M. K. Kanimozhi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Kanimozhi" redirects here. For the 2010 Tamil film, see Kanimozhi (film).
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi
M. K. Kanimozhi
Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) (Currently holds this position.)
Personal details
Born 1 January 1968 (age 43)
Chennai, India
Political party DMK
Spouse(s) Athiban Bose(1989-1997)[1]
G. Aravindan (1997-Present)
Children 1 son Residence Chennai
Religion Hindu
In this Indian name, the name Karunanidhi is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Kanimozhi.
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi (Tamil: கிம ொழி க쏁ணொிதி) (born 1968 in Chennai), a politician, poet and journalist. She is a Member of Parliament, representing Tamil Nadu in theRajya Sabha (the upper house of India's Parliament).[2] Kanimozhi is the daughter of the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Karunanidhi and his third wife, Rajathi Ammal.
Kanimozhi belongs to the South Indian Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) political party, where she functions as the chief of the DMK’s wing for Art, Literature and Rationalism, and is seen as her father's "literary heir".[3] Her half-brothers M.K. Azhagiri and M. K. Stalin are the Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers and the Former Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu respectively.
On 20 May 2011 Kanimozhi Karunanidhi was arrested and sent to Tihar Prisons in India after her bail plea was rejected in the 2G spectrum scam case, in which she is alleged to be co-conspirator.[4]
Contents
[hide]
1 Early life
2 Interests
o 2.1 Job Fairs
o 2.2 Literary works
3 Singing career
4 Personal life
5 Controversy, Scams and Allegations
o 5.1 2G spectrum controversy
6 See also
7 References
[edit]Early life
Before her entry into politics, Kanimozhi was involved in various instances of journalism, such as sub editor for The Hindu, editor in charge ofKungumam (a Tamil weekly magazine belonging to the Sun group), and a features editor for a Singapore based Tamil newspaper called Tamil Murasu.[3] Kanimozhi also claims to have written Tamil poetry and penned 87 Tamil film songs .
[edit]Interests
Kanimozhi has been known to support Pan Tamil issues, and in particular, Sri Lankan Tamils.[5] Kanimozhi also takes part in organizing various women empowerment programs,[6] and is also interested in the welfare of differently-abled people and transgenders. In 2005, along with Karthi Chidambaram, she founded a portal supporting free speech also has been involved spiritually with an spiritual guide in south India.[7] In 2007, Kanimozhi conceived the idea of the Chennai Sangamam, an annual open Tamil cultural festival, usually held during thePongal season.
[edit]Job Fairs
She also spearheads[8] DMK efforts to organize Job Fairs, under the banner 'Kalaignar 85' across rural Tamil Nadu to facilitate employment opportunities for young people in smaller cities, towns and villages.[3] Begun as a small employment drive to mark the birthday of DMK President Kalaignar Karunanidhi in June 2008 at Kariyapatti (a village in Virudhunagar District) Job Fairs have provided jobs to about 70,000 unemployed(citation required) youth spread across five districts. Places it has been held at include Nagercoil, Vellore, Udhagamandalam,Virudhunagar, Cuddalore, Tiruchirapalli and Tirunelveli. She plans to conduct similar job fairs all over Tamil Nadu.[9]
[edit]Literary works
. Sigarangalil Uraikiradhu Kaalam[10] . Agathinai . Paarvaigal . Karukum Marudhaani . Karuvarai Vaasanai . Raaja [edit]Singing career
Kanimozhi has worked on a production titled Silappadikaram based on a Tamil epic of the same name with Bombay Jayashri.[11]
[edit]Personal life
Kanimozhi was a student of Presentation Convent, Church Park in Chennai and later did her Masters in Economics in Ethiraj College for Women from the Madras University.[3] She has been married twice; firstly in 1989 to Athiban Bose, a businessman from Sivakasi, and then to G. Aravindaan, a Singapore based Tamil writer, in 1997.[12]
[edit]Controversy, Scams and Allegations
[edit]2G spectrum controversy
Main articles: Radia tapes controversy and 2G spectrum scam
In November 2010 Outlook published transcripts of six conversations between lobbyist Niira Radia and Kanimozhi from May 2009.[13] India Today claims that these conversations reveal that Kanimozhi filtered the information flowing to her father (the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu) and thereby "tipped the scales in favour of" A. Raja, who was Minister of Communications and Information Technology during controversial 2Gwireless spectrum allocations in 2008.[14] The New York Times's Delhi correspondent Lydia Polgreen said Raja's rise to telecommunications minister was "emblematic" of how politics in India really work, with the DMK "more closely resembling a sprawling family business empire than a political party," and highlighted Mr. Raja's "close relationship" with Kanimozhi.[15] Raja was arrrested on February 2, 2011 for his alleged role in manipulating rules to allocate favourable spectrum to some telecom companies at throwaway prices.[16]
Following the Income Tax Department's raid on Tamil Maiyam, an NGO of which she is a director,[17] Kanimozhi said the DMK party will come out clean in the CBI probe, stating "The law has to take its own course. It is a process to prove us not guilty."[18] After the February 2nd arrest DMK party members and workers immediately passed a resolution declaring that the arrest doesn't mean Raja is guilty, and claimed opposition parties were targeting him for political purposes.[19]
On March 11, 2011, Kanimozhi was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation at the DMK headquarters in Chennai, in relation to an apparent flow of over Rs.200 crore from Shahid Balwa's DB Realty firm to Kalaignar TV, the regional Tamil channel in which Kanimozhi is alleged to have a 20 percent stake.[20]
The CBI has included Kanimozhi's name in the second chargesheet of the 2G scam[21] in relation to an apparent flow of over Rs.200 crore from Shahid Balwa's DB Realty firm to Kalaignar TV, the regional Tamil channel in which Kanimozhi is alleged to have a 20 percent stake.[20]
On May 20, 2011, the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in New Delhi ordered the arrest of Kanimozhi along with Kalaignar TV CEO Sharad Kumar after rejecting their bail pleas. Kanimozhi was arrested and sent to Tihar Jail.[22]
Acting on the appeal by Kanimozhi after her bail plea was rejected by the CBI Court earlier, the Delhi High Court on June 8, 2011, also followed the suit and rejected the bail pleas of Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar stating that Kanimozhi may be in a position to influence the 2G probe. This means Kanimozhi will remain in Tihar Jail until further proceedings.[23]
Lord Krishna: The Management Guru. - by M Lokeswara Rao 25 Aug 2008 This story has been read 4678 times. Category: Lifestyle Topic: What do you think about the Reality-TV shows
Lord Krishna: The Management Guru.
Yester day we have celebrated Janmastami, Lord Krishna’s birthday. The teachings of Lord Krishna are known all over world, the famous Bhagavad –Gita. Three thousand years back Lord Krishna taught Arjuna self-development which is key to leadership skills. The teachings of the Gita centuries back will be applicable to present day where the knowledge of the individual is powerful. If individual wants he can make or unmake. Many corporate can follow the teaching of the Gita for human resources development of the mangers and workers.
Modern management process and management philosophy can be found in “Sri.Bhagavad Gita” in the dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna. The Mahabharatha war was fought three thousand years ago, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Arjuna having seen the array of army of Duryodhana and Pandavas, asks Sri.Krishna to take the chariot and keep it in between the two armies. Arjuna wants to know with whom he has to fight in the battle. Arjuna sees father’s grandsons, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, fathers-in-law and well wishers. After seeing his Kinsmen, Arjuna speaks with grief. Arjuna decides not to fight the war.
Lord Krishna started his dialogue with Arjuna; the essence of this management dialogue was divided into eighteen chapters in the Bhagavad-Gita 1.The Despondency of Arjuna.2.The way of discrimination.3.The way of action. 4. The way of knowledge.5.Renunciation of action.6.The way of contemplation.7.The way of knowledge and realisation.8.The way to supreme spirit.9.The way of royal knowledge and royal secret10.Meditation of the divine glories. 11.The vision of the universal form.12.The way of devotion.13.Discrimination between nature and soul14.The separation of three gunas.15.The way to supreme person.16.The distinction between divine and demonical attributes.17.The separation of the three kinds of faith.18.The way of renunciation. After completing the dialogue. Arjuna says, my delusion is destroyed and I have gained my memory through your (Lord Krishna) teaching, I am ready to fight battle, free from doubt, about my duties will be carried out at your command. This clearly shows the management and development of individual (self) in right direction taught by Lord Krishna to Arjuna which made Arjuna do his duty selflessly by fighting the historic Kurukshetra war and winning the war was his goal.
What do Siemens India Ltd., Silicon Graphics DCM Data Systems, Ambuja Industries and Times of India have in common with Federal Express, American Airlines, New York Times and General Electric Inc. The fact is that all of them have realised the role as well as importance of the individual in human resource development and that self-development is the key to development of organization. The power of individual has been realised since eternity starting with Lord Krishna to present day.
With competition hotting up between the corporate in India and around the world, Human Resources Development (HRD), for achieving a particular task, with an increase emphasis on productivity is becoming vital for corporate in India and abroad. “We need leadership, not just brains,” says Roderick Wilkinson, Fellow of the Institute of Personal Management, U.K. He goes on to give some examples on what he means by this, “For instance it was in Great Britain that Alexander Fleming who developed Penicillin, but it was business leadership that commercialised in the U.S. It was a Scotsman named Baird, who invented the Television, but it was again the leadership in Italy, U.S.A, Japan and other countries that developed it beyond greater bounds than Britain, found possible. Hence we need to realize that even the best brains need leader who can harness their intellect and channelize it towards the productive results that will benefits us all The four fundamental functions of management process of modern management are
(1) Planning (2) Organising (3) Actuating (4) controlling Which were taught by Lord Sri Krishna to Arjuna 3000 years back through the dialogue between Arjuna and Lord Krishna, which became the Gita –The management epic.
Gita teaches the fundamentals about the development of individuals mind, concentration, self control, development of the character, knowledge, virtues, duty, work, action, devotion, leading to liberation. The Gita teaching will help the development of human resources, which is an asset to the organisation. One of the major goals of management is to develop human resources into hard to replace assets of a firm.
As Bill Gates the Microsoft Inc. USA under the series “Ask Bill” said, “People are our most important resource”. Finding great people and keeping them is key to success. When it comes to tracking, turn- over there is two numbers to watch; one is the departure rate, i.e. the percentage of work force that leaves the company in a given year. . The other number is more important, It is known to our Human Resources Development Department as the “attrition rate” the percentage of employees that a company losses although it wants to keep them. Although our rate is low every year we lose people we really want to keep we try to look at every departure and ask why? What motivated that? Should the company has made more attractive to stay? Our company is unusual in that most of employees who are important to us are owners of the company and tend to have made a lot of money through our stock option plan. They tend to have a financial freedom not to work. We have to work particularly hard to make Jobs interesting, because pay cheques are not what motivate many of our best people. Fortunately, smart people like to work with smart people and they like to work on products that have a big impact. But keeping them is an “ongoing challenge”.
Thus Gita-teachings help the all- round development of the human resources to reach the goal of the individuals, enterprises, organisations, Governments and Societies. The teaching of Gita is eternal because it is practiced in the past, present and future for development of the individual, for the development of the moral and happy society.
So follow teachings for individual development .
Reache me at environment-forests.blogspot.com
TOP 10 MANAGEMENT GURUS
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World's 10 top management gurus
August 6, 2008
"Deregulation, emerging markets, new forms of globalisation, convergence of technologies and industries, and ubiquitous connectivity, these have changed many aspects of business," said management guru C K Prahalad in an interview.
Prahalad is the world's topmost management guru and the first Indian-born thinker to claim the title.
The Thinkers 50 2007 list, produced by Suntop Media in association with Skillsoft, is a definitive guide to who is the most influential living management thinker.
Although the list is still dominated by North Americans (37 of the 50 gurus are from the United States), three more Indian management experts have made it to the Top 50. As yet, no Chinese guru has emerged.
To find out about the other nine who completed the top 10, read on. . .
1. C K PRAHALAD
Coimbatore Krishnao Prahalad was born in the town of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. He studied physics at the University of Madras (now Chennai); worked as a manager in a branch of the Union Carbide battery company, then went to the Harvard University and earned a PhD.
Prahalad, is now the Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, specializes in corporate strategy.
His books include:
Multinational Mission: Balancing Local Demands and Global Vision (1987), coauthored with Yves Doz, Competing for the Future (1994), co-authored with Gary Hamel. Printed in fourteen languages, the book was named the Best Selling Business Book of the Year in 1994, and The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers (2004) (coauthored with Venkatram Ramaswamy).
On his vision about India, Prahalad says: "As a country, India must have high and shared aspirations like it had in 1929 when the leaders of the then Congress party declared their ambition as Poorna Swaraj. Since then, India has never had a national aspiration which every Indian could share."
Image: C K Prahalad
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August 6, 2008
2. BILL GATES
For long the world�s richest man, till he was upstaged by legendary investor Warren Buffett recently, Bill Gates wears many a hat: computer whiz kid, entrepreneur extraordinaire, compassionate capitalist, top management thinker. . .
Born on October 28, 1955, William H Gates III grew up in Seattle with his two sisters.
Their father, William H Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.
Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at age 13.
In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft's chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.
In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen.
Books that he wrote:
The Road Ahead (1995), held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times' bestseller list for seven weeks. Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999). Published in 25 languages the book is available in more than 60 countries.
Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January, 2000; remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. Gates's last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as a part-time, non-executive chairman.
Gates married Melinda French from Dallas, Texas on January 1, 1994. They have three children: Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996), Rory John Gates (1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (2002).
Bill Gates' house is a 21st century earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington.
Image: Bill Gates was awarded with a honorary doctorate in medicine at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, on January 23, 2008. Bill and Melinda Gates (not present during the conferment ceremony) were honoured for their work with the global health issues through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. | Photograph: Anders Wiklund/SCANPIX/AFP/Getty Images
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August 6, 2008
3. ALAN GREENSPAN
Born on March 6, 1926 in New York City, Alan Greenspan was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve of the United States -- the US Fed -- from 1987 to 2006. It was said that when he sneezed, the world caught a cold.
He currently works as a private advisor, making speeches and providing consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC.
Greenspan was lauded for his handling of the Black Monday stock market crash that occurred very shortly after he first became chairman, as well as for his stewardship of the Internet-driven, 'dot-com' economic boom of the 1990s.
Greenspan is an accomplished saxophone player. While in college, he played in a jazz band.
He attended New York University, and received a BS in Economics in 1948, and a MA in 1950.
Greenspan went to the Columbia University, intending to pursue advanced economic studies, but subsequently dropped out.
In 1977, NYU awarded him a Ph.D. in Economics. On December 14, 2005, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Commercial Science from NYU, his fourth degree from that institution.
Greenspan was famous for his ability to give technical and confusing speeches. US News & World Report once said "Few can confuse Wall Street as thoroughly as Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan can."
And Motley Fool radio show included a game called 'What Did the Fed Chief Say?', where contestants were challenged to interpret snippets of Greenspan's speeches.
His memoir, titled The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World was published in 2007.
Image: Former US Fed chief Alan Greenspan (R) confers with Ben Bernanke the present chairman | Photograph: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images
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August 6, 2008
4. MICHAEL E PORTER
Michael E Porter is the Bishop William Laurence University Professor at the Harvard Business School.
Porter was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His father was an army officer.
He studied mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton and then switched to business, earning an MBA and a PhD in economics from Harvard. He later joined the faculty there.
It is said that Porter has always been obsessed by competition. Unfortunately, he slipped from the number one position he held in the 2005 list to the fourth position in the 2007 list.
Books that he wrote:
Competitive Strategy Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors (1980) Comparative Advantage (1985) The Competitive Advantage of Nations (1990) Can Japan Compete? (1999)
Image: Michael Porter is awarded an honorary doctorate at the Graduate School of Managment in Leipzig, eastern Germany. |Photograph: Sebastian Willnow/AFP/Getty Images
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August 6, 2008
5. GARY HAMEL The Wall Street Journal has ranked Gary Hamel as the world's most influential business thinker, and Fortune magazine has called him �the world's leading expert on business strategy.� For the last three years, Hamel has also toppedExecutive Excellence magazine's annual ranking of the most sought after management speakers.
Born in 1954, Hamel is a visiting professor at Harvard Business School and London Business School.
Hamel has worked for companies as diverse as General Electric, Time Warner, Nokia, Nestle, Shell, Best Buy, Procter & Gamble, 3M, IBM, and Microsoft.
