After
Indian artists, Indian auction houses go
global
NEW DELHI, Jan 16: With growing
popularity of Indian art in the global
market, Indian auction houses are now
taking Indian art to foreign shores.
"The
art market in India is widely untapped
and has a huge potential. There will be a
5-7 per cent hike in art market in the
next year. More and more people from all
sections of society are buying art not
only for investment but also for
aesthetic purposes," Mr Maher Dadha
Chairman and MD, Bid & Hammer said.
The
company is going to auction art and
artifacts of 10 crores on its inaugural
auction in Bangalore on January 24. With
plans to increase it with a turn-over of
Rs 60 crores for the year 2008-09. The
prices will be starting from 30,000 to up
to Rs 50 lakhs. With plans afoot of
branches in New York, Hong Kong and
London to start with it will also tap the
yet virgin Africa art mart.
" We
plan to go global, with auctions in New
York, Hong Kong and London. We will also
tap new markets like Tanzania and
Nigeria. Along with Indian art and
artifacts we will also focus on local and
international artists," Dadha said.
The Indian
art market is estimated to be about USD
400 million and increasing but it is very
minuscule compared to world art market
says the auctioneer.
Maher
Dadha, Chairman, Bid & Hammer, added
that the though the Indian art market was
growing with the young software
professionals also showing interest, it
was the foreign market that gave
"higher value and higher attention
to Indian contemporary art".
With cases
of fake art not uncommon in the art
world. The authenticity of the art work
is very important. And herein comes the
work of such auction houses, he said.
Cricket
commentator Charu Sharma, Executive
Director of the auction house said,
"I always had an passion for art and
now that my friend has decided to open
this venture I will very much enjoy this
business. With the growing popularity of
Indian art is very important to be able
to trust the work." (PTI)
Kalam
to deliver lecture on ‘Vision for
Space’
BANGALORE, Jan 16: Former President A
P J Abdul Kalam will deliver the
‘Air Chief Marshal L M Katre
Memorial Lecture’ at HAL-Shri
Ghatage Convention Centre here on January
19.
Talking to
newspersons here today, Karnataka Air
Force Association (AFA) President Air
Marshal Ramamurthy said Mr Kalam would
deliver a talk on ‘Vision for
Space’.
The
memorial lecture was organised jointly by
AFA, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)
and Aeronautical Society of India (ASI).
Lakshman
Madhav Katre, who had joined the Air
Force as an officer cadet in 1944, had
graduated as a pilot and was granted
emergency commission in the Royal Indian
Air Force.
During his
career, he had commanded various
operational squadrons and stations. In
the 1971 war, because of his meticulous
planning and foresight, he had
successfully conducted uninterrupted
operations from one of the forward
airfields of the IAF that were constantly
under attack by the Pakistan Air Force.
Air
Marshal Katre had assumed charge in 1984
as the Chief of the Air Staff when he
breathed his last on July one, 1985.
This was
for the second year that a memorial
lecture was held. Chief of Air Staff M S
Tyagi had delivered the talk last year.
(UNI)
Mayawati
suggests she is far bigger leader than
Sonia
NEW DELHI, Jan 16: At a time when
strains are showing between her BSP and
Congress, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati has virtually suggested that she
is a far bigger leader than Sonia Gandhi
and would like to become the first Prime
Minister from the oppressed class.
The BSP
supremo in an autobiographical book has
not taken Gandhi’s name but said
"inheriting a political legacy"
is a different thing and leading a
"social change" as a
"revolutionary mission" was a
unique thing.
The nearly
1,000-page ‘blue book’ written
in Hindi gives her side of the story of
the developments between early 2006 and
the recent UP assembly polls which
Mayawati has described as the "most
difficult phase" for the BSP
movement.
In the
book, she also reveals that the BJP had
promised her support in 2003 for a full
five-year term if she had agreed for an
alliance with the saffron party in the
Lok Sabha polls, which it wanted to
advance. The BJP also wanted 60 of the 80
seats in the state as part of the tie-up.
"This was the start of the deep
conspiracies (against me)".
She says
that there are many women in the country
at present who were carrying out their
political and social responsibilities,
"but dispassionate observers will
hardly find any example of a woman from
an oppressed class leading a movement for
self-respect of a huge section of
society."
The BSP
chief, in the book "Mere
Sangharshmay Jeevan Evam BSP Movement Ka
Safarnama (Volume 3)" (My Struggles
and the Journey of the BSP Movement),
says at the outset that "it is my
endeavour to give a Prime Minister to the
country to initiate social change and
economic freedom for the people."
