Style Comes Naturally to People in Northeast: Nagaland's footwear designer

Luxury footwear designer Filafi Fithu from Nagaland believes that fashion comes naturally to most people in the northeast as it is intrinsic to the culture of the region.

"In northeast, fashion is something that you grow up with. It's like something that is engraved deep within the culture itself. Especially the youth like to stay trendy and love to express themselves through fashion. In the region, you don't necessarily have to be a stylist or a fashion designer to be well dressed... it just comes naturally," Fithu, 30, who launched her label FilaFi Fithu here in October 2013, said in an email interaction.

She believes that the northeastern market has a great potential for luxury products.

"I know many people who personally get their luxury requirements fulfilled through distant cousins staying abroad or from their peers staying in other cities of India," said the designer whose footwear designed for women are priced from Rs.6,000 onwards.

Targeting women with a certain level of spending capacity, she wants to open more stores in the country and abroad.

"Delhi is the perfect platform for anybody planning to go global. I do want to do it in my home state and northeast as well in the future. I feel that people from northeast in general have great taste and aesthetic sense and they can well afford it too. It's just that I need a bigger audience," said Fithu, who also introduced a line called t-r-e-n-d-z available from Rs.3,000 upwards.

Designed by Fithu, the shoes apart from t-r-e-n-d-z line are manufactured at Calzaturificio Taboo Line di Romeo Giuseppina at Vigevano in Italy. The company is known for its impeccable quality Italian leather and workmanship, just what she wanted.

"It will make a great sense to sell it in Europe because my shoes are manufactured there and they can relate with women from any country. We are working on opening store in Romania. Hopefully, it will happen sometime early next year," she said.

The alumnus of Central Footwear Training Institute, Agra has also designed footwear for forthcoming Italian drama fiction "Luomo Volante" starring Adelmo Togliani and Bianca Guaccero.
As her label is just a few months old, her eyes are set now on promotional activities.

"Well, since my brand is comparatively new as of now, I am open to all sorts of opportunities of promoting my brand. I will be starting out with advertising my brand at suitable platforms that will give it the sort of publicity I am looking for. Fashion weeks are also an option," she said.

The designer, who left a stable government job to join the fashion industry, believes her choice of profession has a great scope. The history graduate cleared the Nagaland Public Service Commission Examination and got a government job.

"I worked there for many years, but ultimately decided to quit and pursue my ultimate dream because I prefer being my own person. It has a great scope because the demand for footwear only keeps increasing. The global footwear market was worth $185.2 billion in 2011 and is expected to reach $211.5 billion in 2018," said Fithu.

Mizoram CM urges refugees to return from Tripura

Agartala, Jan 30 : Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla has said his government is keen to take back the Bru refugees sheltering in makeshift camps in Tripura for the past 17 years.

"We are always ready to take back the refugees from Tripura and rehabilitate them in their villages. Those refugees, who have returned to their villages, were rehabilitated and are living peacefully and satisfactorily," Lal Thanhawla told reporters at Jampui in north Tripura Tuesday.

He said: "Some people are impeding the repatriation of refugees. Those refugees who have returned to their homes have got financial assistance under the central government package."

Lal Thanhawla, who came to Jampui, 215 km from here, to attend the silver jubilee function of the NGO, the Young Mizo Association as the chief guest, urged the refugees to return to their homes and lead a normal life.

Addressing the association function, he said that some inimical forces are trying to disturb peace and ethnic harmony in Mizoram. Over 36,000 tribal refugees, locally called 'Bru', have been living in seven makeshift camps in northern Tripura for the past 17 years after fleeing their villages in Mizoram following ethnic trouble with the majority Mizos. The trouble began after a Mizo forest official was killed.

Around 5,000 refugees returned to their homes and villages in the past three years following continued persuasion by Mizoram, Tripura and union home ministry officials.

However, the process got stalled after that. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has told both the prime minister and the union home minister that "continuous presence for over 17 years of refugees from Mizoram has been a matter of concern for Tripura".

The refugees have been insisting that without a formal agreement between the central government, the state governments of Mizoram and Tripura and the tribal leaders, their return to homes and subsequent rehabilitation will remain uncertain.

Assam Wants A New Time Zone

Assam's chief minister argues that time change will save energy and synchronise the eastern state with the rest of the country.