Hamel's landmark books, Leading the Revolution and Competing for the Future, have appeared on every management bestseller list and have been translated into more than 20 languages.
His latest book, The Future of Management, was published by the Harvard Business School Press in October 2007 and was selected by Amazon.com as the best business book of the year.
Hamel, a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and the Strategic Management Society lives in Northern California and believes that 'Dilbertis the bestselling business book of all time.'
Image: Gary Hamel who has authored 15 articles for the Harvard Business Review, also writes for the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and The Financial Times
Also read: 10 wonderful stocks to invest in
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World's 10 top management gurus
August 6, 2008
7. THOMAS J PETERS
Tom Peters was born on November 7, 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland. A writer on business management practices, Peters is best-known for, In Search of Excellence, co-authored with Robert H. Waterman, Jr.
He went to Severn School for high school and attended Cornell University, receiving a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1965, and a master's degree in 1966.
He then studied business at Stanford Business School, receiving an MBA and PhD. In 2004, he also received an honorary doctorate from the State University of Management in Moscow.
From 1974 to 1981, Peters worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, and then in 1981, he went solo and became an independent consultant.
According to Peters, excellence in business depends on eight ingredients.
Activism, with people who 'do it, fix it (and) try it' Excellent companies 'learn from the people they serve'. They promote entrepreneurship and autonomy Management learns from a 'hands-on' approach Workers are valued as the key to achieve productivity Excellent companies stick to their knitting, exploiting their core competencies and not pursuing wild goose chases They keep their form simple and their staff lean; They know how to be simultaneously tight-fitting and expansive.
Books that he wrote:
A Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference (1985) Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution (1987) Liberation Management: Necessary Disorganization for the Nanosecond Nineties (1992) The Brand You 50 (1999)
Image: W Chan Kim (L) and Renee Mauborgne (R)
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August 6, 2008
8. JACK WELCH
Born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of a rail road conductor, he studied chemical engineering at the university of Massachusetts, gaining a PhD in the same subject from the university of Illinois.
He joined General Electric's plastics division in 1960. At age 33 he became one of the company's youngest general managers and in December 1980, after a little over twenty years in the company, he was named GE's eighth CEO, the youngest in the company's history.
GE's financial success came at the expense of extensive layoffs. During the process of streamlining the company, over 100,000 workers lost their job. His perceived ruthlessness earned him the moniker 'Neutron Jack'.
Since retiring Jack Welch is busy as a consultant to a number of Fortune 500 firms. He also
wrote his memoirs: Jack: Straight from the Gut, which was published in 2001; and with Suzy Welch he wrote Winning: The Ultimate Business How-To Book in 2005.
Jack Welch arrives for the 20th Anniversary Celebration of 'Literacy Partners' | Photograph: Scott Eells/Getty Images
Also read: Success tips of the world's best CEO
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August 6, 2008
9. RICHARD BRANSON
Richard Branson was born in 1950 and educated at Stowe School. It was here that he began to set up Student Magazine when he was just 16. By 17 he'd also set up Student Advisory Centre, which was a charity to help young people.
In 1970, he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer, and not long after he opened a record shop in Oxford Street, London. In 1972, a recording studio was built in Oxfordshire, and the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded 'Tubular Bells' which was released in 1973. This album went on to sell over 5 million copies!
Branson's Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s - as he set up Virgin Atlantic Airways and expanded the Virgin Records music label.
Richard Branson is the 236th richest person according to Forbes' 2008 list of billionaires
with an estimated net worth of $7.9 billion.
The eldest and only boy of three children, his sisters are Lindi and Vanessa. His father Ted was a barrister, and mother, Eve, worked in the theatre, as a glider pilot instructor and as a flight attendant.
Branson has has dyslexia and thus fared poorly in his studies.
Branson is married to his second wife, Joan Templeman, with whom he has two children: Holly, a doctor, and Sam Branson.
The couple wed in 1989 at Necker Island, a 74 acre island in the British Virgin Islands that Branson owns.
He also owns real estate on the Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda.
In 1998 Branson released his autobiography entitled Losing My Virginity and in Business Stripped Bare.
Branson has guest starred, usually playing himself, on several television shows, including Friends, Baywatch, Birds of a Feather, Only Fools and Horses, and The Day Today.
Sir Richard Branson, wife Joan and daughter Holly arrive at the dinner in honour of Nelson Mandela | Photograph: Getty Images
Also read: World's 10 best hotels
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World's 10 top management gurus
August 6, 2008
10. JAMES C COLLINS III
Jim Collins was born in in 1958 in Boulder, Colorado. He studied business at Stanford.
He began his research and teaching career on the faculty at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992.
In 1995, he founded a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where he now conducts research and teaches executives from the corporate and social sectors.
Jim has served as a teacher to senior executives and CEOs at over a hundred
corporations.
He has also worked with social sector organisations, such as: Johns Hopkins Medical School, the Girl Scouts of the USA, the Leadership Network of Churches, the American Association of K-12 School Superintendents, and the United States Marine Corps.
In 2005 he published Good to Great. He also authored Beyond Entrepreneurship: Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company(1995) and Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (2004).
In addition, Collins is an avid rock climber.
Images: Jim Collins is a student and teacher of enduring great companies
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The Thinkers 50 list also include the names of three more management gurus �- Ram Charan at rank 22, Vijay Govindarajan at 23, and Rakesh Khurana at 45.
RAM CHARAN
Born in 1939 in Uttar Pradesh, Ram Charan worked in his family's shoe shop while growing up.
He earned a degree in engineering from Banaras Hindu University and later studied at Harvard Business School, where he was awarded an MBA (1965) and a doctorate (1967).
Before becoming a full-time consultant in 1978, he taught at the
Harvard Business School, the Kellogg School of Management, and Boston University.
Charan is the author of various popular books on business, including Boards That Deliver, What The CEO Wants You To Know, Boards At Work, Every Business Is A Growth Business (with Noel Tichy),Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business, Confronting Reality, and Execution (with Larry Bossidy and Charles Burck).
Charan was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources in 2000 and named a Distinguished Fellow in 2005. He is also a director of Austin Industries.
Image: Ram Charan is a highly acclaimed speaker and advisor.
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August 6, 2008
VIJAY GOVINDARAJAN
Vijay Govindarajan, known as VG, is the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at the Tuck School and founding director of Tuck's Center for Global Leadership.
He is also the faculty co-director for Global Leadership 2020, Tuck's executive education program that focuses on global management and is taught on three continents.
Since 2000, Govindarajan has focused on teaching corporations to build breakthrough businesses while simultaneously sustaining excellence in their core business��the subject of his new book Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators.
Govindarajan currently writes a column for FastCompany.com. His articles have also appeared in journals such as Harvard Business Review, strategy+ business,California Management Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Accounting,Organisations and Society, Decision Sciences, and Journal of Business Strategy.
Prior to joining the faculty at Tuck, Govindarajan was on the faculties of The Ohio State University and the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad, India).
He has also served as a visiting professor at Harvard Business School, INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France), the International University of Japan (Urasa, Japan), and Helsinki School of Economics (Helsinki, Finland).
Govindarajan received his doctorate and his MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School.
Prior to this, he received his Chartered Accountancy degree in India. He was awarded the President's Gold Medal for his outstanding performance in obtaining the first rank.
Image: For 25 years, Govindarajan has been advancing the field of strategy execution and advising senior executives in all industries
Also read: The top 10 challenges for India
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August 6, 2008
RAKESH KHURANA
Rakesh Khurana is a Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior area at the Harvard Business School.
He teaches a doctoral seminar on management and markets and the board of directors and corporate governance in the MBA programme.
Khurana received his BS from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and his AM (Sociology) and PhD in Organization Behavior from Harvard University.
Prior to attending graduate school, he worked as a founding member of Cambridge Technology Partners in sales and marketing.
His book on the CEO labour market, Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs was published in October, 2002.
Khurana's work on the deficiencies of the CEO labor market and the emergence of the charismatic CEO succession model is regularly featured by the general media such as: Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNBC, and The Economist.
His From Higher Aims to Hired Hands received the American Sociological Association's Max Weber Book Award in 2008 for most outstanding contribution to scholarship in the past two years.
Image: Rakesh Khurana
All about 3G and what it means for you
August 5, 2008
On August 1, 2008, India joined the elite list of countries to announce a policy for third generation mobile service that will enable customers to enjoy voice, video, data and downloading facilities on their mobile phones.
The much-awaited 3G policy would allow up to 10 players in a service area including foreign companies. India has 60 Mhz of 3G spectrum available. The auction will take place in the 2.1 Ghz band.
The government has set a base price of Rs 2,020 crore (Rs 20.20 billion) for each bid for a pan-India license. Initially, there will be three to five operators to sell the 3G services, including state-run BSNL and MTNL. The state-run telecom firms have an edge to start the 3G services earlier than others as they do not have to bid for the spectrum as they only have to match the highest bid in their respective circles. Text: Rediff Business Desk
Image: A reporter holds the new Apple iPhone 3G at the Apple Store, Fifth Avenue, in midtown Manhattan, on July 11, 2008 in New York City. | Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
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All about 3G and what it means for you
August 5, 2008
When will 3G services in India start?
There is no firm date set for the auction of 3G spectrum, but it is likely to take place before February 2009 since the government may need the money to keep its deficit within control; current estimates put the initial entry fee bids that the government will get at anywhere between Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) and Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion).
In that case, by about December 2009, India may get broadband-type internet speeds on mobile phones. That, in turn, will allow users to view movies on their mobile phones, conduct video telephony while on the move, and so on.
Users demand better and faster services, and as they start using high-end phones, they want more information, faster data access and multimedia services through their mobile phones. Only 3G technology provides this. So what is 3G spectrum all about? Read on. . .
Image: Indian actress Katrina Kaif poses with newly launched 3G Spice cellular telephones in New Delhi. | Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: 10 wonderful stocks to invest in
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All about 3G and what it means for you
August 5, 2008
What will 3G mean for you
3G is short for third-generation mobile telephony services. 3G guidelines will revolutionise the country's cell phone services, clearing the way for high-speed mobile connectivity in India.
3G phones work in higher bandwidths of 15-20 MHz. Currently, mobile phones work on 2G or 2.5G, and use 30-200 KHz bandwidth. Bandwidth is a measure of the width of a range of frequencies used while transferring data from one point to another and is measured in hertz.
How do 3G services help us?
3G services enable video broadcast and data-intensive services such as stock transactions, e-learning and telemedicine through wireless communications
All telecom operators are waiting to launch 3G in India to cash in on revenues by providing high-end services to customers, which are voice data and video enabled. India lags behind many Asian countries in introducing 3G services.
Packet-based data provides several advantages over the existing circuit-switched techniques used for carrying mobile voice. It allows higher call volumes and support for multimedia data applications, such as video and photography.
Users will be charged on how much data they transmit, not on how much time they are connected to the network, because with 3G you are constantly online and only pay for the information you receive.
Image: Indian actor Aamir Khan during a promotional event by Samsung mobile. | Photograph: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: World's 8 most expensive mobiles Email | Discuss | Get latest news on your desktop
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All about 3G and what it means for you
August 5, 2008
Number portability
There is good news for all mobile phone users in India. The roadmap to introduce mobile number portability that will give cellphone users the freedom to choose their service provider while retaining their numbers has been readied too.
Cheaper, and better, phones
With 3G mobile services, which provide high-speed downloads of data, movies and videos, around six month away, mobile phone makers are getting ready to offer handsets for as little as Rs 3,500, against the currently available minimum price of over Rs 8,000.
Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies is already in talks with leading Indian operators of GSM mobile services to sell a 3G entry-level phone within $80 to
$100.
South Korean electronics giant LG Electronics has the KU250 3G phone model, which is positioned as one of the cheapest phones in this category around the globe. "We will launch an adaptation of this model in India for around $100.
Motorola India also expects prices to fall dramatically. It expects the prices of phones to come down to Rs 4,000-5,000. Motorola has about three 3G models that range from Rs 14,000 to Rs 19,000.
Also, contrary to common belief, 3G will not be a premium service. Operators said a start-up package could cost around Rs 299, which is roughly what consumers pay for a fixed broadband service. Unlimited downloading may require subscribers to pay Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 a month.
Image: Customers at a Hutchison Whampoa 3G shop checking out the latest 3G telephones. | Photograph: Mike Clarke/AFP/Getty Images
Richard Branson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sir Richard Branson
Branson at the Time 100 Gala, 4 May 2010
Born Richard Charles Nicholas Branson
18 July 1950 (age 61)
Blackheath, London, England, United Kingdom
Residence London, England
Nationality British
Occupation Chairman of Virgin Group
Years active 1966–present
Net worth US$4.2 billion (2011)[1] Title Sir
Spouse Kristen Tomassi (m. 1972–1979)(divorced)
Joan Templeman (m. 1989–present)
Children 2 daughters (1 deceased), 1 son
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of over 400[2] companies.
His first successful business venture was a magazine called Student at age 16.[3] In 1970, he set up an audio record mail-order business. In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Branson's Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s—as he set up Virgin Atlantic Airways and expanded the Virgin Records music label.
Richard Branson is the 5th richest person in the United Kingdom and 254th in the world according to Forbes' 2011 list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of approximately £2.58 billion (US$4.2 billion).[4]
Contents
[hide]
1 Early life
2 Career
o 2.1 Record business
o 2.2 Business ventures
3 World record attempts
4 Television, film, and print
5 Activism
o 5.1 Humanitarian initiatives
o 5.2 Politics
o 5.3 Business practices
6 Honours and awards
7 Personal life
o 7.1 Influences
8 See also 9 Notes
10 References
11 Bibliography
12 External links
[edit]Early life
Branson was born in Blackheath, London, the son and eldest child of barrister Edward James Branson (10 March 1918 - 19 March 2011)[5] and Eve Huntley Branson (née Flindt).[6][5] His grandfather, the Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the High Court of Justice and a Privy Councillor.[7] Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School (now Bishopsgate School)[8] until the age of thirteen. He then attended Stowe School until the age of sixteen. Branson has dyslexia and had poor academic performance as a student, but later discovered his ability to connect with others.[9]
[edit]Career
[edit]Record business
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)
Branson started his record business from the crypt of a church where he ran The Student. Branson advertised popular records in The Student Magazine and it was an over night success. Trading under the name "Virgin", he sold records for considerably less than the "High Street" outlets, especially the chain W. H. Smith. The name "Virgin" was suggested by one of Branson's early employees because they were all new at business.[10] At the time, many products were sold under restrictive marketing agreements that limited discounting, despite efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to limit so-called resale price maintenance.[11] In effect, Branson began the series of changes that led to large-scale discounting of recorded music.
Branson eventually started a record shop in Oxford Street in London. In 1971, Branson was questioned in connection with the selling of records in Virgin stores that had been declared export stock. The matter was never brought before a court and Branson agreed to repay any unpaid tax and a fine. Branson's mother Eve re-mortgaged the family home to help pay the settlement.[10]
Earning enough money from his record store, Branson in 1972 launched the record label Virgin Records with Nik Powell and bought a country estate, in which he installed a recording studio. He leased out studio time to fledgling artists, including multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, whose debut album Tubular Bells (1973) was Virgin Records' first release and a chart-topping best-seller. Virgin signed such controversial bands as the Sex Pistols, which other companies were reluctant to sign. It also won praise for exposing the public to such obscure avant-garde music as Faust and Can. Virgin Records also introduced Culture Club to the music world. In the early 1980s, Virgin purchased the gay nightclub Heaven. In 1991, in a consortium with David Frost, Richard Branson had made the unsuccessful bid for three ITV franchisees under the CPV-TV name. The early 1980s also saw his only attempt as a producer—on the novelty record "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep", by Singing Sheep in association with Doug McLean and Grace McDonald. The recording was a series of sheep baaing along to a drum machine produced track and even made the charts at number 42 in 1982.
In 1992, to keep his airline company afloat, Branson sold the Virgin label to EMI for £500 million.[12] Branson says that he wept when the sale was completed since the record business had been the birth of the Virgin Empire. He later formed V2 Records to re-enter the music business.[13]
[edit]Business ventures
Main article: Timeline of Richard Branson's business ventures
Branson formed Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1984, launched Virgin Mobile in 1999, Virgin Blue in Australia (now named Virgin Australia) in 2000. He was 9th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006, worth just over £3 billion. Branson wrote in his autobiography of the decision to start an airline:
My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to “ rise above them...from the perspective of wanting to live life to the full, I felt that I had to attempt it. ”
Another quote from him: "For me business is not about wearing suits, or keeping stockholders pleased. It's about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials"
In 1993, Branson took what many saw as being one of his riskier business exploits by entering into the railway business. Virgin Trains won the franchises for the former Intercity West Coast and Cross-Country sectors of British Rail.
