Mizoram A Turmeric Powerhouse

Huge potential for turmeric in Northeast India

Guwahati, May 27 : The North Eastern region offers great potential for large scale cultivation of many spices.

In terms of area, turmeric is the third largest crop in the region. However, its productivity in the region is only 1.5 tonnes against 3.9tonnes / ha in the country.

According to Dr. S.V. Ngachan, Director, ICAR Research Complex for North Eastern Hill Region, “after much research and demonstration, we have identified two varieties of turmeric, Lackadong and Megha varieties for their higher yield and quality.”

Good yielder

“Trials in Sikkim, Mizoram, Tripura and other states, proved that Megha and Lackadong yield curcumin of not less than 6.5 per cent. The average yield is around 30-32 tonnes per ha. In addition oleoresin content is also very high for these varieties,” adds Dr. Ngachan.

“So far under NAIP [National Agricultural Innovation Project], we have been able to spread these varieties in around 33,000 hectares in the north east,” he adds.

The biggest challenge faced by the turmeric growers in the region is lack of premium price for the produce.

Post harvest losses of almost all the farm produce in the region are very high due to near zero facility for their handling, processing, value addition, packaging and even organized marketing.

It is an irony that though the region produces best quality turmeric, ginger, pineapple, orange, apple etc., there are very few processing units for any of these crops.

Processing units

“To help the farmers, ICAR and NAIP have set up some semi processing units in seven districts of NEH Region,” says Dr. Ngachan.

Earlier farmers were incurring heavy loss due to huge transportation cost for ferrying their produces to processing units in far off places.

But now farmers, after drying the turmeric in the field can bring them to the unit for processing.

After packaging, they will sell it either directly or through the ICAR Farmers'Association for marketing under the logo of ICAR.

“When compared to Kerala or Andhra, NEH varieties are rich in curcumin and oleoresin content. We should be able to offer farmers a premium price by setting up semi processing units in various parts of the region with the help of entrepreneurs and industry people,” he adds.

For details contact Dr. S.V.Ngachan, email:svngachan@rediffmail.com, phone :0364-2570257.

RBI Asks Northeast To Crack Whip On Chit Funds

By Sujit Chakraborty

Agartala, May 27 : Worried about rising incidents of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) hoodwinking the public, India's central bank has asked north eastern states to constitute a robust economic offence wing and enforce legislation like the Chit Fund Act.

A large number of NBFCs have cropped up in the northeast, luring customers with promises of high returns on deposits, although they do not have a licence from any of the regulatory authorities to accept deposits from the public.

"Setting up of economic offences wing, enactment of Protection of Interest of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act and framing rules under the Chit Fund Act are the urgent matters which should be looked into by the
state governments to deal with such illegal entities," RBI regional director Surekha Marandi told IANS in an interview here.

She said that none of the 116 NBFCs currently functioning in the north-eastern states is a deposit-taking company.

States frame rules specific to their needs for some federal acts, which govern the activities of businesses in a particular sector.

Tripura doesn't have an economic offences wing and has not framed state rules with regard to the Chit Funds Act.

Marandi said that recently a network marketing company by the name of "Jainex International Trade" has duped thousands of gullible investors in Manipur to the extent of nearly Rs 40 crore and their network disappeared all of a sudden.

Several other companies are also operating in the same line in Manipur and other northeastern states.

"Framing state rules under the Chit Fund Act, Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banking) Act 1978 and other related central acts are the only answers to check the menace posed by the NBFC and UIBs," the RBI official said.

"The offences under these central acts are cognisable offences," she said.

The NBFCs not recognised by financial sector regulators like the RBI, the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) or the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), cannot accept deposits from the public or do any monetary business.

But the RBI or other regulators cannot take action on companies that are not registered with them.

Hence the onus lies on state governments to monitor the activities of such firms as have mushroomed in the northeastern region in recent years, mobilising huge deposits from people by promising abnormally high rates of interest, at 25 to 30 percent.

After collecting the money, they vanish overnight.

"State governments should make efforts to arrest the people involved in the dubious activities of such companies," the RBI regional chief said.

The Tripura government, during the recent budget session of the state assembly, moved a new bill amending the Tripura Protection of Interest of Depositors (in financial establishments) Act, 2000, for enhancing the level of protection of the depositors in monetary firms, including NBFCs and UIBs, by providing more teeth to the existing legislation.

The new bill proposes to impose a fine of Rs.10,000 for every flawed provision and act by the NBFCs and UIBs and in addition Rs.1,000 per day for continuation from the date of default.

Marandi said that the RBI, on its part, had decided to open its sub-offices in six northeastern states - Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya - in a phased manner for better monitoring of the
functioning of the nationalised, private banks and other financial institutions.