By Julien Bouissou

The chief minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi. Photograph: Biju Boro/AFP

Every day residents of Assam, a state in north-east India, see the sun rise and set earlier than their compatriots because, in a country that stretches 3,000km from east to west, the clocks are all set at the same time. To correct this injustice Tarun Gogoi, the chief minister of Assam, is demanding the creation of a new time zone. "We want offices to start one hour ahead, so that we increase our overall productivity and save on energy," he said.

Technically speaking, it would make sense to create a second time zone. There are almost 28 degrees of longitude between the country's eastern and western extremities, whereas on average a time zone corresponds to 15 degrees. In 2006 India's planning commission recommended two time zones, explaining that it would provide for substantial energy savings. At peak hours electricity demand currently exceeds supply by 17%.

But on two occasions, in 2002 and 2006, the federal government rejected proposals along these lines, for fear of chaos at the time border and rail accidents. The topic is politically sensitive in a country prone to separatist tension. Delhi is afraid a second time zone may distance north-eastern states. Indeed, it was on the grounds of national unity that India decided, shortly after independence, to abolish Mumbai and Kolkata time.

Two researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore, Dilip Ahuja and Debi Prasad Sengupta, advocate putting clocks back by half an hour all over India to satisfy the demands of north-eastern states and avoid chaos. In a study carried out in 2012 they calculated that with this arrangement India would save from 0.2% to 0.7% in energy, depending on the state.

Daylight has other virtues too. Drawing on research done in Britain suggesting that crimes and accidents happen more at night, the two scientists emphasised the advantages of stopping work an hour earlier.

But as the regional daily Assam Tribune pointed out this month, "a gain of half an hour for the eastern region may lead to loss of equal numbers of hours in the central and western regions".
India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy says it will examine Gogoi's ideas. But with only four months before a general election, it seems unlikely the government will risk upsetting voters giving Assam more sunlight.

This article appeared in Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from Le Monde

Mizo Students threaten to boycott LS elections

Aizawl, Jan 29 : Mizo Students’ Union (MSU), one of the largest and most active student bodies in Mizoram has threatened to boycott the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the state if the Election Commission of India (ECI) does not entertain the demand of MSU to disallow Brus camped in Tripura from voting in Mizoram in the forthcoming Lok Sabha poll.

In the executive meeting held today under the leadership of its president, Zodinpuia, which was attended by leaders of College Students’ Union (SU) and Hnampual Zirlai Pawl (various students’ organizations), leaders of the student bodies unanimously agreed to boycott the upcoming Lok Sabha election if their demand is not met.
On Monday, Mizo Students' Union (MSU) had lodged complaint to Union Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, regarding the troubles and obnoxious acts created by Bru community against the Mizos, MSU president Zodinpuia said.

The MSU also urged the Election Commission of Indis (ECI) not to allow the Brus residing outside Mizoram to cast their votes in Mizoram.

Earlier, on January 23, MSU had re-submitted a petition to Chief Election Commissioner, VS Sampath, asking him to take immediate step to disallow Bru voters who continue to live outside Mizoram to cast their votes in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in Mizoram. It is worth mentioning here that the relationship between the Mizos and the Brus has not been going well in the past 15 years.

Hundreds of Brus had left Mizoram in 1997 and in 2009. The first case was triggered when Bru militants murdered two Mizos who were forest guards on October 21, 1997. The second case happened after a 17-year-old Mizo boy was killed by the Brus near Bungthuam village on November 13, 2009. When the Brus left Mizoram they had driven out some Mizos in villages of Sakhan Hill Range in Tripura like Sakhan Serhmun, Sakhan Tlangsang, Sakhan Tualsen and Upper Dosda which had kicked up much ruckus in Mizoram then.

Meanwhile, a couple of years ago, head count conducted by the MBDPF found that there had been 31,703 Brus in the relief camps belonging to 5,448 families who were bona fide residents of Mizoram. The repatriation of the 1997 batch of Bru refugees was underway until it stalled by the November 13 killing.

In the year 2011, conglomeration of major NGOs in Mizoram had submitted a joint memorandum to the then Union Home minister P Chidambaram to rehabilitate displaced Mizos in Tripura and stall the ongoing repatriation of Brus from Tripura to Mizoram. The memorandum was signed by representatives of four large NGOs in the state--the Young Mizo Association (YMA), the MZP, the Mizoram Upa Pawl (MUP) or elders association and the Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) or the women's federation and four political parties.

The memorandum had mentioned that more than 80 Mizo families displaced from Tripura's Sakhan Hill range in 1998, after being threatened by Bru militants, should be adequately rehabilitated by the Centre, otherwise, the repatriation of Bru refugees from Tripura relief camps should not be allowed.