E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Middlemen to the fore
Movement and storage of foodgrains will be free from licensing restrictions after a few weeks. And this will gladden the hearts of the several layers of middlemen. And conversely, it will pose a threat to the growers and consumers in the days to come.

Some selloff, this!
Much of the praise being showered on the government’s “successful” disinvestment of VSNL and IBP is misplaced. That it is free from the kind of controversy that surrounded the BALCO selloff is welcome as also the greater transparency visible this time.

Will warmth follow thaw?
Not quite unexpectedly, the USA has maintained parity in military assistance to India and Pakistan for the war against terrorism. Both will be getting identical $ 50 million each. But when it comes to overall development assistance, the scales are clearly tilted in favour of Islamabad. 

OPINION

Complex issue of “de-escalation”
New Delhi’s reasons to opt for delay
Inder Malhotra
It is more than obvious that, of late, Indian opinion on the continuance of the massive military mobilisation in relation to Pakistan has been divided rather sharply. There has been a definite accretion of the views in support of lowering the tensions by withdrawing the troops from their forward positions along the Line of Control and the border.

IN THE NEWS

New lease of life for Tagore’s works
Ever since the expiry of copyright on the Nobel laureate and poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore’s literary works, there has been a mad rush among publishers in Kolkata and elsewhere to lay their hands on his contributions and publish them with a view to spreading Tagore’s message of humanism, internationalism, respect for all religions, rejection of material values and promotion of universal peace and brotherhood.

• Jathedar meets Pope

• Sikhs’ pride

Loftiness of ideas endures
Darshan Singh Maini
The feeling of the sublime in human beings is as natural as the breezes from beyond, or as the fragrance of the roses in bloom. It’s something natural, intuitive and universal. And there are moments in one’s life when one feels a touch of the sublime suddenly, unawares.

Ph.D: the highest degree easily manageable
B. L. Chakoo
The pious fraud of doing doctoral research in our universities (particularly the ones which, ironically enough, have now been designated as universities of excellence) has not only been successful but has also been recognised for what it is.

A CENTURY OF NOBELS

1994, Physics: BROCKHOUSE & SHULL

Gene that might help people live longer discovered
Drugs that help people live longer might just be on the horizon, thanks to scientists who have identified a gene called 'Methuselah’ — a stretch of DNA that confers healthy old age, reports The Guardian newspaper.

• High-fat dairy products lead to diabetes

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Middlemen to the fore

Movement and storage of foodgrains will be free from licensing restrictions after a few weeks. And this will gladden the hearts of the several layers of middlemen. And conversely, it will pose a threat to the growers and consumers in the days to come. This is the initial reaction to the Tuesday Cabinet decision to radically reform the Essential Commodities Act to allow free trade in foodgrains, edible oil and sugar in a new list of deregulated items. A pessimistic note is needed to the recent statements of Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Public Distribution System Shanta Kumar. He wants the government to withdraw from the procurement process and allow arhtias full play. In theory it is acceptable but in practice it has several harmful elements. One, the Indian market is undeveloped and there are several layers of brokers who jointly hike the price denying any benefit to producers and consumers. This is painfully true about agricultural products. When onion was sold at Rs 60 in Delhi in November, 1999, it was available at one-fourth of the price in Chennai and half at Mumbai. Two, to believe that free movement of foodgrains will stabilise prices all over the country is an illusion born out of wrong or imperfect understanding of the foodgrain economy. In several regions of backward areas wheat, rice and coarse grains cost less than in the urban areas despite the distance. The private trade is still trying to get its act together; until it happens it will be a folly for the government to withdraw from procurement and storage of wheat and rice. A new system has to be installed both to protect the grower’s interest and that of the consumers in urban areas.

