An estimated 5.7 million Indian workers abroad sent home $27 billion in 2007 to make India the top receiver of migrant remittances while the US was the main remittance source, according to latest World Bank data.
Workers from China ($25.7 billion), Mexico ($25 billion), the Philippines ($17 billion), and France ($12.5 billion) made up the rest of top five, the bank's new Migration and Remittances Factbook 2008 released here Wednesday said.
While South-South migration nearly equals South-North migration, rich countries are still the main remittances source, led by the US, it said.
The US was also the top immigration country in 2005, with 38.4 million immigrants, followed by the Russian Federation (12.1 million), and Germany (10.1 million). Among low-income countries, India had the highest immigration volume (5.7 million), followed by Pakistan (3.3 million).
The factbook provides snapshots of statistics on migration, recorded remittances flows and skilled emigration for 194 countries and 13 regional and income groups.
"Migration is sometimes used as a political pawn, and policies are too often based on anecdotes or misconceptions," said Uri Dadush, Director of the World Bank's Development Prospects Group and International Trade Department.
"By presenting the numbers and facts behind these stereotypes, this publication aims to paint a more objective picture of a crucial aspect of development," added Dadush who also chairs the World Bank's Working Group on Migration.
As migrant remittances have ballooned in size, they have caught the attention of high-level policymakers. For 2007, recorded remittances flows worldwide are estimated at $318 billion, of which $240 billion went to developing countries.
These flows do not include informal channels, which would significantly enlarge the volume of remittances if they were recorded, the World Bank said.
"In many developing countries, remittances provide a life line for the poor," said Dilip Ratha, senior economist, and author of the factbook with Zhimei Xu. "They are often an essential source of foreign exchange and a stabilizing force for the economy in turbulent times."
While international migration is dominated by voluntary movement of people, there were 13.5 million refugees and asylum seekers, about seven percent of global migrants, in 2005.
The share of refugees in the population was 14.3 percent in low-income countries - over five times as large as that in high-income OECD countries. The Middle East and North Africa had the largest share of refugees and asylum seekers among immigrants (60 percent).
Highlights from the factbook:
-- In 2007, the top recipient countries of recorded remittances were India, China, Mexico, the Philippines, and France. As a share of GDP, however, smaller countries such as Tajikistan (36 percent), Moldova (36 percent), Tonga (32 percent), the Kyrgyz Republic (27 percent) and Honduras (26 percent) were the largest recipients in 2006.
-- The Mexico-US corridor is the largest migration corridor in the world, accounting for 10.4 million migrants by 2005.
-- Migration corridors in parts of the former Soviet Union - Russia-Ukraine and Ukraine-Russia - are the next largest, followed by Bangladesh-India. In these corridors, natives became migrants without moving when new international boundaries were drawn.
-- The top immigration countries, relative to population are Qatar (78 percent), the United Arab Emirates (71 percent), Kuwait (62 percent), Singapore (43 percent), Israel (40 percent) and Jordan (39 percent). The average share of immigrants in population is under 10 percent in high-income OECD countries.
-- Rich countries are the main source of remittances. The US is by far the largest, with $42 billion in recorded outward flows in 2006. Saudi Arabia ranks as the second largest, followed by Switzerland and Germany.
-- The volume of South-South migration is almost as large as that of South-North migration, which accounts for 47 percent of the total emigration from developing countries.
-- South-South migration is larger than South-North migration in Sub-Saharan Africa (72 percent), Europe and Central Asia (64 percent), and South Asia (54 percent).
Indo-Asian News Service
Tamil and Telugu actor Shobhan Babu, who gained popularity for his roles as a romantic hero, passed away in Chennai on Thursday morning. The actor died after he suffered a fatal spinal injury when he fell from the staircase at his home in Chennai.
Shobhan was 71 years old and is survived by four children—three daughters and one son. Born Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao on January 14, 1937, to a middle-class family, Sobhan went on to become a romantic icon and was the top Tollywood hero for two decades. He made his film debut with Daivabalam directed by Vasanthkumar Reddy, but his first film to hit the screens was Bhakta Sabari.
Shobhan's Manushulu Maarali ran for 25 weeks, a record-breaking achievement in those days. He received the Filmfare Award four times, the Nandi Award five times and the AP Cine Goers Award eight times.
