A MONTHLY NEWS MAGAZINE · 2020. 8. 30. · Shiva, the first yogi (Adi Yogi), is said to have begun imparting the knowledge of yoga to the rest of mankind on this day, and became

Vol: 23 | No. 7 | July 2015 | R20

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India convinces the world about the wonders of yoga

Yoga TimeCover Story

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O p i n i O n E x p r E s s 3July 2015

The first International Day of Yoga was observed all over the world on 21 June 2015. The Ministry of AYUSH made the necessary arrangements in India. 35,985 people, including Narendra Modi and a large number of dignitaries

from 84 nations, performed 21 yoga asanas (postures) for 35 minutes at Rajpath in New Delhi. The day devoted to yoga was observed by mil-lions across the world. NCC cadets entered the Limca Book of Records for the “largest yoga performance simultaneously by a single uniformed youth organisation” by performing at multiple venues. The event at Rajpath established two Guin-ness world records awarded to the Ministry of AYUSH and received by AYUSH minister Shripad Yesso Naik. The two records were for the largest yoga class, featuring 35,985 peo-ple, and for the largest number of participating nationalities (84 nations On 11 December 2014, India’s Permanent Rep-

resentative Ashok Mukherji introduced the draft resolution in UNGA. The draft text received broad support from 177 Member States who

sponsored the text, which was adopted without a vote. This initiative found support from many global leaders. A total of 177 nations cosponsored the resolution, which is the highest number of co-sponsors ever for any UNGA resolution of such nature. When proposing 21 June as the date, Modi said that the date was the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere (shortest in the southern hemisphere), having special significance in many parts of the world. From the perspective of yoga, the summer solstice marks the transition to Dakshinayana. The first full moon after summer solstice is known as Guru Poornima. Shiva, the first yogi (Adi Yogi), is said to have begun imparting the knowledge of yoga to the rest of mankind on this day, and became the first guru (Adi Guru). Dakshinayana is also considered a time when there is natural support for those pursuing spiritual practices. Following the adoption of the UN resolution, several leaders of the spiritual movement in India voiced their support for the initiative. The founder of Isha Foundation, Sadhguru, stated, “this could be a kind of a foundation stone to make scientific approach to the inner well-being of the human be-ing, a worldwide thing... It’s a tremendous step for the world.” The founder of Art of Living, Ravi Shankar, lauded the efforts of Modi, saying, “It is very difficult for any philosophy, religion or culture to survive without state pa-tronage. Yoga has existed so far almost like an orphan. Now, official recogni-tion by the UN would further spread the benefit of yoga to the entire world.

An advance version of yoga is meditation. The joy felt in meditation reveals the presence of Eternal joy spread over all creations. The light seen in medita-tion is the astral light from which our tangible creation is made. – Paramahansa Yogananda Spirituality for a common man may best be termed as science of the soul. It is reaching beyond all sciences. The soul keeps as alive and guides our live on earth and is a part/reflection of the infinite consciousness pulsating through whole creation, commonly understood as God. Knowledge of this science can help us lead happy, contented, joyful and purposeful lives on earth. The greatest help to a spiritual life is meditation ( Dhyana ) – Meditation is a instrument of spirituality. —Prashant Tewari, Editor-in-Chief

India takes its yogalesson to global

classroom

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P36 Around Us: Nitish Kumar on way totransform Bihar

P39 Biztalk: India Inc rises againstObama’s killer code

P41 Money Matters: Merger of BGI withBlackRock creates behemoth

P43 Sports: Cup of joy for Pakistan at T20cricket World Cup

P49 AIAI news: India has a major role inglobal economy, says AIAI

P50 Gopio world: Seven Indian-Canadian inBritish-Columbia University

JULY 2015

COVER STORY:

ANATOMY OF A CONFLICTP6-29

PERSONALITYGOING GA GAOVER RAHUL

P30ENTERTAINMENT

JOHN ONNEW YORK

P47

P5

IN NEWS

ADIEU, KINGOF POP

O P I N I O N E X P R E S S JULY 2015 I 5

Over 25 years ago, Bhopal was choking on the deadlyfumes that had found their way across the city from theUnion Carbide Plant. Close to 20,000 people died.

And the man the victims blame for the tragedy is WarrenAnderson, whose plant was the source of the deadly MethylIsocyanate gas.

He was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to mur-der. Yet, just four days after the tragedy, Anderson flew out ofBhopal on the official plane of Arjun Singh.

Anderson, now almost 90 years old, was the Chairman andCEO of Union Carbide when the lethal gas leaked on the inter-vening night of December 2 and 3, 1984.

Anderson is believed to have taken key decisions, including acost-cutting measure that compromised safety at the gas plant.Security precautions too were inadequate.

After the gas leak, Anderson was arrested and then releasedon bail by the Madhya Pradesh Police on December 7, 1984. Heleft India immediately after signing a bond of 25,000 rupees andhas refused to return ever since.

He has never appeared in court or even been in India to ex-plain what happened. In 1992, Anderson was declared a fugi-tive by the Bhopal court for failing to appear for hearings.

Once he was declared absconding, his case was isolatedfrom the case in which eight Indians then employed by UnionCarbide have been convicted now.

Victims say that Anderson, as the head of the company, knewthat the plant stocked toxic gas within city limits and that itcould cause huge damage in case of an accident.

Union Carbide paid compensation that victims have said wasgrossly inadequate. The Indian government has come in formuch criticism over the way it handled the Anderson case.

It took the government almost 19 years to move a formal re-quest for his extradition. It did so in May 2003. (AFP Photo)

In June 2004, the US rejected India's request for the extra-dition of Anderson saying the request did not "meet require-ments of certain provisions" of the bilateral extradition treaty.

In July 2009, an arrest warrant was issued for him after an

appeal by a victims' group. The arrest, however, did not takeplace. Warren Anderson served as Union Carbide CEO till 1986,when he retired. He lives a life of luxury in New York.

— OEMCL News Bureau

Indian government will seekAnderson extradition

IN NEWS

Influential New Jersey CongressmanFrank Pallone has said former UnionCarbide chief Warren Anderson de-

serves to be extradited from the US andstand trial in India in connection with theBhopal gas tragedy case.

"All those responsible for this disaster,including the former chairman of UnionCarbide Warren Anderson, should standtrial in India and receive punishment thatreflects the devastation and pain theyhave caused for thousands of people,"Pallone said in a statement.

"Warren Anderson absolutely deservesto be extradited from the US and pun-ished for the full extent of his crimes. As

chairman of Union Carbide at the time ofthe Bhopal gas disaster, Anderson was ul-timately responsible for his company'sactions," said Pallone, who is a powerfulmember of the India Caucus in theCongress. Noting that this court ruling islong overdue, Pallone said the executivesof Union Carbide and its Indian subsidiarydeserve to be criminally prosecuted.

"The court's sentence of merely twoyears for those responsible for theworld's worst chemical disaster is outra-geous," he said.

Pallone commended the Indian govern-ment on swift action to reconstitute theGroup of Ministers (GoM) to review the cir-

cumstances surrounding the Bhopal dis-aster and pursue rehabilitation efforts.

"As the GoM recommended in 2008, Iencourage the Indian government to es-tablish an Empowered Commission onBhopal which will have adequate authori-ty and funds to ensure that rehabilitationefforts are pursued and care is offeredfor survivors of the disaster," he added.

The State Department, however, hasremained silent on the issue. StateDepartment spokesman P J Crowley hadearlier said the US does not comment onextradition related issue. But, he said theUnited States has an extradition treatywith India.

Warren Anderson should stand trial in India: Frank Pallone

A PROTEST MARCH BY BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY VICTIMS

After centuries of face-off,will Israel and Palestineever learn to co-exist?

C O V E R S T O R Y


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ICONIC PIC OF A PALESTINIAN BOY TAKING ON ISRAELI TANKS

MIDDLE-EAST CONFLICT - WHY?P r a s h a n t Te w a r i

Parable of the Family with an Orphan: A large family takes inan orphan. The house is already crowded so the orphanmust share an attic room with a child too weak to protestthe intrusion. The parents give each of the two children halfof the room but ask each child to share a beautiful cabinet,treasured by both. The parents take a long trip, leaving their

strongest son in charge. When the parents leave, other children in thefamily attack the orphan and try to get him to leave. The weakest child,in particular, fights unfairly. He waits for the orphan to sleep and thenattacks him. The orphan wakes up each time and hurts the weak child;he also takes over more of the room, including the beautiful cabinet.

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O P I N I O N E X P R E S S8 I JULY 2015

As the orphan continues to take overmore of the room, the weak child contin-ues to take revenge. The strongest sontries to bring peace and sometimes suc-ceeds for short periods. The basic prob-lem, however, is that each child believesthat he should have the entire attic roomto himself.

Finally, the parents return. They realizethat they made a mistake by leaving homewhile there was such a difficult situationin the attic. They don't just ask the twochildren to stop fighting, however.Instead, they take immediate action.

The parents decide that the boys needtemporary separation, something con-structive to keep them busy, and carefulsupervision. The parents work with thetwo boys to build shelves and cabinetsdown the middle of the room, with privatestorage space for each boy on each side.They install plumbing so each side of theroom has plenty of fresh water. Finally,when the crisis is over, the parents set upa way for the boys to share the beautifulcabinet.

The parents do more than just providebetter space, however. They provide thelove, kindness, and supervision that eachchild needs to do well. They also makesure that the other children support thesolution.

Each boy reverts to his old behavior afew times, but the parents remove hisprivileges each time and the old behaviorsstop. Besides, each boy becomes toobusy pursuing his own goals to be dis-tracted by fighting.

They lived happily ever after...with a fewdisagreements here and there.

The "large family" is the UnitedNations. The "orphan" is Israel. The "oth-er children" are the Arab states. The"weakest son" is the Palestinian people.Attacking the orphan unfairly means "ter-rorist attacks." The "attic room" is the ter-

ritory of Palestine before the UnitedNations carved Israel into it. The "beauti-ful cabinet" is Jerusalem.

The "strongest son" is the UnitedStates. Alas, there are no wise parents tosupervise the boys. The UN SecurityCouncil has not been able to perform thisessential role. The "strongest son," there-fore, must work with the "other children"to implement peace. If the "strongestson" and the "other children" work to-gether effectively, then peace will spreadthroughout the entire family.

Recently, this has not happened.Instead, extremist Palestinians have en-gaged in bombings when Israelis agreedto work on peace. Extremist Israelis haveengaged in assassinations or other actsof aggression when Palestinians agreedto work on peace. Israelis are swiftly com-pleting a wall between Israel andPalestinian territory, but the wall is not onthe 1967 border. Rather, it snakes intoPalestinian territory to unlawfully takeland and water rights from 200,000Palestinians. Extremists from both sideshave destroyed the peace process.

The Palestinian people are allowing ex-tremists to lead them. The Israeli peopleare allowing extremists to lead them. Asthe violence keeps increasing, wisdomfrom any quarter would be welcome.

The "large family" is theUnited Nations. The "or-phan" is Israel. The "otherchildren" are the Arabstates. The "weakest son" isthe Palestinian people.Attacking the orphan unfair-ly means "terrorist attacks."The "attic room" is the terri-tory of Palestine before theUnited Nations carvedIsrael into it...


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A SHORT HISTORY OF CONFLICT

After World War II, the United Nationsgave land to the Jewish people ofthe world so they could live together

in peace. This land, Israel, includes holyplaces for the Jewish religion and is sur-rounded by Muslim countries.Palestinian Muslims lived on the land atthe time that the United Nations gave it tothe Jewish people.

Portions of the land given to the Jewishpeople, or taken over by them when theywon wars against Arab states, are alsoholy for Muslims. Certain portions ofJerusalem controlled by Israel, called"East Jerusalem," are very important toMuslims. For religious reasons,Palestinian Muslims believe that theymust gain control of East Jerusalem aspart of any lasting peace settlement.

Further, Palestinians view themselvesas living in an occupied nation, where in-vaders (Israelis) have placed them undermilitary rule. To fight back, Palestinianshave built a terrorist network to attack in-nocent Israeli civilians. Israelis feel theymust continue to control Palestinians withmilitary force to protect themselvesagainst more terrorist attacks.

Palestinian View: Palestinians feel thatthey are not a free people because Israelisoldiers stop them at checkpoints be-tween cities. Many Palestinians, there-fore, must get Israeli approval each day togo to work, return home, go to the hospi-tal, get groceries, or visit their own fami-lies. After a terrorist attack, soldierssometimes refuse to let Palestiniansthrough the checkpoints to get to work orother essential places, infuriatingPalestinians even more. Further, Israeliscontrol much of the Palestinian water sup-

ply and give Palestinians less access towater than they need. Palestinians feelhumiliated and abused by the Israelis.

Another issue causing Palestiniansgreat anger is that Israelis have continuedto build settlements in Palestinian territo-ry, illegally converting even morePalestinian territory into Israeli territory.Palestinians see the settlements as asign that Israelis do not want peace.

In March and April of 2002, Israeli sol-diers attempted to destroy Palestinian ter-rorist networks and attacked several ofthe largest Palestinian cities. In additionto attacking the terrorists, the Israeli sol-diers destroyed much of the Palestiniangovernment, including records, equip-ment, buildings, electricity supplies, watersupplies, roads, and more. Palestinianssee the attack as an Israeli attempt tokeep them from ever having an independ-ent state. In addition, representatives ofinternational relief agencies, as well asPalestinians, accuse Israel of committingwar crimes during this attack.

Palestinian Demands: Palestinianswant Israel to comply with internationallaw and retreat to the borders that exist-ed in 1967. Palestinians express this de-mand as four key conditions for peace, in-

Palestinians feel thatthey are not a free peoplebecause Israeli soldiersstop them at checkpointsbetween cities. ManyPalestinians, therefore,must get Israeli approvaleach day to go to work,return home, go to the hos-pital, get groceries, or visittheir own families...

COVER STORY


lA separate Palestinian state (with the same borders as werein 1967), lPalestinian control of East Jerusaleum, lEnding Israeli occupation of Palestinian terroritory, and lFreedom of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. Isralis have occasionally discussed supporting a separate

Palestinian state, but insist that it must be in the distant future.In addition, Israelis may not be willing to give up actual controlof Palestinian territory for security reasons, even if Palestinianterritory is eventually called an "independent state." Meanwhile,Israelis have continued to place Israeli settlements onPalestinian land, expanding Israeli territory at Palestinian ex-pense. Palestinians no longer regard Israel as sin-cere in its negotiations for a separate state.

Regarding control of East Jerusalem,Ehud Barak, former leader of Israel,offered to negotiate the control ofEast Jerusaleum. This is some-thing no other Israeli leader hadoffered and something theIsraeli people did not want of-fered. In fact, Barak was re-moved from power partly be-cause of the offer and was re-placed by Ariel Sharon.Although Barak had offered tonegotiate control of EastJerusalem and make other con-cessions, Palestinians were an-gry that all of the key condi-tions they considered es-sential for lasting peacehad not been offered.Israelis were angrybecause they weretold that most of thekey conditions forpeace had been of-fered and that Arafathad refused to negoti-ate.

Regarding the thirdPalestinian condition for peace,ending occupation of Palestinianterritory, Israelis seem willing to dothis--as long as Palestinian borders areredefined so that Israel can continue tocontrol Palestinian movements throughcheckpoints between cities and other means.In other words, Israelis are willing to end the ap-pearance of occupation but they are not willing toreduce their control over the Palestinians.

Barak may have offered real independence toPalestinians, but Israelis and Palestinians disagreeabout what Barak actually offered. The specific offerof restoration of Palestinian land has remained secret,so it is difficult to determine which side is correct.Palestinians claim that Barak's offer to returnPalestinian land was not sincere and would have con-tinued Israeli control of land between major Palestiniancities. Israelis claim that the Barak offer did not breakup the Palestinian land and that Arafat's refusal to ne-gotiate the offer means that he will never accept peace.Much of the current conflict rests with the differentviews of what was offered. Additional information onthe offer and disagreements is provided here.

At about the same time as Barak's offer, Sharon deliberate-ly provoked Palestinians by an act viewed by Muslims as ex-treme disrespect to their religion. Terrorist attacks by thePalestinians started in large measure in response to Sharon'sactions. Israelis were then angry by Arafat's refusal to negoti-ate in good faith and by the resumption of terrorist attacks.

