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BRICS in Space

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Let's send a mission to Mars, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a couple of weeks ago, just as his government was fending off corruption charges and the country was still recovering from the biggest blackout since the invention of electricity,” Hartosh Singh Bal wrote in the New York Times's Latitude blog.

Mr. Singh's “$77 million plan did nothing to divert attention from his administration's failings,” Mr. Bal wrote, but “it did focus some unfortunate attention on India's space program.” It suggested, “what had been a fine endeavor to date has now been hitched to India's dream of becoming a great power.”

But the ambition of a Mars mission “goes well beyond practical applications,” Mr. Bal wrote. “It's about basic science research and planetary exploration, as well as a very real, and ludicrous, race to space with China.”
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Tata Motors Helps Jaguar and Land Rover Regain Luster

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Four years after being bought by Tata Motors, the “well-known but somewhat faded British brands” Jaguar and Land Rover “are regaining some of their lost luster,” Vikas Bajaj wrote, and “racking up big sales from Shanghai to London.”

“The success has stunned analysts and investors,” he wrote, many of whom had said that Tata Motors “was making an expensive mistake when it acquired Jaguar Land Rover from Ford Motor for $2.3 billion in June 2008.”

At the time, Ford was raising money to ensure its own survival, and it sold the brands for several billion dollars less than it had paid to acquire them years earlier.

Analysts say Tata h as done what few companies from emerging markets have been able to do - turn around and successfully run a troubled Western company.

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Following Pussy Riot Verdict, Christian Culture Warriors Run Riot in Moscow

By ROBERT MACKEY

Apparently emboldened by the stiff prison sentences members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot received this month for performing a profane anthem inside a Moscow cathedral, a handful of conservative, Russian Orthodox activists staged a series of audacious attacks on liberal Muscovites this week, all of them amply documented online.

As the news site Gazeta.ru reported the young culture warriors barged into a sex museum in the Russian capital late Tuesday night and left a brick and a threatening message for the staff. Alexander Donskoi, the director of The G-Spot Museum of Erotic Art, said that he had identified the activists “through their accounts on social networks” and by viewing online video of the self-styled defenders of the Russian Orthodox faith harassing supporters of Pussy Riot in recent weeks.

One of the Christians, Dmitry Tsorionov, posted security camera footage of himself and six others, including a camera crew from state television, inside the G-Spot museum on the social network VKontakte, a Russian replica of Facebook, where he blogs as Dimitry Enteo.

Security camera footage of conservative Russian Orthodox activists after they barged into a sex museum in Moscow late Tuesday night, accompanied by a television crew.

In another post on the same social network, a second activist, Andrey Kaplin, drew attention to the report on the incident produced by the crew from state television which had accompanied the protesters. The Russian news agency Interfax reported that the sex museum's director is a former politician who “announced the creation of his Party of Love,” earlier this year “by holding a demonstration in support of Pussy Riot in which party activists swam in a fountain at the GUM shopping center next to Red Square.”

The night before that stunt, Mr. Tsorionov and Mr. Kaplin had stormed into a Moscow theater during the performance of a “documentary” play about the Pussy Riot trial, shouting “Repent!” and “Why do you hate the Russian people?” at the band's lawyers, supporters and family who were gathered on stage. State television journalists, who arrived at the theater with the Orthodox activists, cameras blazing, captured Mr. Tsorionov turning towards the lens at the start of their video report.

A Russian state television report on Christian protesters disrupting the performance of a play about the Pussy Riot trial on Monday at Moscow's Teatr.doc.

The event took place at Moscow's Teatr.doc, which aims to produce “an intersection of art and actual social analysis concerning topical issues,” by crafting performances “based on authentic texts, interviews and the lives of real people.” The theater's artistic director, Mikhail Ugarov, suggested on hi s blog shortly after the protesters burst in that the whole event had been staged by the television crew which arrived with the Christians. “That is,” Mr. Ugarov wrote, “the TV people carry with them the group of extras and shoot the conflict.”

Even without a crew from the state broadcaster, however, Mr. Tsorionov and his fellow activists are quite capable of documenting their own stunts. One video clip posted online this week shows Mr. Tsorionov running up to a man at a Moscow trains station and ripping a Pussy Riot T-shirt off his back.

Video of a Russian Orthodox activist ripping a Pussy Riot T-shirt off a man's back at a Moscow train station.

Mr. Tsorionov also stars in another, longer clip of a confrontation with Pussy Riot supporters which took place this month on the day that three members of the band were jailed for staging a protest inside a Moscow cathedral on the eve of Russia's preside ntial election in February. In that video, the Orthodox vigilantes can be seen demanding that a supporter of the band remove a T-shirt that quoted a lyric of the band's song, “Mother of God, drive Putin out!”

