A cartoon of an executive telling his staff, "Due to corporate cutbacks, we'll all have to sacrifice. Which is why my company car will be a Mercedes, instead of the Jaguar I normally drive." This is a brand that traditionally orbits in a very high trajectory. Hence the irony of the Jaguar being saved by the world's cheapest car, the Nano.

Remember how the head of the Jaguar car dealers' association of the US, Ken Gorin, fretted when Tata Motors emerged as the front-runner to buy Jaguar Land Rover. "I don't believe the US public is ready for ownership out of India," he said, warning it would "throw a tremendous cast of doubt over the viability of the brand.

The reverse proved true: Jaguar Land Rover threw a financial shadow over the viability of Tata Motors. Wall Street's collapse wiped out Jaguar's principal clientele. It also halved the value of Tata Motors' shares, deep fixing hopes to sell new shares to pay for the new purchase. Jaguar was now a luxurious millstone around the Indian company's neck. The big drama has been whether Tata Motors could found money to pay a $ 2 billion bridge loan it had taken for the buyout that was due in june.

But riding to the rescue, with a price tag roughly a fiftieth of 'a Jaguar XK coupe, has come the Nano. While the final talk is still awaited, it is estimated that the Nano has received over' 100,000 bookings and the advance payments from Indian, buyers have filled Tata Motor's coffers with over $ 2 billion. The Jaguar danger is suddenly toothless.

Nano's biggest assist may come from its effect on Tata Motors' share price­ making it easier for the company to borrow.

The final twist to the tale is that the Jagur Land Rover has received a 340 million loan from the European Union to develop more fuel-efficient models. A Nano runs roughly three times further than its sister car on the same liter of petrol. As the World watch Institute has noted, the Nano is greener than the Prices hybrid.

Well, Jaguar still keeps a dis­tance from India. Its website has no mention of 'Tata'or'India'. Its saloons will probably never say 'Made in India'. But there's definitely case for them being engraved, in nanometer-high lettering, 'Saved in India.'

DESPITE opinions to the contrary, diplomacy does not always lead to conflict, and conflict isn't necessarily a continuation of diplomacy by other means. On the other hand, acts of violence -whether by state or non­ state actors - can put paid to years of calibrated and exhausting diplomatic efforts. The Mumbai attacks of November 26 appear to have claimed, among their many victims, a probable resolution of the Sir Creek maritime boundary dispute between India and Pakistan. Not only is the five-year-Iong composite dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad in a freeze but the two states now look set to miss the May 13 deadline for submitting their mutually agreeable claims on continental shelves to the UN Convention.

Law of Seas

Sir Creek, a 96-km-long estuary in the Rann of Kutch, has been a matter of disagreement between India and Pakistan since the late '60s, with Pakistan claiming the whole of the creek and India asking for a maritime boundary midway through it, according to international maritime law applicable to all navigable waterways.

Pakistan, till recently, had refuted India's claims of navigability; but negotiations last year, as part of the composite dialogue process initiated in January 2004, had brought Pakistan round to India's perspective. The relative lack of politicization of Sir Creek meant that it stayed low on the public radar while making it a dispute easier to end.

Nevertheless, the region is rich in bio-diversity, in addition to oil and gas reserves, thereby raising the stakes. A failure to re­ solve the dispute means India and Pakistan will submit conflicting claims before the UNCLOS in May, and neither country would be able to use the resources in the area till further negotiations, not likely anytime soon, succeed.

The joint survey undertaken by the two countries to prepare a new map of the area, to replace old ones made obsolete by the creek changing course, has come to naught for the moment. Fixing the maritime boundary would have been the logical next step after ascertaining the land boundary, something the two sides had agreed upon. The setback is an instance of the bigger bilateral regression following the Mumbai attacks.


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WHO will list the atrocities carried through in the Indian fan's? Let's ask Shashank Manohar, president of the BCCI and perpetrator of the latest outrage. In a statement on Sunday, he said that the IPL would be taken overseas. Cranking up the ego war with the government on the logistics of this IPL season, he apologized to the "people of India", but comforted himself by saying that at last they'd now be able to watch the tournament on television.

Really, Mr Manohar? Is this truly what's behind this effort to start a bidding war between England and South Africa to host the IPL? Because if it is the Indian fan's benefit that's on the agenda, the BCCI's latest announcement amounts to little less than the cricketing equivalent of high treason. It is nothing less than an attempt to abduct India's favorite sport.