The government is more eager to retreat from its responsibilities of procurement and storage than in feeding the people below the poverty line. This is obvious in the hurriedly drafted policy line and also the indifference to the agriculture sector in as much as it does not adequately guarantee the interest of grain producers. An indepth analysis of the condition of growers in non-procurement states other than Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh will bring out the harsh reality of free market operation. In all these states the agriculturalists are at the mercy of the middlemen as vegetable and fruit growers are in this area. There is a larger problem. The cropping pattern has to change in favour of cash crops but the monopoly of the middlemen is a great deterrent. This can be set right only if the arhtias’ power and monopoly are reduced. The latest policy of the Centre will increase this power and strengthen it and make the FCI a weak organisation. The Centre has no clue to get out of the mess it has landed itself in and it is relying on make-shift policies. 

Some selloff, this!

Much of the praise being showered on the government’s “successful” disinvestment of VSNL and IBP is misplaced. That it is free from the kind of controversy that surrounded the BALCO selloff is welcome as also the greater transparency visible this time. But the transfer of the government’s 33.6 per cent stake in one PSU (IBP) to another PSU (Indian Oil Corporation) cannot be described as disinvestment. The amount paid by the IOC to gain control of the IBP is mind-boggling -- the company quoted a price of Rs1,551.25 per share against the reserved price of Rs 455 per share and much higher than the next best bid of Rs 804 per share which came from Shell. The IOC Chairman and Managing Director justified this overvaluation saying the “other bidders had undervalued the stock”. Which should include the official team that set the reserved price. Besides, he says, had the IBP gone into private hands, the IOC’s existing refining capacity of five million tonnes would have been rendered idle. The acquisition will also boost the IOC marketing network as it will get some 1,500 retail petrol outlets owned by the IBP. That does sound a bit sensible. However, the real motive, as widely percieved, is to pass over Rs 1,154 crore from the IOC’s bulging reserves to the government’s depleted coffers to save its disinvestment programme from being dubbed a failure. That it is still way behind its target is another matter.

Tatas, on the other hand, have added Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd to their stable by paying a small price, that is Rs 202 a VSNL share. Although currently the VSNL share commands a price of about Rs 160, time was when VSNL enjoyed a monoply, fattened on high tariffs and its share price was quoted in almost four figures. It had decent reserves. However, government dithering over privatisation and increased competition have reduced the former telecom giant to a present-day frail pigmy faced with an uncertain future. The same fate awaits other government enterprises. Maruti Udyog is one. The government, while opening up the market to competition and latest technology, let its enterprises remain burdened with outdated technologies (for want of cash) and inefficient managements (for want of guts and initiative). As a result, like VSNL, they have suffered revenue erosion. All in all, the selloff of the two PSUs should be seen in the light of odds the Disinvestment Minister is faced with.

Will warmth follow thaw?

Not quite unexpectedly, the USA has maintained parity in military assistance to India and Pakistan for the war against terrorism. Both will be getting identical $ 50 million each. But when it comes to overall development assistance, the scales are clearly tilted in favour of Islamabad. The $305 million package earmarked for it is nearly twice as big as that which will come New Delhi's way. India on its part is to get only $ 151.185 million under various heads, apart from PL-480 programmes handled by the US Agriculture Department. This includes $ 75.18 million for development assistance and child survival and health programmes and marks only a slight increase over the $ 70.87 million under this head for the previous year. The official explanation is that Pakistan needs to be supported (to the extent of some $ 200 million) to tide over the difficulties resulting from the Afghanistan operation of the USA and the influx of refugees. But considering the way in which the aid given in the past has been used up in shoring up the army operations in that country, it is obvious that the military regime is being rewarded for ditching the Taliban jalopy and hitching a ride on the American juggernaut. If it is any consolation, India is now treated as a "frontline state", like Pakistan and Jordan. That is a fallout of the September 11 incident rather than any diplomatic shift.

Whatever the reasons and circumstances, the relations between the two countries are now out of the freezer. The army-to-army cooperation has been revived after a number of years. Defence wings of the two will be holding joint exercises, exchanging military intelligence and jointly executing strategic decisions in the coming days. The seeds of such revival of assistance had been sown some months ago with the USA lifting the sanctions imposed in the aftermath of the Pokhran-II blasts. All that paints a rosy picture, but because the canvas is none too cheerful, there is some skepticism in certain quarters. For instance, there is uncertainty in army circles whether Washington will be willing to part with state-of-the-art technology. At this stage, technology is more important to India than even arms. There has been a brave attempt to undo the effects of the previous squeeze but still the defence capabilities have been hemmed in. The coming months will show how warm the freshly defrosted ties actually become. 

