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Saturday,
January 4, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Death of distance Election-eve
“relief” |
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Defying
the law IT is inconceivable that Defence Minister George Fernandes is not aware of the Supreme Court ruling on the politics of bandh. Yet, he took it upon himself to lead the Bihar bandh on Friday against the killing of three students in a fake encounter earlier this week. It was not only Mr Fernandes’ conduct that was legally and politically incorrect.
What
ails education today
Mobile
Man(ia)
‘Black
money can yield 4 lakh cr revenue’
What a New Year!
Sex,
back-stabbing thoughts in offices
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Death of distance THE steep cut in STD rates announced by India’s cellular companies on Thursday will benefit those mobile users who make long-distance calls. A flat rate of Rs 2.99 per minute will be charged for cell-to-cell calls made for a distance of 50 km or more at any time of the day or night. Earlier, the charges ranged from Rs 2.40 to Rs 9 per
minute. The number of real beneficiaries may not be very large at present, but the rate cut will encourage more people to make long-distance calls more frequently now. The business of a large number of landline STD operators will be affected as cellular STD calls will be cheaper in comparison. This is only the beginning of the process of tariff reductions. “Yeh bakra kishton mein katega”, observed the Bharti group Chairman, referring obviously to the increasing pain from the growing
competition. The view that competition makes industry more efficient, ensures survival of the fittest and benefits consumers in general has once again been proved right. These tariff reductions by cellular operators are not voluntary, but have been forced by competition from “limited mobility” providers like Reliance Infocomm and the Tatas offering WLL services at much cheaper rates. On December 28 Reliance Infocomm had rolled out its WLL services package countrywide at a single price of 40 paise per minute for STD calls within its own network with the slogan “call national, pay local”. Its services, the company hoped, will lead to the “death of distance” and saving on time. This in turn will give a boost to the economy as work efficiency will increase and costs, both of the individual and the industry, will
decline. The lower rates are sure to increase the mobile phone penetration in the country. There are some related issues that need consideration. Why have the cellular companies been allowed so far to charge such high rates? Their profit margin in the past — when the airtime rates were as high as Rs 16 per minute — can be well imagined. One explanation is that they are required to pay a hefty licence fee to the government, which sold different circles to companies and in turn allowed these firms to fleece the customers. The basic service providers pay lower fees and charge lower rates. The presence of Communication Minister Pramod Mahajan at the launch of the Reliance Infocomm services earlier and at Thursday’s function to announce rate cuts was unwarranted as it could send wrong signals and specially because the state-owned BSNL is going to be the loser in the competition from these private companies. According to one estimate, BSNL will be forced to slash its tariffs and, as a result, take a revenue hit of some Rs 2,000 crore. This raises another question: should the government run telecommunication, or for that matter any other companies, which charge higher rates than those by the private sector? The globally accepted economic wisdom is that the government’s role should be confined to levelling the field and let the companies fight it out among themselves. |
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Election-eve “relief” GOVERNMENT employees numbering about four lakh in Himachal Pradesh comprise a formidable and organised vote bank. No party can afford to win an election if it happens to make the mistake of annoying them. If one includes their family members, the employees command about 15 lakh votes — full 40 per cent of the total electorate. The number is large enough to make or mar the chances of any party. A ruling party has all the more reasons to be wary of their wrath. Just recall what happened to Mr Shanta Kumar some years ago. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal knows that his decision to withdraw LTC facilities and other sops has not gone too well with them. That is why he is on an employee-wooing spree of late. “Incentives” rain in on them as well as retirees and family pensioners. He has also been laying various foundation stones and inaugurating projects with a vengeance. The latest in the drive to win friends and influence people is a “personal” letter to all of them seeking their support in accelerating the pace of development in the hill state. It has reportedly been distributed through the Information and Public Relations Department to all government employees and elected representatives of panchayati raj institutions. Mind you, he is not canvassing for votes at all, but what is hidden between the lines is bolder than what is said there in black and white. While every