Who are the poor in India

The fact is nobody quite knows. There are various estimates on the exact number of poor in India, and the counts have been mired in controversy.

This week the Planning Commission said 29.8% of India's 1.21 billion people live below the poverty line, a sharp drop from 37.2% in 2004-2005. (This means means around 360 million people currently live in poverty.) But one estimate suggests this figure could be as high as 77%.

The problem, believe many, is that the new count is based on fixing the poverty line for a person living on 28.65 rupees (56 cents/35p) a day in cities and 22.42 rupees (44 cents/33p) a day in villages.

This was lower than last year's recommendation by the Planning Commission to set the poverty line at 32 rupees (65c/40p) a day which stirred up a major debate across the country.

Last year activists dared the head of the country's planning body to live on half a dollar a day to test his claim that it represented an adequate sum to survive in a country with high inflation and leaky and shambolic social benefits. They concluded that the claim appeared to be grossly unfair and scandalous.

In India, poverty counts are based on a large sample survey of household expenditures. In other words, they are based on the purchasing power needed to buy food with some margin for non-food consumption needs.

Labourers (farm workers in villages, casual workers in cities), tribespeople, Dalits (formerly called low caste untouchables) and Muslims remain the poorest Indians.

But it is not happening fast enough, considering India's reasonably high rate of economic growth. "High growth, though essential," says the India Development Report, "is not sufficient for poverty reduction on a sustainable basis."

If the demographics and social character of the poorest in India is not changing rapidly, what is wrong?

Economists like Arvind Virmani believe that bad governance, misplaced priorities, unchecked corruption and a huge failure in improving the quality of public health and literacy are to blame. All of this is correct. More importantly, does all this happen because the Indian state is inherently anti-poor?

PS: The government's flip-flop over poverty count continues. On Thursday, PM Manmohan Singh told reporters that a "fresh [technical] group has been set up to devise a new method to assess the number of poor". Minister for Planning Ashwani Kumar echoed the sentiment saying there was a need to "revisit" the methods of counting the poor which would be "consistent with current reality". So yes, we still don't know who are the poor in India.

Soutik Biswas in BBC. Here 
See We are the Poorest

India's bureaucracy is the worst!!

India's bureaucracy is the worst in Asia, according to a report.

The report by Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy ranks bureaucracies across Asia on a scale from one to 10, with 10 being the worst possible score. India scored 9.21.

India fared worse than Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and China.

The report said India's bureaucracy was responsible for many complaints businessmen had about India, like lack of infrastructure and corruption.

It also said that Indian bureaucrats were rarely held accountable for wrong decisions.

"This gives them [bureaucrats] terrific powers and could be one of the main reasons why average Indians as well as existing and would-be foreign investors perceive India's bureaucrats as negatively as they do," said the report, quoted by the Press Trust Of India news agency.

India's government has not reacted to the report.

Singapore remained the country with the best bureaucracy, with a rating of 2.25. It was followed by Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia.

A report in BBC. Here and Here and Here

Tibetan singing bowls give up their chaotic secrets

 

The water-filled bowls, when rubbed with a leather-wrapped mallet, exhibit a lively dance of water droplets as they emit a haunting sound.

Now slow-motion video has unveiled just what occurs in the bowls; droplets can actually bounce on the water's surface.

A report in the journal Nonlinearity mathematically analyses the effect and could shed light on other fluid processes, such as fuel injection.

At the heart of the phenomenon are what are known as Faraday waves, which arise when a fluid such as water vibrates, constrained by a closed boundary such as the edge of a singing bowl.

As the frequency of the rubbing reaches that at which the bowl naturally vibrates, the bowl's edge begins rhythmically to change shape, from one slightly oval shape into another.

The energy of this shape-shifting partly transfers to the water, in which a range of interesting patterns can arise as the intensity of the rubbing increases.

Slow-motion video of that transition now demonstrates how the irregular patterns of waves build up, the way that they crash into one another, and how that frees droplets that fly into the air..

But at a certain point the water becomes unstable - and a fizzing display of droplets and chaotic waves results.

A report by Jason Palmer in BBC. Here. and in Scientific American 

BBC to show film on the Prophet Muhammad(PBUH)'s life

The BBC is to trace the journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (PBUH) for a new series which is claimed to be a first for British television. 

Al Jazeera reporter Rageh Omaar will present the three-part programme for BBC2, following in the Prophet's footsteps from Makkah and along the journeys he took during his life. 

To ensure the programmes are in line with Islamic tradition, they will not depict the face of Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) or feature dramatic reconstructions of his life. 

