AlwaysIndian.com

India’s dramatic rise on the global stage has made a leading American university to launch the Year of India, an initiative to better understand the country and its growing impact around the world.

The lineup of events during the 2009-2010 academic year at Providence, Rhode Island, based Brown University includes major public lectures, art exhibitions, academic conferences about India’s people, culture, economy, and politics.

‘American and Indian scholars, researchers and administrators have long enjoyed a productive environment of international exchange and collaboration,’ said Brown President Ruth J. Simmons.

‘While the fact of India’s new global stature may no longer be surprising, understanding the history and potential of modern India is more important than ever for all academic disciplines.’

Brown is one of several universities that have recently launched initiatives to better understand India, including Yale, Harvard, Stanford, and University of Rhode Island.

‘Politically and economically, India’s rise on the international stage has been widely noted, and American higher education is responding to the new developments,’ said Ashutosh Varshney, professor of political science and one of the programme organizers.

‘In the coming years, a global orientation in education will almost certainly require greater understanding of India – its politics, economics, history, society, and culture.’

The Year of India that officially began Oct 1 features on Oct 22 a lecture by Infosys founder Narayan Murthy on India’s national strides, its powerful new international position, and the role technology has played.

Other Year of India events this fall include the inaugural lecture of a year-long seminar series being launched by faculty at Brown, Harvard, and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, aimed at filling a long-perceived gap in the intellectual discussion of contemporary South Asian politics in the Boston-Providence area.

‘The superb and diverse programmes planned for this Year of India reflect our deep commitment to bringing Brown to the world and the world to Brown,’ said Matthew Gutmann, vice president for international affairs.

‘Events with leading scholars, government figures, and cultural presentations will bring greater appreciation and understanding about India to campus, and greatly strengthen future exchange programs and collaborations between faculty and students in India and Brown.’

—- IANS

After Thursday’s important discussion between India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan can consider having an upper hand. Manmohan Singh delinked terrorist talks from the composite dialogue process. The two prime ministers had a cordial and constructive meeting. They considered the entire gamut of bilateral relations with a view to charting the way forward in India-Pakistan relations. Both leaders agreed that the two countries will share real time credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threats. India has opened up possibility of finding out any information on threats in Balochistan and other areas. On Friday Manmohan Singh said that the starting point for “any meaningful dialogue” will depend on actions by Islamabad to end cross-border terror and hoped there would be “forward movement” in the coming months. India has definitely walked an extra mile to take this situation calmly. But not raising the Kashmir issue in the talks is something that could be questionable.

The action that has to be taken against terrorism should not be linked to the composite dialogue process and therefore cannot await other developments. Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State who is scheduled for a four-day visit to India liked the way Mr Singh handled the whole situation. She called it an “Impressive” way of at the return to the dialogue table. She also stated that the Obama administration’s commitment to the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement but said she would like to discuss this with Indian leaders. The ways to prevent the “proliferation of nuclear material and weapons to state and non-state actors that pose a threat to India, to the US and to the many countries around the world.” Although she also mentioned that the US did not pressurize India to return to the dialogue table with Pakistan.

We believe this dialogue between India and Pakistan is certainly one that could only be pursued with the agreement and commitment of the two countries and their leaders. However, one cannot discount what President Zardari said in a statement recently that ‘the terrorists of today were the heroes of Pakistan until 9/11 happened and that Pakistan has had a policy of encouraging terrorist groups to secure its own national objectives’.

Sources:- TimesofIndia

Climate change has been impacting lives all over the world. But the sad part is that this issue has been ignored. A team of London based doctors and climatologists were of the opinion that the climate change will impact every heath issue.

However now it seems the problem will be addressed.  ”The health sector has in the past not only underestimated but completely neglected and ignored the issues,” said Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet. The health sector has woken up to this. Earlier the doctors were giving importance to other medical problems.

The heat wave which is faced every year kills millions of people. It is predicted that after some year water shortage will be faced. The climate change will also prove to have a drastic impact on the ecological balance. There could be a food crisis due to this also.

Climate and health researchers have previously pointed out the health effects of climate change. Infectious diseases like malaria and dengue are expected to spread, and kidney stones could become more frequent.
In the US and Australia, drought has already contributed to a spread of water-borne illnesses by forcing people to collect and store water in tanks for longer than they otherwise would. In India, hospital deaths have risen in recent weeks as the nation battles a heat wave.

Source: Newscientist.com

Note: Photograph taken from  Water Secrets Blog

There are lot of  discussions  on the loss of jobs in the US and the impact its causing. Now it seems there are multiple reports that state that about 20,000 Indians have returned home after losing their jobs overseas. This is due to the tough global economic crisis which is affecting one and all.

Though there is no exact figure, but the government stated that indications are that the number could be between 16,000 to 20,000 Indians.

Now given the fact that the domestic scenario in India isn’t too great either, this isn’t the best news for the existing government. With elections round the corner, the Government would do better if it could take initiatives to protect their interests of migrant workers. One such act would be signing of bilateral agreements with other countries.

Another step could be boosting domestic economy by providing subsidies and incentives to industries like real estate and manufacturing. This in turn would also create livelihood for those workers that have returned from abroad.