E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Railway bifurcation plan
THE manner in which the bifurcation of the Eastern Railway has snowballed into a major controversy with Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and Railway Minister Nitish Kumar having toughened their postures is most unfortunate. This will not help either the cause of the Indian Railways or promote national interest. It will only foment regionalism, parochialism and linguistic fanaticism, and exacerbate tensions between West Bengal and Bihar, something which the Vajpayee government needs to prevent at any cost before it spills over to other states.

Corporate corruption
US multinational Xerox Corp’s disclosure last week that its Indian subsidiary, Xerox Modicorp, had been making “improper payments” to unnamed government officials in India should hardly surprise or shock Indians for whom scandals and bribery have become part of routine life. Surprise, if any, is at the company’s late discovery of the malpractice. In its report to the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Xerox has pointed out that the payments — ranging from $ 600,000 to $ 700,000 — were stopped in 2000.

Of swadeshi spirit & videshi money
Disquieting developments in Indian media
Hari Jaisingh
WHAT has made the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) change its principled stand on the entry of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the print media? The move seriously initiated over eight months ago in pro-FDI quarters was quietly dropped by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj after an overall assessment and feedback from some media persons whose principled position they then cared for.

MIDDLE

The gaiety and the guide
Shriniwas Joshi
THE Gaiety Theatre of Shimla, right on The Mall, is a heritage building. It opened with a play “Time will Tell” on May 30, 1887. A body called Shimla Amateur Dramatic Club (ADC) has been managing it. The year 1896 was the best year for theatre in Shimla because the ADC staged 21 full-length English plays. On an average six full-length plays continued to be staged here every year till the onset of World War II.

COMMENTARY

Russia & America: their changing equations
M. S. N. Menon
THE unthinkable has happened: a meeting of Russian and NATO leaders in Italy. Its significance is difficult to over-estimate, says Putin. What is so significant about it? It marked the end of the cold war and the beginning of a friendship between Russia and America. It makes the rest of the world worried.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Why they choose to have baby
MORE than two-thirds of single women who choose to have a baby using donated sperm do so because they fear they are running out of time to find a man they will want to have a child with, new research indicates. In the first study to look at solo mothers using sperm banks, researchers found that fertility problems were not the motivation in most cases.

• Hacker flees with loot from 21 bank accounts
• Skin-to-skin touch beneficial

Pen-friends set for silver jubilee
TWO pen-friends are set to complete the silver jubilee of their letter writing in a journey that saw a sea-change in communications. Sharad Bhardawaj, a Bhopal businessman, and his Indore-based friend Sudhakar Joshi, a State Bank of India employee, have been writing letters to each other daily for the past 25 years.

Caffeine — the new pesticide
WANT to drive the slugs off your lettuces? How about offering them a cappuccino? Scientists at the US Department of Agriculture in Hawaii have discovered that caffeine is a remarkable slug and snail repellant, and believe they can transform it into a clean, environmentally-friendly pesticide.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Railway bifurcation plan

THE manner in which the bifurcation of the Eastern Railway has snowballed into a major controversy with Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and Railway Minister Nitish Kumar having toughened their postures is most unfortunate. This will not help either the cause of the Indian Railways or promote national interest. It will only foment regionalism, parochialism and linguistic fanaticism, and exacerbate tensions between West Bengal and Bihar, something which the Vajpayee government needs to prevent at any cost before it spills over to other states. One of the objectives of the Indian Railways is to promote unity in diversity and not to create barriers between one state and another state. Obviously, after her failure to get the Railways portfolio in the last week’s expansion of the Union Council of Ministers, Ms Banerjee wants to play hard ball with the Vajpayee government. Of course, she has made it clear that she was not particular about the portfolio being offered to her. But the government will have to scrap the decision on the Eastern Railway first before she joins the Cabinet. In favour of her campaign, she has started enlisting support from her friends in the National Democratic Alliance. The support extended to her by the five-member Indian Federal Democratic Party, an NDA ally, suggests that Ms Banerjee would like to form a pressure group within the NDA to continue her crusade. The issue has now taken a serious turn with the Left Front’s decision to fight it out, though it does not want to play second fiddle to Ms Banerjee. To record their protest on Wednesday the Left and Trinamool Congress members walked out of a meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament attached to the Ministry of Railways.

