AT Kearney survey: India now one of top FDI destinations

January 21st

amazing. even with the congress and communists in power!

or is it because these guys know that this is the best chance for the
mncs to make out like bandits, as indicated by the pharma companies'
coup on the patent ordinance? it's a small matter of greasing the
right palms, which are always ready to sell the motherland for 30
pieces of silver. mir jafar and jaichand live on.

FDI confidence survey, 2004

China remains the top destination for foreign investment, according to
an annual survey by A.T. Kearney, a management consultancy. America
comes second, followed by India, which has risen from 6th place a year
ago. India now ranks second, after China, as a location for foreign
investment in manufacturing. For the first time, Japan is ranked in
the top ten. The survey is based on ratings from big firms of the
countries they favour for foreign investment.

Locals rebuild 9th century CE Vishnu temple

Feb 1, 2005

Local people rebuild a 9th century Vishnu temple
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 24, 2005

A 9th century Vishnu temple, which remained dilapidated for years,
is being rebuilt at Perumpazhuthur, near here, thanks to the
initiative of the local people.

Authenticated by historians as having been built during the rule of
the ''Ay" dynasty in 867 A.D, the temple is one of the rarest of its
kind the country with a circular-shaped sanctum santorum.

Though the temple finds mention in the ''Monuments of Kerala'',
published by the Archaeological Survey of India, it remained
dilapidated with most of its remains buried till the people of
Perumpazhuthur organised themselves to reconstruct the edifice and
restore its old glory a few months ago.

The book, authored by H Sarkar, mentions only a few circular temples
in Kerala, including that at Perumpazhuthur. He also highlighted
that circular temples were rare for Dravidian style.

''The Arts and Crafts of Travancore,'' authored by Stella Kramrish
and pubished by the Department of Culture, carries the photo of the
temple in a dilapidated condition and the damaged statue of Vishnu.

The effort to rebuild the temple started with the formation of a
trust named ''Sanadhana Dharma Sanghom Trust,'' with Mr R
Chandrasekharan as its Managing Trustee.

The idol of the principal deity, which is now kept at the
Archaeological Museum at the Sreekrishnapuram Palace at Kayamkulam
in Kerala, would not be used in the temple again as it was damaged.

The idol was removed from the temple after 1938, according to
records.

McKinsey: China cannot compete with India in IT in the near future

January 28th

McKinsey believes that China is too fragmented to compete with India
in this sector right now.

This also provides some good insights for India's second-tier IT companies. They have to consolidate/merge to be able to compete.

(free registration required at this site; it's worth it, as mckinsey has good stuff)

NYTimes.com: The Scholar [sic] who irked Hindu Puritans

January 31

thanks to reader vijay.

here is a broadside from one of wendy's acolytes. the blighter seems
more charmed by wendy's picture from 1959 than anything else: he
sounds like one of those 'experts' on 'south asia' who mouth inanities
ad infinitum. in a nutshell, 'these fools don't know anything about
their own tradition, we whites have to teach them. and how dare they
object to us objectifying them and expropriating from them?'

he makes a derogatory connection at the end: the New Left in the us
and the Hindu Right. however, there is more truth to this than he
realizes. the green, womens' rights, traditional knowledge-oriented
movement worldwide has a great deal in common with hindu tradition.
this has been pointed out before, for instance by david frawley.

of course the new left is not to be confused with the old left, which
is very much a neo-semitic enterprise, indistinguishable from
meso-semitic faiths such as christianity and islam.


BOOKS | January 31, 2005

Connections: The Scholar Who Irked the Hindu Puritans
By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN
Author Wendy Doniger's interest in exploring Hinduism from multiple
perspectives has run afoul of some of the religion's more solemn
movements.

"Cry, my beloved India" by Francois Gautier

January 25th

http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/jan/25franc.htm
Cry, my beloved India by Francois Gautier
January 21, 2005

I am a Westerner and a born Christian, but even I am ashamed at what
is happening in India since Sonia Gandhi, a Westerner and Christian,
became the de facto ruler of this ancient and extraordinary country of
850 million Hindus and 125 million Muslims.


