News on Agra & Current Affairs

Vijay Upadhyay AGRA. He unfailingly reports to duty five times a day, seven days a week, notwithstanding the weather or ill health. This man is probably the lowest paid salaried employee of the Government of India but still, he's never thought of demanding an increase in his wages. He is the Shahi Imam of the Taj Mahal, Syed Sadik Ali, who was duly appointed for the post by the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct Namaz at the Taj's mosque. He is paid 50 paise a day for his services on a monument that is worth crores. The amount of 15 rupees used to be quite significant when his forefathers were in charge of the mosque but these days, this "royal salary" would barely pay for the rickshaw fare from the Taj Mahal to the ASI office. Ali, whose forefathers were also the "Imams" at the Taj mosque has been conducting the daily Namaz at the Taj Mahal for the past 15 years, first as the "Nayab" or junior to his father Syed Sabik Ali and later, a...

Vijay Upadhyay AGRA. Terror hits on the Indian Parliament and the WTC in the US and the recent attacks in Ayodhya, London and Egypt, all have one feature in common: Involvement of Pakistan-trained Islamic radicals. No matter how strongly President Pervez Musharraf denies his country's involvement in terror camps operating in POK and on its shared border with Afghanistan, the faces of Pakistan-trained Al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed radicals flashed on television networks in India, UK and Egypt have begun to point fingers at the traditional educational system of this military-ruled Islamic nation which is promoting careers in terrorism for the Pakistani youth. While the MEA and the political class have often raised this issue, an SMS doing the rounds here symbolises the sentiments of the IT-conscious generation of the country against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. The SMS goes: If we were in Pakistan our options in education would be - IIT (Islamic Institute of Terrorism), JEE (Jeh...

Demise of the USSR a big blow; infrastructure weak VISHAL SHARMA AGRA. It may be producing more than 1.5 lac pairs of shoes every day, but the Agra footwear industry is still not ready to handle the volume of export orders that the US market is generating presently, due to lack of infrastructure and insufficient availability of export-ready high grade raw leather. According to the footwear industry sources, there are about 60 footwear exporting units functioning in Agra at present, though this number is less than half the number of footwear exporting units that existed in the early 80s before the fall of the Soviet Union. Pegged at almost 1100 crores at present, the export potential of Agra footwear exporters is expected to grow by 20 to 25 percent this year with the rising labor prices in European countries though the Indian share in the world footwear market is still less than 3 percent while China stands strongly poised at 29 percent. Talk...

Vijay Upadhyay AGRA Agra, the only city in the world with three world heritage monuments to its credit, may soon receive the distinction of the world's only river front "heritage monuments club". A draft proposal for the formation of a heritage zone in Agra, clubbing the two world heritage monuments, Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, with two other contemporary river front monuments Itmad-ud-Daullah and Sikandra was passed recently at the UNESCO meet held in Durban. Talking to The Pioneer on Monday, Superintending Archaeologist Agra, D Dayalan said the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had sent a proposal for the inclusion of Itmad-ud-Daullah and Sikandra in the UNESCO list of World Heritage monuments but instead, UNESCO itself forwarded a proposal of forming a "monument club" encompassing the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort, associating Itmad-ud-Daullah and Sikandra with these two monuments as sub-world heritage monuments. Also...

Vishal Sharma AGRA. Firozabad town, located about 50 km from Agra, is known throughout the world for its glass industry, whose production quality comes next only to the Belgian glass. In all, there are 257 registered glass units in this town, manufacturing everything from glass bangles to precious lead-crystal chandeliers, being exported to European countries, where the Firozabad product is in high demand for being low-cost compared to the Belgian glass. But with the competition in the glass industry growing internationally, the local industrialists are now searching for new avenues of business by expanding their product range, taking an innovative path. Aakarshan Enterprises, one such glass-manufacturing unit of Firozabad, has now taken the bold step of challenging the traditional Chinese gold- and platinum-painted glass panes, which had captured the Indian market till date, by selling hand-painted pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses on glass. Talking to Business Standard y...

