wine boom in in india

A survey by France-based Vinexpo, the premier event organisers for those in the wine and spirits trade, presents a happy picture for India. Its assessment is that the enormous growth in India’s wine market will account for 150 million cases by 2010. This is triple the consumption level of wine in India today.
Lifestyle changes upward mobility and perceived health advantages are driving the preference for wine. Interestingly, while the wine market is growing by 30% a year, that for spirits is lagging behind at 25%.
With growth has come curiosity for the different sorts of wine and to satisfy this curiosity there are wine clubs mushrooming like never before.
In Mumbai, at the Oberoi’s, they have this Italian restaurant Vetro. You order the food and a surprise awaits you. The restaurant has started an extensive wine library and at any time you can indulge in a wine tasting session with up to five whites and five reds. What’s more, these are offered on the house! The purpose is simple. The hotel wants you not to be scared of ordering a wine. Just enjoy the sampling, relax, see what you like and the next time you will have a better idea perhaps of what you want to order.
Last month Banglore saw the launch of the Wine Society of India, with a bunch of software types trying to deconstruct subtleties of Chardonnay.
In Delhi too there are at least six wine clubs that invite people across professions to come for a sampling more then once a month. These are structured events with a lot of jargon. For those who want to be initiated though, it is almost like a tribal ritual. A lot of the members comprise lunching ladies who want to sound knowledgeable about wine. It probably works out as: knowing wine names means being sophisticated.
This buzz has also hit the embassy circles. They are pitching in with products from their countries, so a lot of the sampling is on the house. The Chilean, Australian and Italian ambassadors in Delhi are known to promote wine from their respective countries and periodically hold wine tasting events.
Now for the downer. Despite the buzz that wine is creating in India, let’s face it, the market is still tiny. It is worth only $50 million in value. And, the per capita consumption is what gives it away — Indians ‘consume’ only two teaspoons of wine per head per year. Wine makers have obviously figured out that the market from here can only grow.

human rights under threat world wide

Human rights under global pressure
Indira Gandhi once famously said that Corruption is a global phenomenon. Going by the latest report of human rights watch the internationally respected NGO, the same seems to hold true for Human rights abuses.
The 2006 edition of human rights watch is a scathing indictment of the United States of America. The damage done to freedom of speech, expression and international guarantees by the Bush administration’s policies come in for special mention.
The US is by no means the only - or indeed the biggest - violator of such freedoms in the world. However, as one of the world largest democracies and a beacon of freedom it is especially troubling for the country to be in the spotlight for some of the worse abuses of human rights that include torture of prisoners and denial of freedoms guaranteed under international law.
The approach to give a state a license to maim, torture and to kill - an increasingly rampant tendency in today’s world has come under special criticism by the report. The executive director of the report Kenneth Roth has said that”… fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause. But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive.”
India too has come for criticism. In particular, on account of India’s gender discrimination. The report says that in India, women continue to face discrimination and violence. The report also point to the fact the India has a bad record in respecting human right in those areas where it is fighting insurgencies. The report further points out that “militant groups and Indian security forces continued attacks on civilians. Caste-based violence continued, especially in rural areas, and tribal groups that had converted to Christianity were targeted for attack by extremist Hindu organizations.”
To be fair, India has a robust and open society where numerous human rights groups routinely point out the problems. However when an internationally respected group comes up with such findings it should act as a wake up call for our civil society.
Democracies have more influence in global order and a far greater responsibility to maintain human rights standards. From the latest report it would appear that democracies as prone as dictatorships when it comes to the option of shooting first and asking questions later.
This is worrying for the future of democracy as a system and the values that dictate the civil societies of these free countries.