E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Goodbye, Sir Don
GOODBYE, Sir Donald Bradman. The world of sport will never see a cricketer of your calibre. When you retired from international cricket you were four runs short of the magical average of 100 runs per innings. The game would have been beholden to you had you played just one Test more to achieve the landmark.

Mamata defiant as ever
GRANT it to Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee. She is comfortable as a short-term politician with her eyes fixed on West Bengal Assembly elections rather than on being a visionary administrator. Her budget says it all. She has ignored the advice of the Prime Minister to raise revenue by increasing the passenger fare and reducing the freight rate which subsidises it.

Quake-resistant structures
SUNDAY'S tremors measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale shook buildings in a vast area, from New Delhi to Kabul and beyond, but luckily these did not cause any damage to human life and property. According to seismologists, the nature of the earthquake was such that it could not bring devastation as people feared and ran out of their houses.

OPINION

Green Revolution in Haryana
A boon or bane for farmers?
Karan Singh Dalal
FOOD deficit in the sixties prompted the government to adopt a new agriculture strategy which brought about the Green Revolution. As the immediate concern of the Government was food security, the thrust of the strategy was on increasing the production of wheat and rice considered the staple food.

MIDDLE

A silver without lining
Raman Mohan
NOW that the Sydney Olympiad is history, I am glad I chose to wield a pen in life rather than throw javelins or run like mad on strange synthetic surfaces. For otherwise, a few months back had I won a silver, I would have been crying in sheer disappointment.

REAL POLITIK

Doles and subsidies are also paid in the USA
P. Raman
‘‘AT 10.30 a.m., leaders of Techies gathered their employees into a conference room and told them to pick from a bunch of folders the one which had their names on it. Inside the folders was either a severance package along with instructions to be out of the office by noon or a notice that they still had the job with the company.’’

TRENDS AND POINTERS

Medical miracle offers hope of perfect health
FOR about $ 900 parents can protect their new-borns by storing umbilicalblood which contains stem cells, the holy grail of surgeons. When gynaecologist Derek Tuffnell takes a tiny specimen of blood from the umbilical cord of a new born baby in the UK’s Bradford Royal Infirmary in the next few days he will be carrying out an operation that will seem safe and familiar.

• Male depression epidemic
  
  

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Goodbye, Sir Don

GOODBYE, Sir Donald Bradman. The world of sport will never see a cricketer of your calibre. When you retired from international cricket you were four runs short of the magical average of 100 runs per innings. The game would have been beholden to you had you played just one Test more to achieve the landmark. But you never played for records. Even your average of 99 plus has placed you well ahead of the second best batsman, the legendary Sir George Headley of the West Indies. The difference of over 35 runs in the averages of the best and the second best batsman tells the story of your extraordinary talent. When our own Sunil Gavaskar was often equated with you, he used to point out that you got your runs in 52 Test matches while he had to play well over 100 games to get past you. You had seen your likeness in Sachin Tendulkar. Had you waited another eight years you would have got your century and also found out whether your faith in Sachin’s abilities was justified. You have fallen eight runs short of what the world of cricket would have acclaimed as a deserving century by a player who was also an outstanding gentleman. You had in you, perhaps, the temperament of the Persian craftsmen who create a flaw in the exquisite carpets they weave. In their book it would be an act of blasphemy to compete with God in the matter of perfection. That is, perhaps, the reason why you too in the two innings as a player and a gentleman got out in the nineties. But the timing of your return to the pavilion was both good and bad.

The timing was good in the sense that the game of cricket is no longer the same as when you wielded the willow. Had you said goodbye to us at least a year ago, you would not have had to see the game being brought into disrepute by crooked cricketers hand in glove with betting syndicates, who specialised in fixing matches for optimising profit. In your days there was no need for a third umpire or a match referee. It is difficult to visualise a game progressing without an ugly incident, without these gentlemen helping the two umpires on the field. In your time, few bowlers made bogus appeals and a batsman not walking, knowing that he had snicked the ball, was a rare sight. Of course, the decline of cricket as a game of gentlemen had begun when your own Kerry Packer seduced cricketers into playing for money. Today some of your players have admitted to having taken money, of all the persons, from bookies. Their misconduct must have caused you great hurt. But you loved your country as much as you loved the game. For this reason alone you should have delayed your departure by a few weeks. The Australian team under Steve Waugh has staked its claim to the title of the “Invincibles”, which the team under you had earned about five decades ago. Today they begin a difficult three-Test series against India at Mumbai. Will they be able to continue the amazing run of 15 Test victories on the trot without their best batsman helping them through prayers from the hospital bed in Adelaide?