Video of Russian Orthodox activists berating Pussy Riot supporters in a Moscow cafe.

Although the members of Pussy Riot insisted at their trial that the song they performed in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior - an obscenity-laced plea for the Virgin Mary to free Russia from Vladimir Putin's grip - was a political stunt, not an attack on believers, they were convicted this month of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” Supporters of the group have accused the Russian government of portraying the protest as an anti-religious stunt both to dilute the content of the anti-Putin message and turn Orthodox Christians against the protest movement.

Responding late last week to widespread condemnation of the verdict against the three women as an assault on free speech, a Russian diplomat in Britain insisted that the cathedral performance was a “provocation against religion,” and even compared the stunt to the destruction of the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in 2001.

After the Orthodox activists were given so much time to vent their rage on state television this week, Russia's federal investigative committee, which answers directly to Mr. Putin, claimed that a murderer in a Russian province had killed two women and painted the slogan “Free Pussy Riot” on a wall in the victims' blood. While supporters of the band condemned that crime, and cast some doubt on whether the state media report on the incident was reliable, the Russian news agency Interfax asked Mr. Tsorionov, the Orthodox activist, for his response. “The infernal force that drives them hates God, believers and humankind in general,” he said. “These people are capable of c ommitting any crime, and nothing but force and law can stop them.” A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church told the news agency: “This blood is on the conscience of the so-called public, which supported the participants in the action in Christ the Savior Cathedral.”

Later on Thursday, the author of the band's @pussy_riot Twitter feed accused the Kremlin of playing with fire by whipping religious activists into a frenzy. Referring to the fact that a senior Kremlin adviser, Vladislav Surkov, was just put in charge of the state's religious affairs office, the Pussy Riot blogger wrote: “Putin ignites the fires of revolution, and Vladislav Surkov starts religious wars.”

Ilya Mouzykantskii contributed r eporting from Moscow.



Yale University President Is Stepping Down

By TANYA ABRAMS
Higher EducationThe Choice on India Ink

Choice LogoGuidance on American college applications for readers in India from The Times's admissions blog.

After 20 years at the helm, Richard C. Levin, the president of Yale University, announced on Thursday that he will be leaving the Ivy League school at the end of the academic year, our colleague Richard Pérez-Peña reports:

When Mr. Levin took office, Yale was being described as a university whose perch among the world's top schools had grown shaky. The administration often battled the faculty members and the troubled surrounding city, there were budget shortfalls and staff cuts, applications were down and facilities badly needed renovation and repair.

A search committee re peatedly postponed the deadline for naming a new president, reportedly settling unenthusiastically on the low-key Mr. Levin after being unable to find a more charismatic outsider. Almost two decades later, Yale's academic reputation and its finances are more secure, and Mr. Levin, commonly called Rick, is among the most respected university leaders in the country.

Under him, the university has built a new business school campus; greatly expanded its facilities, including its science center and medical school; overhauled its buildings, including all 12 undergraduate residential colleges; started construction of two new residential colleges to make room for the first major expansion in undergraduate enrollment in decades; and embarked on new programs overseas.

Yale's global initiatives grew under Mr. Levine's leadership. The student body became more internationally diverse. In 1999, the university announced that it wo uld offer need-blind admissions to international students and financial aid packages under the same terms as its American students. Yale's India Initiative also began during his tenure.

Mr. Levin, 65, who has served as the university's president since 1993, has had one of the longest tenures in Yale's history. He is also the most senior president among Ivy League leaders.

In a letter to the Yale community, Mr. Levin called his departure a “natural transition” after having accomplished many of the institution's goals.

“These years have been more rewarding and fulfilling than I ever could have imagined,” he wrote.

Mr. Levin, incidentally, is the second university president to leave the Ivy League this year. In July, Jim Yong Kim, the former president of Dartmouth College, became the new leader of the World Bank.

Mr. Levin intends to take a sabbatical next year, during which he plans to finish writing a book about higher education and econo mic policy.



Image of the Day: August 30

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Nine Killed in Midair Collision of Air Force Choppers

By HARI KUMAR

Two Indian Air Force helicopters collided midair during a training exercise in western Gujarat on Thursday, killing all nine people on board.

The MI-17 helicopters, which had taken off from Jamnagar Air Base, crashed at 12:05 p.m. in Sarmat, Gerard Galway, an air force spokesman, said by phone. The nine passengers included five officers.

The air force has formed “a court of inquiry” to determine the cause of accident, said Mr. Galway.

TV news footage showed rescuers among the wreckage of the two helicopters, one of which had broken into pieces.

India has used the MI-17, a Russian-built helicopter that was introduced in 1970s, for both military and civilian purposes. The medium twin-turbine helicopter can be used for transport and as a gunship.