In short, Israelis believe that Barak offered Palestinians theirland back and that Palestinians then responded with extreme vi-olence. Palestinians believe that Barak offered no real freedomand that Israelis deliberately insulted their religion (Sharon'svisit) and killed Palestinian protesters during negotiations.

The fourth demand of the Palestinians, for Palestinianrefugees to have their land back, has not been solvable. If all ofthe Palestinians who lost their homes to the Israelis were al-

lowed to return, then Israel would havemore Palestinians than Israelis--end-

ing Israel as a Jewish state.Israelis have not

been willing toc o n s i d e r

O P I N I O N E X P R E S S JULY 2015 I11

COVER STORY

their homes to the Israelis were allowedto return, then Israel would have morePalestinians than Israelis--ending Israel asa Jewish state. Israelis have not been will-ing to consider this as an option. SomePalestinians, however, vow to continuefighting until all Palestinian refugees canreturn to their former homeland.Negotiators have proposed that Israel al-low Palestinian refugees to return to theWest Bank and Gaza, but not to Israel.According to international law, the WestBank and Gaza are Palestinian territoriesand should be under the control of thePalestinians, not the Israelis.

Palestinian Compromise: If Israel re-treats to 1967 borders and providesPalestinians with complete independ-ence, will Palestinians stop terrorist at-tacks? As of March of 2006, the answeris "probably not." Although manyPalestinians simply want an independentnation, others, such as the powerfulHamas organization, consider all of theterritory called "Israel" to be part of

Palestine. Hamas leaders have vowed tocontinue their terrorist campaign untiltheir demands are met, including the de-struction of Israel. Further, when Arafatfailed to accept Barak's offer of a sepa-rate Palestinian state, many Israelis con-cluded that Arafat did not want peace.

Arafat did not make a serious effort tostop Palestinian terrorism againstIsraelis.

International law is on the side of thosewho advocate for two independent statessharing the land that was called"Palestine" before 1948. However, recentviolence against each side has been so vi-cious that the majority of people may bemore interested in revenge than negotia-tions.

Israeli View: Israelis view Palestinianmilitants as terrorists who will not com-promise to gain peace. Palestinian ex-tremists have, in fact, engaged in terror-ist acts against Israeli civilians whenpeace negotiations between Israelis andPalestinians seemed (to the Israelis) tobe moving forward fairly. BecausePalestinian terrorists attacked at keytimes, moderate Israeli leaders have beenreplaced by more extreme Israeli leaderswho do not want to compromise. Israelileaders do not trust Palestinian leaders to

Although many Palestinians

simply want an independent

nation, others, such as the

powerful Hamas organization,

consider all of the territo-

ry called "Israel" to be part of

Palestine. Hamas leaders

have vowed to continue their

terrorist campaign until their

demands are met, including

the destruction of Israel.

UNRELENTING: PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS WITH SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR ASSAD (RIGHT)

COVER STORY


negotiate peace. Israelis do not feel safeenough to reduce their control ofPalestinian territories.

Israeli Demands: Israelis want thePalestinians to stop the terrorist attacks.

Israelis have four key conditions forpeace, including: lPalestinian borders that ensure con-

tinuing Israeli security from Palestinian at-tacks, not the 1967 borders,l Israeli control of all of Jerusalem, l Enough Israeli control within

Palestinian territories to allow Israel to de-stroy terrorist networks, and l Prevention of Palestinian refugees

from returning to their homelands By comparing the Israeli demands with

the Palestinian demands, one can seethat the two sides are unlikely to findpeace--the demands are completely con-tradictory. In addition, many Israelis be-lieve that Israel is entitled to all of thePalestinian territories. Every time a com-promise is reached, Israeli andPalestinian extremists work against it--of-ten with violence.

Israeli Compromise: If Palestiniansstop their terrorist attacks on Israelis, willIsraelis retreat to 1967 borders and allowPalestinians complete independence? Asof March of 2006, the answer is "defi-nitely not." Although a majority of Israelisare willing to have their military leave thePalestinian territories, a powerful minori-ty consider all of the territory currentlycalled "Palestinian" to be part of Israel.They do not want to compromise or pullback. Instead, they want to keep expand-ing Israeli settlements into Palestinian ter-ritories.

Sharon, before entering a coma, beganreducing the settlements. However, whenSharon talked about an independent stateof Palestine, he meant a Palestinian statethat is still under the control of Israel.Past proposals have, in fact, allowedIsrael to maintain control over a newPalestinian state. Palestinians have notfound such Israeli offers of "independ-ence" acceptable. Now that Hamas wonthe last Palestinian election, Palestiniansmay be even less likely to compromise.

A Road to Peace: With hate so intenseon both sides, and demands of each sideso completely incompatible, peace will re-quire very powerful outside intervention.The United States and Arab Nations, es-pecially Saudi Arabia, need to join forces.Perhaps an international group, with theUnited States and Saudi Arabia as lead-ers, needs to negotiate where to put bor-ders to ensure Israeli security and alsoPalestinian land integrity. Left to them-

selves, neither Israelis nor Palestinianscan make a lasting agreement on borders.If an international group negotiates theborders, it will also need to determinehow to separate the two sides.International forces will probably need tostand between Palestinians and Israelisfor a long, long time. Israelis andPalestinians may even need a physicalwall to separate them.

Israelis have destroyed much of thegovernment and infrastructure of thePalestinians. The Palestinians will need a

great deal of outside support to rebuildthemselves into a separate nation.Without such support, the world will befacing "another Afghanistan" where anar-chy will again breed terrorism.

Muslim nations will need to play astrong role in helping to build a newPalestine without terrorism. Muslim na-tions will need to help mentor newPalestinian leaders who do not supportterrorism. Palestinians will need anothertype of leadership, other than Hamas, tobuild a new strategy for long-term peace.

The United States will need to use itsinfluence to help Israel shape a new strat-egy also. Israel has had to mobilize forwar, justifiably, since its beginning. It hashad little peace. However, Israel elected aleader, Sharon, who was associated witha massacre of Palestinians in Lebanon.Electing a man known for brutality doesnot say much for the peace strategy of theIsraeli people. If an international group in-sures Israel's security, Israel will need adifferent kind of leadership, as well as anew strategy for long-term peace. ActingIsraeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmer is fol-lowing Sharon's path and Sharon is un-likely to return to leadership.

An outside group will also have to de-termine how to allocate water rights fairlybetween the Palestinians and Israelis.Without outside intervention, water warsare likely to erupt, even if the land bordersare settled peacefully.

Israelis have destroyedmuch of the governmentand infrastructure of thePalestinians. ThePalestinians will need agreat deal of outside sup-port to rebuild themselvesinto a separate nation.W ithout such support, theworld will be facing "anoth-er Afghanistan" whereanarchy will again breedterrorism.

HOT PURSUIT: ISRAELI PRESIDENT SHIMMON PEREZ


COVER STORY

What ideas do you have to move us to-ward a lasting peace? It is very importantto realize that the Muslim religion teach-es peace and tolerance, not terrorism andwar. In fact, the Muslim religion does notallow a person to commit suicide or hurtinnocent people, even during war.

Methods of Fighting: The Palestinianpeople, led by Yasser Arafat until hisdeath in 2004, are outraged by Israeli oc-cupation of Palestinian territories. TheIsraeli leadership is continuing to use mil-itary force against protesters. Israel hasone of the most advanced military forcesin the world and the Palestinians have avery limited military capability. Most ofthose dying in the conflict have beenPalestinians.

The method of fighting for each side isquite different. The Palestinians have noarmy and have used bombs against civil-ian men, women, and children to try tomake the Israelis afraid for their personalsafety. They expect the Iraelis to respondto the bombings by attacking thePalestinian people. When Israel does this,Palestinians hope that other countries will

then help the Palestinian people and pro-tect them from the Israelis.

The Palestinian bombers almost alwaysdie in the attacks, so the Israeli militarythen kills Palestinians suspected of plan-ning the attacks. The Israeli military haskilled or seriously injured manyPalestinian civilians while pursuing terror-

ists. In addition, Israelis have damaged agreat deal of Palestinian property duringchases.

In short, each side is responding to theother by killing civilians--men, women, andchildren who are not part of the military.Each side is killing for revenge, as well asto meet its own goals. Each side is tryingto convince the rest of the world that it isacting with high morality. Each side is cre-ating a climate of violence and terror fortheir own children and grandchildren.

This is not a matter of two nations atwar, however, since the Palestinians donot yet have a separate state. Israelishave the ability to kill or drive away mostof the Palestinians, while the Palestiniansdo not have that power against theIsraelis. This unequal contest may turnout badly for all of us unless the USA andothers intervene effectively. IfPalestinians continue to use terrorism totry to achieve their goals, and if Israel con-tinues to use military force against thePalestinian people to combat terrorism,many other nations may find themselvesinvolved against each other regarding theconflict.

The method of fighting foreach side is quite different.The Palestinians have noarmy and have used bombsagainst civilian men,women, and children to tryto make the Israelis afraidfor their personal safety.They expect the Iraelis torespond to the bombings byattacking the Palestinianpeople.

DEVASTATED: A DAMAGED HOUSE IN PALESTINIAN SETTLEMENT AFTER ISRAELI AIR STRIKE

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The Water Issue: A concern of theIsraelis, Palestinians, and Arab nations inthe region is the water issue. MikhailGorbachev (former Premier of the SovietUnion) and Shimon Peres (former PrimeMinister of Israel) noted that "More thananywhere else, the Middle East exempli-fies the perils and possibilities created bythe water crisis."

"In the past 10 years the various statesin the Middle East have spent billions toacquire arms instead of building waterpipelines or finding ways to conserve,clean and use water more efficiently on ashared, regional basis."

"We all know that deserts create pover-ty, and that poverty often leads to war --especially when everyone is armed to the

teeth. But missiles in an armed desertcan't carry water any more than mine-fields can stop pollution from crossingborders."

"The alternative to another round ofconflict, this time over water instead ofland, is cooperation. Desalinization orjoint management is cheaper than launch-ing wars for rivers."

A recommendation by Jad Isaac of theApplied Research Institute, Jerusalem, in-cludes a confidence building measure bythe Israelis. He emphasizes that Gaza andWest Bank Palestinians do not have suffi-cient access to water now and suggeststhat negotiations for peace include Israelmaking sufficient water available to thetwo areas.

A recommendation by JadIsaac of the Applied ResearchInstitute, Jerusalem, includes aconfidence building measureby the Israelis. He emphasizesthat Gaza and West BankPalestinians do not have suffi-cient access to water now andsuggests that negotiations forpeace include Israel makingsufficient water available to thetwo areas.

REMEMBERING THE CATASTROPHE: PALESTINIAN YOUTH SIT IN FRONT OF A POSTER MRAKING 61 YEARS SINCE THE‘NAKBA’ (CATASTROPHE) ON ISRAEL’S CONTROVERSIAL SEPARATION BARRIER IN THE WEST BANK VILLAGE OF AZARIYA, NEAR THEBIBLICAL TOWN OF BETHLEHEM. THE ‘NAKBA’ COMMEMORATES THE TIME WHEN HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PALESTINIANSWERE EXPELLED OR FLED THEIR HOMES IN BRITISH-MANDATE PALESTINE DURING THE WAR THAT LED TO THE FOUNDING OF THESTATE OF ISRAEL IN 1948


COVER STORY

Role of the USA: What is the role of theUSA in this? Palestinians claim that thefighting has expanded partly because theUSA has not influenced the Israeli gov-ernment to use more restraint. TheIsraelis claim that the conflict has ex-panded because Palestinian leadershiphas not stopped the terrorism.

A plan was developed by a group of ex-perts, led by former U.S. Senator GeorgeMitchell, to find a path to peace. The lead-ers of the Israelis, Palestinians, and theUnited States accepted the plan. The planrequires for each side to stop attackingthe other side and for each side to try tohelp the other side achieve what it wantsmost, one step at a time. However, boththe Palestinians and Israelis have contin-ued the fighting instead of actually follow-ing the plan.

Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabiathen proposed a plan in April (2002) thathas the support of neighboring Arabstates and is consistent with the Mitchellplan. It has the interest of the UnitedStates, Israel, and the Palestinians. It in-cludes full normalization of relationships

with Israel by all Arab states and recogni-tion of Israel as a state by all Arab states.In return, Israel must pull out ofPalestinian territories, back to 1967 bor-ders. It allows for compromise and nego-tiation on return of Palestinian refugees totheir homeland.

Both Israelis and Palestinians have

asked the USA to help broker a peaceprocess. Intervention by the USA didseem essential to gain a lasting peace,but now that the conflict has escalated,much more than the USA may be neededfor an effective intervention.

The Bush administration is focused oncombating terrorism, a method of fightingassociated with Arafat. Arafat has notbeen very convincing in trying to stop ter-rorism. Evidence suggests that insteadtrying to stop it, he may have supportedterrorism.

To complicate the situation even more,Israel has been accused of committingwar crimes against Palestinians and willnot let the United Nations investigate tosee if the accusations are true.Allegations against Israel are being madeby international humanitarian agencieswho tried to render aid to woundedPalestinians.

Consensus seems to be growing that aslow, step by step process, such as rec-ommended by the Mitchell plan, will nolonger work. Trust between the Israelisand Palestinians has been destroyed andthe Mitchell plan requires trust by both

A plan was developed by a

group of experts, led by for-

mer U.S. Senator George

Mitchell, to find a path to

peace. The leaders of the

Israelis, Palestinians, and the

United States accepted the

plan. The plan requires for

each side to stop attacking the

other side and for each side to

try to help the other side

achieve what it wants most...

HISTORICAL SITE: TOURISTS AT THE JERUSALEM WALL

COVER STORY


sides. Something quite different may beneeded. See "A Road to Peace" above.

Why Do Palestinians Fight This Way?:Why are Palestinians killing civilian Israelimen, women, and children when theQur'an specifically prohibits killing non-combatants? Why are they doing thiswhen they know that such deaths hardenthe hearts of the Israeli people and willmake it unlikely for Palestinian children orgrandchildren to ever have peace? Whyare Palestinians planting the seeds of suf-fering for their own children and grand-children?

The short answer is that thePalestinians are exhausted, desperate,and very angry because of the Israeli oc-cupation of their land. They also lack aleader who is focused on long-term peace.

Why Do Israelis Fight This Way?: Whyare Israelis supporting military actionsagainst civilians and occupying land thatis not theirs? Why are Israelis allowingtheir armies to do this when they knowthat such actions harden the hearts of thePalestinian people and will make it un-likely for Israeli children or grandchildrento ever have peace?

The short answer is that the Israelis areexhausted, desperate, and very angry be-cause of the terrorist attacks. They alsolack a leader who is focused on long-termpeace.

US and Isreal are most trusted allies? Achronological look at the evidence

There is a big debate going on in theJews around the world, there is a strikingconvergence of opinion concerning the re-lationship between the US and Israel. Thenew US President and his administrationis trying to balance both Isreal and Arabinterest by keeping channel of communi-cations open to all players having interestin Middle East.

Supporters of the PLO - synonymouswith "supporters of a Palestinian state",because the PLO will run any such state -are convinced that the US is an ally ofIsrael. Some believe the US employsIsrael in order to expand the American em-pire, and others - echoing the claims ofthat infamous forgery, "The Protocols ofZion" - believe that history's greatest su-perpower, the US, is actually the pawn oftiny Israel. Either way, they are agreed thatthe US and Israel are supposedly 'ateam.'

Supporters of Israel naturally disagreewith supporters of the PLO about mostthings but not on this point, as they alsobelieve that the US is a friend of Israel -perhaps its only real friend. Whereasthose who are pro-PLO are especially in-DOGS OF WAR: A PALESTINIAN FIGHTER DURING A RALLY


COVER STORY

furiated by perceived US support forIsrael, those who are pro-Israel are deliri-ously grateful for the same (especially soin the case of Zionist Jews).

Given that across the spectrum ofthose politically mobilized on this issue,from one pole to the other, everybody ap-pears to have the same opinion on this,casual observers are naturally drawn intoagreement as well, creating a crushingconsensus all over the world: the US is anally of Israel.

