Ethnic Clashes in Assam: State Faces Serious Humanitarian Crisis, Policy of Appeasement

The ethnic clashes in Assam which spread from one district to another in the State, has gradually been engulfing the State in a fatal embrace and isolating it from the rest of the country. The battle is for limited resources, including jobs. Thus, when a group gains power through violence, it cannot be expected to serve the interests of other communities, especially the ones it was fighting in the first place. For the past few years an atmosphere had been building up for the present violence, with former Bodo militants cornering benefits, including those under government schemes, at the cost of the rest of the communities.

Animosity Between Bodos and Rising Muslims

The toll of those killed in ethnic and communal clashes, fuelled by animosity between Bodos and the rising population of Muslims who settled on tribal land, now stands at 40. The killings have led to one of the largest ever exoduses in Assam's recent history, with officials saying 1.7 lakh people from 400 villages in Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri districts are now homeless and sheltered in 128 camps that dot the conflict zone.

In addition, a lot of people from Garubhata, Nepalpara, and Nangalbari villages in Chirang have become victim of the ongoing ethnic violence. However, the deployment of the Army has brought improvement in the situation.

Panic-stricken villagers are fleeing to relief camps or wherever their ethnic or religious group is in a majority using all modes of transport: from horse-drawn carts and hand-pulled rickshaws to bicycles, motorcycles and trucks. Hundreds were trekking through monsoon-drenched forests to escape armed militia from either side.

Not just Muslims, since July 23, more than 20,000 people from Bodo villages, too, have left their homes and set off on foot or carts for the 20-odd relief camps in and around Kokrajhar. Not less than 10,000 Bodos from Bilasipara area alone hit the road in search of shelter in relief camps. Trucks have become scarce as migration has increased. People are using various modes of transportation to reach Dhubri. More than 250 horse-drawn carts and 2,500 bicycles have left for Dhubri. Approximately 35 Muslim villages have become virtually empty now.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) resumed its train services partially which were paralyzed because of the ethnic clashes. More than 26 trains were cancelled and 37 regulated by NFR due to security reasons.

Failure of State and Federal Governments’ Machinery

The failure of both the state and federal governments, however, goes back further. The area is governed by the Bodo Territorial Autonomous District Council, which was formed in 2003 as a tool to end the Bodo tribal militancy that had been on since the eighties. The Bodos had long been working — often using violence — to oust what they called illegal immigrant (Muslim) settlers, as well as some other groups from Assam itself.

Given the utterly callous handling by the Government of the volatile situation, it is only fair that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi be made to pay for his mistakes. But his defiant statements in recent times only point to his refusal to take responsibility. Yet, this is not the first time that the Gogoi government has failed to respond to a grave law and order challenge.

Swift action by law enforcement agencies could have calmed the situation. Instead, a security vacuum was allowed to fester, leading to retaliatory attacks that led to the death of four Bodo men. The killings expectedly sparked a series of attacks and counter-attacks but still the Congress-led government did nothing. This was despite local groups such as the All-Bodo Students Union reportedly pleading with it to deploy forces in areas that they had identified as vulnerable.

Confronting each other are violent elements among the Bodos and Muslims. Gang violence that started in Kokrajhar spread to more districts including Chirang, Dhubri and Bongaigaon, claiming some 40 lives. The rioting and torching has triggered an exodus. More than 1,70,000 people belonging to both the affected communities, as well as others, in the four districts have taken shelter in relief camps. The trigger was the firing on two student leaders of the All Bodoland Minority Students’ Union and the All Assam Minority Students’ Union in Kokrajhar. Thereupon, four former Bodo Liberation Tigers cadres were killed; that led to further attacks and counter-attacks. With the Bodos’ nationalistic assertion forming the historical backdrop to the tensions, aggressive elements from the two communities have clashed sporadically.

The ongoing violence in the Bodoland area, however, not only reiterates the governance deficit in Assam but also points to the dangerous game of vote-bank politics that the Congress has been playing for decades across the country. At the crux of this week's riots is the unchecked immigration of Bengali-Muslim workers from Bangladesh who now form a sizeable minority in the region (and are a captive vote-bank for the Congress). This has caused much displeasure within the Bodo community that does not appreciate having to share scarce resources and opportunities with the aliens.

