CHANDIGARH TRIBUNE PART-II

Overcharged Foreign tourists in India

Foreign tourists in India often find themselves paying higher entry fees than local people at historical monuments and shelling out exorbitant amounts for curios and food.

While a foreigner pays Rs 250 at World Heritage Monuments like the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra and the Qutab Minar in Delhi, the fee for an Indian is just Rs 10. Similarly, at monuments like Hawa Mahal, where Indians pay Rs 5, foreigners are charged 20 times the amount.

"I am a guest in this country, so why am I being charged high prices at every place I visit?" asked Joseph Ramos from the Philippines who was visiting the 13th century Qutab Minar monument. It was his first trip to India.

A German tourist, Heidi Blum, said she had to shell out Rs 30 for a samosa but found out that the snack was available for as little as Rs 5 in most places.

"I can't believe I gave six times the amount that local people pay. This is not right," she said.

Some shopkeepers justify the high prices saying in terms of dollars or euros, it does not amount to much for a foreign tourist. But the fact remains that there is discrimination.

The issue needs to be addressed at a time when the high voltage Incredible India campaign is on to bring more visitors to the country. Nearly 4.5 million foreign tourists came calling last year.

Anshu Vaish, director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which is responsible for the upkeep of monuments in the country, had an explanation.

"The reason for charging more from foreigners and less from Indians is because our national heritage belongs to us and locals should not pay more," she said.

"But making or changing policy (on entry fees) is not in our hands." Vaish also pointed out that entry to many monuments in India was free.

"Out of 3,667 monuments in India, an entry fee is charged at only 150 monuments. The rest have no entry fees for Indians as well as foreigners," she added.

Sudhir Kumar, a tourism official, justified the higher charges for foreigners. "The reason we charge them more is to better maintain the tourist spots and their surroundings," he maintained.

As for exorbitant prices charged by curio shops and eateries near monuments, Vaish said the ASI had no control over it.

"We only take care of the monuments and their surroundings. We don't know who the final authority for (licensing and controlling) the shopkeepers and vendors is," she said.

Leena Nandan, joint secretary in the tourism ministry, echoed Vaish's views.

"We take care of tourist spots and promote culture. We're not responsible for the licensing of shops near the monuments," she said.

"The sale and purchase of goods from these shops is a matter between the seller and the buyer. It has nothing to do with the ministry," Nandan added.

As for the police, they seem to turn a blind eye to foreigners being overcharged.

"I have never heard of any shopkeeper charging more than the printed price of goods. No foreigner has complained to us about it," said a policeman posted at Qutab Minar. — IANS

Atithi Devo Bhavah

It is a social awareness campaign by the Ministry of Tourism aimed at providing the inbound tourist a sense of being welcomed to the country. The campaign targets the general public as a whole, while focusing mainly on the stakeholders of the tourism industry. The main components of the campaign are training and orientation to taxi drivers, guides, immigration officers, tourist police and other personnel directly interacting with the tourists, while simultaneously creating a brand equity for the trained persons.

A hundred years after Sherbet-e- Roohafza, the syrup of the East, was launched in India, a glass of refreshing red drink is still the first choice for millions in Pakistan at Iftar spreads during the holy month of Ramzan.

While the iced and the milk versions are favourites during Ramzan across the country, Generation X loves to have it with a dash of ice cream, coke and even tea.

The classic drink holds its own along side a bevy of fancy beverages that have swarmed Pakistan’s urban markets.

Like dates, ‘pakoras’, ‘chaats’ and ‘dahi bhallas’ that comprise the Iftar meal, it is impossible to ignore the rose syrup during Ramzan.

A dash of Roohafza on ‘falooda’ or ‘feerni’ is what 55-year-old Rafique, a gardener, likes best through the year. But the chilled glass is what he looks forward to during Ramzan.

Twelve-year-old Mehreen mixes her Roohafza with coke. “I add two tablespoons of Roohafza in a can of coke and then add ice. Sometimes, I add soda also,” beamed the sixth grader. “Some of my friends, who find the sherbet very sweet, add lime to make it tangy,” she added.

No wonder, the sales shoots up during the holy month. “We stock up Roohafza ahead of Ramzan as the demand goes up during the month,” said a shop owner in Jinnah Super Market.

