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India - News
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News Updates - 31
December 2000 Mega Hindu festival in India - Reuters Channel 4 immerses iteslf in a Ganges festival - UK Telegraph IIT (Mumbai) to get Rs 20 Crore from Class of '75 - ET SAE names 2 Indian as Fellows - PRNewswire
LUCKNOW, India - India is beefing up security in Allahabad town during the major 42-day Hindu Maha Kumbh Mela where 70 million people are expected to take a dip in the Ganges river to wash away their sins. The pilgrims will assemble over a sprawling area on the banks of Ganges, which Hindus consider a sacred river, from January 9 for what is the largest religious event in the country. Hindus believe that bathing in a sacred river washes away their sins, speeding the way to the end of reincarnations in this world and the attainment of nirvana or after-life. The Allahabad fair takes place every 12 years while smaller versions are held every three years at three other holy cities along the Ganges.At least five million devotees are expected to take a dip in the river for the new millennium's first Kumbh fair on January 9, the first of six auspicious days prescribed by the Hindu religious calendar. The next auspicious day is January 24 when the highest number of about 30 million Hindus are expected to gather for the fair. The Kumbh mela is held in rotation at one of four Indian towns where according to Hindu legend the nectar of immortality fell to earth after spilling out of a pitcher during an epic battle for its possession between gods and demons. The Guinness Book of Record cites the 1989 Kumbh at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna in Allahabad as the "largest ever gathering of human beings for a single purpose". Channel 4 immerses itself in a Ganges festival 27 December 2000, The UK Telegraph, By Victoria Combe CHANNEL 4 is to show footage every day for three weeks of pilgrims at a Hindu festival in India lining up to bathe in the River Ganges. Religious broadcasting's attempt to emulate "fly-on-the-wall" successes such as Big Brother will be sent by satellite from remote countryside north of New Delhi for screening at 7.50 pm, between the news and Brookside. The series will open with an hour-long documentary on Jan 7 and will then run nightly on Mondays to Fridays from Jan 9 to 28. There will be an omnibus on Sundays at 7.30pm with "highlights" from the river bank and a website updated daily. The series, optimistically called The Greatest Show on Earth, will absorb about a sixth of the channel's religious broadcasting commitments for the year. Elizabeth Clough, commissioning editor for religion at Channel 4, admitted that the series was "fantastically ambitious" and said she had never done anything so "close to the wire". She said the daily eight-minute programmes would not just film people stripping off and jumping into the river, but would follow certain characters such as the boatman, the chief of police and a 92-year-old holy man. She said: "We want it to be more like a Radio 1 roadshow than a sombre religious documentary. We are treating it as an accessible event, like us going to Glastonbury." The Maha Kumbh Mela festival is expected to be bigger than usual with 70 million people likely to come in January to the confluence of the Ganges, Jamuna and the mythical river Saraswati, near the city of Allahabad. The festival falls in Allahabad every 12 years, but 2001 is particularly holy because of an alignment of planets that occurs once every 144 years. Hindus believe that a droplet of the nectar of immortality fell from the gods to Earth at this spot. Pilgrims come to bathe in the river and pray for spiritual renewal, purification and healing, or as a way of giving thanks to the gods. Deepak Naik, spokesman for the National Council of Hindu Temples in Britain, said yesterday he thought that the festival could be of interest to non-Hindus. He said: "It is a fantastic idea. I hope the series manages to get the spiritual sense across." IIT-Mumbai to get Rs 20cr from Class of '75 MUMBAI - BLAME it on Santa. The by-now famous magnanimous alumni of IIT-Mumbai has succumbed to the Christmas spirit, coughing up a large sum for its AlmaMater. This time, it was the turn of the Class of '75. The commitment - Rs 20 crore. Its object: surprisingly, non-academic. The setting up of a `world-class sports complex' on the campus complete with basketball and badminton courts, indoor track, tennis courts and an `Olympic-size' swimming pool, to be used for sports and cultural events. The money has been pledged by 120 ex-IITians, the total batch strength was 250, who turned up for its 25th reunion held here on Sunday. After a good deal of back-slapping and a healthy dose of nostalgia, the alumni present pledged to donate generously to the cause. One among them was nominated to take the project to its logical conclusion. All in a day's work? Not quite. A team of IIT staffers had been doing the rounds of the US three months ago where a sizeable number of IITians are lodged. The object was to share, in the words of Ashok Mishra, director, IIT-Mumbai "the vision of IIT-Mumbai, where it wants to be in the future, and what is required to take it there". Why a sudden interest in brawn for an institution that is traditionally associated with brains? Says alumnus Bharat Desai, CEO, Syntel: "When you talk about an institution that is a breeding ground for global leaders, you need to focus on all-round excellence - including sports and cultural activities." Adds another former IITian Prashant Ranade, senior vice-president (product engineering), Siemens: "IIT-Mumbai has always had superior infrastructure or such activities compared with other Indian institutions. But, we thought it wasn't up to the mark - nowhere near a Stanford, MIT or an Oxford. For leadership skills you need to have a combination of all attributes and not a one-dimensional personality." Desai, also based in the US, is the largest contributor from the batch with Rs 7.5 crore, while fellow contributor Ranade is overseeing the project. The institute will soon appoint an architect and work is expected to kick off early next year. The funds will be ploughed in progressively. Other donors include Raj Mashruwala, senior vice-president of Silicon Valley-based software solutions company Tibco, Anil Kshirsagar, vice-president, global architecture, Tibco, and Heman Kanakia, founder, Torrent Networks (which he sold to Ericsson last year). Significantly, while Desai, Ranade and Mashruwala played bridge for the institute, Kanakia was in the volleyball team. "Activities besides the academic brought us together as we were in different disciplines. It also helped us to bond and draw on each other's strengths," says Ranade. IIT-Mumbai has been receiving generous quantities of money from grateful former students who've made pots full of dough in the Valley and elsewhere. While the government, which is the largest sponsor, has set aside a budget of Rs 100 crore annually besides meeting certain other expenses, IIT also earns revenues from consultancy. But to meet fund needs for special projects, endowments and donations are key. "The response has been excellent," says Mishra. IIT-Mumbai has a Heritage Fund set up four years ago by alumni which is instrumental in getting together ex-students and mobilising both ideas and money. Projects financed by the alumni include the Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology, which got $7 million. Part of this came from angel investor Rekhi himself who was also instrumental in raising the balance from others. The Heritage Fund in July this year had outstanding pledges of $17 million. And there's plenty of uses for it. Other projects like new research laboratories are on the anvil. In fact, the institute is planning a School of Biotechnology and Bioengineering. SAE Names 18 New Fellows WARRENDALE, Pennsylvania - Eighteen outstanding engineers, executives, scientists and consultants from the automotive industry have been chosen as Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Fellows for 2001. The honorees will receive their recognition at the SAE Honors Convocation and Luncheon on March 6 at 11:45 a.m. in the Riverview Ballroom at the 2001 SAE World Congress in Cobo Center, Detroit, MI. The Fellow grade of membership allows SAE to recognize members for exceptional personal contributions to the advancement of mobility technology of all self-propelled machinery -- on land, on the sea, in the air and space. Since SAE began the Fellow program in 1976, it has selected only 428 of 80,000 members to receive the honor. Fellow candidates must be SAE members for at least ten years and still be a voting member at the time of election. Voting members nominate candidates and five other member references must support each nominee. The new SAE Fellows are:
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