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Special to the tribune
Sino-Indian ties: Need to build more convergence, says Rao Sikhs warned of more screening of turbans at US airports |
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Charles wants to build town for India’s poor Shyam Bhatia In London Prince Charles has taken a leaf out of Le Corbusier’s book by expressing a strong interest in helping to develop a brand new mini town, or urban utopia, for the poor, on the outskirts of Kolkata or Bangalore. Charles was only a few years old when Jawaharlal Nehru commissioned Swiss architect and designer Le Corbusier, real name Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, to help build Chandigarh as the beautiful new capital of Punjab and (later) Haryana. Corbusier’s views about providing better living conditions for families living in crowded cities coincide with Charles’ own strongly held perspective about providing eco-friendly homes for the poor. Some of Charles’ principles about creating an integrated community of shops, homes and offices, using local materials and recycling waste, are to be found in the English experimental new town of Poundbury built with his approval and backing on land owned by his own Duchy of Cornwall. These same principles lie at the heart of what Charles’ charity, the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, hopes to achieve as it bids for one of the new urban projects in India. A spokeswoman for the Prince’s Foundation, which has opened an office in Mumbai, told The Tribune, “What we do is sustainable urbanisation and community development. We look to a design process in consultation with local people and the local authorities. From this input we would produce a master plan for the area. “Currently we are looking at two sites of 25 acres each and we would look at designing community residential areas of local affordable housing with plenty of community amenities.” It is understood that when complete, the development would consist of some 3,000 homes, along with schools and shops. There will also be facilities for collecting rainwater to be used for bathing washing and toilets before it is recycled for use in plants. Families will also have access to individual toilets instead of community latrines. Asked what kind of investment would be involved, the spokeswoman explained that the foundation was more interested in design ideas, but “physical engagement in construction” was also possible. “Our cash outlay is in bidding, design, managing the project, etc”, she added. Charles has been a regular visitor to India from his younger days. His last visit, accompanied by his wife Camilla, was to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
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Sino-Indian ties: Need to build more convergence, says Rao
Singapore, January 14 "It is a truism that between two such large countries such as ours, relations will be complex and with continuing areas of divergence. The challenge remains to build more convergence and common ground," Rao said. The remarks made yesterday were part of her speech at Singapore Consortium for China-India Dialogue on "Rabindranath Tagore's Vision of India and China: a Twenty First Century Perspective". "I believe that the ballast must come from deeper dialogue which is defined by greater transparency.” — PTI
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Sikhs warned of more screening of turbans at US airports Washington, January 14 In a mass email alert to the community members, Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group, told them that they should be ready for additional screening at all the airports. "Sikhs should now expect to be secondarily screened 100 per cent of the time at American airports, even after passing through so-called Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) machines," it said. Although the Transport and Security Administration (TSA) publicly asserts on its website that its newest machines can see through "layers of clothing", the TSA has made clear in both word and practice that such machines are not powerful enough to see through Sikh turbans. — PTI
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Prince Charles has taken a leaf out of Le Corbusier’s book by expressing a strong interest in helping to develop a brand new mini town, or urban utopia, for the poor, on the outskirts of Kolkata or
Bangalore. Charles was only a few years old when Jawaharlal Nehru commissioned Swiss architect and designer Le
Corbusier, real name Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, to help build Chandigarh as the beautiful new capital of Punjab and (later)
Haryana.
