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India - News
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News Updates - June 2005
China may win the sprint, but India will win the marathon - Washington Post Marking the paper trail of history - Washington Post Plan to Connect rural India to the internet - NY Times
"China may win the sprint, but India will win the marathon."9 June 2005, Washington Post, By Jim Hoagland
China prepares to head a great manufacturing empire. But empires unravel, usually from within. The forces that will determine which nations will dominate the 21st century may yet favor India's emerging reach for global power status more than China's determined grasp for that prize. Current straight-line projections of China's rise to power neglect developments and adjustments in the region's two great democracies, India and Japan. Foreign companies pour billions upon billions 21st-century dollars or yen into a great 20th-century power? Politically, China is ruled by Leninists who must maintain the status quo. Militarily it relies on a large, underequipped land army.
India, on the other hand, has set out to become "a global knowledge hub, with a central place in the transnational movement of knowledge and services." India's comparative advantage lies in its large and relatively young educated population. Seventy percent of India is literate -- many of them are fluent in English -- and about half are under 30.
Speaking to a U.S.-European group in Brussels, influential American, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns observed: "The greatest change you will see in the next three or four years is a new American focus on establishing a closer strategic partnership with India . . . If you look at all the trends -- population, economic growth, foreign policy trends -- there's no question that India is the rising power in the East. . . . I think it will be the area of greatest dynamic positive change in American foreign policy." Totalitarianism did not prevail in that long race -- just as the communists in China will not win the right to shape the Asian Century alone.
In India, Marking the Paper Trail of HistoryBy Rama Lakshmi, The Washington Post, June 20, 2005
Launched two years ago by the BJP-led government, the ‘National Mission for Manuscripts’ is a five-year project to catalogue for the first time India's ancient documentary wealth and ensure that basic conservation practices are followed to halt their rapid decay. Officials say that India is the largest repository of manuscripts in the world, with an estimated 5 million texts in hundreds of languages. Linguistic scholars and history students involved in this adventurous hunt for ancient volumes use not only expertise but also social skills, coaxing and cultural sensitivity to gain access to manuscripts.
And so it goes, as India's 30,000 manuscript hunters fan out across the country, seeking the nation's heritage in old temples, monasteries, libraries and homes. The manuscript project's officials say the nationwide survey will open a window to India's ancient knowledge systems: religion, astronomy, astrology, art, architecture, science, literature, philosophy and mathematics. In the last two years, the surveyors have found rare ancient Sanskrit treatises on such subjects as diabetes, astrophysics, interpretation of dreams, surgical instruments, concepts of time and the art of war.
"We are creating a manuscript map of India. The survey will present new facets to our intellectual heritage. The key abstracts of all the ancient knowledge found in our manuscripts will be available digitally for the world to see." says Sudha Gopalakrishnan, chief of the National Mission for Manuscripts. The project will not take the volumes from their owners but merely document what is available. The manuscript mission also trains librarians, private collectors and temple priests in conservation including indigenous methods of preservation such as using margosa leaves, clove and black pepper.
In the 18th century, some European scholars began translating ancient Sanskrit and Buddhist manuscripts and made them accessible to the world. Many valuable manuscripts were taken out of the country and are now in European libraries and private collections. Art historians are eagerly watching this massive cataloguing process, hoping for new clues to India's past. What we find will answer many nagging doubts about our knowledge tradition," says Lokesh Chandra, an art historian and manuscript scholar. "For example, we came very close to modern mathematics in the 8th century. But what happened after that? Chandra says unearthing the manuscripts will also forge national pride for India's 4,000-year-old history and will "give us a psychological boost for future advances.”
Plan to Connect Rural India to the InternetBy John Markoff, New York Times, 16 June 2005
An international consortium is planning to establish thousands of rural Internet centers in India to bring government, banking and education services to isolated villages. The project is intended to bring internet services to individuals who must often travel long distances to conduct banking or business with the government. It is being undertaken by Comat Technologies, an Indian provider of Internet services; ICICI Bank, India's second- largest commercial bank; Wyse Technology of San Jose, Calif., which makes computer terminal equipment and World Bank. The goal is to serve rural villages with populations of more than 5,000. The project will include money to train residents in computer skills.
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