New Delhi, January 10
A Class X student of an elite South West school in the Capital, was found dead inside the school premises today in the afternoon.

The victim’s family suspects a foul play behind the death.

The incident comes close on the heels of the killing of two students — one in a Gurgaon school in the National Capital Region, and the other in a Madhya Pradesh school, where a student was gunned down by his friends over trivial issues.

According to the Delhi Police, Ankush Kondyal, 14, was admitted to the Fortis Hospital by authorities of Deep Public School located in plush Vasant Kunj area, after the boy collapsed while playing basketball.

The police said that Ankush was declared brought dead and his body has been sent for autopsy.

School director K.P. Singh told reporters, “The boy was playing basketball when he suddenly collapsed. We rushed him to the Fortis Hospital, where he was declared brought dead. For us, it seems to be a natural death.”

Parladh Mishra, the victim’s uncle said, “We are not taking it as a case of natural death and the boy may have died due to beating. We want the police to register a case and investigate the matter thoroughly.”

The police is investigating the death.

“We can’t say anything. Things would be cleared after the autopsy report. No case has been registered yet,” a Delhi Police spokesperson said.

New Delhi, January 10
Almost half the women sexually harassed in the Indian Capital and its neighbourhood are from the northeast, says the Northeast Support Centre. Two sisters from Manipur, who were molested and beaten up last weekend, were only the latest victims from the region.

Madhu Chandra, the man behind the Northeast Support Centre and Helpline, a help centre dedicated to youth from the northeast living in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), said they were flooded with complaints related to sexual harassment.

“It’s been just three months, since we launched the Northeast Support Centre and we have received more than 10 reports of sexual harassment,” Chandra told IANS.

“From what we have researched and according to media reports, we have found that nearly 50 per cent of the cases of sexual harassment are targeted at women from the northeast.”

The Delhi-NCR region has nearly 85,000 people from the northeast. More than 4,000 northeastern youth take admission to various undergraduate and other courses in Delhi University every year.

Chandana Saikia from Assam, who graduated from Delhi University and is now working in a public relations firm in the Capital, said that even after seven years of staying in this city, she didn’t feel safe or secure.

“Every other day we keep hearing cases of molestation and sexual harassment in Delhi. Although I take all of this in my stride, my parents back at home are always worried and give me panic calls, if they can’t get through my phone,” Saikia told IANS.

“But despite giving everyone an impression that nothing scares me, I am always on my guard. Even after seven years of staying in the Capital, I don’t feel at home here,” she added.

Similarly, Lara Subba from Manipur, who lives with her friend in North Delhi, said she did not feel secure in the Capital at all and constantly felt threatened.

“The other day I and my friend were coming in a rickshaw, when two men started following us, calling us ‘chinkies’ and passing lewd remarks. Scared, I started screaming at the top of my voice, which made them change their route,” Subba said.

“Just because we look different and wear more Western outfits, people think that they can take us for granted. That’s why, we usually stick together, with people from our own community.”

In May 2005, a 19-year-old Delhi University student from the northeast was raped by four men in a moving car, after dragging her from a roadside eatery in South Delhi’s Dhaula Kuan area. The sensational case made headlines for days.

In September last year, there was a huge outcry when three northeastern girls were molested on the Delhi University campus. Then, in December 2007, the Northeast Support Centre received a complaint from a girl from Manipur working as a receptionist in a private company in Gurgaon that her boss molested her in the office.

Similarly, a minor northeastern girl in Gurgaon is still suffering, after her house owner molested her thrice in December.

Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research and president of Women Power Connect (WPC), said that the issue was more prevalent in the Northern belt because of the mindset of the men.

“In the Northern belt, the mindset is such that the men believe they can control women physically. That’s why they can’t stand the freedom of sexuality that men and women in the northeast enjoy,” Kumari said.

“There’s no way out of this problem, but for women to take charge of these issues. In this regard, we will be observing a National Shame Day across the country, hopefully coinciding with the Women’s Day on March 8, to tell people that women must be respected.”

D.C. Srivastava, deputy commissioner of police, North Delhi, however, said that in the past year-and-a-half, they have registered just two cases of sexual harassment against northeastern women.

“The number of such cases is not that high,” he said.

The reason for this, according to Chandra, is that victims of sexual or any other kind of harassment hesitate to lodge an official complaint with the police.

“Staying so far away from home and not wanting to get into any complicated situation, most complainants, who come to us hesitate to approach the police and lodge a first information report (FIR),” Chandra said.

“When we tell them that we are not here to replace the police, but help facilitate smoother communication with them, they leave the case at that. That’s why most of the crimes go unreported and the accused goes scot-free. This is a major hurdle that we are facing,” Chandra said. — IANS

New Delhi, January 10
Scattered rain will bring back the chill in the Capital but warm weather is here to stay at least till the weekend, the Met office said today.