The “Mashroob-e-Mashriq” or syrup of the East, as Roohafza was originally known, was launched by Hakeem Abdul Majeed, founder of the Hamdard Laboratories, in Delhi in 1907.

In 1947, Majeed’s younger son Hakim Mohammed migrated to Pakistan. A year later, he established Hamdard Laboratories in Karachi. Majeed’s elder son Hakeem Abdul Hameed stayed on in Delhi to run Hamdard Laboratories India.

Although the genesis of the word Roohafza is not clear, there are several descriptions.

Some claim the word means the invigorator of the soul, while others have called it “Rahat-e-Jahan”, happiness for the body. There are others who claim Roohafza meant, “that which tempts your soul” because “rooh” means soul and “afza” means tempts.

The website says, “Some think that this name is the product of his (the founder’s) mind. Others are of the view that it came from a book of ancient myths. Of such books, one that is very famous is the “Masnavi Gulzar-e-Nasim”. In this book, there is a character named ‘Rooh Afza’, who, according to the writer, was the daughter of Muzaffar Shah, the King of Firdaus (Heaven).” — PTI

At least 51 per cent of Indian women lack proper care during pregnancy and delivery, according to a National Family Health Survey.

The final report of the National Family Health Survey-III (NFHS-3) report, conducted by the health ministry and released on Thursday, said that only 49 per cent of women were attended to by health professionals during childbirth. This means a 7 per cent increase as compared to 1999.

However, the high urban-rural divide in this field is quite evident as the survey found that while 75 per cent of urban women get professional assistance during childbirth, only 39 per cent rural women get such assistance.

Institutional births (childbirth in hospitals) have increased from 34 per cent in 1999 to 41 per cent in 2006, but "most women still deliver their children at home. Only about one-third of women received postnatal care within two days of delivery".

The survey also found that more than three-quarters of pregnant women in India received at least some antenatal care (ANC), but only half of them visited an ANC centre thrice.

However, the report said that infant mortality has dropped to some extent.

While 68 infants used to die for every 1,000 births in 1998-99, the mortality rate has declined to 57.

"There was particularly notable drop in the infant mortality rate in Bihar, Goa, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh," the survey said.

But the situation regarding child immunization rates during this period (1999-2006) has not been very encouraging. Overall, there was only a marginal improvement in full vaccination coverage, with 44 per cent of children in ages 12-23 months receiving all recommended vaccinations, up from 42 per cent seven years ago. — IANS

The absence of Anil Kumble from India's one-day team has put more responsibility on the shoulders of Harbhajan Singh, now the country's leading spinner and a man who feels Twenty20 cricket will kill the art of spin.

"I know I have more responsibilities in the team as a senior bowler and I have to take care of it. I have to be like a guiding force for the young spinners in the team," Harbhajan said in an interview.

Harbhajan (27) is India's most successful off-spinner and after the retirement of veteran leg-spinner Anil Kumble, the offie is now the front line spinner of the team.

"Anil bhai's absence has created a vacuum in the team. But we do have some nice young spinners and they should be given time to mature. A good spinner matures with age," said Harbhajan, the first Indian to take a hattrick in a Test.

"Youngsters like Piyush Chawla and Pragyan Ojha are really talented and I firmly believe that if they are given time they will do the country proud Even when I started my career, I was very average in the first few matches. But then the selectors had faith in me and persisted with me," said the spinner.

But Harbhajan, who was a part of the Twenty20 World Championship winning squad, felt that the new version of the game is going to kill the art of spin.

"This Twenty20 cricket will kill the art of spin. Why only spin, it will also kill the fast bowlers. It is heavily favoured towards the batsmen and especially towards the pinch-hitters. Even if I bowl a good ball it will vanish into the stands for a six. Twenty20 cricket will obviously have its effect on ODIs and Test cricket." In the 2001 home series against Australia, Harbhajan collected 32 wickets in three Tests, including the first Test hat-trick by an Indian. He claimed the hat trick in the second match in a historic Test match in Kolkata.

Harbhajan made his international debut in 1998 and since then he has turned out to be a potential match winner and was also the nemesis for the Australians when they toured India in 2001. He has 238 wickets from 57 Test matches and 176 wickets from 154 ODIs - a record that can forces everyone to take notice of the man from Jalandhar.

