Reflecting on Muda (Japanese for waste, futility, purposelessness)

I was reading "Natural Capitalism, and I stopped on the word, "Muda", part of the title of Natural Capitalism, Chapter 7 ("Muda, Service and Flow") which also connects its meaning with the content of Chapter 3 ("Waste Not").

"Muda" was not the first word I pondered and mused. This book "Natural Capitalism" is so engagingly well-written that, paradoxically, I have difficulty through-putting it through my mind. There's hardly a sentence which doesn't ring bells of associatve resonances and I am diverted into listening and savoring those sounds. That is how successful the authors have been in writing this book.

So as I pondered and mused over the word , I wondered if it had been accurately rendered in the Roman script. Do the Japanese really pronounce it to rhyme with "coulda" as in the colloquial "I coulda dunnit"? Then it came to me--an "echo":

There's a word in Sanskrit (and several Indian languages) "Moodha." It connotes stupid, uninformed, irresponsible, slow, unintelligent, wilful, proud, deaf, lacking consciousness / conscience / sympathy, being unresponsive or insensitive etc. etc.

Ghamachchhanna drishti ghamachchhannamarkam,
yathaa nishprabham chaati moodha

For an Indian like me, every time I come across something said with considerable brilliance and apparent originality, my unfortunate focus is to first make a connection with something said in the past--to cock my ear up for a time-skip echo--and then to communicate it in a manner which, at best, is only tangentially relevant and at worst, is tiresome even to me. Still the addiction is so hardwired, few can kick the habit. I only hope some catalyzing good can come out of these imposition.

For instance, a shloka-shubhaashitam in Sanskrit could be of interest to the advocates of resource-productivity and the opponents of Muda / moodha-behaviour, or biomimicry. It goes :

Amantram aksharonaasti, naastimoolam anaushadham
Ayogyah purushonaasti, yojakastatra durlabha

"There's no sound / alphabetical letter which can't become a mantra,
there is no rooted plant which can't become a medicine
and there is no human who is incompetent.
All one needs is appropriate design and organization"

In my frequent moments of quiet frustration with the current situation here (which, in Bucky Fuller's words, "Teach us to assume, as closely as possible, the view point, the patience and competence of God"} I have commented elsewhere,

"Instead of inventing and producing what we need, we get into the habit of inventorying and debating what our ancients left behind them. Since our culture prides itself in being hoary, the inventorying never gets done. Someone, somewhere, appears to always leave something out and count goes back again and always to the Vedas."


-- From a letter Vyom Akhil sent to the authors of Natural Capitalism, Sunday April 9, 2000

Echoes of Natural Capitalism in Hindu Philosophy

I have recently been attempting to "echo," or report on the "echoes" of Amory Lovins' in ancient Hindu thinking.

I wish I were more competent than I am, in explaining the echo in English. Perhaps, like most people in the "west" you were not given an adequate opportunity to learn a culturally different language as I had. In my more frustrating moments I have called this the 'traumatizing monolingualism of the Anglo-Saxon'; this has two unfortunate and obvious consequences:
(a) Having to learn first a language-system which is explained ad nauseum as wholly illogical, reflexively repulses a person to learn any other language{In the experience-based belief that all languages will make you go through the same horrid routine - a non -phonetic script. A grammar which has more exceptions than rules, a given -etymology which is more often suspect than not, etc. Amy Uyematsu, a third generation Californian poet, once said, "English is a language whose words have no memory." and (b) the expectation then is that Universe must render itself in that language in a comprehensible manner; otherwise it would be presumed to be wild / weird / chaotic / savage / pagan / barbaric / frightening / untrustworthy. etc.

To me, English is one of the several languages I speak - I'm fairly fluent in at least half a dozen, all others from this subcontinent. In comparison, I find English good for a few things, unsatisfactory for many more. I am quite sure I shall be dissatisfied by my own efforts at rendering the 'echo' to you. Why then am I expending time and energy on this? I like you and I like the work all of you are doing there. If it's allowed, call it a labor of love, if you will.

Literally translated in Sanskrit / Hindi / Oriya / Bengali / Gujarati / Maraathi, etc., Natural Capitalism will be "Praakritik Poonjivaad." But the word used for a financial system in 'Artha-Tantra' (I have never liked the idea of tagging 'tantra' to most bureaucratese translation; Democracy is, for instance, Loka-tantra, A Republc is Ganatrantra and so on. Even Mahatma Gandhi did not like this official stupidity which is a mouthful anyway but could not, in this matter, prevail).

