Project Mausam

India will soon launch “Project Mausam”, a PM Narendra Modi government’s utmost noteworthy foreign policy project for answering China’s rising impact in the Indian Ocean region. After the astonishing triumph of China’s “Maritime Silk Road” scheme, India plans to soon takeoff its own Project Mausam, a transnational program aimed to restore its ancient maritime routes and cultural links with republics in the region.

Titled “Project Mausam”: Maritime Routes and Cultural Landscapes crossways the Indian Ocean, the project emphasizes on the natural wind phenomenon, particularly monsoon winds used by Indian sailors in ancient times for maritime trade, that has formed relations amongst nations and groups linked by the Indian Ocean. Project Mausam purposes to determine the versatile Indian Ocean “world” — expanding from East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka to the Southeast Asian archipelago.

Though India is also amongst the nations asked to join China’s maritime silk route plan, India has been worried by the curiosity displayed by Sri Lanka and Maldives in the Chinese offer, which supposedly looks to restore ancient economic links.

Towards an Asian century of prosperity

The combination of the world’s factory and the world’s back office will produce the most competitive production base, writes Xi Jinping, President of China

My first visit to this ancient and magic land was 17 years ago, a time when the Indian economy was undergoing reform and beginning to show new vitality in growth. The market was booming in Mumbai, the economic centre. Bangalore was becoming increasingly famous as India’s Silicon Valley. And Bollywood movies and yoga were popular throughout the world. Its people were full of expectations and the ancient civilisation was rejuvenated.

Now 17 years later, I am about to once again visit India, an enchanting and beautiful land that has captured world attention. India is an emerging economy and a big developing country. It is Asia’s third largest economy and the world’s second largest exporter of software and agriculture products. A member of the United Nations, the G20, the BRICS and other organisations, India is playing an increasingly important role in the regional and international arena. The “Story of India” has spread far and wide. With the new government coming into office, a new wave of reform and development has been sweeping across India, greatly boosting the confidence of the Indian people and attracting keen international interest in its opportunities.

Progress in relations

Relations between China and India have made significant progress in the new century. The strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity has been established. China has become India’s largest trading partner, with their bilateral trade volume increasing from less than US$3 billion early this century to nearly US$70 billion. Mutual visits reached 8,20,000 last year. We have had close coordination and cooperation on climate change, food security, energy security and other global issues and upheld the common interests of our two countries as well as the developing world as a whole. Progress has been made in the negotiations on the boundary question, and the two sides have worked together to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border area. China-India relations have become one of the most dynamic and promising bilateral relations in the 21st century.

Our bilateral relations have reached where they are today as a result of the following efforts: we have deepened mutual trust by strengthening strategic dialogue and enhancing political confidence; we have brought more benefits to each other by expanding the areas of cooperation and making the pie of common interests bigger; we have forged closer friendship by encouraging more people-to-people exchanges and cementing popular support for our bilateral relations; and we have treated each other with sincerity by respecting and accommodating each other’s concerns and properly managing problems and differences.

Crucial stage of reform

Both China and India are now in a crucial stage of reform and development. The Chinese people are committed to realising the Chinese dream of great national renewal. We are deepening reform in all sectors. The goal has been set to improve and develop the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and advance the modernisation of national governance system and capability. A total of over 330 major reform measures covering 15 areas have been announced and their implementation is well underway.

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, the new Indian government has identified ten priority areas including providing a clean and efficient administration and improving infrastructure. It is committed to building a united, strong and modern India — Shreshtha Bharat. The Indian people are endeavouring to achieve their development targets for the new era. China and India are both faced with historic opportunities, and our respective dreams of national renewal are very much aligned with each other. We need to connect our development strategies more closely and jointly pursue our common dream of national strength and prosperity.

As emerging markets, each with its own strengths, we need to become closer development partners who draw upon each other’s strengths and work together for common development. With rich experience in infrastructure building and manufacturing, China is ready to contribute to India’s development in these areas. India is advanced in IT and pharmaceutical industries, and Indian companies are welcome to seek business opportunities in the Chinese market. The combination of the “world’s factory” and the “world’s back office” will produce the most competitive production base and the most attractive consumer market.

