Nobel testimony to be heard in town

Kolkata, November 7 , 2008: Nadine Gordimer, South African writer, Nobel Laureate and one of the first people Nelson Mandela wanted to meet after he emerged from prison, will arrive in the city on November 10 to deliver a lecture. Gordimer, a strong voice against apartheid, has titled her talk “The Inward Testimony”, which she will deliver at Town Hall, at 6pm.

She is visiting the country on an invitation from the public diplomacy division of the ministry of external affairs. She arrives in Mumbai on November 7 and will be in Calcutta till November 13, when she leaves for New Delhi.

The 85-year-old writer of stories and novels, whose books were banned several times by the white South African government, will be given the honour of “state guest” in West Bengal, said Amit Dasgupta, the joint secretary of the public diplomacy division.

Gordimer’s lecture is part of the Nobel Laureate Lecture series organised by the division. Last year, American mathematician John Nash, on whose life the film A Beautiful Mind was made, had been invited for the lecture. But last year, Calcutta was given the miss, as Nash only visited New Delhi and Mumbai. This year, the ministry is making up for it and more, for Gordimer’s talk is reserved for the city, while in the other two, she will be reading from her books.

The writer, who won the Booker for her novel The Conservationist, wrote powerfully and movingly about the lives of ordinary people, many of them black, in the violence-ridden apartheid era, earning the wrath of the authorities repeatedly.

Her latest book of stories is Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black (2007). She has outlived that cause. But an activist forever, in a post-apartheid world, she works on AIDS and HIV prevention, a severe problem in South Africa. “Gordimer will interact with Calcuttans, including writers,” added Dasgupta. She will attend a dinner at Raj Bhavan. Dasgupta is also planning to take her to Victoria Memorial and St Paul’s Cathedral and city bookstores. But he complained that his early inquiries have revealed that not many city bookstores have any of her books.

THE TELEGRAPH

Maoists own responsibility for Nov 2 blast

Kolkata, Nov 7 (IANS): The Communist Party of India-Maoist Friday night owned up responsibility for the Nov 2 landmine blast in West Midnapore district and said that West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was the target.

In a press release signed by its general secretary Kanchan, the guerrilla outfit said it had triggered the blast 'with the active cooperation of the people'.The release said the People's Liberation Guerilla Army organised the explosion and threatened that 'the future will see more of such acts'.'The government cannot prevent such attacks by providing Z plus category security to anybody,' Kanchan claimed.

Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitin Prasada and Bhattacharjee had a close shave as the blast hit their convoy when they were returning after the groundbreaking ceremony of the JSW Bengal steel project at Salboni. Bhattacharjee was the only leader with Z plus security among the VVIPs in the programme.

The Maosits claimed they were opposed to the policies of the 'fascist' state government, which was 'causing great harm' to the farmers by the way it was going for big industries like the JSW project.'Our fight will be on,' Kanchan added.

WB govt to set up new industries at Singur : Buddhadev

7 Nov 2008, 1842 hrs IST, PTI

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government will announce in a few days plans to set up new industries at Singur after the exit of the Tatas Motors from there and has several proposals in hand, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said. "We have several proposals in hand. We will announce these in a few days. Land was acquired at Singur for industrialisation and we will set up industries there and nothing else," he said in an interview to CPI(M) daily 'Ganashakti' published today.

Claiming the exit of the Tatas from Singur would not impact the investment scenario in the state, Bhattacharjee pointed out that none of the Indian and foreign investors had gone back on their plans for West Bengal. "The Singur episode is an isolated one arising out of the destructive movement of Trinamool Congress ... and none of the Indian and foreign investors has left because of the post- Singur situation," the chief minister said. Bhattacharjee said "people will not forgive opposition parties if they continue to pursue policies which harm the state's interests. Industrialists have identified these parties which have tarnished West Bengal's image ... but I feel that this will not last long."

Claiming that investment in West Bengal had gone up in the last three years, Bhattacharjee said "I hope this trend will be maintained in the near future." There were investment queries from China, Japan, the US, Germany, besides fresh investments were coming from companies like Reliance, Birla and even the Tatas, he said.

West Bengal universities tie up with Italian institutions

Kolkata, Nov 7 (IANS): A high-level delegation from Italy Friday inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with several leading West Bengal universities here to launch an educational exchange programme.The academic delegation from the University and Polytechnic of Turin signed the agreement with four premier West Bengal universities - Calcutta University, Jadavpur University, Rabindra Bharati University and Burdwan University.

“West Bengal and Turin have a cultural similarity in their origins. I am very hopeful of this academic cooperation, as it’ll serve several issues of mutual interest with reference to scientific collaboration as well as studies in art, literature, culture and political science,” city mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya told reporters at the MoU signing programme. “The MoU was signed between four leading educational institutions and top 11 Italian universities,” he said.

“There’s always a malicious campaigning about Kolkata, outside India, that it’s a city of traffic congestion and filth. I think this type of wrong ideas are common because it’s a communist ruled state in the country,” Bhattacharyya added. “This educational cooperation programme will open up a new era for the students in West Bengal to come in contact with the rich culture heritage of Italy,” he said.