The centuries-old institution called school is a place everybody remembers who ever had an opportunity to attend it. The moment you hear the word ‘school’ it comes along with a bagful of memories of times full of happiness.

“Whispers in the Classroom, Voices in the Field — Stories of School, Friends and Life” (Wisdom Tree) is a book which brings together 31 contemporary Indian writers with as many school experiences in the form of short stories. The book has been edited by Richa Jha, who has remained under the spell of the written word all her life, and illustrated by Priya Kuriyan, an independent animation filmmaker and illustrator based in Delhi.

Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Tharoor launched the book over an interesting discussion with Shobit Arya, Wisdom Tree founder. In a relaxed discussion, the Tharoors shared some interesting and funny moments of their school life which they relish to this day.

Sunanda recounted that being the daughter of an army officer, she studied in various parts of India. She did her primary schooling in Bangalore till class IV and when she shifted to another city where Hindi was one of the subjects, it became a problem for her. Because, as she put it, she could only relate the Devanagari script to earthworms. Tharoor narrated how the one time in his school career that he got the second instead of first position, his mother went into shock and his home was enveloped in “an atmosphere of mourning.”

Speaking on the Indian education system, he lamented the pressure on students and said parents are more concerned about the percentages rather than the personality development of a student. Teachers in India should try to teach “how to think rather than what to think”, he said.

Sunanda said Indians are very intelligent. Just take the pressure off their minds and we will see orators, debators and leaders around us, she declared.

Indraneel Hariharan performed the song “Whispers in the classroom, voices on the field” — apparently the first ever Indian song made for a book. The Limca Book of Records, represented by Arthy Muthanna Singh, gave a certificate to Wisdom Tree for this unique convergence and innovative marketing idea.

The event was marked by the enthusiastic participation of the book’s contributing authors — Anjali Raghbeer, Anupa Lal, Deepa Agarwal, Devika Rangachari, Priya Kuriyan, Samina Mishra and Subhadra Sen Gupta.

Source: The Hindu

When the proposal to open a consulate of the UAE was initially mooted a few months ago Dr. Shashi Tharoor had strongly taken up the case for locating it in Thiruvananthapuram. At that time there had been reports that there was pressure from various quarters for locating it at Kochi, but Dr. Tharoor successfully argued Thiruvananthapuram’s case with all concerned, including the highest authorities in the UAE, the city’s credentials for being selected as the location for the new Consulate.

The opening of the Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram will result in a major relief to the more than half-a-million Keralities working in the UAE, and those in Thiruvananthapuram constituency will stand to benefit even more since the various services of the Consulate will be literally available right at their doorstep, Dr. Tharoor said.

Dr. Tharoor also expressed his happiness that this will also result in permanently cementing Thiruvananthapuram’s claim for being selected as the location for the setting up of Consulates of other countries, in the future.

In a press release here on Friday, Mr. Tharoor said the consulate in Thiruvananthapuram would be a source of relief to more than half a million Keralites working in the UAE. Those in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency would stand to benefit even more since the various services of the consulate would be available at their doorstep.

Source: The Hindu

The European Union (EU) is India’s second largest trading partner, with 68 billion euros of commerce in 2010, accounting for 20 per cent of India’s global trade. But Europe’s contribution to India’s overall global trade has been shrinking even while the Indian economy grows.

India has a number of affinities with Europe and with the European Union, not least since we, too, are an economic and political union of a number of linguistically, culturally and ethnically different states.

Both are unwieldy unions of just under thirty states, both are bureaucratic, both are coalition- ridden and both are slow to make decisions. But in practice these affinities have not translated into close political or strategic relations.

Features

Though India was one of the first countries (in 1963) to establish diplomatic relations with the European Economic Community (EEC), and the India-EU Strategic Partnership and Joint Action Plan of 2005 and 2008 offer a framework for dialogue and cooperation in the field of security, it will take time for the EU to develop a common strategic culture, which is essential for meaningful strategic cooperation between the EU and India.

