Sinlung Says: Chinese Ambassador might be right or wrong...but Arunachal will be blessed if its part of China...The world’s largest economy. That's All we say. Arunachalis won't be second class citizens at least by looks.
New Delhi: Chinese Ambassador to India on Thursday told journalists to 'shut up' when questioned about map showing Ladakh and Arunachal as part of China.
Chinese Ambassador was attending an event in Delhi where a Chinese company's brochure showed Arunachal and Ladakh as part of China.
The Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs who was present at the event had already raised the issue with the Ambassador.
The incident just happened suddenly at an event in New Delhi involving a delegation from Sichiang, which was being shepherded by the Chinese ambassador. A brochure given by a Chinese company, which is involved in some projects in India, showed a map of Ladakh and Arunachal as a part of China.
When a journalist from Outlook Business asked the ambassador for his reaction on that, he was asked to shut up. So, there were some raised voices in the process, and the Joint Secretary, China also intervened.
The matter was apparently sorted out, but it's not clear if the Chinese ambassador apologised for his remark.
But it's pretty clear that since the map also involved a China's stated position, it's unlikely that the ambassador would have gone back on that either.
One girl's journey from student to sophisticate becomes YouTube hit after she takes photo of herself every day for four-and-a-half years
By Tamara Abraham
A girl has sparked a YouTube sensation by taking a photograph of herself every day for the past four-and-a-half years.
The 41-minute time-lapse video, which has had over 3 million views, shows the hundreds of photos, taken between September 29 2006 and May 12 2011, in sequence.
Viewed in quick succession, the pictures reveal her journey from dishevelled student to elegant young woman.
Style evolution: A girl's time-lapse video of daily photographs from the past four-and-a-half years has become a YouTube sensation
From student to sophisticated: The photographs, taken religiously, even on off days, or if she was in fancy dress, show how her look has changed over time
While many of the clothes and accessories she wears reappear from time-to-time, it is clear that her hair is where she has been most experimantal.
The earlier photographs, many taken in the same location - perhaps student halls - show a short bob. But before long she bravely chops it all off into a more daring boyish style.
Dated: The earliest images, many taken in the same location - perhaps student halls - show a short bob. She wears little make-up and casual clothes
Daring: Before long, she bravely chops it all off into a more daring boyish style. As a pretty girl with defined features, she pulls it off well - even when it was growing out
As a pretty girl with defined features, she pulls it off well - even during that awkward 'growing out' phase, which, as many of us are well aware, is unavoidable.
But it gets to a point, it seems, where it it just too long, so she goes for the chop again - this time a sharp Gallic bob with fringe. It's a cut that works well with a mortarboard, as we see in one frame, where she is clearly graduating university.
From here on her look continues to sharpen up. Now, perhaps in the world of work, we see her wearing more elegant jewellery, pearls and simple chains, compared with the novelty earrings of the earlier pictures.
Growing out phase: As her hair gets longer, she can experiment more with it, and eventually it is long enough to pull back into a ponytail
Grown-up new 'do: It seems there comes a point when it is just too long, and she goes for the crop again - a Gallic bob with a blunt fringe - just in time for her graduationMake-up is no longer reserved for fancy dress. Instead, bold reddish oranges are bang on trend and perfect for the office.
The fringe is a little grown out, but, maintained by a hairdresser perhaps, is a softer, flattering look.
The girl, who goes only by the YouTube username Madandcrazychild, is unnamed on the video, shows every photograph on her blog, Clickflashwhirr.
She writes only: 'My face has grown out of the front of my head since birth. There seems to be very little I can do about it.'
Elegant: Now, perhaps in the world of work, make-up is no longer reserved for fancy dress. Instead, bold reddish oranges are bang on trend and perfect for the office
Grappling with ever rising unemployment, the Manipur government has roped in 10 placement agencies across the country to get its youths jobs outside the state. The focus is on jobs in the metros and abroad.
The government has tied up with the Indian Council of Overseas Employment and the International Organisation for Migration, which earlier this year launched an initiative on skill development for overseas employment with a focus on the Northeast. The plan is to send 10,000 youths from the Northeast to jobs abroad over the next two years.