In previous writings I hinted that the English word for this planet sounds no different from the Sanskrit word for money. However, that word, usually spelt in English as , is also a tad more popularly used for conveying the meaning of the English word . Unlike the English word for this planet, the Sanskrit word takes on the prefix to become . It then gets used to convey what we try to convey when we use the English words such as . Thus one can say, for instance, "Hitler's brand of Aryanism did a lot of anartha." Artha has many derivatives like arthavaan, aarthik, artha-neeti and the two latter words relate to the sense of English words Arthaabhaav conveys lack of money or low-cash -flow. Samartha means 'capable' while asamartha' means 'helpless'. So in the new light of the associatively resonating 'echo' Arthavaad can convey not only Natural Capitalism but an 'ism' which is pro-Earth. In fact, some wise Sanskrit heads (who will allow that in the past when the word Artha might also have stood for this planet, might have traveled abroad with its meaning which was later attenuated and restricted back home) would approve of Natural Capitalism, provided that it was indeed pro-Mother(earth).

I shall offer two extra words that fascinate me. The words for business and industry used here are vyaapaar and udyog without realization that vyaap inherently means expansion and encompassment. (Those who do call themselves businessmen or vyaapaari do not focus on this essential requirement of their activities and are confined to what in the U.S. used to be called hole-in-the-wall Mom & Pop stores.)

I suspect 'industry' still carries the memory of its origin (did the industrial activity really take off on the banks of the Indus river in the so-called Iron age? The 'tri' used in the word is quite profound in Sanskrit and I may come to it some other time.) The second word, though seldom understood via the meaning of its obvious components, 'Ud + yog' is actually quite a terrific word for 'ud' means and 'yog' is the same word commonly spelt in English as . Udyog thus can be shown to stand for 'enhanced connectivity' which is what the information-age is all about, right? So, in a way, can help bring back to the people here the meanings of the words they use without understanding (antar+sthaan!) what profound and, if understood, behavior changing, meanings they carry.

Oliver Sparrow, of Chatham House, London, says all of the world production in 1898 is now done in two months; by 2005 he trends it at one week; all of the business conducted in 1949, he says, is now conducted in a day; all of the Science in 1960, in a day today, all of the 1990 e-mail in a day and, in 2020, in an hour. That, if not subverted by all manner of vested interests who are little more than false-security seeking fear-mongers, is, indeed 'Udyog' .That RMI and your book are able to persuade mutlinationals that there's profit (another word probably derived from the Sanskrit 'Praapti' which also begot 'property' in English and 'paripati'-meaning routine in Hindi} in interconnecting human activity with the real capital wealth (W=I+2E) of this planet is 'udyog' in the true sense of the word.

Raymond W. Baker & Jennifer Nordin corrected, at the Brooking Institute in 1998, the Global Disparity Ratio from 74:l to l35:l. A major correction, what? (Meanwhile last year's UNDP Report carries the earlier calculation.) They say such disparity is unsustainable. One can agree that as methods improve and are fine-tuned wealth-creation will cease to be a major problem (At 10,000,000,000 metric tons per person at 6.5 billion pop. the planet has enough not only for Man but for all life if we stop being destructive, spending as we currently do, a trillion USD a year on our weaponry capers whereas commitment only of a fourth of this, per the World Games Institute for about 10-30 years will take care of most major problems.) Where the advocates of can start focusing is, in showing multi-nationals that there is even greater profit in rapidly and comprehensively distributing the wealth. (Didn't someone say "Money is like manure. If you stack it up it stinks. If you spread it around it'll help things grow.")

Currently the elite structures of the advanced nations where most of the multinationals still feel psychologically rooted, are slow in retiring their own bureaucracies, which, in turn, have spawned even more macabre Gorgon-heads in the developing nations; we still have votaries of the 'trickle-down' and to the multiplying poor, it trickles down more like a leaky faucet, slow maddening drop, then a long, maybe five-year pause, then another maddening drop. Such developmental approaches simply magnify disparity. I sometimes say popular aspirations are growing even faster than population and the disparity - at 135:1 - guarantees violence, terrorism crime and all the rest which comes around to where the gun-runners are rubbing their hands. This vicious circle has to be broken by a quantum change in the methods of distribution.

There is Sanskrit-sutra which translates: Gather with a hundred hands. Distribute with a thousand One. Thare's natural capitalism for you - a grain of rice, when appropriately broadcast (distributed!) produces ten more. Instead of a pile of skulls, we need to see a pile to which all the begging bowls have been consigned. Orissa State is economically perceived as divided as east and west. People in western part of Orissa feel they have been exploited and parasited upon by the coastal/eastern people; today's paper says area of land under irrigation in W. Orissa in 1947 was 21% of total; fifty years later they find 26%. The question asked is, where did all the agricultural development money go? And if that is all one has to show for it, why was the money spent in the first place? People below the poverty-line constitute 48.6% of the population. A lot of land is barren and there is some afoot to encourage people to plant bamboo. (There was plenty of bamboo here in the past; then a paper mill came in, made its packet and now is shut and there are several thousands unemployed in that area.) About 90% of the population here is rural.