The India-EU Joint Action Plan covers a wide range of fields for cooperation, including trade and commerce, security, and cultural and educational exchanges.

However, as the Canadian diplomat David Malone has observed, ‘these measures lead mainly to dialogue, commitments to further dialogue, and exploratory committees and working groups, rather than to significant policy measures or economic breakthroughs.’ Indians have an allergy to being lectured to, and one of the great failings in the EU-India partnership has been the tendency of Europe to preach to India on matters we consider ourselves quite competent to handle on our own. As a democracy for over six decades (somewhat longer than several member states of the EU), India sees human rights as a vital domestic issue. There is not a single human rights problem about India that has been exposed by Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch or any European institution, which has not been revealed first by Indian citizens, journalists and NGOs and handled within the democratic Indian political space. So for the EU to try to write in human rights provisions into a free trade agreement, as if they were automobile emissions standards, gets Indian backs up. Trade should not be held hostage to internal European politics about human rights declarations; the substance of human rights is far more important than the language or the form. On the substance, India and the EU are on the same side and have the same aspirations.

Once this irritant is overcome, the negotiations for an FTA, which has been long in its ‘final’ stages, should be concluded and should transform trade.

Of course there are structural impediments that will not disappear. Ironically given its human rights professions, the EU has long favoured China over India, and China is clearly the preferred investment destination: for every euro invested in India from the EU, 20 euros are invested in China. (This is partly India’s fault, in not creating a comparably congenial climate for foreign investment.) An EU ambassador to India, quoted by Malone, observed that ‘each has a tendency to look to the most powerful poles in international relations rather than towards each other, and each spends more time deploring the shortcomings of the other rather than building the foundations of future partnership’.

A major element in the equation is India’s well-advertised preference for bilateral arrangements with individual member states of the EU, over dealing with the collectivity. This is arguably necessary, given the lack of cohesion in European institutions on strategic questions. Since Maastricht in 1992, Europe has claimed to have a ‘common foreign policy’, but it is not a ‘single’ foreign policy. (If it were, EU member states would not need two of the five permanent seats on the UN Security Council, and be clamouring for a third.)

Potential

The case for India-EU cooperation could be strongly made, since the bulk of the problem areas in the world lie between India and Europe (or, as Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt once put it, between the Indus and the Nile).

To take two examples: more people have been killed in Europe by drugs coming in from Afghanistan than the total number killed in two decades of fighting in that country. India’s security interests in Afghanistan and its greater proximity to that country offer important intersections with Europe’s interests. India’s increasing salience in the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean, and especially in the security of the Gulf, the source of much of Europe’s energy,
suggests another area of cooperation.

India-EU relations currently lack substance and strategic weight, despite the conclusion of a strategic partnership in 2004. The oxymoronic lack of European unity undermines the credibility of the collectivity; policy-makers in New Delhi will not be able to find many instances of the EU, rather than its individual member states, engaging with or standing up to the United States, Russia or China on any major issue. The ongoing eurozone crisis has also not served to enhance India’s confidence in Europe.

Limitations

The EU provides very little value added to India’s principal security challenges. In the immediate priority areas of strategic interest to India – our own neighbourhood, the Gulf region, the United States and China – the EU is almost irrelevant, and the story does not get better if one extends India’s areas of security interest to Central and Southeast Asia.

On the big global security issues – nuclear proliferation, civil conflict and terrorism – the problem is the same, while the EU has almost nothing to contribute to India’s search for energy security. Even in India’s quest to be part of the global decision-making architecture, including a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, it is not the EU but the existing European permanent members, the UK and France, which bring more value to the table for India. India certainly needs European cooperation in counter-terrorism and European remote surveillance technology, but it would obtain these from European nation states, not from the EU.