The Life Of Muhammad(PBUH) is to be screened next month and will follow events such as his migration to Madinah and the founding of the first Islamic constitution, through to his death. It will also examine his legacy and the impact of the faith he established. 

The trio of hour-long films have been made by Faris Kermani, the director and producer of Channel 4 series Seven Wonders Of The Muslim World. 

The BBC's commissioning editor for religion and ethics, Aaqil Ahmed, said: "For some people in the UK, Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) is just a name, and I hope this series will go some way to explaining who he was, how he lived, what his prophetic message was, and how all of this compares to his legacy today.

"This is a very timely landmark series filmed in Saudi Arabia, Jerusalem, Syria, Turkey, the USA, the UK and Jordan. It features comment from some of the world's leading academics and commentators on Islam - a subject that many people may know little about." 

The BBC said the programmes would raise questions about Islam's role in the world today and explore "where Islam's attitudes towards money, charity, women, social equality, religious tolerance, war and conflict originate". 

Omaar is a former world affairs correspondent for BBC news who joined Al Jazeera's English service in 2006. 

He said: "The details of the Prophet Muhammad(PBUH)'s life really are little known, and I hope that my series will - for many - shine a light on the very beginning of Islam, taking viewers to the heart of this faith, illustrating just how the Prophet Muhammad(PBUH)'s life and legacy is as important today as it was over 1,000 years ago."

A report in The Independent. Here

Rise of Islam in Europe

Eversince 9/11 the quest to know about Islam has been increasing manifold. More and more people - men and women - embrace Islam every day everywhere. This trend is more visible and vibrant in Britain and parts of Europe. Here is an enlightening report from BBC.

India's unwanted girls

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described female foeticide and infanticide as a "national shame" and called for a "crusade" to save girl babies. But Sabu George, India's best-known campaigner on the issue, says the government has so far shown little determination to stop the practices.

Until 30 years ago, he says, India's sex ratio was "reasonable". Then in 1974, Delhi's prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences came out with a study which said sex-determination tests were a boon for Indian women. It said they no longer needed to produce endless children to have the right number of sons, and it encouraged the determination and elimination of female foetuses as an effective tool of population control.

"By late 80s, every newspaper in Delhi was advertising for ultrasound sex determination," said Mr George. "Clinics from Punjab were boasting that they had 10 years' experience in eliminating girl children and inviting parents to come to them."

In 1994, the Pre-Natal Determination Test (PNDT) Act outlawed sex-selective abortion. In 2004, it was amended to include gender selection even at the pre-conception stage.

Abortion is generally legal up to 12 weeks' gestation. Sex can be determined by a scan from about 14 weeks. "What is needed is a strict implementation of the law," says Varsha Joshi, director of census operations for Delhi. "I find there's absolutely no will on the part of the government to stop this." Today, there are 40,000 registered ultrasound clinics in the country, and many more exist without any record.

A report in BBC. More Here

Journalism and 'the words of power'

For two decades now, the US and British - and Israeli and Palestinian - leaderships have used the words 'peace process' to define the hopeless, inadequate, dishonourable agreement that allowed the US and Israel to dominate whatever slivers of land would be given to an occupied people.

I first queried this expression, and its provenance, at the time of Oslo - although how easily we forget that the secret surrenders at Oslo were themselves a conspiracy without any legal basis. Poor old Oslo, I always think! What did Oslo ever do to deserve this? It was the White House agreement that sealed this preposterous and dubious treaty - in which refugees, borders, Israeli colonies - even timetables - were to be delayed until they could no longer be negotiated.

And how easily we forget the White House lawn - though, yes, we remember the images - upon which it was Clinton who quoted from the Qur'an, and Arafat who chose to say: "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. President." And what did we call this nonsense afterwards? Yes, it was 'a moment of history'! Was it? Was it so?

Do you remember what Arafat called it? "The peace of the brave." But I don't remember any of us pointing out that "the peace of the brave" was used originally by General de Gaulle about the end of the Algerian war. The French lost the war in Algeria. We did not spot this extraordinary irony.

Same again today. We western journalists - used yet again by our masters - have been reporting our jolly generals in Afghanistan as saying that their war can only be won with a "hearts and minds" campaign. No-one asked them the obvious question:  Wasn't this the very same phrase used about Vietnamese civilians in the Vietnam war? And didn't we - didn't the West - lose the war in Vietnam?

Yet now we western journalists are actually using - about Afghanistan - the phrase 'hearts and minds' in our reports as if it is a new dictionary definition rather than a symbol of defeat for the second time in four decades, in some cases used by the very same soldiers who peddled this nonsense - at a younger age - in Vietnam.
Just look at the individual words which we have recently co-opted from the US military.