VIJAY UPADHYAY AGRA. With the UP Sunni Wakf Board (UPSWB) declaring the Taj Mahal a Wakf property on Wednesday, Anjuman-e-Mohammedia, the Agra Muslim organisation, that claims to be the real inheritor of the monument since British times, has demanded the Wakf hand over the keys of the monument. Wakf Board Chairman Hafiz Usman declared on Wednesday, in a hearing that was held in the board's office in Lucknow, that this 17th century monument was a property of the Wakf and would be registered in the Wakf soon although he did not declare who the "Mutwalli" or caretaker of the monument shall be after it was registered with the Wakf. At a time when the entire world is converging in Durban to decide upon the inclusion of new sites of the world in the UNESCO's World Heritage Monuments list - India proposes two more Agra monuments for this list - the ongoing internal fight over the Taj's possession among Muslim organisations has raised doubts over the future of th...

Vishal Sharma AGRA. After strengthening its hold worldwide, the Punjab National Bank is now trying to attract exporters, fixing its export target for this year at $92 billion. T his was stated by D L Rawal, general manager, PNB, while talking to the media persons on Saturday at the two-day exporters’ meet held at the Hotel Taj View in Agra. He said Firozabad, the sister city of Agra, located barely 50 km from this town, was capable of contesting with Belgium in terms of production of glass artifacts but due to the lack of proper export related assistance and banking facilities, the industrialists of Firozabad, were unable to extend the reach of their business in the world. To help these exporters of the twin cities of Agra and Firozabad, he said, the bank was shortly going to open an “export assistance extension counter” in Firozabad. Besides, the bank was also planning to introduce attractive incentives for exporters who provided good business to the bank. In this connection, he...

VIJAY UPADHYAY AGRA. Besides being known worldwide for the Taj Mahal, the tourist town of Agra is also known for its ancient “bazaars” as is most aptly depicted by Habib Tanvir’s famous play “Agra Bazaar”. But the markets of this town are coping up with a strange problem these days. As the clock strikes 5 minutes to 8 in the evening, the city plunges into a complete blackout with the power being shutdown all over the city in a single instant forcing a citywide market closure by 8 pm. This may sound odd but it is a part of the UP government’s “innovative” way of saving electricity in the entire state by making the markets down shutters by 8 in the evening. Though the state government claims to save more than 400 megawatts of electricity every day from this shutdown, the shockwaves of this “fatwa” are already being felt across Uttar Pradesh. Rajiv Gupta, President, National Chamber for Industries & Commerce, UP said that at a time when the concept of night bazaa...

Tourists prefer shops in lanes and bylanes, says study VISHAL SHARMA AGRA. It is as if the construction firms have spotted a golden vein in Agra. This “gold rush” in the real estate firms to build metro-class shopping malls in this C-class city has resulted in the launching of at least 10 shopping malls in Agra in the past few months but already, economists have begun doubting the success of the mall culture in small towns. A market research in Agra conducted recently pointed out that though the shopping malls were being seen with somewhat curiosity by the local residents, the concept being new, the general perception was that when the retail malls were finding it tough to survive in cities like Gurgaon and Noida, which are adjacent to the national capital, it would be far more difficult for them to even manage the daily operational expenses in Agra with a population of just 1.5 million, though the “themed malls” could hope for a better response. Ashok Dixit, finance ana...

VIJAY UPADHYAY ETAWAH/BHIND. For 30 years, he ruled the Chambal with a steady hand but weakened by age and continually dogged by the police, Nirbhay Gujjar, the last remaining edifice of the old stock of bandits from India’s own “Wild-Wild West”, may have at last taken a peaceful retirement in the Himalayas, that he was vying for a long time. Reports filtering in from the Chambal ravines of Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh and the adjoining Bhind of Madhya Pradesh indicate that this most feared bandit of Chambal has finally given up the ghost, following the rising waters of the river and the depleting strength of his gang due to regular encounters by the police of these two states. According to the residents of the villages of Etawah, Bhind & Kalpi, Jaloun districts, Nirbhay has not been seen in these parts for quite some time and his regular contacts in the villages are no longer active. The gang has even gone untraceable on the electronic surveillance net of the police. Sources ...