While the weather maps still show cold temperatures, Friday is officially the first day of spring. With spring comes flower and the greening of the trees. Hopefully it brings a bit more time out of doors for you and your kids.
here are different views on when the season starts and finishes.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary states that spring comprises "in the northern hemisphere usually the months of March, April, May, or as reckoned astronomically extending from the vernal equinox (March 20) to the June solstice (June 20)."[1]. The Southern Hemisphere experiences spring during the months of September, October, and November.
The actual dates vary depending on the year from March 20 or 21 to June 20 or 21 for Northern hemisphere and from September 20 or 21 to December 20 or 21 for the Southern hemisphere.
The First Day of Spring
The Vernal Equinox Marks the Start of Astronomical Spring
The vernal, or spring, equinox occurs in March for those in the Northern Hemisphere. The equinox is so named because it provides for equal days and nights.
In the winter, the North Pole tilts away from the sun, allowing for both less sunlight and fewer direct rays of sunshine. The opposite is true in summer, when the North Pole tilts toward the sun and the Northern Hemisphere receives longer hours of sunlight and more direct rays. In between the two, the Earth tilts to provide the equinoxes, when day and night are more equal in the transitional seasons of spring and fall.
Here are the dates and times for upcoming spring equinoxes in the Northern Hemisphere:
* March 20, 2008 1:48 am EDT (March 19, 2008 10:48 pm PDT)
* March 20, 2009 7:44 am EDT
* March 20, 2010 1:32 pm EDT
* March 20, 2011 7:21 pm EDT
* March 20, 2012 1:14 am EDT (March 19, 2012 10:14 pm PDT)
* March 20, 2013 7:02 am EDT
* March 20, 2014 12:57 pm EDT
Sunrise, Sunset
On the equinox, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west, making it a great opportunity to find the cardinal directions without a compass. Ancient calendar devices, such as Mayan temple structures, marked the location of the sun during the equinoxes and solstices.
Equinox and Equality
Although equinox means "equal," the hours of sunlight and darkness are not precisely equal on this date, but they are close. A combination of the Earth's atmosphere and the large size of the sun taking time to appear above and set below the horizon skews the actual date of light and darkness equality. The true date will vary from place to place. You can check your local paper for sunrise and sunset times or the USNO web site for exact times.
Balancing an Egg
The spring equinox is occasionally close to the date of Easter. This may have been some of the reason that the vernal equinox is often tied to the ability to balance an egg on its end. The belief that the Earth is tilted just so and that all things on this one day are "equal" have brought about a myth that the balance extends even to the ability to stand an egg on its point.
While it is an amusing endeavor to try, whether or not you can do it has nothing to do with the equinox. Your luck at standing an egg on end will be the same on any day of the year.
As Asia Times Online reports,
"I'll come back as a ghost to haunt my teachers," read the suicide note of a teenaged Indian student who recently shot himself in the head due to exam-linked stress. Another student - 16-year-old Anita Naresh - quaffed a bottle of pesticide in the run-up to her annual exams. More recently, Rajneesh Mittal, 17, created a national kerfuffle by trying to kill himself inside an examination hall.
March is the year's most dreaded month for Indian students: it's exam time and the pressure to excel can be lethal. This year, as many as 100 students have already committed suicide - in sometimes bizarre situations - across the sub-continent, leaving the country, and especially its parents, wondering whether the final deathly toll will exceed the 2006 mark when a staggering 5,857 Indian students attempted suicide due to exam blues, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
Disquietingly, those who aren't pushed to the brink still have to grapple with acute anxiety and depression. Some are even led to experiment with macabre stress-busting recipes. This year's "hot" stress relievers, for instance, are broth made from lizard's body parts, bread slices smeared with pain-relief ointments and shoe polish, anti-epilepsy drugs, and the fumes of nail polish removers.
"Some students from the science stream are even making their own drugs from chemicals and salts available in their school labs," said New Delhi-based cardiologist Dr K K Agarwal, president of the Heart Care Foundation of India, at a recent press conference in Delhi. Helping the students in their quest for such life-threatening stress-busters, says the doctor, are websites which give them a step-by-step recipes for the concoctions.