Mamata defiant as ever 

GRANT it to Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee. She is comfortable as a short-term politician with her eyes fixed on West Bengal Assembly elections rather than on being a visionary administrator. Her budget says it all. She has ignored the advice of the Prime Minister to raise revenue by increasing the passenger fare and reducing the freight rate which subsidises it. The chambers of commerce and industry have also argued why she should bring down the freight rates to the economic cost by hiking ticket prices. She has done just the opposite — retaining the present fare rates but increasing the freight rate by 2 per cent in all bulk commodities. As it is, the share of railways in carrying goods has come down to about 40 per cent, the remaining going to road transport. She wants to have a higher share of 50 per cent but does something that will defeat the goal. Then there is a 1 per cent congestion tax affecting commodity traffic. A hurried calculation has it that this will translate to a 4 per cent hike in the cost of transporting coal and steel. This is a perfect menu for defeating her grandiose plans to capture a bigger chunk of freight traffic. She proposes to start nearly 25 new trains which will all connect her state of West Bengal. MPs were loud in protesting against this but the combative Minister went through her speech frequently issuing stern warnings to her detractors.

All this bravado hardly concealed the precarious financial condition of the railway system. Its revenue is falling short of its mandated expenditure. It is borrowing much more than it can reasonably repay. That is a classic debt trap position. It is spending more than 20 per cent of its revenue on pension and one calculation has it that this will shoot up to 60 per cent in a few decades. Ms Banerjee realises that her option of raising money through normal sources is a political minefield, and hence talks of non-traditional sources. But there had been sharp shortfalls in these. Selling of prime land and attracting commercial publicity in railway stations and passenger trains have fallen far short of the budgeted target. She wanted to sell the excellent railway telephone network to set up an optical fibre network and rake in a huge revenue. It has not taken off and with others in the field, its capacity to make money will be limited. There are several other danger signals. Ms Banerjee is drawing down on both depreciation fund and safety reserve fund, meaning that the railways will have no last resort to keep themselves afloat or ensure the safety of passengers and goods. The Justice Khanna Committee reported that the railways would need upwards of Rs 15,000 crore to renew the ageing track to improve safety. The Honourable Minister has not been able to find money to fulfil this recommendation. One commentator has said that the budget of Ms Banerjee has translated all the fears of economists into a reality. It was a harsh judgement but very close to truth. She has given up any effort to correct the inherent anomalies in railways finance in favour of her pro-people image. Regional politicians bring in their own narrow vision to their ministries and that is a danger the nation has to guard itself against.

Quake-resistant structures

SUNDAY'S tremors measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale shook buildings in a vast area, from New Delhi to Kabul and beyond, but luckily these did not cause any damage to human life and property. According to seismologists, the nature of the earthquake was such that it could not bring devastation as people feared and ran out of their houses. But experts believe that the northern region of India may experience a severe jolt anytime, and running away from our houses may not be possible. The January 26 Gujarat earthquake and the studies and analyses highlighted by mass media show that any level of preparedness for disaster management may not be as useful as the creation of a general awareness about going in for quake-resistant buildings. This is also significant in view of the fact that so far man has failed to accurately predict the occurrence of this natural phenomenon. The Japanese spent billions of dollars on earthquake prediction research for decades but abandoned it as a fruitless activity. Their whole stress today is on designing and constructing buildings capable of withstanding tremors of high intensity and on getting ready for handling on a war-footing any nature-ordained crisis. This means that there is no alternative to quake-resistant structures and a top class disaster management network.