extra penny is welcome in the household of a salaried class person in this age of rising prices and high cost of living, the timing of the incentives is more than faintly suspicious. Mr Dhumal is certainly not emulating Santa Claus. His benevolence obviously has more to do with the approaching elections rather than the Christmas just gone by. How far the move will succeed is anybody’s guess because experience has made the employees hard boiled and worldlywise. They extract whatever benefits they can from various leaders but still vote according to their choice. That does not mean that they are lenient towards the party that happens to have rubbed them the wrong way. It is just that they may not go wholly along with even that one which woos them in style. In any case, the restrictions ordained by the Election Commission will come into operation soon enough. For now, what matters most is whether the state can bear the burden of the incentives already announced. Surprisingly, the Opposition Congress has not raised as much hue and cry as was expected of it. Perhaps that is because it is badly divided and is yet to put on its election shoes. |
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Defying the law IT is inconceivable that Defence Minister George Fernandes is not aware of the Supreme Court ruling on the politics of bandh. Yet, he took it upon himself to lead the Bihar bandh on Friday against the killing of three students in a fake encounter earlier this week. It was not only Mr Fernandes’ conduct that was legally and politically incorrect. The bandh in effect enjoyed the blessing of the Centre because the Bharatiya Janata Party and most of its National Democratic Alliance partners had thrown their weight behind the patently illegal act of forcing daily wage earners and shopkeepers to surrender their right to livelihood under political duress. The apex court had in November, 1997, upheld a full Bench judgement of the Kerala High Court that declared the calling of a bandh by any association, organisation or political party as illegal and unconstitutional. In other words the BJP-led NDA by sponsoring the bandh against the Rashtriya Janata Party-led state government wilfully and knowingly committed an act that was both illegal and unconstitutional. When the supreme lawmakers of the land display such criminal indifference to the letter and spirit of the law and the provisions of the Constitution, what can one say when political activism at the state and district levels shows glimpses of anarchy. What was the stated objective of the Bihar bandh that gave vandals a free hand to damage public and private property? To express anger over the killing of three students in a fake encounter by a junior police officer? Public anger a day after the cold-blooded murder by a trigger-happy cop was justified. Police van were brunt and public property damaged by angry and leaderless protesters. Thereafter, politically myopic elements in Delhi had the destructive idea of taking advantage of the unrest caused by the killing of the young men. The BJP-NDA political protest would have been justified, in spite of the Supreme Court ruling, if the fake encounter was ordered by the political leadership in Bihar. According to available evidence the cop, Shams-e-Alam, acted on his own. The bandh could have been justified had the state government tried to shield the guilty cop. Alam has been charged with murder and has been put in jail while the police is completing the necessary formalities for presenting a formal chargesheet against him in the appropriate court. Look at the colossal national loss that was caused by the bandh. As many as 115 trains passing through Bihar were cancelled as a precautionary measure. It was not just the bread earners in Bihar who were held to ransom by the political outfits that are in power at the Centre. Millions of businessmen from other states, and even countries, having dealings with counterparts in Bihar had to suffer losses because of the illegal and unjustified Bihar bandh. Will the apex court take notice of its ruling against bandhs and strikes and reprimand the defiant politicians? |
What ails education today IT is unfortunate that we have not concentrated on effective teaching and evaluation in the country. Two things are most essential for a meaningful teaching-learning process: adequate faculty and proper assessment. However, on both scores much remains to be done in almost every state. Without these two, all talk of reforms in education is a cry in the wilderness. Educators initiate the teaching process and sustain it all along; examinations ensure and confirm its effectiveness. There are around 300 million children in the country. First, we should have sufficient number of competent regular teachers. Then, they should regularly attend education institutions and teach there. Thereafter, the question of reforms arises. When we are not on sound footing at the very first stage, all concerns for reforms in education are futile. It is interesting to examine their lot in the prevailing scenario. There is unusual shortage of teachers in almost every region. Schools and colleges are rapidly opened, mostly on political considerations. In a small state more than 200 schools have less than 20 students