When we westerners find that 'our' enemies - al-Qaeda, for example, or the Taliban -have set off more bombs and staged more attacks than usual, we call it 'a spike in violence'. Ah yes, a 'spike'!

A 'spike' in violence, ladies and gentlemen is a word first used, according to my files, by a brigadier general in the Baghdad Green Zone in 2004. Yet now we use that phrase, we extemporise on it, we relay it on the air as our phrase. We are using, quite literally, an expression created for us by the Pentagon. A spike, of course, goes sharply up, then sharply downwards. A 'spike' therefore avoids the ominous use of the words 'increase in violence' - for an increase, ladies and gentlemen, might not go down again afterwards.

Now again, when US generals refer to a sudden increase in their forces for an assault on Fallujah or central Baghdad or Kandahar - a mass movement of soldiers brought into Muslim countries by the tens of thousands - they call this a 'surge'. And a surge, like a tsunami, or any other natural phenomena, can be devastating in its effects.  What these 'surges' really are - to use the real words of serious journalism - are reinforcements. And reinforcements are sent to wars when armies are losing those wars. But our television and newspaper boys and girls are still talking about 'surges' without any attribution at all! The Pentagon wins again.

Meanwhile the 'peace process' collapsed. Therefore our leaders - or 'key players' as we like to call them - tried to make it work again. Therefore the process had to be put 'back on track'. It was a railway train, you see. The carriages had come off the line. So the train had to be put 'back on track'. The Clinton administration first used this phrase, then the Israelis, then the BBC.

But there was a problem when the 'peace process' had been put 'back on track' - and still came off the line. So we produced a 'road map' - run by a Quartet and led by our old Friend of God, Tony Blair, who - in an obscenity of history - we now refer to as a 'peace envoy'.

But the 'road map' isn't working. And now, I notice, the old 'peace process' is back in our newspapers and on our television screens. And two days ago, on CNN, one of those boring old fogies that the TV boys and girls call 'experts' - I'll come back to them in a moment - told us again that the 'peace process' was being put 'back on track' because of the opening of 'indirect talks' between Israelis and Palestinians.

Ladies and gentlemen, this isn't just about clichés - this is preposterous journalism.  There is no battle between power and the media. Through language, we have become them.

From Robert Fisk's speech at the fifth Al-Jazeera annual forum.

More here

A world without planes

End of aircrafts..!

Alain de Botton who was forced to reside in Heathrow airport imagines a world without aeroplanes and aircrafts. From BBC

In a future world without aeroplanes, children would gather at the feet of old men, and hear extraordinary tales of a mythic time when vast and complicated machines the size of several houses used to take to the skies and fly high over the Himalayas and the Tasman Sea.

The wise elders would explain that inside the aircraft, passengers, who had only paid the price of a few books for the privilege, would impatiently and ungratefully shut their window blinds to the views, would sit in silence next to strangers while watching films about love and friendship - and would complain that the food in miniature plastic beakers before them was not quite as tasty as the sort they could prepare in their own kitchens.

The elders would add that the skies, now undisturbed except by the meandering progress of bees and sparrows, had once thundered to the sound of airborne leviathans, that entire swathes of Britain's cities had been disturbed by their progress.

And that in an ancient London suburb once known as Fulham, it had been rare for the sensitive to be able to sleep much past six in the morning, due the unremitting progress of inbound aluminium tubes from Canada and the eastern seaboard of the United States.

At Heathrow, now turned into a museum, one would be able to walk unhurriedly across the two main runways and even give in to the temptation to sit cross-legged on their centrelines, a gesture with some of the same sublime thrill as touching a disconnected high-voltage electricity cable, running one's fingers along the teeth of an anaesthetised shark or having a wash in a fallen dictator's marble bathroom.

To read the full article click here.

There is no full stop in India!!

Saidullah has won many trophies (Pictures: Prashant Ravi)

Amidst the news of bombs and blasts, riots and tortures, chaos and mayhem seldom we come across such feel good stories. But, India is India. As the veteren BBC Correspondent has written in his book "There is no full stop in India" We may have our Narendra Modis, Pragya Thakurs and there may not be a full stop to this hate mongers' list. Similarly we have Teesta Setalvads, Sandeep Pandeys, Harsh Manders, Ehsan Jaffris. And there is no full stop for that list too. Similarly there is no dearth for unsung heroes in this land as well. One among them is Muhammad Sayeedullah. AMARNATH TEWARY has profiled him in BBC. It is interesting and inspiring.

Excerpts:

Mohammed Saidullah, a resident of Motihari in the Indian state of Bihar, has received many awards and trophies in the last few years for his innovation.