Xerox product priced at Rs 75 lakh VISHAL SHARMA AGRA. Speed Color Labs, India’s first ISO certified color photography development and printing company, has introduced a new concept in printing by launching a digital color printing unit in Agra. The new unit of the company was formally inaugurated by Agra Divisional Commissioner Ashok Kumar last week near St. John’s College. Talking to Business Standard on this occasion, company director Sanjay Goyal said the new unit was capable of churning out digital colour prints at the rate of 3,000 prints per hour on 130 GSM paper. Manufactured by Xerox and installed at a cost of Rs 75 lakh, Goyal claimed it to be the first digital printing unit of this scale in entire Uttar Pradesh, and the only unit of its kind to be installed by any photo-lab in the northern and central India. The unit would help in catering to the demand for digital printing in the entire region, Goyal added. According to Goyal, the technology used by the new printing unit w...

VIJAY UPADHYAY Firozabad. It is said that crime pays, but Netrapal gives this popular saying an entirely new meaning. Once, a hard-core bandit of UP, Netrapal is now the crime counselor of Firozabad police. This hard-hearted criminal, who claims to have even abducted the grandson of the then President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, has been sentenced to death three times since he surrendered before the police in 1978 but each time, he has been exonerated. Now, reformed and repentant for his long list of 136 crimes including 87 kidnappings for ransom and three murders, Netrapal is living in the Firozabad district of Uttar Pradesh, upholding the flame of “Chambal Shanti Mission” in order to rehabilitate the dacoits active in this region though he considers the UP dacoits as “Chhinras” or characterless people for keeping women in their gangs, which was against the “old bandit code”. This correspondent talked to Netrapal on Friday in the Firozabad Police Lines, where he had been called by ...

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA, 30 JUNE. Rana Group of Industries, one of the major rolling steel productions companies of North India, shall shortly establish a steel girders production plant in Eastern India (Orissa) with the cost of Rs. 125 crores. According to the group director Zafir Rana, keeping in mind the power crisis all over the country, the new unit shall have its own captive power plant, enabling the unit to function without being affected from power disruptions. Besides, Mr. Rana said, the Muzaffarnagar based company, established about 25 years back was already running eight more units in UP & Uttaranchal, serving the entire North India with quality steel products for construction. According to Mr. Rana after UP & Uttaranchal, Orissa would be the first state out of North India where the Rana Group had established its presence and the new plant in Orissa shall produce steel girders, rods & channels for consumption in the states of Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand & West Benga...

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA. With the growing sense of trust between India and Pakistan after the mutual Confidence Building Measures (CBM), the industrialists of these two countries are also seeking mutual partnerships in cross-border business. To take the advantage of this hopefully “lasting peace” between the two countries, a 27 member delegation of the National Chamber of Industries and Commerce, UP (NCIC) shall be shortly leaving for Pakistan in search of new business prospects in the country upon the invitation of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industries (LCCI). Talking to Business Standard on Wednesday, NCIC president Rajiv Gupta said that the NCIC had assembled a delegation of 27 top industrialists of Agra and Firozabad, concerned with the foundry, glass, leather, handicrafts & automobile industry, who were interested in either resuming their earlier business contacts in Pakistan or making fresh deals. This delegation shall leave for Pakistan in the 3...

VIJAY UPADHYAY AGRA. When the Mughal emperors entered India, the first architectural change that they introduced in the country was the strategic placement of their residences and other important buildings around the multitude of water bodies present in Northern India in order to fight off the high temperatures of the Indian plains. Historic evidence indicates the presence of over 100 such water bodies including ponds, moats and streams in the Mughal era Agra, which continued to remain in existence decades after the British rule ended but with the growing urbanization of this town, these water bodies have completely disappeared in just the past one decade. With the Yamuna river dried out and the ponds being filled up, Agra has come close to a complete ecological disaster. Each year, underground water is becoming saline and the levels are dropping with the daytime temperature reaching the 50 degree mark. Now, to protect the environment of this town which had come close to being conve...

