If Europe can have it why not Asia? The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has recently revived a six-year-old idea for a common Asian currency and the matter came up at a meeting of “Asean + 3″ finance ministers on the sidelines of the Asia Development Bank (ADB) meeting at Hyderabad in India early this month. The theme was that Asian leaders should create a new framework of security to make up for the absence of a firm mechanism of regional cooperation. The idea of a single currency for...

(Victory cartwheel in Kathmandu – photo by KIRAN PANDAY) It is celebration time at Himal Southasian magazine in Nepal. Over the years this monthly magazine has evolved as a truly South Asian magazine. The May-June issue of Himal has not gone overboard about the historical changes in Nepal. Even its editor, Kanak Mani Dixit, who was in detention for defying the royal regime in Kathmandu, and released only on 25 April, has written a dignified and moving article under the heading Nepal’s...

Two photos of King Gyanendra of Nepal Nepal’s powerful Shah dynasty’s powers ended on Thursday (May 18) with Parliament unanimously okaying a proposal by the government to axe the king’s prerogatives, bring him under law, select his heir and transform the world’s only Hindu kingdom into a secular state, says India’s The Economic Times This change would affect controversial Crown Prince Paras most, with his record of manslaughter, assault and firing in public...

The Da Vinci Code was on Thursday (May 18) cleared by the India’s film censor board without any cuts and will be screened only for adult audiences with disclaimers meant to assuage Christian groups that had opposed its release. The censor clearance came after Christian leaders, who watched the movie with India’s Broadcasting Minister Dasmunsi on Thursday, suggested that “strong and lingering disclaimers” describing it as a work of pure fiction with “no resemblance...

Tom Hanks, left, and French actress Audrey Tautou, center, arrive with director Ron Howard. “The Da Vinci Code” opens the 59th International film festival on Wednesday (May 17). (AP Photo/Francois Mori) The Da Vinci Code movie has raked up much controversy worldwide. In India, Christian and Muslim groups have demanded that the film should be banned. In India, which is home to 18 million Catholics, the head of the Catholic Secular Forum has begun a ‘hunger strike until death’. Joseph...

Do you know that: * One-third of the water in homes goes on flushing the lavatory – each flush uses about 10 litres (18 pints) * The average bath uses 80 litres; a shower about 35 litres Although these facts appear in today’s (May 17th) edition of London’s The Independent, these carry a warning for all the countries, including the United States of America. In addition to these there are other reasons why we have water shortage. We always thought in India that the municipalities...

It is a delicious irony of our times that on the one hand India launched on May 13th the year-round celebration of the 2550th anniversary of the enlightenment of Gautam Buddha, who preached peace and non-violence about fifth century before the Christian era, while on the other hand played footsie with the USA to acquire sophisticated arms. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sanctioned Rs. 10 crore ($ 100 million) for the celebrations, which include international meet on Buddha and restoration of Nalanda...

(Caption: Accompanied by her children, a woman treks across a dried-out lake in search of water in the western Indian state of Gujarat. More than 75 percent of India’s rural population does not have access to public water supplies, says the World Bank. Instead, groundwater fills the needs. But when rain stops and temperatures soar, villagers — as in this photo — go without water.-Reuters) Let’s put politics on hold for a while and pay attention to WATER, the elixir that sustains...

The Taliban claimed yet another Indian on Sunday (April 30, 2006) killing and beheading Indian telecom engineer K Suryanarayana, less than 48 hours after abducting him from Zabul province on the main highway linking Kabul and Kandahar. Suryanarayana’s killing, as also M Raman Kutty’s murder last November, is an unambiguous message from the Taliban which India can ill-afford to ignore: The Taliban, as also Pakistan, want India out of Afghanistan, says Shobori Ganguly in The Pioneer....

John Kenneth Galbraith (center) was presented with India’s second-highest civilian award by Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh (left) in 2001. Also present on the occasion was Galbraith’s wife, Kitty. (photo courtesy Harvard University Gazette) John Kenneth Galbraith, former US envoy to India, who died on Sunday (April 30) at the age of 97, wrote in his book Ambassador’s Journal that he always wondered why most women in underdeveloped nations had overdeveloped bosoms. This and...

Nuclear-armed Pakistan has been ranked among the top ten ‘failed states’ in the world, ahead of Afghanistan and a host of crisis-ridden African countries, in a new world survey released on Tuesday, says the Times of India. While a similar report in the BBC says “Pakistan ‘is a top failed state’.” Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has confessed to transferring nuclear technology to Iran and Libya, is regarded as a national hero for helping Pakistan become a nuclear state....

Yesterday’s NYT column “On this day” (April 28)took me down the memory lane. In the mid-1970s I was introduced to the legendary Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl by Norman Cousins, famous American editor and a versatile genius, at New Delhi. As a young Indian journalist, I was fascinated by their crusading spirit to ensure world peace, justice and human freedom. In these present turbulent times, the two visionaries life and work, and their musings, come to mind. And now nearly three decades...

The blood-shed continues in Nepal. Despite the tough statements from the U.S., the U.K. and India, King Gyanendra of Nepal seems to be in no mood to seek truce with his own countrymen. One wonders how long this suicidal road would be. The TMV readers may be wondering why I keep returning to Nepal in these columns when equally suicidal confrontations are still raging elsewhere in the world. Not many realise the importance of Nepal as a buffer zone between two giants now emerging as economic super...

Kanak Mani Dixit, and his team of journalists, have played a pioneering role in Nepal for over a decade through their magazine Himal South Asian. On April 8, this gentle man with a sly sense of humor was abruptly tossed in jail. About 200 other Nepalese journalists also have been rounded up in the last two weeks. Dixit is the editor of Himal, Himal Southasian and the fortnightly news magazine Himal Khabarpatrika, all published from Kathmandu. He contributed an interesting essay to Foreign Policy...

At times diplomacy at local level does work. King Gyanendra of Nepal seems to be finally bowing to international/domestic pressure to restore democracy in his picturesque mountain country, home to the legendary Mt Everest, and trekkers’ paradise, now stricken with Maoist rebellion and pro-democracy bloody agitations. Indeed, prior to the king’s television appearance, US Ambassador to Nepal James Moriarty warned that Gyanendra could be forced to abdicate in the next few days were he...

Within the past one week India’s two major dailies have carried in-depth news stories about the spreading terror of Naxalism (extreme Left) in India’s 14 federal States; and, in Pakistan, the Taliban being on the verge of creating a new country of their own in the tribal area of Waziristan on Afghanistan border, an epicentre of USA’s ‘War on Terror’. “As if a hostile neighbourhood and long unresolved borders with Pakistan and China were not enough, India is under...

TMV NOTE: This was posted yesterday by our newest co-blogger Swaraaj Chauhan. We are running it again today. We’re also chain linking his previous post to this one so readers can better follow his unique perspective. Please note that there are newer posts under this one so after you read this be sure to scroll down. I sincerely wish that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his personal capacity, invites George Walker Bush to India again so that the American President could take a few lessons...