But is it true?Let us first ask: what is an ally? My dic-

tionary defines 'ally' as "one who is as-sociated with another as helper."

Everybody knows that the US says itsupports Israel. But actions speak louderthan words. What is the evidence of USactions? In this piece I provide a chrono-logical list of relevant US policies over theyears.

I am hoping that this piece will begin adebate. It is not finished, and the re-

search relevant to its claims is ongoing. Ishall be updating the piece as I gathermore data. But I have already assembledquite a lot, below, and what I have is cer-tainly sufficient to challenge the common

view. I believe, in fact, that what I havepresented below is already sufficient torefute the common view many times over,and the compilation of these documentedfacts came as a big eye-opener. Hopefullythis documentation will begin a seriousdebate on this question, rather than anautomatic assumption based on officialclaims of US support for Israel - whichclaims are cheaply, and therefore easily,made.

It is important to remember that what isexamined here is the behavior of the USforeign policy Establishment, which is se-cretive. The evidence therefore speaks towhat is, and has been, the true positionof the US ruling elite with regard to Israeland the Jewish people. It does not speakto the position of the American people,many of whom, I believe, will be outragedto find that, as I document on next pages,the US specializes in attacking Israel. Infact the section on 1947-48 contains dra-matic evidence that ordinary Americanstend not to favor the anti-Jewish policiesof the US ruling elite.

It is important to rememberthat what is examined hereis the behavior of the USforeign policyEstablishment, which is se-cretive. The evidence there-fore speaks to what is, andhas been, the true positionof the US ruling elite withregard to Israel and theJewish people. It does notspeak to the position of theAmerica...

SIGNPOST FROM THE PAST: THE JERUSALEM TOWER OF DAVID AND HIPPICUS

COVER STORY


The chronology already goes up to the year 2005, but I have yetto complete the research on some of the missing years in be-tween.

The 1930's - Negative - The US Establishment helped spon-sor the rise of the German Nazi movement.

1939-1945 - Negative - This year's material is divided intothe following sections:

Introduction1. The general policy of the Allies towards the plightof the Jews2. No US visas for European Jews trying to escape the Nazi

MAPPING THE CONFLICT

CHRONICLE OF CONFLICT


COVER STORYslaughter3. The allies refused to sabotage

Hitler's Final Solution by military means

1945 - Negative - After 1945, the UScreated US Intelligence by recruiting tensof thousands of Nazi war criminals.

1947-48 - Mixed to Negative - Forced byexternal circumstances, the US govern-ment gave lukewarm support to the cre-ation of the State of Israel. But then it re-versed itself and implemented policies de-signed to destroy Israel.

1949-1953 - Negative - In Israel's hourof supreme need, the US allied withIsrael's mortal enemies.

1955 - Mixed - The US forces Israel towithdraw from Sinai, but makes someconcessions to the Israelis.

1955-1965 - Positive (in one regardonly) - Israel indirectly gets some USweapons.

1958 - Negative - Israel assists US mil-itary intervention in the Middle East; whenthis places Israel in danger, the USdoes...nothing.

1964 - Mixed - The US abandoned itsprevious official policy of trying to getIsrael to relinquish the territories won inthe War of Independence. Why had it beentrying to do this?

1964-1967 - Negative - Although Israelsuffered terrorist attacks from its Arabneighbors during these years, when theystaged a full-scale military provocation,the US refused to help.

1967 - Negative - After the Six-Day War,the US put pressure on Israel to relin-quish the territory gained, even though itknew it was indispensable to Israeli de-fense.

1967-70 - Negative - The Arabs attackthe Israelis. The US response is to try andremove the Israelis from territory theyneed for their defense.

1970 - Positive - Washington temporar-ily abandons the diplomatic effort tomake Israel withdraw from the territories.

1973 - Positive - The US assisted Israelin the Yom Kippur War.

1973-1975 - Negative - The US sup-ported the election of a pro-PLO Nazi warcriminal to the post of UN SecretaryGeneral.

1975 - Negative - The US reached anagreement with Israel not to have con-tacts with the PLO. The US immediately vi-olated the agreement.

1977 - Negative - Jimmy Carter workedhard to give the terrorist PLO the dignity ofa 'government in exile,' and then heteamed up with the Soviets to try and sad-dle Israel with a PLO terrorist state nextdoor.

1978 - Negative - When Israel tried to

defend itself from the PLO terrorists, theUS forced Israel to stand back.

1979 - Negative - Jimmy Carter beganlarge-scale US sponsorship of antisemiticIslamist terrorists, especially inAfghanistan and Saudi Arabia.

1981 - Negative - The US pushed for aPLO state in the West Bank against Israeliobjections.

1982-1983 - Negative - The US militaryrushed into Lebanon to protect the PLOfrom the Israelis.

1985 - Negative - 1985 includes morematerial than other years, so we have di-vided it into subsections.

1. Shimon Peres acted as a US agent,against Israeli interests.

2. Bettino Craxi and Giulio Andreotti (re-spectively, the Italian prime minister andforeign minister) committed political sui-cide for the sake of pushing the PLO. TheUS was behind them.

3. Ronald Reagan denied the Holocaust4. Who was in charge of US covert op-

erations in 1985?1987-1988 - Negative - The 'First

Intifada' was a US-PLO strategy used torepresent the Arabs in West Bank andGaza as supposedly oppressed 'under-dogs.'

1989 - Negative - With Dick Cheney, the

US began supporting a PLO state in theopen as the 'only solution' to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

1991 - Negative - Bush Sr.'s adminis-tration forced Israel to participate in theOslo process, which brought the PLO intothe West Bank and Gaza.

1994 - Negative - Yasser Arafat was giv-en a Nobel Peace Prize, and the CIAtrained the PLO, even though Arafat'shenchmen were saying in public, this veryyear, that they would use their training tooppress Arabs and kill Jews.

1996-1997 - Negative - The UnitedStates exerted such strong pressure onthe Netanyahu government (includingthreats) that, even though Netanyahu hadbeen elected on an anti-Oslo platform, hehad the necessary cover to betray theIsraeli public that had elected him.

2005 - Negative - Mahmoud Abbas, whowill soon have total control over Gaza, isthe one who invented the strategy of talk-ing 'peace' the better to slaughterIsraelis. The US ruling elite lovesMahmoud Abbas.

( Prashant Tewari inputs from R. Jerry Adams, Ph.D., Evaluation

and Development Institute andFrancisco Gil-White)

ON YOUR MARK: AN ISRAELI DEFENCE PERSONNEL

Life after oil bust

Riding a crest of oil boom for years, how willWest Asia deal with the trough of bust?


COVER STORY

R o m i l R a j

Time was when oil was being soldat $140 a barrel, and while con-sumers cringed at the high prices,the oil-rich nations of the MiddleEast prospered. The result was an

economic boom that spanned industriesranging from financial services and realestate to tourism. Stock prices soared.Sovereign wealth funds snapped upchoice assets around the globe. In late2008, the oil bubble burst, the financialcrisis began to roll across the world andboom turned to bust. How have the com-bined effects of the global slowdown andlow oil prices affected the economies ofthe Middle East?

In 2002, oil prices in the nations of theGulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stood at$25 a barrel.By July 2008, that numberhad jumped to $147. The increase en-abled the GCC's six member countries(Bahrain, Kuwait,Oman, Qatar, SaudiArabia and the United Arab Emirates) toalmost triple their gross domestic product- from $350 billion to more than $1 tril-lion. Now oil prices have fallen again - thistime to below $40 a barrel - and the oilboom and bust have come at a steepprice, especially for Dubai.

In 2002, oil prices in the nations of theGulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stood at$25 a barrel. By July 2008, that number

had jumped to $147. The increase en-abled the GCC's six member countries(Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, SaudiArabia and the United Arab Emirates) toalmost triple their gross domestic product- from $350 billion to more than $1 tril-

lion, according to the InternationalMonetary Fund.

The increase in oil prices widened thefiscal surplus of GCC economies to arecord high. From 2002 to 2008, an esti-mated $1.5 trillion in surplus was accu-mulated, leading GCC members to em-bark on a mission to diversify theireconomies.On developing and improving

infrastructure overall, which had sufferedfrom decades of under-investment.Government efforts concentrated on de-veloping oil and gas, the power sector andtransport infrastructure. The private sec-tor, for its part, concentrated on residen-tial,commercial and tourism real estateprojects.

As Don De Marino, co-chairman of theNational U.S.-Arab Chamber ofCommerce, notes, "Real estate in theGulf is fundamentally a private sectorgame. Actual recourse lending is prettylimited, so real estate investors who bor-row from the banks do so personally. Therest of the investment funds come most-ly from the earnings from other business-es."

Dubai-based developers Emaar andNakheel led the region by launching theworld's tallest tower, largest shoppingmall and largest manmade island, alongwith a string of luxury hotels and residen-tial developments. Other developers,such as Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding,jumped on the bandwagon by launchingmassive mixed development projects inJeddah and Riyadh.

However, the oil boom - and subse-quent bust, with a decline to below $40 abarrel - came at a price. The strong proj-ect pipeline caused a surge in the expa-triate population, as people came to fillopen jobs. This led to increased domestic

The increase in oil priceswidened the fiscal surplusof GCC economies to arecord high. From 2002 to2008, an estimated $1.5 tril-lion in surplus was accumu-lated, leading GCC mem-bers to embark on a mis-sion to diversify theireconomies.

LIQUID GOLD MINE: WORKERS AT AN OIL FIELD IN THE MIDDLE-EAST

COVER STORY


demand and an acute housingshortage. Such factors, coupled with

the weak U.S. dollar and high commodityprices, raised average inflation in the GCCto about 13% year-on-year in June 2008.The oil windfall expanded domestic creditgrowth but was intensified by the inflow ofhot money. (All the GCC currencies, withthe exception of Kuwait, are pegged to theU.S. dollar.)

The large current account surplusesand high inflation resulted in speculativeinflows looking for currency revaluation.

According to widespread press reports,the impact has been especially hard onDubai. As Ashwin Verma, a partner atBlack House Development Company, aNew York-based real estate investmentand development firm, notes: "Dubai wentfrom a trading economy to a real estateeconomy. Unlike [oil-rich] Abu Dhabi, mostof Dubai's GDP comes from real estate.

Dubai is one of seven emirates and themost heavily-populated city of the UnitedArab Emirates. Abu Dhabi, a sister emi-rate and the largest by area, is the capitalof the U.A.E.Another 'World's LargestMall'The possibility of super profits in realestate attracted companies and individu-als alike. The easy availability of liquidity

enticed property developers to launchsuch highly-ambitious projects as an un-derwater hotel, a mile-high tower, a kilo-meter-high tower, a revolving high-riseapartment, yet another "world's largestmall," massive theme parks, a floatingcity and a twisted residential tower. Whilethe governments channeled most of thesurpluses into their sovereign wealthfunds, the government-linked companiesand the private sector tapped internation-al markets to finance domestic projects.Lulled by a false sense of security broughtby bulging state coffers, these companiesintegrated leverage into their businessmodel. They regularly went to the interna-tional debt markets to fund their con-struction plans. The generous mortgagefinance and attractive rental yields due tothe housing shortage sparked investors'interest in real estate, while the relaxationof strict foreign-ownershipof-property lawsin countries such as the U.A.E., Bahrainand Oman added another impetus.

As the list of elaborate projects grew,so did the line of investors queuingovernight to book properties. Residentialproperties were sold even before theywere built solely on the basis of blue-prints, and strong demand led to massive

speculation in the secondary markets forthese off-plan properties. In some cases,properties were sold even before the de-veloper had approval from the respectivegovernment departments. The hypebrought international attention, and that,in turn, drove overseas investment.

Flipping of properties became the mostprofitable venture, sending propertyprices to dizzying heights. What was sup-posed to be an auxiliary support for eco-nomic Diversification efforts become themain pillar of it. The construction conta-gion spread from one country to anotheras real estate and tourism developmentbecame the common denominator of theGCC diversification strategy.

In January 2008, the projects plannedor underway totaled $1.6 trillion. This hadincreased to $2.54 trillion by January of2009, with Saudi Arabia and the U.A.Emaking up 70% of the projects, mostly inthe real estate, leisure and infrastructuresectors.

However, as the global credit crunchfroze the international financial markets,the hot money evaporated. The drastic$100 slide in crude oil prices eroded in-vestor confidence in the region. Thetourist arrivals slowed to a trickle during

SUN SETS ON AN OIL RIG IN THE PERSIAN GULF


COVER STORYthe peak winter season as a recession en-

gulfed major economies. In a spectacularswing, abundance ofliquidity in the beginningof 2008 had vanished before the year end.

The lack of liquidity forced developers toput many projects on hold, and speculatorswere left with inflated assets that could notbe sold, as banks tightened mortgage lend-ing criteria. Most of the projects have eitherbeen cancelled or put on hold for lack of fund-ing. In Dubai, construction cranes - once jok-ingly called the national bird - have mostlybeen idle. According to Proleads, a firm thattracks construction projects, about 150 proj-ects in the GCC were on hold in January thisyear, about 88 of them in the U.A.E. alone."Current very steep decline in oil prices isplaying havoc with virtually all real estateprojects," says De Marino. "If there is abright spot, it's that the banks are not sittingwith the properties. But clearly the downsideis the private cash tied up. The fact is that noone locally saw just how rapidly oil priceswould collapse." Of course, the overbuildingand speculation are not confined to the Gulf."Every country and city in the world is in thesame spot - Miami, China, even New York,"notes Verma. "However, Dubai is not supply-constrained like New York or London, soprices can fall much further."

In explaining why the problem is magnifiedin the region, Verma points to three factors."As the real estate sector unwinds, there arefewer jobs, and people are forced to leave be-cause they cannot stay without a job. Fewerpeople means less demand for real estateand fewer shoppers at the mall. It becomesan obvious downward spiral."

In addition, he says, "bankruptcy and debtlaws in Dubai are very harsh. It makes sensein markets [not characterized] by the wideadoption of credit for growth. However, somany buyers have [been using] credit withoutknowing the legal implications of default.Now that they know, people are leaving,which once again translates to fewer buyers,less shoppers - again, a downward spiral."

Finally, he notes, "monetary policy is im-portant. In the U.S., the government canprint trillions of dollars and amortize over thelargest economy in the world. They can slashinterest rates to practically zero to reducedebt and the cost of servicing debt. In Dubai,they can't. That's why they need Abu Dhabi[to help]. They can't lower interest rates. Infact, interest rates are going up, furthersqueezing borrowers and stifling any remain-ing growth. This further increases [the num-ber of] defaulters, again driving people out."

Many leading contractors and developershave laid off employees and adopted a wait-and-see approach to future projects. The re-trenchments may have significant repercus-sions on domestic demand.

In 2007, Dubai's construction and realestate sectors employed about 50% of the to-tal workforce. Moreover, OPEC's Decembercut of 4.2 million barrels a day will also af-fect the GCC countries. The cuts translate toabout a 10% contraction in the oil sector ofSaudi Arabia, Kuwait and the U.A.E.Meanwhile, the Algerian oil minister has said

that OPEC may announce further productioncuts to support the prices on March 15.Lower oil prices, reduced oil production, out-flow of expatriates and falling demand forgoods and services are expected to slowGDP growth to a bare minimum.

Meanwhile, the huge amount of wealth de-stroyed by the crash in the GCC stock markethas hurt investor sentiments. The GCC stockmarkets collectively lost more than $600 bil-lion in market capitalization last year.According to the IMF's most recent forecast,the GCC economy is expected to expand by3.5% in 2009 compared to 6.8% last year.After years of heady growth, reality is return-ing to the GCC real estate market. Recentsurveys indicate average home prices in theGCC falling by 10% to 40% from their peak

prices - with Dubai being the most af-fected.

Moreover, the GCC com-panies, mostly in real

estate and finan-cial services,face severe head-winds when it comesto repayment orrollover of an estimated$40 billion of debt duethis year, given the ab-sence of liquidity and in-vestor appetite. Going for-ward, governments are expect-ed to replace the private sectoras the leading entity to an-nounce new mega projects.Unlike during the 1970s oilboom, GCC governmentshave spent only one third oftheir oil wealth and can pur-sue countercyclical fiscalmeasures to rescue theireconomies. The region'scountries are betterequipped to weather alow-revenue scenariodue to their huge for-eign asset positionsand low publicdebt. The extentof spending ineach country willbe dependenton oil prices, ascountries haved i f f e r e n tbreakeven points.