So New Delhi strengthens relationships with a number of individual European countries that it considers reliable partners, but fails to think of Europe collectively as one of the potential poles in the evolving multipolar world. New Delhi sees an affinity with London, Berlin or Paris that it cannot bring itself to imagine with Brussels or Strasbourg. The danger is that New Delhi will write Europe off as a charming but irrelevant continent, ideal for a summer holiday but not for serious business. The world would be poorer if the Old Continent and the rising new subcontinent did not build on their democracy and their common interests to offer a genuine alternative to the blandishments of the United States and China.

Source: India Today

Tharoor pointed out that Thiruvananthapuram has been facing a severe solid waste management crisis since December last year owing to the non-functioning of the Vilappilsala plant. Garbage trucks are unable to transport wastes from the city to the plant following severe opposition from the local people. The High Court has ordered the reopening of the plant and even the Supreme Court has rejected the plea of the Vilappilsala panchayat for a stay on the High Court’s order.

Waste collection has come to a standstill as there is no space to landfill or even burn the garbage. The residents of Vilappilsala are vehemently opposed to the reopening of the plant. This has led to garbage accumulating in public places and also spilling on to the streets.

Tharoor made the specific point that Thiruvananthapuram is facing an epidemic-like situation and the health of the people of the city cannot be taken lightly any longer. The city receives a large number of international visitors who are also being exposed to the unhygienic conditions, Tharoor pointed out. The situation will only worsen once the monsoon sets in, he feared.

Vilappilsala itself is at risk if the garbage already dumped in the plant is not treated. It is also of critical importance that the equipment for construction of a leachate treatment unit and sanitary landfill be transported to the Vilappilsala plant. The functioning of the garbage treatment plant is imperative till the plans for decentralisation of waste management in the city takes shape, which is expected to take three to four months, Tharoor said.

Source: IBNLive

Tharoor pointed out that Thiruvananthapuram has been facing a severe solid waste management crisis since December last year due to the non-functioning of Vilappilsala garbage treatment plant. Garbage trucks are unable to transport waste to the plant due to severe opposition from local residents.

Though the high court has ordered that the plant be reopened and the Supreme Court has rejected Vilappilsala panchayat’s plea for a stay on the high court order, the law and order situation does not permit the government to take any action.

The residents of Vilappilsala are vehemently opposed to the reopening of the plant. This has led to garbage accumulation in public places as waste collection has come to a standstill. There is no space to landfill or even burn the garbage, he said.

Tharoor said that Thiruvananthapuram is facing an epidemic-like situation and the health of the city’s residents is a major issue. The city receives a large number of international visitors, who are also being exposed to these unhygienic conditions, he added.

“The situation will worsen once monsoon begins. Vilappilsala itself is at risk if the garbage already dumped in the plant is not treated. Equipment for construction of a leachate treatment unit and sanitary landfill must be transported to the Vilappilsala plant without delay. Functioning of the garbage treatment plant is imperative till the plans for decentralization of waste management in the city take shape which will, at the earliest, take three to four months,” he said.

Tharoor has been voicing his support for the re-opening of the plant ever since it had shut down its operations.

He had said that it was not right to give up the Vilappilsala treatment complex when only works amounting to Rs 2.5 crore out of the total budgeted Rs 13.58 crore for the setting up of the modern plant have been completed. He is of the opinion that “misplaced agitation should not be allowed to hold the entire city hostage on this account”.

Source: Times of India

However, Tharoor urged the Government to understand the petrol and energy requirements of the country before taking a final decision.

“On the issue of Iran India has a particular position, that we are their neighbours and we need the oil. Our country now-a-days is importing more than eighty percent of the energy needs; so we cannot make such sanctions easily but we also realize that the international community is taking a position saying that Iran’s conduct vis-?-vis nuclear energy is not appropriate,” Tharoor told the media.

“We have to co-operate with the international community. We cannot live in isolation. We also need to understand the petrol and energy requirements of our country and take a feasible decision,” he added.

Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas RPN Singh on Tuesday said that India imported 17.44 million tonnes of oil in 2011/12, down 5.7 percent from the year earlier.

“Total crude oil imported from Iran by Indian companies during 2010-11 and 2011-12 is 18.50 million tonnes and 17.44 million tonnes, respectively. The target fixed for import of crude oil from Iran for 2012-13 is about 15.5 million tonnes,” Singh said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

Singh said the quantum of crude oil imported by Indian refineries from various sources is decided by them on the basis of technical, commercial and other considerations.

“To reduce its dependence on any particular region of the world, India has been consciously trying to diversify its sources of crude oil imports to strengthen the country’s energy security,” he added. (ANI)

Source: News Track India

Mr. Chairman, as we reflect on the 60th anniversary of this august House and this Parliament, it is time to think a little bit about the democracy that this body enshrines. The whole emanation of the idea of India, to borrow Rabindranath Tagore’s famous phrase, the idea of a plural civilization, a civilization that has been created by generations of people of various backgrounds coming to contribute to our history. Nehruji spoke about a palimpsest written over by new, succeeding waves of people coming to this country, making the India we know today and yet not erasing what has gone before.

In the last sixty years of this Parliament, Mr. Chairman, India has grown from 370 million people in 1952 to 1.2 billion people today. We have reorganized our State structures. We have defended our country from internal and external dangers, and we have managed to do this while remaining democratic.

Our Parliament is the result of that magical exchange of hopes and promises, exchanges of compromises and aspirations, that constitute the people’s mandate, for every one of the MPs sitting in this House today. It is with this that we represent the people, whose hopes they have entrusted to us to fulfil through our work in this House. Democracy, that we in this House and this institution embodies, has given the poor, the oppressed an opportunity to break free of their lot. This is reflected too in the changing composition of this Parliament, the degree to which the broadening social and class base of this Parliament has been reflected in the history of the last 60 years. The way in which no one today is excluded and we have a Parliament that truly looks like India.

Our Parliament reflects our great diversity. Even today’s debate is a proof of that – the various languages we have heard spoken, the different ethnicities that have risen to contribute to today’s reflection and discussion, the different religions and castes represented amongst the Members of Parliament today. This Parliament embodies the idea that India is a country where we can transcend differences of caste, of creed, of colour, of culture, of cuisine, of conviction, of consonant, of costume and of custom, and still rally around a consensus. That consensus is on the simple idea that in a large and diverse democracy like ours, we do not really need to agree all the time; so long as you will agree on the ground rules of how you will disagree. This is what this Parliament embodies – how we can disagree in a way that strengthens our nation, strengthens our democracy and strengthens the future of India.

This is the idea of India; it is an idea of a diverse land where all of us belong, where you can be many things and one thing. You can be a good Christian or a good Muslim, a good Keralite, a good Indian – all at once, because all of these identities are secured in the identity of Indianness that this Parliament today embodies.
I know that in other countries, they speak of the minor differences that divide people. In our country, this Parliament celebrates the commonality of major differences. We celebrate all the varieties of our nation. In fact, when I used to live in the United States, I would tell American audiences that your country calls itself a melting pot. We are not a melting pot; we have many differences in our country; we are, instead, a thali, because we are a collection of different dishes, each of which has a different taste, does not necessarily mix with the next, but they belong together on the same plate, and they contribute to give you a satisfying repast. That is our India – the India of the thali.

This Parliament’s Founding Fathers wrote a Constitution for their dreams. Today we have given passports to their ideals. We must live up to those ideals; let us ask ourselves in this Parliament – and I say this with all the humility of a new Member, let us ask ourselves whether we are always worthy of those ideals of our founding fathers. Let us ask ourselves, if the way in which this Parliament was conducted 60 years ago, is still the way in which we behave today – whether the slogan shouting, the disruption that we have seen, that has deprived us of so many days of work in this House, is the true reflection of the high aspirations that we are praising, and honouring, and commemorating today.