each. And, staff positions are neither timely created nor filled. The general reason put forward is the acute paucity of money. If a severe financial crunch is there, why are we indiscreetly expanding the educational infrastructure? In West Bengal alone, 15,000 posts of headmaster in primary schools and 1,257 in government-aided senior secondary schools are reportedly lying vacant for years together. And the state has around 4,000 single-teacher primary schools. The explanation given by the Education Minister, Mr Kanti Biswas, is wholly untenable. He feels helpless, and calls the situation “quite normal. The government has very little to do since more than 500 to 600 teachers retire every year and we could not find people to replace them.” In fact, governments often seem to accord little priority to education. They usually appoint teachers on reduced emoluments on contract, stopgap, adhoc, temporary, voluntary basis. Then, these teachers form their “unions” and persistently protest for regularisation. We have a large number of teachers’ unions or federations. A tiny hill state, Himachal Pradesh, has more than 30 such unions. All this adversely affects students’ studies. We dare not blame teachers, because they can hit back and spoil votes; so we hit at the inanimate system, because it can’t strike back. And, the brunt of causal teaching or shortages is largely borne by the poor students or families residing in rural belts of the country. The Pratichi Trust report paints a gory yet realistic picture of the state of basic education in West Bengal. We may not be able to provide immediately several other facilities in schools and colleges, but teachers are a must. It is sad and bad that we have not ensured this minimum in several cases. Now the ray of hope lies in students who have begun to realise this, at the secondary stage. In a state, an old prestigious school has been functioning without a headmaster for last 13 years. What its one student points out is applicable for many other education institutions as well: “As there is no headmaster in our school, most of the teachers come just for the sake of attendance. Classes are irregular and syllabi are rarely covered on time.” And the tragedy is that students, especially at the lower level, and parents cannot assert themselves or influence the system, whereas the ruling parties claim that they have done wonderfully well. A state education minister used to observe, though in a lighter vein: “I should be awarded a Padmashri as I am running the department without teachers.” Parents come to know about the progress of their wards when regular assessment is there. But this is opposed on political or ideological grounds. Some states thought of introducing these tests and a public examination at the Vth class to make teachers much more accountable and responsible. However primary school teachers oppose the proposal tooth and nail for obvious reasons, and political parties can’t afford to offend them. So thereby hangs a tale in which only poor children are hanged. Those who matter and operate the system are aware of it, and feel compelled to send their own children to privately managed public schools where consistent assessment is done as a rule. Free education constitutes a free wastage of children’s time and life. Then, the conduct of examinations has been faulty in several regions. All universities provide for revaluation for scripts, but very few of the 34 school education boards give this facility, perhaps because they know what they know. Examinees have to go to courts to seek justice. And, at times during scrutiny and revaluation, wide disparities come to notice. The post-publication scrutiny of this year’s West Bengal Higher Secondary Examination results makes this abundantly clear: the marks of 2,077 out of 18,891 were revised upwards, and as many as 69 failed candidates passed. This is true for numerous examining bodies as well. Once in the PG 3rd Semester Examination of a university, almost all students had failed. A few passed in third division. However, many passed creditably on the revaluation of scripts. The problem is that many school education boards do no revaluation, nor can all examinees apply for reassessment through courts or others for various reasons. But three things are quite clear. One, teachers whose evaluation is defective in some cases must have erred in others as well. Two, only candidates suffer on account of teachers’ fault, their erratic evaluation. Practically nothing happens to instructors. Three, the entire system is defective, but evaluators are more to blame. In fact, in the entire process teachers are most important; they make or mar the system. But, unfortunately, many of them strike work during teaching or evaluation days, to get their demands accepted at the cost of students’ studies. The common man feels that basically they are to blame for various ills of the education system. According to the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Amaritya Sen, lack of responsive administrative and inspection mechanism (and not paucity of resources) is at the root of it. To remedy the situation, we should make sincere and composite endeavours. Owing to the unusually large number of examinees in future, it has to be a large-scale operation. In