Never theless,the emphasis hasshifted from realestate to invest-ment in humancapital and infra-structure to im-prove non-oil-sectorgrowth over the longterm, including tech-nological universi-ties, mass rapidtransport systemsand value-added in-dustries. Abu Dhabi

has unveiled a 131-km metro line whileSaudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar are goingahead with power, petrochemical and trans-port projects.

A recent Gulf Construction Survey indicat-ed this shift. According to the survey, twothirds of senior executives from constructioncompanies predict that the operations willmove away from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, Qatarand Saudi Arabia. Still, some investors arecautiously optimistic. "Dubai is a model forthe region; as Dubai goes, so goes the per-ception of commerce and trust in commercein the region," says Verma. "Dubai is built onentrepreneurship and innovation. These maysound like buzzwords, but it's actually true.They just had the world - and investors - buildthem a first-class city and infrastructure. So

they will use this as a baseto recreate themselves."

(The author is basedin Dubai)

COVER STORY


One of the most devout andinsular countries in theMiddle East, Saudi Arabiahas emerged from being anunderdeveloped desert king-

dom to become one of the wealthiest na-tions in the region thanks to vast oil re-sources.But its rulers face the delicatetask of responding to pressure for reformwhile combating a growing problem of ex-tremist violence. Ruling family of KSA re-sponded to the task wonderfully of re-forming nation gradually by balancingconservative minds with liberal outlook.

WITH POWER CENTRE: SAUDI KING ABDULLAH BIN ABDUL AZIZ AL-SAUD GREETS US PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA DURING ANARRIVAL CEREMONY AT THE KING KHALED INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IN RIYADH

New Saudi Arab:Moving with time

Saudi Arab is now looking to march shoulderto shoulder with the modern world


COVER STORY

AT-A-GLANCE Named after the ruling Al Saud family,which came to power in the 18th century,the country includes the Hijaz region - thebirthplace of the Prophet Muhammad andthe cradle of Islam. This fact, combinedwith the Al Sauds' espousal of a strict in-terpretation of Sunni Islam known asWahhabism, has led it to develop astrongly religious self-identity.

Politics: The Al Saud dynasty holds amonopoly of power; political parties arebanned and the opposition is organisedfrom abroad; militant Islamists havelaunched several deadly attacks.

Economy: Saudi Arabia is the world'sdominant oil producer and owner of thelargest hydrocarbon reserves; rapidlygrowing unemployment is a major chal-lenge.Saudi Arabia sits on more than 25%of the world's known oil reserves. It is ca-pable of producing more than 10 millionbarrels per day; that figure is set to rise.

International: Saudi Arabia is one ofthe main players in the Arab and Muslimworlds; its stature is built on its geo-graphic size, its prestige as the custodianof the birthplace of Islam and status asmajor oil producer

Saudi Arabia was established in 1932by King Abd-al-Aziz - known as the Lion ofNajd - who took over Hijaz from theHashemite family and united the countryunder his family's rule. Since his death in1953, he has been succeeded by varioussons.

The Al Saud dynasty's monopoly ofpower meant that during the 20th centurysuccessive kings were able to concen-trate on modernisation and on developingthe country's role as a regional power.

It has always been in the ruling family'sinterests to preserve stability in the re-gion and to clamp down on extremist ele-ments. To this end, it welcomed the sta-tioning of US troops in the country afterIraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.But the

leadership's refusal to tolerate any kindof opposition may have encouraged thegrowth of dissident groups such asOsama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda, which ben-efited from popular resentment againstthe role of the US in the Middle East.

After the terrorist attacks on New Yorkand Washington of 11 September 2001 -carried out mainly by Saudi nationals - theSaudi authorities were further torn be-tween their natural instincts to step up in-ternal security and pressure to allow agreater degree of democracy.

In 2003 suicide bombers suspected ofhaving links with al-Qaeda killed 35 peo-ple - including a number of foreigners - inthe capital Riyadh. Some Saudis referredto the attacks as their own 9/11.Sincethen, demands for political reform haveincreased, as has the frequency of mili-tant attacks, some of them targeted atforeign workers. The security forces havemade thousands of arrests.

Municipal elections in 2005 were afirst, limited exercise in democracy. Butpolitical parties are banned - the opposi-tion is organised from outside the country- and activists who publicly broach thesubject of reform risk being jailed.

After the terrorist attacks onNew York and Washington of11 September 2001 the Saudiauthorities were further tornbetween their natural instinctsto step up internal securityand pressure...

READY TO KICK OFF: MEMBERS OF KING’S UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB

COVER STORY


Full name: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Population: 25.2 million (UN, 2008) Capital: Riyadh Area: 2.24 million sq km (864,869 sqmiles) Major language: Arabic Major religion: Islam Life expectancy: 71 years (men), 75years (women) (UN) Monetary unit: 1 Riyal = 100 halalah Main exports: Oil, gas, cereals GNI per capita: US $15,440 (WorldBank, 2007) Internet domain: .sa International dialling code: +966Head of state, prime minister: KingAbdullah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz Al Saud

Saudi Arabia has been ruled sinceits foundation by the Al Saud dy-nasty. King Abdullah succeeded

the late King Fahd, his half brother, inAugust 2005. King Abdullah is seen asa cautious reformer,As crown prince,Abdullah had been the effective ruler ofSaudi Arabia since the former king suf-fered a stroke in the mid-1990s.

He became heir to the throne in1982, commanded the powerfulNational Guard and was considered tobe the most influential figure in thecountry. He is a former mayor of Mecca.His son, Mutib, is deputy commander ofthe National Guard.

Abdullah is said to have forged al-liances with other members of the rulingfamily to offset the influence of his sev-

en half brothers. Known as the "SudayriSeven", they are the most powerful al-liance within the ruling family.

He is seen as being untainted by cor-ruption - giving credibility to his drive tostamp it out - and to favour reformswhich are balanced with a respect forSaudi traditions.

Regarded in the Arab world as a sup-porter of wider Arab interests, he hascriticised US support for Israel andIsrael's occupation of Palestinian terri-tory.

King Abdullah is believed to havebeen born in 1924. He received a tradi-

tional religious education and is close tothe Saudi tribal way of life, often spend-ing periods of time in the desert.

Saudi Arabia, though a pioneer ofpan-Arab satellite television, has longhad one of the most tightly-controlledmedia environments in the Middle East.

The state-run Broadcasting Service ofthe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (BSKSA) isresponsible for all broadcasting. It oper-ates four TV networks, including newschannel al-Ikhbariya. The minister of cul-ture and information chairs the bodywhich oversees radio and TV operations.

Private radio and TV stations cannotoperate from Saudi soil, but the countryis a key market for pan-Arab satelliteand pay-TV broadcasters. Saudi in-vestors are behind some of these net-works, including Dubai-based MBC andBahrain-based Orbit.

The press in Saudi Arabia : Saudi news-papers are created by royal decree.There are more than a dozen dailies andmany magazines. Pan-Arab papers, sub-ject to censorship, are available.Newspapers tend to follow the lead ofthe state-run news agency on whether ornot to publish stories on sensitive sub-jects. The government has investedheavily in security systems to block ac-cess to websites it deems offensive,said to range in subject matter from re-ligion to swimwear. There were 6.2 mil-lion internet users by March 2008 (ITU).Many surfers are said to be women,possibly a result of restrictions on theirmovements. There are said to be asmany as 5,000 Saudi blogs.

THE PRESSAl-Watan | Abha-based daily Al-Riyadh | Riyadh-based daily Okaz | Jeddah-based daily Al-Jazirah | Riyadh-based daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat | Riyadh-based daily,English-language web pages Arab News - Jeddah-based English-lan-guage dailySaudi Gazette - Jeddah-based English-language dailyTelevisionSaudi TV - State-run, operates four net-works RadioSaudi Radio - State-run News agencySaudi Press Agency (SPA) - state-run

— Wamiq Warsi(The writer is heading a

prominent religious shrine in India)

ARABIAN WORLDFACTFILE ON KINGDOM OF ARABIA

KING ABDULLAH BIN-ABD-AL-AZIZ AL SAUD


FACE-TO-FACE

QAs one of the most recognized lead-ers of this country, what is your

opinion on the current situation of thekingdom's economy? What are themain challenges and opportunities?

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is part ofthe world and in the global village we livein today, no country goes unaffected bywhat occurs in the rest of the world. Thatis why the Kingdom always adopts con-ditions that follow the economic main-stream. The kingdom is definitely openfor investments and there are numerousinvestment opportunities. Obviouslythere are some obstacles of which thegovernment is aware. The Crown Princealong with the Economic Council is tryingto remove these obstacles as well as re-moving the administrative bureaucra-cies. Our objective is to facilitate the in-vestors into the kingdom as much as wepossibly can.

We are keen to maintain a stable eco-nomic position because we are sensingcertain radical reactions. Right now weare enjoying great revenue. There was aperiod of time where we were experienc-ing a strong decrease in revenue buteven during that time we were able toadapt and better our situation. Currentlywe are cautious of going too far eco-nomically which may result in disaster.Right now the kingdom is working on de-vising a method to make our economymore stable and more constant.

Every government has a responsibilityto provide services to its people. I do notbelieve in making unreasonable promis-es but at the same time I do aspire to al-ways achieve more than what is prom-ised. There are many governments thatcreate programs for elections. However,these governments put in place idealistsolutions to problems that are not at-tainable. I myself believe we should tack-le those problems and develop those so-lutions that we can reach and those thatare applicable. You cannot satisfy peoplewith slogans alone but you must take ap-propriate action as well.

I am feeling confident about the eco-nomic situation in the kingdom.

Q: There is a very good chance theKingdom of Saudi Arabia will enter

the WTO by the end of 2005. What willbe the effects of this?

I recall a time in my childhood wherethere was next to nothing in the country.We would have to travel quite a distanceby foot to get water. Also our housesused to be lit by gas and there really wasnot much of at available. The progressthat we have achieved in such few yearsis amazing. Those that can provide a tes-tament to how quickly the country has

LIQUID GOLD MINE: PRINCE SALMAN BIN ABDUL AZIZ AL SAUD, GOVERNOR OF RIYADH

‘I’m confident abouteconomic situation

in the kingdom’

FACE-TO-FACE


developed are those who lived here in the early times when thenation was formed.

Our entrance into the WTO will cause us to pay closer atten-tion to the desires of other nations. Every nation has their reser-vations about certain things. An example is Britain, which is amember of the EU but has not yet joined the Euro Zone.

Another example is the Schengen visa, which Italy signed inNovember 1990 and implementation wad in October 1997.When Saudi Arabia is reserved about certain issues and dis-cusses them, it is looking after its own interests. We have in-terests both with our own people as much as with other na-

tions. A successful solution is always found in trying to reach a

compromise, in developing a true solution. By doing so every-one benefits and a common interest between different partiesis created. For example the EU does not make hasty decisionson who is allowed to join their organization. A country thathopes to join has certain interests and the EU allows them tojoin based on its own interests. It is these common, mutuallybeneficiary interests that result in the decision to allow nationsto join.

We have interest in the world and this can be facilitated

LAND OF OPPORTUNITIES: RIYADH BY NIGHT


FACE-TO-FACEStates, France, and many other parts ofthe world. The exposition helped scatterthe name and image of Riyadh as a rap-idly progressing city. The same questionwas posed to me during this time and myanswer was that Riyadh is the title of abook about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Primarily investments into the countrycome through Riyadh although we havemany other cities where investments aremade such as Al-Khobar, Jeddah, andDammam. It is actually a pleasure for usto have competition between these citiesbecause it pushes us to strive to betterourselves. It also serves to attract in-vestment and the development of indus-tries.

QI know there are many projects cur-rently under development and these

aim to improve the well being of thecoming generations. Are there any spe-cific projects you would like our readersto know about?

We are focusing on the developmentof accommodation or housing. We areproviding opportunities for investors toenter this field. There is charitable hous-ing available for the poor families, whichis basically free accommodation.

We are also continuously working tosolve the problem of traffic in Riyadh.

There are projects regarding watertreatment, healthcare, and social is-sues. We have developed programs tohelp better our city in all aspects now aswell as for the future. In the RiyadhDevelopmental Authority for example,over which I preside, all the governmentadministrations are represented as wellas all businesses of the private sector.The government administrations decideand coordinate all developmental proj-ects with the various businesses. I per-sonally feel very satisfied with the direc-tion in which we are headed.

There is a plan under developmentthat will reduce the pressure from thelarge cities such as Riyadh, Jeddah, andDammam. In order to do so we will pro-vide services to the smaller towns sothey do not have to come to the largercities. Most importantly we will providehigher education and job opportunities tohelp better the situation in these smalltowns and to take the pressure off thelarger cities. The project has actually al-ready begun in the form of providing in-dustrial areas as well as universitybranches in these small towns.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia undoubt-edly has unemployment. However, we dohave six million expatriates working inour country. We are attempting toSauditize companies to a certain extentin order to provide more jobs for our own

people. Of course we cannot simply givejobs we must educate our people andtrain them to do the required jobs at thehighest levels. This is what we are cur-rently doing and quit successfully actual-ly. I am very happy with the ambition ofthe Saudis as they are always looking tobetter their situation and environment.

QWhat are the main objectives, thekey policies of this country's lead-

ers? We must first go back to the history of

how Saudi Arabia was created. TheArabian Peninsula used to consist ofmany separate states. Every village haddeclared itself as a state. There weretribes that ruled these villages or states.It wasn't until the 18th century that thefirst Saudi state was declared. From thenon the unification of the numerous tribescontinued until the creation of SaudiArabia as we know it.

It should be understood that the lead-ership of this country is a historical one.It was a struggle to unify the many tribesin this part of the world. The royal familyhere feels the responsibility towards theunity of its people. There is a responsi-bility to reassure the people and to pro-vide the security and well being of itspeople as well as the development of thenation. The leaders want to improve theliving standards of the citizens as well.All this should be understood as a jointresponsibility between the royal familyand the citizens. Even historically, KingAbdulaziz began a nation with the helpand involvement of the citizens.

We differ from the other kingdoms inthe world because we actually serve ourpeople and we serve our country. The na-tional unity that we possess will be main-tained with all our power. The good in-tentions of the royal family are what helpour national unity: good rulers have goodcitizens.

The participation of the citizens hasbeen ongoing for a long time. We holdopen sessions where anyone can speaktheir mind and their opinions are takeninto consideration. At the same timethere are obviously social problems inthe nation as there are in any nation. The

ideal nation does not exist here in SaudiArabia but then again it does not existanywhere in the world. Thus I feel thatthe leadership in the Kingdom of SaudiArabia adequately serves its people andits country as a whole.

Everyday at 12h30, I hold a mattress,which anyone is permitted to enter, for-eigners included. Last week alone I havemet 967 people. Even at my home I re-ceive people who have a variety of con-cerns raging from their job situation tothe health of their family members. Theycome asking for help and I do what I can,considering each case carefully. I amsure the same is the case for his MajestyKing Fahad and the Crown Prince HRHPrince Abdullah. We see this as evidenceof the closeness of the relationship be-tween the people and the leaders. Thereis a certain sense of harmony betweenthe two. Of course we make mistakes asdo all other human beings but we arealso providing a lot of positivism for ournation.

QWhat are the guidelines and princi-ples that you follow?

First of all one has to be a believer inGod, which provides positive energy andinternal hope. Secondly, one must becredible. Thirdly, one must enjoy his lineof expertise. It is impossible to be suc-cessful if you do not enjoy at least someaspect of your work. One must also real-ize that he/she is merely a human beingand is bound to make mistakes. What isimportant is to acknowledge these mis-takes and listen to the opinions and ad-vise of others to better himself/herself.You must always respect the advice andthe guidance of those who provide it.

