largest source of children adopted in the US, after China.

TOC: present state

Follow Up

National News

India seeks World Bank rupee loan

Indians less doubtful about the media

Etc.

International News

Supermarkets admit milk price fix

Bush Announces Mortgage Agreement

EU-Africa Summit: Human Rights and Trade on the agenda

Job Opportunity in Denmark?

UN Climate change talks in Bali

Recession Likely in US?

French Transport Workers’ Strike

Culture

Special Feature

‘Darjeeling Limited’

News Snippets

Results of opinion poll on press freedom

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7134918.stm

World opinion is divided on the importance of having a free press, according to a poll conducted for the BBC World Service.

Of those interviewed, 56% thought that freedom of the press was very important to ensure a free society.

But 40% said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press's freedom to report news truthfully.

A total of 11,344 citizens in Brazil, Egypt, Germany, Great Britain, India, Kenya, Mexico,
Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and
Venezuela were interviewed face-to-face or by telephone between October 1 and November
21, 2007. Polling was conducted for the BBC World Service by the international polling firms
GlobeScan and Synovate and their research partners in each country.

56% of people in the 14 countries polled think the press and media in their country is free to
report the news accurately without bias. Only 19% say there is little or no media freedom in
their country.
Private and publicly funded news organisations receive similar ratings from the public when
it comes to reporting the news honestly and accurately. 39% of people across all countries
say publicly funded news agencies are doing a good job, while 43% say the same for private
news organisations.
However, in some countries the poll shows concern over the ownership of private media.
Strong majorities in Brazil (80%), Mexico (76%), USA (74%), and Great Britain (71%) believe
that the concentration of media ownership in fewer hands is a concern because owners’
political views emerge in reporting.
Of the countries where press freedom is most highly valued, Western developed countries
are more critical of how honestly and accurately the news is reported, including Germany
(28% average rating for good performance of public and private media), Great Britain (29%),
and the USA (29%) whereas Venezuela (44%), South Africa (49%), Nigeria (58%), and
Kenya (61%) rate the media performance more positively. (See diagram below).
In countries where social stability is more highly valued, those surveyed in India (61% good
performance) and the UAE (52%) believe the news is being reported honestly, contrasting
with a more negative view of press performance in Russia (27%), Mexico (28%), Brazil
(31%) and Singapore (37%).

India
Although Indians are not strong advocates of media freedom and are generally satisfied with
the accuracy of news reporting in their country, they are in favour of having a say in news
reporting decisions.
India is one of only three countries where people who believe stability is more important than
press freedom outnumber those who believe freedom is more important. Forty-eight percent
of Indians (versus 40% globally) put stability first, while 41 percent (56% globally) put
freedom first. A further 11 percent did not answer this question. In terms of its ability to report
the news accurately and without bias, the Indian media is perceived as freer than that of
almost any other nation in the survey. Seventy-two percent of Indians give a high freedom
rating, compared with 56 percent worldwide. Only 10 percent give a low freedom rating,
compared with 19 percent globally. Indians are more positive about the accuracy and
honesty of government or publicly-funded news reporting than any other country surveyed.
Fifty-seven percent of Indians give a “good” performance rating to public news organisations,
compared with 39 percent globally. Private, for-profit news organisations are viewed more
favourably, with 64 percent rating their performance “good” (versus 43% globally), although
this is slightly less positive than the response in Africa. Fifty-seven percent of Indians agree
that growing consolidation of private media ownership is a major issue “because you often
see owners’ political views emerge in the news”, while only 30 percent agree with the
opposing view that “media owners do not interfere with the news content” (14% did not
answer). Fifty-five percent think “it is important that people like me have a say in what gets
reported in the news”, while 33 percent think “decisions as to which stories get reported in
the news are best left to news organisations”, with a further 12 percent unable to answer.

High income taxes in Denmark worsen a labor shortage

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/05/business/labor.php?WT.mc_id=atomfrontpage

Denmark is long viewed across Europe as an example of how to keep an economy thriving and a society equal.
Denmark is the home of "flexicurity," the catchy name given to a system that pays ample unemployment and welfare benefits but, unusually in Europe, imposes almost no restrictions on hiring and firing by employers. The mixture has served Denmark well, and its economy barreled ahead in 2006 by 3.5 percent, one of the best performances in western Europe. The country is effectively at full employment.
.........................

But success has given rise to an anxious search for talent among Danish companies. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is based in Paris, projects that Denmark's growth rate will fall to an annual rate of slightly more than 1 percent for the five years beginning in 2009, reflecting a dwindling supply of a vital input for any economy: labor.