As the two engines of the Asian economy, we need to become cooperation partners spearheading growth. I believe that the combination of China’s energy plus India’s wisdom will release massive potential. We need to jointly develop the BCIM Economic Corridor, discuss the initiatives of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and lead the sustainable growth of the Asian economy.

As two important forces in a world that moves towards multipolarity, we need to become global partners having strategic coordination. According to Prime Minister Modi, China and India are “two bodies, one spirit.” I appreciate this comment. Despite their distinctive features, the “Chinese Dragon” and the “Indian Elephant” both cherish peace, equity and justice. We need to work together to carry forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (the Panchsheel), make the international order more fair and reasonable, and improve the mechanism and rules of international governance, so as to make them better respond to the trend of the times and meet the common needs of the international community.

As Deng Xiaoping puts it, no genuine Asian century would come without the development of China, India and other developing countries. We are ready to shoulder this mission of our times and work actively to enhance friendship between China and India. I look forward to an in-depth exchange of views with Indian leaders on our bilateral relations during the visit, and to injecting new vitality to our strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity.

I am confident that as long as China and India work together, the Asian century of prosperity and renewal will surely arrive at an early date.

No Indian university on top 200 list

IIT-Bombay ranked 222 and IIT-Delhi at 235 while those in Kanpur, Madras and Kharagpur are in the 300 range.

Not a single Indian higher education institution has made it to the top 200 of the QS World University Rankings, which were released on Tuesday morning.

The first Indian presence on the list is the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, ranked 222.

IIT Delhi comes in second at 235 while those in Kanpur, Madras and Kharagpur are in the 300 range.

Delhi University comes in the 420 to 430 band.

Other Indian institutions that have made it to the rankings are Calcutta University, Benares Hindu University, Pune University, the Indian Institute of Science and Jawaharlal Nehru University.

All the top 10 positions in the rankings list are taken by the U.S. and U.K.-based universities with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology retaining the first position for the second year running.

The National University of Singapore leads the pack as far as the Asian continent is concerned and is ranked 22nd.

The poor showing of Indian institutions in world university rankings has become a cause of concern among educationists in the country and efforts have been under way for a couple of years now to evolve an India-generated ranking system.

A ranking committee – set up by the United Progressive Alliance government – has already submitted its report.

As per the proposal, an India-generated ranking system would ensure that the large set of institutions across the country are properly ranked and placed in proper perspective, factoring in aspects that are peculiar to India like the quota system.

Besides providing an Indian benchmark that can be used by world ranking lists as an indicator, a domestic ranking list would also help students and parents make a more informed choice instead of just going by lists brought out by media houses.

AP Cabinet goes paperless

Tech-savvy Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu motivated his Cabinet colleagues to use iPad and become part of history-making first ever paperless e-Cabinet meeting. From the elderly K. E. Krishnamurthy to young Peetala Sujatha, Ministers carried iPads with e-Cabinet app in their hands instead of bundles of files and papers they used to do earlier.

The paperless meeting marked the completion of 100 days by Chandrababu Naidu government.

Touch screens

A beaming Mr. Naidu told senior journalists later that none of them faced any problem in handling the gadgets as they all had easy to operate touch screens.

From going through the agenda e-mailed to them in advance to discussing various issues, the Ministers believed to have switched over to electronic format with ease. The minutes of the meeting too were electronically recorded.

The Chief Minister began the meeting with a power-point presentation while Muncipal Administration Minister, P. Narayana who also heads advisory committee on capital, briefed them about his recent tour to Gandhinagar, Chandigarh and Naya Raipur.

Like in his previous tenure, Mr. Naidu is aggressively promoting use of technology in governance. For the e-Cabinet, a new file-sharing system has been put in place using the FileCloud tool.