education we should specially stress teaching and evaluation processes and revamp them at all stages. Since teachers have such a central role to play in the education system, we have to think afresh about their selection, assessment, motivation and work culture. Their training and selection processes should be made very rigorous. While devoted and dedicated teachers should be encouraged, shirkers and defaulters should be severely dealt with. The task is not easy but it is surely worth undertaking, since it vitally concerns the future generation, the youth of the country. The writer is former Adviser (Education), Himachal Pradesh Government. |
Mobile Man(ia) MAN is a mobile animal. He loves to move up but not down. Moving to and fro is the same thing though. His new destinations are distant and dangerous. No more the neighbour’s house for gossip-mongering. No more the adjoining city for shopping spree. His aim is “To follow knowledge, like a sinking star/Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.” One reason is that man is materialistic by nature. He is always looking for green pastures. The elusive El Dorado. The cornucopia. Another reason, a nobler one, is his adventurous spirit. This sets him on the unchartered seas and now the enchanting and unsullied space. The moon and the mars are man’s new destinations. Already some rich persons of the world are said to have purchased plots on the moon, which they want to colonise in the next 15 years. These are grandiose dreams. For grand guys. But I want to talk about smaller men and their big dreams. The yuppy class. What is a yuppy? Some people call him Manmmon’s puppy! You can easily recognise him. His mobile phone is an integral mark of his personality. Now the mobile phone may be a very useful instrument. But it is mostly misused. A driver using mobile phone in a moving vehicle is not a pleasant sight. In an ongoing conference, a dozen mobile phones ringing together in the participants’ pockets is not soothing music. In buses, trains and aeroplanes, it is a source of nuisance. The other day, I faced two awkward situations. While returning from Delhi to Shimla, I had just occupied my seat in the Kalka Shatabdi. In came a young man and sat beside me. He dialled his mobile phone. A lady responded. After a stormy spell of sweet nothings, some news from the other end aroused his anger. His extreme concern and affection revealed that his talking partner was very dear to him. “Bevkoof, stupid foolish”, he charged. At last he became cool again. To cap it all, his “I am in the middle” message winced me, as I was the lucky window seat occupier. Needless to write about his continued professional prattle with others. I am not an eavesdropper. But closing your ears is not as easy as closing your eyes. The same day, earlier in the afternoon, the experience for me was more embarrassing. I was attending a conference in the National Habitat Centre. I stood in a queue for what looked like lavish lunch. Just when I reached the beginning of the buffet and the gentleman ahead of me picked up his plate, his mobile phone began to beep. He stood still and began to talk. Reluctant to jump the queue, I also waited. For he neither stepped aside nor beckoned me to go ahead. But those behind me looked at me accusingly. Luckily, sensing that a score of eager lunch eaters with hungry looks were staring at him, he began to move with an empty plate. That made sense as he intended to serve himself as soon as the confab ceased. But that was uncertain. By this time, I was already in the grip of an awkward idea. For a plateful of delicacies, I was creeping like a snail. So after taking a couple of delicacies, I quit the queue. In such a situation, who is the villain of the piece? The mobile phone or its owner? To sound a little neutral, call it mobile mania! The day may not be far off when the apex court will have to intervene to curb this mobile menace. |
‘Black money can yield 4 lakh cr revenue’ Excerpts of the interview: Q: How would you respond to the suggestions made by the Kelkar Committee report on direct and indirect taxes? In broad terms, taxation, both direct and indirect, are schemes of the larger overall policy framework called the public finance policy. Taxation is only one part of the fiscal policy regime. So whatever is done on the taxation front should be in the context of the overall fiscal policy regime and not independently. The Kelkar Committee has no such view on the public finance and the fiscal policy regime and that is a major lacunae. If we address some aspects of the fiscal policy in isolation from other aspects then there is the danger of running into contradictions. There is no point in suggesting on what to do on direct taxes and what to do on indirect taxes without taking an overview of the public finance policy paradigm. In the present scenario, the tax/GDP ratio has fallen after 1991. Our Budget is in a crisis. There is a fiscal deficit which refuses to come under control. Capital expenditure out of the Budget has been declining. Infrastructure and capital formation have been a problem. Industrial slowdown has been there for the last three years and we are experiencing a cyclical phenomenon in which periodically industry goes up for about 12 months