The problem, employers and economists believe, has a lot to do with the 63 percent marginal tax rate paid by top earners in Denmark - a level that hits anyone making more than 360,000 Danish kroner, or about $70,000. That same tax rate underpins such effective income redistribution that Denmark is the most nearly equal society in the world, in that wealth is more evenly spread than anywhere else.

The movement toward lower taxes passed Denmark by, even as it took root in much of Europe.

Small East European countries, notably Estonia and Slovakia, started the trend by imposing low, flax taxes on income and corporate profits about five years ago. Those moves helped prod Austria, and eventually, Germany, to slash high marginal rates as well.

Danish taxes also contrast sharply with those in nearby London, often jokingly referred to among Danes as a Danish town, because so many of them live there. Lower taxes on high earners have been a centerpiece of the policy mix that has fed the rise of London as a global financial center since the 1980s.

But today young Danes can easily choose not to pay for the system's upkeep, once they have siphoned off what they need. For starters, as citizens of the European Union they are entitled to work in any of the 27 EU countries.

........................
Acknowledging the need to reduce the tax burden, Rasmussen's previous government approved slight reductions in taxes for lower earners, but he has avoided promises of quick fixes. In 1998, Rasmussen's party narrowly lost a national election focusing on a message of business-friendly reform, an experience that colors the current message of incremental change.

"Denmark is a country of consensus," Rasmussen said recently. "Occasionally that fact tends to lower the speed of reforms, but in exchange we are efficient in our implementation."

IIT Bombay Plans Virtual Classroom

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/IIT_Bombay_Plans_Virtual_Classroom/551-85093-549.html

Starting January 2008, IIT-B (Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay) is planning to launch a virtual classroom, where live lectures will be broadcast online through Edusat, the satellite service catering exclusively to the field of education.
The service will also enable engineering students from other colleges to access IIT-B lectures, plus interact with resident teachers at IIT-B.

IIT-B and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to transmit lectures to any of the 1,500 engineering colleges in the country, who are keen to access the service.

In addition, these lectures will be made available to institutions in south-east Asian countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, or Bhutan by tuning in to the same frequency.

As a virtual classroom, IIT-B has set up a studio inside the campus, which has all the facilities required for up-linking lectures to Edusat, which can transmit them to others.

Engineering colleges will have to fit receivers costing approximately Rs 3.20 lacs in their campuses to enable students to sit for lectures.

German security officials again seek ban of Scientology

Flagging red because so for the popularity of "church of scientology" is not convincing
enough to give coverage on its ban. More research needed.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/07/europe/germany.php?WT.mc_id=atomfrontpage

Germany's top security officials said Friday that they considered the goals of the Church of Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the country's Constitution and would seek to ban the organization.

The interior ministers of Germany's 16 states plan to give the domestic intelligence agency the task of preparing the necessary information to outlaw the organization, which has been under observation here for a decade on suspicions that it "threatens the peaceful democratic order" of the country.

The ministers, and the federal interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, "consider Scientology to be an organization that is not compatible with the Constitution," said Ehrhart Körting, interior minister of Berlin, who presided over a two-day conference.

Sabine Weber, president of the Church of Scientology in Berlin, said she viewed the renewed attempt to ban the organization as a reaction to increasing acceptance of Scientologists in several European countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices initially developed by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard in 1952 as an outgrowth of his earlier self-help system, Dianetics.^[1] Hubbard later characterized Scientology as an "applied religious philosophy" and the basis for a new religion.^[1] Scientology encompasses a spiritual rehabilitation philosophy and techniques, and covers topics such as morals, ethics, detoxification, education and management. The first Church of Scientology was founded in 1953.

Supermarkets admit milk price fix

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7132108.stm

Supermarket firms Sainsbury's and Asda have admitted that they were part of a dairy price-fixing group that earned about £270m extra from shoppers.

The supermarkets, along with a number of dairy firms, have agreed to pay fines totalling some £116m after an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) probe.

Cases against Tesco and Morrisons will continue after no deal was struck.

The OFT said that in-store prices went up after the collusion, but the amount received by farmers did not increase.

However, the firms insist that the farm gate price paid for milk did rise and that they were not ripping off customers.

The OFT said the collusion saw customers being charged 3 pence extra for a pint of milk, 15p extra per quarter-pound of butter and 15p per half-pound of cheese, the watchdog said.

India seeks World Bank rupee loan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7133184.stm

The Maharashtra state government is seeking a loan worth some $3.5bn but is concerned about the fluctuations in the value of the dollar.

If approved, it would be the first time the World Bank has agreed to a such a loan in rupees.

