India As an Agricultural Superpower

GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, April 28, 2001: The president of India’s 500,000-strong Federation of Farmers Association, P. Chengal Reddy, told a conference in Delhi that he believes India could increase its agricultural output by an additional 100,000,000 tons of food annually. He advocates better education of farmers in more productive methods. As well, he sees a great potential…

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French and Italian Preschools Examined for U.S. Model

GO TO SOURCE NEW YORK, April 25, 2001: Under prompting from President Bush to restructure the Head Start Program, American educators, parents and community leaders are looking to two very different European models for guidance and ideas. It has been proposed that the Head Start Program provide earlier reading instruction and if that be the case, the French have dedicated…

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Earthquake Prediction and India

GO TO SOURCE PUNE, INDIA, April, 27, 2001: A model to predict earthquakes, developed by a California-based scholar of Chinese origin, Zhonghao Shaou, uses the concept of “earthquake clouds.” The same concept is dealt with in detail in the 32nd chapter of Varahamihira’s “Brihat Samhita.” The greatness of the Ujjain-born scholar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer Varahamihira (505-587 CE) is widely…

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Norwegians Impressed With India’s Jail Reform

Source: The Daily Pioneer NEW DELHI, INDIA, April 24, 2001: A Norwegian man arrested and jailed in India for smuggling heroin has made such a remarkable transformation through the Vipasana meditation program the jail offers that the Norwegian government is looking into instituting the same program in its jails. Vipasana is a Buddhist meditation method involving long hours of meditation…

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Britain National Dish is…. Chicken Tikka Masala??

GO TO SOURCE LONDON, ENGLAND, April 21, 2001: A bland red curry known as chicken tikka masala has joined the ranks of pizza and chow mein in culinary history. That is, just as until a few decades ago no Italian in Italy had seen a pizza, and no Chinese in China ever tasted “chow mein,” now the British have not…

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Are Bradford’s Troubles Ethnic or Social?

GO TO SOURCE LONDON, ENGLAND, April 25, 2001: A recent outbreak of violence in West Yorkshire County and Bradford has led to controversy as to the cause. This Times of India article is just the latest of several articles that discuss the incident. By appearances the looting, fire-bombing and street fighting could be attributed to racial tensions between Hindus and…

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France Love’s for Lord Siva!

GO TO SOURCE PARIS, FRANCE, April 26, 2001: Lord Siva continues to fascinate the French literary world that has already seen the publication of numerous books on Him. Two more books on differing aspects of Siva have joined the list. “Le religion de Shiva” (The religion of Siva) which tries to explain Hinduism through the famed temple art of South…

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Singapore Hoping for a Baby Boom

GO TO SOURCE SINGAPORE, APRIL 15,2001: The tiny city-state of Singapore, with a scant four million population, is encouraging its citizens to have more babies. Concerned with its declining birthrate, the government has developed monetary and workplace incentives to persuade people to have larger families. The government is offering cash for couples who have a second and third child, extended…

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Farmers Aand Scientists Fight Over Genetic Modification of Crops

GO TO SOURCE LONDON, U.K., April 23, 2001: Indian and British farmers joined hands to fight new agriculture techniques being planned by scientists from their countries. The contest took place in Norwich in East Britain where the John Innes Center held its Global Agriculture 2020 conference from April 17 – 21 on genetically modified (GM) crops with the theme “Global…

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Britain’s Asian Diversity–the Sources of Conflict

GO TO SOURCE BRITAIN, UK, April 20, 2001: In Britain, the non-white minority ethnic groups are estimated at 3.8 million or just under seven per cent of the population. Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities make up about 1.87 million of this figure. Along with religious and cultural differences, socio-economic levels vary widely within the Asian community. Indian children show the…

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