Now the question that arises is whether merely having the relevant laws can serve the purpose. The Gujarat experience clearly tells us that this will not do. Unscrupulous builders know how to flout such laws, and they find willing collaborators in the government departments concerned. Thus, what is important is the strict implementation of the laws where these already exist and making of such rules wherever necessary. But this must be accompanied by a high-pitched campaign to instil among the people safety awareness. The time has come to ensure that no unauthorised colony is regularised in a seismically sensitive zone unless it has earthquake-resistant buildings. We as a responsible nation will have to take harsh steps so far as the existing high-rise buildings in Shimla, Delhi, etc, are concerned. The trouble, however, is that even in a state like Himachal Pradesh, where there is a high probability of tremors measuring up to 8 on the Richter scale, nothing has been done to prevent the coming up of unsafe buildings which have turned its towns into concrete jungles. There has been no check on the construction of multistoreyed structures, which are virtual death-traps. The state government should constitute a group to carry out an extensive study of such buildings so that preventive measures can be taken much before a Gujarat-like disaster strikes Himachal.

Green Revolution in Haryana
A boon or bane for farmers?
Karan Singh Dalal

FOOD deficit in the sixties prompted the government to adopt a new agriculture strategy which brought about the Green Revolution. As the immediate concern of the Government was food security, the thrust of the strategy was on increasing the production of wheat and rice considered the staple food. Dwarf varieties of wheat and rice which were highly responsive to the application of high doses of chemical fertilisers were brought from international institutions at Mexico and Manila. As irrigation was the prerequisite of this technology, the physical conditions in Punjab, Haryana and Western UP were most suitable for the adoption of this new technology as they had a network of canals, and the consolidation of holdings and other kinds of land reforms had already been completed. Agricultural universities at Ludhiana, Hisar and Pant Nagar did commendable work in conducting area-specific research and in providing trained extension workers for educating the farmers.

The new agriculture technology provided high-yielding seeds, chemical fertilisers, pesticides and improved implements. Infrastructure for an easy availability of inputs with credit facilities was developed, and the Government of India provided market support through the procurement of wheat and rice at the minimum support price. Initially, the terms of trade were also equitable and farmers were immensely benefited, which generated sufficient investible surplus, most of which they ploughed back in farming. Their living conditions also improved. Prosperity in the rural areas was visible in the seventies which led to extravagant spending during marriages and other social functions.

A debate for imposing income tax on the farming sector started. But the Government of India, instead of taking this unpopular measure, twisted the terms of trade against farming which ensured the transfer of resources from agriculture to the non-agriculture sectors without the knowledge of farmers. The rate of increase in the yield levels slowed gradually in the eighties and almost stabilised in the nineties. Coupled with this, the impact of adverse terms of trade turned farming a continuously losing proposition. The Agricultural Costs and Prices Commission has been publishing the indices of terms of trade for agriculture since 1971-72. During last 25 years these have been against the farmers in the range of 8 to 22 per cent. The last published indices of the commission relate to 1997-98 which reveals that farmers got only 88.8 per cent of what they were entitled to. With the gross income of Rs 3,59,586 crore in the agriculture sector in 1997-98, farmers were cheated of Rs 45,353 crore in this year alone by way of adverse terms of trade. It reveals the true story of farm subsidies. The real fact that has emerged is that the farming sector is subsiding the non-farming sector. The governments in Punjab and Haryana are propagating that farmers are being subsidised on various items whereas these states are the main beneficiaries of the Green Revolution. These governments are charging 4 per cent market fees and 4 per cent sales tax . The procurement agencies are also getting huge commissions from the Food Corporation of India. This means the level of cheating of the farmer is based on his production capabilities: the more he produces, the more he is cheated.

Haryana is a land of small farmers and about three-fourths of its population depends on agriculture. Out of a total of 15.30 lakh holdings, 61 per cent are smaller than 2 hectares and another 20 per cent are in 2 to 4 hectares size group. Sub-division of land holdings and the rising cost of cultivation have rendered these 81 per cent holdings as uneconomical and the economic, condition of about one-third of these is worse than that of the landless. The agricultural revolution, which initially brought about prosperity in the rural areas, has now led to unbearable miseries for farmers. Agriculturists are now in heavy debt, resulting in social tensions. The agricultural revolution, in the absence of a cultural and social revolution, coupled with mass illiteracy frittered away the benefits of agricultural prosperity.