Asked about the factors that keep motivating him, Harbhajan said: "I enjoy my game and that's what keeps me motivated. Even when I was dropped I kept bowling more and more and got my form back. The more I bowl, the better I get." When asked whether India is suffering from a Twenty20 hangover, which resulted in their losses at the start of the ongoing series against Australia, Harbhajan said: "No I don't think so. I personally feel that the win is past. For me the thing ended when we won the World Championship on Sep 24." The "Turbanator", as Harbhajan is often called, added: "The only problem is that Australians are batting well. We have to be really good against them."

On the forthcoming series against archrivals Pakistan, Harbhajan said: "It will be a tough series. We have defeated them twice including the final in the Twenty20 World Championship. When we play each other, both the teams are pumped up and it is going to be an exciting contest.

"But the good thing is that before facing Pakistan we are taking on tougher opponents like the Australians. This series will help us to prepare well against the Pakistanis." — IANS

Verbal duels, or sledging, have dominated this whistle-stop India tour by the Baggy Greens, but Australian actor-writer-producer Brendan Cowell is heading for India to make a feature film about the funny side of cricket.

The star of the new Australian film `Noise', Cowell said: "It's going to be funny because it's guys, cricket and India. Cricket is funny. Its chubby men in white pants standing around all fascinated over a hard red sphere, all day long. Also India can be quite the fish-out-of-water experience for those new to it!" Before his maiden visit to India, Cowell says: "I played and loved the game since I was five. For me it's the gentleman's game - a patient, chess-like game in white pants." The film is loosely based on the documentary `Save Your Legs!' -- the true story of the Abbotsford Anglers Cricket Club team who embark on a cricketing odyssey from the Australian suburbs to the sub-continent.

Part human drama, travelogue and comedy, it's a documentary of colourful characters and a clash of cultures.

Cowell says: "I want to make a film about relationships - about male relationships, about those friendships that go back to when we were boys and now, at 30-35 everything changes because things like marriage and kids and renovations take the front seat and the age old collective known as 'the boys' starts to fall away.

"Some guys can't quite cope with this, some can't wait to get away from it.

What happens when the touring comes to an end? What happens as we get older and you can't play cricket every weekend any more?" So amongst all the cricketing nations, why did he choose India for his film? Cowell says: "Lets face it, India is the heart of cricket." During his month-long stay in India, Cowell will visit the 150-year-old Madras Cricket Club besides Varanasi and Kolkata.

He will be meeting a "heady mix of cricket officials, street cricketers and, of course, some Bollywood types. The lead character will be played by an Indian and we intend to cast from both countries". — IANS

Under fire from civil society for its alleged role in the death of Rizwanur Rahman, the image of Kolkata police took a further beating when two police officials were accused of snatching Rs 20,000 from a man who had come to the city for his father's medical treatment.

The incident took place in the Girish Park police station area when two Kolkata police officials - Sergeant Mahan Mukherjee and driver S. Parbat - allegedly stopped a taxi at an intersection and started harassing the driver.

When Ajit Baran Hazra, a passenger, raised his voice against the harassment, the duo slapped him. They also allegedly snatched Rs 20,000 from him.

Hazra lodged a complaint with the police and both the accused officials have been arrested.

"A probe has begun. Criminal proceedings will also begin against the accused officials shortly," Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner (Central Division) Ajoy Ranade said.

Hazra, a resident of Digha in East Midnapore district, had come to Kolkata for the treatment of his ailing father who was admitted to a hospital after a heart attack.

The two were produced in a city court on Thursday. — IANS

Teaming up with an Indian consulting firm, American researchers are hoping to develop, by about 2009, a pest-resistant eggplant that may be the first genetically engineered food crop in South Asia.

An international consortium led by the team has completed the first phase of the project to make the eggplant resistant to tiny larvae that account for up to 40 per cent of eggplant crop losses each year in India, Bangladesh and the Philippines and other areas of South and Southeast Asia.

The engineered eggplant has a natural insecticide derived from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), making it resistant to the fruit and shoot borer (FSB), a highly destructive pest.

The work is part of the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project (ABSP) II, funded by the US Agency for International Development and administered by Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) in partnership with Sathguru Management Consultants of India.

Another partner, Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds, is on schedule to commercialise the genetically modified fruit by 2009, according to Cornell.