OPINION

Complex issue of “de-escalation”
New Delhi’s reasons to opt for delay
Inder Malhotra

It is more than obvious that, of late, Indian opinion on the continuance of the massive military mobilisation in relation to Pakistan has been divided rather sharply. There has been a definite accretion of the views in support of lowering the tensions by withdrawing the troops from their forward positions along the Line of Control (LoC) and the border. Within the strategic community that includes retired generals, admirals and air marshals some argue that an all-out war having been ruled out by both sides, the law of diminishing returns has begun to apply to the present level of deployments.

This school of thought has also invoked the international community’s calls to both India and Pakistan to "de-escalate" and start a "meaningful" dialogue on all their problems, including Kashmir. A few also say that it is unfair to impose on the officers and men of the gallant armed forces the avoidable strain inherent in the present policy.

Sadly, though perhaps inevitably in Indian conditions, partisan politics has played its pernicious role in distorting what could have been a legitimate debate on an important issue. Some of the Vajpayee Government’s critics have gone to the extent of insinuating that the main motivation behind Operation Prakram was the ongoing election in four states, especially in Uttar Pradesh. Bellicose rhetoric against both Pakistan and the government’s critics by too many of the BJP leaders, joined by the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, who belongs to the Samata Party but is also the convener of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), has further muddied the water.

On the other hand, there are those who reject the arguments cited above totally as "specious" and even "dangerous". They also support the government’s policy of not initiating any withdrawal of the troops from striking positions until Pakistan’s military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, delivers what he has promised in his January 12 speech. Their number is large and they are by no means confined to the habitual and unthinking followers of the BJP and its NDA allies. Indeed, they include some of the most respected figures in the strategic community such as its doyen, Mr K. Subrahmanyam.

Looking at the matter in its entirety and with due objectivity, the forward deployments, when ordered, made sound sense. Within hours of the dastardly attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, the USA had declared that it was "at war" with terrorism though the actual bombing of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan was still three weeks away.

Pakistan has been subjecting this country to a proxy war in Kashmir by relentlessly and remorselessly sponsoring cross-border terrorism there for more than a decade, to say nothing of its earlier depredations in Punjab. The assault on Indian Parliament on December 13, preceded by that on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in Srinagar, was no less outrageous than what had happened in America on September 11. The fury of the Indian people was as understandable as it was manifest.

An all-out war with Pakistan was not at all feasible then, as it remains now, for the simple reason that since October 7, when the bombing of Afghanistan began, thousands of American troops have been stationed at various Pakistani bases and the entire Pakistani air space is controlled by them. In fact, a brilliant cartoon in a Pakistani newspaper has suggested that the Pakistan Air Force has been forced to land its planes on the Lahore-Islamabad highway because all "our airbases are under American occupation".

Even so, New Delhi’s failure to convey to Islamabad the message that "enough was enough" would have had very deleterious consequences. Hence the decision not only to deploy the forces to the most forward positions but also to mine the LoC — something that had been done but rarely in the past. And this was done in conjunction with such other measures as the recall of the High Commissioner from Islamabad, termination of rail and bus links with Pakistan and denial to it of the use of Indian airspace.

Without doubt the military pressure has had the desired results in more ways than one. The international community now knows that the threshold of Indian tolerance has been crossed. Pakistan has been disabused of its illusion that the Indian giant would not have the will to fight because of the danger of the conflict escalating to a nuclear exchange. Foreign countries in their diplomatic dealings with India also bring up this grim possibility. But all concerned know — even if the public at large, and especially the professional peacenik, doesn’t — that this a red herring across the trail.

It is also arguable, to say the least, that Indian military pressure did contribute to General Musharraf's decision to make on January 12 the speech that he did though the principal reason for this was undoubtedly the American decision to turn the heat on him.