and comes down after that. The agricultural rate of growth has come down in the last many years because of inadequate capital formation. The Kelkar Committee report does not address the macro problems and I would say it has taken a very narrow, isolated and ad-hoc view of the primary problems afflicting the economy today. Q: But don’t you think that the Kelkar Committee has made an attempt at reforming the tax structure in the country? Taxation is an instrument of fiscal policy. And it needs to be looked at like that and not as a tool of revenue generation. How you raise resources and how you spend them is all inter-related. Further, the Kelkar Committee is not a political committee. It was supposed to be a technical committee and therefore they should have taken a purely technical view of the matter and not be strained by any political considerations. If a group of politicians was called upon to suggest ways for reforming the tax structure, it was understandable. The Kelkar Committee should have laid down the suggestions on the basis of what it thinks is best for the economy and should have left at that. The politicians would have decided its acceptability later on. Q:
Don’t you see any positives in the report? Yes, in the interim report there is at least one positive feature which fitted into the overall fiscal policy framework — namely the simplification of direct taxation and to some extent indirect taxation. The committee should have clearly stated the simplification of the taxation structure would directly attack the parallel black economy. Q: What are your views on taxing agricultural income? In principle they should be taxed on all income and all property. But in reality the government is likely to get next to nothing from agriculture. It is barking on the wrong tree. The reason is very simple. Agriculture is a declining sector. Its weight in the GDP has fallen from 55 per cent in 1947 to roughly 20 per cent presently. A sector which is declining cannot have very high tax buoyancy. Secondly, agriculture is spread out over the whole country, whereas the tertiary sector and the secondary sector are concentrated in the urban areas. When it is not possible to collect taxes from these two sectors where a black economy of the size of Rs one lakh crore exists, I don’t think it is possible to collect taxes from agriculture where no accounts are maintained. I don’t
think the Kelkar Committee had taken a practical view on this and it amounts to inverse populism to please the new lobbies and yuppie class who think that since they are taxed, agriculture should also be taxed. Q: What is size of the black economy in the country presently? The size of the black economy in the country is presently around 40 per cent of the GDP. This translates into approximately Rs 10 lakh crore. Effectively, our Budget is missing out Rs 4 lakh crore of tax revenue. This is three times the current fiscal deficit and much much higher than the expected direct tax revenue of Rs 70,000 crore and indirect tax revenue of Rs 1,70,000 crore as estimated in the Budget. In other words, even if one third of the black money is brought under the tax net, there will be no fiscal deficit. That would have been positive. But now they (Kelkar committee) have diluted it by making the tax structure further complicated. The black economy is affecting every problem of our macro policy. The focus should have been on how bring the black economy under the tax net. Unfortunately, the Kelkar Committee report does not address this issue at all. Q: Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram did make an attempt to address the issue by launching the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS). What are your views on it? VDIS actually is a wrong way of taxing the black economy as it does attack the fundamentals of the black economy. VDIS encourages more income generation and is an admission that the government is now helpless in taxing the black income generators. It has the potential of developing a tendency among honest tax payers to become dishonest. They (honest taxpayers) think that for so many years we have been paying so high taxes and the evaders are today getting away by paying minimal taxes. Effectively it puts a premium on dishonesty. The CAG report on VDIS has shown that the scheme has made people habitual tax offenders. It is precisely the same people who had declared income under earlier such schemes who had availed of the VDIS scheme. Q:
What ways will you suggest to tackle the monster? There is no easy way out. What we needed to do was to move towards wealth taxation. Wealth cannot be hidden. One cannot hide property and ostentatious consumption. Wealth tax, which is a part of direct tax, was made more effective, is most the efficient way of generating state revenue. Empirical results to this effect have been demonstrated by various authors and experts. For instance in the stock today there is Rs 6 lakh crore of capitalisation. Even if one per cent of that is tapped, it ends up in Rs 6,000 crore. Today wealth tax collection is less than what it used to be in 1975. During the last 25 years or so, wealth in the country must have grown by a factor of 50 or hundred and real estate prices may have grown by a factor of 50 or hundred. Therefore, if effective wealth taxation was proposed on the basis of site and service valuation, it would have generated tens of thousands of crores of rupees as additional tax revenue. The focus therefore, should have been on interlocking the taxes and simplification of procedure. It also needs to be realised that indirect taxes are stagflationary — stagnation compounded by rising inflation. This results in a high-cost economy. Therefore the
