[Assam] Fwd: Re: Los Angeles Times on Northeast India

Mon Jun 2 21:13:02 PDT 2008

hi Umesh

This male river in question is our 'bor luit'- Only male river in the
world..mythologically though..:)

On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 9:32 AM, umesh sharma <jaipurschool at yahoo.com> wrote:

> what is this "male river"
>
> any misprints?  :-)
>
> Umesh
>
> Manoj Das <dasmk2k at gmail.com> wrote: I was thinking this all along!
>
> When I shared this news with a Japanese thinker from ADB, he was stunned..
> There are many players in this. Number one is Bangladesh, which is
> constantly frustrating India's efforts to get transit through the male
> river. Secondly a grand politics of undermining Assam's destined position
> as
> the land bridge between giant Asian land and economic masses.
>
> mkd
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 9:33 AM, Dilip&Dil Deka  wrote:
>
> > Forwarding.
> >
> > Dilip&Dil Deka  wrote:  Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2008
> > 20:58:13 -0700 (PDT)
> > From: Dilip&Dil Deka
> > Subject: Re: [Assam] Los Angeles Times on Northeast India
> > To: baruah at bard.edu, cmahanta at charter.net
> >
> >  Dear Sanjib,
> >  You said, "But are they  producing or is it only assembling products. I
> > don't know the answer. "
> >  Even Assembling products is better than not doing anything. Mexico is
> > making a lot of money assembling products for USA. Assembling products
> > eventually leads to local production if the local entrepreneurs mean to
> take
> > part in the process.
> >  Car battery industry is a good example. As I understand, back in
> seventies
> > batteries were assembled in Assam. I heard that most of the parts are now
> > made in Assam. Is it true?
> >  Dilipda
> >
> > baruah at bard.edu wrote:
> >  Dear Dilipda and Mahanta,
> >
> > Good hearing from you. I am skeptical, as Mahanta has noted. But not
> > because a lot new is not taking place -- but because things that are
> > crucial for a breakthrough are not happenning. There is a much more
> > affluent India, and many in Delhi are genuinely committed to doing
> > more. So if earlier we talked about 100 crores, now the language is of
> > 1000 crores. But is money enough? Domestic policy and foreign policy
> > cannot be separated when it comes to Northeast India. Our relations
> > with China may be improving in many ways, but not when it comes to
> > Arunchal Pradesh. Only last summer China has begun referring to AP as
> > China's Southern Tibet. So long as the Burmese military regime is
> > there, huge amount of foreign funds are not going to move in to build
> > infrastructure in Burma. Indian money or Chinese money can do a little
> > bit of this and that, but not the funds that could be mobilized for
> > Northeast india to benefit from India's Look East policy. No matter
> > how much we shout about Bangladesh's animosity, the burden of normal
> > relations is on the bigger neighbour as in all such cases of a country
> > that is far more resourceful than the aggreived smaller neighbor. We
> > may be landocked by India, said a Bangladeshi foreign minister, but
> > Northeast india is landlocked by us. So the military man's vision of
> > the Look East policy -- linking up with the Burmese or the Bangaldeshi
> > army to get support for their anti-insurgency operations--is a very
> > poor substitute to the huge leap of resources -- material as well as
> > intellectual -- that is needed for the task. At the same time I am
> > willing to say that we do not know the implications of some of the
> > huge amount of money that is being spent. There are about 15 daily
> > flights from Delhi to Guwahati -- more than any other comparable city.
> > There is much more energetic road-building (and the massive
> > disappearance of trees and of the familiar surroundings around the
> > trunk road) etc etc. I know the planes carry many businessmen taking
> > advantage of the tax benefits of investing in the region. But are they
> > producing or is it only assembling products. I don't know the answer.
> > But we surely need a new language to talk about the region --
> > certainty "neglect" is not what is happenning any more.
> >
> > Hope all is well.
> >
> > With warm regards,
> >
> > Sanjib
> >
> >
> > Quoting Chan Mahanta :
> >
> > > Thanks for sharing the article Baruah.
> > >
> > > But I share your skepticism. We have heard these for decades on end
> > > now. The politicians attempt to take credit for imaginary
> > > achievements and establishment spokespersons paint rosy scenarios, in
> > > the air. But what has the reality been?
> > >
> > > m
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > At 8:33 PM -0400 5/30/08, baruah at bard.edu wrote:
> > >>
> http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-india29-2008may29,0,6712115.story
> > >>
> > >> From the Los Angeles Times
> > >> Northeast India is poised to tap economic potential
> > >> The eight-state area plans multiple projects to increase its trade
> > >> with Southeast Asia.
> > >> By Shankhadeep Choudhury
> > >> Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
> > >>
> > >> May 29, 2008
> > >>
> > >> NEW DELHI - India's remote northeast region has been both blessed and
> > >> cursed by its geography. The region is rich in natural resources but
> > >> is landlocked and surrounded by China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan,
> > >> leaving it impoverished.
> > >>
> > >> The eight-state region may finally get a chance to start living up to
> > >> its economic potential with several projects to enhance connections
> > >> with Southeast Asia and to increase outlets for such commodities as
> > >> organic foods, orchids, tea, coal and oil.
> > >>
> > >> Now, the only way to move major quantities of goods between northeast
> > >> India and Southeast Asia is through Bangladesh.
> > >>
> > >> But authorities in Myanmar and India are nearing final approval of a
> > >> $100-million river project giving northeast India direct access to the
> > >> Indian Ocean through Myanmar, said Abhijit Barooah, chairman of the
> > >> northeastern chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry, India's
> > >> premier business association.
> > >>
