Cartoon Scape - Anna Hazare teams up with Ramdev to fight corruption

Funny Cartoon appeared on THE HINDU - Cartoon Scape

Anna Hazare teams up with Ramdev to fight corruption. Too late to act perhaps. For he even didn't am in doing..

Original link below...

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/cartoon/article3342928.ece

The real face of Indian Sports Authority - An institutional Failiure

Pathetic.. I know no other words to say.. The sports authority of India is in absolute shambles... They seem to see nothing beyond cricket as sports. Its unfortunate that such a non-mainstream sports is favoured or rather worshiped than anything else..

Should sachin be awarded Bharat ratna...?? Damn it I say.. even he wouldn't agree to be awarded the highest honor at the cost of other sport for the modest person he is...

Inset Message: Shashikant Hotkar , winner of Mumbai Shree for the year 2011, making papad with his family in Dharavi Slum , Mumbai.

We give so much importance to cricket and cricket players as compared to other games.. though these players perform well they still need to struggle in the daily life for living!!!!! Though they r doing hard work for making records for Indian games they doesn't get any help frm government... emphasizing the real need to change this situation

Its not about Shashikant or whether he deserves whatever he does, the perennial question is what the Sports Authority of India is doing with the worlds second largest population. Had they provided the sufficient infra structure with proper maintenance the situation would be rather different.

Its the very reason that we still are languishing at the bottom of the table every olympics struggling so hard to clinch atleast a Bronze cheering the mediocre success and crediting that to the non-sense sports Authority and the IOC who did not even to care to move their ass out for anything other than abusing the institution while even every small african countries and with people not even equalling the population of the capitol. 

When are we going to realize this very fact and act. I guess whatever the changes should be proposed should start fundamentally. Thatz where we lack. We lack the very foundation. We lack the very infrastructure. We lack the very culture where sports is treated in par with the success of other professions. Can you imagine somebody saying I play kabbadi or I play Football in india when they were asked what you do for a living ?? We'd joke at them as losers. 

This is what we should change and the rest takes care by itself when we introduce the sports as a compulsory eductaion or rather give more emphasis by giving some more credits like we do for Arts, languages, Mathematics and science.

I dont really know if these things gonna happen during my lifetime or the respected politicians would spare some time from facing their never-ending list of cases of corruption, crime, treason and the likes. Not that i should be worried about it now for I have long lost the grip of playing tennis or cricket and just play Ping pong to cut loose stress out of the maniacal work only tuning me to be a moron every progressing day.

Victory of the people against corruption - A true democracy

Let this day be etched in the History of india as yet another day of Independence. Freedom from corruption and against politicians as no movement in independent India is driven by peoples power. Let us hope this transforms to a reality which seemed to be doomed so far.. thanks Anna Hazare for showing us a shaft of light inside the cave...

Independent India - Musings on the IDay 63

Every August, it will be Independence Day just like it was since the day it all began way back in 47 which many of us would've never seen.... The entire nation will wear a festive look. The tri-colour will flutter on the buildings and roads. The media will recapitulate the events of the freedom struggle. Political leaders will display their oratorical prowess from public platforms listing out their achievements and calling upon the masses to be vigilant in guarding the country's sovereignty against external aggression. As usual, they will dish out more promises to work for the uplift of the downtrodden and poor and ensuring equal rights and opportunities to one and all as enshrined in the Constitution.

As we all would know, ours is a predominantly agricultural country. You like him or not, Mahatma Gandhi had said, "the heart of India lies in its villages". The majority of our population lives in villages. Even after 62 years of Independence, most of them live below the poverty line and are socially oppressed. Though we have made impressive and spectacular strides in various fields like science and technology, education and industries, Its imperarative that the benefits have not reached the common man (Aam Aadmi) . Basic needs such as drinking water, electricity and shelter are still a distant dream for many. We should look deeper inside within so as to develop our outlook. There are lots more to be done at the grassroot level. Developing the villages (gaav's) should be our topmost priority for us to move forward to reach the status of the superpower. Rather we are making deals and working with cities just to make them more glamorous and attractive towards the FDI's and VC's. Unless we develop our basic infra nothing gonna change even if things seems so won't last for years and aren't worth to take us to the level we all aspire of.

Our economic order has been liberalised and has drifted away from nationalisation to globalisation even still we stayed a bit conservative which almost saw us through these recession thing thatz rocking the world these days. Our foreign policies have always stayed introversive. But still oflate we've managed to pull of deals with other G8's to collaborate on all front to advance in Science, Technology, Industries, Textile, Engineering, Sports and even Literary & Arts. We have leaders in every front but still we lack the professional approach and the lack of proper stystem to groom the future aspirants still haunts and its not just the UID's thatz gonna help us in our way forward we need a inspiring vision with palpable action.

Our political system has become corrupt to a degree none of us can imagine. Our Politicians are totally engrossed in driving wedges between communities, religion, castes and what not to gain political mileage and strengthen their vote banks. Even the face of terror proved futile in bringing us together. Parliaments are full of dogfights without consensus on any issues. We are left fighting selfishly on every issues of national importance.

I wish every Independence Day there should be a time for political introspection by India’s political leaders and its polity as to whether they have been able to deliver on the political promises made by them to the people of India. It is also the time for personal introspection by India’s political leaders in that whether they themselves personally have contributed to the strengthening of the ‘moral fabric’ of India in terms of setting exemplary standards of political probity, honesty and integrity and also ensuring that their political flock does likewise.

Independence Day had come and went like every year but has left in its wake the troubling thought as to whether India really has ‘dignified political leaders’ or they all have juggled the spelling of ‘leaders’ and ended up as ‘political dealers’ devoid of political morality and conscience. Especially the country's current state of affairs seriously demands a reality check on everyone of us and the country as a whole. It is true that we have lots of things to boast off over the last year but its equally eventful in terms of adversities and mishaps. I would not like to dwell too much on any of the issues as it would only evoke grave criticism.