The ruling coalition’s reason for not winding down the heavy deployments even now is that there is no visible sign on the ground that the Musharraf regime’s words are being matched by deeds. The other day the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, repeated Mr Jaswant Singh’s favourite phrase that the gap between the General’s "kathni" and "karni" must be bridged. It is noteworthy that some of the optimistic tidings the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, brought to Delhi, such as the likelihood of early Pakistani action on the Indian list of the "Most Wanted", are still unfulfilled. On the contrary, Islamabad has adopted a childish, churlish and altogether negative attitude on not only this matter but also on the kidnapping of the American journalist Daniel Pearl by Pakistani terrorists General Musharraf is committed to eliminating. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov’s endorsement of the Indian position in his joint statement with his Indian opposite number speaks for itself.

The Principal Secretary and National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister, Mr Brajesh Mishra, mentioned at the international security conference at Munich another powerful reason for this country’s resolve to maintain the deployments on the border with Pakistan. "Where are the thousands of foreign fighters and advisers of the Taliban who were trapped in Kunduz ... but found a providential and mysterious escape route?" he asked. The question was directed as much at Pakistan as at the USA because the latter had acquiesced in the evacuation of these Pakistani officers and men. If the ISI had any plans to divert these men to Kashmir, the Indian deployments have made it extremely difficult to do so.

Ironically, General Musharraf may have reasons privately to welcome the current tensions, whatever his public statements. According to the newspaper of Pakistan’s principal religious party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, several of the Corps Commanders were opposed to his plans that he eventually spelled out on January 12, and that he won their consent only by threatening to resign. If so, it is better for him that his Corps Commanders should be on the front rather than at the GHQ at Rawalpindi.

There are some fears in Delhi — for good reasons — that America might not go the whole hog in pressurising General Musharraf to translate into action his anti-terrorism promises and persist in its triangular tightrope walking. After all, didn’t President Bush heap high praise on the Pakistani President in his state of the Union message? This he surely did. But in the same speech, the US President also warned that if any regime failed to act against terrorists, it must know that "America will".

As Mr K. Subrahmanyam argues, what suits America to say publicly does not necessarily coincide with what it would actually do in times of need. Especially where its own interests are affected, as they definitely are in seeing to it that terrorist groups in Pakistan are destroyed and madarsas properly reformed or closed down. This coincides fully with India’s interests.

Which way the wind will eventually blow will be known only after General Musharraf's crucial visit to Washington later this month. Until then we might suspend judgement but remember that the level of shelling that Pakistan has started across the LoC would make an immediate withdrawal of forces from the border an act of folly.

IN THE NEWS

New lease of life for Tagore’s works

Ever since the expiry of copyright on the Nobel laureate and poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore’s literary works, there has been a mad rush among publishers in Kolkata and elsewhere to lay their hands on his contributions and publish them with a view to spreading Tagore’s message of humanism, internationalism, respect for all religions, rejection of material values and promotion of universal peace and brotherhood.

As Tagore has left behind a literary treasure-trove — over 60 volumes of poetry, 60 plays, 12 novels, 100 short stories, 2,000 songs and innumerable essays and letters — there is stiff competition among the publishers. This is not entirely unexpected considering the fact that Tagore is regarded as an icon, particularly in West Bengal and the north-eastern states. His works are believed to be very popular not only in the literary circles but also among rural masses and hence continue to be of great market value.

However, one institution that seems to have received a severe jolt in this fierce competition is Shantiniketan’s Visva Bharati University. Until the copyright was in force, Visva Bharati was the sole publisher of Tagore’s writings. The situation has, however, changed now and it seems to be a free for all. Many publishers have decided to bring out special editions of Tagore’s works, at affordable prices, for the common man in the countryside. They maintain that the volumes brought out by Visva Bharati are very costly and thus beyond the reach of villagers. They question Visva Bharati’s monopoly over Tagore’s works, especially its claim to be the “sole custodian of Tagore’s tradition”.

