China has launched a massive project to reprint a 270-year-old, gigantic edition of the Buddhist canon, which if piled, could make a 40-storey high-rise. The printing of this ancient edition of the Buddhist literature collection started in 1735 and was completed in 1738, or the third year under the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). The Qianlong edition of the Buddhist Canon was a collection of all Buddhist literature translations over a history of 1,700 years after Buddhism was introduced into China from India.

Courtesy: The Hindu, June 28, 2004

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Trafalgar Square was stormed by chariots and thousands of Krishna devotees for London's annual rathyatra on Sunday evening. The London skyline was transformed by three 40-feet high colourful chariots carrying the deities of Lord Jagannath, Subhadra and Balarama. The nearly 5,000-strong procession, based on the traditional rathyatra in Puri, wound its way from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square accompanied by floats, singers, musicians, and dancers. The rathyatra culminated with a festival at Trafalgar Square where Londoners learned how to play Bengali instruments, wear saris and dhotis and browsed in a mini Indian bazaar. The stage show featured devotional music by the Hare Krishna Festival Troupe. Free Indian vegetarian meals were distributed to all the revellers. "It was a hugely successful event," said Titiksu Dasa, coordinator of London Carnival of Chariots. "The traditional Jagannath Rathyatra is a celebration over 5,000 years old, observed in the holy city of Jagannath Puri in Orissa, making it the oldest street festival in the world. This ancient festival was brought to the Western shores by Bhaktivedanta Swami, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The first rathyatra festival outside of India took place in San Francisco in 1967. This festival came to London in 1969, where it has been faithfully observed every year for the last 36 years attracting more than 15,000 people.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, June 22, 2004

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Close on the heels of winning the prestigious accolade of 'Best UK Restaurant' for his Southall Restaurant, Madhu's, its owner Sanjay Anand has been declared 'Industry Personality of the Year' award. The award was presented by Peter Grove, co-editor of the Restaurant magazine, an official release said here on Thursday night. "Sanjay Anand of Madhu's has become an outstanding success in the area of catering, almost having the Asian wedding sector by the throat and all this on top of coming back from a potentially devastating fire at his restaurant," Grove said. Sanjay was up against strong competition from the likes of Adi Modi of Bombay Brasserie, Sam Baxi of Kanchans and Charan Gill of the Harlequin Group in Glasgow. His Southall restaurant, Madhu's, won the accolade of best restaurant at the Cobra Good Curry Guide Awards, a few weeks ago. Sanjay started his business at the age of 17 when he enlisted his mother as head chef in the 36-seat restaurant.

Courtesy: The Times of India, June 19, 2004

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A summit on digital cinema has revealed a surprising and little known fact that India is the world leader in the cutting edge of e-cinema - digitally delivered and exhibited. At the "BroadcastAsia 200" Conference here on Wednesday, Sunil Patil, chief executive officer of the Mumbai-based Adlabs Films, said that over 130 cinema theatres, most of them in the small towns of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat, had changed over from film-based systems and were exhibiting their fare using digital projectors backed by computer servers. Since April 2003, one Indian film a week - mostly Hindi - has been released in digital format, in addition to the conventional celluloid version. This has made India one of the world's first adopters of digital-all-the-way delivery and exhibition. The Indian experience of e-cinema, which also translated into affordable cinema, was the subject of much discussion here because uniquely among nations in the region, the digital drive had received no government support, and was very much a home-grown solution.

Courtesy: The Hindu, June 18, 2004

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With Roman Catholic clergy in short supply in the United States, Indian priests are picking up some of their work, saying Mass for special intentions, in a sacred if unusual version of outsourcing. American, as well as Canadian and European churches are sending Mass intentions, or requests for services like those to remember deceased relatives and thanksgiving prayers, to clergy in India. About two per cent of India's more than one billion people are Christians, most of them Catholics. In Kerala, which has one of the largest concentrations of Christians in India, churches often receive intentions from overseas. The Masses are conducted in Malayalam, the local language. In Kerala's churches, memorial and thanksgiving prayers conducted for local residents are said for a donation of Rs 40, whereas a prayer request from the United States typically comes with $5 (more than five times that amount), the Indian priests say.