Let us also say to ourselves that this is the time when many outside this Parliament, the self-appointed representatives of civil society has challenged this Parliament’s right to represent the people, have claimed that there is a disconnection from the popular will of this country. Let us show, not only that we have the popular mandate through the votes that we have won, let us also show that we believe in fulfilling the needs of the people, and that we will use this Parliament to work for the people, and not to disrupt our work.

Equally, I had the privilege of calling on the Speaker, to offer the suggestion that we could take the Parliament to the people by having a five-day Session, somewhere other than Delhi. I suggested Bengaluru, not only because it is a State ruled by a Party other than mine, but because it has the facilities to host both the Houses of Parliament. Let us go to another part of the country, show the nation that they too have a claim; they do not have to come to Delhi to see parliamentarians at work, but it is available to them, everywhere in the country.

I would respectfully suggest that what we need to do is to remain faithful to the founding values of our nation’s Parliament, to the founding values of our democracy and our Constitution; and in that process, we need to revive it, we need to come out with new creative, positive ideas to make Parliament more relevant and more connected to the people and this nation.

If we are true to these founding values of the 20th century, I know that this Parliament can go on to transform the future of India in the 21st century. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Dr. Shashi Tharoor is a diplomat, author and journalist. He was the former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations. He is now the chairman of Dubai-based Afras Ventures.

What does spirituality mean to you?
It is the acknowledgment of forces larger than myself. They are not immediately graspable by the daily concerns of one’s consciousness. But they reflect yearnings for things beyond oneself as well as the reality that transcends the mundane, daily life. The awareness of those forces is not something rational. It is an act of conviction, an instinctive feeling I have almost always had in my life.

Do you believe you are guided and protected by a superior force?
I have felt many times in irrational ways the presence of a guiding hand, especially and more strongly after the passing away of my father. Could it simply be explained by the psychology of bereavement, or the sense that I was no longer accountable only to myself, but also to his spirit? I am not sure, especially as this feeling has slightly faded away over the years — this happened fifteen years ago. The shock of losing him so young (he was only 63) and as I was so close to him may have something to do with it. It basically caused the deepest pain and deepest soul searching of my life. I had a sense of regret since I could never talk to him again. And the most consoling thing I realized was: when you are physically far away from someone you love, you know you can be in touch through the occasional phone, letter, or travel. Yet, when they have left this world, they are always with you. In some ways, I took that in very deeply. I was very conscious of my father’s good wishes when he was alive, but they became a permanent feature of myself for many years after his passing away, I was very conscious of his presence.

I also believe that the world poses more questions than science and rationality could ever answer. There are too many examples of paranormal phenomena for instance. But I do have a lot of scepticism when it comes to psychics, astrologers and other types of people professing an understanding of it all. When I was running for the Secretary General of the U.N. post for instance, I cannot tell you how many astrologers told me victory was assured. And of course it was not.

On the overall, the concept of the divine very much talks to me. It does so in the Upanishad sense of the word, as something ultimately unknowable by human beings. And with the idea that all worship, all prayers are means for human beings through their own imperfection to reach out to that they cannot touch. This is why it makes perfect sense to me that there may be 333,000 different manifestations of gods and goddesses. None is more accurate than the other since nobody has actually seen the face of God. We can only imagine It. So there is no harm in imagining God as a woman with five arms or a man on a cross. These are crotches for human’s imagination because they have difficulty fathoming the abstract, and praying to it.

Do you believe you have a special mission or purpose in this life?
I feel so very strongly. I have argued consistently that the only purpose of life is to leave this planet in a bit of a better state. If life was only about eating bread, why would that be — to survive? But then survive to do what? To eat more bread? It would make no sense. So to me, it is about enriching life and in turn, being enriched by it. That is why beyond finding material comfort, the arts, culture, the world of ideas are so important to me. And whatever I venture into, I really try to do my best. Even if it does not succeed, striving for it is what matters. Not trying would be the unforgivable thing.