It is said that some publishers are set to give Visva Bharati a run for their money. For instance, while Visva Bharati’s “cheapest edition” of the complete works of Tagore in 18 volumes costs Rs 2,250, Shyamapada Sarkar’s “super-cheap version”, squeezed into 10 slim pocket-book volumes, will be priced at about Rs 1,300. The situation is no better in the case of Tagore’s music. Even Kolkata’s liberal and Marxist intellectuals are sentimental about Tagore’s 2,000-odd songs written and set to music by Tagore himself. His Master’s Voice (HMV) will launch a compilation of Tagore’s poems set to music by someone else. In Bangladesh, a rock band wants to sing Tagore’s songs.

Visva Bharati questions the sudden craze among the publishers for Tagore’s works and is particularly worried about the standard and quality of the new publications presently in print. It is equally worried about the quality of the new recordings of Tagore’s songs from the lines of sobriety, good taste and tradition. While one cannot overlook the worries and apprehensions over quality, one thing is crystal clear: this would give a new lease of life to the essays on Tagore’s thoughts, which are of great relevance in today’s strife-torn world.

Jathedar meets Pope

The Sikh religion is gaining prominence internationally because of its underlying message of love and universal brotherhood. This was evidenced by the presence of Sikh religious leaders led by Singh Sahib Joginder Singh Vedanti, Jathedar, Akal Takht, along with those from Birmingham in the United Kingdom and North America at a meeting specially convened by the Pope in Assisi in Italy last month.

The meeting at the picturesque Assisi brought to the fore the concern of the Vatican about increasing violence heaped by man on man and the need for providing a soothing balm for promoting the welfare of humankind by giving an impetus to inter-religious dialogue.

Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti was a special invitee. The gathering in Assisi under the aegis of the Vatican had no less than 10 Sikh religious leaders, including Bhai Sahebji Singh from Nishkam Jatha Sewa Sangh, Birmingham. An interface by the Sikh clergy with the Pope was made possible because of the efforts of the Vice Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, Mr Tarlochan Singh.

A message received in New Delhi from the Pontiff’s Council for Inter-religious Dialogue in the Vatican said that the Sikh religious leaders were prominently seated near the Pope.

Sikhs’ pride

January witnessed another significant event which made the Sikh community proud. Seasoned career diplomat Jagdish Singh Koonjul, Permanent Representative of Mauritius at the United Nations, took over as President of the UN Security Council. The rotational appointment is for one month, and Ambassador Koonjul is the first Sikh who enjoyed that distinction during January, 2002. He succeeded the Permanent Representative of Mali.

Mr Koonjul is a graduate of the University of Bombay. Beginning his career in 1974, he was posted to the Permanent Mission of Mauritius at the UN in New York in 1978. Between 1980 and 1994 he served with his country’s embassies in Brussels, Paris and Washington DC. Married to Manpreet Kaur, the couple have four children.

OF LIFE SUBLIME

Loftiness of ideas endures
Darshan Singh Maini

The feeling of the sublime in human beings is as natural as the breezes from beyond, or as the fragrance of the roses in bloom. It’s something natural, intuitive and universal. And there are moments in one’s life when one feels a touch of the sublime suddenly, unawares. And there’s a fleeting awareness of a unique experience, of a unique phenomenon. And it leaves you washed in a sense of wonder. Since its duration is short, its effect is soon lost when the ground reality compels you to take notice of the situation. Some traces of upliftment may linger for some time, but the true sublime in its beauty may not become an earned vision save in the case of saints and divines. However, there are levels of the sublime, and the purpose here is to explore something of their nature.

One of these is the sight of loftiness in nature. Great, towering, snow-clad mountains, oceans and seas, vast deserts, great artifacts of the human hand from statues, architecture and painting to scenes in novels and drama, and to music, above all, with all its variations — these and several other aspects produce the effect of the sublime in its plenitude, in its poetry and in its divinity. Similarly, great thoughts and philosophies may reach certain heights where loftiness of ideas endures and the sublime abides.

Let me recall some such moments from my own experiences in India and abroad. For instance, visits to the Golden Temple at Amritsar particularly in the ambrosial airs of the morning Asa-di-Var, to the majestic temple in Madurai, to St Paul’s Cathedral in London, to St Peter’s in Rome etc are unforgettable hours, and the impressions have become a party of my spiritual consciousness. Awe is the dominant emotion when one turns one’s gaze upward in St Peter’s to see Raphael’s immortal paintings on the roof, or to the huge dome of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, for their immensity heaps upon you, leaves you in a kind of swoon. Such marvels of the fabricator man cannot but make the sublime a palpable reality. One feels nearer to the heavens by an inch or two. God appears close on hand, and the moment of beauty comes to pass.

