Dear friends, English may have transformed the world, but with non-native speakers now outnumbering native speakers 3 to 1, the language is being reshaped in return. In Asia, alone, the number of English users has topped 350 million, roughly the combined populations of the United States, Britain and Canada. Please read the recent article "NOT THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH?", published in the NEWSWEEK (7 March 2005), and you will find answer why do we need high proficiency in English lanugage. Some quotes are mentioned below for your info: "We tell students you need two things to succeed: English and computers," says Chetan Kumar, a Euro Languages manager "Within a decade, 2 billion people will be studying English and about half the world - some 3 billion people - will speak it", according to a recent report from the British Council As one 12-year-old self-taught English-speaker from China's southwestern Sichuan province says, "If you can't speak English, it's like you're deaf and dumb." "Indeed, English has become the common linguistic denominator. Whether you're a Korean executive on business in Shanghai, a German Eurocrat hammering out laws in Brussels or a Brazilian biochemist at a conference in Sweden, you're probably speaking English", Says author of this article CARLA POWER. Regards, Aman Jha Librarian Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Plot No 249-F, Udyog Vihar, Phase IV Sector 18, Gurgaon 122015 (Haryana) Tel: 0124-5014060-67 * Fax: 0124-5014080