Demand of Situation

It is believed that appeasement is a solution often required to put down a crisis at hand. But then it has to be followed by more permanent measures. West Assam never really moved toward economic consolidation after the peace bought 11 years ago. The North-East is a territory inhabited by fractious tribes, many of which have yet to feel fully integrated with the country.

Remember, the country is yet to recover from the shock of the Guwahati molestation case wherein a teenaged girl was sexually assaulted by a mob in full public view in the heart of the Assamese capital. During that incident, the local police was conspicuously late in arriving at the crime scene.

The immediate job is to contain the violence and tackle the serious humanitarian crisis. Those who have had to abandon home and hearth should be enabled to return. Transport links with the rest of the country need to be restored; thousands of passengers remain stranded in railway and bus stations. Talks between the adversary organizations should be quickly facilitated.


It is a fact that the state administration failed to react quickly after the first signs of trouble on July 19. Considering that there was a build-up of tensions over the past few months, vulnerable areas ought to have been identified and adequate forces deployed. It has been pointed out that in many of the places overrun by violence, the security forces were not visible at all. The deployment of the Army seems to have come too late in the day. The mapping of stress-spots on the basis of adequate intelligence inputs should be a priority at least from now.

Pranab Mukherjee Takes Over as 13th President of India: First Bengali To Become Head of State

Veteran Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee has become  13th president of India. He is the first person from West Bengal to occupy the top Constitutional post and the third MP to be elevated to the office of President after Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and Zail Singh.

The presidential election was a one-sided affair. Mukherjee — who was sworn in by Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia on July 25 — secured 68.12 per cent of the total 10,47,971 value votes cast by 4,659 members of the State/Territorial Assemblies and Parliament. Opposition-backed candidate PA Sangma, who was supported by the NDA, the AIADMK and the BJD, managed only 30.15 per cent of the votes.

There were a total of 81 invalid votes, to the value of 18,221. These include that of Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose second ballot was invalidated by the Election Commission, for it violated the vote of secrecy.

Among the 748 Members of Parliament (excluding the nominated members who have no voting right) with the total vote value of 5,29,584, Mukherjee polled 527 votes (3,73,116) and Sangma got 206 votes (1,45,848).

There was some cross-voting in favor of Mukherjee in the BJP-ruled Karnataka: he got votes of 117 MLAs, against the BJP’s 103 in the 224-member Assembly. While three votes were declared invalid, one MLA did not vote.

In Kerala, Mukherjee made a clean sweep, polling all 124 votes; one was invalid. Sangma drew a blank. The CPI and RSP MLAs abstained from voting.

Only former President K.R. Narayanan, secured the maximum value votes of 9, 56, 290 (94.97 per cent), when he won in the 1997 election against the former Chief Election Commissioner, T.N. Seshan.

In the 2007 election, the outgoing President, Pratibha Patil, the first woman to hold the office, defeated the then Vice President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, securing 65.82 per cent of the total valid votes. Shekhawat polled 33.18 per cent.

Career Graph

Born on 11 Dec 1935 in Mirati village, Kirnahar disttricy, Birbhum (West Bengal), Mukherjee will embark on a new journey transcending political affiliations in the high Constitutional job with an ease none of his predecessors may have enjoyed because of his experience spanning 45 years in government and politics.

His election to the President's office today comes as a fitting finale for the veteran Congressman from West Bengal, until recently the troubleshooter of UPA, a task he has handled for the past eight years.

Not a lawyer by training but considered an expert in the working of the Constitution and governance, he was ever seen as the perennial 'No. 2' in government.

Mukherjee was a utility man from the days of Indira Gandhi, when he was the powerful Minister of State for Revenue during the Emergency, and later as Finance Minister in the 1980s.

His rise had been steady and such valuable was his contribution to government that his nomination as a Presidential candidate came after a huge dilemma for Congress party, which heads the UPA coalition that has moved from crisis to crisis in the past eight years.

The veteran leader, known for his photographic memory, had become a Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Parliament) member for the first time in 1969.

