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German convict teaches yoga to Uttaranchal jail inmates

      Udhamsinghnagar (Uttaranchal): A German convict, now undergoing a 12-year-long sentence in the jail here, is using his incarceration to teach yoga to other inmates. Kurt Harman was arrested by the police in 2001 for possession of illegal drugs. Since his shift to the Sitarganj prison in February from Haridwar, Harman has been teaching yoga to his fellow inmates. Harman says that he learnt yoga from a book more than 20 years ago in Nepal and says his main objective is to help other prisoners lead less stressful lives. A drill has been put in place in the jail, whereby inmates attend yoga classes both in the morning and in the evening. Harman initially had some trouble teaching yoga to the inmates as not many of them could understand English. To counter this communication deficiency, Harman picked up Hindi and is now able to converse with other inmates in broken Hindi. The prisoners say they have benefited from the yoga classes. "Yoga represents a devotional form.The life led in a prison disturbs our mind. But yoga helps in stabilising the mind. We can concentrate. Also, when we lead our lives in confinement, we get infected from a number of diseases. Yoga has the power to cure and prevent such diseases," said Manjit Bedi, one of the convicts. Such has been Harman's influence, that the prisoners have also taken to cooking and farming. The prison set up in 1960 houses 360 convicts.
April 29, 2005

Indian silk going global (Go to Top)

     New Delhi: The production of silk, the queen of all fabrics, is historically one of India's most important industries. India produces a variety of silks called Mulberry, Tasar, Muga and Eri, based on the feeding habit of the cocoons. The sericulture industry employs over 700,000 farm families and is concentrated in Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh and to a lesser extent Assam and West Bengal. Karnataka accounts for more than 70 percent of the country's silk production. Sericulture is one industry which is beneficial to the agriculturists. As in today 56 lakhs people are dependent on the sericulture industry, 5.6 million people out of which 4.7 million are agriculturists. The others are reelers, weavers etc, said H. Hanumanthappa, Chairman, Central Silk Board The bulk of Indian silk thread and silk cloth is consumed domestically. The present market context for silk in the country is one of vigorously growing internal demand for silk fabrics, with growth rates of above 10 percent per year. With substantial government and international subsidies for silk projects and marketing schemes, the industry has been expanding rapidly over the last few years. Silk exports too are growing rapidly. Germany is the largest consumer of Indian silk. "We have demands from the international market. We get orders from Japan and England as well, for our muga (a kind of silk) products, said Deepak Bharali, a silk producer. "Today only China and India are the producers in silk. Thailand, Uzbekistan also produce silk but the quantity is very small. So we will have to keep this raw silk and fabrics for them to continue in the market. Only two countries can do it. India is the largest consumer of silk fabrics by way of sarees and so many other things. So we will have to improve our silk culture, said T.V.Muruthi, another silk trader. Today the world's production of silk stands at 95,858 metric tons, out of which China produces 68,000 metric tons and India's share is 16,000 metric tons. With better infrastructure facility, the sericulture industry could improve its productivity to 15 per cent as against the current nine per cent. Today the Indian silk industry is already a major player in the global scenario and the growth prospects for the industry seem to be bullish. Measures like the encouragement of further technological and economic research in the various aspects of sericulture, standardization and quality control of silk and silk products and rationalization of marketing and stabilization of prices of silk cocoons and raw silk it could expand rapidly than ever before.
April 22, 2005

Intoxicating Goa expects a good Feni season ahead (Go to Top)

     Mashem (Goa): Cashew farmers of Goa are a happy lot nowadays, with a bumper cashew crop this season they are sure of producing a bountiful of "feni", a local liquor-based brew usually made from ripe cashew kernels. Producing feni is one of the most popular part time businesses of the cultivators here. Cashew feni, which is brewed during the months of April and May, provides them with extra easy money. The easy-to-manufacture and extremely cheap liquor helps each farmer earn as much as Rs.50,000 in a short span of three months.

    Feni is made by using the traditional method where the cashew apples are manually crushed in a Coimbi (a rock on the hill which is carved or shaped like a basin) with an outlet for the juice. The juice is then collected in a huge earthen pot called Kodem, half buried in the ground, which is later distilled into earthen or copper pots. Apart from Goa, such brew is produced only in Brazil where it is called Caxata. Considered as the major fruit of Goa, cashew harvest starts from mid-March and the season continues till the end of May. The liquor is distilled in three steps, - Urrac, Cazulo and Feni. The juice, which trickles out in its concentrated form called Neero, is liked by many people since it helps bowel movement. Swapandeshi Faldessai, cashew cultivator and owner of a makeshift distillery, said Goa is incomplete without Feni, which is also consumed for its medicinal value. "We collect the cashew juice and process it here. It is processed twice and even more, the liquor is used in medicines also. It is very, very good and if the season is good then we can get up to 40,000-50,000 rupees earnings in just three months," said Faldessai.

     There is another type of Feni, which is made from coconut and is also a popular hard drink in the former Portuguese colony. There are about 4,000 mini traditional distilleries in Goa involved in producing cashew Feni, with about 75 per cent of them in north part of the state and rest in the southern region. There are over 7,000 shops, bars and taverns in Goa selling Feni and other liquors. According to provisional estimates, in 2004-05, India exported cashew kernels and cashew nut shell liquid worth 260 billion rupees as against 180 billion rupees in 2003-04. Total cashew exports from India in 2004-05 (April-March) are estimated at 125,000 tonnes. India is world's largest cashew producer with a 50 percent share of the world market, followed by Brazil and Vietnam. New methods like drum roasting and steam roasting have also replaced the old methods of ground roasting, iron-pan roasting and shelling by hammering the nut with either hard stones or bamboo sticks. The cashew industry in India provides direct employment to over 35 million people and another 500,000 people are employed in the farms during the season. Besides Goa, cashew cultivation is also done in southern Indian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and eastern Orissa.
April 21, 2005

Jamnagar brass units face closure   (Go to Top)