As a child, one goes through different phases and desires. Before I was even ten years old, my grand-father told me I should become an IAS officer. He was living in a village in Kerala and those officers had an impact on the lives of millions. Then I thought I should have an impact on world affairs, so I wanted to be an IFS officer. But when it was time to sit for those exams, the government declared emergency. So I refused to go ahead with the exams, as I could not see myself serve a government capable of such a move.

Academia — as I had just completed my PhD, journalism — as I had been writing since I was a child — or international affairs were then the three options left. I ended up at the U.N. in Geneva, thinking I would spend there a year only. And of course, it lasted twenty-nine instead. I went from dealing with refugees — the Boat People crisis — to Peacekeeping Operations in Yugoslavia and then undersecretary general at the New York headquarters. The U.N. basically became the platform I was given as an Indian without resources, to have some sort of impact, to make a difference.

And when my candidacy to the post of Secretary General did not succeed in 2007, it was a huge, dramatic change in my life. I have learnt to accept it as what was meant to be. But I had embarked on that race with the goal of winning of course. And it was a real shock. I have tried since then to embrace the Hindu view about it — when you embark on a journey with a certain purpose and have an accident, it turns out the accident itself was the purpose. What is intended up there sometimes does not match the desire we have down here.
So as all that unfolded, I had no idea what I would do next. It was like rebooting a computer. A vast number of opportunities came to me and I entertained almost all of them since I was so unclear about what to do and be next.

Then I found this arrangement, an involvement in the private sector — something I had never done before — which would give me the necessary infrastructure (an assistant, an office…) and the freedom to pursue a wide range of interests. So even though I am no longer part of a large organization such as the U.N., I can still serve a number of purposes. I sit on the board of 33 institutions (maybe a bit too much!), in the fields of human rights, humanitarian action, culture, and education. And I find it all quite constructive and fulfilling. It is way too early to say what will come out of it all. All setbacks look pretty back when they happen and I lack the perspective to say what it was meant for. In the meantime, I must say it is a quite liberating experience, since it has freed me to pursue a number of things that otherwise I would have never done.

What is spirituality for you in your day to day life?
I am very conscious of the higher powers in my daily life. When I can, I pray. When I do not manage to pray in a formal way, I silently think of a superior power. I do so using a picture my parents used to have in their puja room, Ram and Sita surrounded by the main gods. Years later, I had found it in a book published by the former Greek ambassador in Delhi. And I always have it in my home-made altar, so I can imagine my worship through an illustration I have seen since I was a baby.

Source: Indian Express

In his Special Mention Dr. Shashi Tharoor pointed out that Thiruvananthapuram has been facing a severe solid waste management crisis since December last year due to the non-functioning of Vilappilsala garbage treatment plant. Garbage trucks are unable to transport waste to the plant due to severe opposition from the locals. The High Court has ordered the reopening of the plant and even the Supreme Court has rejected the plea of the Vilappilsala Panchayat for a stay on the High Court’s order. The residents of Vilappilsala are vehemently opposed to the reopening of the plant. This has led to garbage accumulating in public places and also spilling on to the streets. Waste collection has come to a standstill as there is no space to landfill or even burn the garbage.

Dr. Tharoor made the specific point that Thiruvananthapuram is facing an epidemic like situation and the health of the people of the city cannot be taken lightly any longer. The city receives a large number of international visitors who are also being exposed to the unhygienic conditions. The situation will only worsen once the monsoon sets in. Vilappilsala itself is at risk if the garbage already dumped in the plant is not treated. It is also of critical importance that the equipment for construction of a leachate treatment unit and sanitary landfill be transported to the Vilappilsala plant. The functioning of the garbage treatment plant is imperative till the plans for decentralisation of waste management in the city take shape which will at the earliest take 3 to 4 months.