Virgin acquired European short-haul airline Euro Belgian Airlines in 1996 and renamed it Virgin Express. In 2006, the airline was merged withSN Brussels Airlines forming Brussels Airlines. It also started a national airline based in Nigeria, called Virgin Nigeria. Another airline, Virgin America, began flying out of San Francisco International Airport in August 2007. Branson has also developed a Virgin Cola brand and even aVirgin Vodka brand, which has not been a very successful enterprise. As a consequence of these lacklustre performers, the satirical British fortnightly magazine Private Eye has been critical of Branson and his companies (see Private Eye image caption).[14] After the so-called campaign of "dirty tricks", British Airways settled the case, giving £500,000 to Branson and a further £110,000 to his airline and had to pay legal fees of up to £3 million. Branson divided his compensation (the so-called "BA bonus") among his staff. [15]
On 25 September 2004, Branson announced the signing of a deal under which a new space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, will license the technology behind Spaceship One—funded by Microsoft co-Founder Paul Allen and designed by legendary American aeronautical engineer and visionary Burt Rutan—to take paying passengers into suborbital space. Virgin Galactic (wholly owned by Virgin Group) plans to make flights available to the public with tickets priced at US$200,000 using Scaled Composites White Knight Two.
Branson's next venture with the Virgin group is Virgin Fuels, which is set to respond to global warming and exploit the recent spike in fuel costs by offering a revolutionary, cheaper fuel for automobiles and, in the near future, aircraft. Branson has stated that he was formerly a global warming sceptic and was influenced in his decision by a breakfast meeting with Al Gore.[16]
Branson has been tagged as a "transformational leader" in the management lexicon, with his maverick strategies and his stress on the Virgin Group as an organisation driven on informality and information, one that is bottom-heavy rather than strangled by top-level management.
On 21 September 2006, Branson pledged to invest the profits of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains in research for environmentally friendly fuels. The investment is estimated to be worth $3 billion.[17][18]
On 4 July 2006, Branson sold his Virgin Mobile company to UK cable TV, broadband, and telephone company NTL/NTL:Telewest for almost £1 billion. As part of the sale, the company pays a minimum of £8.5 million per year to use the Virgin name and Branson became the company's largest shareholder.[citation needed] The new company was launched with much fanfare and publicity on 8 February 2007, under the name Virgin Media. The decision to merge his Virgin Media Company with NTL was in order to integrate both of the companies' compatible parts of commerce. Branson used to own three quarters of Virgin Mobile, whereas now he owns 15 percent of the new Virgin Media company.[19]
In 2006, Branson formed Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation, an entertainment company focussed on creating new stories and characters for a global audience. The company was founded with author Deepak Chopra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, and entrepreneurs Sharad Devarajanand Gotham Chopra.
Branson also launched the Virgin Health Bank on 1 February 2007, offering parents-to-be the opportunity to store their baby's umbilical cordblood stem cells in private and public stem cell banks. In June 2006, a tip-off from Virgin Atlantic led US and UK competition authorities to investigate price- fixing attempts between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. In August 2007, British Airways was fined £271 million over the allegations. Virgin Atlantic was given immunity for tipping off the authorities and received no fine—a controversial decision the Office of Fair Trading defended as being in the public interest.[20]
On 9 February 2007, Branson announced the setting up of a new Global science and technology prize— The Virgin Earth Challenge—in the belief that history has shown that prizes of this nature encourage technological advancements for the good of mankind. The Virgin Earth Challenge will award $25 million to the individual or group who are able to demonstrate a commercially viable design which will result in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least ten years without countervailing harmful effects. This removal must have long-term effects and contribute materially to the stability of the Earth's climate.
Branson also announced that he would be joined in the adjudication of the Prize by a panel of five judges, all world authorities in their respective fields: Al Gore, Sir Crispin Tickell, Tim Flannery, James E. Hansen, and James Lovelock. The panel of judges will be assisted in their deliberations by The Climate Group and Special Advisor to The Virgin Earth Prize Judges, Steve Howard.
Richard Branson got involved with football when he sponsored Nuneaton Borough for their January 2006 FA Cup 3rd round game againstMiddlesbrough. The game ended 1–1, and the Virgin brand was also on Nuneaton Borough's shirts for the replay which they eventually lost 2–5.[citation needed]
In August 2007, Branson announced that he bought a 20 percent stake in Malaysia's AirAsia X.[21]
Branson in April 2009 at the OC launch of Virgin America On 13 October 2007, Branson's Virgin Group sought to add Northern Rock to its empire after submitting an offer that would result in Branson personally owning 30% of the company, changing the company's name from Northern Rock to Virgin Money.[22] The Daily Mail ran a campaign against his bid and Liberal Democrats' financial spokesperson Vince Cable suggested in theHouse of Commons that Branson's criminal conviction for tax evasion might be felt by some as a good enough reason not to trust him with public money .[23]
On 10 January 2008, Branson's Virgin Healthcare announced that it would open a chain of health care clinics that would offer conventional medical care alongside homoeopathic and complementary therapies.[24] The Financial Times reported that Ben Bradshaw, UK's health minister, welcomed the launch. "I am pleased that Virgin Healthcare is proposing to work with GPs to help develop more integrated services for patients."
Plans where GPs could be paid for referring National Health Service (NHS) patients to private Virgin services were abandoned in June 2008. The BMA warned the plan would "damage clinical objectivity", there would be a financial incentive for GPs to push patients towards the Virgin services at the centre.[25] Plans to take over an NHS Practice in Swindon were subsequently abandoned in late September 2008.[26]
In February 2009, Branson's Virgin organisation were reported as bidding to buy the former Honda Formula One team. Branson later stated an interest in Formula One but claimed that, before the Virgin brand became involved with Honda or any other team, Formula One would have to develop a more economically efficient and environmentally responsible image. At the start of the 2009 formula one season on 28 March, it was announced that Virgin would be sponsoring the new Brawn GP team.,[27] with discussions also under way about introducing a less "dirty" fuel in the medium term.[28] After the end of the season and the subsequent purchase of Brawn GP by Mercedes, Branson invested in an 80% buyout of Manor Grand Prix[29][30] with the team being renamed to Virgin Racing.
Branson and Tony Fernandes, owner of Air Asia and Lotus F1 Racing, had a bet for the 2010 F1 season where the team's boss should work on the winner's airline for a day dressed as a stewardess. Fernandes escaped as the winner of the bet, as Lotus Racing ended 10th in the championship, while Virgin Racing ended 12th and last.
Branson's Ninety Acres Culinary Center in New Jersey will open in December 2009 with a restaurant run by chef David Felton, cooking school, wine school and working farm. The culinary center is the first phase to turn Natirar, the King of Morocco’s former estate, into a luxury resort, spa and culinary center.[31]
In 2010 Richard Branson became patron of the UK's Gordon Bennett 2010 gas balloon race, which has 16 hydrogen balloons flying across Europe.[32] In April 2010 Branson described the closure of large parts of European airspace owing to volcanic ash as "beyond a joke". Scientists later concluded that serious structural damage to aircraft could have occurred if passenger planes had continued to fly.[33]
[edit]World record attempts
A 1998 attempt at an around-the-world balloon flight by Branson, Fossett, and Lindstrand ends in the Pacific Ocean on 25 December 1998.
Richard Branson made several world record-breaking attempts after 1985, when in the spirit of theBlue Riband he attempted the fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing. His first attempt in the "Virgin Atlantic Challenger" led to the boat capsizing in British waters and a rescue by RAF helicopter, which received wide media coverage. Some newspapers called for Branson to reimburse the government for the rescue cost. In 1986, in his "Virgin Atlantic Challenger II", with sailing expert Daniel McCarthy, he beat the record by two hours. A year later his hot air balloon "Virgin Atlantic Flyer" crossed the Atlantic. With its 2,300,000 cubic feet (65,000 m3), this was the largest hot-air balloon, and the first to cross the Atlantic[citation needed].
In January 1991, Branson crossed the Pacific from Japan to Arctic Canada, 6,700 miles (10,800 km), in a balloon of 2,600,000 cubic feet (74,000 m3). This broke the record, with a speed of 245 miles per hour (394 km/h).
Between 1995 and 1998 Branson, Per Lindstrand and Steve Fossett made attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon. In late 1998 they made a record-breaking flight from Morocco to Hawaii but were unable to complete a global flight before Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in Breitling Orbiter 3 in March 1999.
In March 2004, Branson set a record by travelling from Dover to Calais in a Gibbs Aquada in 1 hour, 40 minutes and 6 seconds, the fastest crossing of the English Channel in an amphibious vehicle. The previous record of six hours was set by two Frenchmen.[34] The cast of Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, attempted to break this record in an amphibious vehicle which they had constructed and, while successfully crossing the channel, did not break Branson's record. In September 2008 Branson and his children made an unsuccessful attempt at an Eastbound record crossing of the Atlantic ocean under sail in the 99 feet (30 m) sloop Virgin Money.[35] The boat, also known as Speedboat, is owned by NYYC member Alex Jackson, who was a co-skipper on this passage, with Branson and Mike Sanderson. After 2 days, 4 hours, winds of force 7 to 9 (strong gale), and seas of 40 feet (12 m), a 'monster wave' destroyed the spinnaker, washed a ten-man life raft overboard and severely ripped the mainsail. She eventually continued to St. George's, Bermuda.[36] In March 2010 Richard tried for the world record of putting a round of golf in the dark at the Black Light Mini Golf in The Docklands, Melbourne, Australia. He succeeded in getting 41 on the par 45 course.
[edit]Television, film, and print
Branson at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.
Branson has guest starred, usually playing himself, on several television shows, including Friends,Baywatch, Birds of a Feather, Only Fools and Horses, The Day Today, a special episode of the comedy Goodness Gracious Me and Tripping Over. Branson made several appearances during the nineties on the BBC Saturday morning show Live & Kicking, where he was referred to as 'the pickle man' by comedy act Trev and Simon (in reference to Branston Pickle).[37] Branson also appears in a cameo early in XTC's "Generals and Majors" video.
He was also the star of a reality television show on Fox called The Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best (2004), in which sixteen contestants were tested for their entrepreneurship and sense of adventure. It did not succeed as a rival show to Donald Trump's The Apprentice and only lasted one season. His high public profile often leaves him open as a figure of satire—the 2000 AD series Zenithfeatures a parody of Branson as a super villain, as the comic's publisher and favoured distributor and the Virgin group were in competition at the time. He is also caricatured in The Simpsonsepisode "Monty Can't Buy Me Love" as the tycoon Arthur Fortune, and as the ballooningmegalomaniac Richard Chutney (a pun on Branson, as in Branston Pickle) in Believe Nothing. The character Grandson Richard 39 in Terry Pratchett's Wings is modelled on Branson.
He has a cameo appearance in several films: Around the World in 80 Days (2004), where he played a hot-air balloon operator; Superman Returns, where he was credited as a 'Shuttle Engineer' and appeared alongside his son, Sam, with a Virgin Galactic-style commercial suborbital shuttle at the centre of his storyline. He also has a cameo in the James Bond filmCasino Royale. Here, he is seen as a passenger going through Miami Airport security check-in and being frisked – several Virgin Atlantic planes appear soon after. British Airways edited out Branson's cameo in their in-flight screening of the movie.[38]
He makes a number of brief and disjointed appearances in the cult classic documentary Derek and Clive Get the Horn which follows the exploits of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore recording their last comedy album. Branson and his mother were also featured in the documentary film, Lemonade Stories. In early 2006 on Rove Live, Rove McManus and Sir Richard pushed each other into a swimming pool fully clothed live on TV during a "Live at your house" episode.
Branson is a Star Trek fan and named his new spaceship VSS Enterprise in honour of the famous Star Trek ships, and in 2006, offered actorWilliam Shatner a free ride on the inaugural space launch of Virgin Galactic. In an interview in Time magazine, 10 August 2009, Shatner claims that Branson approached him asking how much he would pay for a ride on the spaceship. In response, Shatner asked "how much would you pay me to do it?"
In August 2007, Branson announced on The Colbert Report that he had named a new aircraft Air Colbert. He later doused political satirist and talk show host Stephen Colbert with water from his mug. Branson subsequently took a retaliatory splash from Colbert. The interview quickly ended, with both laughing[39] as shown on the episode aired on Comedy Central on 22 August 2007. The interview was promoted on The Report as the Colbert-Branson Interview Trainwreck. Branson then made a cameo appearance on The Soup playing an intern working underJoel McHale who had been warned against getting into water fights with Stephen Colbert, and being subsequently fired.
In March 2008 he launched Virgin Mobile in India and during that period, he even played a cameo performance in Bollywood film, London Dreams.[40]
In July 2010, Branson narrated Australian sailor Jessica Watson's documentary about her solo sailing trip around the world. It premiered onONEHD on 16 August 2010. In April 2011 Branson appeared on CNN's Mainsail[41] with Kate Winslet. Together they reenacted a famous scene[42] from the 1997 filmTitanic for the cameras.
[edit]Activism
[edit]Humanitarian initiatives
In the late 1990s, Branson and musician Peter Gabriel discussed with Nelson Mandela their idea of a small, dedicated group of leaders, working objectively and without any vested personal interest to solve difficult global conflicts.[43]
On 18 July 2007, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela announced the formation of a new group, The Elders, in a speech he delivered on the occasion of his 89th birthday. The founding members of this group are Desmond Tutu, Graça Machel, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt,Gro Harlem Brundtland, Jimmy Carter, Li Zhaoxing, Mary Robinson, and Muhammad Yunus.[43] The Elders is independently funded by a group of "Founders", including Branson and Gabriel.
Desmond Tutu serves as the chair of The Elders—who will use their collective skills to catalyse peaceful resolutions to long-standing conflicts, articulate new approaches to global issues that are causing or may cause immense human suffering, and share wisdom by helping to connect voices all over the world. They will work together over the next several months to carefully consider which specific issues they will approach.
Branson's other work in South Africa includes the Branson School of Entrepreneurship, set up in 2005 as a partnership between Virgin Unite, the non-profit foundation of Virgin, and entrepreneur Taddy Bletcher, the founder of CIDA City Campus, a university in Johannesburg. The school aims to improve economic growth in South Africa by supporting start-ups and micro-enterprises with skills, mentors, services, networks and finance arrangements.[44] Fundraising activity to support the school is notably achieved by the Sunday Times Fast Track 100, sponsored by Virgin Group, at its yearly event, where places to join Richard Branson on trips to South Africa to provide coaching and mentoring to students are auctioned to attendees. In 2009, Jason Luckhurst and Boyd Kershaw of Practicus, Martin Ainscough of the Ainscough Group and Matthew Riley of Daisy Communications helped raise £150,000 through the auction.[45]
In September 2007, Richard Branson chaired the jury of the first Picnic Green Challenge, a €500,000 award for best new green initiative, set up by the Dutch "Postcode Loterij" (postcode lottery) and the PICNIC Network of creative professionals. The first Green Challenge was won by Qurrent with the Qbox.
Branson was the first celebrity guest for the popular charity fund raisers, Reserve Dinners, raising over $75,000 in one evening towards his Virgin Unite charity.[46] In March 2008, Richard Branson hosted an environmental gathering at his private island, Necker Island, in the Caribbean with several prominent entrepreneurs, celebrities, and world leaders. They discussed global warming-related problems facing the world, hoping that this meeting will be a precursor to many more future discussions regarding similar problems. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, and Larry Page of Google were in attendance.[47]
Branson has been very supportive of Kenya during its troubles, and in May 2008 had gone to Masai Mara to open a new school (Sekenani Primary School) which has also been partly funded by Virgin Atlantic frequent flyers who volunteered their time to help with the construction. A documentary of the experience was directed by Carolyn Scott-Hamilton and filmed by David Collupy.