Bush Announces Mortgage Agreement

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/washington/06cnd-debt.html?em&ex=1197176400&en=1a51598debb6d78c&ei=5087%0A

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 — President Bush announced an agreement with the mortgage industry today to freeze interest rates for up to five years for some of the two million homeowners who bought houses recently with subprime loans.

The president described the accord, hammered out after weeks of talks among Treasury Department officials, mortgage lenders and Wall Street firms, as a way to help deserving homeowners while keeping the housing slump from further affecting an economy that is basically sound.

But far from being a sweeping remedy, the agreement would help only some of the most strapped homeowners, and as homeowners become familiar with terms of the accord, many are bound to be disappointed.

“We should not bail out lenders, real estate speculators or those who made the reckless decision to buy a home they knew they could not afford,” Mr. Bush said at a White House appearance.

The president urged those homeowners distressed by rising mortgage payments to call a federal hot line for advice. The number is 1-888-995-HOPE.

The agreement would allow distressed borrowers who are current on their payments to keep their low introductory rates and escape an increase of 30 percent or more in their monthly payments when those rates expire.

“The housing market is moving through a period of change,” Mr. Bush said. “In recent years, innovative mortgage products have helped millions of Americans afford their own homes, and that’s good. Unfortunately, some of these products were used irresponsibly.”

“Some lenders made loans that borrowers did not understand, especially in the subprime sector,” Mr. Bush went on. “Some borrowers took out loans they knew they could not afford. And to compound the problem, many mortgages are packaged into securities and sold to investors around the world.”

As the terms of the agreement were becoming known this week, Democratic lawmakers and presidential contenders criticized it as too timid, and promoted more ambitious proposals of their own.

The agreement contains numerous limitations that would exclude many — if not most — subprime borrowers. It would apply to loans taken out between Jan. 1, 2005, and July 30, 2007, and scheduled to rise in 2008 and 2009. It would exclude those who are delinquent on their payments — about 22 percent of all subprime borrowers, according to First American LoanPerformance, an industry research firm.

Among those sure to be disappointed are borrowers whose introductory rates expire before Jan. 1. About $57 billion in subprime loans were scheduled to be reset at higher rates in the final three months of this year, according to estimates by First American LoanPerformance.

Mortgage companies could also exclude borrowers who they conclude are making enough money to afford higher monthly payments. Barclays Capital — extrapolating from a similar program recently unveiled in California — estimates that only about 12 percent of all subprime borrowers, or 240,000 homeowners, would get relief.

The plan is emerging as fallout from the mortgage crisis is seeping into the political sphere. Until recently, few candidates talked about subprime loans, and few bankers and traders on Wall Street paid much attention to mortgage-crisis declarations on the campaign trail. But with the meltdown growing worse, housing prices still plunging and many economists worrying about a recession, President Bush and his Democratic opponents are now racing to come up with answers.

Mr. Bush said the Justice Department “will continue to pursue wrongdoing in the banking and housing industries, so we can help ensure that those who defraud American consumers face justice.” He also prodded Congress to enact legislation to make more loan assistance available through the Federal Housing Administration.

Democratic presidential candidates have complained that the White House plan was overly narrow.

“It seems that President Bush is going to give struggling homeowners far less than they need,” Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York said in a statement on Monday. “With news accounts using terms like ‘whittled down’ and ‘limited’ to describe the scope of the Bush plan, it appears that the president is pushing a freeze for a very narrow group of borrowers.”

first meeting of EU and African leaders

EU host hails 'summit of equals'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7133651.stm

There is a growing belief that Europe-Africa relations are changing

The host of the first meeting of EU and African leaders for seven years has described their gathering as a "summit of equals".

But Portuguese PM Jose Socrates said there would be no shying away from thorny issues like human rights.

Activists are urging more action to solve the Darfur crisis and confront Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

Mr Mugabe is banned from the EU, but was invited to the summit after African leaders threatened to stay away.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is critical of Mr Mugabe's human rights record, is boycotting the summit in protest.

'Universal heritage'

Mr Socrates said there would be a frank and open dialogue with "no taboos".

We are equal in our human dignity... but also equal in terms of political responsibility Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates Mugabe 'new era' dismissed EU-Africa: Key issues Q&A: Trade deal

"Human rights are a universal heritage of humanity which we have to preserve and defend.... We have put human rights at the centre of not only our agenda but our strategy," he said in an opening speech.

He acknowledged that Zimbabwe was a sticking point, but said dialogue would bring results.

"This summit is a summit of equals," he said. "We are equal in our human dignity... but also equal in terms of political responsibility."

Ghanaian President John Kufuor, who is also president of the African Union, said it was time to shake off the colonial past.