Something terrible is happening here. On the one hand, you have the
Shankaracharya, one of the most respected Hindu leaders, arrested like
a criminal on one of Hinduism's most sacred days, even as politicians
who have more corruption cases against them than anybody else and
others who may even have blood on their hands are made ministers and
strut around with security guards in tow.

The tarnishing of the Kanchi mutt's image is nearly complete. Will it
ever be able to recover its sanctity, even if the shankacharya is
found not guilty?

On the other hand you see a quack like Benny Hinn, who has no standing
even in the United States, come openly to India, a country with an
overwhelming Hindu majority, to deride idol worship and paganism and
convert the poor and the gullible. We see ministers, ex-prime
ministers even -- many of them Hindus at that -- coming to the Benny
Hinn show, with heads bowed and hands folded like beggars asking for
the white man's grace. We see the entire state machinery of Karnataka
put at the evangelist's service and laws subverted so he can conduct
his fake show.

We see how when 36 innocent women and children were burnt alive in the
most horrible manner in Godhra, for no reason other than being Hindus,
there is no respect for their memory even, for the truth is now
twisted for political purposes with the help of India's Marxists who
want Hinduism's death. What a shame!


ALSO READ: Hinduism is not fragile

Hindus are always accused of all the ills and intolerance, but where
in the world will you find a Christian supreme leader in a country
where there are only 3 per cent Christians, a Sikh prime minister
where there are only 2 per cent Sikhs and a Muslim President with only
10 per cent Muslims? Poor Hindus.

This is an insult to India's culture, greatness and intelligence What
is even more saddening is the passivity of Indians in the face of what
is happening. Only a few voices have been raised in these moments of
insanity. India's curse is the disunity among Hindus, their
infighting. One is surprised at the lack of reaction even from India's
top Hindu spiritual leaders Satya Sai Baba, Mata Amritanandamayi and
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Together they hold sway over at least 400
million Hindus. Why don't they form a Supreme Spiritual Conclave along
with the shankaracharya? They only have to utter the word and it will
be done. But there is disunity even among them.

We are not ashamed of the Christian culture in France; even the
American president is sworn in on the Bible. Nor, certainly, is the
Congress, which is incapable of finding a worthy Indian leader among
its own members, many of whom are intelligent and sincere. By stooping
to Sonia Gandhi, they repeated the same old story of India's princes
and maharajas betraying each other and bowing before a foreign ruler,
be it Aurangzeb or His Majesty's Viceroy. Who betrayed the mighty
Vijayanagar empire, the last great Hindu kingdom, to the Muslims? Who
betrayed India to the British? Who is betraying India today?

But at least the Congress is true to its ideals. The biggest culprit
must be Mr A B Vajpayee who in five years of power did nothing but
project a Gandhian image, rather than having India's interests at
heart. He and his advisers should stand trial when history is written.


Holy man in a controversy

The beauty of it all is that Sonia Gandhi does not have to say or do
anything. She does not have to instruct the Tamil Nadu police to
arrest the shankaracharya or tell Chief Minister Dharam Singh of
Karnataka to attend Benny Hinn's show. Just being where she is, at the
top of India's political hierarchy, is enough to ensure that her
silent wishes are fulfilled. Everybody is bending over backwards to
please her, even anticipating her wishes!

The Benny Hinn show points to not only a renewed effort at
Christianization of India -- something which even the British and the
Portuguese could not do -- and a targeting of Hindu spiritual leaders,
but also the westernisation of the subcontinent.

It would mean the loss of India's ancient culture, the loss of its
unique identity, with India becoming just another nation cloning the
West. Even the Muslims and Christians of India, who are like no other
Christians and Muslims in the world, would lose something.

Today I feel sad, sad for India, sad for the world. For India is in
mortal danger, its eternal Sanatana Dharma is under threat. And if
India dies spiritually, the world will also die.

Cry O my beloved India, look what thy children have done to thee.Also
See: A Prayer For India

Fwd: Sri Lanka: Mix of Quake Aid and Preaching Stirs Concern

January 23rd

forwarded by a reader from Sri Lanka. this mixing of religion and
charity is endemic, and quite frankly, disgusting.


New York Times

Mix of Quake Aid and Preaching Stirs Concern

By DAVID ROHDE

Published: January 22, 2005

MORAKETIYA, Sri Lanka, Jan. 19 -A dozen Americans
walked into a relief camp here, showering bereft
parents and traumatized children with gifts, attention
and affection. They also quietly offered camp
residents something else: Jesus.