endeavour should be to reduce the percentage of indirect taxes and depend more and more on direct taxes. |
What a New Year! IF there is one time of the year when TV gives as much attention to coverage as during the elections or cricket, it is the New Year. For one thing, the ads come pouring in. For another, one can go filmi in a big way and the stars almost vie with each other (no doubt with a fat fee) to appear on stage and do their filmi capers, film composers and singers can also go to town and all in all, it becomes one big romp. NDTV always does it the same way and in between doing the customary review of the events of the outgoing year’s highlights, poking fun at itself by showing the gaffes off screen by its famous anchors, including Prannoy Roy. Well, imitation is the best form of flattery so Zee TV followed suit. Only their off-screen gaffes looked too rehearsed and were not half as sophisticated and throwaway as NDTV’s. Then, of course, everybody follows the crowds around on the streets and elsewhere and this year the clever thing to do was to follow the PM to Goa. Here, I must say, Zee did best by picking up the celebrations on the beach by typical locals and exotic tourists and some awesome fireworks. Their anchors were pleasant and did not overdo
things.. Aaj Tak got caught between two stools and more or less stuck to big news alternating with the big hotels, their menus and above all their high-kicking imitation can-cans by blonde foreigners. It became one big yawn. The younger channels, such as V and MTV offered loads of fun which everybody could enjoy, and the latest in pop, where the baring was done much more naturally. @@But if I were to choose the most sustained show, which I enjoyed the most, it was immortal Asha on Sony Max. Asha, aptly described as The Queen of Pop, is quite incredible in her youthful zest without being skittish, her spontaneity and her ability to make others relax while performing with her. And I think the best duet in this line was with the much-maligned Govinda, who entered splendidly into the spirit of the act and danced with infectious zest and even sang briefly with Asha. It made my evening and while channel hopping I watched the Asha show the longest and it went on for hours. The Screen Awards seemed misplaced on New Year’s Eve, with some popular serials being unnecessary casualties. And while we are on Christmas and New Year I had mentioned some very good choirs in South India which enliven Christmas for us as do the ones we heard again from the North-East. This time it was a full choir from Chennai, again on DD, and although they sang in Tamil there were some hearty Hallelujahs in between. Some very fine singing, as usual and we would like to hear them more often throughout the year. @@Looking back on the year, the TV favourites continued to be politics, films, cricket and fast-deteriorating serials. In the field of news ads. competed with rival claims about who was first, who was exclusive, who was the nation’s best (even if channels in only Hindi and English competed) and other claims which in no way
benefited the viewer. Cricket is always top priority for fans but not for Doordarshan which easily leads the channels in blacking out the game with ads at the wrong moments. The private channels competed in horrifics with such monstrous nonsense as Ruby Bhatia and sundry film stars introducing so-called masala into the sports coverage. Even Kapil Dev in what should have been a strictly cricket interview programme has to chat up so-called glamour girls with equal time. It ruins sport for most sports lovers.@@As for serials of the K Variety and ones with fancy (mis-spelt) names such as Kittie Party and Lipstick, the less said the better. One only has to see the difference when one watches the revival of Saans, which is standing its ground in the midst of the saas-bahu bedlam with its credible situations, restrained acting and subtle direction. And, of course, one remembers with grief, the sad passing of Priya Tendulkar when she had so much more to offer us on the screen with her vibrant presence. Rajani will not easily be forgotten. @@I must end with an appeal to high-level anchors not to run multiple talk shows (one of them has seven talk shows currently on different channels) and to keep some sense of proportion as it always ends in viewer fatigue and boredom. It is much more paying, if not in the monetory sense, so play hard to get. The same applies to some celebrities who are undoubtedly experts in their line, but hearing the pearls of
wisdom fall from their lips d ay after day has its, limits too. The art of saying NO may be difficult and the art of being exclusive to channels even more difficult, but leads to more professional respect, dignity and prestige. |