Mukherjee was for a long time member of the Upper House before his first direct election to the Lok Sabha in 2004 from Jangipur in West Bengal. He repeated his victory in the 2009 elections but had expressed a desire not to contest elections again in view of his advancing age.

Mukherjee was a top-ranking minister and presided over the Union Cabinet meetings in the absence of the Prime Minister during 1980-85.

Of course, Mukherjee had his own bad days in the Congress which he had to quit in the mid-80s after he had evinced interest in becoming the prime minister after the death of Indira Gandhi in 1984. It took some time before he came back into the party but once he was in, there was no stopping his rise once again.

Mukherjee became finance minister again in 2008 after P Chidambaram was shifted to the Home Ministry in the wake of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

Again his importance was seen when P V Narasimha Rao made him Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission as well as Minister of External Affairs. In between he had to quit because he ceased to be a member of Parliament and came back to the Cabinet after reelection.

Mukherjee started his public life in the 1960s in Bangla Congress during the time of former Chief Minister Ajoy Mukherjee of the United Front government when Jyoti Basu was Deputy Chief Minister in West Bengal. He was general secretary of Bangla Congress.

A post-graduate in political science and history, he can recollect any event of historical importance or mundane political and other events, a matter of envy to many of his colleagues.

Son of a senior Congress leader Kinkar Mukherjee from West Bengal, Mukherjee had done MA (history), MA (political science), and LLB, DLitt. He had a brief stint as lawyer, teacher and journalist before he was embedded to his destiny of politics in 1969, when he became a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Mukherjee, who headed 83 GoMs and EGoMs from June 2004 until recently, was Leader of the Rajya Sabha from 1980-85 and later he became Leader of the Lok Sabha. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is Leader of the Rajya Sabha.

When Mukherjee was Finance Minister, Manmohan Singh was appointed RBI Governor in 1982. In what could be described a case of chasing each other's shadow, Singh became Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission from 1985 to 1987, a post Mukherjee later held from 1991 to 1996, when Singh became Finance Minister in P V Narasimha Rao government.

Mukherjee also had a brief stint as Chairman of the Economic Advisory Cell of AICC between 1987 and 1989. Interestingly, Manmohan Singh also held this post, when Congress was out of power between 1999 and 2004.

Mukherjee, who started his career as a college teacher, always carried the traits of a teacher, never hestitating to give a reprimand or two to juniors whether in his party or the Opposition. He was also jocularly called 'GoM Mukherjee' in political circles as he headed 33 Groups of Ministers on various key issues including the recent one on setting up of Lokpal.

The man who headed Joint Committee on Lokpal that included Anna Hazare, Mukherjee has five books published to his credit on political and economic issues and under his editorial guidance, the history of Congress was published in which there was a candid admission of excesses during the Emergency.

Mukherjee was conferred the Best Parliamentarian Award in 1997. Ten years later, he was awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honor.

In Congress Party, Mukherjee became AICC treasurer in 1978. Journalists and AICC media department officials still recall Mukherjee's tenure as the Media Department Chairman of the party. Mukherjee was AICC General Secretary in 1998-99.

In 1984-1991, 1996 and 1998, Mukherjee was Chairman of the Campaign Committee of AICC, besides being a member of the Congress Working Committee and Congress Election Committee.

Mukherjee held all the key portfolios, including Defence from May 2004 to October 2006 and External Affairs from October 2006 to May 2009 besides the Finance portfolio, which he held again in 2009 after a gap of 27 years.

In the past, he also held portfolios like Commerce and Steel and Mines, Revenue and Banking (Independent Charge), Shipping and Transport, Industrial Development, Commerce and Supply besides presiding over a number of Parliamentary Committees.

Mukherjee got married to Suvra on July 13, 1957 and has two sons — Abhijit and Indrajit — and daughter Sharmistha. Abhijit is a Congress MLA in West Bengal.

Challenges in New Role

Mukherjee’s new role in Rashtrapati Bhavan (President’s House) will be quite contrary to the one he has just finished playing. The most critical test for Mukherjee as President will no doubt come in 2014 after the general election to the Lok Sabha (lower house of the Parliament). As in the past couple of decades, no one party is likely to get a majority of its own, and the bigger parties would have to depend on the support of alliance partners or new-found friends.