The Americans, who all come from one church in Texas,
have staged plays detailing the life of Jesus and had
children draw pictures of him, camp residents said.
They have told parents who lost children that they
should still believe in God, and held group prayers
where they tried to heal a partly paralyzed man and a
deaf 12year-old girl.

The attempts at proselytizing are angering local
Christian leaders, who worry that they could provoke a
violent backlash against Christians in Sri Lanka, a
predominantly Buddhist country that is already a
religious tinderbox.

Last year, Buddhist hard-liners attacked the offices
of the World Vision Christian aid group and vandalized
or threatened churches and pastors 75 times. They
accuse Christians of using money and social programs
to cajole and coerce conversions.

Most American groups, including those affiliated with
religious organizations, strictly avoid mixing aid and
missionary work. But scattered reports of
proselytizing in Sri Lanka; Indonesia, which is
predominantly Muslim; and India, with large Hindu and
Muslim populations, are arousing concerns that the
good will spread by the American relief efforts may be
undermined by resentment.

The Rev. Sarangika Fernando, a local Methodist
minister, witnessed one of the prayer sessions in Sri
Lanka and accused the Americans of acting unethically
with traumatized people. "They said, 'In the name of
Jesus, she must be cured!' " he said. "As a priest, I
was really upset."

The Americans in Sri Lanka belong to the Antioch
Community Church, an evangelical church based in Waco,
Tex. Two members of the church were arrested, and
accused of proselytizing, by the Taliban in
Afghanistan in August 2001. When the United States
invaded the country several months later, pro-American
Northern Alliance forces freed the women, who church
officials say did speak with Afghans about their
personal "relationship with Jesus."

The Antioch Community Church is one of a growing
number of evangelical groups that believe in mixing
aidgiving with discussing religion, an approach that
older, more established Christian aid groups like
Catholic Relief Services call unethical.

In Sri Lanka, alarmed local Christian leaders say
proselytizing at such a sensitive time could reverse
the grass-roots interfaith cooperation that has
emerged since the tsunami and endanger Christians, who
make up 7 percent of the population. The country also
has sizable Hindu and Muslim minorities.

The Rev. Duleep Fernando, a Methodist minister based
in Colombo, the capital, brought the Americans to the
camp here. Mr. Fernando said they had described
themselves as humanitarian aid workers. He and other
Sri Lankan Christian leaders say raising religion with
traumatized refugees is unethical.

"We have told them this is not right, but now we don't
have any control over them," said Mr. Fernando, who
called the group's Web site postings "unnecessarily
explosive."

"This is a dangerous situation," he said.

In Indonesia last week, reports that a missionary
group named WorldHelp planned to raise 300 Muslim
tsunami orphans in a Christian children's home in
Jakarta brought an outcry from Muslims. The group
later said it had never had custody of the children.

Sri Lankan refugees, camp administrators and church
officials said the Americans here had identified
themselves only as a humanitarian aid group. In an
interview here on Wednesday, Pat Murphy, 49, a leader
of the team, said the group was a nongovernmental
organization, and not a church group. "It's an NGO,"
Mr. Murphy said. "Just your plain vanilla NGO that
does aid work."

But the church's Web site says the Americans are one
of four teams - for a total of 75 people - dispatched
to Sri Lanka and Indonesia who have persuaded dozens
of people to "come to Christ."

When the group's postings were read to Mr. Murphy, he
confirmed that the Americans were from the Antioch
Community Church, but said the group would never use
relief goods and gifts to entice or pressure people
into becoming Christians. He denied that the team,
which sent about half its 24 members to work in the
eastern town of Kalmunai, was trying to convert
people. The church has 2,000 members.

"We simply provide people with information," he said,
"and they do with that what they like."

A Jan. 18 posting from the team in Indonesia says the
country's devastated Aceh Province is "ripe for
Jesus!!"

"What an opportunity," it adds. "It has been closed
for five years, and the missionaries in Indonesia
consider it the most militant and difficult place for
ministry. The door is wide open and the people are
hungry."