The Bihar-Bengal confrontation could have been avoided had Mr Nitish Kumar demonstrated political maturity and sagacity on the zonal reorganisation plan. Considering the fact that the idea was mooted as far back as 1996, but was put on the backburner because of serious financial implications, there was absolutely no justification for him to rake up the issue now and go ahead with the plan. His motives are suspect and arguments questionable in the background of the serious reservations expressed by the Rakesh Mohan Committee. Mr Nitish Kumar’s argument that the bifurcation was a Union Cabinet decision and hence no question of any review is unconvincing and does not stand the test of scrutiny. A Cabinet decision on any issue cannot be regarded as sacrosanct, final and absolute unless backed by reason, wisdom and jurisprudence. Suffice it to mention, the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India has passed severe strictures against the government and maintained that the zonal reorganisation plan was finalised without any detailed examination and that it would lead to an unproductive expenditure, totally unwarranted when the financial position of the Indian Railways was precarious. Even the Rakesh Mohan Committee Report suggested that the funds being allotted for the zonal reorganisation plan could better be spent on modernisation, track renewal and technological upgradation. Even as Mr Nitish Kumar seems to be too eager to please the people in Bihar, BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley says that the Trinamool Congress is an important ally of the NDA and a solution to the problem can well be found. Clearly, the issue in question is not whether Ms Banerjee joins the Cabinet or not, but whether the Vajpayee government, through decisions such as the one on the Eastern Railway, can afford to trigger similar crises in other states when the other new railway zones are formally constituted. In the larger interest of the country, there is a strong case for the Prime Minister to scrap the Cabinet decision and restore status quo ante.

Corporate corruption

US multinational Xerox Corp’s disclosure last week that its Indian subsidiary, Xerox Modicorp, had been making “improper payments” to unnamed government officials in India should hardly surprise or shock Indians for whom scandals and bribery have become part of routine life. Surprise, if any, is at the company’s late discovery of the malpractice. In its report to the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Xerox has pointed out that the payments — ranging from $ 600,000 to $ 700,000 — were stopped in 2000. It seems the tough posture adopted by the SEC after Enron and WorldCom reported scandalous auditing practices had forced Xerox to clean up its account books in which it discovered a $ 2 billion revenue gap. That again reflects poorly on the USA’s once widely admired accounting system called GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). Set up in 1983, Xerox Modicorp, in which the US parent company holds a 68 per cent stake while 28 per cent is held by Mr B. K. Modi, has been selling copiers, printers, scanners and fax machines in this country. Almost every government department has bought such machines in recent years and it will be difficult to pinpoint the bribe-takers unless Xerox officials in India have maintained records and cooperate with the investigating agencies. Mr Modi has already washed his hands off the whole affair and laid the responsibility squarely on the US partner. Although the Department of Company Affairs has ordered an inspection of the account books of the Indian subsidiary and the Central Vigilance Commissioner has also sought details from various government departments about their dealings with the company, little concrete is expected to come out of the exercise. The government regulators and watchdogs keep sleeping until jolted by media reports. Where were they when bribes were paid to get government orders all these years?

The widely held belief in this country that multinational companies use their financial muscle to have their way through the rule-ridden administrative network gets further strengthened with Xerox’s confession. Another US company, Enron, had earlier made it known that it had spent $ 20 million on “educating” Indians about its activities. That “education” was confined to the privileged few who mattered. The trend, however, is alarming. This will cast a shadow of doubt over the government’s disinvestment programme, specially when public sector assets are being hurriedly disposed of and states too are increasingly adopting this popular route to easy money. Although it may not be possible to root out corruption totally from this land where money changes hands even to buy coffins for martyrs, the loopholes, wherever noticeable, can at least be effectively plugged. The government, according to reports, proposes to take away the regulatory powers of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and constitute a new regulator for the accounting profession with penal powers, hitherto vested with the high courts. That many Indian companies manipulate their account books to inflate profits or evade taxes is common knowledge, yet there is little check on them. It is time to launch an operation cleanup for corporate India to promote healthy and transparent business practices.

FRANKLY SPEAKING

Of swadeshi spirit & videshi money
Disquieting developments in Indian media
Hari Jaisingh

WHAT has made the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) change its principled stand on the entry of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the print media? The move seriously initiated over eight months ago in pro-FDI quarters was quietly dropped by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj after an overall assessment and feedback from some media persons whose principled position they then cared for.

This time it looks like a different ball game. The Centre has allowed itself to be dictated by the FDI lobbyists in the media, the government, the BJP, the RSS and, ironically, even the Swadeshi Jagran Manch of the Sangh Parivar. The lobbying was intense and well-orchestrated.

