I was after a very important document that I managed to find. India has begun the process of introducing fourth generation (4G) mobile wireless broadband services, even though the government has yet to finalise a date for its long-pending 3G spectrum auction.
CHARU HAD reluctantly agreed to accompany Chetan to the party his office was holding on New Year’s Eve. It was to be her first official party providing her with an opportunity to interact with Chetan’s colleagues. Ever since their marriage three months earlier, she had not gotten a chance to mix with his office people.
By Tara Narayan
DON’T KNOW about you but I’m quite sick and tired of festivals, feast days, carnivals, holidays, entertainment… galore! So it’s the season of Holi or urban hooliganism as it tends to be out on the streets because only the north Indian migrant workers and service folk who come to “Goa’s Dubai” celebrate it in nostalgic memory of their impoverished lands left behind in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Nepal or wherever, to work for a living amongst folk who don’t have to work for a living - at least not like them! Our urban celebrations no longer turn me on because they’re so fake and out of connect!
IT IS called ‘king of fruits’ and ‘fruit of the kings’. Which fruit of Goa has seven percent of global diversity? Is not saving Goan mangoes as important a task as saving the Royal Bengal tigers? What do we do if we lose this gene pool? I am alarmed by the rapid biodiversity erosion of Goan mango varieties. Global Goan mango lovers need to petition the Agriculture Department of Goa and the three MPs on this issue. In the current international year of biodiversity, the slogan should be “Save Goan Mangoes from extinction” or “Sambaluya Goenchya amyache girest daiz”.
ON THE afternoon of September 21 we arrived in Bordeaux, about 310 miles southwest of Paris by the high speed train called TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse), in about three hours. Before checking into our hotel Mercure Chateau Chartrons, Filipe told us the story surrounding the monument in the city plaza called Place des Quinconces, dedicated to the Deputés Girondins.
AND A few more stray thoughts and a few more observations for yet another Sunday. For a Sunday following the week when Sudin Dhavlikar managed to retain his kodel in the cabinet because of Pawar-giri. For a Sunday following the week when Manohar Parrikar intensified his campaign against illegal mining in the state. For a Sunday following the week when the Russians fell out with the villagers of Morjim and Arambol. For a Sunday following the week when the corruption within the police, particularly the Anti Narcotics Cell, was exposed. For a Sunday following the week when Home Minister Ravi Naik strengthened his alleged hold over the drug mafia in the state. For a Sunday following the week when there were protests in Maharashtra over fake Goa liberation freedom fighters.
PENSION plans are exclusively designed for those who would like to have financial discipline imposed on them as they approach retirement. Once you hop on to such a plan and continue saving regularly till retirement, the assurance of getting a pension is largely fixed. This, however, does not mean that you may not resort to a tailor-made investment schedule and take an active role in shaping your retirement portfolio. Several other investment products in isolation or a combination of them could help you achieve similar goals.
COMMUNIDADES, the Portuguese version of Gaunkari, are ancient Indian socio-agro-economic institutions established by the original inhabitants thousands of years before the Portuguese rule. Though the origin of the communidades is unclear, available evidence indicates that these bodies existed even during the 13th and 14th centuries. The first settlers in Goa — the Gaonkars, who are believed to have arrived here during medieval times — cleared the land and settled down, establishing self-sufficient local bodies to manage village-level administration. The land was owned by the community as a whole, though there was private property. A communidade consists of definite boundaries of land from village to village with its topographic detail, its management and social, religious and cultural interaction.
LET US all stop this ridiculous idea of a bridge or sea link to Vasco (or was it to be Sambhaji Nagar to Dona Paula) which will be a white elephant like the huge bridge at Aldona where, again, our money was wasted on building a huge, costly bridge, which has hardly any vehicles or people crossing over it to justify its cost. Of course, a huge IFFI party could be held on the sea link to justify its existence, as was done in Aldona.
BIOLOGICALLY, IT is the dog which wags its tail. But in politics, particularly in the parliamentary system of democracy, more often than not it is the tail or tails which wag the dog. In a parliamentary democracy, the prime minister or the chief minister is normally the leader of the legislative party and has the support of the majority of the elected legislators of his own party. When no single party has an absolute majority, the leader of the group which has the support of the majority is elected the leader of the legislative party and is invited to form the government. In the case of Goa, in the Legislative Assembly elections, the Indian National Congress secured 16 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party secured 14. Of the remaining 10 seats, two went to the SGF - that of Churchill Alemao who defeated Luizinho Faleiro and Reginaldo Lourenco who defeated senior Congress leader, Francisco Sardinha in Curtorim. THREE seats were won by the NCP — the Benaulim seat, which was won by a very narrow margin by Mickky Pacheco, the Vasco seat which was won by Jose Philip D’Souza and the Tivim seat, which was won by Nilkant Halarnkar. The MGP won the two seats, held by Dhavlikar brothers, Sudin and Deepak. Babush Monserrate, at the last moment changed his mind about contesting as a Congress or UGDP candidate and won the seat as an independent.