The government was ill-advised to have initially given the impression that India could not stage an election and a sport tournament. But to its credit, it hastened to offer cooperation in reworking the IPL schedule. By then the BCCI's IPL czar, Lalit Modi, had made it a point of prestige, and heaven knows what else. Because every comment made by him since then - and we all know how much Modi likes to talk - has set new records for the crude­ness with which he has staked ownership of Indian cricket. Cricket administrators in India hold a copyright to a certain kind of arrogance. For them cricket has been a state within a state. But as long as the game has played on, they have been allowed to be. Now that they have gone one step too far, and challenged the legitimacy of the Indian state, the government must consider what the law is so that cricket can be retrieved from such thuggish adventurism.

Let's start at the basics. Cricket matters in India because the people take it seriously. The BCCI's clout accrues from this popular interest. And it was in the interest of the game that critics hushed reservations about some of the IPL’s suspect procedures. Its opaque decision-making, for instance, and turf wars with wannabe leagues. After all, domestic cricket would find new utterance with this league format. But now the IPL chooses to amplify that turf mentality by making it seem India is not safe for cricket as usual. That's certainly not the case in a country set to host the Common­ wealth Games and the cricket world cup. And that's certainly not fair to India's fans or its first-class cricketers. For starters, the government may ask Sharad Pawar, a key member of the Union cabinet and the cricket establishment, just what his views are and what he can do to retrieve the situation.


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Some of us pray only when we are in trouble. That means prayer is a sincere of great comfort and solace. It gives us a chance to be in commune with the Creator. Often, in adversary circumstances, nothing can give one greater strength than the feeling that God is with you, guiding your steps every moment.

One of the most important means for the treatment of psychological diseases, which often lead to organic diseases, is to improve the patient’s morale with prayers and spiritual talks. Let him be in touch, through prayers, with the Almighty for a source of end­ less fortitude and guidance.

Prayer does not simply mean the repetition of recital of certain words according to a fixed formula, with the expectation of a favorable response. He who prays in this manner does not really pray, and must not be disappointed if his prayers are not answered.

Prayer must be supported with sincere efforts, and we must remind ourselves that God helps those who help themselves. We have the words of wisdom from our saints that tell us, "do your job well, and leave the rest to Him." Prophet Muhammad had said this in a more beautiful and effective way: "Helpless is the one who allows himself what he likes, and then asks God for the fulfillment of his wishes.

Prayer molds your mind and purifies your soul, disciplines your life and enables you to per­ form what is noble. Its power has the strength to salvage the rejected and the dejected, and gives reason and hope to live life in a manner that is purposeful and caring. The basic purpose of life is to gain insight into the sufferings of others and to get them relieved of their pains. And ' prayer acts as an effective instrument in your struggle against pain and suffering.

One can say prayer is the best medicine for all ills ­ physical, mental and worldly.


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THE WORLD'S highest battle­ field has vanished by half, but not quite the way peaceniks would want it.

Geological field evidence has established for the first time that the original length of the 19,000 -feet high Siachen Glacier, in what is currently Indian territory, was 150 kilometres, an Indian researcher said. It is now down to 74 kilometres.

That melting process could touch the lives of millions across Pakistan, where much 'of the lifeline Indus River is fed by waters from the Nubra and Shyok rivers that originate from the Siachen and a tributary glacier called Rimo.

Melting of glaciers - slow­ moving rivers of ice - can cause flooding, landslides and lakes 'that can burst, like Tibet's Parchu Lake in June 2005.

"There is now evidence that global warming has caused the Siachen Glacier to recede by at least 76 kilometre - and this doesn't include its other tongues and territory in Pakistan," Dr. Rajeev Upadhay, of the geology department at Nainital's Kumaun University, told Hindustan Times.

Upadhyay, whose paper on his findings appeared last week in the journal Current & science, has studied the glacier since 1995.

Adding to the heat of the elections, this April would be the scorching sun. This year's warm winter allow rainfall in January and February have dried up many perennial water sources in the Himalayan region, affecting lifeline rivers like the Ganga, Yamuna and Sutlej. there now, but several thou­ sand Indian and Pakistan soldiers are deployed at Siachen, the site of one of the border disputes between the two countries.

More than 500 Indian soldiers have died, but mostly due to sunburns and frostbites in temperatures than plunge to ­ 40 degrees C.

Upadhyay shrugged off the view that military activity in the region has caused all the damage.

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