Enquiries

The e-Cabinet meet created quite a stir with sources in the government pointing out that even the Prime Minister’s Office got inquisitive about the innovative e-Governance platform and made enquiries.

Withering away of a revolution

The recent surge in the surrender of Maoist cadres, particularly in Dandakaranya, seems to be a reality check for the protagonists of Maoist ideology, who claim that only a protracted armed struggle can bring about social transformation in a class-ridden society. Maoists of all hues — members of military formations or the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), political formations and the Janatana Sarkar (people’s government) — are leaving the so-called “revolutionary” path they had pledged to tread when joining the movement against the feudal and semi-colonial ruling class. The romance of the armed struggle for capturing power is, perhaps, waning.

There are three main reasons for the surrender of Maoist cadres. The first and foremost is the realisation of the futility of the (people’s) war. More than three decades of violence have not produced any convincing results. Whatever existed in the name of development has been vandalised by the Maoists. An ex-president of the Janatana Sarkar in the Indravati (Maad) area, venting his frustration while surrendering, said that he was fed up with the Maoists’ lofty claims and false promises of realising collective party goals, and that the party has little to show in terms of achievements. Another cadre said he had joined the Maoists because he had seen only Naxalites in the jungles of Maad. But when he encountered the real world outside Maad, he decided to join the mainstream. A former member of the Chetna Natya Manch (CNM), of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), said the party could no longer charm people with its revolutionary songs and dances to make them join up. Despite their serious efforts, more cadres are now leaving than joining. People’s support, the cornerstone of any revolution, has been eroding steadily.

Second, the police’s continuous persuasion has resulted in a change of mind and heart in many cadres, who had been brainwashed by the Maoists. The police have been approaching Maoists’ family members with the government’s surrender and rehabilitation (S&R) schemes. A “back-home” programme initiated by the former Gadchiroli superintendent of police, Suvez Haque, and followed by many others has proven efficacious. This has also helped the police gain the trust of Maoist cadres who have become disgruntled with their decision to tread the path of bloodshed. Often, pamphlets are distributed in local markets and hung in remote areas, so that the message of returning to the mainstream may reach wandering Maoist cadres. One dalam commander on surrender revealed that when such posters were being put up by a villager, he had grabbed one and decided to surrender with his weapon, as it carried a huge reward. The media, due to its pervasiveness, has also played a significant role in spreading awareness of such schemes.

Third, many Maoist cadres are deserting because of personal reasons. After tying the marital knot in forest camps, they are not allowed to enjoy married life. Therefore, many couples are surrendering. The killingsof family members by the Maoists, allegations of informing the police about their movements, and discrimination against and exploitation of junior cadres, especially women, have prompted many to surrender. “Despite my protests, they killed my younger brother, only because he had joined the police department,” said a divisional-level Maoist who had himself recruited many dalam members because of his influence. He then facilitated the surrender of each cadre he had inducted. At their fourth Central Committee meeting in 2013, the Maoists admitted that their cadres were deserting in large numbers and that they were not being able to recruit new ones. At the last DKSZC meeting in February 2014, the Maoists not only expressed serious concerns about this trend, but also pondered the shrinking sizes of their formations. They were worried about the increased deployment and movement of security forces in their strongholds. Meanwhile, Left-Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected states are revising their S&R policies to make them more attractive. Until recently, Andhra Pradesh’s policy, which carried a cash reward of Rs 25 lakh on CPI (Maoist) General Secretary Ganapathy, had been the most lucrative. At present, while the Maharashtra government has increased the surrender amount to Rs 1 crore, the Chhattisgarh government has hiked the earlier amount and fixed it as high as Rs 60 lakh for the Maoists’ top leader. Also, Chhattisgarh’s policy is far more rewarding when any Maoist cadre surrenders with his weapon. The Central government’s S&R scheme is oriented more towards vocational training, so that surrendering cadres can be self-employed in the course of rehabilitation. However, the objective of all these policies is to get the misguided youths who have now resolved to abjure violence back in the mainstream. Therefore, surrender must bring about a change of mind and heart at an appropriate time. However, the surrender of senior cadres, who spend most of their youth pursuing the Maoists’ violent ideology, needs to be viewed more critically. Although S&R policies cannot set temporal limits for surrender, they intend to persuade cadres who show their willingness to change. A DKSZC member, Arjun, who was in charge of the first military company when it was constituted in Maad in 2004 and was throughout involved in numerous brutal killings, surrendered recently in Andhra after spending his entire youth spreading terror. Surprisingly, his surrender did not evoke any criticism from the Maoists. Similarly, the claim made by G.V.K. Prasad, alias Gudsa Usendi, a surrendered spokesperson and member of the DKSZC, that he was against the killing of innocent people is difficult to believe. How can a person who oversaw ruthless killings for almost three decades, justifying the same on the whims of ideology, be given the benefit of a change of heart? Such cadres must be intellectually sifted and cost-benefit analyses done to assess the impact of their surrender. Unless their surrender causes sufficient damage to the Maoist organisation, directly or indirectly, the state should be wary of rewarding them with post-retirement-like benefits, since this might be a tactical move in disguise. People’s support is -crucial to the survival of any movement. If this trend of Maoist surrender continues, and the state seizes this opportunity to showcase its responsibility in rehabilitating erstwhile cadres properly while pushing development into such areas to remove structural socio-economic disparities, the Maoist movement is sure to lose its revolutionary zeal. - See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/withering-away-of-a-revolution/3/#sthash.oekpPrBu.dpuf 

Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY)

Government of India in the Union Budget 2014-2015, announced the revival of Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY). The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley said in his Budget Speech, "NDA Government during its last term in office had introduced the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY) as a pension scheme for senior citizens. Under the scheme, a total number of 3.16 lakh annuitants are being benefited and corpus amounts to Rs.6, 095 Crore. I propose to revive the scheme for a limited period from 15^th August 2014 to 14^th August 2015 for the benefit of citizens aged 60 years and above".

The Union Finance Minister said that Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY) will benefit the vulnerable section of society with limited resources as it will provide monthly pension ranging from Rs 500/ to Rs 5,000/ per month to senior citizens of the country. The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley said that VPBY is like reverse of a normal insurance policy as in case of VPBY, the beneficiary gets an income at the overall rate of 9.38 % per annum on their deposits as they are being paid on monthly basis.

This initiative reflects the commitment of the Government to the welfare and well-being of the senior citizens of the country, which is especially important in the light of the increasing longevity in India, which has gone up substantially. The subscription to the scheme is likely to create a corpus of more than Rs. 10,000 crore, and would thus also be a significant source of resource mobilization for the development of the country.

Under this revived Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY), the senior citizens would get pension on fixed basis either on yearly or monthly basis which will provide social security to senior citizens.

LIC of India has been given the sole privilege to operate this scheme.

2.         Benefits:

a.         Pension Payment:

During the lifetime of a Pensioner, pension in the form of immediate annuity as per mode chosen by the Pensioner shall be payable.

b.         Death Benefit:

On death of the Pensioner, the Purchase Price shall be refunde

Some key features of the scheme are:

·         Available to citizens aged 60 years and above. 

·         Pension would be on immediate annuity basis in monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annual mode, varying, respectively, between Rs. 500 to 5000 (monthly), Rs. 1500 to 15,000 (quarterly), Rs. 3000 to Rs. 30,000 (half-yearly) and from Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 60,000 (annually), depending on the amount subscribed and the option exercised. 

·         The payout implies an assured return of 9% on monthly payment basis, which amounts to an annualized return of 9.38%. 

·         Loan (up to 75% of subscribed amount) can be availed after 3 years from the Date of Commencement. 

·         On death, the full purchase price will be refunded to nominee. 

·         Exit/surrender would be allowed after 15 years or earlier in special circumstances like critical / terminal illness of self or spouse. 

·         Payment will be through ECS or NEFT.