I've not been wonderstruck at the electrifying spectacle of the English parting us at the stroke of the midnight when Nehru delivered his landmark speech 'Tryst with destiny. Iam still wondering as to why India’s politicians who succeed them and those who head them can no longer recreate those electrifying moments on every passing Independence Day. The answer is obvious as there are no political leaders left of the genre of India’s freedom movement. India today has been left with ‘political pygmies’ whose sole political activity is focused not on nation-building but on devising political tricks to capture power and survive in power at any cost.

How does one term the sordid spectacle that India’s polity put on display (on the event of last elections) for the citizens who voted them to power hoping that somehow even if they were ‘not fit to lead’ they would ‘at least provide honest governance’? Will their hopes be realised or will their needs be ever fulfilled. Defenitely not as it seems so in the due course. But will this pain ever abate is left to be seen.

The Worst of all was as to how the Indian Muslim communal card was being played by the so called secular parties. In the Parliament debate where India’s national issues should have been in the forefront and especially those really connected with the trust vote in terms of honest governance no effort was spared to dramatize the Congress Party’s so called secular credentials by lionizing the speeches of Indian Muslim Members of Parliament singing praises of the Congress

Few obvious questions arise from this sordid display of low political morality. The first is whether the Congress President and the Congress Prime Minister can absolve themselves from all that happened inside and outside the Parliament last year in terms of political wheeling and dealing. Secondly, both of them should be asking themselves whether all their wheeling and dealing was politically worth it keeping in mind that they are indeed debasing further the state of political affairs in the country which is already facing a severe lack of moral credentials upon which they are built upon. They somehow had lost their ultimate goal and are fighting only for their survival and in-turn their loyals to stay in power.

The answer however to many of such questions is a resounding ‘no’. If it is their contention that by winning a trust vote or just by signing a deal with US or showing their great indifference to any of the burning issues and still boasting off their resounding win by politically and morally questionable methods has raised India’s stock in the international arena then they are deluding themselves. They have only belittled themselves and in-turn had left us in a hapless state.

Finally, the people of India themselves are to blame for facilitating the rise of a motley group of unprincipled political midgets to power by an apathetic indifference to India’s political affairs and India’s political governance. This particularly applies to India’s rising middle class like me.There had been several calls over these years that stressed on the imperatives of India’s middle class politically empowering themselves to break the stranglehold of India’s captive vote-banks on India’s electoral arithmetic

Having said all these i believe the country is at the crossroads. Its for them to take a call (timely call) on framing the path ahead and rise to the call of duty beyond all issues and adversities. I wish the current leaders would focus on taking the country in the right direction and bring about development, prosperity and peace. May thins IDay be just another beginning of a new India... Truly Independent India

Information to India

Government of India has an online Grievance forum at http://pgportal.gov.in/

Can you imagine this is happening in INDIA? (unable to get just type www.pgportal.gov.in)
The govt. wants people to use this tool to highlight the problems they faced while dealing with Government officials or departments like Passport Office, Electricity board, BSNL/MTNL, Railways, Highways etc.

Many of us say that these things don’t work in India. Couple of months back, the Faridabad Municipal Corporation laid new roads in his area and the residents were very happy about it. But 2 weeks later, BSNL dug up the newly laid roads to install new cables which annoyed all the residents. A resident used the above listed grievance forum to highlight his concern. To his surprise, BSNL and Municipal Corporation of Faridabad were served a show cause notice and the guy received a copy of the notice in one week. Government has asked the MC and BSNL about the goof up as it’s clear that both the government departments were not in sync at all.

So use this grievance forum and educate others who don’t know about this facility. This way we can at least raise our concerns instead of just talking about the ‘System’ in India. Invite your friends to contribute for many such happenings.

PLEASE SPREAD THIS MESSAGE IF YOU WANT OUR INDIA TO HAVE A BETTER TOMORROW.

Information Courtesy : EMail.

Unusual request - Lord Ram's comments on RAM SETU

Lord Ram's comments on RAM SETU It has been copied from one community of orkut, i liked it so i m posting it here...

Lord Ram's comments on RAM SETU
The Lord Shree Shree Ramachandra Prabhu surveyed the Ram Setu and said"Hanuman, how diligently and strenuously you and your vanara sena had builtthis bridge several centuries back. It is remarkable that it has withstoodthe ravages of the climatic and geographical changes over centuries. It isindeed an amazing feat especially considering the fact that a bridge atHyderabad built by Gammon using latest technology collapsed the other dayeven before they could stick the posters on its pillars."

Hanuman with all humility spoke "Jai Sri Ram, it is all because of yourgrace. We just scribbled your name on the bricks and threw them in the seaand they held. No steel from TISCON or cement from Ambuja or ACC was everused. But Lord, why rake up the old issue now."

Ram spoke "Well, Hanuman some people down there want to demolish the bridgeand construct a canal. The contract involves lot of money and lot of moneywill be made. They will make money on demolition and make more money onconstruction. "

Hanuman humbly bowed down and said "Why not we go down and present ourcase"

Ram said "Times have changed since we were down there. They will ask us tosubmit age proof and we don't have either a birth certificate or schoolleaving certificate. We traveled mainly on foot and some times in bullockcarts and so we don't have a driving license either. As far as the addressproof is concerned the fact that I was born at Ayodhya is itself underlitigation for over half a century, If I go in a traditional attire withbow and arrow, the ordinary folks may recognize me but Arjun Singh may takeme to be some tribal and, at the most, offer a seat at IIT under thereserved category. Also, a God cannot walk in dressed in a three-piece suitand announce his arrival. It would make even the devotees suspicious. So itis dilemma so to say."

"I can vouch for you by saying that I personally built the bridge."

"My dear, Anjani putra, it will not work. They will ask you to produce thelay-out plan, the project details, including financial outlay and how theproject cost was met and the completion certificate. Nothing is acceptedwithout documentary evidence in India. You may cough but unless a doctorcertifies it, you have no cough. A pensioner may present himself personallybut the authorities do not take it as proof. He has to produce alife-certificate to prove that he is alive. It is that complicated."

"Lord can't understand these historians. Over the years you have givendarshan once every hundred years to saints like Surdas, Tulsidas, SaintThyagaraja, Jayadeva, Bhadrachala Ramdas and even Sant Tukaram and stillthey disbelieve your existence and say Ramayana is a myth. The only option,I see, is to re-enact Ramayana on earth and set the government recordsstraight once for all."