R. Venkataraman in 1989 and Sharma in 1996 followed the principle of inviting the leader of the single largest party to form the government. Rajiv Gandhi declined the invitation in 1989; Atal Behari Vajpayee accepted the invitation, but lasted as Prime Minister on that occasion for just 13 days. With these examples behind him, Narayanan insisted on letters of support from a claimant party’s allies before extending it an invitation to form the government.

Additional Qualities

Used to working long hours, he may have to find new outlets for his unbounded energy. Though it was apparent that the UPA had the numbers, 76-year-old Mukherjee campaigned tirelessly, moving from state to state, winning the support of even rivals in Karnataka, Bihar, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Reaching out to anyone and everyone who matters is a quality Mukherjee is known for. As president, he is expected to build bridges.

After being in the thick of politics for long years, will it be now Presidential activism for Mukherjee? Will he be able to rise above party politics in 2014 when the general election is expected to throw a split verdict? Since the Constitution is unclear about the formation of a government if no party gets a majority, the President is free to exercise discretion. In 1996 Shankar Dayal Sharma invited the BJP to form a government but it fell in 13 days as Atal Behari Vajpayee could not muster enough support. KR Narayanan, setting a precedent, asked for letters of support from the party staking the claim to form a government. How Mukherjee handles such a situation would be keenly watched. That may well be the defining moment for him.

Despite his personal religious observances — which are perfectly in consonance with India’s Constitution —Mukherjee is also a secular politician. One cannot imagine him chuckling with glee while the Babri Masjid was being vandalised or turning a blind ear to the cries of Muslims being massacred in Ahmedabad. As President, he may not be in a position to do either, but this is where a conversation with the late Giani Zail Singh, and what it revealed of British precedents, comes in.

Positive Points

* Constitutional expert: A Constitutional and governance expert, Mukherjee has always been seen as the perennial 'No. 2' in the government.

* Utility man: From the days of Indira Gandhi, Mukherjee's has been her trusted aide. He was the powerful Minister of State for Revenue during the Emergency, and later as Finance Minister in the 80s. For the past eight years, Mukherjee has been the Mr Troubleshooter for UPA.

* Photographic memory: The veteran leader is known for his sharp memory. He can recollect any event of historical importance or mundane political and other events, a matter of envy to many of his colleagues.

* Vast experience: With four decades of active life in politics, Mukherjee knows the Indian political system inside out.

Assessment

It can be said that in Mukherjee, India will have a knowledgeable and pragmatic President who is well-versed in constitutional procedures and practices, and who was, until his nomination as a candidate by the ruling coalition, an active politician and senior Union Minister.

Mukherjee will be a President who could just as easily have been prime minister. There have been presidents who have come straight from the Union Council of Ministers, but none has carried the political weight and executive experience of this man from small-town Bengal. We have little doubt he will dignify the office he is about to step into and leave little room for narrow partisanship.

Unlike Pratibha Patil, who was out of active politics long before she became president, APJ Abdul Kalam, who was a genuinely nonpolitical person in the best sense of the term, and KR Narayanan, Shanker Dayal Sharma and R Venkataraman, who served as vice president before they entered Rashtrapati Bhavan, Mukherjee is making the switch from active politics and governance to the office of President in next to no time.

From the moment Mukherjee’s name was formally proposed by the UPA for the presidency, there was little doubt that the veteran Congress leader would sail through even in the event of a contest. As such, the result of the presidential poll between Mukherjee and Purno A. Sangma, who was backed by some regional parties and the BJP and some of its NDA allies carries no surprise. Given Mukherjee’s standing in public life, everyone expects him to be correct and proper in discharging his duties.

Undoubtedly, the former federal minister for finance, defense and external affairs has not only been one of the country's most important policy-makers in recent times but also that his long career in Government has allowed him to gain a deep understanding of the functioning of the Indian polity. This — an invaluable trait in today's era of coalition politics and tenuous political ties — naturally made Mukherjee the perfect choice as a firefighter of the UPA regime. Over the years, particularly in its second term, as the Congress-led UPA slid into an inert state of policy paralysis, becoming a sitting duck for the Opposition, it was Mukherjee who reached out to the critics, addressed their concerns and built the much-needed consensus.