John Scully (Pepsi to Reagan to Apple} said somewhere in his book "Odyssey" apropos the US economy during the 60s, that the planning was OK and thorough; it was the perspective which was defective. And I think it still is true. This 1998 newspaper item I have says "Looking ahead to the year 2000, the World Bank expects poverty in Asia - people on one USD or less to double." (Note the word 'expect'. I thought they used 'fear' in such cases.) I belong to that "dollar a day" tribe - one breakfast and one dinner a day, that's about 25 cents total - one pair of clothes, a 35 year old bicycle which was stolen last year, no known or unknown sustainable source of sustenance - who by some quirk of randomness is able to communicate with you. (Anger. I find bad-luck isn't a big deal in these parts when I look at what is around me. It is nothing if not Nature's miraculous Will which allows me contact with you via a medium and a language convenient to you.)

I had once the need to create a one-page primer of modern world history. At the end of the hundred-hour sweat I was able to point out "Prosper(ity) wasn't derived from a Shakespearean character's name and neither does 'Government' have Greek etymological roots. In Sanskrit, 'Paraspar' means 'mutual' and 'Guru + mantra' suggests an advisory and not a regulatory function. For advice to act sustainably in the desired direction, demonstrations of technological prowess etc. are unnecessary; all one needs is the moral force of the equation which keeps the so-called self at the bottom of the heap; after all that is what the Sanskrit word Sarva (all) + Sva (self) = Sarvasva, from which the English word 'Service' is derived means.

- Excerpt from an email from Vyom Akhil to Amory Lovins, author of Natural Capitalism. Jan 20, 2000.

Global CogniMaps aka Links-shower 07jun25-July01

This Global CogniMap aka Links-shower is prefaced by some of my thoughts, in the English language - Roman script, QWERTY keyboard - on Outsourcing Memory.

A devilish brew for the mind, ERQ certainly does not make an agreeable combination for me and I never cease to be mystified why it dominates global discourse.

If I were an Indian Harry S Truman, I'd have no hesitation in ordering that ERQ be nuked to save the English speaking people from their own language habits.

Can anyone tell me how Capitalism and market forces shot down the Dvorak keyboard?...

Okay, tune-up's done. I now dive into OM.

Words, said the late R Buckminster Fuller, are memorials to past victories of mutual understandings.

Fine. correct. And I like to play with these memorials; rearrange them, push them around, break them up and join them in a new configuration.

All of this is affordable to anyone who can't even make a dollar-a-day because these invaluable memorials cost nothing and they don't need batteries. Except for a very few - a few thousands, maybe - many are found to be unpatentable.

I take the word 'word', and, slowly, carefully, I slide in the letter 'l' in between the 'r' and the 'd' and... hey presto! - in one L(eap) I go from 'word' to 'world'

Makes you want to go back and ask God, "Did you do it that way, too?"

In the beginning was the word and it was with God, says the Bible, then it skips the crucial line 'And He inserted L in the Word - L as in Lionel, or, if you prefer, 'Light' - and then all the rest of the 'tiresome' stuff got created...

I call it 'tiresome' because many people who shouldn't, think living a life in the world is a frustrating ordeal, Hindoos not excepted.

Others can't get off the gorge-consume-waste-devastate treadmill even when everyone can clearly see they endanger the Spaceship on which they are 'doing their thing' and believe it's kool. Nero playing his harp while Rome was burning is not a strong enough example.

Amongst the Indic cultures which spread across most of Asia, and once influenced those in the so-inappropriately-called 'Middle East', there's this classic, many-versioned story of the monk/sadhu teaching a lesson to a greedy hedonistic king.

Carrying a human skull for a begging bowl, he presents himself to the avaracious hedon.

The King says, "With so many holes in your begging bowl, I can never fill it up for you."

The monk says, "I am glad you noticed the holes."

The Sanskrit aphorist says, "Our desires do not grow old, but we do."

Coming back to the word/world memorial game, it doesn't really matter whether the L got inserted or not. God might have done it more cleverly because He had more words to play with than those merely in the English language.

I recall reading somewhere that there were five ways you could tag a word in Sanskrit; Latin could do so three ways. These word-tags are apart, of course, from the general prefixing and suffixing that we tack on them.

I have been told that the need to invent this tagging method arose when they had to figure out a way to not merely communicate orally, but to be able to do so accurately.

The way to ensure this was to arrange words in a lyrical way. When the heard sound was memorized any errors in the process would show up in recitation because the meter would break.

This communicational method came to be known as Avadhänam and those who practice and become adept at it, they are able to demonstrate amazing feats of memory.

