India Chronicle September 2007


	INSIDE THIS ISSUE


	01 MAIN


	02 NEWSMAKERS


	03 FOREIGN RELATIONS


	04 ECONOMY


	05 INFOTECH


	06 CULTURE


	07 TRAVEL


	08 CALENDAR


	HIGHLIGHTS

FDI inflows register unprecedented growth
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Father of India
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Chennai and Mamallapuram : The best of now and then
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02. NEWSMAKERS

FOUR INDIAN INSTITUTIONS AMONG WORLD’S TOP 200

According to Press Trust of India, (PTI), The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the Delhi University (DU) are the four leading Indian educational institutions that have found their place in a list of world's top 200 universities, with Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford dominating the rankings.

These institutions according to the Times Higher Education supplement, an authoritative journal in academia, the IITs ranked 57th in the world's top 200 universities list and the IIMs stood 68th. The JNU is 183rd in the list. In the list of top technology universities, IIT jumps to the third place after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California, Berkeley.

Among the world's top 100 science universities, IITs rank 33rd. In the ranking for the world's top universities in arts and humanities, DU stood 75th. In the list for social sciences it figures at 86. In this list, DU is upstaged by IIMs at 26 and JNU at 57.

Both IITs and JNU figure in the list for the world's top universities for biomedicine, ranking at 70 and 99 respectively.

In the overall rankings, the Harvard University continued its reign at the top and the Imperial College London is the only newcomer in the top ten. Cambridge and Oxford moved up to second and third place after displacing MIT, which is now ranked fourth.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ‘APOSTILE’ CONVENTION

With India’s accession to the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961 abolishing the requirement of legalization of foreign public documents (www.hcch.net) Government of India, Ministry of External Affairs at CPV Division, Patiala House will start issuing Apostilles w.e.f. August 29, 2007. Apostille stickers will be issued on the documents –personal like birth, death, affidavits, power of attorneys, marriage etc and educational documents like degree, diplomas, matriculation and secondary level certificates. However, commercial documents are excluded from the purview of the Convention.

Procedure: All documents should be first authenticated by the designated agencies in the State from where thedocument has been issued. In case of personal documents, Home Department/General Administration Department arethe designated authorities. In case of educational documents, State Governments have now opened Regional Authentication Centers (RACs) (see list) at various States from where the document should first be attested. Documents attested by these authorities then need to be presented to MEA for issue of Apostilles.

Fee: A fee of Rs. 50/- in form of Postal/Pay Order drawn in favour of PAO, MEA, New Delhi is payable for each Apostille sticker.

For further information the following may be contacted:

Section Officer (OI)
Ministry of External Affairs,
CPV Division, Patiala House Annexe,
Tilak Marg, New Delhi – 110001
Email: sooi@mea.gov.in

INDIA TO OPEN EMBASSIES IN FOUR COUNTRIES

A meeting of Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved the opening of Missions and posts in Reykjavik (Iceland), Guatemala City (Guatemala), Niamey (Niger) and Bamako (Mali), according to Information and Broadcasting ministry.

The Cabinet also approved creation of a Consulate General and four Ambassadors in the Grade of Joint Secretaries.

BOOK ON GANDHI RELEASED

The Prime Minister, released a commemorative volume ‘Gandhian Way - peace, non-violence and empowerment’ at a function recently. The book, released on the anniversary of the launch of Quit India Movement, is based on the deliberations of the two-day international conference on Gandhian philosophy convened by the Indian National Congress earlier this year. Enriched by archival material, the book's foreword has been written by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The book has been edited by minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma, who was present at the function held at Gandhi Smriti.

TWO INDIAN WRITERS ON BOOKER LONG LIST

Two Indian novelists, Indra Sinha and Nikita Lalwani, are in the race for this year’s Man Booker Prize whose previous Indian winners have been Kiran Desai and Arundhati Roy.

They would be up against two other fellow Asian contenders: Pakistani-born Mohsin Hamid; and Malaysia’s Tan Twan Tang. The four have been included in a longlist of 13, mostly new writer



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