Spirit of Delhi

The Lalit Kala Akademi is celebrating its 60th anniversary celebrations. The year-long celebration was inaugurated by Minister of Culture Shripad Naik on 5 August 2014. The Lalit Kala Akademi, National Academy of Art, New Delhi was set up by the Government of India as an autonomous body on 5 August, 1954. It was established with a strong focus on artistic excellence and to bring the cultural identity of the nation to a luminous focus. It emerged as the principal establishment of culture that focuses on Visual Arts and its many splendoured forms. The ‘Spirit of Delhi’ is an event part of the 60th anniversary celebrations that celebrates the city not only as the political hub but also the cultural capital of the country. The exhibition and calligraphy workshop will be inaugurated on 15 September 2014 by Shri Satish C. Mehta, Director General ICCR. The exhibition consists of paintings from the Lalit Kala Akademi`s collection, photographs by the renowned photographer Padmashree Raghu Rai, poetry paintings by Abhay K and Tarshito, rare photographs from archives of Ambedkar University, Archaeological Survey of India, Delhi Archives, Delhi Institute of Heritage Research and Management and National Museum. The exhibition will be on view till 27 September 2014. A seven day long calligraphy workshop will explore different scripts like Gurumukhi, Urdu, Devnagri, Persian and will run until 21 September 2014 at the Lalit Kala Akademi, a book counter on Delhi will also be a part of the show.`Delhi is `Dehali`, i.e. `threshold`, `gateway`, glorious etymological truth of thecapital of India, deeply embedded in its samsaric imperial heart and trivial bureaucratic self-images and centrist complacency, likely to be quite drowned in the flood of five-star freebooting now overtaking it. But in its occult and occasional unfallenness, what is Delhi, a threshold, a gateway, to? Let us supplicate its ancient King and Queen, Yudhishtira and Draupadi for an answer. The Delhi (all right, Indraprashtha) that they had fought for and won...was certainly a gateway to samrajya, imperial power. But Delhi...is also a threshold to the Himalaya...the samrajya of eternal wisdom...Dehali ki jai! `- Ramachandra Gandhi . To the uninitiated, the metropolis of Delhi seems like a patchwork quilt, characterised by heterogeneous fragments of communities, mohallas and nagars. The contemporary city is shaped as much by the unabashed pursuit of power, as it has been paralleled by an explosion in size and scale. Today, though Delhi is a city “on the make”, there remains something more to it that if seen closely, may be connected to a time when Dilli was a city with a different ethos. What therefore makes the Spirit of Delhi remarkable is its ability to learn to endure, and show how amidst its diverse colonies and corners, lives and livelihoods remain the sources of creative energy. The historical photographs and images at this exhibition help us to see how the city of Delhi, marked by multiple life-worlds, has been many things to many people. As such we can see how images are involved in both constructing and representing ‘reality’. The images demonstrate their value in evoking narratives, as historical documents, as well as, for a continuing study of the passage of time. Many of the visual images here function as documents recording and recalling original events, or they may become art objects in their own right. Even then, images of the past tend to make more sense when contextualised by those of the present. The images created from within the city create an imaginative narrative space. A process of temporality ensues, where the past is constantly made present in order to gain access to a deeper sense of events and spaces. The coming together of poem and image, their drawing apart and resumption of mutual approach, the things they invoke together and separately: we savour all these moments of aesthetic experience in a painting in which Abhay K and Tarshito collaborate to evoke the spectral yet palpable histories of Delhi, as well as its vibrant, insistent, kaleidoscopic and paradoxical present. This exhibition draws attention to the multiplicity of everyday life that has always existed in the city – moving as it does from the colonial eye to the ‘commoners’ gaze. Despite the priority of the colonial political class to provide an urban form to their imperial vision, rather than create a city around the historic identity of Delhi, the images in this collection give an indication of the ‘everyday’ city of the times. Community life, and its social, cultural, economic and political extensions, forms the subject of some of these images, and in the process simultaneously represent a singular version of time and space, while challenging that very representatio