A few years ago, a language lab in the U S found that, at birth, every normal healthy human baby has the potential to become fluent in eight languages. This is supportive of the minimal 8-way Açtävadhänam - or, "paying attention to, or, thinking in eight domains at the same time."

That thousands of years later, so much has come down to us verbatim in Sanskrit with very little error makes me use USAianSpeak and say, "Never before was so much accomplished with so little". Perhaps, never has yet been, not withstanding the amazing wonders of the Cyber Age.

What the word-tagging did was to allow you to move and sequence it any you wanted within the sentence. The idea was to create and propagate those that could kind of bootstrap themselves into human memory and could be poetically recited in rhyme and meter.

That is what manŧras are all about. Many of them are beautiful paeans (sŧûŧi) to Life, its intoxicating existential experience and its ever expanding wisdom and understanding, often coded as walking conversations with the gods*.

You come up with funny coincidences when you are allowed to play with words in this manner. For instance, sŧûŧi + manŧra = Sŧûŧimanŧra; and then you slur to get 'Statement', or, when similarly slurred, you get 'Government' from gûrûmanŧra = gûrû + manŧra

I'll take one more slurred example before the lexicographers jump on me. When I recently heard a recording in which the phrase "A system has to minimally have six components" occurred, my Sanskrit went into overdrive and I found that a word I shall spell - shashta - for convenience because 's' sound at both places is glottal and it is written with a tailed C, like Ç.

Shashta or Çaçta means 'six' and you tag it with an 'm' sound - Çaçtam - and it means the 'sixth', or a grouping of six.

So, now how long will it take anyone to slur from Çaçtam to 'System'? Knowing Sanskrit, the word 'System' ceases to be a bogey and you can move on without having to explain that it is minimally six-componented.

Of the 16 such 'systems' that, when synergistically interconnected, constitute, per a Sanskrit mantra, human intelligence - or, bûđđhi (a word with many derivatives including 'Bûđđha' and 'Bôđh' as in 'Bôđhi Tree') - only one is memory; the English word goes and becomes 'memorial' as in "memorials to past victories of mutual understandings".

I'll take up the other fifteen systems that constitute human intelligence later because all of this is my way of introducing the link shower below.

While Jesus may be carrying the burden of our sins, we humans, I believe, have had to carry through the ages the ever-increasing burden of memories ever since we became aware. This burden grew and grew with each passing moment to the point where someone observed that of the sixty seconds in a minute most humans spent 59 in the past, i.e. remembering, and the remaining one in the future. Rarely were they 'here', in the present.

Luckily, humans have lately - thanks to improved data encryption, storage, retrieval, transmission and accessing technologies - become somewhat more efficient in 'outsourcing' their memories.

But someone once missed a lunch appointment because his cellphone didn't remind him. He had access to a radio program to tell the world about it. The program invites listener-feedback and I sent mine. They then called and recorded it in my own voice and let the world listen to that.

As many have moved away from listening to radios, or even listening to them online, this icon will get you to a 44-sec audio capsule of my opinion on 'outsourcing memory'.

The links below do not require you to either access the content or, by memorizing them, store them in your mind. You are allowed to be 'forgetful'. Half the letters of a word and a click on [Find] will get you the location and clicking on it will get you the content on demand.

*The link will reach you to the website of a performing duo of two young sisters from Sparks, Nevada, Andrea Devi Forman & Sara Anjuli Forman who mysteriously began chanting Sanskrit at age 7 and 9 and, in their twenties now, haven't stopped doing so on stage or, off it.

YouTube _______ iTunes

TECHNOLOGY
Net growth prompts privacy update
Apple's iPhone makes it to stores

iPhone draws diverse queue

Apple iPhone faces serious rivals
"Wait was worth it for Apple's iPhone" - say buyers

Touch technology comes of age?

Whiteboard projector safety fears

Cyber-bullying gathers pace in US

Social sites battle for new users
Social sites reveal class divide

Nintendo to open up Wii console
BBC web downloads set to launch
EC threat to BBC over downloads