It is hoped that Mukherjee will keep his promise to the nation and preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. Good luck Mr President!

Sunita WillamsTakes Off for 2nd Space Odyssey: Great Moment for India

Indian-American record-setting astronaut Sunita Williams along with her two colleagues took off for her second space odyssey on a Russian Soyuz rocket, which blasted off successfully from a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 15.

NASA astronaut Williams, a record-setting astronaut who lived and worked aboard the International Space Station for six months in 2006, Russian Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide started their two-day voyage at O810 IST for a four-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS).

Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos announced that the spacecraft had departed successfully from the carrier rocket and reached intermediate orbit.

The spacecraft separated from the third stage of the carrier rocket in a normal regime and at the designated time. The Soyuz TMA spacecraft is due to dock with the ISS’s Zvezda service module at 1022 IST on July 17.

Great Achievement

Born in Euclid in Ohio and raised in Massachusetts, Williams, who had earlier lived and worked aboard the ISS for six months in 2006-07, will further extend the record for the longest stay in space for a woman astronaut.

Ahead of the launch, she said that the test mission laid the ground for a long-standing friendship and collaboration in the space program.

Forty-six-year-old Williams also said that she would be excited to watch the London Summer Olympics from the station and put a much more global perspective on the mega sporting event beginning July 27.

Williams, a flight engineer on the station’s Expedition 32 crew, will take over as commander of Expedition 33 on reaching the space station.

Scientific Missions

The trio will join the current ISS occupants – Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joe Acaba, who have been in orbit since May 17. The new crew members are expected to conduct over 30 scientific missions during their stay on board the ISS.

The six crew members will work together for about two months. Acaba, Padalka and Revin are scheduled to return to Earth on September 17.

Before they depart, Padalka will hand over command of the station and Expedition 33 to Williams. She, Malenchenko and Hoshide will return home in mid-November. The new crew members are expected to conduct over 30 scientific missions during their stay aboard the ISS.

Williams, whose father hailed from Gujarat, was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998. She was assigned to the ISS as a member of Expedition 14 and then joined Expedition 15.

She holds the record of the longest spaceflight, 195 days, for woman space travelers. She received a Master’s degree from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1995.

In the space, Williams and her team of astronauts plan an orbital sporting event to mark the Summer Olympics in London. Both Williams and Akihiko have experience on board the space station but had never before traveled on the Soyuz.

Quantum Leap in Physics: Scientists Spot Subatomic Particle

Scientists at Switzerland's European Organization for Nuclear Research, famously known as CERN research center in Geneva have made the historic announcement, in a major milestone in the 50-year search for the elusive Higgs, that is believed to have been responsible for lending mass to the particles that eventually formed the stars and the planets after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. They claimed to have spotted a subatomic particle “consistent” with the Higgs boson or “god particle,” believed to be a crucial building block that led to the formation of the universe. These results mark a significant breakthrough in the understanding of the fundamental laws that govern the universe.

The phrase “god particle” was coined by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman but is used by laymen, not physicists, as an easier way to explain how the subatomic universe works and got started.

Discovery and Its Significance

The particle was proposed in 1964 by three groups of physicists, including Britain’s Peter Higgs, after whom it was named. The announcement was linked to a seminar at CERN, where the latest results from the ATLAS and CMS experiments were revealed. It came after a video leak hinted the new particle might have been found.

The results were labeled as preliminary, based on data collected in 2011 and 2012, with the 2012 data still under analysis. But scientists are 99.99 per cent sure the new particle is Higgs Boson, or the “God particle,” as it is better known.

Prof. John Womersley, chief executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) said: “Obviously there is still much, much more to do at Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. — we need to confirm this new particle is (why) some particles have tangible mass while others are insubstantial... Peter Higgs and other scientists predicted a particle like this one must exist for our current understanding of the universe to work.”

With all necessary caution, it looks to me that we are at a branching point: the observation of this new particle indicates the path for the future towards a more detailed understanding of what we’re seeing in the data.

