Urban News

The Hindu 17.07.2009

Vellore District Gazetteer may be released by 2011

Special Correspondent

Ramesh Kumar Khanna, Principal Secretary and Commissioner of Archives and Historical Research (centre) and C. Rajendran, Collector of Vellore (right), at a meeting of officials and scholars held in connection with the preparation of the District Gazetteer at the Collectorate in Vellore on Thursday.

VELLORE: The first District Gazetteer for Vellore district, after 1881, is likely to be released by 2011, according to Ramesh Kumar Khanna, Principal Secretary and Commissioner of Archives and Historical Research and C. Rajendran, Collector of Vellore.

Talking to newspersons after holding a meeting with government officials and Tamil, English and history scholars in connection with the preparation of the District Gazetteer at the Collectorate here on Thursday, Mr. Ramesh Kumar Khanna and Mr. Rajendran said that the first District Gazetteer (then known as District Manual) for the undivided North Arcot district was prepared by Arthur during the British regime in 1881. The manual was revised by Stuart in 1895. Since then, the district has not had a gazetteer.

The Commissioner of Archives and Historical Research said that Vellore would be the 17th district in Tamil Nadu to have a District Gazetteer. Fifteen districts, which already have gazetteers, are Thanjavur, Madurai, undivided South Arcot, Ramanathapuram, Salem, Pudukottai, Dharmapuri, Kanyakumari, Nilgiris, Tiruchi, Karur, Pernambalur, Chengalpattu, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin. Work on the District Gazetteer for Erode district is being finalised, and the gazetteer is likely to be released by this year-end. After the release of the Vellore District Gazetteer, work would be taken up on the preparation of a gazetteer for Tiruvannamalai district.

Mr. Ramesh Kumar Khanna said that the District Gazetteer for Vellore is likely to have 19 chapters covering the social, socio-cultural and economic developments of the district. The Vellore District Gazetteer would be published simultaneously in both Tamil and English. The usual practice is to publish a District Gazetteer in English and later translate it into Tamil. Normally, the government would print 1000 copies of the District Gazetteer for each district, he said.

The Hindu 16.07.2009

India says financial crisis gives NAM new relevance

Siddharth Varadarajan

— Photo: PTI

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna at the opening session of the 15th NAM summit at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt on Wednesday. National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan is seen at right.

Sharm-el-Sheikh: Calling the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) a “moral force” for the equitable transformation of a world going through the worst economic crisis “in living memory,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the 118-nation grouping must ensure the steps planned to revive the global economy take into account the developing world’s concerns.

He was speaking at the NAM summit which got under way here on Wednesday.

Dr. Singh said the developing countries had been the hardest hit by the crisis which “emanated from the advanced industrial economies” and had strengthened protectionism and choked credit and capital flows to the third world. “If the aftermath of the crisis is not carefully managed, and if the abundance of liquidity leads to a revival of speculative activities, we may well see a period of prolonged stagflation,” the Prime Minister warned.

On climate change too, he blamed the “over two centuries of industrial activity and unsustainable lifestyles in the developed world” for the threat posed to the planet by the accumulation of greenhouse gases.

The weight of NAM should be used to achieve “a comprehensive, balanced and above all, equitable outcome” in the ongoing multilateral negotiations leading up to the Copenhagen conference in December this year.

The Prime Minister criticised the fact that “decision-making processes” at the United Nations and in international financial institutions “continue to be based on charters written more than 60 years ago, though the world has changed greatly since then.”

He said NAM should work to prioritise Africa’s problems in the global development agenda. On its part, India was committed to developing a comprehensive partnership with the continent.

Palestinian issue

Echoing the strong sentiment within NAM in support of Palestinian aspirations, the Prime Minister began his remarks by saying his “thoughts turn to the people of Palestine, who have endured great suffering and hardship.” “The movement,” he said, “must do more to facilitate a comprehensive, just, lasting and peaceful settlement of the Palestinian issue.”

On terrorism, he stressed the long-standing Indian demand for speedy agreement on a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. “Terrorists and those who aid and abet them must be brought to justice,” he said. “The infrastructure of terrorism must be dismantled and there should be no safe havens for terrorists because they do not represent any cause, group of religion.”