Lord smiled "It isn't that easy today. Ravan is apprehensive that he maylook like a saint in front of Karunanidhi. I also spoke to his mamaMareecha, who appeared as a golden deer to tempt Sita maiyya when I was inthe forest and he said that he won't take a chance of stepping on earth aslong as Salman Khan is around."

The Song of the soul - Jodi tor dak shune keu na ashe tôbe êkla chôlo re - Rabindranath Tagore

Perhaps one of the greatest piece of Tagore ( I love this more than his geetanjali) I do seriously doubt if anyone else in this world can describe the feelings and cryings of the soul like these... Truly a masterpiece of his own kind...

Jodi tor dak shune keu na ashe tôbe êkla chôlo re,
Êkla chôlo, êkla chôlo, êkla chôlo, êkla chôlo re.

Jodi keu kôtha na kôe, ore ore o ôbhaga,
Jodi shôbai thake mukh firaee shôbai kôre bhôe---
Tôbe pôran khule
O tui mukh fute tor moner kôtha êkla bôlo re.

Jodi shôbai fire jae, ore ore o ôbhaga,
Jodi gôhon pôthe jabar kale keu fire na chae---
Tôbe pôther kãta
O tui rôktomakha chôrontôle êkla dôlo re.

Jodi alo na dhôre, ore ore o ôbhaga,
Jodi jhôr-badole ãdhar rate duar dêe ghôre---
Tôbe bojranôle
Apon buker pãjor jalie nie êkla jôlo re.

Tagore's English translation

If they answer not to thy call walk alone,
If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall,
O thou of evil luck,
open thy mind and speak out alone.

If they turn away, and desert you when crossing the wilderness,
O thou of evil luck,
trample the thorns under thy tread,
and along the blood-lined track travel alone.

If they do not hold up the light when the night is troubled with storm,
O thou of evil luck,
with the thunder flame of pain ignite thy own heart
and let it burn alone.

Hotel Taj : icon of whose India ?

Gnani Sankaran- Tamil writer, Chennai.

Watching at least four English news channels surfing from one another during the last 60 hours of terror strike made me feel a terror of another kind. The terror of assaulting one's mind and sensitivity with cameras, sound bites and non-stop blabbers. All these channels have been trying to manufacture my consent for a big lie called - Hotel Taj the icon of India.
Whose India, Whose Icon ?

It is a matter of great shame that these channels simply did not bother about the other icon that faced the first attack from terrorists - the Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station. CST is the true icon of Mumbai. It is through this railway station hundreds of Indians from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamilnadu have poured into Mumbai over the years, transforming themselves into Mumbaikars and built the Mumbai of today along with the Marathis and Kolis

But the channels would not recognise this. Nor would they recognise the thirty odd dead bodies strewn all over the platform of CST. No Barkha dutt went there to tell us who they were. But she was at Taj to show us the damaged furniture and reception lobby braving the guards. And the TV cameras did not go to the government run JJ hospital to find out who those 26 unidentified bodies were. Instead they were again invading the battered Taj to try in vain for a scoop shot of the dead bodies of the page 3 celebrities.

In all probability, the unidentified bodies could be those of workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh migrating to Mumbai, arriving by train at CST without cell phones and pan cards to identify them. Even after 60 hours after the CST massacre, no channel has bothered to cover in detail what transpired there.

The channels conveniently failed to acknowledge that the Aam Aadmis of India surviving in Mumbai were not affected by Taj, Oberoi and Trident closing down for a couple of weeks or months. What mattered to them was the stoppage of BEST buses and suburban trains even for one hour. But the channels were not covering that aspect of the terror attack. Such information at best merited a scroll line, while the cameras have to be dedicated for real time thriller unfolding at Taj or Nariman bhavan.

The so called justification for the hype the channels built around heritage site Taj falling down (CST is also a heritage site), is that Hotel Taj is where the rich and the powerful of India and the globe congregate. It is a symbol or icon of power of money and politics, not India. It is the icon of the financiers and swindlers of India. The Mumbai and India were built by the Aam Aadmis who passed through CST and Taj was the oasis of peace and privacy for those who wielded power over these mass of labouring classes. Leopold club and Taj were the haunts of rich spoilt kids who would drive their vehicles over sleeping Aam Aadmis on the pavement, the Mafiosi of Mumbai forever financing the glitterati of Bollywood (and also the terrorists) , Political brokers and industrialists.

It is precisely because Taj is the icon of power and not people, that the terrorists chose to strike.

The terrorists have understood after several efforts that the Aam Aadmi will never break down even if you bomb her markets and trains. He/she was resilient because that is the only way he/she can even survive.

Resilience was another word that annoyed the pundits of news channels and their patrons this time. What resilience, enough is enough, said Pranoy Roy's channel on the left side of the channel spectrum. Same sentiments were echoed by Arnab Goswami representing the right wing of the broadcast media whose time is now. Can Rajdeep be far behind in this game of one upmanship over TRPs ? They all attacked resilience this time. They wanted firm action from the government in tackling terror.

The same channels celebrated resilience when bombs went off in trains and markets killing and maiming the Aam Aadmis. The resilience of the ordinary worker suited the rich business class of Mumbai since work or manufacture or film shooting did not stop. When it came to them, the rich shamelessly exhibited their lack of nerves and refused to be resilient themselves. They cry for government intervention now to protect their private spas and swimming pools and bars and restaurants, similar to the way in which Citibank, General Motors and the ilk cry for government money when their coffers are emptied by their own ideologies.

The terrorists have learnt that the ordinary Indian is unperturbed by terror. For one whose daily existence itself is a terror of government sponsored inflation and market sponsored exclusion, pain is something he has learnt to live with. The rich of Mumbai and India Inc are facing the pain for the first time and learning about it just as the middle classes of India learnt about violation of human rights only during emergency, a cool 28 years after independence.

And human rights were another favourite issue for the channels to whip at times of terrorism.

Arnab Goswami in an animated voice wondered where were those champions of human rights now, not to be seen applauding the brave and selfless police officers who gave up their life in fighting terorism. Well, the counter question would be where were you when such officers were violating the human rights of Aam Aadmis. Has there ever been any 24 hour non stop coverage of violence against dalits and adivasis of this country?

