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[1] From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Sun Jul 3, 2005 Subject: Is my red your red? Is my red your red? New findings are re-igniting a controversy over how we develop our concepts of different colors??”and whether we all see them the same way. May 31, 2005 Special to World Science Do all peoples see and recognize the same colors? Scientists disagree on the question. Two studies have shed new light on it, by examining how some of the world??™s most remote cultures view color. The answer could have wide implications. It could reveal insights, some researchers think, into how the brain, language and culture interact to shape how we understand our reality??”not only its colors, but other aspects of it as well. http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/050526_colorfrm.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------- [2] From: yogi sikand <ysikand@yahoo.com> Date: Sun Jul 3, 2005 0:15pm Subject: 'Quran proves Imrana fatwa is un-Islamic' 'Quran proves Imrana fatwa is un-Islamic' By: Jyoti Punwani July 1, 2005 --------------------------------- Nowhera Shaikh with Shehnaz Shaikh in Mumbai yesterday. Pic: B L SoniThe Quran in Chapter 4, Verse 75, says, ???What??™s wrong with you that you don??™t fight for the oppressed???™??™ ???This verse has forced me to speak out against the Deoband fatwa on Imrana,??? says Dr Shehnaz Shaikh, principal of Al Mu??™minah Girls High School. ???Anyone who says the Quran punishes a rape victim with separation from her husband is uttering a blasphemy against Islam. Can the Deobandis show even one ayat in the Quran which allows this? To penalise Imrana they turn to Islam, but plead on behalf of the rapist father-in-law that India is not an Islamic state. How convenient!??? ???The Deobandis have always tried to crush and degrade women by giving unIslamic fatwas based on their own books, be it the question of women praying in mosques or women??™s right to divorce,??? adds Aalima Shaikh Nowhera Rahmat Pir, who has faced violent opposition to run a girls??™ madrassa in Tirupati. ???But Muslims must obey the Quran and the Hadees, and women need to come together to study these themselves.??? In Mumbai on a lecture tour, the Aalima is ready to go to Muzaffarnagar to convince Imrana that she should continue living with her husband. ???She has committed no crime; she was a victim. It??™s her father-in-law who must be punished.??? Ayats which prove the fatwa wrong ??? Do not force women under your care into prostitution if they desire chastity. If forced, Allah will forgive the women. Chapter 24, Verse 33 What is means: Victims will always be forgiven ??? ???O Prophet, do not make unlawful (haraam) what Allah has made lawful (halaal) for you.??? Chapter 66 Verse 1 What it means: Not even the Prophet could change halaal into haraam ??? Don??™t marry those whom your fathers have married, except what??™s happened in the past.??? Chapter 4, Verse 22 What it means: Even where such marriages (not rapes) have already taken place, they are not annulled. ------------------------------------ [3] From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Sun Jul 3, 2005 Subject: BHEL on Sale BHEL on Sale The advertisements inviting expressions of intent from investment bankers for the disinvestment of 10 per cent of the union government??™s equity stake in Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) signal the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government??™s determination to go ahead with the sale disregarding the opposition of the Left. This is despite the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat??™s media statement that ???the party would do anything, go to any extent??? to thwart the move. The Congress-led government??™s defence of its decision has been that disinvestments of 10 per cent of the central government??™s present equity stake of 67.72 per cent of the paid-up capital of BHEL would still mean that the government would have a majority stake in, and hence management control over, the Navaratana company. Further, in line with the Congress??™ own election manifesto, the public revenues from the disinvestment receipts would be allocated for social development programmes and for the rehabilitation of financially distressed public sector undertakings. And, an avenue would be created for ???the public??™ ??“ small investors, including BHEL??™s employees ??“ to gain by investing in the company??™s shares. Let us, however, examine the decision from the perspective of one of the main stated objectives of privatisation/disinvestment programmes that have been undertaken throughout most parts of the world since 1980. The first and most important stated objective has been that of improving the economic performance of the assets or service functions concerned. But does BHEL??™s performance warrant such a course? The company seems to have weathered the threats of liberalisation and increasing openness of the economy quite well, and also seems to have grabbed some of the opportunities that the changed policy regime threw up. The company??™s net profit increased from Rs 658 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 1,002 crore in 2004-05 on a turnover that shot up from Rs 8,662 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 10,520 crore in 2004-05. The company??™s export turnover was Rs 2,331 crore in 2004-05, which was 22 per cent of total turnover. The company is presently carrying out an expansion programme entailing an investment of around Rs 1,000 crore that will enhance annual power generation equipment manufacturing capacity from 6,000 MW to 10,000 MW by 2007. Its order book at the beginning of April 2005 was Rs 31,800 crore, three times the annual turnover. Recently, the company set a new benchmark in the execution of power projects by synchronising a 500 MW unit of the Ramagundam Super Thermal Power Station in a record time of 36 months and 10 days. The votaries of privatisation believe that the combination of private owners monitoring managers and the market for corporate control acts to bring about a more efficient performance by privatised firms. But, despite governments invariably encroaching on the strategic functions of the board and on the operational functions of the top management, and refusing to ???depoliticise??™ economic decisions, the public enterprise BHEL has won quite a number of open tender bids, even against its transnational competitors. In fact, operating expenses plus wages per unit of sales may in fact be lower for BHEL compared to its transnational rivals. Indeed, some of BHEL??™s transnational competitors may be waiting to grab an opportunity to gain management control over BHEL. The Left has apprehensions that firms such as GE, Alstom, Siemens, etc, may be eyeing a foothold in BHEL through foreign institutional investors (FIIs) who held around 23 per cent of its equity as at end-May. Early on in the liberalisation process when the Narasimha Rao-led Congress government allowed the entry of foreign portfolio investment, no less a person than the late Nani Palkhiwala, then a director in a number of Tata group companies, expressed a similar apprehension regarding the Tata companies facing hostile takeovers from multinationals with a little help from the FIIs. In the event of further disinvestments of BHEL??™s equity capital in the future, such a possibility cannot be ruled out. Coming to the UPA government??™s claim that the proceeds of the BHEL disinvestments will be allocated to social development programmes and for the rehabilitation of distressed PSUs, this would however be difficult to substantiate, given the fungible nature of finance. http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2005&leaf=06&filename=8782&filetype=html |
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| << July03, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net] Yogi & Parvez posts |
July05, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net] G 8 & debts,Imrana,Gujarat water,women wihout voice,Pak news >> |
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