Courtesy: www.asianage.com, June 2004

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Two Delhi-based journalists, Alex Perry of Time magazine and Satinder Bindra of CNN (Cable News Network), have been honoured in this year's South Asia Journalists Association Awards. The award would be presented at a ceremony at the Columbia School of Journalism in New York on June 19. Perry won second prize in the category Outstanding Story on South Asia (Print) for an article on the Maoist rebellion in Nepal published last September; while Bindra won the joint third prize in the category Outstanding Story on South Asia (Broadcast) for a report on the missed signals in Afghanistan that might have indicated an imminent terror attack before September 11, 2001. This is Bindra's third Saja award.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, June 08, 2004

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Call it the arrival of Indian pharmaceuticals or neo-patriotism. At any rate, domestic pharma companies have an edge over the MNCs, according to a survey by market research agency AC Nielsen ORG-MARG. Ranbaxy leads the pack on the image front in the Pharmaceutical Corporate Image Monitor. The study, which surveyed 1,044 doctors and 475 non-medical respondents across 13 cities, found that spontaneous awareness of the Delhi-based company was as high as 76% among all. Six of the top ten companies on the monitor are Indian. Dr Reddy's, Cipla, Sun Pharma, Zydus Cadila and Nicholas Piramal all figure in the list. About 40% of the respondents have said they prefer Indian companies over MNCs. On the other hand, 46% of those polled, across medical and non-medical audiences, are non-committal about their choice. "Typically, the larger Indian companies are seen to be on par with MNCs in terms of quality. In addition, product prices are perceived as being more reasonable than those of MNCs. This ensures patient trust and loyalty," says Vidya Sen, director of client servicing, AC Nielsen, ORG-MARG. The Indian companies at the top have significant international business. But that hasn't stopped them from doing well on their home turf. "Indian companies have a particular focus on (the Indian) market. It's personal pride that makes these companies want to do a good job in the home market," says Mr Tempest.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, June 07, 2004

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Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy are among the 50 novels by contemporary writers voted as "essential reads'' at Britain's Haye-on-Wye literary festival. The selectors put them in the same class as Gabriel Garcia Marquez's A Hundred Years of Solitude, Philip Roth's American Pastoral, Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum and Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook, among others. This is the first time that such a list comprises works of only living writers so as not to give an unfair advantage to classics. The Booker Prize, so far restricted only to writers from the Commonwealth countries, has decided to go global. Beginning next, there will be an additional Booker International Prize, open to writers from around the world. The £60,000 prize will be given once in two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is availablein English translation.

Courtesy: The Hindu, June 06, 2004

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An Indian charitable trust in the Gujarati-dominated Leicester is ensuring that you can be as English as fish and chips, and still be proud of non-English, or Gujarati roots. The Indian Education Society (IES) has been working in Leicester since 1964 and has taught thousands of people Gujarati and helped them learn more about Indian culture. It started out with just a few volunteers and a handful of students, but since then it's taught thousands of youngsters aged between six and 18. "Everybody should be proud of where they come from," says Hem Mistry, the society's chair of trustees. "That is what we try to do. We want the children to learn Gujarati and to find out about their cultural heritage. About 30 qualified teachers and volunteers take the classes, which go up to GCSE level and could soon include A-levels. IES has an impressive record. In the 12 years since Kantilal Parmar has been head teacher, it has had a 100 per cent GCSE pass rate. What is the key to this success? The society is organised into proper classes, and the children follow a set syllabus. The pupils say the school has given them important skills as well as a qualification. Volunteer teacher Dilip Patel has taught for the society for 17 years. He does it because it is important to him to keep the Gujarati language and culture alive in a generation that was mainly born in Britain.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, June 04, 2004

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With Bilateral economic and commercial exchanges between India and Russia in the fields of space research, engineering, technology, bio-chemistry and medicine requiring a large number of well-trained personnel, the importance of Indian students receiving higher education in Russia was stressed at a multi-media presentation on "Higher Education for Indian Students in Russia: Realities and Prospects'' made by the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in New Delhi this past week. Jointly organised by "Education Russia'', the presentation, dedicated to the Russian Educational Exhibition in India 2004 due to be held here on June 7, noted that the pursuance of higher studies in Russia by Indian students would not only enhance the cooperation but also promote mutually-beneficial relations and strategic partnership between the two countries. Also, the presentation sought to market the Russian universities well by claiming that the cost of higher education in Russia was much less than in the Western countries like the United States or the United Kingdom. The tuition fee ranges from 1,700 to 2,000 dollars per year for a medical course in Russian medium of instruction and between 2,300 and 7,000 dollars in the English medium. Likewise, it said, the engineering course costs between 1,200 and 3,600 dollars depending on the medium of instruction and the location of the academic institution.

Courtesy: The Hindu, June 02, 2004

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