This definitely was not the time to manufacture consent for the extra legal and third degree methods of interrogation of police and army but Arnabs don't miss a single opportunity to serve their class masters, this time the jingoistic patriotism came in handy to whitewash the entire uniformed services.

The sacrifice of the commandos or the police officers who went down dying at the hands of ruthless terrorists is no doubt heart rending but in vain in a situation which needed not just bran but also brain. Israel has a point when it says the operations were misplanned resulting in the death of its nationals here.

Khakares and Salaskars would not be dead if they did not commit the mistake of traveling by the same vehicle. It is a basic lesson in management that the top brass should never t ravel together in crisis. The terrorists, if only they had watched the channels, would have laughed their hearts out when the Chief of the Marine commandos, an elite force, masking his face so unprofessionally in a see-through cloth, told the media that the commandos had no idea about the structure of the Hotel Taj which they were trying to liberate. But the terrorists knew the place thoroughly, he acknowledged.

Is it so difficult to obtain a ground plan of Hotel Taj and discuss operation strategy thoroughly for at least one hour before entering? This is something even an event manager would first ask for, if he had to fix 25 audio systems and 50 CCtvs for a cultural event in a hotel. Would not Ratan Tata have provided a plan of his ancestral hotel to the commandos within one hour considering the mighty apparatus at his and government's disposal? Are satelite pictures only available for terrorists and not the government agencies ? In an operation known to consume time, one more hour for preparation would have only improved the efficiency of execution.

Sacrifices become doubly tragic in unprofessional circumstances. But the Aam Aadmis always believe that terror-shooters do better planning than terrorists. And the gullible media in a jingoistic mood would not raise any question about any of these issues.

They after all have their favourite whipping boy - the politician the eternal entertainer for the non-voting rich classes of India.

Arnabs and Rajdeeps would wax eloquent on Nanmohan Singh and Advani visiting Mumbai separately and not together showing solidarity even at this hour of national crisis. What a farce? Why can't these channels pool together all their camera crew and reporters at this time of national calamity and share the sound and visual bites which could mean a wider and deeper coverage of events with such a huge human resource to command? Why should Arnab and Rajdeep and Barkha keep harping every five minutes that this piece of information was exclusive to their channel, at the time of such a national crisis? Is this the time to promote the channel? If that is valid, the politician promoting his own political constituency is equally valid. And the duty of the politican is to do politics, his politics. It is for the people to evaluate that politics.
And terrorism is not above politics. It is politics by other means.

To come to grips with it and to eventually eliminate it, the practice of politics by proper means needs constant fine tuning and improvement. Decrying all politics and politicians, only helps terrorists and dictators who are the two sides of the same coin. And the rich and powerful always prefer terrorists and dictators to do business with.

Those caught in this crossfire are always the Aam Aadmis whose deaths are not even mourned - the taxi driver who lost the entire family at CST firing, the numerous waiters and stewards who lost their lives working in Taj for a monthly salary that would be one time bill for their masters.

Postscript: In a fit of anger and depression, I sent a message to all the channels, 30 hours through the coverage. After all they have been constantly asking the viewers to message them for anything and everything. My message read: I send this with lots of pain. All channels, including yours, must apologise for not covering the victims of CST massacre, the real mumbaikars and aam aadmis of India. Your obsession with five star elite is disgusting. Learn from the print media please. No channel bothered. Only srinivasan Jain replied: you are right. We are trying to redress balance today. Well, nothing happened till the time of writing this 66 hours after the terror attack.

Union Home minister Shivraj patil resigns - Breaking news

Breaking News! Under fire from several quarters for his "inability" to prevent the rising terror attacks in India, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil resigned, owning moral responsibility for the loss of lives and properties in Mumbai due to the recent terror attacks. The terror attack in Mumbai was the immediate cause for his resignation.

Shivraj Patil's own partymen from Congress and other UPA partners were gunning for his head. The BJP, Left and other political parties have been demanding for Shivraj Patil's resignation for a long time. The UPA government did not want to take any chance over Shivraj Patil in the wake of rising anger and emotion in the public after the terror attacks in Mumbai. Pranab Mukherjee is tipped to be the next Home Minister of India.

Where is thackery now ?? after mumbai mayhem, Raj and his pseudo feelings

Raj and his pseudo feelings. Where is Raj Thackeray & his ‘brave’ sena? Forget about he supporting the country, he didn’t even come to save his own state/city. Over 200 NSG from all parts of the country including Bihar and no Marathi Manoos, have been fighting to take terrorists out of Mumbai. Isn’t it ironic that when we required him and his ’sena’ the most, he was no where to be seen? Hitting on gullible poor Indians, this is the true face of his politics. Use ’solvable’ NON-issues to politicize his career.

Poor Raj

Where is his face now in the midst of all the chaos the mumbai has been under the last 4 days ?? What will he say now?? when the National Security Guard (NSG) with all its commandos came in to rescue the Hotels. They hardly cared about their lives as they fought not just for their countrymen but also for the foreigners saving the country some pride from this adverse situation...

Now it seems hez blaming the NCP Govt. for sending the Mumbaikar - Kakre, vijay and all for sending them to rescue foreigners from the Islamist terrorists The article in zeenews

How easily would his ’sena’ would come and bash people for buying greeting cards on Valentine’s day, his men would bash outsiders for ‘working’ in Maharashtra and now when his own people were brutally murdered, he has no qualms and watches TV in the comfort of his luxury home.

Now as i wrote this article im hearing the news about the resignation of the home minister Shivraj Patil facing the intelligence lapse in mumbai. I seriously think that its time the UPA led govt. had to tighten its belt to curb the violence and peaking violence reaching newer highs everytime it strikes.

Bhuvan, ISRO's new eye in the sky - ISRO's take on Google

AHMEDABAD : Imagine if you could count the lions in Gir or fishermen find concentration of fish in the sea, just by dragging a mouse on a computer screen. Space Applications Centre of ISRO has just made that possible by an innovation called Bhuvan.