Irrational mechanisation, which was mainly “tractorisation”, relieved men from arduous jobs of farming, who in the absence of a cultural and social revolution engaged themselves in playing cards and drinking.

The political leadership in the state cleverly took advantage of this situation and exploited these idle people in organising political rallies. Youngmen followed their fathers and, instead of engaging themselves in agricultural operations, started looking for white-collar jobs. They are even today ready to work in factories at a meager wage of Rs 1200 per month though factory owners are reluctant to employ them for fear of their nuisance value and prefer “outside” workers. They were also trapped by politicians for strengthening their political base. The whole burden of agricultural operations fell on the shoulders of women, already overburdened with domestic work. In terms of per capita income, Haryana is number two in the country, but in terms of social development index it is comparable with BIMARU (Bihar, MP, Rajasthan and UP) states.

The story of Haryana farmers is very interesting. From abject poverty they tasted prosperity in the seventies and the eighties, suffered miseries in the nineties and are now trapped in a vicious circle of debt and social evils. The rural scene is full of paradoxes. Mela-like scenes can be noticed at bus stands, markets, roads and streets with groups of unemployed youth is wandering. On the other hand, there is a dearth of male workers for agricultural operations. There is a heavy demand for migrant labour in the countryside. Rural youth is slowly moving towards crime.

How and why has this situation emerged? Who is responsible for this state of affairs? The basic cause is the misconceived agricultural strategy adopted in the late sixties with the sole objective of tiding over the food deficit. The short-term considerations of overcoming the food deficit weighed over long-term considerations. Had it not been so, rice cultivation in Punjab, Haryana and Western UP would not have been promoted. Now everybody raises a hue and cry to curtail the area under rice in these states. Agro climatically and locationally, these areas are not well suited for rice cultivation, as rice is a high-water consuming crop. Rice cultivation is well suited in the areas where it is staple food and is in demand. Southern and eastern states, where rainfall is much higher, were best suited for rice cultivation. The planners at the time chose the wrong but soft option of promoting rice cultivation in Punjab and Haryana where farmers were receptive. Today’s food glut in these states is the result of this ill-conceived policy.

In 1966-67, the area under rice in Haryana was 1.9 lakh hectares which increased to 9.2 lakh hectares in 1997-98, replacing cotton, oilseeds and pulses, which were best suited for the state. When the government needed food security it induced farmers to cultivate rice, and now when it does not, it is advocating curtailing the area under rice. Farmers have been taken for a ride.

A declining water-table in some districts and water-logging and a rising water-table in other districts have posed a serious threat to the sustainability of agriculture. This problem largely arose because of a faulty or the absence of any water management policy. The flood irrigation method has played havoc. Scores of politicians, bureaucrats, farmers’ leaders and scientists have visited various countries to study the water management technology adopted there, but nothing concrete has been in Haryana.

There is an urgent need to retrieve and rectify the situation. Soil and water are the two critical resources for production in agriculture. Over-exploitation of these resources will cause serious problems. A scientific soil and water management plan is the need of the hour. Diversification of agriculture is the only solution which requires a very secure market with remunerative prices and intensive research for improving quality and productivity of alternative crops. In the districts adjoining the National Capital there is an immense potentiality for floriculture, and vegetable and fruit cultivation. Cultivation of cotton, oil seeds, pulses and sugarcane should be encouraged with an assured market. Farm forestry has immense potentiality, especially in Yamunanagar and Ambala districts. Dairy business also has immense potentiality.

The small size of land-holdings is best suited for dairy enterprises. Industrialisation should be directed towards agro-processing units which can ensure market and value addition to agricultural produce and generate enough employment. Attracting the dislocated polluting industries from the national Capital will not help the state much. The state government should reconsider its unwise decision.

The writer is a sitting MLA and former Agriculture Minister of Haryana.

A silver without lining
Raman Mohan

NOW that the Sydney Olympiad is history, I am glad I chose to wield a pen in life rather than throw javelins or run like mad on strange synthetic surfaces. For otherwise, a few months back had I won a silver, I would have been crying in sheer disappointment. While the winner of the gold would have had every reason to celebrate, even the bronze medalist would be as happy much like our Karnam Malleshwari. However, I, the poor winner of the silver would have remained a loser all the way.