I do not pretend to be a leader, but Itry to lead by example. I work hard atwhatever I do. I meet with people, and Iclosely follow up on all the files for whichI am responsible, both in the region andin the country as a whole. My ambition issimply to work my hardest and to serveto the best of my abilities. There is noreal pre-format for success because ifone programs himself/herself to achievea goal they risk losing sight of the pres-ent. I face each day with the same reso-lution, which is that I must do my best inwhatever manner I can. In this way I amable to properly serve my country be-cause each situation is uniquely ap-proached.

QA final message to the world leadersand all of our readers?

Treat others as you would like to betreated yourself.

(Courtesy Summit Communications,Summit Communications is solely responsi-ble for the content of reports, interviews)

The national unity that wepossess will be maintainedwith all our power. The goodintentions of the royal familyare what help our nationalunity: good rulers have goodcitizens...

PERSONALITY


O E B u r e a u

Suddenly, there is a surge calledRahul Gandhi. Chroniclers ofCongress lore would recordthat it was during the mercilesssummer of 2009 that the

Gandhi scion finally stepped out of thesheltering shadow of his mother and be-gan speaking his mind and the party'stoo.

For the last five years, it was the storyof a reluctant Crown Prince caught be-tween the call of ancestry and the chal-lenges of politics.

There have been many soft launchesof Brand Rahul, beginning with when hebecame a party general secretary twoyears ago. Or when he emerged as thestar campaigner during the last round ofstate elections.

Or when Prime Minister ManmohanSingh offered him a place in the Cabinetbut he politely declined. Each time, theyoung Gandhi failed to seize the mo-ment, pleading inexperience. He was apermanent work in progress.

An apprentice with my-time-has-not-come modesty. In an age when a fresh-man senator with barely four years inpublic life could become the president ofAmerica, the argument of inexperiencebetrayed a kind of diffidence. That wasyesterday. Today, he is showing the fe-rocity of an attack dog and the calm of apolicy wonk and the authority of a leaderwho knows his place in the party and inthe minds of the desperate legion ofCongressmen.

THE PRINCE OF FLIP-FLOP

The Gandhi scion has become a one-man organisation, setting the agendaand rewriting it at whim.

On L.K. AdvaniMay 4: Before the polls, the BJP be-

gan talking of money stashed in Swissbanks. It did nothing when in power.

May 5: Everyone agrees on the Swissbanks.Why don't we work together to

THE FAMILY: RAHUL WITH ROBERT, PRIYANKA AND SONIA

Going Ga Ga

over baba

Everybody has suddenly started

discovering specialqualities in the Gandhiscion. Are we going

overboard in eulogisingRahul Gandhi?


PERSONALITYbring this money back?

On CommunistsApril 25: The communists are caught

in an ideological bind an outdated one,which has failed in other places.

May 5: There are many points wherewe agree with the Left. I am hopeful thatit will support a Congress government.

On Nitish KumarApril 2: In Bihar, no one gets employ-

ment. The state Government revels inkeeping its own people backward.â

May 5: There are Opposition leaderslike Nitish where the intention towork isthere.All post-poll options are open.

On Chandrababu NaiduMay 11: Naidu believes that some

parts of India can move forward and therest can be left behind.

May 13: He did a good job as chiefminister. He focused on Hyderabad andwent on the wrong bend but I respecthim.

Sleeves rolled back, he impatientlypushes his glasses back on his foreheadand dashes about the countryside with abrief that goes far beyond that of a meregeneral secretary. Whether it is to theshirtless in the remote village or to themedia in conference halls, the 38-year-old MP from Amethi has become themost audible voice of India's Grand OldParty.

Shall we say the Rahul era has finallybegun, when the finer points of partypolicies will no longer be debated behindclosed doors at 10 Janpath by the so-called core group? Instead, it will be an-nounced blithely and spontaneously, andsometimes in the middle of a televisedpress conference. In the blink of a flash-light, adversaries like Bihar ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar and TDP chiefChandrababu Naidu have become worthyof his praise.

Even the communists, who did theirbest but failed to topple the ManmohanGovernment on the issue of the nucleardeal, have ceased to be untouchables.There is a lot of common ground with theLeft... I am pretty confident that the Leftwill support a Manmohan Singh govern-ment, he said without a hint of irony asthe rest of the party struggled for expla-nations and Nitish, Naidu and CPI leaderA.B. Bardhan spurned his overtures. Inthe din that followed, few recalledRahul's reiteration that the Congresswould not compromise on Manmohan'scandidature the way it did not compro-mise on the nuclear deal.

He is a mature politician. What iswrong in praising your opponents if theydo good work?, asked media cell chair-person Veerappa Moily with a straightand slightly worried face. It is easy to seewhy the Congress team of spokesper-sons looked so perplexed in televisionstudios that evening. It was the same

LLIIKKEE FFAATTHHEERR LLIIKKEE SSOONN || Not only his dimples,Rahul has inherited his father's bluntspontaneity and naive idealism in politics.

TTHHEE DDEEBBUUTT || A reluctant politician who took the plunge to help mummy after brotherSanjay's death. An Indian Airlines pilot, he studied at Doon and Cambridge.

PPOOLLIITTIICCAALL GGRRAAPPHH || An MP at 36, he took charge of the youth wings as general sec-retary. Became India's youngest PM at 40. Often got into trouble for his off-the-cuffstatements.

PPEETT IISSSSUUEESS || Lowered the voting age to 18 and ushered in the computer age.Begandismantling the licence raj. Was against caste and religionbased reservations.

RREELLUUCCTTAANNTT EENNTTRRYY || He too flirted with a professional career. Was working with a fi-nancial consultancy in London before being roped into politics to take over from hismummy .

TTHHEE FFIIRRSSTT FFEEWW SSTTEEPPSS || Became a first-time MP at 34. Like his dad, he too tookcharge of the youth wings as party general secretary. His spontaneous remarks oftenbaffle his party.

TTHHEE AAGGEENNDDAA || Believes in Nehruvian socialism. Like his dad, wants to bridge the di-vide between India and Bharat by ensuring that the money meant for the poor actual-ly reaches them.

VITALSTATS

PERSONALITY


Rahul who blasted the fossils of Kolkata with such panacheduring his campaign in the state a few days ago. He thunderedthen: The communists in Bengal have been caught in an ideo-logical bind. That too an outdated one, one that has failed in allother places. Last year, I went to China and the Chinese com-munists asked me, What kind of communism is practiced inBengal? Why don't they change?

The Congress lineAt first the party quibbled over Advani's fig-ures. Later Manmohan said he'll bring themoney back within 100 days if voted to pow-er.

Like Rahul, the prime minister has kept anambivalent stand towards theLeft.Sonia,however, has accused it of run-ning a dictatorship in West Bengal andKerala.

There is a section which wants to dumpboth Lalu and Paswan.But with Nitish stick-ing with the NDA, Rahul's public overtureshave embarrassed the party.

Chief Minister YSR Reddy has just con-ducted a campaign attacking Naidu. His ri-val's praise won't go down well. However,Sonia hasn't attacked Naidu in her cam-paigns.

Any sane person would ask this question.The mother also didn't spare the commies when she toured thestate. The state Government will have to answer why they havenot done anything for the poor, she had said. For a while, eventhe prime minister was pretty daring in his anti-communism.Then one day, in the company of women journalists, he too

changed the tone: I have great regard and respect for my Leftcolleagues.

I have repeatedly said that I greatly regret their leaving. As forthe future, who can judge? We will cross that bridge when weget there. Maybe both Manmohan, the immediate choice of theparty, and Rahul, the inevitable choice of the future, think theyare getting there, and they need the support of that party with

an outdated ideology to cross the bridge.Or, is it that Rahul has become the mes-sage a message that defies the standardparty line?

Or, is it that he has become the party? Itis as if he has all of a sudden realised theprivileges of his surname. He has becomethe oneman organisation setting the agen-da and rewriting it at whim. Being theInevitable One, he doesn't have to adjustto the party. The party will adjust to him.His streamof-consciousness politics hasonly confused his party and confounded hisenemies. And it has hardly made him morecomprehensible.

He is certainly playing a different kind ofpolitics and the party elders are not gettingit. Although most of the Congress leader-ship is not part of the decision-makingprocess within the party, they are howeveraware of the endless rounds of discussions

that take place between the Congress president and her coregroup before she finally takes a decision. Rahul's style, in con-trast, belongs to the lone ranger triggerhappy style of politics.And one that seems to have mystified the party's foes andfriends alike.

I have repeatedly said that Igreatly regret their leaving. Asfor the future, who can judge?W e will cross that bridge whenwe get there. Maybe bothManmohan, the immediatechoice of the party, and Rahul,the inevitable choice of the fu-ture, think they are gettingthere, and they need the sup-port of that party with outdatedideology

Rahul on Mission 2012

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is right ontrach to a successful Mission 2010. He normallydoesn’t react to Uttar Pradesh chief minister

Mayawati's repeated outbursts against him. But, of latehe has been in a belingerent mood.

Some time back, he was in Ambedkarnagar to flag offthe party's "chetna yatra" (awareness march) in 10 dif-ferent directions for the much sought after revival of theparty in the country's most populous state, drew massivecrowds at a rally convened by him to mark not only thebirth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar but also that ofthe 125th anniversary of the Congress party.

The Congress general secretary virtually sounded thebugle for a symbolic launch of his party's campaign for thenext state assembly elections ,due two years ahead.Mayawati's firm hold on voter in the dalit-dominated con-stituency might have deterred the Congress party fromeven fielding its nominee in the 2009 Lok Sabha electionHowever , Rahul Gandhi was here to knock at Mayawatidoor to issue a warning that BSP's days were numbered.

"I am confident that with the support of the youth,Congress party will rewrite the destiny of this state whichwill experience a new era of development and employ-ment", Rahul declared amids cheers from the crowds.

It was even more significant that Rahul chose the birthanniversary of BSP's most important icon BabasahebBhimrao Ambedkar's birth anniversary to give out his bat-tlecry against the ruling party which considers Ambedkarits "exclusive property."

He sought to make it loud and clear that he was here to"take UP out of the woods where it had sunk on accountof the politics of caste and religion."


PERSONALITY

Allies like the RJD chief Lalu PrasadYadav, LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan andTrinamool Congress's Mamata Banerjeewere not too pleased at this rather ama-teur attempt to replace them with theirregional foes. An irate Paswan demand-ed why Rahul was fielding candidatesagainst Nitish if he was doing such goodwork while the mercurial Banerjee sawthis as yet another example of the use-and-discard brand of politics that theCongress is notorious for.

Questioning the timing of Rahul'scomments, Trinamool leader ParthaChatterjee pointed out that these havecome at a time when two phases of theWest Bengal polls are still left. Suchcomments are not responsible from sucha leader.

It's strange that these commentscome when polling in constituencieswhere the Congress put up candidates isover, he said. Even NCP leader SharadPawar was not amused at Rahul's at-tempts at sarcasm. When asked if hewould support Pawar as prime minister,Rahul promptly replied that he would, ifthe NCP emerged as the single largestparty. Being cheeky is not quite thepolitically correct way to win post-poll al-lies.

A Congress general secretary, howev-er, says that there could be a method inRahul's madness. He sees this as acareful strategy chalked out by the moth-er and son, and not an off-the-cuff state-ment.

By our calculations, both Lalu andPaswan are not expected to retain theirtally in Bihar. Both could lose in their ownconstituencies. The situation in Andhra

is not good for the Congress. Given thisscenario, it makes sense to woo new al-lies, he explained. Whether Rahul's com-ment was political opportunism or astray soundbite, from the confusion thatfollowed, it was clear that this was not aunanimous party strategy.

And it is not that Sonia has handedover the reins of the party to her son.This is just the first phase of thetakeover which began during the lastround of assembly elections when Soniastepped back and let Rahul emerge asthe star campaigner. Now another di-mension is being added to his public per-sona that of a decision-maker.

Rahul has always played a crucial rolein the party's leadership process. Butearlier when he was questioned aboutmatters beyond the Youth Congress (heis general secretary in charge of theyouth organisations), he used to stall the

questions with an ask the Congresspresident . What has changed now isthat Rahul has begun articulating deci-sions beyond his stated brief. Theyoungest of the nine general secretariesnow does not hesitate to take questionson issues beyond the youth wings.

The party leadership has always givenserious consideration to every word hespeaks. It was his decision that theCongress should not contest the LokSabha polls under the UPA umbrella. Ashe is fond of saying, he is not playing aone-day match but is there for the longhaul. He needs to build the organisationat the grassroots level even if theCongress loses out in these polls.

This prompted a bitter Lalu to say sar-castically that while the rest of themwere fighting an election, the young ide-alist was building the Congress. It wasagain Rahul who allowed party GeneralSecretary Digvijay Singh to be a stum-bling block in the alliance with the SP.Uttar Pradesh and Bihar used to be theheart of our strength and it is here wehave declined considerably, he said at amedia interaction recently and asked:Did we leave Lalu and Paswan or did theyleave us? Technically, he may be right: itwas the allies who ended the relation-ship. But it was the high-handed attitudeof the Congress that pushed them to doso.

Again, it was keeping this organisa-tional revamping in mind that Rahulcame up with the naive suggestion of giv-ing 30 per cent of tickets to the youth.He soon did a mid-course correction andadmitted to his colleagues that perhapsit would be better to field the youth firstin the assembly elections.

However he stated that in non-winnable Lok Sabha seats, it might bebetter to field the youth! As a result, avery unhappy Karnataka youth leaderand a Rahul protege Krishna Byre Gowdawas asked to take on the BJP stalwartAnanth Kumar from BangaloreSouth.

Still, Rahul is never short of wordsthat denote a cultural shift. Even thoughhe is the most privileged beneficiary ofhereditary rights in this party, he wantsto be the champion of inner-party democ-racy. Just because I am the outcome ofa system does not mean that I cannotchange it, he says, adding, It also givesme a position to do certain things. I con-sider it my honour and duty to change thesystem of which I am a product.

Yet there is very little evidence of thisblueprint at the ground level. Most of theyoung fresh faces that got tickets werefrom local dynasties. Take the exampleof Punjab where eight new faces werefielded and three of them were from priv-ileged families: Captain AmarinderSingh's son Raninder, Beant Singh'sgrandson Ravneet Singh Bittu andSukhwinder Singh Danny, son of a formerPunjab minister Sardool Singh.

DESPERATE ALLIES: LALU AND RAM VILAS

Allies like the RJD chief LaluPrasad Yadav, LJP leaderRam Vilas Paswan andTrinamool Congress’s MamataBanerjee were not too pleasedat this rather amateur attemptto replace them with their re-gional foes. An irate Paswandemanded why Rahul wasfielding candidates againstNitish if he was doing suchgood work...

PERSONALITY


His brain trust is made of young professionals and first-time MPs.

KKAANNIISSHHKKAA SSIINNGGHH:: A former merchant banker, he is Rahul's most trustedaide and Rajasthan Governor S.K. Singh's son. Simply referred to as K.

PPAANNKKAAJJ SSHHAANNKKAARR:: Manages the media and the Gandhi website.Caught Rahul's eye with his film on Gujarat riots, In the Name ofFaith.

MMIILLIINNDD DDEEOORRAA:: The only one who was friends with Rahul before the two joined politics.During Rahul's campaign tours, he mobilises the young MPs for backroom support.

MMAANNEEEESSHH TTEEWWAARRII:: The suave former Youth Congress president wasRahul's choice as party spokesperson. His legal credentials are abonus.

SSAANNDDEEEEPP DDIIKKSSHHIITT:: Sheila Dikshit's downto-earth son has a specialrapport due to his NGO connections. Rahul promotes him on tribaland rural issues.

JJIITTIINN PPRRAASSAADDAA:: Part of the Doon brigade, he is Rahul's point man forUttar Pradesh. He fields Prasada in Parliament to take on SP and BSP.

BBHHAANNWWAARR JJIITTEENNDDRRAA SSIINNGGHH:: AICC secretary attached to Rahul. Amember of the Alwar royal family and two-term MLA. Rahul got him aLok Sabha ticket this election.

COMPANY: RAHUL TRUSTED AIDE JITIN PRASADA IN PARLIAMENT

The G-8

DIXIT

DEORA


PERSONALITY

Look ma, both hands!Decoding Rahul's body language as he walks his talk...