Two-tiered net could be coming

Supercomputer steps up the pace

Private-eye hackers are convicted

'Day of silence' for US web radio

'Violent' game ad condemned

The Tech Lab: Niklas Zennstrom

The Tech Lab: Dave Winer

Cultural past of the digital age
Piracy police raid Honeywell site
Private detective agency that snooped for wealthy clients
What the IT industry providers need to do - B V Jagadeesh
Job advertising - Second Life to Shpping Center sculptures
An intelligent dummy that helps
Wi-Fi, Wi-Max - Or MILTON?
How mobiles could beat queues in Rome
Milton who? MILTON What?
Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz imagines the 'internet of things'
Are non Euro-USAians getting a bill of connectivity goods?
Is MILTON best for affordable Wi-Fi conectivity in rural areas?
Some Koreans become famous for their gaming skills
Brain game pulled over offensive language
Google has added a PowerPoint viewer to Gmail
2nd & 3rd-tier offshore cos threat to India - ForresterR VP
Bangalore generates 6-8,000 tons of e-waste annually
India's IT and BPO could fall 30 per cent in four years
TCS, Infosys, Wipro etc hiring aggressively in the U S
DH CyberPage 07jun27 E News CYBER STOP
E utilities Page for more info on the following freeware
DL Xenu's Link Sleuth to find broken links(404 Error)
DL 6.26 MB Opera, v. 9.21, for Windows
DL Synergy & use one mouse & keyboard on multi-PCs
DL JetAudio Basic's new version
DL "After Work" & erase online and offline history
Mac tips and tricks TT KnwHow Page 07 June 25
TT-KnowHow's following MacDownloads info Page
DL iSquint free iPod encoder for Mac
DL standard modem scripts for Mac
DL Apple's Safari browser for Windows
Mark Shuttleworth explains Ubuntu
Ubuntu "Fiesty Fawn" praised by Bill Thompson
Chilean village hypes Wi-Fi but has problems

Apple's iPhone hits US stores

Bid to salvage stricken ship

BBC launches download player
Wireless ok, but Chilean village Net-Access still hobbled
iPhone web surfing demo


HEALTH
Brain cancer drug hope from frogs
Health plan for China's poor

IVF hope for child cancer cases
Israeli scientists extract eggs from young girls

Egg freezing boosts baby chances

Longest frozen embryo baby born

First baby from lab-matured egg BBC Guide: IVF
Food allergy molecule found
Clues to stress-infertility link
England smoking ban takes effect
Prions key in Alzheimer's disease
Autism symptoms reversed in lab
Echinacea 'can prevent a cold'

For gall bladders, surgical removal is best
Lethal legacy of tank-busting uranium dust

Proteins in cells are like multi-tasking mothers
Bird flu: reducing vaccine dosage to cover more people

Lintercytex claims lab-grown skin will heal wounds

Drugs being diverted for abuse: UN official

Boy surgeon: Patients shifted from hospital

Pfizer wins early Nigeria battle
Antibiotics use in babies linked to asthma
Children should be immunised against rotavirus

Surgeon appointed as minister

Obesity to fuel Alzheimer's rise

IVF clinic raids ruled 'unlawful'

Vitamin C 'benefits diabetics'

New stem cell could aid research

Heart transplant joy for baby Zoe
'Silent' brittle bone genes found

Superfood 'ban' comes into effect

Four hours of travel 'a DVT risk'

Cerebral palsy children 'happy'

'Better test' for cervical cancer
Team claims synthetic life feat

New stem cell could aid research
Doctors back 'easier' abortions

Egypt forbids female circumcision
Dementia patients can make safe drivers

The scheme helping China's rural poor pay for healthcare
Why it matters whether you're an apple or pear
Whiteboard projectors can pose a threat to vision
Benefits and risks of CT body scans
Kazakh HIV medics found guilty
Scan to Replace mammography?
What to do when children refuse to eat
Why does hair turn grey? Lab report
Rocks for arsenic Cucumber is sweet
Battling dementia - Help from a U S based Indian scientist
Medical radiation exposure is dangerously high in India
Oasis to reach health benefits to the underprivileged
E-health gateway for consumers
Indian rural tele-medicine project won a UN award
Award winning Soros-supported tele-medicine via cellphone
Jiva Teledoc 10/174 provided Ayurvedic medicine in Haryana
Big Apple's (New York's) vertical farming
Farm milk everyday keeps asthma away
When food is fuel Ethanol from sweet sorghum
A sweet sorghum hybrid that yields both fuel and food
Address to locate Mango harvesting device
Upto 10 milk-litres from Mehsana buffalo breed
Rashes Vitilgo Black spots Dandruff Hairloss Answers
Concern for a sick child' led to bettering the community's lot
A diet pill that swells in the stomach to stop hunger pangs
DVT risk doubles after four hours


SCIENCE/NATURE
Europe readies huge space truck
Piranha 'less deadly than feared'
New e-waste recycling laws begin
Climate fight needs chemical engineers, not carbon credits

Finding the right chemistry

A smart way to save energy?