On 8 May 2009, Branson took over Mia Farrow's hunger strike in protest of the Sudanese government expulsion of aid groups from the Darfurregion.[48] He concluded his scheduled 3-day fast on 11 May. Later that year, he joined the project Soldiers of Peace, a movie against all wars and for a global peace.[49][50]
Richard Branson is a signatory of Global Zero (campaign), a non-profit international initiative for the elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide.[51] Since its launch in Paris in December 2008,[52] Global Zero (campaign) has grown to 300 leaders, including current and former heads of state, national security officials and military commanders, and 400,000 citizens worldwide; developed a practical step-by-step plan to eliminate nuclear weapons; launched an international student campaign with 75 campus chapters in eight countries; and produced an acclaimed documentary film, Countdown to Zero, in partnership with Lawrence Bender and Participant Media.[53]
Since 2010, Branson has served as a Commissioner on the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, a UN initiative which promotes universal access to broadband services.[54]
In 2011, Branson served on the Global Commission on Drug Policy with former political and cultural leaders of Latin America and elsewhere, "in a bid to boost the effort to achieve more humane and rational drug laws."[55]
[edit]Politics
In the 1980s, he was briefly given the post of "litter Tsar" by Margaret Thatcher—charged with "keeping Britain tidy".[56][57] He was again seen as close to the government when the Labour Party came to power in 1997.[citation needed] In 2005 he declared that there were only negligible differences between the two main parties on economic matters.[58] He has frequently been mentioned as a candidate for Mayor of London, and polls have suggested he would be a viable candidate, though he has yet to express interest.[59][60][61]
[edit]Business practices Branson's business empire is owned by a complicated series of offshore trusts and companies. The Sunday Times stated that his wealth is calculated at £3.065 billion; if he were to retire to his Caribbean island and liquidate all of this he would pay relatively little in tax.[62]
[edit]Honours and awards
In 1993, Branson was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Technology from Loughborough University.
In the New Years Honours list dated 30 December 1999, HM The Queen signified her intention to confer the honour of Knight Bachelor on him for his "services to entrepreneurship".[63][64] He was knighted by HRH The Prince of Wales on 30 March 2000 at an investiture in Buckingham Palace.[65]
Also, in 2000, Branson received the 'Tony Jannus Award' for his accomplishments in commercial air transportation.
Branson is the patron of several charities, including the International Rescue Corps and Prisoners Abroad, a registered charity which supports Britons who are detained outside of the UK.
Branson appears at No. 85 on the 2002 list of "100 Greatest Britons" (sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public). Sir Richard also ranks No. 86 on Channel 4's 2003 list of "100 Worst Britons". Sir Richard was also ranked in 2007's Time Magazine "Top 100 Most Influential People in the World". In 2009, Branson was voted the UK's "Celebrity Dream Boss" in an opinion poll by Cancer Research UK.[66]
On 7 December 2007, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon presented Branson with the United Nations Correspondents Association Citizen of the World Award for his support for environmental and humanitarian causes.[67]
On 24 January 2011 Branson has been awarded the German Media Prize (organised by "Media Control Charts" ), previously handed to former U.S. president Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama.
[edit]Personal life
Branson is the eldest of four siblings. He has two sisters, Andrea and Vanessa Branson. His brother, Tom, followed in their father's footsteps and became a barrister. Branson's poor academic records contrasted with excellent performance in sports, especially swimming.
With his wife Joan Templeman he has a daughter Holly (b. 1981) and son Sam (b. 1985).[citation needed] He stated in an interview with Piers Morgan that he and wife Joan had a daughter named Clare Sarah who died when she was just four days old in 1979.[68] The couple wed—at their daughter Holly's suggestion when she was eight years old—in 1989 at Necker Island, a 74-acre (30 ha) island in the British Virgin Islands that Branson owns.[69] He also owns land on the Caribbean Islands of Antigua and Barbuda. Holly Branson is now a doctor and is a keen supporter of the football team Oxford United.[70][dead link]
In 1998, Branson released his autobiography, titled Losing My Virginity, an international bestseller.[71]
Branson was deeply saddened by the disappearance of fellow adventurer Steve Fossett in September 2007; and, the following month, he wrote an article for Time magazine, titled "My Friend, Steve Fossett".[72]
[edit]Influences
Branson has stated in a number of interviews that he derives much influence from non-fiction books. He most commonly names Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, explaining that Mandela is "one of the most inspiring men I have ever met and had the honour to call my friend." Owing to his interest in humanitarian and ecological issues, Branson also lists Al Gore's best-selling book, An Inconvenient Truth and The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock amongst his favourites. According to Branson's own book, Screw It, Let's do It. Lessons in Life, he is also a huge fan of works by Jung Chang.[73]
Geography of India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Geography of India
Continent Asia
Region Southern Asia Indian subcontinent Coordinates 21°N 78°E
Area Ranked 7th 3,287,263 km2 (1,269,219 sq mi) 90.44% land 9.56 % water
Borders Total land borders:[1] 15,106.70 km (9,386.87 mi) Bangladesh: 4,096.70 km (2,545.57 mi) China (PRC): 3,488 km (2,167 mi) Pakistan: 3,323 km (2,065 mi) Nepal: 1,751 km (1,088 mi) Myanmar: 1,643 km (1,021 mi) Bhutan: 699 km (434 mi)
Highest point Kangchenjunga 8,598 m (28,208.7 ft)
Lowest point Kuttanad −2.2 m (−7.2 ft)
Longest river Brahmaputra, flows through Guwahati metropolis
(2,900km)
Largest lake Chilka Lake
The geography of India describes the physical features of India, a country in South Asia, that lies entirely on the Indian Plate in the northern portion of the Indo-Australian Plate. The country lies to the north of the equator between 8°4' and 37°6' north latitude and 68°7' and 97°25' east longitude.[2] It is the seventh-largest country in the world, with a total land area of 3,287,263 square kilometres (1,269,219 sq mi).[3] India measures 3,214 km (1,997 mi) from north to south and 2,993 km (1,860 mi) from east to west. It has a land frontier of 15,200 km (9,445 mi) and a coastline of 7,517 km (4,671 mi).[4]
India is bounded to the southwest by the Arabian Sea, to the southeast by the Bay of Bengal, and to the south by the Indian Ocean. Kanyakumari is the southern tip of the Indian peninsula. The southernmost point in India is Indira Point, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.[4] The Maldives, Sri Lanka and Indonesia are island nations to the south of India. Sri Lanka is separated from India by the Gulf of Mannar and the narrow channel of Palk Strait. The territorial waters of India extend into the sea to a distance of 12nautical miles (13.8 mi; 22.2 km) measured from the appropriate baseline.[clarification needed][5]
The northern frontiers of India are defined largely by the Himalayan mountain range, where the country's political boundaries with China, Bhutan, and Nepal lie. Its western border with Pakistan lies in the Punjab Plain and the Thar Desert. In the far northeast, the Chin Hills and Kachin Hills, deeply forested mountainous regions, separate India from Burma. The Bangladesh–India border is defined by the Khasi hills and Mizo Hills, and the watershed region of the Indo-Gangetic Plain.[clarification needed]
The Ganges is the longest river originating in India. The Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra Rivers form the Indo-Gangetic Plain. The Ganges-Brahmaputra system occupies most of northern, central, and eastern India, while the Deccan Plateau occupies most of southern India. On India's western frontier is the Thar Desert.
Kanchenjunga, on the border between Nepal and the Indian state of Sikkim, is the highest point in India at 8,598 m (28,209 ft). Climate across India ranges from equatorial in the far south, to alpine in the upper reaches of the Himalayas.
Contents
[hide]
1 Geological development
2 Political geography
3 Physiographic regions
o 3.1 Mountains
o 3.2 Indo-Gangetic plain
o 3.3 Thar Desert
o 3.4 Highlands
o 3.5 Coasts
4 Islands
5 Water bodies
6 Wetlands
7 Climate
8 Geology 9 Natural resources
10 Antipodes
11 References
12 Further reading
[edit]Geological development
The Indian Plate
Main article: Geology of India
India is entirely contained on the Indian Plate, a major tectonic plate that was formed when it split off from the ancient continent Gondwanaland. About 90 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous Period, the Indian Plate began moving north at about 15 cm/year (6 in/yr).[6] About 50 to 55 million years ago, in the Eocene Epoch of theCenozoic Era, the plate collided with Asia after covering a distance of 2,000 to 3,000 km (1,243 to 1,864 mi), having moved faster than any other known plate. In 2007, German geologists determined that the Indian Plate was able to move so quickly because it is only half as thick as the other plates which formerly constituted Gondwanaland.[7] The collision with the Eurasian Plate along the modern border between India and Nepal formed the orogenic belt that created the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas. As of 2009, the Indian Plate is moving northeast at 5 cm/yr (2 in/yr), while the Eurasian Plate is moving north at only 2 cm/yr (0.8 in/yr). India is thus referred to as the "fastest continent".[7] This is causing the Eurasian Plate to deform, and the Indian Plate to compress at a rate of 4 mm/yr (0.15 in/yr).
[edit]Political geography
Main article: States and territories of India
India is divided into twenty-eight states (further subdivided into districts) and seven union territories.
The 28 states and 7 union territories of India
States:
1. Andhra Pradesh 8. Haryana 15. Maharashtra 22. Rajasthan 2. Arunachal Pradesh 9. Himachal Pradesh 16. Manipur 23. Sikkim 3. Assam 10. Jammu and Kashmir 17. Meghalaya 24. Tamil Nadu 4. Bihar 11. Jharkhand 18. Mizoram 25. Tripura 5. Chhattisgarh 12. Karnataka 19. Nagaland 26. Uttar Pradesh 6. Goa 13. Kerala 20. Orissa 27. Uttarakhand 7. Gujarat 14. Madhya Pradesh 21. Punjab 28. West Bengal
Union Territories:
A. Andaman and Nicobar Islands B. Chandigarh C. Dadra and Nagar Haveli D. Daman and Diu E. Lakshadweep F. National Capital Territory of Delhi G. Puducherry
Indian Kashmir, LoC and LAC
India's borders run a total length of 15,106.70 km (9,387 mi).[1] Its borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh were delineated according to the Radcliffe Line, which was created in 1947 during Partition of India. Its western border with Pakistan extends up to 3,323 km (2,065 mi), dividing the Punjab region and running along the boundaries of the Thar Desert and the Rann of Kutch.[1] Both nations delineated a Line of Control (LoC) to serve as the informal boundary between the Indian and Pakistan-administered areas of Kashmir. According to India's claim, it also shares a 106 km (66 mi) border with Afghanistan in northwestern Kashmir, which is under Pakistani control.[1]
India's border with Bangladesh runs 4,096.70 km (2,546 mi).[1] There are 92 enclaves of Bangladesh on Indian soil and 106 enclaves of India are on Bangladeshi soil.[8] The Teen Bigha Corridor is a strip of land formerly belonging to India on the West Bengal–Bangladesh border which has been leased indefinitely to Bangladesh so that it can access its Dehgram–Angalpota enclaves.[9]
The Line of Actual Control (LAC) is the effective border between India and the People's Republic of China. It traverses 4,057 km along the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.[10] Both nations lay claim to the Aksai Chin region of northeastern Kashmir, which fell into Chinese control during the Sino-Indian War of 1962.The border with Burma (Myanmar) extends up to 1,643 km (1,021 mi) along the southern borders of India's northeastern states. Located amidst the Himalayan range, India's border with Bhutan runs 699 km (434 mi).[1] The border with Nepal runs 1,751 km (1,088 mi) along the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India.[1] The Siliguri Corridor, narrowed sharply by the borders of Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, connects peninsular India with the northeastern states.
[edit]Physiographic regions
India can be divided into six physiographic regions. They are
1. The Himalayan Mountains 2. Northern Plains 3. The Great Indian Desert 4. The Peninsular Plateau 5. Coastal Plains 6. Islands
Another method divides India into five physiographic regions: The Himalayas, northern plains (the Indo- Gangetic plain), peninsular region, coastal plains, and islands.[11]
[edit]Mountains
Map of the hilly regions in India.
A great arc of mountains, consisting of the Himalayas, Hindu Kush, and Patkai ranges define the northern Indian subcontinent. These were formed by the ongoing tectonic collision of the Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate. The mountains in these ranges include some of the world's tallest mountains which act as a natural barrier to cold polar winds. They also facilitate the monsoonwinds which in turn influence the climate in India. Rivers originating in these mountains, flow through the fertile Indo–Gangetic plains. These mountains are recognised by biogeographers as the boundary between two of the Earth's great ecozones: the temperate Palearctic that covers most of Eurasia and the tropical and subtropical Indomalaya ecozone which includes the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Indonesia.
India has eight major mountain ranges having peaks of over 1,000 m (3,281 ft):
. The Himalayan range is considered as the world's highest mountain range, with its tallest peak Mt. Everest on the Nepal–China border.[12] They form India's northeastern border, separating it from northeastern Asia. They are one of the world's youngest mountain ranges and extend almost uninterrupted for 2,500 km (1,553 mi), covering an area of 500,000 km2 (193,051 sq mi).[12] The Himalayas extend from Jammu and Kashmir in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east. These states along with Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim lie mostly in the Himalayan region. Numerous Himalayan peaks rise over 7,000 m (22,966 ft) and the snow line ranges between 6,000 m (19,685 ft) in Sikkim to around 3,000 m (9,843 ft) in Kashmir. Kanchenjunga—on the Sikkim– Nepal border—is the highest point in the area administered by India. Most peaks in the Himalayas remain snowbound throughout the year. The Himalayas act as a barrier to the frigidkatabatic winds flowing down from Central Asia. Thus, North India is kept warm or only mildly cooled during winter; in summer, the same phenomenon makes India relatively hot.
Mt. Kanchenjunga in Sikkim.
. The Karakoram is situated in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir. It has more than sixty peaks above 7,000 m (22,966 ft), including K2, the second highest peak in the world 8,611 m (28,251 ft). K2 is just 237 m (778 ft) smaller than the 8,848 m (29,029 ft) Mount Everest. The range is about 500 km (311 mi) in length and the most heavily glaciated part of the world outside of the polar regions. The Siachen Glacier at 70 km (43 mi) and theBiafo Glacier at 63 km (39 mi) rank as the world's second and third-longest glaciers outside the polar regions.[13] Just to the west of the northwest end of the Karakoram, lies the Hindu Raj range, beyond which is the Hindu Kush range. The southern boundary of the Karakoram is formed by the Gilgit, Indus and Shyok rivers, which separate the range from the northwestern end of the Himalayas.
. The Patkai, or Purvanchal, are situated near India's eastern border with Myanmar. They were created by the same tectonic processes which led to the formation of the Himalayas. The physical features of the Patkai mountains are conical peaks, steep slopes and deep valleys. The Patkai ranges are not as rugged or tall as the Himalayas. There are three hill ranges that come under the Patkai: the Patkai– Bum, the Garo–Khasi–Jaintia and the Lushai hills. The Garo–Khasi range lies in Meghalaya. Mawsynram, a village near Cherrapunji lying on the windward side of these hills, has the distinction of being the wettest place in the world, receiving the highest annual rainfall.[14]
The Vindhyas in central India
. The Vindhya range runs across most of central India, extending 1,050 km (652 mi).[12] The average elevation of these hills is 3,000 m (9,843 ft).[12] They are believed to have been formed by the wastes created by the weathering of the ancient Aravali mountains.[15]Geographically, it separates northern India from southern India. The western end of the range lies in eastern Gujarat, near its border with Madhya Pradesh, and runs east and north, almost meeting the Ganges at Mirzapur.
. The Satpura Range begins in eastern Gujarat near the Arabian Sea coast and runs east across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. It extends 900 km (559 mi) with many peaks rising above 1,000 m (3,281 ft).[12] It is triangular in shape, with its apex atRatnapuri and the two sides being parallel to the Tapti and Narmada rivers.[16] It runs parallel to the Vindhya Range, which lies to the north, and these two east-west ranges divide the Indo–Gangetic plain from the Deccan Plateau located north of River Narmada.
. The Aravali Range is the oldest mountain range in India, running across Rajasthan from northeast to southwest direction, extending approximately 800 km (497 mi).[17] The northern end of the range continues as isolated hills and rocky ridges into Haryana, ending nearDelhi. The highest peak in this range is Guru Shikhar at Mount Abu, rising to 1,722 m (5,650 ft), lying near the border with Gujarat.[18] The Aravali Range is the eroded stub of an ancient fold mountain system.[19] The range rose in a Precambrian event called the Aravali–Delhiorogen. The range joins two of the ancient segments that make up the Indian craton, the Marwar segment to the northwest of the range, and the Bundelkhand segment to the southeast.