From the heat and dust of Election 2009 has emergedRahul Gandhi, the orator. A suave, self-assured publicspeaker who doesn't read from prepared speeches. But

what explains the Gandhi scion's peculiar body language in hisspeaking engagements his two hands gripping the lectern. Thisis what speakers know as the double-handed death grip andwhat myriad books on public-speaking warn against. We gotconflicting diagnoses from the two psychiatrists we consulted.Dr Harish Shetty says that the peculiar grip reflects fear and in-security.

When you are holding the lectern the way Rahul is,you aretrying to cling on to something or seeking an anchor, he says.The deeper meaning could be more ominous. It probably has todo with the realisation that his father was assassinated afterdelivering a speech, he says. But there's hope. Dr JitendraNagpal feels that Rahul's body language signifies progressivelevels of confidence and self-esteem. People who do this wantto show that they are ready to meet challenges.

He is boyishly proud of the fact that the election process hasreached the Youth Congress with Punjab being the first off theblock.

Yet when he touts Punjab as a showcase, it is ironical thatthe man to emerge victorious from this little experiment withdemocracy is Bittu. There is an expectation that democracy will

come just by pressing a switch. You have to start somewhere,he says with a shrug. But he himself has the habit of pressingthe wrong switches.

His vision for India, like his mother, harks back to theNehruvian model of socialism. He talks in earnest cliches. Hewants to bridge the gap between the two Indias.

While he agrees with the Left that the distribution of wealthhas to reach the poor, unlike the communists, he realises theneed to build corporate India as well. There is a connection be-tween growth and distribution that the Left ignores.

The Left supported us on the Employment GuaranteeScheme but where did the money come from? It did not fallfrom the sky but came from 8 per cent GDP growth, he says,putting his M Phil in Development Economics to use.

His night-outs at Dalit and tribal homes have been ridiculedby his political opponents and by the media, but that did not de-ter him from continuing his self-appointed task of discoveringthe other India.

Still, the one big idea that marks change is missing. If he isthe change that Congress wants to be, or the change that theparty wants to sell to post-Manmohan India, Rahul has to re-veal his mind with more clarity.

He doesn't mark an audacious break from the past; he usesthe hoary tradition of Congress's subordination to the Dynastyto his advantage. His performance as a parliamentarian or asa Youth Congress leader is pretty dismal; at no point he con-vinced the country that he was the change India had been wait-ing for.

A few contradictory statements about potential allies do notmark the repudiation of politics-as-usual. He is still theDynasty's indulged child enjoying his freedom and the knowl-edge that he is the One. Unlike his voters, he doesn't have toworry about an Employment Guarantee Act. His employmentwas guaranteed the moment he was born. If a Gandhi is enti-tled to such a privilege, we are entitled to know whether he isworthy of it.

RAHUL RAGE: CHILDREN WEARING RAHUL MASK TO CELBRATE HIS BIRTHDAY

S u p r i y a S h a r m a

On the morning of counting day, driving through rainand the blossoms of Laburnum and Gulmohar inPatna, I was surprised to find that the road outsideNitish's residence deserted. For a moment I as-sumed the other news channels

had decided to skip the early morningslightly pointless pre results dispatches, tillI walked a few steps away to the next lane.Sure enough, the entire media cavalcade ofcameras and broadcast vans was parkedright there - outside the home of Rabri devi,Lalu's wife and the proxy Leader ofOpposition.

Why would the media ignore the biggerstory - Nitish Kumar, the man being wooedby all political formations, praised by RahulGandhi, hand-grabbed by Narendra Modi,and generally seen as Bihar's great hope -to chase the by now predictable story - thedecline of Lalu Prasad, the Railway minis-ter who looked all set to go off track this

election? This could a matter of habit - after all, Lalu has been the cen-

tre of gravity in Bihar for two decades. Or it could a more calcu-lated journalistic gambit, linked to the well known contrast be-tween the two men - Impetuous Lalu might supply some dramaeven as a loser, while Punctilious Nitish would not allow the me-dia in except at the designated hour dutifully phoned and faxed

to media offices. Nitish, as the consensusgoes, does not believe in springing surpris-es.

And the initial leads came as no sur-prise. Both reporters and exit polls hadpicked up the astonishingly high level ofNitish's personal popularity on which theNDA hoped to sweep Bihar. The only subjectof speculation then - what would be the fi-nal tally?

Lalu's elder son, a Krishna Bhakt andmildly notorious in Patna, drove in from amorning visit to the temple, flashing the vic-tory sign, holding up both his hands. He isgiving four seats to his party - quipped onejournalist. Uncannily, that's what the RJDended the day with.

AROUND US


Lalu’s elder son, a KrishnaBhakt and mildly notoriousin Patna, drove in from amorning visit to the temple,flashing the victory sign,holding up both his hands.He is giving four seats to hisparty - quipped one journal-ist. Uncannily, that’s whatthe RJD ended the daywith.

PEOPLE’S CM: BIHAR CM NITISH KUMAR DISTRIBUTING ASSISTANCE CHEQUES TO DOWNTRODDEN

BIHAR TRANSFORMED Doer Nitish Kumar scores over political rhetoric of Lalu and Ram Vilas


AROUND US

Ram Vilas Paswan, the LJP leaderwho completes the Bihar triumvirate, hadall morning been enconsced in a five starhotel suite - the one that he occupieswhen he is in Patna, which is not too of-ten, usually around election time. He hasa reason, or excuse, to stay away - aspart of every single government since1996, his duties as Union Minister havekept him busy in Delhi. Except this elec-tion took that excuse away. Paswan lostfrom Hajipur - a seat he won seven timessince 1977, losing just once in theCongress wave of 1984. This time, an

88 year old man, Ram Sunder Das de-feated him. Das could be this LokSabha's oldest candidate.

As far as age goes, many haveclaimed this election has upturned anold truth about the way Bihar polls. Thatit is no longer about Jaat or caste, thevote is for Vikaas or development. Hardlyone to dispute the remarkable transfor-mation underway in Bihar, led by Nitish,I would slightly modify that claim. The re-ality is more nuanced.

Nitish has revived Bihar's comatoseadministration, kickstarted schools and

hospitals, used the centre's money wellto build roads and infrastructure - publicgoods meant for all, they have indeedcreated a groundswell of support for himacross the state and across communi-ties. But what Nitish has also done is tar-get benefits to specific communities,based on caste: the EBC's or extremelybackward castes, numerically largeramong the backward castes but edgedout by the more powerful Yadavs andKurmis, have finally been given politicalspace through reservations in panchay-ats; Mahadalits, dalits minus chamarsand Paswans, for whom state largessenow ranges from subsidised homes tomonthly supply of bathing soap; even

among Muslims, Nitish has singled outthe Pasmanda or backward and dalitmuslims for special schemes like TalimiMarkaj, a scheme aimed to bring Muslimchildren to school.

This is social engineering, Nitishstyle. And it pays. It has created newvotebanks. Numerically, the most signifi-cant is the EBC bloc, 100 odd castesthat add up to around 30 % of Bihar'svote. In 2004, not a single EBC candi-date was voted to Parliament. In 2009,three will be sworn in as MPs, all threeare from Nitish's party.

Further proof of how caste realignedthis election - Lalu's outburst post de-feat. Two months ago, on poll eve, hedismissed my questions on the impact ofthe potential consolidation of the EBCand Mahadalit vote. But as his own elec-toral defeat from Pataliputra flashed onTV screens, he turned to the group ofjournalists and ranted : 'Everyone hasunited against Yadavs, there is hatredagainst Yadavs'. His other villains: theadministration for rigging the polls, anupper caste media for biased reporting.Familiar targets from the nineties.

This is social engineering,Nitish style. And it pays. Ithas created new votebanks.Numerically, the most signifi-cant is the EBC bloc, 100odd castes that add up toaround 30 % of Bihar’s vote.In 2004, not a single EBCcandidate was voted toParliament. In 2009, threewill be sworn in as MPs, allthree are from Nitish’s party.

MASTER STRATEGIST: ALL MOVES OF NITISH HAVE PAID OFF

Not suprising. But what was mildly stunning was Lalu's dis-missal of development as a factor. He said if Vikaas could winvotes, he would have won hands down for the turnaround of theRailways. He was emphatic : development does not win votes.It was scary to see a man stuck in the nineties.

Nitish, as expected, called for a press conference and walk-ing into 1, Anne Marg had a surprise in store : a mandatory se-curity check, at sharp contrast from the mad chaotic uncheckedstampede into Lalu's home. The security guards, includingwomen constables, were trained to frisk, but did not have thedetectors. Another insight into how Bihar is changing - step bystep.

The press conference took place under the mango tree, thesole unchanging landmark in a vastly different Chief MinisterialResidence. The briefing lasted twenty minutes and a beamingNitish Kumar repeated several times, the word 'Nakaraatmak',translated best as 'Negative', but far more potent in its origi-nal meaning. Nitish said voters had rejected the 'Nakaraatmak'approach of his opponents. Nitish reiterated that this was a voteagainst 'Nakaraatmak' politics. At final count, Nitish had usedthe word 10 times.

Nitish may have choosen the negative adjective, but his workhas been an affirmative one, both as the chief minister trying tobring governance back to Bihar, and as a politician schooled inthe politics of social justice.

The stream combines the socialist ideals of JayaprakashNarayan, and the modified socialism of Karpoori Thakur -Bihar's second backward caste chief minister and the first tointroduce reservations for OBCs in North India, way back in1978. Both Lalu and Nitish were claimants to this legacy. Butwhile Lalu squandered it, Nitish is building on it - by deepeningthe reach of reservations and social targeting. It is Mandal PartTwo. And like Mandal Part One, you could have a problem with

it, if you oppose affirmative action based on caste. Except, byfurther refining reservations, Nitish has actually taken on whathas been one of the prinicipal criticisms of Mandal - that ithelped dominant caste groups like Yadavs and Kurmis becomeeven more powerful, at the cost of the more backward and lesspowerful groups.

Lalu may have privately wished that Nitish's agenda wouldlead to a backlash from the upper castes, Yadavs and Kurmis -but it didn't. Possibly one explanation : even if the others areslightly resentful of reservations, the resentment is offset by thelarger benefits of a functioning state that has finally begun todeliver.

No wonder, at his press conference, Nitish didnt look partic-ularly crushed at the national picture of a UPA win, and an NDAdefeat. Instead, he asked the new government at the centre tolive up to the promise of special status for Bihar - just a day ago,every political party had shown a willingness to consider the de-mand when a hung verdict seemed likely and the support ofNitish seemed crucial.

Still beaming, Nitish wrapped up : Good that the electionsare over, now lets all get back to work.

Post Script: Observations overheard that day: RJD has be-come Rajput Janta Dal. Apart from Laloo, the other three RJDcandidates who won are Rajputs.

The election has ended the Raj of Gundas - Gundis. Gundasare dons turned politicians. Gundis are their wives, propped upas proxy candidates. All 10 of them lost. Including MunnaShukla on a JD U ticket.

A jubiliant Nitish however had one reason to be upset.Digvijay Singh, who is now no more , won from Banka seta de-feating Nitish's candidate. This setback could be crucial - inkeeping Nitish Kumar grounded. Bihar cannot afford another ar-rogant leader.

AROUND US


CONSENSUS MAN: NITISH HAVING A MEAL WITH HIS PARTYMEN AND ALLIANCE PARTNERS


BIZTALK

United States' PresidentBarack Obama's proposal toreform tax structure, scrap-ping incentives for Americancompanies outsourcing serv-

ices to other nations, has been lambast-ed as a protectionist move by Indianbusiness chambers. 'Say no toBangalore and yes to Buffalo,' seems tobe the latest mantra of United StatesPresident Barack Obama as he strugglesto bring the ailing American economyback on track.

Meeting one of his major electionpromises, Obama on Monday the an-nounced end of years of tax incentives tothose US companies which create jobsoverseas in places like Bangalore.Instead, the incentives would now go tothose creating jobs inside the US, inplaces like the Buffalo city -- bordering

Canada in upstate New York."We will stop letting American compa-

nies that create jobs overseas take de-ductions on their expenses when they donot pay any American taxes on their prof-

its," Obama said at White House an-nouncing the international tax policy re-form. Obama said he wants US compa-nies to remain most competitive in theworld. "But the way to make sure thathappens is not to reward our companiesfor moving jobs off our shores or trans-ferring profits to overseas tax havens,"he argued.

Announcing a set of proposals tocrack down on illegal overseas tax eva-sion, close loopholes, and make it moreprofitable for companies to create jobs inthe US, Obama said his series of tax re-forms would save $210 billion in the next10 years.

The impact of proposed tax reformson India, which has become a hub forglobal IT companies, might be marginal,said the National Association of Softwareand Service Companies (Nasscom). "

Announcing a set ofproposals to crack downon illegal overseas tax eva-sion, close loopholes, andmake it more profitable forcompanies to create jobs inthe US, Obama said his se-ries of tax reforms wouldsave $210 billion in the next10 years.

CLAMPING DOWN: BARACK OBAMA

OBAMA’SKILLERCODE

India Inc has come down heavily on US Prez’s protectionist policy

As far as India goes, global companiesthat earn profits here are subject to a taxrate of 33.9 per cent (including surchargeand cess) and the impact of the proposedreforms on them would be marginal. Thetax reforms announced yesterday haveonly been proposed and there will be ex-tended debate on them before they canbe implemented, as it requires existinglaws to be changed," it said in a writtenstatement. The chamber is still evaluatingthe likely impact of the tax proposal.

India Inc believes the move by theBarack Obama administration to reducetax breaks for US firms that ship jobsoverseas will hit Ameri can companiesmore than impact on the Indian outsourc-ing industry.

"It's a more US-US issue rather thanone aimed at stopping outsourcing, or off-shoring, or anything to do with India," saidSom Mittal, president of the NationalAssociation of Software and ServiceCompanies (Nasscom), a representativebody for the industry.

"If you look at Indian companies oper-ating in the US, or elsewhere, they workthere and pay taxes there. Hence, it is notabout stopping outsourcing, or offshoring,but just to collect taxes," Mittal said.

His comments came after PresidentBarack Obama said on Monday that thecurrent US tax system gave US-basedmultinationals that shipped jobs to placeslike India an unfair advantage over otherdomestic rivals and wanted correctivesteps.

"It's a tax code that says you shouldpay lower taxes if you create a job inBangalore, India, than if you create one inBuffalo, New York," Obama said, explain-ing why he intended to close tax loopholesand crackdown on overseas tax havens.

"I want to see our companies remainthe most competitive in the world. But theway to make sure that happens is not toreward our companies for moving jobs offour shores or transferring profits to over-seas tax havens."

According to a McKinsey-Nasscomstudy, the Indian software and outsourc-ing industry employs some two millionpeople, earning total revenues worth $52billion, of which nearly $48 billion comesfrom exports.

The Confederation of Indian Industryalso felt that the remarks were more inthe nature of posturing and that it was notintended at curbing outsourcing of work byUS firms to Indian companies. "It's an in-ternal issue. It will only reduce their com-petitiveness," said Hari Bhartia, vice pres-ident of the chamber. "It is a populist pos-ture. Perhaps his (Obama's) intentionwas not the same. However, it sends a

wrong message." Joining the chorus, another industry

body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)said that even though the move was ex-pected, the developed world should notresort to protectionism in recessionarytimes as it might not help the recoveryprocess. "The US is going through a deeprecession, and we understand the stepstaken by them to rewrite their tax code.However, the CII does not want protec-tionism to be the order of the day," saidsecretary-general Chandrajit Banerji. Infact, an early economic recovery in the USwould help both the nations, given that

India was a net investor in the US,Banerjee added.

Meanwhile, Federation of IndianChambers of Commerce and Industry(Ficci) termed the proposed move a retro-grade step, forcing business concerns totake measures to restrict their economicactivities in one region and not in the oth-er. "In any case, several US corporationshave come and set up operations in Indiabecause of the several advantages ourcountry has to offer. Our large and grow-ing market, large pool of skilled manpow-er, reasonable labour costs make invest-ing in India an attractive proposition.While this move would certainly havesome impact on US investments abroadand into India, in the long run this wouldonly run counter to the interest of US cor-porations desirous of cost-efficient oper-ations across the globe," said Ficci presi-dent Harsh Pati Singhania.