Autism symptoms reversed in lab

Cern particle lab schedule slips

Autism symptoms reversed in lab
Echinacea 'can prevent a cold'

Cern particle lab schedule slips

'Find of century' for Egyptology

Tracking plan for rare India croc

'Ghost fishing' killing seabirds

Heatwaves will 'boost death rate'

Tunguska crater claim made
Mid East 'origin of domestic cat'

Tropical giant penguin discovered

Hidden trail Tracking a lone Arctic wolf to its den
Recreating epic Viking voyage across the North Sea
'First west Europe tooth' found
Charity supporting poor farmers attacks rush for biofuels
Europe's big, & complex spacecraft prepares for launch
Space shuttle programme: the way ahead
Is it the death of Dead Sea?
New dam threatens land once rich in gold
Answer to a question on bicycle spokes
Space probes to put Einstein to test

Team claims synthetic life feat

'Space hotel' test craft launched

UN warning on desertification

Nasa readies for asteroid mission
DNA traces origin of domestic cat to the Fertile Crescent
/dnld/pdcst on iPhoneWirelessVeniceHackersDayTuesday

Apple's iPhone hits US stores

Bid to salvage stricken ship

BBC launches download player
Debate over the merits of biofuels


BUSINESS
Equity firm targets Virgin Media

Virgin Media stems viewer losses

NTL renames itself Virgin Media

Japanese business confidence firm
Hong Kong's wealth has soared since the handover

Fresh bid rumours lift Alitalia

UK interest rates tipped to rise

Bush aims for Congress trade deal

Fresh strike hits Post Office

Sports Direct raises Everlast bid

Union approves Delphi rescue plan

Petrol pressure drives oil price
Pfizer wins early Nigeria battle
Private-equity takeovers of UK firms could continue
Bradley Horowitz imagines the 'internet of things'

Infosys gains on 'Capgemini bid'

World Bank loan for India farmers

QE2 set to become floating hotel

Qatar 'eyes Sainsbury's takeover'
Japanese inflation lower in May
Smokers party until the dawn of England's tobacco ban
Nigerian banks to refuse to take unpopular new coins
Landmark Moscow chocolate factory to make way for flats
Australian firm Coles accepts bid
Fopp closes down its 105 stores
Thaksin boosts stake in Man City

Largest Canada takeover agreed

US-South Korea trade pact signed

Israel releases Palestinian funds

German shoppers spend less in May
French jobless at 25-year low
Infosys gains on 'French bid'
China anger over US seafood ban
"Wait was worth it for Apple's iPhone" - say buyers

Is the petroleum ministry favouring Mukesh Ambani's RIL?
Iran-India-Pak accord on fee for carrying gas
Tata Steel to set up titanium dioxide project in Tuticorin
Venezuela oil loss put at $4.5bn
Ryanair's Air Lingus bid blocked
Two Indian cos raise over $4 b in NYSE
Saudi Tele picks 25% in Maxis
HP mulls new GPS phones
Dell launches new notebooks
CIT joins hands with MindTree
Israeli firm floats arm in Blore
Mahindra-Renault launches 2 variants of Logan
State Bank of India expansion needs Rs 50,000 crore
Indian banks are finding it hard to find people to lend
Profits, global pressures - India Inc adopts cleaner technology
India can be an easy target for bio-terrorism
Government/industry nexus gives leeway to Union Carbide
Koreans protest over trade pact
Foreign tobacco firms target China's 350 million smokers
Link to Economics Journalist Daniel Altman's website
Texting 'NEWS BUSINESS to 81010' gets biz news on phone
David Altman on Globalization
David Altman on US-China-India

New life for milk float firms

Buy-to-let discount criticism

Postal workers in pay strike
Nicholas Nassim Taleb interview online until Sunday
Sales slump sparks fears for Guinness

Climate-Environment-Development
Greek forest fire close to Athens
Cyprus fights huge blaze
Tracking plan for rare India croc
Australia farmers' drought strain

China farmers battle the elements
World Bank loan for India farmers
Climate fight needs chemical engineers, not carbon credits
Bald eagle soars again India refineries told to clean up
Uganda tackles the blight of plastic bags with legislation
Miners digging for gems in Madagascar - AudoSlideshow
India can be an easy target for bio-terrorism
The Double Edge Of Globalization
Kashmir's Dal Lake is at the last gasp
Bhagirathi to be tamed for power
Desertification 'threat to millions'
UN issues desertification warning
Wilderness almost non-existent on the planet, says study
Link to Life synthesizer - Venter institute Listen Link Below
Link to Brazil Climate Congress organizers - LLB
Link to Oxford Zoology for New Stem Cells LLB
Link to Cambridge SurgeryDept & MedResearchInstt LLB
SyntheticLifeBrazilClimateCongressNewStemcellsCatsFriday
Learn all about the invention of batteries until Wednesday
Report Uganda plastic bags nuisance until Thursday


Lifestyle-Features-Cultre-Arts-Literature
Gold shoes and combat gear at the Paris menswear show
India's highest paid star steers its most expensive film
Living Goddesses of Nepal await rule on their future
Shetty to star in London musical
Irish unfazed by smoke-free pubs
Journalist's beating focuses on 1990s Hungarian oil scandal

Fresh bid rumours lift Alitalia

German shoppers spend less in May
Red Fort joins UN heritage list

'Neighbours effect' tried on Japan
In the U S melting pot, English only please
Rio favela fashion wows catwalks
Charged Nasa woman 'had no nappy'
'Bullet-headache' man's wife held

Venezuelan viewing habits changed by Real-life drama
Amateur on a fold-up bike take on the Tour de France?