In the present day Olympics, there are only two winners — the gold digger and the bronze tinker. The silversmith is a sure loser. His effort is much like that of the hero in Bollywood potboilers who after beating the villain black and blue has to listen to the boisterous boast of Ajits, Prans, Paresh Rawals and Amrish Puris — “Tum jeet kar bhi haar gaye, main haar kar bhi jeet gaya.”

And, rightly so. Had I won my imaginary silver, I would be sad I lost by a whisker. I would be telling myself that I am not the best. The real winner is the one who pocketed the gold. The goldie would be hugged by his coach and have flying kisses thrown at him by lissome lasses cramming the stands. He would truly be a hero throwing his arms up and jogging down the track flag in hand.

The bronze winner would get much the same treatment after the goldie is done with collecting all the gold dust, for he is a winner too. That he is not even the second best is no damper on his right to celebrate. He is a victor because he is the instant underdog — the poor fellow who outdid all but just two.

But poor me. The cameras would focus on me hiding my face from the world. Shaking my head in disbelief. Shocked and in tears. I would have been the one who could not make it. One who was outdid. One who aimed too high. My only reward would have been the dubious honour of heading the procession to the victory stand for the ceremony. Is that any consideration, I ask. For I would have done so because that is the only way I would be occupying the silver coloured step on the stand to the left of the goldie.

The ceremonies over, I would have sulked in my hotel room while the gold digger and the bronze tinker would be signing fat contracts for endorsements. Don’t you remember Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi hawking Hampstead suitings on the idiot box after they won the bronze in the Atlanta Olympics. And more recently, Michael Johnson straddling the Samsung cellphone shouting “hey coach”. However, how many of us recall a silver medalist hawking goodies on the TV? There is no money in an Olympic silver.

I am glad our celebrated sports institutions have not yet produced Olympic silver medalists in individual events. Otherwise, they too would have to suffer the ignominy of celebrating their admirable yet fruitless feats. Silver may look good in the form of jewellery. But so far as a medal is concerned, it is a useless metal object around your neck.

God forbid, had I been an athlete and won a silver, what would have I done? I would have followed the footprints of Mohammed Ali the great and done exactly what he had done with considerable aplomb. Yes, I would have consigned the silver to the high seas of the Sydney harbour.

Doles and subsidies are also paid in the USA
P. Raman

‘‘AT 10.30 a.m., leaders of Techies gathered their employees into a conference room and told them to pick from a bunch of folders the one which had their names on it. Inside the folders was either a severance package along with instructions to be out of the office by noon or a notice that they still had the job with the company.’’ This is how a mass circulation American daily led with a story on the gathering recession, closures and loss of jobs to thousands of workers in the USA.

These days business news in the USA is either about workmen's layoff or merger/takeover of business firms. Every day newspapers come out with details of the number of workers removed from service by big and small firms. Even while on a quiet family holiday in a provincial city in the USA, this writer found it difficult to ignore the writing on the wall. There is nothing like a readymade economic model for universal adoption.

Every nation will have to evolve and experiment with its own indigenous solutions to its problems on the basis of the economic and social conditions at home. Even a casual look at the daily media reports in the USA will show how and what is being hawked as exalted models of development are coming under intense strain in its own land of origin. If the Soviet experiment did not lead to the withering away of the state, the stark realities of life in the USA have exploded the myth that the state could sit pretty, leaving all of the people's needs at the care of the free market forces.

The imposing presence of the state and its apparatus is very predominant in urban America's alleys and sprawling farms. In India, an important component of the economic reform package is scrapping of subsidies. Subsidies to the farmers, we are told, is the biggest hurdle in the path of development. Our reformers also resent the system of minimum agricultural prices, describing it as inflationary, a drain on the exchequer and a surrender to the farm lobby. But in the USA, apart from raising the quantum of farm subsidies, they are also set to introduce a new version of our own support prices.