The Higgs discovery can be described “as significant to physics as the discovery of DNA was to biology. This is the physics version of the discovery of DNA. It sets the course for a brand new adventure in our efforts to understand the fabric of our universe.

The Higgs boson, which until now was a theoretical particle, is seen as the key to understanding why matter has mass. It is mass that combines with gravity to give an object weight. The idea is much like gravity and Isaac Newton’s discovery of it. Gravity existed even before Newton explained it. But now scientists see something much like the Higgs boson and can put that knowledge to further use.

A five sigma, that translates into over 99 per cent certainty of discovery, is required before a particle is declared as being discovered. Plus, the Higgs is believed to lurk at the lower ends of the energy spectrum – between 120 and 140 GeV.

India’s Footprints

As all eyes are on the CERN, Indian scientific and technological contributions are among the many that keep the world’s biggest particle physics laboratory buzzing. There is an intrinsic Indian connection to what is happening at CERN — Satyendra Nath Bose, a contemporary of Albert Einstein. It is Bose after whom the subatomic particle boson is named.

His study changed the way particle physics has been studied ever since. The Higgs Boson is a particle that is theoretically the reason why all matter in the universe has mass.

Bose's work on Quantum Mechanics was adopted by Einstein, who extended it to the concept of the Bose-Einstein condensate – a dense collection of bosons, subatomic particles with integer spin. For the past 50 years, finding the missing Higgs was one of the most puzzling riddles of Quantum Physics, and led scientists to set up the 3 billion euros LHC.

The 27-km looped pipe set up in a tunnel 100 meters underground on the Switzerland-France border created artificially simulated conditions similar to the Big Bang, triggering collisions between accelerated particles.

In the LHC experiment, two beams of protons are fired in opposite directions to smash millions of particles into each other every second, a set up that recreates conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. This is the time when the Higgs field is believed to have come into play. The Higgs particles are believed to have transferred mass to the millions of other particles in the process of creation of the universe.

The scientists then look into conditions that might point to the existence of the mysterious particle. As the Higgs cannot be seen, its existence is only to be inferred from circumstances.

Moreover, the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP) said in Kolkata that its scientists had made significant contributions to the development of the CMS experiments at CERN. This led to the observation of the new particle at 125.3 GeV, consistent with a Higgs Boson as predicted by the Standard Model of Particle Physics. It will require more data and intense scrutiny to establish these findings beyond any doubt.

The core CMS team of the SINP had five faculty members — group leader Prof. Sunanda Banerjee, Prof. Satyaki Bhattacharya, Prof. Suchandra Datta, Prof. Subir Sarkar and Prof. Manoj Saran.

Most of the team members had worked for more than a decade with the CMS experiment with notable contributions in the development of the experiment right from the early stage and were actively participating in the analysis of the incoming data.

Standard Model

The Standard Model -- a hypothesis devised in the 1970s to explain the events after the Big Bang – identifies the building blocks for matter.

Finding the Higgs particle would validate the Standard Model that is a hugely successful theory but has several gaps, the biggest of which is why some particles have mass but others do not. Without the Higgs boson, the universe could not exist, as everything would behave as light does, floating freely and not combining with anything else, the scientists believe.

CERN's data was kept closely guarded but just before the official announcement a video from the CERN center that mistakenly found its way on the web, appeared to have given away the secret.

Moreover, it is believed that the LHC will continue to run its experiments so that results revealed can be revalidated before it shuts down at the end of the year for maintenance. Even so, by 2013, scientists, such as Dr. Rahul Sinha, a participant of the Belle Collaboration in Japan, are confident that a conclusive result will be out.

UN Millennium Development Report 2012: Largest Proportion of Underweight Children Live in India

The United Nations’ Millennium Development Report 2012 was released on July 2. The report states that in 2010, one in every five maternal deaths globally happened in India which accounted for 20 per cent of the total mortality in this respect.

The report reveals that while the world has achieved targets of poverty reduction, improved drinking water supply and decreased number of urban residents in slums, it has not done well on maternal health and child nutrition goals.