Around the same period the Standing Committee of Parliament on Information Technology came out with a comprehensive report on the subject opposing the proposal for foreign equity in the Press. It said that the foreign investor coming to India to invest in the newspaper industry would do so not merely due to the lure of returns but "because of the tempting prospect of gaining enormous clout in the socio-political life of this country."

The landmark report also underlined the potential of "polluting" the cultural life and changing the "basic orientation" of the Indian mind. The Union Cabinet, however, saw things differently.

There is a visible change of heart among those who normally swear by the swadeshi spirit, including hardliners like Mr Murli Manohar Joshi, Mr L.K. Advani, Mr Arun Shourie and many others. Even Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee backed the proposition. The broad argument of the BJP leaders was that if TV channels could telecast news from outside the country and with possible entry of foreign media moghul Rupert Murdock into domestic television channels, there was no point in putting curbs on foreign equity in the print media. This only shows selective and distorted thinking in the absence of an integrated media policy both for the electronic and the print media. Adhocism is the standard practice of the government in most critical areas of national life.

One can argue both ways. But the moot point is: how do we wish the Indian media evolve? Of course, it has to grow in its natural way. But the critical question remains whether we want to treat it a consumer item, or would like to see it in a larger national perspective of the 1955 Cabinet resolution.

I am all for free flow of news and views. I do not subscribe to the concept of pre-censorship or curbs. The Indian Press has been quite liberal and forward looking in accommodating varied viewpoints, howsoever unpalatable. We have also been practising the concept of freedom of the Press objectively and without being selective.

I am in favour a broad-minded approach to examining problems and issues. What is disquieting is the way the entry of foreign equity in the print media has been justified. One argument is that language publications will die under the impact of some monopoly printing houses.

True, certain malpractices are resorted to by some publications. But to say that language publications are languishing for want of funds is wrong. How impressively the once small-time Hindi papers have grown both in circulation and revenue is an open secret. From one town they have gone places indulging in the same malpractices they accused some "monopoly houses" of dabbling in!

Herein lies the real problem. The newspaper industry has been totally commercialised and it, understandably, follows cut-throat practices of most business establishments.

Nothing wrong in running newspapers professionally and as a fair business proposition. The danger lies in allowing them to be playthings of foreign money and vested interests in the name of freedom of the Press.

It is a pity that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Cabinet has shown indecent haste in this matter without examining its serious implications on the polity. The problem with the BJP establishment is that it often tends to be guided by the small-time trader's mentality and, as a result, conveniently overlooks the larger issue of principles and national sensitivities. This happens when business interests and the lure of foreign money are allowed to dominate the official thinking for reasons I do not wish to spell out at this juncture.

There are wheels within wheels and it is rather difficult to pinpoint which wheel is rotating for what consideration and at whose bidding. What is noteworthy is that the media today, while playing its role effectively, looks like a huge politico-business bazaar. That's fine so long as newspapers play their part honestly and objectively in public interest.

We cannot strengthen our democratic institutions with closed minds. It is equally pertinent to say that we cannot have a healthy media if matters of national and public importance are prompted and controlled by vested interests and foreign money power.

The Sangh Parivar surely knows this. Still, it is somewhat baffling that it should have changed its track from swadeshi to videshi. A lot remains be answered.

Ms Sushma Swaraj was certainly candid in stating after the Cabinet decision on June 25, 2002, that "the Sangh Parivar is not totally opposed to it (foreign equity) and, don't forget, some people belonging to the Sangh are in the Cabinet and are with the decision." However, since the decision has a large bearing the people would like to know what exactly prompted the government to reverse the 1955 Cabinet resolution.

Opinions among newspapers and editors vary. I would not like to go into the details of who favours what. But a close study does indicate that the most vociferous supporters of FDI in the print media have some visible and invisible BJP links.

True, magazines and newspapers have their own business and political interests to promote. They have every right to do so. Still, one would like to know the motivating factors behind those proprietor-owned magazines and newspapers which favour the entry of foreign money. As it is, we know the channels through which foreign money flows in the country.

Some non-resident Indians (NRIs) could be prompted by genuine desire to invest in newspapers and magazines and make their presence felt here. We shall hear a lot about this in the months to come. What is relevant for the present is to understand the foreign money factor in the BJP's thinking. What has happened to its swadeshi plank? How come it discarded its earlier principles and sensitivity in this area.

Twentysix per cent equity is not a small sum. Who knows 26 per cent could one day become 62 per cent if the BJP's present thinking takes a further nosedive.