The Rev. Jimmy Seibert, the senior pastor of the Waco
church, said in a telephone interview that the church
would evaluate whether the group's members should
identify themselves as aid workers. But he said the
church believes missionary work and aid work "is one
thing, not two separate things."

"My hope is that as a follower of Jesus they would
bring who they are into the workplace," he said,
"whether they are in a workplace in America or a
workplace in Sri Lanka."

Older Christian aid groups like Catholic Relief
Services, Lutheran World Relief and others with
religious affiliations say they do not proselytize,
abiding by Red Cross guidelines that humanitarian aid
not be used to further political or religious
purposes. Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief
Services, said that in the last 20 years there had
been an increase of smaller Christian evangelical
groups providing relief aid in the wake of disaster.

"I think there are new groups that are driven by
missionary zeal," Mr. Hackett said. In the last
several weeks, Mr. Hackett said, his group has
received anecdotal reports of proselytizing in
countries devastated by the tsunami.

"From our partners in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia
we've heard that there have been instances when
American and other Christian groups have been
proselytizing and casting aspersions on the faith of
people there," he said. "Some of these groups raise
questions about other faiths, saying that people would
be better off if they converted to Christianity
immediately."

Several American evangelical aid groups have arrived
in Sri Lanka, but no reports of proselytizing by those
groups have emerged, according to Sri Lankan church
officials. The Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of the
evangelist Billy Graham, visited Sri Lanka this week
to encourage the workers of his evangelical aid
organization, Samaritan's Purse, who plan to work in
Sri Lanka for the next five years.

Other American evangelical aid groups, including
Gospel for Asia and World Relief, are active on the
country's devastated east coast, according to Sri
Lankan and American aid workers.

Members of Mr. Graham's group said they did not engage
in proselytizing, but said if local Christians wanted
to build a church they would help them. Officials from
World Relief, the aid wing of the National Association
of Evangelicals, have said in interviews that they try
to first build trust with local people and then look
for opportunities for conversions, in some cases years
later.

More evangelical groups are apparently on their way. A
message posted on the Web site of the Moral Majority
leader Jerry Falwell says the school he founded,
Liberty University, is preparing to send a team to Sri
Lanka, India and other countries battered by the
tsunami.

"Distribution of food and medical supplies along with
the dissemination of thousands of Gospel tracts in the
language of the people will keep the L.U. team very
busy," the Web site says. "Mission trips to the Asian
region by many L.U. students will follow in the
months, and perhaps years, to come."

Ron Godwin, president of Jerry Falwell Ministries,
confirmed that the Liberty Foundation was organizing a
shipment of rice, medication and Scriptural excerpts,
but said the primary goal of the effort was relief,
not proselytizing. "Everything we do is in the name of
Christ," he said. "But we try to be sensitive in areas
where it may be politically sensitive, and we have no
litmus test for those we give rice to."

According to the Waco church group's Web site, its
teams in Sri Lanka and Indonesia are performing
"children's ministry," seeing "many people saved" and
continuing to "minister to families and children
through prayer and evangelism."

According to its Web site, the congregation uses small
groups called "cell churches" to attract new members.
The reports from Indonesia and Sri Lanka refer to
"cells" and "lifegroups" in both countries.

Residents of the camp here reported no healings as a
result of the group's prayers. But they said they
appreciated the aid and activities for children that
the group provided and did not want to see them end.

Organizers in a nearby camp have declared the
Americans missionaries and barred them from entering.
Camp organizers here said they believed that the group
was trying to convert people, but did not want to
further upset the tsunami victims by cutting off the
aid.

W. L. P. Wilson, 38, a disabled fisherman with a
sixth-grade education, said he allowed the Americans
to pray three times for the healing of his paralyzed
lower leg because he was desperate to provide for his
wife and three children again. Mr. Wilson, a Buddhist,
said that he believed that the Americans were trying
to convert him to Christianity but that he was in "a
helpless situation now" and needed aid.

"They told me to always think about God and about
Jesus and you will be healed," he said. "Whenever I
ask for help they always mention God, but they do not
give any money for treatment."

Neela Banerjee contributed reporting from Washington
for this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/22/international/worldspecial4/22preach.html?oref=regi


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The China we do not hear about

January 23rd

rather alarming story of economic and social problems. the other
stories in this series are much more positive.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GA22Ad01.html