Bhuvan, meaning earth, is the addition to the numerous scientific innovations by SAC and is a satellite mapping tool, just like Google Earth or Wikimapia, but allows you to zoom far closer than the aerial view from a chopper. If Google Earth shows details upto 200 metres distance and Wikimapia upto 50 metres, Bhuvan will show images upto 10 metres, which means you can easily see details upto a three floor high building and also add information.

Announcing this at the Indian National Cartographic Association (INCA) International Congress here on Tuesday ISRO chairman Dr G Madhavan Nair said, "Bhuvan will use the data recorded by the Indian satellites only. The prototype of Bhuvan will be ready by the end of November and ISRO is hoping to officially launch the service by March next".

He added that while other mapping sites take four years to update, Bhuvan will be upgraded every year. "This will be able to give you an image from only 10 meters away", he said to the excited gathering.

Unlike the other two webmaps, Bhuvan will focus only on the Indian sub-continent.

"With Bhuvan we will be able to produce very local information which will be specific to only to our own country. This information available from this mapping system will be useful in addressing very local problems like floods, famines, infrastructure development, education and much more," Nair said.

"The information on Bhuvan will be layer wise and the options of viewing filtered information will be available. Inputs from a lot of local players, like farmers, fishermen and likes who know the local area in and out, will also being integrated in Bhuvan. This is for the primary reason to make it of more use to the general public," he said.

WHAT BHUVAN MEANS

Google Earth Bhuvan

Zoom levels up to 200 mt Zoom levels up to 10 mt

Single layer information Multi-layer information

Images upgraded every 4 years Images upgraded every year

No alternate viewing options Options of viewing on different dates

Uses international satellites Uses Indian satellites

Indians fear Adiga's Revelation - Telegraph Reports

Indians fear Aravind Adiga's 'The White Tiger' says too much about them - Telegraph reports

Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger was praised for highlighting the injustices and poverty present in the rapidly changing India when it won the Man Booker Prize, but now many Indian critics have expressed outrage at the judges' decision.

Many Indians feel that Aravind Adiga's Booker Prize winning novel - The White Tiger - presents their country in a poor light Photo: EPA

For some, Adiga's savage indictment of the way the rich treat the servant class panders to western prejudices.

"I felt the book took us back three decades," said folk art expert Ritu Sethi. "It had every stereotype going in it. The BBC used to show nothing but cows on the roads for years. We're back to that with this book."

Others criticised the novel for being dull and demeaning. Author and playwright Manjula Padmanabhan dismissed it as "a tedious, unfunny slog".

She agreed that much of the recent hype about India as an emerging superpower was dishonest and complacent but asked: "Is this schoolboyish sneering the best that we can do?"

Having bought the book, affluent Indians may shift uncomfortably in their seats. The daily inhumanity shown by the rich towards their domestic staff in The White Tiger is something of which many will realise they too are guilty.

The fearful crime which the protagonist Balram Halwai commits will send a frisson of fear up their spines.

Adiga says the Indian middle class is paranoid about servants and their "laziness", "greed" and "thieving" tendencies but expresses amazement that, given the huge disparities of wealth, so few actually commit any crime.

"Look at the intimate access that servants have to their masters in their homes, and yet there are very few murders or attacks. But that doesn't reassure the middle class. It is becoming more insecure than before because it is richer now and has more to lose," says Adiga.

The White Tiger marks a new departure in India by portraying the emotions, sorrows, and aspirations of the hitherto invisible poor. For Adiga, his achievement is capturing "something new" in India, a stirring, a glimmer of a refusal by the poor to accept the fate ordained for them by their masters.

But this flicker of an "awakening" does not mean the end of the current social order where the poor slave 24/7 as cooks, cleaners, drivers, nannies and maids so that the well off can feel comfortable.

"The system is beginning to deteriorate but it remains. It will remain, but with higher levels of crime and lower levels of security," says Adiga.

The author looks at India with the perspective both of an insider, having grown up in India, and as outsider, having emigrated for years and then returned.

"As an immigrant in the US and England, I was an outsider. I spent a lot of time being confused, trying to figure things out. That was how I understood how Indian villagers feel when they move to the big cities for work," Adiga says.

William Green, former Time Asia Edior understands why the book has raised Indian hackles. "It is an unsettling novel, it touches very raw nerves, but I think he captures the complexity and subtlety of India in fiction in a way that you don't see in journalism," he says.

For some Indians, The White Tiger is an appalling regression. Just when they thought they had finally shed the old image of India as a land of poverty, cows and snakecharmers and started being respected as a hi-tech, prosperous nation, along comes Adiga to, as it were, rub their noses in the dirt again.

"I used to hate Naipaul for talking contemptuously about India, about how cleaners mop the floor in restaurants by crouching and moving like crabs and all that talk about Indians defecating in the open," said a freelance editor, Anjali Kapoor. "Adiga is the same, focussing on everything that is bad and disgusting."

Vijender - The New Prince...

The latest cutie\hottie on the block is India's boxer Vijender Kumar. Now that's a real success story. The guy is the son of a humble bus conductor who comes from a village of boxers in Haryana.The dapper six footer , as media reports describe him, is pure star material - from attitude (sticking his tongue out at lensmen), to focus and determination, this 22- year -old has it made. From modelling to movies won't be that hard a leap, and I'm pretty certain there will be dozens of talent touts\scouts chasing the winner now. If anyone can challenge Dhoni's supremacy in the endorsement stakes, it's this guy.

However lets hope he never relent his boxing career as this fella has a long way to go in winning medals for our country...

Billion Indians, but where are all their medals ??

Billion Indians, but where are all their medals? - Hamish McDonald Asia-Pacific Editor

THERE is something truly Olympian in the disdain that the country with the world's second-biggest population has shown for its lack of Olympic Games success.

China has gone to ridiculous excess in hosting the current Games, combining the fanaticism of a Maoist "rectification" drive with East German-style incubation of athletes in its drive to be top medal winner.

But what of the other emerging Asian giant, India, which has 1 billion people to select from. It has dazzling cricketers with the eye of Sachin Tendulkar; thousands of village wrestlers; shooters expert at shikar (hunting); and horsemen who can skewer a tent-peg at full gallop.

Yet it usually manages to bring home only one medal per Olympic Games. Consistently, India throws out the modelling by economists at PricewaterhouseCoopers that postulates a link between population size and economic growth.

