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India - News
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News Updates - January 2005
Ayurveda - latest darling
of holistic healing - Chicago Tribune Ayurveda the latest darling of holistic healing By Julie Deardorff, Chicago Tribune, 30 January 2005
At the height of his professional football career in US, Ricky Williams was feeling stressed and unbalanced. So the Miami Dolphins star abruptly walked away from the sport--and a multimillion-dollar salary--and began studying the ancient Indian medical system known as ayurveda. The 5,000-year-old holistic health tradition uses nutrition, oils, herbs, hot baths, massages, cleansing techniques and yoga. Williams says that his immersion in ayurveda is paying off: "I am now able to do things with my body, after only minimal yoga practice, that I could never have imagined doing on the football field. My balance has increased as well as my flexibility. A lot of my pain has decreased too."
Considered a comprehensive health-care plan in India, ayurveda teaches that humans are made of three essential qualities, or doshas: called vata, pitta and kapha. These doshas comprise the five fundamental elements of the universe: space, air, fire, water and earth. One or two doshas generally dominate, and when these get out of balance, whether by stress, lack of sleep, a poor diet or something in the environment, symptoms of disease or illness can arise. The overall nature of a person, and the way he or she responds to stress and treatment, is determined by the dominant dosha. Today, ayurvedic CDs play music designed for certain doshas and claim to harmonize the body's energies. And the book "What's Your Dosha, Baby?" has spawned an ayurvedic online dating site called DoshaMatch (doshamatch.com) to help people find compatibility in life and love.
Meanwhile Los Angeles Times reported on 1 January 2005, that India, where curry is a dietary staple, has one of the world's lowest rates of Alzheimer's disease. UCLA researchers reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, that curcumin, the yellow pigment in curry spice was more effective than most of the drugs being tested for the treatment of Alzheimer's. The New Idea Labs January 2005
One of the most impressive spot in Bangalore is the campus of the German software giant SAP Labs. SAP Labs' 1,400 employees in Bangalore form the company's largest research-and-development unit outside Germany. SAP relies on the area's computer scientists and engineers to carry out its most critical activity. More than 10% of the patents filed by SAP originate in Bangalore, and the influx of Indian engineers is accelerating the adoption of English at SAP and loosening up its traditionally rigid attitude toward software engineering, says Martin Prinz, the joint managing director of SAP Labs India. "The Bangalore center is starting to change SAP." That transformation is just one example of a realignment by U.S. and European companies (like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Philips and General Motors) that is turning India from a distant satellite of Silicon Valley into one of the inner hubs of global technology. India Shows Its Might in Tsunami Crisis New York Times (21/1/05)/ AP (14/1/05)/ Washington Post (24/1/05)/ MSNBC (5/1/05)
No one likes to boast during a time of tragedy, but India's ability to handle the widespread death and destruction largely on its own - and still help poorer nations like Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives - is seen by many as a welcome sign of their country's strength and status. India has worked hard since mid-1990’s, to be seen as a potent diplomatic and economic Asian power, that could become a permanent member of the UN Security Council. It has nuclear weapons and also has one of the world's fastest growing economies.
There is a growing realization among the people and officials of Sri Lanka that it is the Indians who helped them in their time of need. 1,500 Indian soldiers are running kitchens, providing relief material and medical assistance to survivors and cleaning up harbours and waterways, across the tsunami-hit areas of Sri Lanka. "We are very grateful to India for helping us," Captain Ravi Wijegunaratne, the military attaché at Sri Lanka's high commission said. Referring to media eulogising the work done by the US Marines in his country, he said: "The US responded 14 days after the disaster. By that time everyone was dead."
China fails tsunami test (Big power ambitions, small player when the chips are down) At a time when tens of thousands in its neighborhood were at risk of starvation, dehydration and disease, China’s focus was right where it has been for centuries: on China. Contrast China’s stance on the tsunami with that of India, itself seriously affected, and Beijing’s behavior looks even less impressive. Within hours of the disaster, India – China’s near equal in terms of economic growth – told the world it did not need disaster relief, suggesting such money be diverted to poorer nations. What’s more, India dispatched navy ships and cargo aircraft to Sri Lanka within hours of Colombo's SOS, immediately staking a claim for itself in the “core” group of donor nations. Some Americans, may think it just as well that China remains a kind of gigantic idiot savant with a monster economy but no desire to engage in any foreign affairs issue that won’t be a direct benefit to it. Had China, on Dec. 27, announced that it planned relief operations, an important line would have been crossed. Unfortunately, for China, Asia and the world, Beijing just can’t see the logic! |
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