According to clinical psychologist Dr Vedahi Bharati, there's an urgent need for cyber laws which can vet these web portals. The expert also proposes laws for parents, children, chemists and pharmaceutical companies to stop the casual buying and selling of OTC (over the counter) stress-relieving amphetamine drugs whose sales skyrocket during the exam period.
Exam stress isn't a particularly new phenomenon on the Indian academic landscape. Cases of depression and the stray suicide case have been common for many years. But lately, the situation has acquired a new gravitas with newspapers and TV channels reporting student suicides nearly every day.
What's pushing today's Indian students - a bright generation with a global reputation for their high intelligence quotient - to the brink? Experts believe the problem is symptomatic of a deeper issues; parental and peer pressure, rising ambitions and fierce competition are brewing a deadly cocktail for these young minds. Moreover, a nation racing towards affluence, an economy on a remarkable upward growth trajectory and skyrocketing salaries are putting unprecedented pressure on youth to succeed.
According to Delhi-based clinical psychologist Dr Veena Deb, "Parental expectations have also risen enormously over the years which is propelling these kids to breaking point." Deb feels that the changing dynamics of the Indian family - particularly, the death of the joint family system - means that there are fewer family elders around to counsel the young. With both parents working, and nobody at home to turn to in a crisis, it's easier for the youth to engage in high-risk behavior.
Unsurprisingly, around March, it's common for student helplines, resurrected by numerous voluntary organizations and non-governmental organizations, to be inundated with distress calls. "Most students feel relieved to be able to just pick up the phone and share their fears with someone," said a volunteer at a New Delhi-based helpline service. "It's a great catharsis for them and works like a salve for their frazzled minds."
The volunteer said many callers complain about pushy parents and recounted that last week a boy called in to ask where he could buy a pistol to shoot his mother for nagging him too much.
Sanjeevini, an official from another crisis intervention center, said, "An identity crisis, uncertainty regarding getting admission to the courses of their choice in college and a fear of low marks sullying their reputation are usually the main reasons for students attempting to end their lives."
Apart from insecurity and societal change sweeping across India, another big reason for student distress is the modern Indian education system. Outdated and flab-ridden, it puts an undue emphasis on rote learning and passing exams with a high percentage discounting creativity and personality development.
Of course there's no denying that in India, the student demographic - about 70% of India's 1.1 billion population is under 30 years, a sizeable chunk of which are students - leads to an enormous demand-supply gap. For instance, this year, over 1.3 million students are appearing for the Class X and XII Board exams conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) as against the 1.2 million who appeared last year.
These gargantuan numbers will create a mad scramble for the limited number of seats available at the top-notch engineering, medical and business schools that yield the most lucrative career options. For the undergraduate B-Tech and M-Tech programs offered through IIT-JEE (Joint Entrance Examination), for instance, around 350,000 students will compete for 5,000 seats.
Similarly, for the blue-chip Indian Institute of Management (IIM), from a large pool of about 250,000 applicants, only 1,200 manage to procure seats each year. This makes the exam even more selective than all the top US business schools put together. In fact the overall acceptance rate at IIM ranges between 0.1 to 0.4% compared with the acceptance rate of around five to 10% in the top US schools.
Keeping this severe crunch in mind, proponents of a better education system have often criticized the Indian government's frugal expenditure on education. According to the Kothari Commission set up in 1966, which put forward the blueprint for reform of the Indian education system, the central expenditure on education should be a minimum of 6% of gross domestic product (GDP). However, India's current figure hovers around 4%, far less than Saudi Arabia which invests 9.5% of its GDP in education and Norway, Malaysia, France and South Africa all of who spend in excess of 5%.
Apart from insufficient funding, many feel the entire Indian education system needs a revamp as it is based on an archaic template established by the British in the 19th century. Sporadic attempts by the Central Board of Secondary Education to relax admission criteria and make the exam system more student-friendly, have been brushed aside by critics as feeble sideshows, not really targeted at tackling the root of the problem.
All this is a pity considering India, the world's largest democracy, is increasingly viewed as a strong global player due to its exploding economic growth and enviable human resource wealth. If Delhi refuses to do anything about the future of India's young people - many of whom are literally killing themselves over academic pressure - it ought to be a matter of national shame.
Credits: Asia Times
Fahmida Mirza, a former medical doctor, Wednesday became the first woman speaker of the National Assembly as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and its allies, poised to form the government, showed their strength and voted for her.