Western Ghats near Matheran
. The Western Ghats or Sahyadri mountains run along the western edge of India's Deccan Plateau and separate it from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The range runs approximately 1,600 km (994 mi)[16] from south of the Tapti River near the Gujarat–Maharashtra border and across Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu to the southern tip of the Deccan peninsula. The average elevation is around 1,000 m (3,281 ft).[16] Anai Mudi in the Anaimalai Hills 2,695 m (8,842 ft) in Kerala is the highest peak in the Western Ghats.[20]
Eastern Ghats (Javadi Hills) in Tamil Nadu
. The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains, which have been eroded and vivisected by the four major rivers of southern India, the Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna, andKaveri.[21] These mountains extend from West Bengal to Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, along the coast and parallel to the Bay of Bengal. Though not as tall as the Western Ghats, some of its peaks are over 1,000 m (3,281 ft) in height.[16] The Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu lies at the junction of the Eastern and Western Ghats. [edit]Indo-Gangetic plain
Main article: Indo-Gangetic plain
The Indo-Gangetic plains, also known as the Great Plains are large alluvial plains dominated by three main rivers, the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra. They run parallel to the Himalayas, from Jammu and Kashmir in the west to Assam in the east, and drain most of northern and eastern India. The plains encompass an area of 700,000 km2 (270,000 sq mi). The major rivers in this region are the Ganges, Indus, and Brahmaputra along with their main tributaries– Yamuna, Chambal, Gomti,Ghaghara, Kosi, Sutlej, Ravi, Beas, Chenab, and Tista—as well as the rivers of the Ganges Delta, such as the Meghna.
Extent of the Indo-Gangetic plain across South Asia.
The great plains are sometimes classified into four divisions:
. The Bhabar belt is adjacent to the foothills of the Himalayas and consists of boulders and pebbles which have been carried down by streams. As the porosity of this belt is very high, the streams flow underground. The Bhabar is generally narrow with its width varying between 7 to 15 km. . The Terai belt lies south of the adjacent Bhabar region and is composed of newer alluvium. The underground streams reappear in this region. The region is excessively moist and thickly forested. It also receives heavy rainfall throughout the year and is populated with a variety of wildlife. . The Bangar belt consists of older alluvium and forms the alluvial terrace of the flood plains. In the Gangetic plains, it has a low upland covered by laterite deposits. . The Khadar belt lies in lowland areas after the Bangar belt. It is made up of fresh newer alluvium which is deposited by the rivers flowing down the plain.
The Indo-Gangetic belt is the world's most extensive expanse of uninterrupted alluvium formed by the deposition of silt by the numerous rivers. The plains are flat making it conducive for irrigation through canals. The area is also rich in ground water sources.
The plains are one of the world's most intensely farmed areas. The main crops grown are rice and wheat, which are grown in rotation. Other important crops grown in the region include maize, sugarcane and cotton. The Indo-Gangetic plains rank among the world's most densely populated areas.
[edit]Thar Desert
Desert tribes living in the Thar Desert nearJaisalmer, India.
Main article: Thar Desert
The Thar Desert (also known as the Great Indian Desert) is the world's seventh largest desert,[22] by others the tenth.[23] It forms a significant portion of western India and covers an area of about 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi) to about 238,700 km2 (92,200 sq mi).[24][22] The desert continues into Pakistan as the Cholistan Desert. Most of the Thar Desert is situated inRajasthan, covering 61% of its geographic area.
About 10 percent of this region comprises sand dunes, and the remaining 90 percent consist of craggy rock forms, compacted salt-lake bottoms, and interdunal and fixed dune areas. Annual temperatures can range from 0°C in the winter to over 50°C during the summer. Most of the rainfall received in this region is associated with the short July–September southwest monsoon that brings around 100–500 mm of precipitation. Water is scarce and occurs at great depths, ranging from 30 to 120 m below the ground level.[25] Rainfall is precarious and erratic, ranging from below 120 mm (4.72 inches) in the extreme west to 375 mm (14.75 inches) eastward. The soils of the arid region are generally sandy to sandy-loam in texture. The consistency and depth vary as per the topographical features. The low-lying loams are heavier and may have a hard pan of clay, calcium carbonate or gypsum.
[edit]Highlands
The Central Highlands comprise of three main plateaus — the Malwa Plateau in the west, the Deccan Plateau in the south (covering most of the Indian peninsula) and the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the east.
The Malwa Plateau is spread across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The average elevation of the Malwa plateau is 500 metres, and the landscape generally slopes towards the north. Most of the region is drained by the Chambal River and its tributaries; the western part is drained by the upper reaches of the Mahi River. The Deccan Plateau is a large triangular plateau, bounded by the Vindhyas to the north and flanked by the Eastern and Western Ghats. The Deccan covers a total area of 1.9 million km² (735,000 mile²). It is mostly flat, with elevations ranging from 300 to 600 m (1,000 to 2,000 ft). The average elevation of the plateau is 2,000 feet (600 m) above sea level. The surface slopes from 3,000 feet (900 m) in the west to 1,500 feet (450 m) in the east.[26] It slopes gently from west to east and gives rise to several peninsular rivers such as the Godavari, the Krishna, the Kaveri and the Narmada, which drain into the Bay of Bengal. This region is mostly semi-arid as it lies on the leeward side of both Ghats. Much of the Deccan is covered by thorn scrub forest scattered with small regions of deciduousbroadleaf forest. Climate in the Deccan ranges from hot summers to mild winters.
The Chota Nagpur Plateau is situated in eastern India, covering much of Jharkhand and adjacent parts of Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. Its total area is approximately 65,000 km² (25,000 mile²) and is made up of three smaller plateaus — the Ranchi, Hazaribagh, and Kodarma plateaus. The Ranchi plateau is the largest, with an average elevation of 700 m (2,300 ft). Much of the plateau is forested, covered by theChota Nagpur dry deciduous forests. Vast reserves of metal ores and coal have been found in the Chota Nagpur plateau. The Kathiawarpeninsula in western Gujarat is bounded by the Gulf of Kutch and the Gulf of Khambat. The natural vegetation in most of the peninsula isxeric scrub, part of the Northwestern thorn scrub forests ecoregion.
In western India, the Kutch region in Gujarat and Koyna in Maharashtra are classified as a Zone IV region (high risk) for earthquakes. The Kutch city of Bhuj was the epicentre of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, which claimed the lives of more than 20,000 people and injured 166,836 while destroying or damaging near a million homes.[27] The 1993 Latur earthquake in Maharashtra killed 7,928 people and injured 30,000.[28]Other areas have a moderate to low risk of an earthquake occurring.[29]
[edit]Coasts
Varkala beach on Kerala's coast
The Eastern Coastal Plain is a wide stretch of land lying between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal. It stretches from Tamil Nadu in the south to West Bengal in the north. The Mahanadi,Godavari, Kaveri, and Krishna rivers drain these plains and their deltas occupy most of the area.[citation needed] The temperature in the coastal regions often exceeds 30 °C (86 °F), and is coupled with high levels of humidity. The region receives both the northeast monsoon andsouthwest monsoon rains. The southwest monsoon splits into two branches, the Bay of Bengal branch and the Arabian Sea branch. The Bay of Bengal branch moves northwards crossing northeast India in early June. The Arabian Sea branch moves northwards and discharges much of its rain on the windward side of Western Ghats. Annual rainfall in this region averages between 1,000 and 3,000 mm (39 and 120 in). The width of the plains varies between 100 and 130 km (62 and 81 mi).[30] The plains are divided into six regions—the Mahanadi delta, the southern Andhra Pradesh plain, the Krishna-Godavari deltas, the Kanyakumari coast, the Coromandel Coast, and sandy coastal.[citation needed]
The Western Coastal Plain is a narrow strip of land sandwiched between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, ranging from 50 to 100 km (31 to 62 mi) in width. It extends from Gujarat in the north and extends through Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, and Kerala. Numerous rivers and backwaters inundate the region. Mostly originating in the Western Ghats, the rivers are fast-flowing, usually perennial, and empty itoestuaries. Major rivers flowing into the sea are the Tapi, Narmada, Mandovi and Zuari. Vegetation is mostly deciduous, but the Malabar Coast moist forests constitute a unique ecoregion. The Western Coastal Plain can be divided into two parts, the Konkan and the Malabar Coast.
[edit]Islands
Aerial view of the Andaman Islands
See also: List of islands of India
The Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are India's two major island formations and are classified as union territories. The Lakshadweep Islands lie 200 to 300 km (120 to 190 mi) off the coast of Kerala in the Arabian Sea with an area of 32 km2 (12 sq mi). They consist of twelve atolls, three reefs, and five submerged banks, with a total of about 36 islands and islets.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are located between 6° and 14° north latitude and 92° and 94° east longitude.[31] They consist of 572 isles, lying in the Bay of Bengal near theMyanmar coast. They are located 1,255 km (780 mi) from Kolkata (Calcutta) and 193 km (120 mi) from Cape Negrais in Myanmar.[31] The territory consists of two island groups, theAndaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands. The Andaman Islands consists of 204 small islands across a total length of 352 km (219 mi). India's only active volcano, Barren Island is situated here. It last erupted in May 2005. TheNarcondum is a dormant volcano and there is a mud volcano at Baratang. Indira Point, India's southernmost land point, is situated in the Nicobar islands, and lies just 189 km (117 mi) from the Indonesian island of Sumatra, to the southeast. The highest point is Mount Thullier at 642 m (2,106 ft).
Other significant islands in India include Diu, a former Portuguese enclave; Majuli, a river island of the Brahmaputra; Elephanta in Bombay Harbour; and Sriharikota, a barrier island in Andhra Pradesh. Salsette Island is India's most populous island on which the city of Mumbai(Bombay) is located. Forty-two islands in the Gulf of Kutch constitute the Marine National Park.
[edit]Water bodies
Rivers in India.
Main article: Rivers of India
India has around 14,500 km of inland navigable waterways.[32] There are twelve rivers which are classified as major rivers, with the total catchment area exceeding 2,528,000 km2 (976,000 sq mi).[16]All major rivers of India originate from one of the three main watersheds:[16]
1. The Himalaya and the Karakoram ranges 2. Vindhya and Satpura range in central India 3. Sahyadri or Western Ghats in western India
The Himalayan river networks are snow-fed and have a perennial supply throughout the year. The other two river systems are dependent on the monsoons and shrink into rivulets during the dry season. The Himalayan rivers that flow westward into Pakistan are the Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, andSutlej.[33] The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghana system has the largest catchment area of about 1,600,000 km2(620,000 sq mi).[34] The Ganges Basin alone has a catchment of about 1,100,000 km2 (420,000 sq mi).[16] The Ganges originates from the Gangotri Glacier in Uttarakhand.[33] It flows southeast, draining into the Bay of Bengal.[16] The Yamuna and Gomti rivers also arise in the western Himalayas and join the Ganges in the plains.[16]The Brahmaputra originates in Tibet, China, where it is known as the Yarlung Zangbo River (or "Tsangpo"). It enters India in the far-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, then flows west through Assam. The Brahmaputra merges with the Ganges in Bangladesh, where it is known as the Jamuna River.[35][16]
The Chambal, another tributary of the Ganges, via the Yamuna, originates from the Vindhya-Satpura watershed. The river flows eastward. Westward-flowing rivers from this watershed are the Narmada and Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea in Gujarat. The river network that flows from east to west constitutes 10% of the total outflow.[clarification needed]
The Godavari River
Bhagirathi River at Gangotri, source river of theGanges .
The Western Ghats are the source of all Deccan rivers, which include the Mahanadi River through the Mahanadi River Delta, Godavari River, Krishna River and Kaveri River, all draining into the Bay of Bengal. These rivers constitute 20% of India's total outflow.[33] The heavy southwest monsoon rains cause the Brahmaputra and other rivers to distend their banks, often flooding surrounding areas. Though they provide rice paddy farmers with a largely dependable source of natural irrigation and fertilisation, such floods have killed thousands of people and tend to cause displacements of people in such areas.
Major gulfs include the Gulf of Cambay, Gulf of Kutch, and the Gulf of Mannar. Straits include the Palk Strait, which separates India from Sri Lanka; the Ten Degree Channel, which separates the Andamans from the Nicobar Islands; and the Eight Degree Channel, which separates the Laccadive and Amindivi Islands from the Minicoy Island to the south. Important capes include the Kanyakumari, the southern tip of mainland India; Indira Point, the southernmost point in India (on Great Nicobar Island); Rama's Bridge, and Point Calimere. The Arabian Sea lies to the west of India, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean lie to the east and south, respectively. Smaller seas include the Laccadive Sea and the Andaman Sea. There are four coral reefs in India, located in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Gulf of Mannar, Lakshadweep, and the Gulf of Kutch.[29] Important lakes include Sambhar Lake, the country's largest saltwater lake in Rajasthan, Vembanad Lake in Kerala, Kolleru Lake in Andhra Pradesh, Loktak Lake in Manipur, Dal Lake in Kashmir, Chilka Lake(lagoon lake)in Orrisa, andSasthamkotta Lake in Kerala.
[edit]Wetlands
A map of the Indian Sunderbans.
India's wetland ecosystem is widely distributed from the cold and arid located in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, and those with the wet and humid climate of peninsular India. Most of the wetlands are directly or indirectly linked to river networks. The Indian government has identified a total of 71 wetlands for conservation and are part of sanctuaries and national parks.[36] Mangrove forests are present all along the Indian coastline in sheltered estuaries, creeks, backwaters, salt marshes and mudflats. The mangrove area covers a total of 4,461 km2 (1,722 sq mi),[37] which comprises 7% of the world's total mangrove cover. Prominent mangrove covers are located in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, theSundarbans delta, the Gulf of Kutch and the deltas of the Mahanadi, Godavari and Krishna rivers. Parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala also have large mangrove covers.[29]
The Sundarbans delta is home to the largest mangrove forest in the world. It lies at the mouth of the Ganges and spreads across areas of Bangladesh and West Bengal. The Sundarbans is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but is identified separately as the Sundarbans (Bangladesh) and the Sundarbans National Park (India). The Sundarbans are intersected by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests. The area is known for its diverse fauna, being home to a large variety of species of birds, spotted deer, crocodiles and snakes. Its most famous inhabitant is the Bengal Tiger. It is estimated that there are now 400 Bengal tigers and about 30,000 spotted deer in the area.
The Rann of Kutch is a marshy region located in northwestern Gujarat and the bordering Sindh province of Pakistan. It occupies a total area of 27 900 km² (10,800 mile²).[38] The region was originally a part of the Arabian Sea. Geologic forces such as earthquakes resulted in the damming up of the region, turning it into a large saltwater lagoon. This area gradually filled with silt thus turning it into a seasonal salt marsh. During the monsoons, the area turns into a shallow marsh, often flooding to knee-depth. After the monsoons, the region turns dry and becomes parched.
[edit]Climate
Temperature averages in India; units are in degree Celsius.
Main articles: Climate of India and Climatic regions of India
Based on the Köppen system, India hosts six major climatic subtypes, ranging from arid desert in the west, alpine tundra and glaciers in the north, and humid tropical regions supporting rainforests in the southwest and the island territories. The nation has four seasons: winter (January–February), summer (March–May), a monsoon (rainy) season (June–September) and a post-monsoon period (October– December).[33] The Himalayas act as a barrier to the frigid katabatic winds flowing down from Central Asia. Thus, North India is kept warm or only mildly cooled during winter; in summer, the same phenomenon makes India relatively hot. Although the Tropic of Cancer—the boundary between the tropics and subtropics—passes through the middle of India, the whole country is considered to be tropical.[citation needed]
Summer lasts between March and June in most parts of India. Temperatures can exceed 40 °C(104 °F) during the day. The coastal regions exceed 30 °C (86 °F) coupled with high levels of humidity. In the Thar desert area temperatures can exceed 45 °C (113 °F). The rain-bearing monsoon clouds are attracted to the low-pressure system created by the Thar Desert. The southwest monsoon splits into two arms, the Bay of Bengal arm and the Arabian Sea arm. The Bay of Bengal arm moves northwards crossing northeast India in early June. The Arabian Sea arm moves northwards and deposits much of its rain on the windward side of Western Ghats. Winters in peninsula India see mild to warm days and cool nights. Further north the temperature is cooler. Temperatures in some parts of the Indian plains sometimes fall below freezing. Most of northern India is plagued by fog during this season. The highest temperature recorded in India was 50.6 °C (123.1 °F) in Alwar in 1955. The lowest was −45 °C (−49 °F) in Kashmir.