Since I’ve made this story somewhat personal, I’m tempted to talk of such moments in great books like Shakespeare’s incomparable King Lear, of the love tragedy, Antony and Cleopatra, Melville’s Moby Dick, Tolstoy’s Resurrection. Dostoivsky’s The Brothers Karmazov etc. For instance, the closing scene in King Lear is as close to the feeling of transcendence in literature as one may expect, standing awe-struck in the midst of ruins. He wronged his dearest daughter, Cardelia, and with her hanging now, a consequence of his insane judgement, Lear’s speeches touch the sublime, as it were. King Lear ruled in pagan times, but the sublime ennobles him when suffering cleanses his soul. He has become “God’s spy”, to recall Shakespeare’s phrase. Or let me turn to Henry James’ superb novel of “the final phase”, The wings of the Dove. The heroine, Milly Theale, an American heiress of millions, achieves a kind of saintliness when turning her face to the wall, she dies leaving behind her vast fortune to the faithless lover! The rich ambiguity of her gesture becomes a mark of quest for the critic and the reader alike.

The sublime has also been a part of the divine erotica lore since the beginning of civilizations.

Even when the theme is putatively secular — sexual love, there are moments in literature when the magnificence of passion sweeps you away into the realms of the ineffable as, say, in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. The “immortal longings” of the Egyptian queen and temptress when her lover-lord is a defeated, broken man are but glimpses of the sublime. Such altitude and vastnesses in love effect the feeling of loftiness, and one has “a sense of the sacred” in matters that may otherwise, look mundane.

I’m reminded, again of a celebrated French novel, The Body’s Rapture, which I trust, I read nearly 50 years ago. There are scenes of love-making in absentia. That is to say, the lovers, though living away from each other, have the power of the spirit to enact scenes or love which have the intensity and ecstasy of the real experience.

It would appear that the things small, insignificant and obscure, are not in the chasmed circle, for they do not produce the effect of loftiness. This may be so, though an insightful eye would not miss the sense of wonder even in such cases. Walt Whitman, America’s voice and visionary was carried off his feet even by humble crawing creatures on God’s fair earth: The mere existence of a field mouse, he observes, is enough to demolish the teeming infidels. It gives you an idea of the mystery of Creation. Similarly, when Wordsworth sings of “the meanest flower” that gives him thoughts “too deep for tears” we know that the poet of the “Ode to Immortality” had always seen in nature marks of divinity and of the sublime.

Ph.D: the highest degree easily manageable
B. L. Chakoo

The pious fraud of doing doctoral research in our universities (particularly the ones which, ironically enough, have now been designated as universities of excellence) has not only been successful but has also been recognised for what it is.

The fact is that if you have, to your credit, a master’s degree, for example, in the subject of English or Hindi or Punjabi or, for that matter, social sciences and you want to “do research” leading to a doctoral degree, you will have not to work hard to qualify any UGC test before you are registered for this prestigious research degree at a university. What you have simply to do is to write, say, a few pages on the so-called research topic and call it a “synopsis” to be submitted to the faculty concerned. You will, in due course, be formally permitted by the university’s academic bodies to collect material, relevant or irrelevant, from here and there and put the same together coherently or incoherently to call it a doctoral dissertation. Be sure, not a single member (including your supervisor) of the academic bodies is going to read either your synopsis or dissertation to question your research ability or originality of thoughts.

Even the examiners (certainly the Indian Professors who by nature are kind and compassionate) will — after pointing out a series of serious flaws, including your “wondrous English and thunderous grammar” if the dissertation is written in English — write in the end that “however, the degree of Ph.D be awarded to the candidate.”