> > >> The project envisages facilitating movement of cargo from India's
> > >> Mizoram state to Myanmar's port at Sittwe, via the Kaladan River.
> > >>
> > >> In addition, talks have begun between companies in northeast India and
> > >> Thailand after a trade-promotion conference in Bangkok in October,
> > >> said Lemli Loyi, assistant general manager at the state-run North
> > >> Eastern Development Finance Corp. Loyi expressed hope that the talks
> > >> would result in increased business and possible joint ventures.
> > >>
> > >> India first enunciated a "look east" policy, an economic and strategic
> > >> orientation toward Southeast Asia, in 1992. It had its genesis at the
> > >> end of the Cold War, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Having
> > >> lost the Soviet economic and political support on which it had relied,
> > >> the Indian government embarked on a program of free-market
> > >> restructuring at home and sought new markets and economic partners
> > >> abroad.
> > >>
> > >> Officials envisaged that the eight northeast states -- Assam,
> > >> Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and
> > >> Mizoram -- would emerge as a trading hub for two dynamic regions
> > >> connected by a network of highways, railways, pipelines and
> > >> transmission lines. The region is home to about 40 million people.
> > >>
> > >> But progress has been slow. The region's isolation dates to the 1800s.
> > >>
> > >> "Nineteenth-century British colonial decisions to draw lines between
> > >> the hills and the plains, to put barriers on trade between Bhutan and
> > >> Assam, and to treat Burma as a buffer against French Indochina and
> > >> China severed the region from its traditional trade routes -- the
> > >> southern trails of the Silk Road," said Sanjib Baruah, a professor of
> > >> political science at Bard College in New York and an expert on
> > >> northeast India.
> > >>
> > >> The British built railways and roads mostly to take tea, coal, oil and
> > >> other resources out of Assam and into the rest of India and also to
> > >> Europe.
> > >>
> > >> The problems increased with the partitioning of India and Pakistan in
> > >> 1947. Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan in the 1970s.
> > >>
> > >> Barooah said trade would be boosted by an expected move by the Indian
> > >> and Myanmar governments to expand the list of mostly agricultural
> > >> commodities allowed to be traded by land between northeast India and
> > >> Myanmar, from 27 to 42 items.
> > >>
> > >> "The northeast is the closest land mass connecting the dynamic
> > >> economies of south and Southeast Asia," said Pradyut Bordoloi, Assam's
> > >> minister for power and industries. "Besides deep-rooted cultural
> > >> linkages, we can reap multidimensional benefits in this era of
> > >> regional economic cooperation."
> > >>
> > >> Bordoloi is closely associated with a campaign to reopen the World War
> > >> II-era Stillwell Road, connecting Assam's town of Ledo to southwest
> > >> China.
> > >>
> > >> "If reopened, this would be the shortest surface route to Yunnan
> > >> province of China and other Southeast Asian countries hooking onto the
> > >> trans-Asian highways," he said.
> > >>
> > >> The road served as the supply line into China during Japan's wartime
> > >> occupation, but it was shut after India's independence from Britain in
> > >> 1947.
> > >>
> > >> Bordoloi said his campaign to reopen the road, initiated after he
> > >> became a state legislator in 1998, scored a victory when India
> > >> upgraded the road to a full-fledged national highway, developing it up
> > >> to the Indo-Myanmar border.
> > >>
> > >> Officials say infrastructure development, power, bamboo-based
> > >> industries, orchids and organic foods are prospective areas of
> > >> cooperation with Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand.
> > >>
> > >> But significant hurdles remain, including concerns that booming trade
> > >> relations may fuel rises in insurgency, narco-terrorism and AIDS, all
> > >> of which plague the northeast. Security in the region is tight, with
> > >> the army out in force to combat armed groups battling for greater
> > >> autonomy or independence from India.
> > >>
> > >> "The official restrictions that prevail in northeast India -- in terms
> > >> of travel, land and labor markets -- are hardly conducive to intensive
> > >> cross-border economic relations," said Baruah, the political science
> > >> professor.
> > >>
> > >> "Both the reality of insurgencies in the region and the security
> > >> anxiety of the government of India . . . are major obstacles to
> > >> dynamic cross-border economic ties," he added, calling current efforts
> > >> hardly more than "a bare beginning."
> > >>
> > >> Also, Baruah said, it was difficult to imagine a big increase in trade
> > >> given the political situation in military-led Myanmar.
> > >>
> > >> India's relations with China, a country it has long regarded with
> > >> distrust since a 1962 border war, would also have to become much more
> > >> relaxed, Baruah said.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
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> > >> assam at assamnet.org
> > >> http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
> > >
> > >
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> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
>
> --
> Manoj Kumar Das
> C 172 GF, Sarvodaya Enclave
> New Delhi 17 India
> 0091 9312650558 (HP) 9910972654
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>
>
> Umesh Sharma
>
> Washington D.C.
>
> 1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
>
> Ed.M. - International Education Policy
> Harvard Graduate School of Education,
> Harvard University,
> Class of 2005
>
> http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
>
> http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
>
>
>
>
> www.gse.harvard.edu/iep  (where the above 2 are used )
> http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/
>
>
>
> http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
>
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-- 
Manoj Kumar Das
C 172 GF, Sarvodaya Enclave
New Delhi 17 India
0091 9312650558 (HP) 9910972654