“One of the main focuses is to get the youth here employment overseas, as they receive very few opportunities to go abroad and work. The main centres where recruitment is carried out for jobs overseas are Mumbai, Chennai and Kochi. These are where the recruiting agents are based. Our plan is to bring them to this state which has a high level of education but little employment,” says Chief Secretary D S Poonia.
The 10 companies it has tied up with include Ananda Spa, Suryavinayak, Sri Sanskara and Sunderdeep that trains in the hospitality and retail sectors. The government is also in the process of signing an MoU with C Trance that works in the aviation sector and supplies cabin crew.
Project coordinator for the International Organisation for Migration (under the Ministry of Overseas Employment) Nitin Kumar says the project was announced earlier this year to tap the human resources in all northeastern states. “The idea is to create standardised skills which will involve providing the trainees with internationally accepted qualifications. Indian qualifications aren’t always accepted abroad.”
The Northeast project is a pilot for the Ministry. “If the project is a success then in a couple of years it will be extended pan-India. According to the approximate projections which we have, there will be around 37 million unemployed by 2026 — that is about 68 per cent of the working population. Whereas there is a gap emerging with other countries — especially the European Union, which have a decreasing workforce — India can meet that gap,” he says.
Among the organisations roped in by the Centre to implement the project is Aspire, a consortium of CEOs of companies which has taken it upon itself to train a workforce. Founder and CEO Amit Bhatia says Aspire has so far been dealing in management and engineering training. “We have been working with Harvard, Cambridge, Carnegie, etc, but our main aim is to shift from the Tier I cities to the population which lives in the Tier II, III and IV cities in the country. So we are not looking at the IITs and IIMs but are trying to create a workforce outside of these elite institutions,” says Bhatia.
Bhatia says the organisation is now focusing on automotive, construction, hospitality and healthcare for its tailor-made project for the Northeast. “Indians’ employment abroad is concentrated primarily in the Gulf and some Southeast Asian countries. We have identified Korea, Denmark, Hungary and the Czech Republic as the first markets where we will export a workforce to. Within the next two years we will be sending 10,000 trained workers from the Northeast to these countries,” says Bhatia.
Prof Bijoy Kumar, Manipur University’s economics head, says the problem is not just of unemployment but of low salaries. “Only 75,000 across the state have secure government jobs with decent salaries. The rest have so negligible salaries that they can be considered unemployed,” says Kumar. Prof Amar Yumnam, also of the economics department, says that in a three million population, nearly a million are currently unemployed.
Senapati, Nov 3 : In the face of the intensified United Naga Council (UNC)-sponsored stir demanding alternative administrative arrangement for the Nagas in Manipur, Union home minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday strongly advocated the need to enhance communal harmony.
"We must learn to live together. There is no problem which cannot be solved through talks," said Chidambaram minutes after he inaugurated a mini secretariat office complex and a section of a district hospital at the district headquarters here, 61 km from Imphal.
The Union minister's peace initiative came a couple of days after the state government and the Sadar Hills Districthood Demand Committee (SHDDC) entered into an agreement in which the former assured to upgrade the Kuki-dominated Sadar hills to a full-fledged revenue district at the earliest after the submission of a report by the District Re-organization Committee (DRC).
Accompanied by central officials and AICC leaders, Chidambaram arrived in Imphal in a special aircraft on Wednesday morning on his two-day visit to strife-torn Manipur. From Imphal, he, along with chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh and his team, landed at Senapati in a chopper.
Before addressing the public at Senapati, the Union home minister and the chief minister had a closed-door meeting with the leaders of the agitating United Naga Council (UNC) for about 40 minutes.
Though both parties refused to divulge the meeting deliberations, sources said the UNC hard pressed the home minister to implement its long standing demand of an alternative administrative arrangement in Naga areas without links with the state government.
Following Monday night's agreement, the SHDDC suspended its 90-day economic blockade on National Highways 2 and 37.
Denouncing the state government's alleged attempt to bifurcate the Naga-dominated areas to create new districts, the UNC has been imposing economic blockade on the highways since August 21.
The apex Naga body has also imposed a three-day total bandh in the Naga area from Thursday midnight in protest against the state-SHDDC agreement. Pacifying the UNC's ire, Singh said even after the DRC submits its report, his government will not take any decision of its own to create the Sadar Hills district.