Sex, back-stabbing thoughts in offices A new survey has found that office-life these days is more about time-wasting, back-stabbing and sexual advances. Some employees even fantasise about killing their boss. It also revealed that drinking alcohol, making a pass at colleagues and looking at pornographic websites were popular office activities. But despite the large amount of time-wasting, many employees were ruthlessly ambitious. Forty-five per cent would do a colleague down to succeed, 13 per cent would sleep with their boss to gainpromotion and 36 per cent had lied on their CVs, reports The Telegraph. The survey, The Secret Life of the Office, by a London Magazine, asked 511 people about a typical day. Respondents admitted sending up to 15 personal emails a day, while nearly half admitted drinking alcohol during working hours. Nearly a third had shared illegal drugs at work, 62 per cent had been propositioned by a colleague and nearly a fifth had had sex in the office. Almost a third said they had looked at pornography on the internet and 28 per cent said they fiddled their expenses. Forty-two per cent imagined killing their boss, 48 per cent admitted stealing, and, on average, those interviewed said they took three and a half days of fake sickness a year. Philip Hodson, a psychotherapist, said that actions of many workers stemmed from resentment towards those in power. "The politics of workers is the same as a pride of lions on the savannah. We are willing to do anything to be at the top. Labels, position and status are very important to
us." ANI Uplifting plans for Valentine’s Day Thailand’s Health Ministry will launch a troupe of specially trained bosom-enhancing dancers on Valentine’s Day to show women how to boost their bust lines without resorting to ill-fitting and often expensive bras. Pennapa Subcharoen, Deputy Director-General of the ministry’s department of traditional medicine, said Thai women had been bombarded with images of big-busted women via the media and many felt they were inadequate. “Many women are not aware that wearing an appropriate size of bra and regularly taking bosom-firming dance can make their wish come true,” Pennapa said. “So we are training 12 pairs of instructors to teach women how to take care of their breasts and we plan to launch them on Valentine’s Day nationwide,” she said. She said many bras on the market were inappropriate for Thai women and wearing bras of the wrong size could also be harmful over a long time. Each dance team would consist of a small-chested and a large-chested instructor to provide bosom-firming dance lessons at state-run sports centres starting on February 14.
Reuters Sharp drop in journalists’ deaths Nineteen journalists were killed around the world in 2002, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday, the lowest number since the media watchdog began recording reporters’ deaths in 1985. The New York-based watchdog CPJ said the drop was partially attributed to fewer wars. The number killed in 2002 was a sharp decrease from 2001 when 37 journalists were killed, eight of them while covering the war in Afghanistan. CPJ said journalists remained at great risk. It named Russia, Colombia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines as countries where local journalists were murdered in direct reprisal for their reporting on crime and corruption.
Reuters |
God is what is in the heavens and what is on the earth, that He may reward those who do evil with evil, and those who do good with good. Those who shun great sins and iniquities - all but venial sins - verily, the Lord is of ample forgiveness. — The Koran, Surah *** The most beautiful of all things man can do is to forgive wrong. — A Hebraic saying *** He who forgives others, God forgives him. — An Arabic proverb *** Where there is knowledge there is dharma, Where there is falsehood there is sin Where there is greed there is death, Where there is forgiveness there is God. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Shlok Kabir, page 1372 *** Without forgiveness innumerable people have been wasted away. It is not possible to count them. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Ramkali Dakhni Omkar M1, page 937 *** No ailment touches him who practices forgiveness. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Gauri M1, page 223 *** Of what are you proud? This world is like a dream; Nothing is yours, as Nanak says very clearly. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M9, slok page 1428 *** Kings and nobles do not remain, nor do the rich or poor; Each has his turn; There is no help for anyone. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M1, Ramkali, page 936 Compiled by Satish K. Kapoor |
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PROF Arun Kumar, an eminent economist and Chairman of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning in Jawaharlal Nehru University, is known for his no-hold-barred views on critical economic issues. Author of the highly acclaimed book “Black Economy in India”, Prof Kumar has long advocated the move for increasing the weight of direct taxes in the country’s taxation structure and reducing the multiple layers of indirect taxes. He spoke to The Tribune in New Delhi on a wide range of issues, in the aftermath of the Kelkar Committee recommendations on taxation.