THE WORLD PORTAL

JAIRAM RAMESH

Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh is in trouble due to his comments on the home ministry’s stance on China. In a visit to Beijing, Jairam Ramesh criticised the Indian home ministry of being ‘overly defensive’ and ‘alarmist’ in its approach towards the entry of Chinese companies in India. He also suggested the home ministry needed to be much more relaxed in its approach to Chinese investments in India. Bharatiya Janata Party criticised him for raising issues related to national security and the Prime minister Manmohan Singh warned him against making remarks about the functioning of other ministries. Home Minister P Chidambaram also expressed unhappiness over Jairam’s remarks that his ministry was putting needless restrictions on Chinese investments.However, Jairam Ramesh apologised to Home minister for his comments, but reported that he may be quit over his minister post.

BIOGRAPHY

Jairam Ramesh was born on 9th April, 1954 in Chikmagalur, Karnataka as the son of Late Prof. C.K. Ramesh and Shrimati Sridevi Rameshat. He gained his school education from ‘St. Xavier’s School’and B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. In addition, he also gained Master of Science in Management and public policy from Mellon University’s Heinz College. He has held many government and political posts. He served in the Planning Commission, Ministry of Industry and other economic departments of the Central government and has been entrusted with numerous special assignments such as reorganizing India’s international trade agencies, implementing India’s technology missions and analyzing energy policy. He has also served as Advisor to the Finance Minister, Advisor to the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and Advisor to the Prime Minister. In 2004 General election, he was elected from Adilabad District of Andhra Pradesh for Rajya Sabha. Then he served as the ‘Minister of State for Commerce and Industry’ and the ‘Minister of State for Power’ in the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. In 2009 election, he was again elected from Andhra Pradesh to Rajya Sabha. Now, he has been the Indian Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests. He helped put together the ‘National Common Minimum Programme’ of the UPA. He is a man of diverse talents as he has authored a number of key Government reports in areas like energy, technology, capital goods, industrial policy and telecom. He is the columnist of many newspapers like ‘Business Standard’,’ Business Today’, ‘The Telegraph’, ‘Times of India’ and ‘India Today’ under the pen-name “Kautily”. His famous books are “Making Sense of Chindia: Reflections on China and India “, “Kautilya today - Jairam Ramesh on a globalizing India” and “Mobilising Technology for World Development”. He even serves on the boards of a number of public institutions in India and abroad and has been a founding member of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. He is married to Jayashree and they have two sons, Anirudh and Pradyumna.

63RD CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Cannes film festival is one of the famous, recognized and respected international film festivals of the world. The ‘63rd Cannes film festival’ was started on 12th May, 2010 with the Hollywood film “Robin Hood” directed by Ridley Scott. In this year, 19 films are competing for  “Palme d’Or” prize. In these films, six are from French productions, five are Asian films and other films come from Britain, Mexico, Hungary, Ukraine and Russia. The films such as “Outrage”, “Another Year”,  “Biutiful”, “On Tour”, “Outside the Law” etc are some of the films competing for highest price “Palme d’Or”. Another 19 films have been selected for “Un Certain Regard” category and 9 films to be shown ‘Out of competition’ category. Famous American film director Tim Burton is presiding the jury with the support of other eight jury members including Italian cinematographer Alberto Barbera, English actress Kate Beckinsale, French screenwriter and director Emmanuel Carrere, Italian actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro, French composer Alexandre Desplat, Spanish director Victor Erice and Indian director Shekhar Kapur. Many celebrities were attended opening ceremony of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. They included Indian actress and former Miss world Aishwarya Rai, who has been a permanent Cannes attendee for many years, actors Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchet and Salma Hayek. British actress Kristin Scott Thomas presided the opening ceremony and this 12 day film festival will be ended on 23rd May with an Australian film “The Tree” directed by French female director Julie Bertuccelli. So get ready for watching this amazing film festival.

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

A Cannes film festival is one of the famous, recognized and respected international film festivals of the world. This festival was founded in 1939 as a suggestion of the French minister Jean Zay. It is considered as one of the world’s most prestigious and oldest film festivals along with the Venice Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, and Toronto Film Festival. The first Cannes festival was held from September 20 to October 5, 1946 in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France. Since then, it has been held annually in the May at the ‘Palais des Festivals et des Congrès’, in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France. In this festival, many films are viewed and judged by the internationally selected film committee which usually includes film experts from around the world. This festival not only brings world recognition to little-known directors, actors and writers, but also honors the film industry players who either have been forgotten or were not recognized in their lifetime. In addition, this festival attracts many celebrities such as Pamela Anderson, Aiswarya Rai etc from around the world. The’Palme d’Or ‘(Golden Palm)award is the most prestigious Award in Cannes Film Festival. It is given for the ‘Best Film’. The award is sometimes shared by multiple films in one year. ‘The Grand Prix’ is second the most prestigious prize of this festival. ‘The Jury Prize’ is considered as the third most prestigious prize at the Cannes film festival, after the Palme d’Or and the Grand Prix. A total of 57 full-length films from across countries is showcased in the festival. This global audience festival is attended by many movie stars and is a popular venue for movie producers to launch their new films and attempt to sell their works to the distributors who come from all over the globe.