The delegation was told the "BuyAmerica" clause or moves to reduce thetax breaks for US companies that createjobs offshore was neither intended forIndia nor impact its software and out-sourcing industry.

Infosys Technologies, India's secondlargest software and outsourcing compa-ny, also felt that the US proposal wasaimed at closing corporate tax loopholesand crack down on overseas tax havens.

BIZTALK


As far as India goes, globalcompanies that earn profitshere are subject to a taxrate of 33.9 per cent (in-cluding surcharge andcess) and the impact of theproposed reforms on themwould be marginal. The taxreforms have only beenproposed and there will bedebate on them before theycan be implemented


MONEY MATTERS

MEGAMURGERBlackRock snares BGI in blockbuster$13.5 billion deal.Takeover will create

world’s biggest asset manager

John Letzing & Simon Kennedy (MarketWatch)

BlackRock Inc. agreed to buy BarclaysGlobal Investors in a $13.5 billion cash-and-shares deal that will create theworld's largest asset manager. Under theterms of the deal, in exchange for 37.8 million

shares and $6.6 billion in cash. The deal trumps an earlier agreement for Barclays to sell just

the iShares exchange-traded-funds business of BGI to privateequity group CVC Capital and will give the U.K. bank a 19.9%stake in the enlarged business, to be called BlackRock GlobalInvestors.

"As one, BlackRock and BGI will have a world-class productoffering across the risk spectrum," BlackRock said in a state-ment.The New York investment firm, which was founded in1988, is no stranger to blockbuster mergers.

The group has been expanding in recentyears through acquisitions, and in 2006, itsnapped up Merrill Lynch InvestmentManagers for $9.6 billion.

Bank of America Corp. which has ac-quired Merrill Lynch, holds a sizeable stakein BlackRock, as does PNC FinancialServices Group Inc.

The BGI deal will lift BlackRock's assetsunder management to around $2.8 trillion,making it comfortably the world's biggestasset manager.

Barclays and BlackRock confirmed thatthey were in talks over a deal, though oth-er bidders had also been in the running un-til recently, including, reportedly, Bank ofNew York Mellon.

The talks came afterBarclays in April agreed tosell just the iShares busi-ness to CVC Capital for$4.4 billion. That deal in-cluded a "go-shop"

clause that gave Barclays until June 18 tofind a better offer.CVC now has five days to match theBlackRock offer, otherwise the private equity group will be paida break fee of around $180 million.

Although the deal talks between BlackRock and Barclayswere spurred by the CVC deal, Barclays' CEO John Varley toldjournalists that they had previously discussed a sale years ago-- around the start of the decade.

A sale of the lucrative, San Francisco-based Barclays GlobalInvestors and its iShares unit will help Barclays strengthen itscapital base after the U.K. lender decided against acceptingany government aid.

Barclays said in a statement that thesale will lift its core Tier 1 capital ratio byaround 1.5 percentage points.

Varley said that will make it "one of thebest capitalized banks in the world."

Barclays' President Bob Diamondadded that the sale will allow the group'sBarclays Capital investment banking armto do more business with the fund man-ager. Previously BarCap had been re-stricted in the deals it could do for BGI be-cause they were part of the same group,he noted.

Both Diamond and Varley will also getseats on the board of BlackRock.

"The ability to offer BlackRock's glob-al mutual funds alongside iShares will

The BGI deal will lift

BlackRock’s assets under

management to around $2.8

trillion, making it comfortably

the world’s biggest asset

manager.

Barclays and BlackRock

confirmed that they were in

talks over a deal...

create an unmatched ability to tailor port-folios for retail investors," BlackRocksaid. Shares has over $300 billion in as-sets under management in more than350 funds worldwide. "IShares is a rap-

idly growing business, ranking among thetop three selling mutual fund and ETF fam-ilies for the last three years," BlackRocksaid. Wall Street analysts have generallyissued favorable opinions about the an-

ticipated tie-up between BlackRock andBarclays, noting that a combined firmwould likely be able to cut a significantamount of overlapping costs following amerger.

MONEY MATTERS


V l a d i m i r G u e v a r r a

UK bank Barclays PLC (BCS) said Friday it will be one of themost capitalized banks in the world following the sale ofits Barclays Global Investors unit to BlackRock Inc. (BLK),

a move that distances it further from the need for emergencyfunding from the U.K. government.

"I don't have any worries over our capital position," BarclaysChief Executive John Varley said after the bank announced it wasselling BGI for $13.5 billion(GBP8.2 billion). Under the termsof the deal it will get a 19.9% inter-est in BlackRock and GBP4 billionin cash.

"You can do the sums your-selves. If you look at the core Tier1 ratio, the Tier 1 ratio and the eq-uity ratio following the completionof the proposed transaction, thenBarclays will be one of the mostcapitalized banks in the world,"Varley said.

Barclays said Friday that theBlackRock deal would add 150 ba-sis points to its core Tier 1 ratio,which measures the level of equityheld against risky assets, raising itto a pro forma 8% at the end of2008.

This brings Barclay's core Tier 1ratio in line with those of its U.K.competitors. Standard CharteredPLC's (STAN.LN) core Tier 1 ratioat end-2008 was 7.6%. HSBCHoldings PLC's (HBC) at March 318.6%. Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) rose to 14.5% from 6.4%after it took part in the U.K. government's asset protectionscheme. Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) saw its end-2008 ratio grow to 12.4% from 7%, also due to the governmentscheme.

Varley said the diversification of the bank's businesses won'tchange much despite the sale of BGI. Some observers havesaid that the sale could make Barclays' earnings more volatile.

"Our income resilience is based on a broadly diversified busi-ness. We are progressing the structure of the group in this trans-action but the base points of considerable diversification hasnot much changed as a result of this transaction," Varley said.

Still, he admitted there would be some shift in the company'ssource of income.

"If you look at the percentage of our total income which wouldbe attributable to the net interest income going forward, sort ofbanking broadly defined ... (there is) a small single-digit numberpercentage point shift towards net interest income and awayfrom fees and commissions as a result of this transaction," hesaid.

At 1000 GMT, Barclays shares were down 2.8% at 296 pencewhile the FTSE100 index was down 0.15%.

Shore Capital Stockbrokers analysts said the amount offeredfor BGI is fair in the current business environment. They said abidding war with CVC Capital Partners is unlikely but would pro-vide further support for Barclays' stock if it were to happen.

"Supported by a stabilizing economic outlook and stress testclearance, the transaction and associated capital uplift wouldboost our confidence that Barclays can survive without furtheremergency capital restructuring," it said, keeping its hold rating

on the stock. Barclays said CVC, which previ-

ously had a deal to buy BGI'siShares division for GBP3 billion,has until next Thursday to matchor better the BlackRock offer. Aperson close to the company saidFriday it was unlikely to do so.

BlackRock President RobertKapito said the combinedBlackRock and BGI group has 18%of its combined assets in Asia andthat he doesn't foresee massivelayoffs in that region because Asiaremains a growth area for the com-pany.

Until a few months ago,Barclays had described BGI aspart of its core business. Varleysaid this changed as the companystudied how changing regulations,customer preferences and the col-lapse of Lehman Brothers has ledother companies to merge theirasset management businesses.

Varley said Kapito andBlackRock Chairman Laurence Fink met him and BarclaysPresident Robert Diamond a few years ago to talk about a com-bination of their businesses.

"It didn't feel right at that time. But when they came back ear-lier this year, we had the dialogue. This is the fruit of that dia-logue. We feel very confident that this is the optimized structurefor the investment management business for the next 20years," he said.

Diamond noted that based on the performance of the 50largest asset managers in the world in the past 10 years, inde-pendent managers saw their assets grow twice the rate ofgrowth from bank-owned asset managers.

"The reason is clear. It's increasingly difficult for a bank likeBarclays or any other bank to have a top tier position in institu-tional investment banking and (at the same time) in institution-al investment management," Diamond said.

Dow Jones Newswires. +44 (0) 20 7842 9486,

[email protected] (Andrea Tryphonides and Marietta Cauchi contributed to this item.)

ONE OF THE MOST CAPITALISED BANKS


ENTERTAINMENT

Fit & Hit

Reema Sarin has multi-faceted skills as an Actor, Model,Anchor & BOLLYFIT Dancer/Choreographer based inIndia. Reema has an MBA from University of California,

Berkeley, Associate Degree in Marketing & Merchandising fromThe Fashion Institute of Technology, New York and a Master ofArts in Spanish Philology and Hispanic Studies from JawaharlalNehru University, New Delhi. She also received a Diploma inSpanish Literature and Language from the University ofComplutense,Spain. She is a US certified fitness consultant,an avid traveller, music lover and a reader. Her interests alsoinclude sports, dancing and writing 'Urdu' poetry.

Reema is a leading Fitness Dancer & Choreographer in thecountry, with international experience and training in theFitness Industry in the US and in South East Asia (includingAustralia).

She has conceptualized and launched her 'BOLLYFIT' DanceProgram, which is a fusion of scintillating and sophisticatedbollywood and fitness dance moves, which are carefully syn-chronized to popular bollywood music. It's the only one of itskind fitness dance choreography which gives you the amazingthrill of bollywood dancing along with the fun combinationof international dance aerobics, step dance aerobicand cardio kick boxing moves to your favorite fastpaced bollywood music of speeds between 130- 140 beats per minute (bpms)! Reema has or-ganized Fitness Dance Shows, including atthe Youth Nexus Festival', sponsored byHT City in Delhi, 'Dublin Night-Club' inDelhi, 'FBAR(renameda s

' V e n o mLounge') inHyderabad, amongst others.

As one of the leading Group FitnessInstructors and founder of the 'BOLLYFIT'

Program in India, has been a pioneer of FitnessDancing in India. Representing The International

Fitness Group in India, she is a certified FitnessInstructor, trained initially by the American FitnessCompany & Aerobics Group, 'USA Shape'. As oneof the leading Fitness Consultants in the country,she has international experience and training in theFitness Industry in the US (New York with Bally's

Jack Lalane and with the California Fitness Group, in

South East Asia (Singapore) and in Australia. In addition,Reema has done certification courses at multiple Reebok

Workshops and Conventions on 'Healthy Living'and 'Nutritional Benefits' program from, USA.

Reema has launched the BOLLYFITProgram' as a motivational fitness dance pro-gram to different corporate companies,

Hotels (Taj Group, Four Seasons Group)and Resorts all over India, for net-worth

individuals, includingce l eb r i t i es .

R e e m ah a sbeeni n -

s t r u -mental in pro-

moting fitness in, as well as in intro-ducing and promoting BOLLFIT groupfitness workouts in all the premierFitness Clubs and Gyms in the country,including at The American School.

Reema has showcased the 'BOLLYFIT'programs, on all the prime TV channels inthe country, including STAR, ZEE, Aaj Tak,CNBC (Goodlife Program), 'Raat Baki' onNDTV (Fitness Parties), as well as given in-terviews to the mainline dailies, lifestyle andfitness publications and magazines.

Reema Sarin is a multi-facetedentertainment wizard

ENTERTAINMENT


ACTING

t Reema recently acted in 'Bhoomi', a play by Director YasinKhan, Indu Arts & Film Society; and other s with DirectorRajesh Babbar and Director Sanjay Kalsi.t She has done acting courses at The National School ofDrama, The New York Film Academy, Berkeley RepertorySchool of theatre and San Francisco Acting Academy.t TV Serials 'Balaji Telefilm' Serialst Played the role of the sophisticated 'Star Anchor' for theopening episode of their serial 'K Street Pali Hill.t Played multiple character roles in the serials, namely,'Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki'; 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi';'Kesar and 'Karma'.t Done a variety of character roles on stage and theatre inNew York, San Francisco and Singapore, including Organic andMethod Acting and Voice Training courses, amongst others.

DANCING AND CHOREOGRAPHY

t Performed in the MTV-PNC (Pritish Nandy Communications)Music Video Promo, aired recently on MTV. t Did a BOLLYFIT performance and was honored at theAnnual Day of the DRDO (Defense Research Organization ofIndia)t Staged a BOLLYFIT show at the 'Youth Nexus Festival' onbehalf of Reebok and sponsored by the Hindustan Times,t Trained in Flamenco Dancing, Jazz and Modern Dance atArthur Murray Dance Studios in New York, SanFrancisco and Delhi School of Music.t Performed in and Choreographed BOL-LYFIT music videos.

MODELING & COMPERING

t Reema is one of India's firstFitness Models. She has alsomodeled in Ad films for theJaypee Group, BP SpacerChocolates, Pace FurnitureGroup, Reebok Fitness Clubs,amongst others. Reema wasalso recently featured as afitness model in the newlaunch issue of Debonair,May 2009

ANCHOR & TV SHOWS

t Reema was selected as theAnchor at the festival'Kaleidoscope', sponsored byAirtel, held in Mumbai, as well asin the past for other corporatemultinational company events world-wide.t Compeered corporate events globally,some of which includes -

t The ‘FICCI Women's Club Meet' inHyderabad, December 2008, attended by

known personalities including PerizaadZorabian.t The ‘AppLabs Business UpdateMeet' and Show, October 2008.t The FXLabs 'Dance Challenge'Press Conference and Show,September 2008.t Press Conference and Galaevening event for the prestigiousJain Housing Group, August2008, Hyderabad.

AppLabs and FXLabs PressConferences and EmployeeEvents, 2008 - 2007 in Indiat ‘ Tech Senate 2007' by the

Indian Express Group in Pattaya,Thailandt Bentley and Lamborghini Press &

Gala Launch events in India, 2007 -2008

t Press and Employee Events and Galashows for FreeMarkets (now Ariba) globally,

2001 -2003.

MANY FACES


HEALTH

Know your heart betterfor peace in lifeH

eart is an engine of body, re-cent medical advancementshave offered tremendous infor-mation about the organ to fa-cilitate better living, here is an

attempt by Dr Kaul to guide people with spe-cific information about heart and related tech-nical terms used commonly.

What is bypass surgery?

This surgery is done to by-pass clogged ar-teries supplying blood to the heart. It createsa 'bypass' around the blocked part of a coro-nary artery to restore the blood supply to theheart muscle. The surgery is called CoronaryArtery Bypass Grafting, or CABG. Commonlyknown as bypass surgery.

Why is it done?

Coronary arteries are blood vessels thatsupply the heart muscle with oxygen and

nutrients. Fats and cholesterol can ac-cumulate inside these arteries, and

the arteries can gradually be-come clogged. (This buildup

of fat and cholesterol

plaque is called atherosclerosis). Whenone or more of the coronary arteries be-comes partially or totally blocked, theheart does not get an adequate blood sup-ply. This is called ischaemic heart diseaseor coronary artery disease (CAD). It cancause heart pain (angina) or a heart attack(myocardial infarction). The first symptomof CAD may be a heart attack (myocardialinfarction).

Coronary artery bypass surgery is one ofthe treatment options for ishcaemic heartdisease (too little blood reaching the heartmuscle). Bypass surgery is indicated for dis-ease of the left main coronary artery diseaseor multiple blockages in one or more arteries.It is also done for a failure of nonsurgical man-agement. Nonsurgical management includesmedication and/or angioplasty.

How is the surgery done?

After the patient is anesthetised and be-comes unconscious, the surgeon makesan incision in the middle of the chestand separates the breastbone.Through this incision, the surgeoncan see the heart and aorta

HEALTH


(the main blood vessel leading from the heart to therest of the body). After surgery, the breastbone is re-joined with wires and the incision is closed.

If a vein from the leg is to be used for the bypass,an incision is made in the leg and the saphenous veinremoved by another surgeon operating simultaneously.This vein is located on the inside of the leg running fromthe ankle to the groin. It normally does only about 10% ofthe work of circulating blood from the leg back to the heart.Therefore, it can be taken out without harming the patientor adversely affecting the leg. It is common for the legfrom which the vein is taken to swell slightly during re-covery from the surgery, but this is only temporary andtreated with elevation of the leg, and special stockings.

Alternatively the internal mammary artery (IMA) canalso be used for the graft. This has the advantage of stay-ing open for many more years than the vein grafts, butthere are some situations in which it cannot be used.Other arteries are also now being used in bypass surgery.The most common other artery used is the radial artery. Thisis one of the two arteries that supply the hand with blood. Itcan usually be removed from the arm without any impairmentof blood supply to the hand.