In 2010, a MI-17 helicopter crashed in Tawang, in Arunachal Pradesh, killing 12 air force personnel, and in 2011, another MI-17 c rashed, again in Tawang, killing 17 people on a civilian flight.



In Kerala, Feasting, Splurging and Mollywood Usher in Onam

By T.P. SREENIVASAN

Visiting Kerala this week is like visiting New York during Christmas week, except for the scale. Both places have the festive atmosphere, illumination, feasting everywhere, high alcoholic consumption and crass commercialization, including a grand shopping festival. None of these have anything to do with the traditional Onam festival, but care is taken to do all these in the name of Mahabali, the legendary ruler of prehistoric times. His majestic and well-fed figure juts out of every hoarding like Santa Claus in the West.

Onam, whose festivities center around Thiru Onam, observed on Wednesday, is a combination of the Kerala new year and the harvesting festival, marking the end of torrential rain and misery associated with the previous months. But the Onam legend of Mahabali is the best excuse for the feasting and the splurging. Keralites believe that they have to appear as happy and prosperous as they were in the days of M ahabali, the benevolent king, who returns to Kerala once a year to see his subjects. This was a boon he received from the Supreme God himself, Vishnu, who sent him to the nether-world out of envy for his popularity.

As the story goes, Vishnu appears disguised as a Brahmin boy, who seeks three feet of land to do his prayers. Mahabali promises to provide that, but then Vishnu suddenly grows so large that he measures the earth with one foot, the heavens with another foot and demands that Mahabali find room for his third. Mahabali offers his own head as the third, and Vishnu pushes him down. However, Mahabali managed to negotiate a deal to visit Kerala once every year.

The fame of Mahabali made him a ruler par excellence, without any parallel in history before or after. The literature that describes his reign reads like the description of the Utopia, or the Promised Land: socialistic in concept but capitalist in terms of prosperity and plenty. Everyone was equal, no untruth or deceit, not even an iota of falsehood. No wonder the gods grew jealous as even in heaven, they did not have such a paradise.

The regime change that Vishnu brought about may have had to do with more than jealousy. It was a just regime, but there is no talk of the empowerment of women or faith in God. Some believe that these were the tragic flaws that transported Mahabali to the nether-world.

The legend of Mahabali and his kingdom may well be the primeval memory of a people, in jumbled up images of old times. But more likely, it is a vision, a dream that is difficult even to conceive of, not to speak of accomplishing. By portraying a dream as something that existed in the past, the creators of the legend gave it a touch of reality. The creation of the image of Mahabali was another master stroke to give form and content to the dream.

The Keralites do not see deception in pretending to be content on Onam day. It is a le gitimate way of pleasing their ruler. The deception gives the Keralites the license to indulge in luxuries. Even the sale of immovable property is permitted to celebrate the Onam festival. The government abets the splurging by giving salary advances, which will have to be repaid in subsequent months.

Onam, in the old days, meant 10 days of feasting, flower decorations and traditional dances for women and martial arts and sports for men. Like Thanksgiving, Onam brought families together, even if it meant travel over long distances. Onam used to be very private and unostentatious, but today, Onam is a street festival, with an eye on attracting tourists. Kerala is sold as a tourist and shopping package during Onam.

Today's Onam also revolves around Mollywood, the Malayalam movie scene, which has been exceptionally active in recent years. The supreme stars like Mammootty and Mohanlal still hold sway, and the dream of every television channel is to get them to talk ab out themselves on Onam day. If the networks can't get hold of them, every other star is lined up on Onam day. Meanwhile, Keralites are waiting breathlessly to hear the health bulletins on the popular character actor Thilakan, who is struggling for his life on a ventilator during the Onam week.

Onam is not about a legend anymore. It is a contemporary festival to rejoice, to feast, to shop and to ogle at film stars. Mahabali is just an excuse for Keralites to deceive themselves that they are well. As long as remittances come from the Keralite workers in the Gulf, Onam can have all the glitter it has acquired.

For menial work in Kerala, people from West Bengal and Odisha come in large numbers. For them, Kerala is the Gulf, with jobs in plenty and good wages. The chief minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy, had to greet the migrant workers on Onam day in Hindi this time.

In the Onam season, everything is postponed till the long holidays are over. This year, the Ona m celebrations continue to Sunday, but the official holiday will close on Monday so that everyone gets an extended break. Once it emerges, bleary-eyed, from the Onam season, Kerala will return to its routine of hyper politics, high spending and Kerala model development, and Mahabali will return to his nether-world home in the belief that his subjects are happy today as they were in his times.

Mr. Sreenivasan, a former Indian diplomat, is the executive vice chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council. His views are personal and do not reflect the policy of his state.