The federal (central) budget had last year allocated $ 23 billion as assistance to the farmers. Farm subsidies in the form of federal emergency aid alone accounted for $ 8 billion. The ‘‘freedom to farm bill’’, which had sought to progressively reduce the subsidy to the farmers, virtually remained on paper since its adoption in 1996. During all the three subsequent years, Congress was forced to allocate huge emergency bailouts for the farmers — virtually much more than the usual farm subsidy. US Agricultural Secretary Dan Glickman this month admitted that farm subsidies had grown to a ‘‘record’’ level under the Clinton Administration. The government also extends many hidden support to the farms. One of them is a special visa provision to ‘‘import’’ cheap Hispanic labour from Mexico. This contract labour, who are given deplorably low wages, work under the constant threat of deportation.

The federal commission has now urged the US Congress to approve a new income-support programme to help the farmers hurt by the ‘‘plummeting market prices.’’ Estimated to cost $ 2.8 billion in 2003, the proposal is another version of our own support price. Under the new system when a crop dips below a floor price, the government would pay the farmers the difference. Agriculture in the USA has the advantage of large holdings and highly mechanised modern farming. Yet the problems they face are similar and so are the remedies prescribed. As here, cost of all farm inputs are going up. Prices of fuel for irrigation, tractors etc jumped 31 per cent last year. Fertiliser costs are set to rise by 33 per cent.

The US Congress was told this month that the farmers' net income would drop by 20 per cent or $ 9 billion unless more government subsidies were released. Incidently, the farm crisis has helped only the huge operators like Cargil and the food processing industry and bulk purchasers of farm products such as store chains. Many fear that a series of ongoing mergers and takeovers in the food processing industry to whom the farms sell their products, will lead to further monopoly and cartelisation. This will further adversely affect the plight of the American farmers.

The state subsidy is not confined to farmers alone. Even the privatised electricity and gas supply systems enjoy the benefit of both federal and state subsidies whenever they get into trouble. In India, reform enthusiasts always target the state electricity boards and public sector power producers for the inefficiency and perennial shortages and power cuts. But this New Year, California, industrially the most prosperous US state, had suffered long blackouts (power cuts) for weeks as the private power distributing firms suffered losses and faced financial bankruptcy. The state government had to dole out a subsidy of $ 440 million to restore power supply. Now the state has decided to float bonds worth $ 10 billion to restore normal power supply to the consumers.

Thus shortages, power cuts, power subsidies and bureaucracy are not confined to our state electricity boards alone. With all their attributed efficiency, the private firms running such utilities elsewhere in the USA are also not free from such malaise. Those who routinely lament the huge power subsidy to farmers and power pilferage in unauthorised colonies and slums overlook the huge direct government subsidies to the poor in the USA. The privatised gas and power utilities are not allowed to cut the supply during the winter even if the consumers default in payment. Call it populism or humanitarian consideration. And for those who cannot afford to pay the rates fixed by the private utility firms, the state gives a direct subsidy of $ 400 for a bill cycle. They will only have to get a certification about their financial disability.

Also, the federal and state governments spend huge funds on an annual basis for the security net to differentiate economically disabled sections. Under the Trade Development Assistance scheme, workers who lose jobs due to increased imports are given a regular federal compensation of $ 400 a week. They are also given new job training to help them get new employment. In the USA, which is our own economic model, they hardly deride the enormous subsidies regularly extended to those who are what they call below the median income (our below poverty line). Even a state like Minnesota spends $ 213 million for its half a dozen child care programmes. Families with earnings of less than 75 per cent of the median income are eligible for the state subsidy. Many US states have free schemes to help the schools children of the poorer sections who lag behind in studies.

There are concessional health insurance schemes to the single mothers and their kids. Then there are ‘‘reservations’’ for the deprived sections — such as the condition that private housing and rental complexes should provide substantial percentage of the houses to the poor at affordable rates. What strikes one most is that selective use of the US model by our own reform crowd. They can't see all such visions of the humane face in the USA and hence would wait for a World Bank or Amartya Sen to mention it. As an ordinary visitor what this writer observed at the micro levels has been revealing. With all its advantages and admirably high growth, the market forces have left out large segments of the society. Perhaps this exclusion is essential for the sustenance of the system. These excluded sections are also the victims of the inherent deadly competition for the survival of the individual.