Only 324 parliamentarians were present in the National Assembly or the lower house of Pakistan's parliament, and Mirza received 249 votes. Israr Tareen, her rival candidate from the former ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), secured only 70 votes.
"Fahmida Mirza is declared to have been elected speaker of the National Assembly," Chaudhry Amir Hussain, the outgoing speaker, said as MPs pounded their desks in approval and congratulated the purple-veiled former medical doctor.
Later, elections for the deputy speaker were held in which PPP candidate Faisal Kundi defeated Khushbakht Shujaat of the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM), who was supported by PML-Q.
Mirza was the joint candidate of PPP, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Awami National Party (ANP) and other allied parties.
The hanging of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan has been stayed until April 30 by President Pervez Musharraf, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Lok Sabha Wednesday.
Sarabjit Singh, convicted for carrying out bomb blasts, was to be executed April 1.
Earlier,
Some hope lurked for Sarabjit Singh, an Indian facing death penalty in Pakistan. A Pakistani minister Tuesday indicated "chances of clemency" for him, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he has taken up his case at the "highest level" in Islamabad.
"There are chances of clemency for him. If President Prevez Musharraf receives a mercy plea from Singh's family, he has the right to forgive him," DPA quoted Pakistan's Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney as saying.
Only nine percent of Indians enrol in higher education. Almost half the states and union territories are even below this poor average.
According to a report of the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) released recently, 15 states and union territories (out of 35) have reported an enrolment rate lower than the national average.
The report has pointed to glaring regional disparities in enrolment.
"The enrolment ratio in higher education is as high as 29 percent in Chandigarh - a union territory - but less than five percent in states like Jammu & Kashmir and Nagaland," the report said.
But University Grants Commission Chairman Sukhdeo Thorat does not agree with the argument of regional disparity. He believes the discrepancy lies in a rural-urban divide. "Urban areas record 27 percent enrolment in higher education - rural areas 7-8 percent," he said.
Among the states with low enrolment ratios are Orissa (8.71 percent), Uttar Pradesh (7.03 percent), Madhya Pradesh (7.77 percent) and West Bengal (8.21 percent).
A report released by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) confirms the regional disparities in both higher and primary education. It shows how southern states have outperformed northern and eastern regions in respect of economic growth and literacy.
In order to remove disparities in higher education, the central government earlier identified 370 districts - as educationally backward - having enrolment ratios lower than the national average of 9 percent.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh late last year announced one college for each of these 370 districts. They are expected to start functioning by 2012.
The secretary, Higher Education, R.P. Aggarwal had told CABE members recently that the states will have to bring the required finances for taking care of these institutions, once they come up.
Indo-Asian News Service
Raghuvaran (60) the noted character actor of Tamil cinema passed away early this morning at a private hospital in Chetpet, Chennai, due to a cardiac arrest. The actor was married to actress Rohini, but the marriage failed and they went through a messy divorce. The couple has an 8-year-old son Nanda.
Raghuvaran's claim to fame was his stylized way of acting and his dialogue delivery. He had a huge following among the masses. He stole the thunder whenever he played the villain with the swagger and with the way he drawled on his dialogues. Right from his first film Ezhavathu Manithan(1982), he created his own acting style.
But it was in the role of the villain in commercial Tamil cinema that he shone in, especially when he was paired with the superstar Rajinikanth in Baasha, Muthu, Arunachalam etc. He was the Superstar's favourite as he excelled in the role of the bad man in his films. The Superstar knew that unless the villain is given equal importance as the hero, his character will not become popular with the masses.
Raghuvaran has acted in over 100 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Hindi films and has been praised as a natural actor. Most of his roles were of a villain or supporting actor. He has also acted as hero in a few movies, which did not do well at the box-office.
He became famous with his role as the protagonist of a Tamil soap opera, "Oru Manidhanin Kadhai" (One Man's Story), about a well-to-do man who becomes an alcoholic and faces the consequent difficulties.
Unfortunately, in real life too, he is known for his controversial drug addiction. His family split on this regard, and he has also undergone deaddiction courses.
But Raghuvaran was a very colourful person. His last release was Jayaraj's Silanerangalil (Feb 29, 2008) where he played a negative character. Moviebuzz