BBC's experiment in journalism's future
Headlines From The Heartland—Reinventing The Hindi Public Sphere - by Ram Sharan Joshi Book Review by Sevanti Ninan
The Self, Out There -Indian photography in distant shores
New-age realities make urban Indians settle for one kid only
Three handy books that let you master cooking overnight
Kathakali, is slowly losing its original identity
UNESCO renames Auschwitz Alarm: Iraqi heritage in danger
India's Red Fort on World Heritage list
Seven Rules for Making a (Science) Movie
Why did Mohsin Hamid write The Reluctant Fundamentalist?
A 20th century classic remembered (didn't reveal which one)
Whitewash mocks Indian middle class pretensions
Blurb Info Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea
Eyecatch Black with Equal Collaborators ATouch of Brightness
The Children of Turin mythologizes the self
"Bangalore didn't suddenly become "silicon Valley"
Bangalore city in three-quarter profile
New Testament recycled A book on Naxalite violence
Three books that provide a fresh look into the events of 1857
Harry Potter for adults Salma Ahmed's autobiography
Wonderful world of children From the page to the stage
Gommateshwara statue - a testimony to Jain devotion
Australia's Great Ocean Road winds through a kaleidoscope
Myth, meaning and modernity Highbrow column
Reluctant writer who disapoint after initial promise
"Nabokov's Butterfly" 'peccadilloes' etymology
Paulo Coelho's fanmail is fanatic but he is not
"I will never apologise for deserting the U S army.."
Czech composer Jaroslav Jezek -Biography + other info
Czech Music Musem: Blue Room (in Czech)
Mughal India, warts and all Nehru revisited
Voices from the neighbourhood Goa - one unending fiesta
"I owe.. one apology only.. to the people of Iraq"
"I deserted an injustice..." Joshua Key AWOL
Gandhi-son relationship now on celluloid
Indian male singer in burqa row
Learning while working and earning
Studying Abroad Studying in India Reviews Books Movies Art
Supplements: Avenues Education Open Sesame Living
Fine Art / Culture Articulations Spectrum She
Godavari - A tale of two rivers
A A mamboodiri's life & poetry inseparable
Shiela Kumar's post card has "A fruitfuil affair" in Singapore
Shashi Tharor is "Imagining India"
R Guha speaks of "A philosopher, witty and wise"
Sevanti Ninan is "Changing worth ethics" in media
Concern for a sick child' led to bettering the community's lot
For the Indian publishing world romance is in the air
In"The Mighty Heart "Danny has a cameo in his own murder" "Salman Rushdie transformed into a weak-voiced celebrity"
Monster spouses ruining Indian immigrant women's lives
"How To Placate An Angry Naga" by Leena Nandan and Jiwesh Nandan reviewed by Bhaskar Ghose
Namdeo Dhasal—"Poet Of The Underworld", Poems 1972-2006 Selection, introduction, translation by Dilip Chitre Photographs by Henning Stegmuller Review Shanta Gokhale
Seven Rules for Making a (Science) Movie
Link to BBC Glastonbury Festival site Link to "Live Earth"
Link to first JFOC smokers' pod in the UK
Link to skin-eating fish beauty treatment
Link to R & G UK singer NY's website
Outsourcing memory - an opinion
An introductory interview with the Icelandic group Amiina
Amiina the 146-instrument icelandic group live on KEXP
Let your player loop this soothing Glass Harp segment
Report on Islamic Calvinism until Sunday
Sacked for public-hug: Female Pak minister until Friday
P Goodson on Jaroslav Jezek's blues obsess until Friday
Rich and varied life of Britain's faith communities1-3 "
Glastonbury+CameroonRapper+R&G'sNyLive until Thurs
Schindler's Ark authorThomas Keneally takes queries Tues


World News
Denmark-Germany bridge agreed
Cyprus fights huge blaze
French jobless at 25-year low
Europe readies huge space truck
Irish unfazed by smoke-free pubs

Fresh bid rumours lift Alitalia
Superfood 'ban' comes into effect
Portugal takes on EU presidency
How mobiles could beat queues in Rome
Modern-day Vikings set sail from Denmark

German shoppers spend less in May
EU 'faces backlash from Turkey'
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink's murder trial
US to name Muslim states envoy
Nepal to probe 'disappearances'
Castro blasts CIA on spy papers

