Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on November 23rd, 2009
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)
Fareed Zakarya went to New Delhi to interview Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh before the latter’s official State visit to the White House these days – November 23-24, 2009.
The Prime Minister is a Cambridge educated top economist who starrted out from very humble backgrounds in Punjab. Dr Singh is widely regarded as one of the most influential people in the world. He is the first Indian Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. Earlier, during his tenure as the Finance Minister from 1991 to 1996, Singh was widely credited for carrying out economic reforms in India in 1991. He is a 77 year old and a Sikh – a clear example of India’s multi-ethnic democracy.
Sikhism, founded on the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev and eleven successive Sikh Gurus (the last one being the sacred textGuru Granth Sahib) in fifteenth century Punjab, is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world. This system of religiousphilosophy and expression has been traditionally known as the Gurmat (literally the counsel of the gurus) or the Sikh Dharma.Sikhism originated from the word Sikh, which in turn comes from the Sanskrit root ?i?ya meaning “disciple” or “learner”, or ?ik?ameaning “instruction.”
The essence of Sikh teaching is summed up by Nanak in these words: “Realisation of Truth is higher than all else. Higher still is truthful living”. Sikhism believes in equality of all humans and rejects discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, and gender. Sikhism also does not attach any importance to asceticism as a means to attain salvation, but stresses on the need of leading life as a householder.
Manmohan Singh assumed office in 2004 and held also – the positions of Foreign Minister November 6, 2005 – October 24, 2006 and Minister of Finance November 30, 2008 – January 24, 2009. He is soft spoken and extremely well balanced in his pronouncements. It was obvious that Fareed Zakarya has very high esteem for him and the program was of real high value showing what is at stake in a uS – India relationship that these days tends to be overshadowed by the huge mess the US helped organize in the Af-Pak region, as well as by the economic dependency of the US on China.
On the other hand – Zakarya reminded us of the fact that it is India – not China – that has become the third home of TED – besides the US and Canada. This because of the popularity of Indian nationals in the Silicon Valley. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an academic organization owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation. Speakers have included such people as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, molecular biologist James D. Watson, physicist Murray Gell-Mann, former Vice President of the United States Al Gore, political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, zoologist Jane Goodall, and evangelist Billy Graham.
The TED staff is headquartered in New York City and Vancouver. The conference has been held in Monterey, California, since its founding, but as of 2009 is being held in Long Beach, California due to an increased number of attendees. The TED conference also has a companion conference, TEDGlobal. This year, TEDGlobal 2009, “The Substance of Things Not Seen,” was held in Oxford, UK on July 21–24, 2009. The last event was TEDIndia which took place in Mysore, India on 4–7 November, 2009. The next event will be “What the World Needs Now, TED2010,” which will be held in Long Beach, California on February 9–13, 2010.
From the TED website: “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.”
Zakarya’s GPS (Global Public Square) program made it plenty clear that a democracy is messy and slow but its progress is certain, and India, with its multitude of young people is destined to be a superpower on the US level. We will follow with interest the China - India balancing act of the Obama Administration. India could help the US with Afghanistan and with the efforts on nuclear non-proliferation.
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| Assumed office 22 May 2004 also |
| In office 6 November 2005 – 24 October 2006 |
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| In office 30 November 2008 – 24 January 2009 |
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Posted in China, India, Pakistan, Reporting from Washington DC