In the traditional surgery, the patient is connected to theheart-lung machine, or bypass pump, which adds oxygen to theblood and circulates blood to other parts of the body during thesurgery. This is necessary because the heart muscle must bestopped before the graft can be done. One end of the graft isstitched to an opening below the blockage in the coronary ar-tery. If the grafted vein is from the leg or the radial artery, itsother end is stitched to an opening made in the aorta. If thegrafted vessel is the mammary artery, its other end is alreadyconnected to the aorta.

The entire surgery usually takes four to six hours. After thesurgery, the patient is kept in the Intensive Care Unit. For a fewdays after the surgery, the patient is connected to monitors andtubes. Other techniques to do this surgery are used more andmore frequently. One popular method is to avoid the use of theheart-lung machine. This is called off-pump coronary artery by-pass or OPCAB. This operation allows the bypass to be createdwhile the heart is still beating. The advantage being a quickerrecovery and fewer complication especially in elderly patientsand in patients with problem like kidney failure and previousbrain strokes etc.

What are the risks of surgery?l Heart attack can occur during 5% of these surgeriesl Stroke can also occur in 5% of these surgeries (the risk isgreatest in those over 70 years old)l Blood clots in legs and their migration to lungs.l Death may occur in 1-2% of those who have the surgery (95-98% have no serious complications)l Wound infection may occur in 1-4% of these surgeries. Thiscomplication is most often associated with obesity, diabetes, ora previous CABG. l The incision in the chest or the graft site (if the graft was fromthe leg or arm) can be itchy, sore, numb, or bruisedl The complications are affected by the following factors:l Age - patients over 70 years old are at a slightly higher risk forcomplications l Gender - women have a slightly higher risk l Previous heart surgery puts a person at a higher risk l Having another serious medical condition (such as diabetes,peripheral vascular disease, kidney disease, or lung disease)adds to the risk for complications.

What to expect after surgery?In the majority of people who have the surgery, the grafts re-

main open and functioning for 10 to 15 years. CABG improvesblood flow to the heart but does not prevent the eventual recur-rence of coronary blockage. Lifestyle changes are necessary -such as not smoking, improved diet, regular exercise, and treat-ing high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

After the operation, the patient spends 5-7 days in the hos-pital, with the first few days in an intensive-care unit (ICU). In theICU, heart function is monitored continuously. Patients may re-quire the temporary assistance of a breathing tube for a fewhours after surgery. Two to three tubes in the chest drain fluidfrom around the heart and are usually removed one to threedays after surgery. A urinary catheter in the bladder drains urineuntil the patient is able to void on his own. When constant mon-itoring is no longer needed, usually within 12-24 hours, the pa-tient is moved to a regular care unit. Activity is gradually re-sumed and the patient and the incision in the chest does notbother most people after the first 48-72 hours. After surgery, ittakes 4-6 weeks to start feeling better.

During recovery it is normal to have:l A poor appetite - it will take several weeks for it to returnl Swelling in the leg if the graft was taken from the legl Difficulty sleeping at night - this improves with time l Constipationl Mood swings and feel depressed - this will get betterl Difficulty with short-term memory or feel confused - this alsoimproves with time.

The full benefits from the operation may not be apparent un-til 3-6 months after surgery. Sexual activities may be resumed4 weeks after surgery. All activities that do not cause fatigue arepermitted, and the schedule for resuming normal activities is de-termined by the doctor.

— Dr U Kaul Director,

Interventional Cardiology & Cardiac ElectrophysiologyBatra Hospital & Medical Research Centre, New Delhi

What kindof re-s e a r c hh a v ey o u

done for your rolein the film"New York"since the firsthalf you look allcheerful and hap-py whereas in thesecond half the seri-ous mode takes over?

The research actuallystarted accidently when Iand Kabir were doing 'Kabul Express'.We met a lot of people out inAfghanistan, Pakistan and also met alot of Talibans. I watched a lot of Kabir'sdocumentaries and we tried to under-stand the concept of Jihaad if I may sayso. We tried to understand why theworld looks at certain communities in acertain manner and vice versa. We havealways tried to maintain that New Yorkis not a jingoistic America film but havebeen very biased about whatever wehave portrayed in the film. In terms ofmy character I have stuck to my direc-tor's brief as what I am supposed to do,where I am supposed to and the thoughtprocess I have to take. I have simply fol-lowed orders. We have just made an

NNeeww YYoorrkkwill be aunique movie experiencefor Indian audience

ENTERTAINMENT

John Abrahamon his latest

flick

ENTERTAINMENT


honest and a simple film. We heard that you took your role very seriously and went

into a shell especially in the second half of the film to justifyyour character?

Honestly during the shoot we enjoyed every day. I didn't gointo any kind of shell except for the last three-four days whereKabir wanted me to take that portion of the film very seriously.We have had a great time during the shoot.

You have studied the Quran while filming for the movie "NewYork". Why was that study required?

Kabir actually gave me some insights about Quran and howsome of it is interpreted at times by certain people for their ownbenefit. That is something we went through in detail before westarted filming for "New York" in terms of character sketch. Butthat is just a kind of backdrop for my character as we had tobuild a character history for my character. That was just an in-dividual thing done and not to make a serious research basedfilm.

Kabir made you do some edgy stuff during your first film to-gether and we believe you have done some stunts for "NewYork" as well. What made you do that those stunts?

When we went to New York and Philadelphia, Kabir lookedaround at the buildings and I said that this was not dangerousenough for him. I think he made up for it by sending me down aforty six storey building. But the strange part of the shoot wasthat once you come down you can't go back up. I had to go tothe ground floor once up there. When I reached the twentiethstorey, the unit went in to pack up and move location and I re-alized I was all on my own.

What is the storyline of the film "New York"?Sam is a typical American jock. The story is about three

friends. An incident takes place which is 9/11. After that howtheir lives change is a brief on the story.

"New York" is your second film with Kabir Khan. What kindof development as a director have you seen in him?

Kabir is a brilliant director. I remember I had told him whileshooting for 'Kabul Express' that he will win a National Awardfor it and he won it. I feel he will win an award for this film aswell and I can't be wrong.

How was it for you shooting for the film?I felt very nice. We shot in New York first and then we went to

Philadelphia as well. It was great shooting there. It was greatworking with Neil, Katrina and even Ir fan Khan who is the prin-cipal character. After watching the film people will realize thestrength of everyone's performance. Everyone is absolutelywonderful in the film and the film is a very commercial thriller.

What parts of the film do you like the most?Well I like the climax of the film and the second half of the film

is brilliant. I have liked them.Tell us something about the music of the film?The music of the film is great. My favourite is "Sam's Theme"

which I think is beautiful. 'Hai Junoon' has become a popularnumber. I am just waiting for the film to release. The audiencewants a good film and we hope "New York" is that film.

Do you have any interesting experiences or any anecdotesthat you want to share?

The best on the set experience was when I was coming downthe forty six storey building during the presidential elections andObama was passing from below. So I was stuck around the twen-tieth floor for about two hours with the breeze blowing and flyingaround buildings. But I felt like Spider Man. So it was great.

What is the USP of the film?The USP is a combination of a lot of things. Kabir Khan has

directed it, Yash Raj productions and brilliant actors in the film.Audience exactly knows when one is giving a good film or a notso good film. So let the audiences decide but the film is a sen-sible film.

Mumbai Bureau arrangement courtesy movietalkies


AIAI NEWS

The victory of Manmohan Singh led Congress governmentwill have a task in hand to prepare budget in order tokeep political and business constituencies happy. Theglobal recession have made the task of coming up with a

reformist budget more difficult. AIAI have listed short, mediumand long term strategies for India Inc.

The country is emerging from a closed economy and it is in atransition phase. The mindset is changing but it has not perco-lated to lower levels of administration. The intensity of economicslowdown has become evident with three key sectors (Agriculture, Industry & Services ) decelerating sharply. The fis-cal deficit is out of control. Consumer spending and investorconfidence is at low ebb. The Central and many StateGovernments are facing near bankruptcy. The Financial sectoris facing a crisis of confidence with key institutions in the redand the fear of the midnight knock by investigating agencieslooming large.

The investment climate must be brightened up. The All IndiaAssociation of Industries (AIAI) feels that imaginative policiesand programmes are needed to motivate industrial and agricul-tural growth, in the absence of which, a 9% growth rate remainsan illusory target and at best an average growth rate of merely5% can be achieved. AIAI feels that both short-term and long-term measures are needed for this purpose. The strongest fac-tor in favors of India incorporated is $ 44 billion in foreign ex-change reserves.

SHORT TERM MEASURESThe government must initiate immediate measures to curb

the Inspector Raj with a firm hand. A lower tax regime will en-able larger collections and compliance. At present nearly 78%of taxes are paid by the Industrial sector alone. This makes itimperative to spread the tax burden evenly over the entire econ-omy. There is possibility of raising significant revenue from serv-ices. The government and the private sector must become equalpartners in the development process. There must be no further

delay in the disinvestments process so that additional funds canbe raised to boost economic growth. There is a distinct defi-ciency of demand led growth. It is learnt that an estimatedRs.50,000 crores is lying unutilized by different governmentministries.

17 out of 28 states are near bankrupt. Maharashtra is one ofthem. The question is whether the money is there. Earlier evenin fiscal crisis, expenditure was undertaken. Is it that the gov-ernment machinery has collapsed, or there is no money. The fi-nance ministry is clueless. Everyone is clueless. The center andthe state must also collaborate to draw up a national agenda tospur demand in all sectors. The government is feeling the pinchof the cash crunch. It has therefore resorted to indiscriminatetax search and seizures and is trying to grab money.

On the other hand, it is feasible to bring down taxes to 20%and declare new disclosure laws so that black money genera-tion and evasion is wiped out. In addition, the business senti-ment must be improved through innovative policies to encour-age investment. Further, lowering of the tax burden will improveconsumer spending. Reducing taxes will bring more money forinvestment and productive activities. Incentives can be consid-ered for investment in industrial growth. Another alternative canbe to reduce taxes and do away with incentives. An excise cutfrom 16% to 10% or even below to 5% will benefit an estimated100 crore consumers and result in consumer demand for cheap-er and more affordable goods. It is necessary to create opti-mism and demand for consumption led growth. There must beimmediate implementation of a uniform value added tax. Harddecisions are called for in hard times. We must chose betweentax cuts or investments. In trying to find the golden mean, Indiamust let the world know that it is in a better position than mostdeveloping countries to become a global player. Modern man-agement practices have enabled Indian companies to do well.India has the largest pool of trained and technical manpower.Inflation and the exchange rate are stable.

Diplomatic and trade mission must launch a massive mediablitz and road shows to attract global attention that India is stillthe most attractive investment destination. Indian industry andtrade must brace themselves to move out of the transitionphase even as the economy is restructured through second-gen-eration reforms to remove the gloom and crisis of confidence.The perceived change in mindset must percolate to all levelsand embrace all sectors The experience of other country showsthat during the great depression, expenditure was stepped upto build infrastructure and provide housing. (TO BE CONTD)

IN SADDLE: MANMOHAN SINGH

India has amajor role in global

economy -AIAI

ZUMA INCLUDES SIX PIOs IN HIS CABINET

President Jacob Zuma of South Africahas included six South Africans ofIndian origin in his cabinet. The new

ministers in the over 40-member cabinetare as follows:

Pravin Gordhan, as finance minister.Pravin has been commissioner of theSouth African Revenue Service (SARS)since 1999; Ebrahim Patel, Minister ofEconomic Development. He was generalsecretary of the South African Clothing andTextile Workers Union ; Ebrahim IsmailEbrahim, Deputy Minister of ForeignAffairs; Roy Padaychee, Deputy Ministerof Public Service and Administration; EnverSurty, Deputy Minister of Basic Education;Yunus Carrim, Deputy Minister of LocalGovernment and Traditional Affairs.

MALAYSIA TO RELEASETHREE HINDRAF ACTIVISTS

The Malaysian government is to soonrelease the remaining three leaders ofthe banned Hindu Rights Action Force

(HINDRAF) jailed since December 2007 forholding a protest rally, officials said.

Held under the stringent InternalSecurity Act (ISA), M. Manoharan, P.Uthayakumar and K. Vasantha Kumar willbe released "in the next few days", TheStar newspaper said. They are among 13people to be released soon, it said, quotingHome Minister Hishammuddin TunHussein.

The release of the three Hindraf leaderscomes after two other leaders - V.Ganabatirau and R. Kengadharan - werefreed April 4, the day Prime Minister NajibTun Razak took office.

GOPIO NEWS


NOOYIAMONGBEST US

CEOs

Praising them for"being forth-right and

t r anspa r en twith share-holders", amagazine hasnamed threeI nd i a - o r i g i nchief execu-tives - IndraNooyi, FranciscoD'Souza and RamaniAyer among the best CEOs in theUS.

Soft drinks maker PepsiCo'sNooyi, IT services majorCognizant Technology Solutions'D'Souza and insurance entityHartford Financial Services'Ramani Ayer have made the cutin the list of '2009 America'sBest CEOs' compiled by US-based Institutional Investor mag-azine.

According to the publication,these top-ranked CEOs scorehigh marks for "being forthrightand transparent with sharehold-ers and smart with their compa-nies' balance sheets.

In a packed ballroom at the Italian Center in Stamford onApril 26, GOPIO Connecticut honored and celebrated a sci-entist, a musician and a mayor for their achievements and

contributions to the community - Dr. Priyamvada Natarajan,Associate Professor at Yale University; Dan Malloy, Mayor ofStamford; and Dr. Ajay Kapur, Director of Music Technology atCalifornia Institute for the Arts.

The elegant maroon and gold themed event which includeda cocktail reception, dinner, fusion dance performances by lo-cal artists and music, was attended by nearly 250 Indian-American community leaders, supporters and public officials -including Mr. Praveen Kumar from the Indian Consulate in NewYork, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and State SenatorToni Boucher. Also attending were long time sponsor StamfordHospital, HSBC and Joe Mathew Kavumpurath of BarnumFinancial.

In welcoming the guests, Sangeeta Ahuja, President of GO-PIO-CT said, "we salute the 2009 awardees. They have en-

riched our lives and the community we live in with their dedi-cation, contributions and the passion for what they do andhave accomplished." She urged members of the community tobecome involved by volunteering and creating an ongoing dia-logue with the local communities.

Ravi S. Dhingra who emceed the colorful event and chairedthe 2009 Awards Committee added "in addition to recognizingthe best and the brightest, the Awards Banquet which is nowin its third year, has become a premier event - it brings thecommunity together, inspires others and creates a lot of pos-itive energy.

The 2009 "Indian-American Achiever Award" went to Dr.Priyamvada Natarajan, Associate Professor of Astronomy &Physics at Yale University. She shared with the audience herrecent discovery with a collaborator of an upper mass limit forblack holes in the universe. She also recently received aGuggenheim Fellowship which she said "is very exciting; it willhelp me devote more time to my research projects."

SEVEN INDO-CANADIANS ELECTEDTO BRITISH COLUMBIA ASSEMBLY

Seven Canadians of Indian origin out of sixteen who contested election for the 79-member British Columbia assembly, have been elected. There was no increase inthe number of Indian-origin legislators and most of them retained their seats.

Indian Canadians constitute more than five percent of the population of British Columbiaof 4.4 million, and Punjabi is the third largest spoken language in the province.

Wally Oppal, British Columbia's attorney-general and virtually number two in the cab-inet was re-elected. He was born and educated in Canada and was British ColumbiaSupreme Court judge prior to joining politics in 2005. Oppal is expected to retain his cab-inet position.

Another high ranking Indian Canadian elected is Kash (Kashmir) Heed who held a highprofile position as the chief of West Vancouver Police. He is likely to become the nextsolicitor general of British Columbia.

GOPIO-CT HONOURS ACHIEVERS

Documents

A MONTHLY NEWS MAGAZINE · 2020. 8. 30. · Shiva, the first yogi (Adi Yogi), is said to have begun imparting the knowledge of yoga to the rest of mankind on this day, and became