The first such RBI sub-office in the series was inaugurated in Agartala by central bank governor Duvvuri Subbarao last week. According to an RBI official, the next sub-office would be set up in the Meghalaya capital Shillong soon.

Currently, RBI has a regional office in Assam's main city of Guwahati.

"With the setting up of these sub-offices, RBI's mission to improve the banking services to the northeastern region and to ensure banking access to all people would be fulfilled to a large extent," Marandi said.

Manipur Have The Edge

Guwahati, May 27 : Former champions Manipur will start as favorites when they take on Services in the first semi-final of the Santosh Trophy at the Nehru Stadium, here on Thursday.

Even though the fans has not thronged the Nehru Stadium during the ongoing tournament, Manipur are hoping that on Thursday the crowd will fill stands.

“We hope there will be plenty of support tomorrow.

Have not seen much of a crowd till now. With the tournament reaching its business end, I am sure fans will come to the stadium,” Manipur coach S Ekendra Singh said on Wednesday.

Singh said had it been in Manipur fans would have filled up the stands in every match. “We am really missing that feeling.

The crowd chanting ‘Manipur, Manipur’ and the players getting charged up. Here we are not seeing any interest.”

“We were a bit tensed against Bengal, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

We missed too many chances. But I have confidence in my boys. Let’s see how things unfold against Services,” he added.

An Uncommon Commoner

His common touch, winning smile and commitment to governance gave Gogoi a third term as CM in a state that is among India’s most troubled

By Bijay Sankar Bora

He saw  Jawaharlal Nehru from close quarters when he was a Class III student. In school he declared that he wanted to be the Prime Minister. The childhood dream came true in a different form as he became Chief Minister, not once, not twice, but three times.

Tarun Gogoi, the Congress Chief Minister of Assam, is rustic and plain-speaking. He is also a shrewd political player who has weathered many a storm to script an electoral victory in a state that was once the hotbed of militancy. He led the party from the front to a third astounding poll victory, overcoming the complex socio-political equations and aspirations of different social groups. Opposition parties had vociferously raised the issue of corruption and scandals regarding appointments in several departments, including the police, education and Assam Public Service Commission (APSC), but he still won another term.

Hanhiram (ever-smiling man), as he is referred to by many, was born to Dr Kamaleswar Gogoi and Usha Gogoi at Rangajan Tea Estate, near the historic eastern Assam town of Jorhat, on a Thursday in the spring of 1936. He governed Assam with passion after he led the Congress to power in 2001, when the state was plagued by the worst-ever financial crisis and law and order problems. He had inherited an empty treasury, an atmosphere of fear psychosis triggered by spells of “extra-judicial killings” of the kin of dreaded militants belonging to the ULFA from the previous Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) regime. But Gogoi was unfazed.

Gogoi’s key asset has been his ability to communicate with the masses through his plainspeaking and his commitment to uplift the rural masses, given that over 70 per cent of the state’s population lives in rural areas. He often says, “Assam can’t prosper unless our villagers are smiling.”

He is a rare breed of politician who hardly cares about what - good or bad - the media is writing about him and doesn’t believe in managing the media and creating a coterie of people around him. “It is the job of the media to write about the government and its functioning the way they want to. I am more concerned about what I am really doing on the ground for the people. People are the best judge,” he says, and he has proved wrong all speculation in the state’s media about a possible verdict against him.

Tarun Gogoi was one of the first Congressmen in Assam to announce his loyalty to Mrs Indira Gandhi when the Congress split in 1969. She saw him as a leading young leader of the party in the 1970s and attached him with Rajiv Gandhi in the capacity of an AICC joint secretary.

He says he will now focus on solving the perennial problem of flood and erosion that has broken the backbone of the state’s economy besides brining in the hawkish factions of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) to the negotiating table.

“The magic behind our landslide poll victory is development and sincerity. People voted us to power, based on our performance in the last 10 years of our rule,” Gogoi says.

Gogoi attributes his success to his ability to speak his heart out and not siding with any lobby within the party throughout his political career. His stand-alone status within the party, in fact, helped his ascent. He was a consensus Congress candidate from the Jorhat Lok Sabha seat in 1971, the year of his foray into Parliament to which he was elected on five more occasions later.

He has worked under a host of stalwarts, including Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Bisnuram Medhi, and Bimala Prasad Chaliha. No wonder he has managed to bring so many militants groups in the state, including factions of the ULFA and NDFB, for negotiations during the last 10 years.

He was put in charge of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee as its president in 1986 during a difficult time when the morale of Congressmen was down in the wake of onslaught of the famous students’ movement against illegal infiltration from Bangladesh. He helped the party come back to power in 1991. The call to lead the APPC again came from the high command in the late 1990s after the demise of Hiteswar Saikia. Gogoi led the party to a poll victory again in 2001 Assembly polls and since then there has been no looking back for him.