"For almost 500 years, the relationship between our two continents had not been a happy one. It is to correct this historic injustice and inhumanity that this new relationship between Africa and the European Union is now necessary," he said.

The BBC's Mark Doyle in Lisbon says there is an emerging realisation in Europe that its relationship with Africa is changing.

Poverty and issues around development aid are still dominant, but at the same time many countries in Africa are now democracies with growing economies and growing self-confidence, our correspondent says.

African trade with China is forcing Europe to take Africa more seriously and not just as a collection of former colonial possessions, he adds.

Mr Mugabe's attendance has overshadowed the summit

Human rights is one of five key topics that leaders are due to debate at the summit.

The others are trade, immigration, the environment, and peace and security.

Previous efforts to hold the meeting collapsed over the question of Mr Mugabe's attendance.

Britain and other EU countries have accused the Zimbabwean president of economic mismanagement, failure to curb corruption, and contempt for democracy.

'Riches'

Also on the eve of the summit, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi - who has set up base in a tent outside Lisbon - called on Europe to compensate its former African colonies.

"The riches that were taken away must be given back somehow," Mr Gaddafi said in a speech at Lisbon University.

"If we don't face up to that truth, we'll have to pay the price one way or another - through terrorism, emigration or revenge."

The EU is hoping to draw up a number of new Economic Partnership Agreements with former African colonies and regional blocs. The World Trade Organization wants the current preferential trade deals to expire at the end of the year.

African representatives are concerned that the new agreements are unbalanced and that their countries will not be able to compete with subsidised European goods.

Some states, though, in East Africa, have already signed up to the new deals.

European countries are mindful of protecting their position in Africa amid rising competition from China, correspondents say

UN climate change talks in Bali.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7134060.stm

Mass demonstrations are taking place across the UK and worldwide to coincide with UN climate change talks in Bali.

Parallel eco-marches are planned in 50 cities globally, including London, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast.

A march in London will deliver a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling for strong UK climate change law.

The rallies come midway through the summit which is considering how to cut greenhouse gas emissions after current Kyoto Protocol targets expire in 2012.

Thousands of delegates from almost 200 nations are attending the two-week UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on the Indonesian island of Bali.

They are seeking progress towards a "Kyoto II" deal - a new global climate treaty. Talks will also focus on how to help poor nations cope in a warming world.

UK campaigners are urging ministers to agree a "clear roadmap" for a global low carbon economy.

Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper said: "It is essential our politicians show the leadership required and ensure that the climate talks in Bali speed the world towards a low-carbon future and ensure the long-term security of generations to come."

He called for a strong climate change law that cuts UK emissions by 3% a year and includes emissions from international aviation and shipping, as well as annual milestones.

Milestones

Indonesian environment minister, Rachmat Witoelar, who is president of the conference, said he hoped the United States, which did not sign the 1997 Kyoto accord, would be brought on board.

Australia's trade minister, Simon Crean, has warned that both rich and poor nations must commit to slashing greenhouse gas emissions.

He said Australia would not sign any binding commitments until it has the results next year of a climate change report commissioned by new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Mr Rudd signed papers leading to the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol as soon as he took office, reversing the policy of the previous conservative government.

The US opposes Kyoto because it does not include major polluters like China and India.

It is expected to resist pressure to agree binding emission targets, despite hopes among developing countries that emission cuts of 25-40% by 2020 for industrialised countries would be included in a final agreement when the conference ends.

The figures were agreed upon earlier this year by industrialised nations that signed the Kyoto Protocol.

It commits three dozen industrialized countries to cut their greenhouse gases an average of 5% below 1990 levels between next year and 2012, when it expires.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7120952.stm

Key climate summit opens in Bali

Governments at a key UN climate summit will discuss how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after the current Kyoto Protocol targets expire in 2012.

Talks will centre on whether a further set of binding targets is needed.

It is the first such meeting since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that evidence for global warming was "unequivocal".

The two-week gathering in Bali, Indonesia, will also debate how to help poor nations cope in a warming world.

The annual high-level meeting, organised by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is under pressure to deliver a new global agreement on how to cut rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Rachmat Witoelar, the Indonesian environment minister who was named president of the conference, pledged to do his best to deliver a deal.

"Climate protection must form an integral part of sustainable economic development, and it is critical that we act and we act now," he said.

UNFCCC Executive Director Yvo de Boer urged the international community to use the summit to take "concrete steps" towards curbing climate change.

"We urgently need to take increased action, given climate change predictions and the corresponding global adaptation needs," he said in his welcome message to delegates.

"In the context of climate change, projections of economic growth and increases in energy demand over the next 20 years, especially in developing countries, point to the urgent need to green these trends."