"Even after we receive the DRC report, we will consult all civil bodies and communities. We will not take any decision unilaterally and we don't want to create problems while trying to resolve another problem," Singh said.
"We will not do anything which will hurt any community and we should live together peacefully. If there is any misunderstanding let us forget and forgive," the chief minister said, earning a round of heavy applause from the Nagas at the newly inaugurated hall within the district headquarters' mini secretariat complex.
The chief minister appealed to the UNC to end its intensified stir in the larger interest of the people. "At a time when the Centre is extending its utmost effort to develop the state, we are facing frequent economic blockades," Singh lamented.
After the Senapati programme, they flew to Ukhrul to inaugurate a new government infrastructure. On Thursday, they will visit Tamenglong district.
Aizawl, Nov 2 : Planning Commission member Secretary Suddha Pillai, who was on a two-day visit to Mizoram, today expressed her optimism that the state government’s flagship programme- New Land Use Policy had the potential to improve the state’s economy dramatically.
Suddha Pillai visited farms in Sihphir, about 15 kms from Aizawl, this morning where NLUP beneficiaries had cultivated Chayote and other crops.
At a brief function, Pillai mentioned her deep impression on their interest in NLUP which she felt had the potential to improve Mizoram economy dramatically.
She pointed out that all government schemes were for the benefit of the people and people were obliged to make full use of it.
Visiting the farms, Pillai felt measures should be taken to improve the drastic low prices farmers get for their produce so that they would receive appropriate benefits for their toil and urged the district authorities to look into it.
She also suggested that pictures should be uploaded on internet whenever new developments take place to serve as visual evidence.
In the first five years, the NLUP aims to support 1,20,000 families.
The departments of Agriculture, Horticulture, Veterinary, Industries, Forest, Fisheries, Sericulture and Soil and Water Conservation would be involved in the scheme.
About 80 per cent of farmers in Mizoram still depend on jhum cultivation that involves clearing of forests and burning trees, weeds and bamboos.
The NLUP aims to restore ecological balance by providing the farmers alternative sustainable and permanent land-based means of livelihood. It also aims to create 21,480 hectares of bamboo plantation to benefit 10,740 families.
Despite the slash-and-burn system of cultivation, Mizoram has a large forest cover area of 75.77 per cent of the total land.
The NLUP intends to keep 60 per cent of the State’s total geographical area under forest cover and the remaining 40 per cent for land-based development.
Aizawl, Nov 2 : One of the two accused in the sensational murder of Remsiami seven years back confessed before the court here on Monday to committing the gruesome crime at the behest of the victim’s employer, Muanpuii.
Lalremsiami was found dead in a pool of blood inside the store room of MP Garments on May 15, 2004, two days after she was murdered. The prime suspects Mohammed Mister and Mohammed Gulzar, who were working as porters in the MP Garments, where Lalremsiami also worked as an assistant, were arrested by Mizoram police on June 14 from Nepal.
Statement of the victim’s mother had implicated the MP Garments owner Muanpuii in the murder of her daughter. Muanpuii was initially arrested but was later released due to lack of evidence. The victim’s mother had suspected that her daughter was murdered out of jealousy.
Lalremsiami was a trusted assistant and all money transactions of MP Garments through the bank was done by her. Sources said Mister told the court of additional district sessions judge K L Liana that he murdered Lalremsiami at the behest of their employer Muanpuii.
When the court asked where was the money, Rs 4,14,000, which their employer told Lalremsiami to deposit in the bank that went missing after her murder, Mister said the money was taken by Muanpuii. Whether or not he was given reward for murdering the girl was not mentioned.
Mister also told the court that his friend Mohammed Gulzar was not involved in the murder. The controversial murder case was first taken up by ADM (J) Marli Vankung. After going through different judges, it finally landed in the court of K L Liana.
Agartala, Nov 2 : Geologists today warned the Tripura Government that two hill-bound districts of North Tripura and Dhalai of the state have become more vulnerable as the fault line drawn after disastrous quake in Sikkim, intersects the entire area.
Talking to media here, state Revenue Minister Badal Choudhury said the latest National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) communiqu asked all the northeastern states to enhance the disaster management infrastructure especially the preparedness to tackle high magnitude earthquake.