“The responsibility on us is even more challenging this time. We need to be sincere, aggressive, and determined to make Assam self-reliant and work for the all-round economic development of the state. Insincerity on part of any of new ministerial colleagues would not be tolerated. We need to further stress on sectors like education, healthcare, roads and infrastructure, human resource development, agriculture, and tourism,” the Chief Minister said.

An RTI activist, Akhil Gogoi, who heads an NGO called Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS), brought up the alleged Rs 1,000-crore scandal in the North Cachar Hills Autonomous District Council (NCHADC) which is governed under the Sixth Schedule. As the public organisations went up the arms against the government over the alleged scam, the Gogoi government asked the CBI to investigate. The residence of a close relative of R. H. Khan, a government official and prime accused in the scam, yielded Rs 13.85 crore. “Anyone proved guilty will be punished,”Gogoi says.

His small but happy family has been Gogoi’s source of inspiration. Dolly, his graceful wife, has always been around to take care of her busy husband. He takes pride in his two children. Daughter Chandrima is married to a technocrat working with Google in California and settled in the US. His 28-year-old son Gaurav, who has a Master’s in Public Administration from New York University, is now trying to cut his teeth in state politics under the shadow of his illustrious father. Dolly Gogoi and Gaurav took care of electioneering during the last election in Titabor constituency to give respite to Tarun Gogoi who has been busy hitting the campaign trail in the rest of the state, despite undergoing three heart surgeries during 2010-2011. Allegations made against them by the RTI activist backfired, and as they were found to be untrue.

His wife and children often tell Gogoi to call it a day in politics because the mounting workload is not in tune with his age and health. But with the passion to make Assam one of the most developed state, Gogoi is hardly thinking of quitting now. And why should he as long as his health permits him to tee off the stress on the lush green golf course and occasionally dance to the rhythm of Bihu dance.

Plastic Surgery Boom As Asians Seek Western Faces

By Kyung Lah



Lee Min kyong stretches on the ballet bar in the dance studio. The 12-year old is a little awkward and nervous in front of strangers, until the music begins.

Min-kyong moves to the classical tune, springing easily onto her toes, the very picture of childhood grace and poise. But when the music stops, she falls back into an awkward stance.

She lacks confidence, explains Min-kyong's mother, a problem she hopes will be solved when her pre-teen undergoes plastic surgery, to westernize her eyes.

"If I get the surgery, my eyes will look bigger," explains Min-kyong. Everyone, she says, points out her small eyes. It's why she doesn't think she's a pretty girl. A surgery which cuts a fold into her eyelid to create a double fold will widen her eyes. The effect will also be to give her a slightly more western look.

"I'm excited. I think I'll look better than I do now," she says shyly, breaking into a small smile.

Her mother, Jang Hyu-hee, says her daughter didn't ask for the surgery.

"I'm having her do it," says Jang, "because I think it'll help her. This is a society where you have to be pretty to get ahead. She's my only daughter."

The definition of pretty, explains their plastic surgeon, is not the standard Asian face, but closer to a Caucasian face. Dr Kim Byung-gun is the head of Seoul, South Korea's biggest plastic surgery clinic, BK DongYang. The clinic is a dozen stories tall, with all of its operating rooms full on the day of Min kyong's surgery.

Dr Kim says his clinic, one of the most successful in a city dubbed the "plastic surgery capital of Asia," performs 100 surgeries a day, ranging from eyelid surgery to nose reshaping to facial contouring.

The Chinese and Korean patients tell me they want to have faces like Americans
--Dr Kim Byung-gun

"They always tell me they don't like their faces," says Dr Kim, explaining what his patients request prior to surgery. "They want to have some westernized, nice faces. They want to have big eyes like westernized people, high profile, nicer noses.

"The Chinese and Korean patients tell me that they want to have faces like Americans. The idea of beauty is more westernized recently. That means the Asian people want to have a little less Asian, more westernized appearance. They don't like big cheekbones or small eyes. They want to have big, bright eyes with slender, nice facial bones."

The surgeries, already popular among Koreans, are booming among newly rich, globally competitive, mainland Chinese, explains Dr Kim. About 30% of his patients are international and of that group, 90% are Chinese. It's why he speaks Mandarin and is partnering with two clinics in China.

"We can see potential huge growth, with the number of patients from China. The Chinese people want to have the westernized face. They don't like their faces. They have big cheekbones, big mandible angle without double fold, and a low profile nose. They are seeking to have westernized face, high profile nose, slender nice cheekbone, and mandible bone."

Dr Kim believes in the global economy, investing in plastic surgery to slightly westernize the face will bring a return on the investment of 100 times, through more confidence, a better job and obtaining a better marital partner.

A global ideal doesn't stop at the face, says dental surgeon Jung Hak. Dr Jung says he's been fighting a trend. Korean mothers who have been bringing in their toddlers to have the muscle under the tongue that connects it to the bottom of the mouth surgically snipped.