The other aspect is that the state in the USA plays a more activist role in caring for such left-out sections — some thing our pinkies would like to ignore. At a time when we are racing to emulate this global model, it is interesting to note the jerks and jolts inherent in the system that perpetually cause uncertainties and hardships to those who lag behind in the pursuit. They are the worst sufferers of recession and economic slowdown in the USA. In truck plazas, rows of truckers hopelessly wait for orders. Factories and transport are the first to feel the pinch of stagnation in growth. Many truckers had not had any work for weeks. Since the deregulation of industry in 1980, the truckers' plight worsened. Their rates fell substantially even after doubling of their working hours. Many of them fell victims to broken marriages or kidney stone. Already about 1400 companies with more than five trucks have declared financial bankruptcy with all the consequent miseries to the workmen.

In January alone, 65,000 workers have been laid off in the organised sector. In the past six months, a quarter of a million workers have been thrown out of factories. Lack of demand and cut in production have raised the unemployment rate in the USA to 4.2 per cent. There has been a steep fall in the factory index. Added to this has been the mass-scale layoff of surplus workers following the amalgamation of companies. Unlike the earlier recession in 1990, the worst sufferers of the present one are older and unskilled workers. So far, the last hired were to be the first fired. It is no more so this time. Global competition and the quick pace of technological upgradation have made the older and experienced workers more worthless than the younger workers with short tenure.

Medical miracle offers hope of perfect health

FOR about $ 900 parents can protect their new-borns by storing umbilicalblood which contains stem cells, the holy grail of surgeons.

Scientists have only recently discovered how to isolate stem cells, which are now viewed as the holy grail of medicine because they can develop into any kind of cell that the body needs. (Observer)

Male depression epidemic

It seems Australia is experiencing a “depression epidemic”. So much so that Prime Minister John Howard has been prompted to set up a National Depression Initiative.

The disturbing picture of men in crisis is detailed in a Bureau of Statistics article on deaths among people aged 25 to 29 years. Almost two out of five men in this age group who died in 1999 committed suicide. Another 25 per cent died of accidental poisoning, mainly because of alcohol or drugs overdose and almost as many died in transport accidents, some of which could also have been suicide.

Avoidable deaths were much higher among men who had never married or who were divorced than those who were married. Men who had never married were 50 per cent more likely to die and those who had been divorced were 29 per cent more likely to die than their married peers.

The suicide rate among men who had never married in the age bracket was a staggering 50 per 100,000 followed by divorced men at 44 per 100,000. In contrast, the rate among married men was just 17 per 100,000.

Men accounted for more than 70 per cent of all deaths in the age group, 82 per cent of the suicides and 80 per cent of deaths from accidental poisoning. Across the whole population, more than 2,000 men and 490 women were declared to have died from “intentional self-harm” in 1999. (WFS)

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

I spread the heavens over the earth. I am the energy in Brahman, I am the Mother of all. It is for me that Brahman resides in all intellects and it is I who have penetrated all the worlds with my power and am holding them in their places.... Again, apart from the heavens and apart from this earth, I remain always the all-intelligent primal energy, as well as the one intelligent being, perfect and untouched by my magic creation.

— Rig Veda, X.125.3, 7

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God the Mother has within herself the seeds of creation. at the end of a cycle she gives birth to a new world and lives within it.... The spider weaves her thread out of herself and then lives upon it. God the Mother is both the container and the contained.

— Swami Prabhavananda, Spiritual Heritage of India

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Awake, arise, resolve,

And take the banner

Of Truth in thy firm hands;

March forward and annihilate

Those who are evil-spirited

And wicked like serpents.

— Rig Veda, 10.103.13

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O brave warrior,

Pounce upon your enemy

Like an eagle,

And annihilate him.

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Be brave and overcome evils

With daring courage.

Realise thy own inner strength

Fear no one,

Be steady and strong.

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May thy speed be that of a tempest

And thy strength that of a wild horse.

— Yajur Veda, 4.84; 6.35; 11.44

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When an affair is past every other remedy.

It is righteous to unsheathe the sword.

— Guru Gobind Singh, Zafarnamah (Letter of Victory), 22

Ye enlightened men,

Uplift once more

The fallen and the degraded

The lowly and the lorn

Ye illustrious men,

Uplift him who has sinned

Help him to begin life anew.

— Rig Veda, 10.137.1