Only twice has India won two medals. First was in Paris in 1900, but that was by an English sahib named Norman Pritchard who received silver in the 200-metre dash and 200-metre hurdles. The second was in Helsinki in 1952 when wrestler Khashaba Jadav won a bronze, in addition to the routine gold for field hockey.

The run of hockey wins, which reaped all of India's gold medals until now, came to an end 28 years ago. This week, shooter Abhinav Bindra became his country's first individual Olympic gold medallist, winning the 10-metre air rifle event.

India, almost alone in the world, seems to apply the notion that sport is all about participation, not winning - the Kiplingesque adage that it doesn't matter if you win or lose, but how you play the game - and all that. Behind the sportsmanship, however is some grinding of teeth.

Rajeev Srinivasan wrote on the rediff.com website: "I am always embarrassed by India's wretched showing in the Olympics, which is a metaphor for the two things that haunt India: lack of a strategic intent, and lack of leadership. It is not that Indians are physically weak or incapable of competing at Olympic levels: in many sports at the junior level, Indians do very well indeed. The failure is in developing that early promise …

"One failure is in identifying an overarching goal: that of being the best in the world. This is an implicit assumption made by Americans: that America is the best of the best. Similarly, China has historically viewed itself as the Middle Kingdom and the centre of civilisation, deeming all others to be barbarians. But Indians have been content to be second-best, the sporting losers. We apparently do not believe we can win."

Shashi Tharoor, the novelist and former United Nations official, puts it even more starkly. "Every Indian who follows the Olympics has cringed scanning the daily list of medal winners, eyes travelling down past dozens of nations big and small before alighting on a solitary Indian bronze in tennis or wrestling," he wrote in his syndicated column this month.

"Worse yet, we have all known the shame of waiting day after day for India to appear on the list at all, as countries a hundredth our size record gold upon gold and Indian athletes are barely mentioned among the also-rans."

The excuses are many. Most of India's people live in villages, with poor nutrition and many illnesses and sports facilities are few. Only the wealthy, who traditionally supplied the cricketers and sportsmen such as Karni Singh, the Maharaja of Bikener who won a shooting bronze at Tokyo in 1964, had time and money for serious training.

The sporting bureaucracies are a byword for cronyism and freeloading, with the politics of the Board of Control for Cricket in India almost as intense as those for the national government.

Tharoor doesn't think failure is encoded in the Indian DNA. "Indian genes in a developing country did not prevent Vijay Singh emerging from Fiji to rival Tiger Woods as the best golfer in the world," he wrote.

"The newly globalised India can no longer content itself with mediocrity in this global competition. For a land with world-class computer scientists, mathematicians, biotech researchers, filmmakers and novelists, sporting excellence is the last unconquered frontier. But 2008 won't be the year in which that frontier is breached."

When it happens, something sort of noble will be lost.

Babies or guinea pigs?

Last week, newspapers reported that 49 babies below the age of 12 months have died at India’s best known medical institute, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences , better known by its acronym AIIMS. The babies have died since January 2006, following the administration of new drugs and therapies.

On Tuesday, August 26, AIIMS said that the drugs used for clinical trials were ’safe’. The institute also strongly refuted allegations that the children chosen for the drug trials were from a poor socio-economic background. Read the PTI report [via The Hindu] here.

News of the infants’ deaths was obtained under the Right to Information Act when Rahul Verma [pl read his comment to AW in the comments section] who is associated with a non-government organisation called the Uday Foundation for Congenital Defects and Rare Blood Groups applied for information on ongoing clinical trials at AIIMS.

What he found out: 4142 babies were registered by AIIMS for clinical trials; of these, 2728 were less than 12 months old. And 49 (or under 2 per cent) had died in the past 30 months. For the same period AIIMS conducted 42 trials in its paediatric department.

As with most things Indian, health minister Anbumani Ramadoss has called for an inquiry to be conducted by the AIIMS director. The findings are expected to be submitted within a week.

AIIMS doctors have been maintaining that the children who died were ’seriously ill’ and were not a part of the intervention programme.

Nevertheless, the deaths seem to have focussed attention on India’s booming outsourced clinical trial business. According to Rahul Verma there is urgent need to regulate India’s booming outsourced clinical trial business, which he pegs at $120 million for the last year and which he estimates is growing at a whopping 25 per cent annually.

“When you are not able to afford a particular treatment in a private health care centre you look forward to getting free medication in something like this,” Verma recently told AFP.

“We wanted to know what are the socioeconomic condition of these people? Are they given consent forms and counselling?”

Good questions. Some years ago, I was in Chennai visiting the facilities of an NGO that provided medical treatment — much of it free — to poor HIV positive patients. The NGO’s director freely admitted that many new drug trials were being conducted at her institute. All the patients, she pointed out, were given counselling and trails were conducted only after their consent had been obtained.

But to a poor man or woman who had been served a death warrant, the promise of a breakthrough by a new drug is too powerful to resist. Especially, when he or she cannot afford expensive anti-retroviral drugs required for the treament of HIV/AIDS

Verma said the hospital did not provide information on the incomes of the families in the infant trials.

Incidentally, a clinical trial conducted in India costs 40 to 60 per cent less than what it would in a developed country. According to consulting firm, Ernst & Young the outsourced clinical research market in India could grow to two billion dollars by 2010.

Ramadoss has promised legislation and regulation of these trials. But given India’s desperately poor population and the numbers that simply cannot afford treatment and medication, there are serious concerns and questions about the practice and ethics of clinical trials in this country.

What do you think?

India Under Siege .. And The Traitors Within

Arundhati Roy joins the rally held by terrorists and Paksitani supporters and calls for India to give “azaadi” to Kashmir. Of course Kashmir’s separation will lead to the balkanization of India and that’s what this maoist activist eventually wants.