In 1975, when his Jatwa-Janerwa village was swamped under flood waters - an annual monsoon menace - he pleaded with a local boatman to take him to safety.

When the boatman refused to give him space unless he paid for it, the young Saidullah looked for other ways to tackle the floodwater.

Necessity met creativity and in just three days, he made an amphibious bicycle which could easily negotiate the floodwaters.

He modified the conventional bicycle by adding four rectangular air floats to support it while it moved on water. Two fan blades were attached to the spokes of the rear wheel which enabled it to run on both water and land.

The blades were arranged in such a fashion that the cycle could be driven in reverse direction too.

Shining moment

Later, Mr Saidullah demonstrated the prowess of his vehicle before a stunned crowd, which included the then state governor, AR Kidwai, when he crossed the river Ganges in Patna city.

His big shining moment came in January 2005 when the then Indian President, APJ Abdul Kalam, presented him with the National Innovation Foundation's (NIF) lifetime achievement award.

In the same year, he was selected as one of the 12 finalists for the prestigious Wall Street Journal Asian Innovation Awards.

He was also profiled for the Discovery Channel's "Beyond Tomorrow" programme.

In fact, he has won so many awards that he has lost count of them all.

An impressed NIF took away his bicycle and offered to get it patented.But three years later, Mr Saidullah has neither got the patent nor the bicycle.

Saidullah takes his grandchildren
for a joy ride in his cycle-rickshaw

Today, he lives in penury.

Everyday, he pedals about 30 kms on his bicycle to sell honey so that he can feed his family of 16.

But the work brings him a paltry 1,500 rupees ($37) a month.

Grinding poverty

Unable to make the ends meet, he has now put up his roadside half-thatched, half-concrete house and the small plot of land - in Mathia Dih locality of Motihari in East Champaran district - on sale.

His disillusionment is such that Mr Saidullah wants to return all his awards and trophies.

"If you want to destroy someone, give him an award," he says.

After the bicycle, Mr Saidullah also invented an amphibious cycle-rickshaw which he demonstrated before the BBC team in a nearby pond.

"On this, I can take my grandchildren for a joy ride in the water," Mr Saidullah told the BBC.

"But I feel hurt by what the NIF has done to me. They used us for their promotion," he says.

"May I know how many innovators like me have been benefited and how many of us have been destroyed by them?" asks Mr Saidullah, with pain creasing his face.

NIF executive chairman, Anil Gupta, is sympathetic to Mr Saidullah's plight: "We tried a lot, are still trying and will keep trying to explore things being done for Mr Saidullah's amphibious bicycle. But yes his frustration is completely understandable.

"Despite our best efforts, for some reasons we failed to generate any entrepreneurship for his bicycle. We've given him the innovation fellowship of a fixed amount and we are ready to support him in future too," Mr Gupta said.

There is still a chance that things may look up for him.

A senior official in Bihar state's science and technology department, Ajay Kumar, told the BBC he would do all he could to help Mohammed Saidullah.

"Though there is no structured schemes for commercialisation of such innovations in my department but we would certainly help him in getting his product patented after talking with the NIF," Mr Kumar said.

According to Mohammed Saidullah's son, Mohammed Shakilurrahman, the family was not always poor. Mr Saidullah inherited acres of land, orchards, elephants and a big house from his father.

But, the rural scientist sold all his property to pursue his innovations, his son says.

New things

He blames his father's "sheer madness" for the family's poverty.

He too sells honey in the state capital.

However, Mr Saidullah's bitter past experience has not stopped him from moving on to new things.

After the amphibious bicycle, he developed a key-operated table fan which can run non-stop for two hours, a mini-water pump that needs no fuel and a mini-tractor which can run for two hours on just five litres of diesel.

Now, he claims he's making a helicopter which would cost the equivalent of $62,500 and a car that would be powered by air energy.

His dark, dingy workshop is crammed with a hand-made lathe machines and countless corroded nut-bolts littered on long rusty iron racks.

But it's his favourite place. "I love to be here all the time," he says.

Where would he go once his house and land is sold off?

"I'll make a three-storey moving car with folding cots, pack my family in and park it on an open government land by the roadside anywhere," he says.The maverick innovator says he draws inspiration for his innovations from his everyday experiences. He has named all his creations after his loving wife, Noor Jahan.

"Noor means light and Inshallah a day would come when there would be light in our life too," says Saidullah.
I took this story from here. Thank you BBC!
And see video of his amphibious cycle, click here.
And to read a detailed profile of him, click here.
And read : A poem, a girl and a success story!