[edit]Geology
Main article: Geology of India
Geological regions of India
India's geological features are classified based on their era of formation.[39] The Precambrianformations of Cudappah and Vindhyan systems are spread out over the eastern and southern states. A small part of this period is spread over western and central India.[39] The Paleozoicformations from the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian and Devonian system are found in the Western Himalaya region in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.[39] The Mesozoic Deccan Traps formation is seen over most of the northern Deccan; they are believed to be the result of sub-aerial volcanic activity.[39] The Trap soil is black in colour and conducive to agriculture. The Carboniferous system, Permian System and Triassic systems are seen in the western Himalayas. The Jurassic system is seen in the western Himalayas and Rajasthan.
Tertiary imprints are seen in parts of Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and along the Himalayan belt. The Cretaceous system is seen in central India in the Vindhyas and part of the Indo-Gangetic plains.[39] The Gondowana system is seen in the Narmada River area in the Vindhyas and Satpuras. The Eocene system is seen in the western Himalayas and Assam. Oligocene formations are seen in Kutch and Assam.[39] The Pleistocene system is found over central India. The Andaman and Nicobar Island are thought to have been formed in this era by volcanoes.[39] The Himalayas were formed by the convergence and deformation of the Indo-Australian and Eurasian Plates. Their continued convergence raises the height of the Himalayas by 1 cm each year.
Soils in India can be classified into 8 categories: alluvial, black, red, laterite, forest, arid & desert, saline & alkaline and peaty & organic soils.[40][41] Alluvial soil constitute the largest soil group in India, constituting 80% of the total land surface.[41] It is derived from the deposition of silt carried by rivers and are found in the Great Northern plains from Punjab to the Assam valley.[41] Alluvial soil are generally fertile but they lack nitrogen and tend to be phosphoric.[41]
Black soil are well developed in the Deccan lava region of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.[42] These contain high percentage of clay and are moisture retentive.[41] Red soil are found in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka plateau, Andhra plateau, Chota Nagpur plateau and the Aravallis.[42] These are deficient in nitrogen, phosphorus and humus.[41][42] Laterite soils are formed in tropical regions with heavy rainfall. Heavy rainfall results in leaching out all soluble material of top layer of soil. These are generally found in Western ghats, Eastern ghats and hilly areas of northeastern states that receive heavy rainfall. Forest soils occur on the slopes of mountains and hills in Himalayas, Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats. These generally consist of large amounts of dead leaves and other organic matter called humus.
[edit]Natural resources
Indian coal production is the 3rd highest in the world according to the 2008 Indian Ministry of Mines estimates. Shown above is a coal mine in Jharkhand.
India's total renewable water resources are estimated at 1,907.8 km3/year.[43] Its annual supply of usable and replenshable groundwater amounts to 350 billion cubic metres.[44] Only 35% of groundwater resources are being utilised.[44] About 44 million tonnes of cargo is moved annually through the country's major rivers and waterways.[32] Groundwater supplies 40% of water in India's irrigation canals. 56% of the land is arable and used for agriculture. Black soils are moisture-retentive and are preferred for dry farming and growing cotton, linseed, etc. Forest soils are used for tea and coffee plantations. Red soil have a wide diffusion of iron content.[42]
Most of India's estimated 5.4 billion barrels (860,000,000 m3) in oil reserves are located in the Mumbai High, upper Assam, Cambay, the Krishna-Godavari and Cauvery basins.[45] India possesses about seventeen trillion cubic feet of natural gasin Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Orissa.[45] Uranium is mined in Andhra Pradesh. India has 400 medium-to-high enthalpy thermal springs for producing geothermal energy in seven "provinces" — the Himalayas, Sohana, Cambay, the Narmada-Tapti delta, the Godavari delta and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (specifically the volcanic Barren Island.)[46]
India is the world's biggest producer of mica blocks and mica splittings.[47] India ranks second amongst the world's largest producers of barites and chromites.[47] The Pleistocene system is rich in minerals. India is the third-largest coal producer in the world and ranks fourth in the production of iron ore.[45][47] It is the fifth-largest producer of bauxite and crude steel, the seventh-largest of manganese ore and the eighth- largest of aluminium.[47] India has significant sources of titanium ore, diamonds and limestone.[48] India possesses 24% of the world's known and economically viable thorium, which is mined along shores of Kerala.[49] Gold had been mined in the now-defunct Kolar Gold Fieldsin Karnataka.[50]
[edit]Antipodes
The only land area antipodal to India is Easter Island, which is antipodal to the western corner of Rajasthan. The triangular island closely reflects the triangle between the cities of Mokal, Kuchchri, and Habur. Habur corresponds to Hanga Roa, and Mokal to the eastern cape.
How Can We Stop Corruption In India?
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Imdharmesh 25-08-2010 Corruption From small time clerks to the high profile politicians, commissioners, police inspectors, traffic police, stock exchange brokers, military establishments, recruiters, sportsmen, judiciary and most of the government employees, corruption is seen and felt in every transaction from bottom of the chain till the top.
In the recent times the private Indian companies captured the top spot in encouraging corruption when dealing with international clients in order to grab lucrative contracts.
Why are the corrupt susceptible to corruption ?
The low salaries of people made them susceptible, bringing with it more inefficiencies and the easy way of making money with less or no accountability. The crime of corruption is easily forgotten , the law offers easy way back into the mainstream and acceptance by the society. In addition to that it is the lure of luxury, personal status enhancement and the false sense of elitism that makes the corrupt vulnerable to illegal and unethical means of acquiring wealth.
The cultural connection and other reasons.
Indian society still has a cultural setup of having the "man of the house" to work for a living, while the wife usually deals with the household work,and this puts a pressure on the man to make the living more luxurious. The routine jobs are usually for life-long, with the support of a union there is a lesser fear of losing the job and there is the pressure of dealing with rising prices of commodities and sponsoring future education of children. The society ,the social upbringing, the culture and a general greed also plays a critical role in influencing a timid mind. The lack of instincts and to avoid the time consuming bureaucratical setup of the organization, the corruption may be a easy way out for people who bribe to make things happen.
How can we stop corruption?
Greater solutions may include population control to improve the quality than the quantity, Controlling population will bring up the quality of life and thus lesser competition and effective control of people and government processes. However feasible solutions are to impart moral principles in schools, and introduction of stringent audits, accountability, effective tracking of corrupt individuals through citizen cards or tax id's.
Computerization of processes, privatization of public sectors, eliminating the chain of corruption by not just punishing the first level but also higher levels involved.
Corruption is not limited to atheists, even the most corrupts are highly religious and have close family ties, in other words corruption has no boundaries. Religion and religious congregations can support and promote anti- corruption drives.
Corruption is NOT a luxury tax. Whoever described corruption is a luxury tax probably said it out of frustration, the religion of corruption, the corruption of politics,the dishonest souls and perversion of integrity is unpardonable.
Corruption in the news !
The World Bank has suspended $800 million worth of loans to India's health sector after detecting corruption in procurement. Fair enough: corruption should be checked. Yet, if corruption is really a no-no, the Bank should stop almost all lending to India, so widespread is corruption here. The Bank may have just discovered corruption, but it is no news at all to the public.... Top secrets leaked for MNC jobs in US? : source rediff.com All it took was an offer of plum portfolios in United States multinational companies like Microsoft for two senior staffers of National Security Council Secretariat to leak top secret documents to elusive American ‘diplomat' Rosanna Minchew, a Delhi police probe has revealed.Security agencies are still taking stock of the extent to which classified files have been accessed by the two accused NSCS employees.
India 83rd corrupt Nation In the Global Corruption Index, a survey of 133 nations conducted by Transparency International (an anti-graft watchdog), India stood 83rd in the world, alongside Malawi and Romania. India recorded a score of 2.8 out of 10. Last year, India's score was 2.7 out of 10, but it stood 71st in a list of 102 nations, unlike 133 this time. Finland with a score of 9.7 has been ranked first, making it the least corrupt nation on earth. A score of 10 means a country is seen as being ‘highly clean', and a score of zero means ‘highly corrupt.'Bangladesh had the dubious distinction of being the world's most corrupt nation with a score of 1.3, worse even than Nigeria and Haiti, which had scores of 1.4 and 1.5, respectively to stand 132nd and 133rd. However, Asia as a whole fared badly in the report on corruption, with many nations in the region being counted amongst the worst in the world for graft among public officials and politicians.Myanmar ranked 129th and Indonesia was 122nd.
Save India....Stop Corruption!
Anna Hazare
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Anna Hazare
Anna Hazare in Nanded, Maharastra Born Kisan Hazare
15 June 1937 (age 74)
Bhingar, Bombay Province,British India
Nationality Indian
Other names Kisan Baburao Hazare
Known for Indian anti-corruption movement, Watershed
development programmes,Right to Information
Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda
Political Indian anti-corruption movement, Peace movement
movement
Religion Hinduism
Spouse Never Married
Parents Laxmibai Hazare
Baburao Hazare
Awards Padma Shri (1990)
Padma Bhushan (1992)
Website
annahazare.org
? Kisan Baburao Hazare pronunciation (help·info) (Marathi: किसन बाबुराव हजारे, Kisan Bāburāv Hajārē ) (born 15 June 1937), popularly known as Anna Hazare pronunciation (help·info)(Marathi: अ赍णा हजारे, Aṇṇā Hajārē ?) is an Indian social activist and a prominent leader in the2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, using nonviolent methods following the teachings ofMahatma Gandhi.[1][2] Hazare also contributed to the development and structuring of Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Parner taluka of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan—the third- highest civilian award—by the Government of India in 1992 for his efforts in establishing this village as a model for others.[3]
Anna Hazare started an indefinite hunger strike on 5 April 2011 to exert pressure on the Indian government to enact a stringent anti-corruption law as envisaged in the Jan Lokpal Bill, for the institution of an ombudsman with the power to deal with corruption in public places. The fast led to nation-wide protests in support of Hazare. The fast ended on 9 April 2011, a day after the government accepted Hazare's demands. The government issued a gazette notification on the formation of a joint committee, consisting of government and civil society representatives, to draft the legislation.[4][5]
Anna has been ranked as the most influential person in Mumbai by a national daily newspaper.[6] He has faced criticism for his authoritarian views on justice, including death as punishment for corrupt public officials and his alleged support for forced vasectomies as a method of family planning.[7][8]
Contents
[hide]
1 Early life
2 Military service
3 Transformation of Ralegan Siddhi
o 3.1 Prohibition of alcohol
o 3.2 Grain Bank
o 3.3 Watershed development programme
o 3.4 Milk production
o 3.5 Education
o 3.6 Removal of untouchability
o 3.7 Collective marriages
o 3.8 Gram Sabha
4 Activism
o 4.1 Anti-corruption protests in Maharashtra
o 4.2 Right to Information movement
o 4.3 Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act
o 4.4 Campaign against liquor from food grains o 4.5 Lokpal Bill movement
. 4.5.1 Hunger strike in Delhi
. 4.5.2 End of hunger strike after meeting demands
. 4.5.3 Differences with the government on draft bill
. 4.5.4 Indefinite fast
. 4.5.5 Arrest and aftermath
. 4.5.6 Fast at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi
. 4.5.7 I Am Anna Chant
o 4.6 Electoral reform movement
o 4.7 Protest against atrocities against Swami Ramdev and his supporters
5 Controversies and criticism
o 5.1 Views on Narendra Modi
o 5.2 Fraud during fasts
o 5.3 Accusations of corruption
o 5.4 Accusation of being anti-democratic and anti-dalit
o 5.5 Accusation of being nonsecular
6 Conspiracy to murder Hazare
7 Honours, awards and international recognition
8 Personal life
9 Writings
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links Early life
Kisan Hazare was born on 15 June 1937[citation needed] (some sources say 1940)[citation needed] in Bhingar, near to Ahmednagar. The eldest son, with two sisters and four brothers, the later adoption of the name Anna reflects the Marathi word for "elder brother". His father worked in a pharmacy and struggled to support the family financially. In time, the family moved to their ancestral village of Ralegan Siddhi, where they owned a small amount of agricultural land. A relative took on the burden of providing Kisan with an education, taking him to Mumbai because the village had no primary school. The relative became unable financially to continue the support and Kisan's schooling ended in the Standard Seventh grade; his siblings were not schooled at all.[9] He started selling flowers at the Dadar railway station in Mumbai and was able eventually to own two flower shops in the city.[10] He also became involved in vigilantism, joining groups who acted to prevent the poor from being bullied out of their shelters by thugs in the employ of landlords.[11] Military service
The Indo-China War of 1962 caused the Indian Army to commence emergency recruitment measures. Hazare was recruited in April 1963, despite not meeting the physical requirements, and was attested as a soldier on 16 November of that year after undertaking training atAurangabad.[9][12]
During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Hazare was posted at the border in the Khem Karan sector. He was the sole survivor of an enemy attack - variously claimed to have been a bomb, an aerial assault and an exchange of fire at the border - while he was driving a truck.[9][10][13]The experiences of this time, coupled with the poverty from which he had come, affected him. He had considered suicide at one point but now turned to pondering the meaning of life and death.[9] He has said of the truck attack that "[It] sent me thinking. I felt that God wanted me to stay alive for some reason. I was re-born in the battlefield of Khem Karan. And I decided to dedicate my new life to serving people."[10] He spent his spare time reading the works of Swami Vivekananda, Gandhi, and Vinoba Bhave.[14]
During the mid-1970s, Hazare survived a road accident while driving for the army. He interpreted his survival as a further sign that his life was intended to be dedicated to the service of the community.[11] Despite subsequent allegations that he had deserted from the army, official records show that he was honourably discharged in 1975 after completing his 12 years of service.[12] Transformation of Ralegan Siddhi
Hazare returned to Ralegan Siddhi, a village described by Satpathy and Mehta as being then "one of the many villages of India plagued by acute poverty, deprivation, a fragile ecosystem, neglect and hopelessness."[15]
Although most of the villagers owned some land, cultivation was extremely difficult due to the rocky ground preventing retention of the monsoon rains; this situation had not been assisted by a gradual deterioration as trees were cut down, erosion spread and droughts were also experienced. The shortage of water also led to disease because conditions became unsanitary and water was re-used for multiple purposes. The economy of the village had become reliant on illegal manufacture and sale of alcohol, a product to which many of the villagers had themselves become addicted. Many inhabitants were at the mercy of moneylenders in order to survive, and those lenders would charge monthly interest rates of as much as 10%. Crime and violence (including domestic violence) had become commonplace, while education and employment opportunities were poor.[11][16] Hazare was relatively wealthy because of the gratuity from his army service. He set about using that money to restore a run-down, vandalised village temple as a focal point for the community. Some were able to respond with small financial donations but many other villagers, particularly among the elderly, donated their labour in a process that became known as shramdaan. Some youths also became involved in the work and these he organised into a Tarun Mandal (Youth Association). One of the works of Vivekananda which he had read was Call to the youth for nation building.[17] Prohibition of alcohol
Hazare and the youth group decided to take up the issue of alcoholism as a means to drive a process of reform. At a meeting conducted in the temple, the villagers resolved to close down liquor dens and ban alcohol in the village. Since these resolutions were made in the temple, they became, in a sense, religious commitments. Over thirty liquor brewing units were closed by their owners voluntarily. Those who did not succumb to social pressure were forced to close down their businesses when the youth group smashed up their liquor dens. The owners could not complain as their businesses were illegal.[18]
When some villagers were found to be drunk they were tied to pillars and then flogged, sometimes personally by Hazare. He justified this punishment by stating that ―rural India was a harsh society‖,[19] and that
Doesn’t a mother administer bitter medicines to a sick child when she knows that the medicine can cure her child? The child may not like the medicine, but the mother does it only because she cares for the child. The alcoholics were punished so that their families would not be destroyed.[20]
Hazare appealed to the government of Maharashtra to bring in a law whereby prohibition would come into force in a village if 25% of the women in the village demanded it. In 2009 the state government amended the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949 to reflect this.[21]
It was decided to ban the sale of tobacco, cigarettes, and beedies (an unfiltered cigarette where the tobacco is rolled in tendu also known asDiospyros melanoxylon leaves instead of paper) in the village. In order to implement this resolution, the youth group performed a unique "Holi" ceremony twenty two years ago.[when?] The festival of Holi is celebrated as a symbolic burning of evil. The youth group brought all the tobacco, cigarettes, and beedies from the shops in the village and burnt them in a Holi fire. Tobacco, cigarettes, or beedies are no longer sold.[22][23] Grain Bank
In 1980, the Grain Bank was started by him at the temple, with the objective of providing food security to needful farmers during times of drought or crop failure. Rich farmers, or those with surplus grain production, could donate a quintal to the bank. In times of need, farmers could borrow the grain, but they had to return the same amount of grain they borrowed, plus an additional quintal as an interest. This ensured that nobody in the village ever went hungry or had to borrow money to buy grain. This also prevented distress sales of grain at lower prices at harvest time.[9] Watershed development programme
Ralegan is located in the foothills, so Hazare persuaded villagers to construct a watershed embankment and associated works to stop water and allow it to percolate and increase the ground water level and improve irrigation in the area. These efforts solved the problem of water scarcity in the village and made irrigation possible.[14][11]
Cultivation of water-intensive crops like sugar cane was banned. Crops such as pulses, oil-seeds, and certain cash crops with low water requirements were grown. The farmers started growing high-yield varieties of crop and the cropping pattern of the village was changed. Hazare has helped farmers of more than 70 villages in drought-prone regions in the state of Maharashtra since 1975.[24] When Hazare came in Ralegan Siddhi in 1975 only 70 acres (28 ha) of land was irrigated, Hazare converted it into about 2,500 acres (1,000 ha).[18] Milk production
As a secondary occupation, milk production was promoted in Ralegan Siddhi. Purchase of new cattle and improvement of the existing breed with the help of artificial insemination and timely guidance and assistance by a veterinarian resulted in an improvement in the cattle stock, increasing production of milk. Crossbred cows are replacing local ones which gave a lower milk yield.[citation needed] Education
In 1932, Ralegan Siddhi got its first formal school, a single classroom primary school.[clarification needed] In 1962, the villagers added more classrooms through community volunteer efforts. By 1971, out of an estimated population of 1,209, only 30.43% were literate (72 women and 290 men). Boys moved to the nearby towns of Shirur and Parner to pursue higher education, but due to socioeconomic conditions, girls could not do the same and were limited to primary education. Hazare, along with the youth of Ralegan Siddhi, worked to increase literacy rates and education levels. In 1976 they started a pre-school and a high school in 1979. The villagers formed a charitable trust, the Sant Yadavbaba Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, which was registered in 1979.[citation needed] Removal of untouchability
The social barriers and discrimination that existed due to the caste system in India have been largely eliminated by Ralegan Siddhi villagers. It was Anna Hazare's moral leadership that motivated and inspired the people of Ralegan Siddhi to shun untouchability and discrimination against the Dalits. People of all castes come together to celebrate social events. Marriages of Dalits are held as part of community marriage program together with those of other castes. The Dalits have been integrated into the social and economic life of the village. The upper caste villagers have built houses for the lower caste Dalits by Shramdaan, Sanskrit for voluntary work without payment, and helped to repay their loans to free them from their indebtedness.[25][26][27] Collective marriages
Most rural poor get into a debt trap as they incur heavy expenses at the time of marriage of their daughter or son. It is an undesirable practice but has almost become a social obligation in India. Ralegan's people have started celebrating marriages collectively. Joint feasts are held, where the expenses are further reduced by the Tarun Mandal taking responsibility for cooking and serving the food. The vessels, the loudspeaker system, the mandap, and the decorations have also been bought by the Tarun Mandal members belonging to the oppressed castes. From 1976 to 1986, 424 marriages have been held under this system.[citation needed] Gram Sabha
The Gandhian philosophy on rural development considers the Gram Sabha as an important democratic institution for collective decision making in the villages of India.[28] Hazare campaigned between 1998 and 2006 for amending the Gram Sabha Act, so that the villagers have a say in the development works in their village. The state government initially refused, but eventually gave in due to public pressure. As per the amendments, it is mandatory to seek the sanction of the Gram Sabha (an assembly of all village adults, and not just the few elected representatives in the gram panchayat) for expenditures on development works in the village.[21] Activism
Anti-corruption protests in Maharashtra
Anna Hazare listening to the problems of people at Nanded, Maharashtra.