Economists from Cornell and other institutions report that the Bt eggplant would result in lower prices for consumers, higher yields for farmers and, by 2015, boost the Indian economy by $411 million and the Bangladeshi economy by $37 million.

Cornell researchers from plant breeding, entomology, molecular biology, applied economics, communication, international programmes and the Cornell Centre for Technology Enterprise and Commercialisation began collaborating on the development of the Bt eggplant in 2002.

Ongoing tests will examine such questions as whether the plant will continue to resist FSB in the field and for how long, whether the Bt eggplant cross pollinates with other eggplants in the field and how far the Bt plants should be from other eggplant fields, whether non target insect populations are affected in the long term, and how yields compare with those of other eggplant varieties.

It is estimated that the Bt eggplant will reduce insecticide use by 30 percent while doubling the yield of marketable eggplants. Eggplant is a popular crop in the subtropics and tropics, especially in India and Bangladesh, where it is grown on about 1.5 million acres.

India and Bangladesh together expect to plant 110,000 acres of the FSB-resistant eggplant commercially by the end of 2010 and 650,000 acres by 2015. — IANS

In China's market economy, the once venerable Mao Zedong's publisher has to rent out office space to keep his firm in the black.

The gleaming office towers in downtown Beijing or the avant-garde Birds' Nest Olympic stadium are touted as the emblems of an unstoppable economic juggernaut. But, perhaps, more than them, the fate of the 56-year-old Beijing Foreign Languages Printing House, once the sole publisher of Chinese Communist Party propaganda, rather aptly reflects the shifting values of the world's largest communist state.

Forty years ago, the government owned printing house was the sole publisher of The Great Helmsman's famous words. Now, a major slice of its revenue comes from leasing out thousands of square metres of office buildings to multinational companies.

The interiors of the Printing House does not seem to have seen many upgrades since it opened its door in 1951. Long, dark corridors, lined with bales of papers, connect fluorescent-lit rooms and the air is filled with the acrid smell of chemicals.

Sitting in an austere conference room, director of the Beijing Foreign Languages Printing House, Zhang Jun, talks about the early days of his firm, when it was the only factory to produce party literature and tomes on communist political theories.

"Then, most of the task was given by the government," Zhang said modestly. In fact, the government firm published millions of books and periodicals on communism and state propaganda in about 50 foreign languages, which were exported to 150 countries. Their bestseller of all times was, of course, "Selected works of Mao Tse-Tung", in both its Chinese and English editions, the latter, of course, exclusively meant for a foreign audience.

Showing a group of visiting Indian women journalists across his factory, Zhang was coy about revealing the number of copies of Mao's selected works that his firm had printed and sold over the year. "When this factory was the only publisher of the book, the amount (of copies) was very, very big," he said.

Incidentally, the Red Book, which is the second largest selling single volume after the Bible, was a culled version of quotations from the "Selected Works".

But his firm lost the monopoly for being the party's voice in the seventies and the number of orders for Mao's "Selected Works" came down drastically. To remain profitable, it had go into different avenues, printing periodicals and textbooks for schools and colleges.

After 1978, with the Chinese economic reforms opening up the country, Mao's publishers found another lucrative source of revenue.

As a key player in the Chinese government's propaganda plans, it had been allotted extensive grounds in Beijing's commercial district. But, consequent to its shrinking work order and staff, large swathes of its plot became vacant. In the new capitalist economy, empty space is an instant money-spinner with Chinese and foreign companies snapping them up swiftly.

"We now lease out 30,000 square metres of office space to outside firms," Zhang said, adding that about a third of its annual revenue of about 20 million yuan (approx $2 million) - comes from real estate.

Mao does have a role in modern China, but only as kitschy trinkets for hordes of foreign tourists - his face is emblazoned on t-shirts, cigarette lighters and his outstretched hand turned into a seconds hand inside a red desk clock. Foreigners have become the largest buyers for Mao's red books too, some of them touted under the gaze of his giant portrait overlooking Tiananmen Square.

Interestingly, the government printing press continues to print Mao's "Selected works", but only in limited editions. Besides, it has also added the 'works' of Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin to its pantheon of Chinese communist leaders.

While Mao's words may still be published from its machines, his "works" have steadily become more expensive over the years - a reflection of decline in government subsidy and interest in Maoist ideology.

"Earlier, the book was sold for just one yuan. Now, it costs 30 yuan," Zhang said. — IANS