Here’s an article by Dr. Gautam Sen about the Islamic and Maoist Seige of India:

India is undergoing outright warfare, with its cities bombed at will and massive infiltration across its borders. The Pakistani rationale for cutting India down to size has rarely faltered since 1947 and echoes a much older Islamic tradition. It stretches back a millennium and reasserted itself the moment British usurpers of Islamic rule were expelled by Hindus. Of course the Anglo-American imperialists and cold warriors actively incited this diabolical outcome because they assumed Islam would be an ally against Soviet communism and Nehru’s India would not. The Arabs in general and the Saudis in particular eventually become co-conspirators in the project to restore Islamic primacy in the Indian subcontinent even if Hindus were to continue ruling it nominally as vassals. They correctly perceive that the ability to control and deploy India’s economic and demographic assets will allow them to challenge the Christian West. The Saudis are the main source of the catalytic funding for the jihad that is threatening to break India’s political will and evidently succeeding. The Chinese also became active after the mid-1950s in arming Pakistan and, more recently, encouraging its bombing campaign of Indian cities to curb the economic advance of India, which it regards as an irritating, lowly rival.

Within India, some mosques and madrasas are the fifth column that provides critical support for the aggression that it is encountering. Their role is to cultivate passive and active support for the Islamic onslaught. It entails ensuring that most Muslims refuse to co-operate in efforts to interdict Islamic terrorists by remaining silent spectators while the murderous bombings continue, provide safe havens in impenetrable Muslim areas for terrorists and a vital element of local manpower to the Pakistani and Saudi agencies engaged in terrorist activities. The deployment of Muslim votes strategically is also an important aspect of their overall goals in order to make it impossible for important Hindu families (rather than the nominal political organisations that they preside over) to survive politically without their consent. The economic sabotage of counterfeit currency produced by Pakistani government agencies is another aspect of the Islamic onslaught that has the virtue of making Indians themselves defray the cost of jihad.
Indian themselves are profoundly complicit in the project that seems destined to destroy their country and their civilisation. Two underlying factors that have facilitated the rapid expansion of the Islamic onslaught against India are its political culture and constitutional arrangements. The first is the product of the bumbling imbecility of the Gandhian project that de-legitimised the whole notion of self-defence, on which all societies are founded and to which the most important Hindu text is almost exclusively addressed. And it was Pandit Nehru whose arrogance and intellectual mediocrity accentuated and institutionalised this Gandhian self-destructiveness in India’s constitutional arrangements, again the product of the wilful ignorance of its leaders, created a parliamentary democracy after independence that guaranteed to highlight and deepen every division among its citizens. In a presidential system, by contrast, Indians would have been compelled to begin overcoming their multiple identities and the potential divisions they incubated because the constituency for president would have been a national one.

India now exhibits all the political and psychological symptoms of a defeated society. The unprecedented protests in Jammu have been greeted with surprise across the board precisely because they are exceptional. But the overall situation in India is dismaying, with virtually its entire political class overawed by the intimidatory truculence of Islam, anxious not to provoke even if it entails conceding the most fundamental norms of Indian society. The ascendant media, harbouring crude Western aspirations and their concomitant political interests, and elite higher education institutions dominated by Christians are gleefully nurturing a deracinated Indian establishment. Their purpose is to exercise influence over India by completely dominating its intellectual life and of course continue saving souls in the way it has done successfully by Christianising South Korea. The Islamic onslaught against India provides them with a window of opportunity, by keeping India off balance and preventing the emergence of a self-confident indigenous elite that might resist its imperialist designs. This is why Islam and Christianity co-operate cynically over what is becoming the spoils of a broken-backed India, postponing their own competition with each other until they have destroyed all traces of the civilisation of the Hindus first.

The economic success of India in recent years and the resulting additional resources at the disposal of the Indian State are not relevant to the grievous outcome threatening it. These huge resources are actually being used for electoral bribery or stolen and to purchase arms that have little relevance for the prosecution of the deadly internal war against Islamic and other forms of terror. Some of the terrorists have clearly formed a seamless political alliance among themselves, with the Naxalites publicly declaring support for Pakistani terrorists and no doubt benefiting from Pakistani largesse. It may also be hazarded that many individuals, media outlets and alleged human rights organisations are mere fronts for terrorists and the evidence is in the public realm in some important instances. The armaments being purchased with uncharacteristic purposiveness by the entire political class has some bearing on potential external threats to Indian security, but one suspects that the alacrity with which they are undertaken has much to do with spin-offs that result from bribes. But most relevant of all is the failure of India’s politicians to engage with conviction against internal terror by deploying appropriate resources and motivating trained personnel instead of hobbling them in the performance of their duties because of apprehensions about losing Muslim votes.

The end is not necessarily going to take the shape of an invasion by the rapist Pakistan army across the Punjab towards Delhi. In fact, India’s demise and the retreat of Hindus will express itself as an accentuation of trends and processes already underway, with occasional dramatic departures that underline the calamity unfolding. The expulsion of the Pandits, which failed to truly exercise even India’s official nationalists, is a harbinger of the shape of things to come. Hindus are likely to face expulsion from areas dominated by Islam though some of it will occur and is occurring in a huge swathe of eastern India because Hindus are voluntarily abandoning Muslim areas for fear of consequences if riots occur. These areas then come under implicit Pakistani rule under the guise of the autonomy of Sharia practices and constitute bases for militant activity against adjacent areas outside the immediate control of Islam. As the political balance changes in favour of Islam, the Indian political class will behave even more supinely, in a pattern that has already become well established, further sealing the fate of India. And with each success Islam will demand more, as it has increasingly begun to do dramatically in less than four years.

The first major Indian city likely to come under the total sway of Islam is Kolkata since its demographics are changing rapidly, with whole areas being abandoned by Hindus and becoming

On Musharraf's speech on PAK's Independence Day

I cannot help but laugh out-loud on hearing his comments. He surely seems so desperate to show his interst in his country by playing the cards so meanfully. By saying kashmir is in every pakistani's nerves, he surely will get on the nerves of the ruling govt. by saying this out-loud in a independence day speech he has not less than proved his credibility as another dictator of our times (The American being another)

this to his surprise is neither gonna buy him some time for his impeachment nor gonna earn him the respect of his own countrymen rather had only triggered the newdelhi responding in cold steel.

How could we've talked for the peace and unity of kashmir with this satan who says uniting kashmir with pak is embeded in the nerves of every pak's adding fuel to the burning fire...
i dont think this neither gonna help him nor his countrymen in improving their credibility with the world.