The Information and Broadcasting Minister has certainly ensured full safeguards for maintaining Indian control on the editorial functions and management of newspapers. But we can very well imagine the possible fallout of foreign money on the print media.

The beauty of Indian democracy is its secular credentials, a liberal value system and the traditional concept of dharma, which these days is honoured more in breach than in practice.

Information has to be free. Views can be varied. What can be disquieting is an attempt to control the thought process through foreign money. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Herein lies the danger to free swadeshi thinking from the grassroots upward.

Not that there are any curbs on the flow of views from the West. Most Indian newspapers are full of western viewpoints and news reports, but without giving them the liberty to control indigenous thoughts.

I may be taking an extreme position. But it is worthwhile to depict a worst possible scenario so that we are on our guard. One extreme example could be of the ISI tentacles in Kashmir and other parts of the country. This is officially acknowledged and talked about. What if the ISI agents organise benami transactions to control some Indian publications without anyone knowing who is up to what? The damage would be done by the time the official machinery realises the mistake.

The point I wish to make is that we must understand fully the grave implications of the decision.

We already know what foreign funds have done to some of our educational institutions and how the seeds of fundamentalism have grown in madarsas and other educational institutions. I am surprised that the BJP, which is generally obsessed with Pakistan, should have ignored the most sensitive aspects of the flow of foreign funds before taking such a crucial decision for business interests of some publications.

What is really surprising is the RSS endorsement of the proposal. It formally adopted a resolution last Sunday at Kurukshetra in this regard. Equally surprising is the volte face of the Swadeshi Manch. I understand that the Swadeshi Jagran Manch has blessed the foreign equity move, though Mr Gurumurthy told me over the phone that this was not so.

Apparently, what I see today is a new media sangam of "swadeshi spirit" and videshi money. Who will have the upper hand in this "holy dip" is anybody's guess! I am keeping my fingers crossed while on principle I continue to have reservations on the Union Cabinet's new-found love for foreign equity in the print media.

This is certainly not a priority area for foreign direct investment. Priority areas for me are modernisation of agriculture, industry and infrastructure. Is anyone in South Block and North Block listening? Obviously, if it comes to business interests of their supporters, then the views of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar are adjusted and modified for the sake of politico-business convenience. Swadeshism is in for transformation. Globalisation, indeed!

MIDDLE

The gaiety and the guide
Shriniwas Joshi

THE Gaiety Theatre of Shimla, right on The Mall, is a heritage building. It opened with a play “Time will Tell” on May 30, 1887. A body called Shimla Amateur Dramatic Club (ADC) has been managing it. The year 1896 was the best year for theatre in Shimla because the ADC staged 21 full-length English plays. On an average six full-length plays continued to be staged here every year till the onset of World War II. During the war period there was almost no dramatic activity. The number of plays dropped after that and, now, it has reduced to one or two by the ADC and a couple more by different amateur groups of the town. The ADC runs a “sit, chat and drink” corner besides card-rooms for its members who have to abide by a defined dress code.

The other day a half-baked guide whose familiarity with English appeared to be as far as the nut is from the gut was explaining to three Mesdemoiselles the profile of The Gaiety. Despite bad manners, I gave my ear to the chitchat. The guide’s tongue started palpitating: “In this theatre first drama happened in 1887 and many dramas used to happen here after that. Our films’ great old time hero who was a singer also, K.L. Sehgal, played the role of “hijra”, half-man: half-woman here. Do you understand what I say?” “Is it like the character of Hamlet-half hero: half villain?” the question was replied in question form by one, “I do not know Hamlet. I know only Omelet”, it was supposed to be a joke and the guide laughed heartily at it.

“What do they do here now?” was the instant query of one of the guided ‘Miss-iles’ that forced the guide to put a check on his laughter that completely matched the bad weather of the day. He said: “There is a proverb in Hindi that those days have gone to air when Mr Khalil Khan used to fly Fakta, a kind of bird. In other words, plays have flown with English.” “What is this Fakta? Can we see it here today? asked one of the auditors. “No, but you can see a Bragta or Justa or Janarta (common surnames of Himachalis)”, said the guide. “Do they also fly?” asked one. “It depends on which chair are they sitting. If the chair is high, they fly; otherwise they go by bus.”