Vijay Upadhyay Agra. He first entered into an extra-marital relationship and when his wife got a whiff of this, this man did not hesitate to hire a contract killer to eliminate his entire family. This may seem like a film plot but this heinous crime actually took place in Agra on Monday night when a local property dealer got his family murdered including his young wife and two kids aged four and seven. Faced with charges of quadruple murder, Sunderlal, a resident of Sikandra in Agra, claims it was his wife who had illicit relations with his cousin Rajvir whose dead body was also found on the railway tracks along with the badly mangled bodies of his wife and children on Tuesday morning. He claims Pinki, his wife, had run away from home late on Monday evening and committed suicide on the same night with her "lover" Rajvir along with both his kids too. However, the Agra Police tells a different story. According to Sikandra police station incharge Abhay Singh, the police h...

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA. After years of lagging behind in the foreign trade and collaboration segment, the ailing footwear industry of Agra is finally set to make a turnaround with Italian footwear component companies showing interest in the “Footwear Components Park” that is being setup in Agra by the Council of Leather Exports, Govt. of India, with the cost of over Rs. 16 crores. A nine member delegation of Italian Footwear components manufacturers met the Agra Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Chamber (AFMEC) officials on Wednesday in Hotel Holiday Inn to discuss the possibilities of securing space in the Agra footwear park for Italian companies that are interested in setting up units in footwear manufacturing units in India. Talking to Business Standard, Puran Dawar, Managing partner of Dawar Footwear Industries and Chairman & Managing Director of Agra Footwear Infrastructure Development Company that is engaged in the construction of the park on Agra-Del...

VIJAY UPADHYAY AGRA. Gone are the days when a movie scoring a hit in Uttar Pradesh made it a blockbuster and the Hindi movie industry thrived on the “house full” boards that had become an almost permanent feature of the UP theatres two decades back. Now, with the viewers becoming tied to the tube at home, this 100 year journey from a Biscope to the massive 70 mm screen seems to be coming to an end with 250 movie theatres drawing their curtains in this state in the past few years for the lack of viewers and about 100 to shut down shortly, giving way to a new generation of multiplexes.In a state which flaunts its large Hindi speaking population as its “resource” and whose “ambassadors” in the Bollywood movie world are mega stars like Amitabh Bachchan & Raj Babbar with well known actress of yesteryears Jaya Bachchan heading the UP Film Development Council, the number of film goers in Uttar Pradesh is rapidly declining each year posing a threat to the Mumbai film industry itself ...

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA, 11 MAY. The management & business dispute in the family run Agra based Amar Ujala group of publications has begun to draw attention of the UP government which has become concerned over the growing differences in this major newspaper & publication group of the state. The UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav openly expressed his concern over this dispute while talking to the Group Chairman Ashok Agarwal in Agra during his visit, suggesting that the group settle its disputes soon to save this prestigious newspaper brand of the state from splitting and he was also prepared to mediate for the peaceful resolution of this dispute if the group wishes so. The dispute in the management of this group had come out in the open recently after Ajay Agarwal, the editor and 35 percent share holder in the group had alleged before the Company Law Board (CLB) that he had been removed from the post of Agra edition editor and his financial ...

VISHAL SHARMA AGRA. Judging from the demand for branded goggles & optical accessories in North India with the rising temperatures, Nayan opticals, a reputed optical accessories importer of Indore has now decided to enter the North Indian market. In its quest to establish optics showrooms in every major town of the country, the company launched its first “super-specialty store” in Agra on Sunday. Talking to Business Standard on this occasion, Bishandas Purasnani, chairman, Nayan Opticals, said that the company is dealing directly with a number of reputed optics brands of the world, including Bausch&Lomb, manufacturing the world-famous “RayBan” brand of goggles & contact lenses. Besides, he said, the company also resells a number of foreign and indigenously manufactured optical accessories & vision testing equipments that are either imported directly or through the company’s agents. He said that after establishing a domineering presence over the optics market in Central I...