The belief, explains Dr Jung, is that it will help a Korean speak English more clearly. People from the Asia Pacific region have difficulty in pronouncing the "L" sound, says Dr Jung. But he calls the surgery, if it's only for pronunciation, misguided, and caused by the hyper-competitive drive in Korea.

"For 10 years, there's been this crazy drive for early English education. Mothers long for their kids to have better English pronunciation," says Dr Jung.

Editor of Giant Robot magazine and Asian American commentator Martin Wong, sees these westernization surgeries as far more insidious than just simple procedures. He sees it as a form of "cultural imperialism."

"They're making a statement about their own race, about where they come from, who they are," says Wong. "They're not doing it on purpose. They're not saying that they think they're inferior looking. They're not saying they're ugly, but that's the message that they're giving nonetheless."

Message or not, for Min-kyong, the 20-minute surgery has been well worth the cost and post-surgical discomfort. A few weeks later, she and her mother email to say she's happy with her new look. And when this 12-year-old stares at herself dancing in the studio, she no longer just sees her eyes. She sees a prettier girl.

Hands Up (and clothes off): Cops in Mexico 'Force Young Woman To Strip For Her Release'

By Fiona Roberts

A group of leering police officers allegedly forced a young woman they had detained to strip in front of them - in exchange for her release.

Now all 15 of them - including three women - have been suspended after an explicit video emerged showing at least one uniformed officer groping the woman as she performs a lap dance while the others cheer and chant.

The woman had been arrested along with a male friend for allegedly possessing stolen bank cards and cheques in the Mexican border city of Tijuana.

Scroll down for video (WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT)

Lewd treatment: Police officers in the border city of Tijuana allegedly forced this woman to strip for her freedom after she was arrested in March

According to El Mexicano, the newspaper which released the five-minute video, the police officers promised they would release both suspects if the woman stripped.

At first the woman, whose face is blurred in the video, stands on a table and reluctantly begins to take some of her clothes off, before grabbing her coat and apparently trying to end the dance.

But then she changes her mind, drops to her knees and begins to circle round slowly before lifting up her dress and pulling down her tights to reveal her underwear as the officers chant and shout.

Later on in the video she takes off her dress completely, before removing her bra and jumping on top of one of the officers.

Explicit show: At first the woman stands up on a table and seems reluctant to strip, before bending over and lifting up her skirt as the officers cheer

Groped: The woman takes off her dress and dances on top of one of the uniformed officers, with her bra still in her hand

Finally she performs a lap dance for another officer, who repeatedly gropes her breasts while the others laugh, joke and look on.

The tape was made on March 2, but only came to light when El Mexicano released it on its website on Monday.

Shortly afterwards after the town's mayor, Carlos Bustamente, announced he was suspending all 15 officers allegedly involved for 'immoral behavior and loss of confidence'.

They include Victor Manuel de la Cruz Candelaria, head of La Presa Rural district.

Shocking video: In the tape, the woman is seen taking her dress off, left, as 15 uniformed police officers look on, cheering and chanting

Mr Candelaria denies any role in the incident, and said the woman was not forced to strip and instead performed the routine of her own free will.

He told the newspaper: 'The judge had already ordered her release since she didn't directly participate in the crime. She's a woman of the night.'

But at a press conference this week, Mr Bustamente said it is unlikely any of them will keep their jobs.

He said: 'They've already been suspended and we're looking to fire them permanently. What these people have done lacks morals.'

Flash it! Underwear Dance On Streets of Paris

Belle toute nue!
Women in their underwear dance during a flash-mob named "beautiful naked" organised by French TV M6 near the Seine river in Paris March 23, 2011.

Women in their underwear dance during a flash-mob named "beautiful naked" (Belle toute nue) organised by French TV M6 near the Seine river in Paris March 23, 2011.

Women in their underwear dance during a flash-mob named "beautiful naked" (Belle toute nue) organised by French TV M6 near the Seine river in Paris March 23, 2011.

Women in their underwear dance during a flash-mob named "beautiful naked" (Belle toute nue) organised by French TV M6 near the Seine river in Paris March 23, 2011.

Women in their underwear dance during a flash-mob named "beautiful naked" (Belle toute nue) organised by French TV M6 near the Seine river in Paris March 23, 2011.

Middleton’s Topless Sunbathing Photos (NSFW)

Here's the photos which features Pippa Middleton removing her bikini top during a vacation with her family on her uncle’s yacht off the coast of Ibiza, was also rumored to have been sold by a family "friend."

Just ask her so-called friends, who sold this set of topless and body baring snaps of the stunning 27-year-old to a slew of publications since the royal nuptials less than two weeks ago.

Click here for sex videos and live cams.