On Thursday morning, Delhi witnessed a minimum temperature of 13.2 degrees Celsius, six notches above normal.

“Till 8.30 am, the Capital experienced 1.8 mm rainfall and there is nothing unusual about it. But the cloud cover will help the minimum temperature to stay above normal level,” said an IMD official.

The official said that cloudy weather conditions for the last three days was the main reason behind the mercury jumping from 11 degrees Celsius on Wednesday to 13.2 degrees Celsius on Thursday.

Residents in the Capital feel that this year’s winter is strange with thick fog in mid December, severe cold in the first week of January (2.6 degrees on January 1 and 1.9 degrees January 2) and a sudden rise in the minimum temperature during the last couple of days.But, the IMD officials termed it as nothing unusual and added that winter was far from over.

“People will experience cold spell again. The Wednesday night rain will bring back the chill soon,” the official said.

Flights delayed: At least a dozen flights scheduled were disrupted severely and five domestic arrivals were diverted to nearby cities due to poor visibility at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) here, but Delhi continued to enjoy a spell of warm weather on Thursday.

Though fog in Delhi was not as dense as on earlier days, “poor visibility in the morning disrupted the schedule of at least a dozen flights”, said an airport official.

Safeguard measures were put in place after 7.30 in the morning and between 8.25 and 9.20 am five flights were diverted to other cities.

Airlines sources said two Delhi-bound flights, one each from Indigo and Spicejet, were diverted to Jaipur and one Kingfisher flight was diverted to Ahmedabad. Similarly, two flights, one each of Deccan and Jetlite, were diverted to Lucknow.

The runway visibility was around 1,500 meters. — IANS

New Delhi, January 10
An MCD delegation today demanded finance for the functioning of village development committee from Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

The delegation apprised the Chief Minister of the fact that the parliament had constituted the MCD’s village development committee a long time ago. But, instead of sanctioning finance to the committee, it was given to the village development board, constituted by the city government.

Expressing her anonymity over the existence of such a committee in the MCD, Dikshit said that she would discuss the issue in three days.

The Delhi government had constituted the village development board a few years ago, when the Congress was in power in the MCD. Vijander Gupta, the then leader of opposition in the standing committee, had termed the village development board, constituted by the Delhi government, as unconstitutional. He also informed the then Lieutenant Governor about it, but nothing was done.

The Delhi government uses the money given by the Centre for carrying out village development works. Rs 240 crore was sanctioned for the purpose, a few days ago.

The delegation comprised Mayor Arti Mehra, leader of the House Subhash Arya, chairman of the village development committee Azad Singh, and opposition leader in the MCD Jai Kishan Sharma. 

New Delhi, January 10
Indian art is ready to chart a new geographical terrain. If 2007 belonged to the West in terms of art shows and big buys, 2008 will be the “year of the East”. Countries like Singapore, China, Japan and South Korea will be the new hotspots for Indian art - along with an exception, Dubai.

“The indications are that Japan, China and South Korea will get to see a lot of Indian art. We are receiving several inquiries from buyers in China and South Korea,” said Sunaina Anand, owner of Art Alive, one of the leading art galleries in the country.

Artists are also keen to exhibit their works in the East.

“You see a lot of Chinese and South Korean artists around the world, but very few Indian artists get to display their works in China. It is still behind the iron curtain, as far as the Indian art is concerned. My dream is to do a show in China,” says ‘new wave’ Indian artist Baba Anand.

The Gurgaon-based ‘poster collage and revival’ artist hopes to make it to China this year, if “he gets a good display space”.

But, the biggest event this week, which will set the course for Indian art in 2008, is the Dubai Art Fair. It will see almost all big names from the Indian artists’ fraternity and a new book – ‘Faces of Indian Art’, a photo-documentation of artists at work by ace lensman Nemai Ghosh, who was also filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s personal photographer.

“We are going to launch the book there,” says Anand.

The second event is the ‘Fall of 2008’ that will impact the yearend course of Indian art in the Singapore Art Fair in October.

Impressario Ina Puri, resource person, curator and collector of the Imami Art Foundation, who left for Dubai on Monday, took a cache of works by Anjolie Ela Menon, Lakshman Gaud, Himmat Shah, Paresh Maity, Joyshree Burman and Jogen Choudhury.

“They are some of the biggest names in Indian art and each one of them is different from the other. While Himmat Shah works with organic forms, Jogen Choudhury is a master of abstractions. Despite the hype surrounding the new wave, we have found that the tried and tested lot sells better,” Puri told IANS.

And, they may continue to do so this year too, especially at global auctions.