India is set to miss the Millennium Development Goal (MDG)-5 (on halving numbers of maternal deaths between 1990 and 2015) if it does not accelerate the pace of progress. The report flags concerns for the world with just 1,000 days left to meet the deadline of 2015.

Alarming Situation in South Asia

Gaps in these areas are alarming for South Asia, particularly for India, where 57,000 women died during pregnancy or within 42 hours of termination of pregnancy in 2010, posting a Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) of 212 per one lakh live births. India’s MDG target is to get the figure down to 109.

India is moving well on MMR but it would not achieve the MDG at the current pace. About 153 maternal deaths are happening in India every day. That is one every 10 minutes; and six every hour.

In 2001, India reported 91,000 maternal deaths. That is down to 57,000, indicating some progress. India has reduced maternal mortality by 38 per cent in 10 years, but it must do more. We need more auxiliary nurses and midwives and skilled birth attendants.

Women’s Condition

Globally, 2.87 lakh women died during child-birth in 2010. Fifty six per cent of these died in sub-Saharan Africa and 29 per cent in South Asia. Twenty per cent of these deaths occurred in India alone. MMR in the developing countries remains 15 times higher than in developed regions. Sub-Saharan Africa still has a high MMR of 500, Eastern Asia has a low of 37 while South Asia accounts for a figure of 220.

The report further states that the regions with high MMR are those with poor availability of skilled birth attendants.

On child health, however, considerable progress has been made. In developing countries, under five mortality rate declined by 35 per cent, from 97 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 63 in 2010. India now has an IMR of 47, down from 125 per 1,000 live births in 1992.

State of India

India has the largest proportion of underweight children. Hunger is another huge challenge though India has reduced its poverty rates from 51 to 37 per cent between 1990 and 2012. The country has 237 million people going hungry at present.

It fares poorly on all three standard indices used to measure child nutrition — stunting (height for age), wasting (weight for height) and underweight (weight for age), with 59 per cent children stunted, 42 per cent underweight and 11.4 per cent wasted.

Spain Lifts Euro Football Championship 2012: Country Creates History, Wins 3rd Consecutive Major Titles

World Champions Spain took their place among the game's greats when they outclassed Italy 4-0 to become the first team to win successive European Championship titles at Kiev (Ukraine) on July 2. This was so much more than a stunning score line conjured up by one of the most magical collection in the annals of football. This was a statement by Spain, a thrilling 90-minute advertisement to the world over how the game should be played, with skill, movement, bursts of unstoppable pace, with pass after pass after pass. This was simplicity and beauty, golden football leading to silverware.

This was also history in the making. Spain made it an unprecedented three trophies in a row, playing with a panache that allows these footballing fireflies in red to stand legitimate comparison with those great 1970 Brazilian artists called Pele, Jairzinho, Tostao, Rivelinho and Gerson.

The quartet of Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Xavi and Andres Iniesta is now compared to Pele’s kings, while their colleagues proved no less in energetically covering the length and breadth of the field, in attack and in defense.

In fact, no other country has defended the European championships or won three major international tournaments on the trot; it can safely be assumed that these feats will not be matched in the foreseeable future. But beyond the results and the mountain of statistical firsts, it is del Bosque and Spain’s unflinching commitment to their style of play — the “tiki-taka,” a game built on absolute control of the ball and demanding fiendish levels of skill — that deserves to be lauded.

A treble coronation of two Euros and a World Cup spells unprecedented success in a monopoly of major titles since Spain was crowned European champions in Vienna four years ago.

Spanish Hat-Trick

Spain have become the first European side to win three major tournaments following their success in Euro 2008 and the World Cup two years ago. The only other team to win three successive major titles was Argentina who lifted the Copa America in 1945, 1946 and 1947 when that tournament was held annually.

Spain, who started without a recognized striker, were all artistry and guile in midfield while Italy, whose own creator Andrea Pirlo failed to shine, were handicapped by having only 10 men from the hour mark after using up all three substitutes.