I think its time Pak stops thinking about India alone and rather concentrate on its own affairs (staking in aplenty)

Logitech launches Tri Color Mouse for this I Day

We share the feeling of patriotism. We don’t mind fighting against terrorism, standing in the theater for the national anthem or even hoisting a flag in our office but using a mouse to show how patriotic we are doesn’t seem to work for us. Logitech’s brainy marketing team decided to come up with something unique to appeal to the Indians and voila, here is a mouse with Indian tri colors sans the Ashoka Chakra.

Nothing extraordinary here except the visual appeal. And if it triggered your patriotic senses, head over to a retailer to grab one for Rs. 640 ($15).

of The Trust Vote Debate and the last lap of UPA...

I had grabbed every chance i had to watch the trust vote debate held last week following the crisis the congresshad to face in pursuing the Nuclear Deal. As advani had said clearly in the debate replying to pranab mukerjeescomments "IF you are in this state its because of yourself not because of us as pranab complaines. You wereonly trying to convince left to save the government and never at any point you considered conveying an all-partymeeting on a strategic Deal involving national security by putting it to risk for the years to come. Instead ofdoing so u convened a Left-UPA meeting only to convince left which apperantly you failed to"

I felt jolted as to why cant they atleast act like matured politicians unlike their state members. Should theycontine doing so by criticizing within themselves putting the nation under risk. Manmohan had surely took thischance to show the politician in all his acts which surprised evem the UPA ppl. Atleast the argument could've been decent without any personal attacks. which had been exchanged equally between both the sides amid the quarellingfuckers (i mean it) constantly shouting without a point...

However the Speaker deserves a salute in conducting the proceeding in a dignified manner even with the heart-pumpingMoney-for-vote scandal extravaganza.. many parties and even media complained of ethics and cried of pollutingthe assembly's ethnicity by showing money in the assembly... i donno why they can't show it in there.. if whatthey showed is true PM surely doesn't deserves right even to live.. Im sure both the sides would've been involved in the so called Horse trading but this is absurd... chaotic, pulling off such a thing could only worsenthe pm's state in the current state of affair of rising inflation, insecurity due to the recent bombings, scamsetc.,

appart from these i think most of the proceedings were a delight to watch... be it Omar's inspiring speech, advani'spiercing attach on PM (also personally), Pranab's conter attacks, rahuls maiden speech, CPMs new found flaws in the government, had pm maintained his dignity by avoiding personal counterattcks on Mr. Advani, it would've beenadvantage UPA. Now being won the trust vote by a undpredicted margin, it had only worsen its already shatteredimage in the country.

Now having won the trust vote, the UPA has got its last (Lost) opportunity to correct its course and sail completelyin the opposite direction atleast by completing its promises like loan waiver ( which is in troubled waters), Controlling inflation even at the cost of rising fuel prices, compromising the nuke-deal but the cons seemed to weigh morethan its earlier counter part, having only its supporters yet undependable allys viz sp, amarsingh, mulayam et al.they only enjoy the backup whereas they've got to restructure heavily to accomodate their new found ministers likeshibu soren, amarsingh and almost every individual seemed had wanted a piece of the cake, DMK drivng sethu deal as itspart and mulayam being won its ally back for the next election, it seems the going can only get tougher for the UPA

having depleted on every section of its boat the government seems to be on troubled waters what it can achieve in itslast lap is left to be seen as the whole nation watches including the to-be-pm...

of The Trust Vote Debate and the last lap of UPA...

I had grabbed every chance i had to watch the trust vote debate held last week following the crisis the congresshad to face in pursuing the Nuclear Deal. As advani had said clearly in the debate replying to pranab mukerjeescomments "IF you are in this state its because of yourself not because of us as pranab complaines. You wereonly trying to convince left to save the government and never at any point you considered conveying an all-partymeeting on a strategic Deal involving national security by putting it to risk for the years to come. Instead ofdoing so u convened a Left-UPA meeting only to convince left which apperantly you failed to"

I felt jolted as to why cant they atleast act like matured politicians unlike their state members. Should theycontine doing so by criticizing within themselves putting the nation under risk. Manmohan had surely took thischance to show the politician in all his acts which surprised evem the UPA ppl. Atleast the argument could've been decent without any personal attacks. which had been exchanged equally between both the sides amid the quarellingfuckers (i mean it) constantly shouting without a point...

However the Speaker deserves a salute in conducting the proceeding in a dignified manner even with the heart-pumpingMoney-for-vote scandal extravaganza.. many parties and even media complained of ethics and cried of pollutingthe assembly's ethnicity by showing money in the assembly... i donno why they can't show it in there.. if whatthey showed is true PM surely doesn't deserves right even to live.. Im sure both the sides would've been involved in the so called Horse trading but this is absurd... chaotic, pulling off such a thing could only worsenthe pm's state in the current state of affair of rising inflation, insecurity due to the recent bombings, scamsetc.,

appart from these i think most of the proceedings were a delight to watch... be it Omar's inspiring speech, advani'spiercing attach on PM (also personally), Pranab's conter attacks, rahuls maiden speech, CPMs new found flaws in the government, had pm maintained his dignity by avoiding personal counterattcks on Mr. Advani, it would've beenadvantage UPA. Now being won the trust vote by a undpredicted margin, it had only worsen its already shatteredimage in the country.

Now having won the trust vote, the UPA has got its last (Lost) opportunity to correct its course and sail completelyin the opposite direction atleast by completing its promises like loan waiver ( which is in troubled waters), Controlling inflation even at the cost of rising fuel prices, compromising the nuke-deal but the cons seemed to weigh morethan its earlier counter part, having only its supporters yet undependable allys viz sp, amarsingh, mulayam et al.they only enjoy the backup whereas they've got to restructure heavily to accomodate their new found ministers likeshibu soren, amarsingh and almost every individual seemed had wanted a piece of the cake, DMK drivng sethu deal as itspart and mulayam being won its ally back for the next election, it seems the going can only get tougher for the UPA

having depleted on every section of its boat the government seems to be on troubled waters what it can achieve in itslast lap is left to be seen as the whole nation watches including the to-be-pm...