In 1991 Hazare launched the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Aandolan (BVJA) (People's Movement against Corruption), a popular movement to fight against corruption[29] in Ralegaon Siddhi. In the same year he protested against the collusion between 40 forest officials and timber merchants. This protest resulted in the transfer and suspension of these officials.[30]
In May 1997 Hazare protested against alleged malpractices in the purchase of powerlooms by the Vasantrao Naik Bhathya Vimukt Jhtra Governor P. C. Alexander.[31] On 4 November 1997 Gholap filed a defamation suit against Hazare for accusing him of corruption. He was arrested in April 1998 and was released on a personal bond of 5,000 (US$110).[32] On 9 September 1998 Hazare was imprisoned in the Yerawada Jail to serve a three-month sentence mandated by the Mumbai Metropolitan Court.[13][33] The sentencing caused leaders of all political parties except the BJP and the Shiv Sena came in support of him. [34] Later, due to public protests, the Government of Maharashtra ordered his release from the jail. After release, Hazare wrote a letter to then chief minister Manohar Joshi demanding Gholap's removal for his role in alleged malpractices in the Awami Merchant Bank.[35] Gholap resigned from the cabinet on 27 April 1999.[36]
In 2003 corruption charges were raised by Hazare against four NCP ministers of the Congress- NCP government.[37] He started his fast unto death on 9 August 2003. He ended his fast on 17 August 2003 after then chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde formed a one-man commission headed by the retired justice P. B. Sawant to probe his charges.[38] The P. B. Sawant commission report, submitted on 23 February 2005, indicted Sureshdada Jain, Nawab Malik, and Padmasinh Patil. The report exonerated Vijaykumar Gavit. Suresh Jain and Nawab Malik resigned from the cabinet in March 2005.[39]
Three trusts headed by Anna Hazare were also indicted in the P. B. Sawant commission report. 220,000 (US$4,910) spent by the Hind Swaraj Trust for Anna Hazare's birthday celebrations was concluded by the commission as illegal and amounting to a corrupt practice,[40][41]though Abhay Firodia, an industrialist subsequently donated 248,000 (US$5,530) to the trust for that purpose.[42] The setting apart of 11 acres of its land by the trust in favour of the Zilla Parishad without obtaining permission from the charity commissioner was concluded as a case of maladministration. The commission also concluded that the maintenance of accounts of the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Janandolan Trustafter 10 November 2001 had not been according to the rules and 46,374 (US$1,030) spent by the Sant Yadavbaba Shikshan Prasarak Mandal Trust for renovating a temple was in contravention to its object of imparting secular education.[40][41] Right to Information movement
In the early 2000s Hazare led a movement in Maharashtra state which forced the state government to enact a revised Maharashtra Right to Information Act. This Act was later considered as the base document for the Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI), enacted by the Union Government. It also ensured that the President of India assented to this new Act.[43] On 20 July 2006 the Union Cabinet amended the Right to Information Act 2005 to exclude the file noting by the government officials from its purview. Hazare began his fast unto death on 9 August 2006 in Alandi against the proposed amendment. He ended his fast on 19 August 2006, after the government agreed to change its earlier decision.[44] Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act
Before 2006 in the state of Maharashtra, even honest government officers were transferred to other places according to ministers wish. Sometimes within months of being posted to a place, whereas some corrupt and favoured officials were cozy in their postings for many years in some cases even for 10 to 20 years and since there was not any guideline or law many government officials were reluctant to process files that contained important public proposals and decisions. Anna fought hard for a law whereby a government servant must clear a file within a specified time and that transfers must take place only after three years. After many years of relentless efforts of Anna, finally on 25 May 2006 state government of Maharashtra issued a notification announcing that the execution of the special act, The Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act 2006, aimed at curbing the delay by its officers and employees in discharging their duties. This act provides for disciplinary action against officials who move files slowly and enables monitoring officials who stay too long in a post, or in a department, and for involvement in a corrupt nexus. Within this act, it is mandatory for the government to effect transfers of all government officers and employees, except Class IV workers, after the stipulated three years. Act also prevents the government from effecting frequent transfers of officers before the stipulated three-year tenure, except in case of emergency and under exceptional circumstances. Maharashtra is the first state in the country to have introduced such act.[21] However, like others, this law has also not been followed in its true spirit.[45][46] Campaign against liquor from food grains
Constitution of India Article 47 commits the State to raise the standard of living and improve public health, and prohibit the consumption ofintoxicating drinks and drugs injurious to health.[47][48][49]
In 2007 Maharashtra Government rolled out the grain-based liquor policy aimed to encourage production of liquor from food grain in the light of the rising demand for spirit – used for industrial purposes and potable liquor and Issue 36 licenses for distilleries for making alcohol from food grains.[49]
Anna Hazare opposed the governments policy to promote making liquor from food grains in Maharashtra. He argued the government that Maharashtra is a food-deficit State and there was shortage of food grains and it is not logical to promote producing liquor from food grains.[50]One of the State ministers Laxman Dhoble said in his speech that those opposing the decision to allow use of food grains for the production of liquor are anti-farmers and those people should be beaten up with sugarcane sticks.[51][52] Hazare initiated fast at Shirdi, but on 21 March 2010 government promised to review the policy and Anna ended his 5 day long fast.[53] But the government later granted 36 licences and grants of 10 (US$0.22) (per litre of alcohol) to politicians or their sons who were directly or indirectly engaged in making alcohol from foodgrains. Some of the main beneficiaries of these licences includes Amit and Dheeraj Deshmukh, sons of Union Heavy Industries MinisterVilasrao Deshmukh, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde's daughter Pankaja Palwe and her husband Charudatta Palwe, sons-in-law of P.V. Narasimha Rao, Rajya Sabha MP Govindrao Adik.[50][54][55] The government approved the proposal for food grain-based alcohol production in spite of stiff opposition from the planning and finance departments saying there is a huge demand in other countries for food grain made liquor in comparison with that of molasses.[56] Anna filed a Public Interest Litigation against the Government of Maharashtra for allowing food-grains for manufacturing liquor in the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. On 20 August 2009 Maharashtra government stopped the policy. However, distilleries sanctioned before that date and those who started production within two years of sanction were entitled for subsidies.
On 5 May 2011 court refused to hear a Public Interest Litigation saying "not before me, this is a court of law, not a court of justice" as a reason of not hearing the plea.[57][58] One of Principal Secretary in Maharashtra state C.S. Sangeet Rao, enlighten that there is no law exists to scrap these licences as this is a government policy.[50] Lokpal Bill movement
Anna Hazare's hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in Delhi
Main article: 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement
In 2011, Hazare initiated a Satyagraha movement for passing a stronger anti- corruption Lokpal (ombudsman) bill in the Indian Parliament as conceived in the Jan Lokpal Bill (People's Ombudsman Bill). The Jan Lokpal Bill was drafted earlier by N. Santosh Hegde, former justice of the Supreme Court of India and Lokayukta ofKarnataka, Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court and Arvind Kejriwal, a social activist along with members of the India Against Corruptionmovement. This draft bill incorporated more stringent provisions and wider power to the Lokpal (Ombudsman) than the draft Lokpal bill prepared by the government in 2010.[59] These include placing "the Prime Minister within the ambit of the proposed lokpal’s powers".[60]
Hunger strike in Delhi
Hazare began his Indefinite Fast[61] on 5 April 2011 at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to press for the demand to form a joint committee of the representatives of the Government and the civil society to draft a stronger anti-corruption bill with stronger penal actions and more independence to the Lokpal andLokayuktas (Ombudsmen in the states), after his demand was rejected by the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh.[62] He stated, "I will fast until Jan Lokpal Bill is passed".[63]
The movement attracted attention in the media, and thousands of supporters. Almost 150 people reportedly joined Hazare in his fast.[64]Social activists, including Medha Patkar, Arvind Kejriwal, former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, and Jayaprakash Narayan lent their support to Hazare's hunger strike and anti-corruption campaign. People have shown support in internet social media such as Twitter and Facebook. In addition to spiritual leaders Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Swami Ramdev, Swami Agnivesh and former Indian cricketer Kapil Dev, many celebrities showed their public support through Twitter.[65][66] Hazare decided that he would not allow any politician to sit with him in this movement. Politicians like Uma Bharti and Om Prakash Chautala were shooed away by the protesters when they came to visit the site where the protest was taking place.[67] On 6 April 2011 Sharad Pawar resigned from the group of ministers formed for reviewing the draft Lokpal bill 2010.[68]
Protests spread to Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Shillong, Aizawl and a number of other cities in India.[69]
End of hunger strike after meeting demands
On 8 April 2011 the Government of India accepted all demands of the movement. On 9 April 2011 it issued a notification in the Gazette of India on formation of a joint committee. It accepted the formula that there be a politician Chairman and an activist, non-politician Co-Chairman. According to the notification, Pranab Mukherjee will be the Chairman of the draft committee while Shanti Bhushan will be the co-chairman. ―The Joint Drafting Committee shall consist of five nominee ministers of the Government of India and five nominees of the civil society. The five nominee Ministers of the Government of India are Pranab Mukherjee, Union Minister of Finance, P. Chidambaram, Union Minister of Home Affairs, M. Veerappa Moily, Union Minister of Law and Justice, Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Human Resource and Development and Minister of Communication and Information Technology and Salman Khursheed, Union Minister of Water Resources and Minister of Minority Affairs. The five nominees of the civil society are Anna Hazare, N. Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhushan Senior Advocate,Prashant Bhushan, Advocate and Arvind Kejriwal.[70][71]
On the morning of 9 April 2011 Hazare ended his 98-hour hunger strike. He addressed the people and set a deadline of 15 August 2011 to pass the Lokpal Bill in the Indian Parliament.
"Real fight begins now. We have a lot of struggle ahead of us in drafting the new legislation, We have shown the world in just five days that we are united for the cause of the nation. The youth power in this movement is a sign of hope."