Recalling
her inclusion in Newsweek’s global
list of top eight women, Mayawati says it
is very rare that people belonging to the
lower strata of society have been
eulogised.
She says
that her character to confront fearlessly
the conspiracies against her and taking
them as challenges has helped her as also
helped the movement grow.
Mayawati
herself has said in the book that since
she has written two volumes earlier, it
is being talked among the people as
BSP’s ‘Blue Book’, which
is priced at Rs 1,100.
Releasing
the book at her 52nd birthday
function yesterday, Mayawati said she
would write one book every year and
release it on her birthday to give a
"message" to party workers and
sympathisers.
Her
Principal Secretary Shashank Shekhar
Singh said the Chief Minister, despite
her hectic schedule, devotes around four
to five hours to writing and one to two
hours to reading.
Noting
that the period in which the book has
been written was the "most difficult
phase" in the BSP movement, Mayawati
says it was during this time that the
party-founder Kanshi Ram became seriously
ill and she took over the presidentship
of the organisation amid grave challenges
and difficulties.
She says
detractors of the BSP lost no time in
their attempts to put her in the dock
after the illness of Kanshi Ram.
It was at
this time the BJP, which was in power at
the Centre, sought to involve her in the
Taj Corridor case to take "political
revenge" and sought to demoralise
her through "constant media
trial".
The book begins with a caption calling
for the "capture of this temple of
power through elections", with the
photograph of Parliament House in the
background and that of a statue of
Babasaheb Ambedkar.
It starts
with the call to the ‘bahujans’
to become the rulers and exhorts them to
turn the slogan-‘vote hamara, raj
tumhara, nahin chalega’ (our vote,
your rule, will not do any more), a
reality by capturing Parliament.
This,
Mayawati says, would enable the rule of
social justice and empowerment and help
India return to its lost glory to become
self-sufficient, rich and prosperous.
"The
statue of honourable Babasaheb
Ambedkar’s statue points towards
Parliament and urges dalits, backwards,
minorities and the poor among the upper
castes to ‘rise and capture power
through the ballot to end helplessness
and slavery and uplift yourself through
your own efforts’.
"Under
my leadership, the BSP is now
consistently engaged in and struggling to
achieve this cherished aim. My effort is
to give a Prime Minister as per the
wishes of the entire society to initiate
social change and economic freedom,"
the BSP supremo says.
In the
book, Mayawati paints Congress, BJP as
also other detractors of the BSP as
"status quoist forces" which
chant the mantra of social justice just
to gain votes.
Mayawati
says that she has been instrumental in
making mince-meat of both the Congress
and the BJP in Uttar Pradesh which was
once its bastion. (PTI)
Govt
favours reservation for minorities in edu
institutions
NEW DELHI, Jan 16: Government
today said it was exploring the
possibility of providing reservation for
minorities in educational institutions
and Government jobs.
Addressing
a conference of the State Minorities
Commission here, Union Home Minister
Shivraj Patil said reservation has been
provided for Scheduled Castes and
Schedules Tribes in educational
institutions and Government jobs.
Now there
is a demand from minorities also, he
said.
"This
is what is happening. The question is can
it be done. We have to apply our minds to
this and try to find out how it can be
done in the best possible manner,"
Patil said adding, "whatever can be
done for this purpose should be
done".
"We
cannot say that it cannot be done.
Whatever ingenuity can be used in order
to help the people who should be helped
in these areas should be taken," the
Home Minister said.
"The
Government is looking into these aspects
without coming to the final
conclusion," he added.
Patil said
that it was the duty of any Government to
protect the minorities so that the
country remains united.
He further
said that though there were enough plans
and funds for uplift of minorities there
was not enough manpower to implement
them.
"I am
not sure whether we have the machinery to
implement these plans and whether the
training required to implement them is
available," he said.
National
Commission for Minorities Chairperson M S
Qureshi said despite the best efforts of
the Government, the benefits of various
schemes have not reached the minorities.
"The
eleventh plan document is a laudable
attempt to set right the deficiencies in
empowering the minorities. But it is
disappointing to note that the
recommendation of the commission to
create a minority sub-plan does not find
place in the document," he said.
The
solution lies in reaching out to the
members of the minority communities
directly since they are seldom aware of
the development programmes and enable
them to approach various agencies to
avail of the benefits.
Qureshi
said that the NCM does not have powers to
independently investigate the complaints
of discrimination and deprivation of
rights of minorities.
"If
the commission has to play a proactive
role for the benefit of the minority
communities, its finances and manpower
have to be increased," he added.
(PTI)
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