US envoy goes missing in Cyprus

Canada phone firm in takeover

Terminal evacuated at NY airport
Barack Obama raises more funds than Hillary Clinton
China anger over US seafood ban

Canada natives in day of protests
Tribal arrests at US reservation
Argentine First Lady Cristina Kirchner is to run for president
Any Kennebunkport in a storm

UN closes Iraq WMD inspectorate

US-led raids 'kill 26' in Baghdad

US troops face murder charges

Sunnis to boycott government

Israeli finance minister resigns

Chavez in talks with Iranian ally
Iraqi Israelis remember Babylon
Press mulls Blair UN Quartet role
Blair's Middle East challenge
Blair faces a tough job as envoy to Israel & Palestinians
Israel model for Iraq, says Bush
Israel president sex case delayed
Iran bans negative petrol stories
Gaddafi urges pan-African state
Africa plans largest game park
Zimbabwe to cut prices 'by half'
Relative of an African king killed in Iraq
Nigerian refugee becomes mayor
On Kenya's backstreet abortions - opinions divide
In Djibouti, all-expenses-paid mass wedding
Found in Senegal, 1.2 tons of cocaine on ghost ship
Burmese junta's Olive Green Democracy B Raman
Ehud Olmert is the opposite of Midas - Uri Avnery
US and China's silent proxy war in Pakistan - R Puri

Indian girl stumbles on US racial quota rules

Leave Lanka to handle its affairs: Pak envoy

Gaps in N-deal not problematic: India

Cyclone batters Pak coast

Pakistanis homeless after cyclone

Prepare for war with US: Chavez to army
South Korea tycoon jailed for attacking karaoke bar staff

Secret chamber found inside the Chinese imperial tomb

Red Cross condemns Burma

Potter star greets Japanese fans

Special police for Beijing games

US halts Chinese seafood imports

Japan ex-leader Miyazawa dies
Koreans protest over trade pact
Foreign tobacco firms target China's 350 million smokers
Australia farmers' drought strain

'Neighbours effect' tried on Japan

Health plan for China's poor

China farmers battle the elements

Aborigine plan stirs controversy

Pope rallies split Chinese flock

China anger over US seafood ban
China's president ditches suit and tie in energy-saving drive
Karzai orders bomb deaths probe Who are the Taleban?
Pakistan hit by more flash floods
Flood victims face uncertain future in Balochistan

Bad weather foils Pakistan rescue

Pakistanis in Italy murder trial

Pair facing Tamil Tigers charges

S Lanka rejects death probe claim

'Briton' being held in Pakistan

Kabul limos prove hit with locals

B'desh digital vote experiment

Aid failings 'hit Afghan progress'

Sharp practice of melting coins

Human cost of Karachi storm

Long haul against Taleban

Afghanistan's drugs tightrope

Afghan mortgage revolution
Bail for Pakistan 'same-sex' pair
Aid pleas after Pakistan cyclone
David Altman on US-China_India
Australia Aborigines on child abuse scandal

INDIA

Big Mac and milkshakes help expose tax fraud
Infosys gains on 'French bid'
Thirteen die in Kashmir clashes
India refineries told to clean up

A battle 250 years ago rekindles Indian nationalism
World Bank loan for India farmers

Tracking plan for rare India croc
Red Fort joins UN heritage list
Indian soldiers 'paraded naked'

Indian male singer in burqa row

Maoists set fire to India station
Sonia Gandhi's lecture at the Nexus Institute, Netherlands
"Handing over the Musharraf tape - an intelligence disaster"
Quasi-political OBC maths are proliferating Karnataka
ex-RAW officer talks about how badly it is run
Chinese designs on Arunachal Pradesh - B Raman
Chicanery, deceit, corruption, hypocrisy in the Prez election
Forest Guards kill tribal - his wooden cot made him suspect
Black widows rule Assam's violent East Cachhar Hills
Indian politics - Tale of misogyny, the exceptions only prove it
APJ Kalam brought a touch of tech to Rashtrapati Bhavan
NDA or UNPA don't have the numbers fr the prez election
Iran-India-Pak accord on fee for carrying gas
13-year RI, Rs. 100-crore fine for stamps scandal brain Telgi
Bharat Shah gets interim bail
New Indian railway timetable more user-friendly

Life is like a railway platform: Lalu

India, Bangladesh to fight terrorism together

Dont allow US nuclear ship: Jaya

Priests confession stuns Kerala

Boy surgeon: Patients shifted from hospital

Drugs being diverted for abuse: UN official

This handwritten letter by Mohandas Gandhi is pictured at Christies Auction House in central London on Tuesday. The letter is a part of the 'Albin Schram Collection of Handwritten Manuscripts' that are to be auctioned at Christies in London on July 3. AFP