The third of them, Thiago Motta, only lasted four minutes after replacing Riccardo Montolivo in the 57th before limping off with a hamstring injury. Italy went close twice through second half substitute Antonio Di Natale but Mario Balotelli, the two-goal hero of their 2-1 semi-final win over Germany, rarely looked like scoring. The opening goal came when Andres Iniesta split the Italy defense with an incisive pass to Fabregas who outpaced Giorgio Chiellini to get to the byline where he pulled the ball back to Silva who flashed his header past the helpless Buffon.

The second came when Alba tore past the static Leonardo Bonucci and planted a perfect left foot shot past Gianluigi Buffon. Torres then ran through to score the third after another Xavi through ball before setting up Mata with a deft flick.

In the end, the game statistics were quite even, despite the unbalanced score line, which proves that Spain created goals out of nowhere. Spain had a 14-11 lead in shots at goal, and 6-4 lead in shots on target. They led 57–43 percent on ball possession and 88–83 percent on pass completion. These figures got skewed in Spain favor after Italy were reduced to 10 men.

Personal Milestone for Iker Casillas

Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas managed his own personal milestone when his team defeated Italy in the final. The 31-year-old goalkeeper became the first player to ever record 100 wins for his national team.

Instead of embracing his fiance journalist as he did after Spain’s 2010 World Cup victory in South Africa, Casillas celebrated by giving her a peck on each cheek before running back onto the Olympic Stadium’s field to celebrate the unprecedented milestone with his teammates.

Casillas, making his 137th appearance for Spain, ensured his team stayed in control of the match during a few dips, including just after the 14th minute opener from David Silva. Spain’s captain got a hand to a cross destined for Daniele De Rossi in the 17th, before also getting a tip to a cross meant for Balotelli 10 minutes later.

After lifting the Euro 2012 trophy to make history as the skipper of the first team to win three consecutive major finals, Casillas said the past four years had been a 'wonderful' journey. The 31-year-old Real Madrid shot stopper was on hand to keep out the relatively little that Italy managed to throw at him as La Furia Roja ran out 4-0 victors for the biggest winning margin in the tournament's history, allowing Spain to become the first nation to retain the trophy.

Bad Luck for Italy

As far as Italy is concerned, there is no humiliation in defeat. The team has demolished clichés by playing fine attacking football, and undoubtedly deserved to be in the final. Were it not for the quality of the opposition, another journey that began with scandal in the backdrop could have ended in a trophy. Coach Cesare Prandelli must take a lot of the credit for the turnaround. He picked the side up from the depths of the 2010 World Cup campaign and set out to “make people fall in love with the Azzurri again.” He will take pride in the outcome. Euro 2012 will be remembered as one of the better international competitions of recent times, and with more thrilling encounters in the knock-out rounds could have gone down as one of the great ones.

Spain’s Euro 2012 victory was not so much a victory as an emphatic statement of creative football. Derided by the cognoscenti as a boring “tiki-taka” team that kept passing the ball without the drive to score goals, Spain ripped Italy apart 4-0 with astounding breakaway moves, excellent passes and attacking soccer of an open and free-flowing variety that would have done Pele’s 1970 Brazil side proud.

The term “tiki-taka” has followed Spain since its Euro 2008 triumph in Vienna four years ago and Spain used its attractive passing game to keep the ball and phase their opponents out of the game.

Players of the Tournament

Spanish forward Fernando Torres has won the Golden Boot as top scorer at the European Championship, getting three goals in just 189 minutes played while left winger Andres Iniesta was named player of Euro 2012 by European football governing body–Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).

Torres came off the bench to score Spain’s third, and his third of the tournament, in the 84th minute in the final. He also scored twice in a 4-0 group stage win over Ireland. Six players scored three goals at Euro 2012, and the tiebreaker was who provided most assists. Torres duly delivered four minutes after scoring by squaring the ball for Juan Mata, another substitute, to score.

Twenty-eight-year-old Iniesta — who was also the man of the match — was selected by a technical committee made up of 11 people. Whilst the Barcelona star failed to score and set up just one of the Spaniards goals through the tournament he won the award for his overall influence and effect on the Spanish attacking play.

Fernando Torres (Spain), Mario Gomez (Germany), Alan Dzagoyev (Russia), Mario Mandzukic (Croatia), Mario Balotelli (Italy), and Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) were top scorers of the 2012 Euro Championship.