In fact, the most obvious reason for this all, what I may call, futile research — by way of which the researcher is cheating both the country and himself — is that today achieving excellence in research (beneficial for society) or engaging classes regularly to provide proper guidance to students is not the main objective of most mediocre teachers unfortunately appointed for teaching and “guiding research” in our universities (particularly the regional ones.)

Their preference lies in indulging in sycophancy, leg pulling, scandalising their colleagues through yellow journalism and in opening small business centres to earn extra money to be spent on the pleasures of sensation. Their priority is not research. They have, therefore, no time for students.

In fact, the award of “this however Ph.D” is very common and a recognised fact in our country. But who is responsible for this kind of doctoral degree: a university, a student or a teacher? Certainly the teacher.

The UGC needs to take a serious look at the doctoral research being done in the universities it is funding. I submit that if doctoral research is to be made meaningful, genuine and profitable, it should be carried out under the guidance of only those university teachers who are honest, sincere enough towards their students and capable of producing internationally recognised research. 

TRENDS & POINTERS

Gene that might help people live longer discovered

Drugs that help people live longer might just be on the horizon, thanks to scientists who have identified a gene called 'Methuselah’ — a stretch of DNA that confers healthy old age, reports The Guardian newspaper.

The Methuselah gene was discovered by researchers at DeCode Genetics, an Iceland-based biotechnology company, who used the country’s ‘unique’ birth and death records, which stretches back to the era of the Vikings, to trace individuals, many of them still alive, who had lived exceptionally long lives — 90 years or more.

“We compared a group of about 1,200 long-lived people with a similar group who had lived to an average age and found that, yes, the former were far more closely related to each other than the control group. Of course, their longevity could have been produced by them sharing a common environment, but that seemed unlikely given that Icelanders all have similar lifestyles,” says Kari Stefansson, chief executive of DeCode.

According to researchers, genetic disposition to long life could work in two ways. It was possible the Methuselah group simply came from families that did not inherit genes that predisposed them to illnesses. Alternatively, group members were inheriting a single gene that protected them against the rigours of middle and old age.

But the gene will not make you immortal, Stefansson stressed. If you also inherit other bad genes that make people ill in young adulthood, you won’t reach an age when the Methuselah gene will add years to your life. ANI

High-fat dairy products lead to diabetes

Men whose diets are rich in red meat, high-fat dairy products and baked goods made from refined flour are 60 per cent more likely to develop diabetes after the age of 40.

In one of the most wide-ranging studies to date on possible links between adult onset diabetes and diet, researchers also found that men who ate a "prudent" diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish and poultry had a type-2 diabetes risk at levels 20 per cent below the norm.

“This is the first study to look at the big picture of diet and diabetes. Until now, the focus has been on isolated nutrients and specific foods,” said Dr Frank Hu, a co-author of the study. Reuters 

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

On this earth, there is no heaven or hell. Everything in this world is achievable by the power of thoughts. If we fill our hearts with love, compassion, goodwill and nature purity, then these peaceful thoughts produce a strong, positive vibration in the atmosphere, thereby successfully creating heaven for us. Similarly, if our mind harbours ill-feelings, jealousy and negativity for our fellow-beings we create an environment full of extreme violence and intolerance resulting in a chaotic situation, which is the origin of hell. The bliss of the Lord is ever on the side of those blessed by pure thoughts and meditation cultured in this medium of purity is the highest of deeds.

— Dr Anand Swamiji, Himalaya

***

Anger is one of the five vices that destroy the beauty of the soul.... When we allow anger to come we are also allowing our animal and baser instincts to be aroused and when that happens, the power of discrimination of the soul is very much reduced.

It is said that no man can think clearly when his fists are clenched. In the old testament it is written — be not quick to anger, for anger lodges in the hearts of fools. And again it is said that anger is but a temporary madness.

The power of tolerance is needed if it were to eliminate anger from our system. With love, patience, humility and an easy nature we can develop this power of tolerance. The things that unite us surpass the things that divide us.

— B.K. Julius. From The World Renewal, Vol. 18, August 1988.

***

The hands that help are far better than the lips that pray.

To win all we must give all.

— Swami Ramatirtha, In Woods of God Realisation, Vol. VI. Notebook n