Tripura has high probability of earthquake because sedimentary rock underneath and most area is under 1st order topography of marine origin besides, poor houses including government infrastructures.
Moreover, According to Vulnerability Atlas of India, 1997, Tripura comes under the very high earthquake damage risk-zone (category V, magnitude 7.0 to 7.5) and most of the existing houses were not able to stand high magnitude tremor. Mr Choudhury however, stated that the state government had identified as many as 2000 building mostly government houses including existing Raj Bhawan as vulnerable to earthquake, which required retrofitting but the state government could not manage the adequate fund to execute the plan.
He also demanded provision of additional funds for building of earthquake resistant public houses and constructions under the special housing schemes like Indira Awas Yajuna (IAY) and Sarva Sikhya Abhiyan (SSA) and the quality disaster management training infrastructure in the state.
Mr Choudhury blamed the Centre for awarding only Rs one crore in a year by the 13th finace commission for disaster management activities in Tripura despite identifying the state as one of the most earth quake prone areas and all other states were awarded five crore every year.
To sensitise the key players of disaster management in the state for strengthening the disaster management responsibilities and further effective implementation of required action, the state has organised a two-day workshop from today in Agartala, Mr Choudhury said, adding as part of the workshop, an exhibition on critical equipment and skills was organised to understand the use of the equipment for supplementing the existing resources for saving loss.
Earlier, Tripura Governor Dr Dnyandeo Yashwantrao Patil asked the state government to shift his residence from the 95-year-old Raj Bhawan building in Agartala to a safer place after reviewing the earthquake warning from the scientists.
But the state government assured him that necessary protection had already been given to the building and till the completion of new Raj Bhawan, there was no other suitable accommodation for the governor.
Keeping the experts opinion and the region s topographical status, the Ministry of Urban Development had asked the state government to follow the recommendations in the following areas: policy, strategy, action plan, technical guidance for new buildings and retrofitting existing buildings.
Quoting National Seismic Advisor A S Arya s warning, officals said between 1792 and 2003, about 42 moderate to high- magnitude earthquakes occurred along the state boundary and within a 100 km area of the state. So far as wind hazards go, the wind speed in the state is cyclonic.
The government had also begun to train villagers and civil officials in dealing with both man-made and natural disasters. The approach and management strategies had been incorporated into the school curriculum.
Disaster management was included in environment studies at school level and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping of the state s residential status had alerady been done besides formulating separate regulation for buildings in urban areas.
Shillong, Nov 2 : Though the northeastern region of the country is considered an ecological hotspot, large sections of the local people are not even aware that the region reservoirs of biodiversity are under constant threat.
Experts say that at present the region is suffering from destruction offorests that is threatening permanent loss of biodiversity due to unsustainable logging and jhuming (slash and burn method of farming).
In fact, scientists say that the rate of "biodiversity depletion" in the region is quite alarming than many parts of the world as there is an estimated annual conversion of three per cent of the primary forest into secondary or degraded forest mainly due to jhuming (shifting cultivation).
"The exotic pitcher plant found in the Garo Hills of Meghalaya, small variety of bamboo, stone moss and many other unidentified plants, most of them having medicinal value are facing extinction threats. Therefore, there is in an urgent need to explore ways and means to save the unique plants of the region," says scientist PK Das, who had carried out extensive research on the pine plantations in Meghalaya.
In fact, a unique feature of the region was prevalence of traditional institutions for maintaining biodiversity. However, sacred groves, protected by socio-religious sanctions are fast eroding with changing beliefs. At present, only about 10 per cent of the sacred groves are found to have crown cover of 100 per cent, studies conducted by the North Eastern Region Community Resources Management Project (NERCORMP) have brought to light.
"The need of the hour for policy makers is to hold serious deliberations on forests, wildlife, non-timber forest produce, medicinal and aromatic plants, joint forest management, agriculture, horticulture, water security and aquatic environment, traditional institutions and customary practices, gender perspective in conservation, environmental services and carbon trading," says the botanist, who is keen on launching an awareness scheme on the issue.
"Awareness on bio-conservation must be promoted among the masses and policy makers must be alerted on the impending need to protect, preserve biodiversity resources in the northeast, one of the richest bio-hotspots on earth," he iterates.