Anna Hazare said that if the bill does not pass he will call for a mass nation-wide agitation.[72][73] He called his movement as "second struggle for independence" and he will continue the fight.[74]
Differences with the government on draft bill
During the meeting of the joint drafting committee on 30 May 2011, the Union government members opposed the inclusion of the prime minister, higher judiciary and the acts of the MPs under the purview of the Lokpal in the draft bill.[75] On 31 May 2011, Pranab Mukherjee, chairman of the joint drafting committee sent a letter to the chief ministers of all states and the leaders of the political parties seeking their opinion on six contentious issues in the proposed Lokpal Bill, including whether to bring the prime minister and judges of Supreme Court and High Courts under the purview of the proposed law.[76] But the civil society members of the drafting committee considered that keeping the prime minister and judges of Supreme Court and High Courts out of the purview of the Lokpal would be a violation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.[77]
Anna Hazare and other civil society members decided to boycott the meeting of the joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee scheduled on 6 June 2011 in protest against the forcible eviction of Swami Ramdev and his followers by the Delhi Police from Ramlila Maidan on 5 June 2011, while they were on hunger strike against the issues of black money and corruption and doubting seriousness of the government in taking measures to eradicate corruption.[78]
On 6 June 2011, the members of the civil society of the joint Lokpal bill drafting committee in New Delhi sent a letter to Pranab Mukherjee, the chairman of the committee, explaining reasons for their absence at the meeting and also asked government to make its stand public on the contentious issues related to the proposed draft legislation. They also decided that the future meetings will be attended only if they were telecast live.[79] On 8 June 2011 at Rajghat, describing his movement as the second freedom struggle, Anna criticised the Government for trying to discredit the joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee and threatened to go on indefinite fast again from 16 August 2011 if the Lokpal Bill is not passed by then. He also criticised the Government for putting hurdles in the drafting of a strong Lokpal Bill and its attempts to malign the civil society members of the joint Lokpal panel.[80][81][82] Indefinite fast
On 28 July 2011 the union cabinet on approved a draft of the Lokpal Bill, which keeps the Prime Minister, judiciary and lower bureaucracy out of the ambit of the proposed corruption ombudsman Lokpal. Hazare rejected the government version by describing it as ―cruel joke’’ and wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and told him his decision to go on an indefinite fast from 16 August 2011 at Jantar Mantar if the government introduced its own version of the bill in Parliament without taking suggestions from civil society members.[83][84]
Why are you (government) sending the wrong draft? We have faith in Parliament. But first send the right draft, our agitation is against government, not Parliament. The government has overlooked many points. How will it fight corruption by excluding government employees, CBI and prime minister from the Lokpal's purview? We were told that both the drafts would be sent to the Cabinet. But only the government's draft was sent. This is a deceitful government. They are lying. How will they run the country? Now I have no trust in this government. If it is really serious about fighting corruption, why is it not bringing government employees and CBI under Lokpal?[85]
Within twenty four hours of cabinet's endorsement of a weak Lokpal Bill, over ten thousand peoples from across the country sent faxes directly to the government demanding a bill with stronger provisions.[86] The Mumbai Taxi Men’s Union, comprises over 30,000 taxi drivers have extended their full support to Hazare’s fast by keeping all taxis off the roads on 16 August 2011.[87] Lawyers of Allahabad High Courtdescribed Lokpal Bill proposed by the government as against the interest of the country and pledged their support to Hazare by hunger strike at Allahabad on 16 August 2011.[88] On 30 July 2011 Vishwa Hindu Parishad supported Hazare's indefinite fast by saying movement for an effective anti- corruption ombudsman needs the backing of people.[89]
On 1 August, Public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court of India by Hemant Patil, a Maharashtra-based social worker and businessman, to restrain Hazare from going on his proposed indefinite fast. The petitioner demanded to prohibit the fast alleging that Hazare's demands are unconstitutional and amount to interference in legislative process.[90]
Arrest and aftermath
On 16 August 2011, Hazare was arrested four hours before the planned indefinite hunger strike.[91] Rajan Bhagat, spokesman for Delhi Police, said police arrested Hazare under a legal provision that bans public gatherings and protests at the park in Delhi where he was planning to begin his hunger strike. Police took that action after Hazare refused to meet the conditions put forward by police for allowing the protest.[92] The conditions included restricting the length of the fast to three days and the number of protesters at the site to 5,000. Later in the afternoon, Anna was produced before a magistrate who offered him bail but Anna Hazare refused to provide the bail bond. The magistrate sent him judicial custody for seven days and he was taken to Tihar jail.[93] After announcements by Prashant Bhushan, local television, and social media sites (including Facebook), a march of thousands in support of Hazare began from the India Gate to Jantar Mantar.[94]
Along with Hazare, other key members of the India Against Corruption movement including Arvind Kejriwal, Shanti Bhushan, Kiran Bedi andManish Sisodia were also detained from different locations. It was reported that about 1,300 supporters were detained in Delhi.[95] Media also reported that the arrest sparked off protests with people courting arrests in different parts of the country. The opposition parties in the country came out against the arrest, likening the government action to the emergency imposed in the country in 1975. Both the houses of Parliament were adjourned over the issue.[96]
Eventually, after being kept in judicial detention for just four hours, he was released unconditionally without any bail bond by the magistrate on a request by the police, but Hazare refused to leave Tihar Jail.[97] He demanded an unconditional permission from the police to observe a fast at Ramlila Maidan (Ground) in support of the Jan Lokpal bill and refused to leave the jail.[98] Hazare continued his fast inside the jail and refused to leave the jail though the jail authorities had technically released him.[99]
After his arrest, Anna Hazare received support from people across the country. There were reports of "nearly 570 demonstrations and protests by Anna supporters across the country" against the government's imprisonment of Hazare and others.[60][100] Due to the nationwide protests of millions,[101] the government agreed to allow him to begin a public hunger strike of fifteen days.[102] After talks with public authorities, Hazare decided to hold his protest at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi.[103] On 20 August 2011 Hazare "left the Tihar Jail for the Ramlila Grounds".[104] Hazare promised reporters "he would fight to the 'last breath' until the government gets his team's Jan Lokpal Bill passed in this session of Parliament, which ends on 8 September."[60]
Fast at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi
On 20 August 2011 thousands came to the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi[105] to show their support for Hazare, while "his advisers made televison appearances to rally public support and defend themselves against criticism that their protest campaign and refusal to compromise is undermining India's parliamentary process."[106] The National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) condemned Hazare's deadline for passing the bill as undermining democracy, which operates by "holding wide-ranging consultations and discussions, allowing for dissent and evolving a consensus. ...He [Hazare] has the right to protest and dissent. But nobody can claim it as an absolute right and deny the right of dissent to others."[107] The Congress party confirmed that Maharashtra Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Umesh Chandra Sarangi (who has a history of mediating between Hazare and government officials) was meeting with the social activist again "to find points of consensus and defuse the situation".[108] On 21 August 2011 "tens of thousands" came to Ramlila Maidan to support Hazare as he sat on an elevated platform.[109] It was reported that Hazare at that point had "lost more than seven pounds since beginning his fast", despite this he stated "'I will not withdraw my hunger strike until the Jan Lokpal bill is passed in the Parliament. I can die but I will not bend.'"[109] Hazare ended his fast on 28 August 2011, after the Indian Government had passed the resolution for the Lokpal Bill unanimously,
He was admitted to Medanta Medicity, Gurgaon for post-fast care.[110] He had lost 7.5 kg[110] and was very dehydrated after the 288 hour long fast.[111]
I Am Anna Chant
Within a few days of Anna Hazare's first fast demanding a strong Lokpal (on 5 April 2011), supporters across various cities of India started a campaign known as "I Am Anna Hazare", which is similar to the "We Are All Khaled Said" campaign well known in the Egyptian uprising.[112]At during Anna Hazare's second fast, the topi, the cap which Anna Hazare became synonymous with, became almost a fashion statement.[113] Sales of the topis hit an all time high.[114] Kiran Bedi declared that the "I am Anna" topi should be used as a deterrence method whenever someone asked for a bribe. She went to say that the topi should be always kept in one's bag and whenever anybody ask for a bribe, the topi should be shown to them.[115] Electoral reform movement
In 2011, Anna Hazare demanded an amendment to the electoral law to incorporate the option of None of the above in the electronic voting machines during the Indian elections.[116][117] The "None of the above (NOTA)" is a ballot option that allows an electorate to indicate disapproval of all of the candidates in an electoral system, in case of non-availability of any candidate of his choice, as his Right to Reject. Soon, the Chief Election Commissioner of India Shahabuddin Yaqoob Quraishi supported Hazare's demand for the electoral reforms.[118] Protest against atrocities against Swami Ramdev and his supporters
On 8 June 2011, Anna Hazare and thousands of his supporters observed fast from 10 am to 6 pm at Rajghat to protest against the midnight crackdown of 5 June 2011 by the Delhi Police on Swami Ramdev’s fast at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi. The fast was initially planned to be held at Jantar Mantar, but the venue was shifted after the denial of permission by the Delhi police.[80][119] Anna Hazare held the Prime Minister of India responsible for the atrocities[120] and termed the police action as a blot on humanity and an attempt to stifle democracy.[80]According to one of the Anna's young supporters, the large presence of youths in the protest was due to their support to his use ofnonviolence means of protest similar to Gandhi.[121] Controversies and criticism Views on Narendra Modi
In a press conference in April 2011, Anna Hazare praised Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat for his efforts on rural development along with Nitish Kumar, chief minister of Bihar, saying that the same should be emulated by the chief ministers of all states.[122]Subsequently, Modi wrote an open letter to him, hailing him as a Gandhian and anti-corruption activist[123] while Digvijay Singh, the General Secretary of the Congress party, criticised him for his comment.[124] In May 2011, Hazare, during his visit to Gujarat, changed his view and criticised Modi for rampant corruption by Government officials in Gujarat. He urged Modi to appoint a Lokayukta in Gujarat. He also commented that the media had projected an incorrect image of Vibrant Gujarat, very different from the prevalent situation.[125] Fraud during fasts
A cardiologist from Pune, Abhijit Vaidya – founder of Arogya Sena, a non-governmental agency active in public health, disaster management and social campaigns – claimed that he was informed by the close associates of Anna Hazare during a fast in Ralegan-Siddhi, that he was given glucose and electrolyte solutions during a fast. Hazare and his associates refused to comment on the allegation.[126] Accusations of corruption
The government of the state of Maharashtra instituted a Commission of Inquiry under Justice PB Sawant in September 2003 to enquire into allegations of corruption against several people, including four ministers in the state as well as the "Hind Swaraj Trust" headed by Hazare. The Commission submitted its report on 22 February 2005 in which it indicted the Hind Swaraj Trust for corrupt practice of spending Rs. 2.20 lakhs of its funds on the birthday celebrations of Hazare.[127] Two days ahead of Hazare's proposed indefinite fast on 16 August 2011, the ruling party of India, the Indian National Congress, launched an attack on him alleging that "the moral core of Hazare has been ripped apart" by the Justice P B Sawant Commission.[128]
In response to this allegaton, Hazare's lawyer Milind Pawar, claimed that the commission had remarked about "irregularities" in the accounts, but had not held him guilty of any "corrupt" practices. Pawar said that on 16 June 1998, a celebration was organised to facilitate Hazare on winning an award from a US based NGO and it coincided with his 61st birthday. The trust spent Rs 2.18 lakh for the function. Abhay Phirodia, a Pune-based industrialist, who took the initiative to organise this function donated an amount of Rs 2,48,950 to the trust by cheque soon after the function.[129]
Hazare himself responded to the allegation by daring the government to file a First Information Report (FIR) against him to prove the charges.[130] Accusation of being anti-democratic and anti-dalit An article written in The Telegraph (Kolkata) by writer and historian Ramchandra Guha state that that environmental journalist Mukul Sharma found that that Anna Hazare forced the Dalit families in Ralegan Siddhi to adopt a vegetarian diet, and that those who violated the decree were tied to a post and flogged.[131] Mukul Sharma also found that no panchayat elections have been held in the village for the past two decades, and that no campaigning was allowed during state and national elections, upon the instructions of Anna Hazare.[131]
Dalit columnists like Chandrabhan Prasad have opined that the movement initiated by Anna Hazare against corruption and for the Jan Lokpal bill is taking us to a situation of rejecting representative democracy and also alleged that this movement is an upper-caste uprising against India's political democracy. He also claimed that the centralisation such huge powers in Lokapal, which is a non-elected entity will lead the democratic setup to a very dangerous situation.
Dalit activist Kancha Ilaiah also commented in a similar fashion, that "The Anna movement is an anti- social justice, manuvadi movement. The Dalits, tribals, OBCs and minorities have nothing to do with it. We oppose it."[132] Another activist Anoop Kheri claimed that "The language, symbols used by the movement clearly reflects its upper caste Hindu nature, a very rightwing Hindu patriotism is being used to get the entire country against corruption. And as a dalit, I have a problem with it."[132]
There was also an allegation that an RTI activist was denied permission to protest by having a fast-unto- death at Ralegan Siddhi, the grama sabha stating that the reason was that only Anna Hazare can hold such fasts in his village.[133]
During his protest against corruption, another activist, Udit Raj, who was denied permission to protest against Anna Hazare, warned that succumbing to Hazare's demands, which he claimed were against the parliamentary processes will set a dangerous trend rendering the backward classes more vulnerable, as such mass mobilisations coercing the government with a "set of solutions" against constitutional processes could also be used against affirmative action, and is a threat to democracy.[134] Later, it came to light that poor dalits had been paid money of up to 200 each, exploiting their desperation. The participants said that they were asked to shout slogans against Anna, although the organizers have denied it. Some protesters said that they had been told that it was a pro-Anna protest, but feel cheated after realising that it was against Anna hazare.[135] Accusation of being nonsecular
On 22 August 2011 writer-actor Arundhati Roy accused Hazare in a newspaper article of being nonsecular. She questioned his secular credentials pointing out Hazare's "support for Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia and (has praised) the 'development model' of Gujarat's CM who oversaw the 2002 pogrom against Muslims". The website of the newspaper published many responses to her article and these were mostly critical of her views.[136] Activist Medha Patkar also strongly criticised Roy, saying that her views were misplaced.[137]
Hazare has in the past stood in firm opposition to the Shiv Sena and BJP governments in Maharashtra. Activist and writer Asghar Ali Engineer in an EPW article on Communalism and Communal Violence reported,[138]
The Shiv Sena is also facing serious problems from the social activist Anna Hazare who has accused its ministers of corruption and demanded their resignation. The SS-BJP government is facing serious corruption charges and is greatly worried. The Anna Hazare movement began in late November when he went on fast against the corrupt practices of the Shiv Sena ministers. The BJP initially supported the Hazare movement and now its deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde is also under a cloud. Initially the Hazare movement had created a rift between the Shiv Sena and the BJP but with Gopinath Munde himself under a cloud, both may close ranks. The Anna Hazare movement has certainly posed a great challenge for the saffron government at the end of 1996.
Hazare was accused of working for RSS and BJP's behest, and against Muslims by cleric Bukhari of the Jama Masjid. Bhukhari was subsequently criticised for being a Royal Imam and the communal comments being his personal views which did not represent the view of ordinary Muslims.[139] Conspiracy to murder Hazare
Anna Hazare has exposed large corruption in co-operative sugar factories of Maharashtra. One of the sugar factories which Anna exposed corruption of is controlled by Dr.Padamsinh Bajirao Patil, a member of Parliament of 15th Lok Sabha and higher-ranking Leader of Nationalist Congress Party from Osmanabad, and also a prime accused and conspirator in the 2006 murder case of Indian National Congress leader Pawanraje Nimabalkar.[140][141]
The conspiracy to kill Hazare was exposed when Parasmal Jain, an accused in the Nimbalkar murder case, in his written confession before a magistrate said that Padamsinh Bajirao Patil had paid a sum of 3,000,000 (US$66,900) to murder Nimbalkar, and also offered him supari (contract killing sum) to kill Anna Hazare.[142][143] After this written confession, Anna appealed to the state government of Maharashtra to lodge a separate First Information Report ( FIR ) against Padamsinh Bajirao Patil for conspiring to murder him but the government did not take any action in this regard. Anna Hazare decided to lodge a complaint himself and on 26 September 2009, he lodged complaint at Parnerpolice station of Ahmednagar District in Maharashtra against the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Padamsinha Patil for conspiring to eliminate him.[144] Padamsinh Patil approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail but on 14 October 2009, the Aurangabad bench ofBombay High Court rejected the anticipatory bail application of Padamsinh Patil in connection with a complaint filed by Anna after observing that there is a prima facie evidence against him.[145][146]
Padmasinh Patil appealed for an anticipatory bail in Supreme Court of India which the court rejected on 6 November 2009.[147] On 11 November 2009 Padmasinh Patil surrendered before the sessions court in Latur as per a directive of the Supreme Court and was sent to judicial remand for 14 days.[148] On 16 December 2009 Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court granted bail to him.[149] As of 16 August 2011, the verdict is pending. Honours, awards and international recognition
Year of Award or Honor Name of Award or Honor Awarding Organization
2008 Jit Gill Memorial Award World Bank
2005 Honorary Doctorate Gandhigram Rural University
2003 Integrity Award Transparency International
1998 CARE International Award CARE (relief agency)
1997 Mahaveer Award
1996 Shiromani Award
1992 Padma Bhushan President of India
1990 Padma Shri President of India
1989 Krishi Bhushana Award Government of Maharashtra
1986 Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Award Government of India
Personal life Anna Hazare is unmarried. He has lived in a small room attached to the Sant Yadavbaba temple in Ralegan Siddhi since 1975. On 16 April 2011, he declared his bank balance of 67,183 (US$1,500) and 1,500 (US$30) as money in hand.[150] He owns 0.07 hectares of family land in Ralegan Siddhi, which is being used by his brothers. Two other pieces of land donated to him by the Indian Army and by a villager have been donated by him for village use.[151] His only income is a pension he receives from the Indian Army.[citation needed] Writings
. Hazare, Anna; Ganesh Pangare, Vasudha Lokur (1996). Adarsh Gaon Yojana: government participitation in a peoples program : ideal village project of the Government of Maharashtra. Hind Swaraj Trust. p. 95. Retrieved 20 August 2011. . Hazare, Anna. My Village – My Sacred Land. New Delhi: CAPART. . Hazare, Anna (1997). Ralegaon Siddhi: a veritable transformation. Translated by B.S. Pendse. Ralegan Siddhi Pariwar Prakashan,. Retrieved 7 April 2011. . Hazare, Anna (2007) (in Marathi). . Pune: Signet Publications. . Anna Hazare: The Face of Indias Fight Against Corruption. Pentagon Press. 2011. p. 124. ISBN 9788182745452. Retrieved 14 June 2011.