This reply totally foxed the threesome. “If no drama, what does the club do?” queried one of them. “Today-tomorrow (probably, he meant aajkal’-these days) mostly cards are played here, also walks liquor at cheap rates. I must tell you one funny rule of this club. Woman can go inside with open throat but not man, he has to close his throat either by necktie or muffler.”

The climax desired that I disappear from the scene.

COMMENTARY

Russia & America: their changing equations
M. S. N. Menon

THE unthinkable has happened: a meeting of Russian and NATO leaders in Italy. Its significance is difficult to over-estimate, says Putin.

What is so significant about it? It marked the end of the cold war and the beginning of a friendship between Russia and America. It makes the rest of the world worried.

What is it that brought Russia and America together? The terrorist attack of September 11 on America, says the NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson. He says: “Their criminal violence has brought East and West together and has made us stronger.”

But is that all? I do not think so. It has also brought together Rome and Byzantine, the Roman Church and the Orthodox Church. In short, it has brought together the white race under one civilisation in the face of a civilisational conflict.

Perhaps, it is more than all these. It marks the emergence of an invincible power grouping — of America, Russia and Europe. It may rule the world for centuries.

Am I exaggerating? Perhaps. But I cannot rule out these thoughts. But on this later.

Churchill used to talk of Russia as the “barbarous hinterland” of Europe. It was Peter the Great, who first adopted the French way of life and language. And during the reign of Katherine the Great, the Russian aristocracy spoke only French.

But the Russian Revolution broke up the growing unity of Europe and Russia. With Russia going atheistic and adopting a proletarian culture, it became the barbarous hinterland again — the “Evil Empire” in the words of President Ronald Reagan.

And yet many things continued to tie the Russians to the Europeans — for example, music and literature, ballet and painting and so on. But official Russia claimed that it belonged to both East and West. But the Russian hankered after the West only. Communism made no difference. Which explains why, the moment the gold war ended, Gorbachev talked of a “Common European Home.” America was not in it.

America would not allow a common European home which included Russia in it. It would eclipse America. America had not ceased to think in cold war terms. It still felt the need to break up Russia. America has an obsession with Russia’s size and resources. It feared the emergence of Russia again as a rival. So, western economic assistance to Russia was niggardly. The idea was to keep Russia weak.

This naturally angered the Russians. They voted for the nationalists and communists, who were both anti-America. And they made friendship with China and even thought of a trilateral force of Russia, China and India.

What brought the Russians and Americans together finally was fear of the new threat — from terrorists. Russia was already under attack in Chechnya. America became a victim on September 11.

Today the fear — it is a pathology in the USA — is of terrorists getting hold of mass annihilation weapons. The war against them can be won only if the world is united against them, not when it is divided. Counter-terror must spell out the message of doom to the terrorists.

But can Russia and America work together? It depends on Bush and Putin. They are an odd couple. But their chemistry worked. They trusted each other. Bush said: “I was able to get a sense of his soul...” Thus began their friendship. And Putin himself said of Bush that his “mental reasoning is very deep, very profound.”

And yet a secret report of the Pentagon carried plans for a nuclear attack on Russia! America works at different levels.

The creation of a Russian-NATO Council was perhaps the final declaration of trust in Russia. And yet a British initiative to give Russia wide decision-making powers in the NATO alliance was vetoed by the USA!

Putin has finally agreed to NATO’s eastward expansion. In exchange, Bush has agreed to a new nuclear arms reduction treaty. (But while Russia wants to destroy the surplus stockpile, America wants to store them — a major difference between the two.) The USA has also offered to support Russia’s entry into the WTO and a bigger voice in NATO.

In the meantime, there is a trade war between the two. The USA has imposed a 30 per cent tariff on Russian steel. In retaliation, Russia has banned American poultry. America has threatened not to cancel the Jonathan Vanik Amendment, which discriminates against Russia in trade.

So what can we infer from all these? Just this that they don’t trust each other fully, but are already to work together on a give and take basis. Only time will tell how sincere they are.

Russia is not ready to damage its traditional links with Iran, Iraq, Syria, PLO and others. Nor will Moscow give up its special relations with countries like India and China. All these will embarrass the USA.

Russia has indeed opted for democracy. But it has not embraced capitalism. Nor will it in the light of its recent experience. How can it, when American workers are today working longer hours for the same pay and fewer benefits compared to their peers 30 years ago!

Bush wants a shield against the threats from missiles. But he wants the sword (bomb and missiles) too to go with it.