Earlier this year, the IPCC published its Fourth Assessment Report (A4R), in which it projected that the world would warm by 1.8-4.0C (3.2-7.2F) over the next century.

Mr de Boer added that the IPCC's conclusion that climate change was "very likely" the result of human activity ended any doubt over the need to act.

Climate for consensus?

At the top of the conference's agenda is the need to reach a consensus on how to curb emissions beyond 2012.

This marks the end of the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol, which commits industrialised nations to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by an average of about 5% from 1990 levels.

Critics of the existing framework say binding targets do not work, and favour technological advances instead.

Recent studies show that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are rising faster than they were a decade ago.

Meanwhile, US President George Bush - who favours voluntary rather than mandatory targets - issued a statement saying that the nation's emissions had fallen by 1.5% in 2006 from levels in 2005.

Mr Bush used the reduction as an endorsement of his climate policy, saying: "Our guiding principle is clear: we must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

"We must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people."

However, the European Union backs the use of binding targets. The 27-nation bloc has already committed itself to cut emissions by 20% by 2020.

A number of observers believe the difference between the two economic powerhouses will result in the Bali conference failing to deliver a policy roadmap for "Kyoto II".

Softening the blow

The conference is also scheduled to consider how to fund projects that will help developing nations deal with the impact of climate change.

Ahead of the climate conference, another UN agency published a report criticising global efforts to date.

The UN Development Programme's annual Human Development Report said funding currently amounted to $26m (£13m), roughly the same amount as the UK spent on its flood defences in a week.

"Nobody wants to understate the very real long-term ecological challenges that climate change will bring to rich countries," said lead author Kevin Watkins.

"But the near-term vulnerabilities are not concentrated in lower Manhattan and London, but in flood-prone areas of Bangladesh and drought-prone parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

"Allowing the window of opportunity to close would represent a moral and political failure without precedent in human history."

New paper from The Hindu Group

Looks like lots of people are taking inspiration from News-sans-opinions. Dr Kalam, the former president of India started his newsletter (reported in an earlier issue of this newsletter) and now The Hindu group has started a tabloid for the IT and ITES persons. Named Ergo, it will be distributed free of cost in the IT corridors of chennai, to begin with.

Reproducing the complete text from

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/12/08/stories/2007120853031000.htm

Our Bureau

Chennai, Dec 7 Ergo, a new all-colour, free, tabloid, was launched on Friday by Kasturi and Sons Ltd, publishers of The Hindu, Business Line, Frontline and Sportstar.

The paper will have a controlled circulation, meaning that it will be distributed only to the target audience — IT and ITES professionals in their twenties and thirties.

This will be achieved by distribution along the IT corridor and at company cafeterias and atriums.

Mr S. Karthik, Editor of the new paper, said that Ergo will stand for and promote a new kind of ‘always on’ journalism that will appeal to the 21st century readership.

Mr N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, said that it was a unique experience for a newspaper started in 1878 to let go and get a team of people in their twenties to create and run a newspaper meant for the new generation.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/08/stories/2007120860881500.htm

It will have a controlled circulation along the IT corridor and in selected areas

To be of particular interest to IT professionals

CHENNAI: Starting Monday, an innovative free tabloid from The Hindu Group will be out on the streets of Chennai. Ergo will offer a variety of news, views and entertainment for the “work hard, party harder” kind of young adults.

From money, sport and local news to entertainment and relationships, the freesheet will cater to the interests of the young urban professional. The tabloid will have a controlled circulation primarily along the IT corridor and in selected other areas.

“More than a tabloid”

“Ergo will also be much more than a tabloid,” said Karthik Subramanian, Editor, Ergo, at the paper’s launch here on Friday. “It will be a true 21st century media organisation.” Ergo will also feature an extensive, interactive online portal that will host blogs, videos and podcasts to give readers a full multimedia news and entertainment experience.

“Young readers think different, live differently, feel differently and expect differently,” said N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu. “Newspapers today have to engage their audience, be relevant and absorbing, and also be fun.”

While Ergo will have a lot to offer to any young adult, it will be of particular interest to IT professionals, discussing not only career perspectives but even just the coolest gadgetry.

“In south India, in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, a large number of young professionals have already made a mark in the IT and IT-enabled services sectors,” he added. “We wanted to do something relevant to them that will engage them.”

Ergo itself will be put together by a young team, most of whom are in their early 20s. “While it is by no means the first freesheet in the world, we think it has special characteristics as far as India is concerned,” Mr. Ram said. “We’re very pleased about it so far, but the rest is up to the readers.”

Publicity effort by the community

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