Dubai and the Southeast Asian hubs of Singapore and Hong Kong are the biggest transit markets in Asia. Last year, Christie’s post-autumn sale of contemporary Indian art in Hong Kong saw 16 “new and upcoming faces from India” with the highest “purchase tag” being a little over Rs 3 million.

“This year, too, we expect a lot of bids from India because buyers are curious about Indian art,” said Ganieve Grewal, Christie’s India representative.

The Fall 2007 edition of the Asia Week at Christie’s, which raked in $44,316,701, relied heavily on classical and contemporary Indian art, which contributed Rs 21.7 million. The trend will continue, says Christie’s India team.

Art marketing is also changing. “The year 2008 will see more art-related material and literature like smarter catalogues, new anthologies and collaterals like limited edition prints, sketchbooks and new gallery décor to complement the show,” says journalist-turned-art promoter Poonam Goel.

Art no longer sells by itself. It has to be packaged and marketed, along with the artist because of the changing buyers’ profile.

“The bulk of the buyers this year and last year were non-resident Indians who shopped for art during their visits home. Many of them are setting up their own private museums. They do their homework well and like to know about the artist before buying,” explains Puri, who is sourcing work for the Imami Art Foundation and Imami Chisel to be set up in Kolkata, this year.

Coupled with it, is the emergence of new buyers’ groups in the Indian metros — young upwardly mobile professionals in the age group of 25-40 years, who are flush with cash and love the jazz of big-time art. Hence, the emphasis is on “collaterals” this year, chorus promoters, artists and gallery owners.

The art world has reason to cheer. After a period of doldrums over the last eight months or so, when the sale of Indian art in both domestic and global markets had slackened because of ‘artificially pumped up’ prices, the entry of unscrupulous dealers, who bought on behalf of corporate houses and tier-3 galleries, the surfacing of fake art and insecurity among buyers - the market has stabilised again.

“In fact, the market is slightly bullish because the prices are now realistic,” says Puri. The Indian art market is estimated at Rs 10 billion to Rs 14 billion annually.

The rationalisation of prices is expected to lead to a spurt in investment. “More people have been investing over the last few months and the coming months will see more of it. Buyers’ horizons are also broadening to include photography, sculptures and installations, apart from the traditional mixed media,” says Roshni Vadhera of the Vadhera Art Galley, one of the biggest in the country.

As for the artists themselves, the last quarter of 2007 has set the pointers for 2008. While the senior lot, the tier-2 among the old Indian masters, will fare well globally, as the international auctions have shown, the younger ones in the Rs 1,50,000 to Rs 5,00,000 category will rule the marts back home. They are mostly contemporary and “experimental” in their work.

“We have had new wave success stories like — Subodh Gupta and Justin Punmani, who have moved away from the cliched kind of imagery. We have innovative fads like videoart and photorealism,” says Puri. They are expected to command “steady niche markets” in 2008.

But, it is figurative art, the bulwark of Indian artistic tradition, which will call the shots globally in the coming months. — IANS

New Delhi, January 10
The one message that came out loud and clear at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas conclave here was that the Indian culture was robust in countries where the migrants went in droves and in the fast globalising world, the country’s rich traditions and heritage will dominate Asian cultures.

Experts also opined that the Indian culture was one of synthesis and accommodation, where different religions thrived, but the country’s youths would determine the new culture that was evolving, taking different strands from the global community under its ambit.

These views emerged at a session on the subject at the event, where the speakers underlined the fact that overseas Indians were the true ambassadors of India and the promoters of the Indian culture in their adopted homelands.

Those who took part in the riveting discussion yesterday included writer and former UN under secretary general Shashi Tharoor, noted filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, tourism and culture minister Ambika Soni, Mauritius minister for art and culture Mahendra Gowressoo and linguistic professor at University of Washington, M J Warsi. Noted art historian Kapila Vatsyayan, who was the former secretary, department of culture, moderated the discussion. The panelists said that the current resonance of Indian films, fashion, dance and music outside India derive much from engagement with overseas Indian youths. — UNI

New Delhi, January 10
Giving relief to the grandson of a farmer, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday restrained the defense estate officer (Naraina) to stop construction on one bigha land near the army land, till the SDM carries out the physical verification.

Justice Gita Mittal directed SDM Naraina to conduct a physical verification of the site on January 15 and ensure that the land of the petitioner measuring one bigha shall not be encroached in any manner.

Jyoti Singh, counsel for the army, said there was no encroachment on the land of petitioner Rajesh Sharma and they were constructing a building on their own area.

New Delhi, January 10
The CBI yesterday conducted searches at four locations in Delhi, Gurgaon and Hyderabad following the registration of a case against a former CMD of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) for sanctioning an ineligible company a sum of Rs 2364 crore.

The suspect granted the loan to the company though its past record was doubtful. During the searches incriminating documents were found, a press release said.