In other words, he wants primacy in both defence and offence and in space and earth. Neither Russia nor China can be happy about this, Russia because it hasn’t the resources to go for a shield, and China because it cannot catch up on technology. But they will in their hearts never agree to the new US defence doctrines. China fears that its bombs and missiles will become redundant, that they will cease to deter.

But America and China have such deep economic relations that they cannot disturb their mutual trust causing great damage to both.

One can, therefore, never be sure of the intentions of US strategists. But one thing is clear: there can be no challenge to American supremacy for two or three decades.

In the name of fighting terror, American troops are already in Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia. This has the approval of Russia and India. Earlier, Russia would never have permitted US troops in Central Asia, if we are to go by the Cuban episode. Today, the USA cannot exploit Central Asia without Russian cooperation. This also explains the new-found friendship.

US troops are today well established in Uzbekistan. And the USA is expanding the Manes air base in Kyrghyzstan, where 3,000 US troops are to be stationed. These will free the USA from its dependence on Pakistan and Afghanistan. An important foreign policy consideration.

The Caspian Sea is the most vital region for the USA today. It can provide an alternative to the Gulf in a time of crisis. It can mean less dependence on the Arabs at a time when the Arab-Jewish conflict is inexorably moving to an explosion. Another important consideration.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Why they choose to have baby

MORE than two-thirds of single women who choose to have a baby using donated sperm do so because they fear they are running out of time to find a man they will want to have a child with, new research indicates.

In the first study to look at solo mothers using sperm banks, researchers found that fertility problems were not the motivation in most cases.

Dr Clare Murray, a researcher at the Family and Child Psychology Research Center at City University in London has said this at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Vienna. Reuters

Hacker flees with loot from 21 bank accounts

A Chinese hacker broke into the Singapore computers of 21 Internet banking customers and fled to Malaysia with their money.

DBS Bank, Singapore’s largest, said the 30-year-old man made off with 62,000 Singapore dollars (37,000 U.S. dollars) on June 19 without breaching or triggering the institution’s Internet defences, The Straits Times reported.

Investigations so far showed the bank’s computer security systems were not breached, and the hacking was not carried out by one of the bank’s employees. Instead, it was likely the culprit hacked into the victims’ computers, obtaining their user-identification codes and passwords to access their online accounts. DPA

Skin-to-skin touch beneficial

Skin-to-skin contact between premature infants and their parents benefits both, researchers say.

The care involves allowing parents to cuddle up to premature infants for two to three hours each day, even if the baby is still attached to an oxygen tube. The babies are placed on the chest of a parent and kept warm by the adult’s body heat, making for a closer interaction between child and parent.

Infants receiving kangaroo care were more socially alert and their developmental scores were higher at six months than those who were left in incubators, the study said. It was published in the July issue of Pediatrics, the monthly journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Reuters

Pen-friends set for silver jubilee

TWO pen-friends are set to complete the silver jubilee of their letter writing in a journey that saw a sea-change in communications.

Sharad Bhardawaj, a Bhopal businessman, and his Indore-based friend Sudhakar Joshi, a State Bank of India employee, have been writing letters to each other daily for the past 25 years.

Sharad says their first letter was posted on July 1, 1977. “Initially our family members opposed our letter-writing, but when they saw our determination, they started praising us.”

“When we started our programme, the price of one inland letter was 15 paise,” said Sharad. The letters they write relate to a wide range of topics, including political, social and personal.

“We do not have any aspiration to get a place in the Guinness Book”, Sharad said. “Our day starts with a cup of tea and an inland letter and we hope to continue this exercise for the rest of our lives.” UNI

Caffeine — the new pesticide

WANT to drive the slugs off your lettuces? How about offering them a cappuccino? Scientists at the US Department of Agriculture in Hawaii have discovered that caffeine is a remarkable slug and snail repellant, and believe they can transform it into a clean, environmentally-friendly pesticide.

They made the find while they were field testing a spray against an introduced species of frog that is a local pest.

Quite by chance, they found that a one-to-two per cent solution of caffeine killed slugs and snails, and a concentration as low as 0.01 per cent was enough to deter the critters from chomping on leaves. A cup of instant coffee contains about 0.05 per cent caffeine, and the brewed version is about a third stronger. Quite why caffeine has this dramatic effect on molluscs is unclear, the researchers report in Nature. AFP

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Virtue is the base on which the man who is wise can train his heart and make his wisdom grow.

Thus shall the strenuous Bhikkhu undeceived, Unravel all the tangled skein of life.

— Anupitaka Literature (Milinda Panho)

***

— Lu Tsou