That’s possible because India–the second most populous nation in the world, and projected to be by 2015 the most populous–is itself being transformed. Writers like to attach catchy tags to nations, which is why you have read plenty about the rise of Asian tigers and the Chinese dragon. Now here comes the elephant. India’s economy is growing more than 8% a year, and the country is modernizing so fast that old friends are bewildered by the changes that occurred between visits. The major credit of writing the entire script goes to present Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, though India is fortunate to have successive quality leadership in late Rajiv Gandhi, late PV Narsimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee since last three decade. All the leaders formulated developmental policy for the nation resulting in major surge in Indian position globally.

“Slumdog has opened a door for Indian cinema,” says Hollywood producer Ashok Amritraj. “We have to put our foot in and capitalise on the opportunity.”

The happy augury is that several Indian films have been picked up for global distribution by frontline sales agents and the going could only get better from here on if filmmakers from this part of the world, as Amritraj points out, can learn the rules of the game.

The Indian Film Company (TIFC) has made history by selling its “Road, Movie”, written and directed by Dev Benegal, to Fortissimo Films, which is one of the world’s leading sales agents with offices in Amsterdam, London, Paris, New York and Hong Kong.

“‘Road, Movie’ is an important milestone in our company’s endeavour to support India’s growth on the cinematic world stage,” said Sandeep Bhargava, CEO of the advisory board of TIFC. TIFC has also got leading British distribution company HanWay Films on board to handle Gurinder Chadha’s “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife”, starring Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Jimi Mistry and Shabana Azmi.

Endeavour Independent has bought the distribution rights of Venus Records and Tapes’ “Hisss”, a  indi-English film directed by Jennifer Lynch and starring Irrfan Khan and Mallika Sherawat.

Rahul Gandhi, the scion of arguably the first family of Indian politics has evolved from his protected self. Years of grooming in the hinterland politics is clearing showing its result. And the verdict has given a decisive judgement on the 38-year-old Gandhi’s acumen as a campaigner and political tactician.

If one talks of stats, Congress won nearly 60% of seats where he went to campaign for his party’s candidate. And in UP, where he has been devoting much of his time, Congress sprang back to life with 21 seats, from 9 in 2004.

Somewhere in the course of the campaign, he changed from an apprentice politician to a tactician, shunning and wooing allies with the ease of a natural. He gambled on Congress going it alone in Uttar Pradesh, and it paid off handsomely.  He complimented Nitish Kumar, Chandrababu Naidu and the Left, leaving party leaders confused and allies fuming.

Rahul was setting the political agenda on his terms. He could be king right away. But he has chosen not to. Instead of basking in the glory in Delhi, he reached Sultanpur in UP with sister Priyanka to thank his voters.  Surely, the man is different.

His focus has been UP, which he knows is key for Congress to regain its old glory. Expect him to possibly change the leadership by bringing in someone younger.

Midway through the high-voltage campaigning came a patronizing snub from BJP chief Rajnath Singh when he refused to react to a barb from Rahul Gandhi: “I don’t respond to his comments.” It came on the back of a dismissive description from Narendra Modi who compared Rahul to an aquarium fish.

Inside a month, on a hot sunny Saturday, the saffron brass was left licking its wounds as everything with a stamp of the Gandhi family scion — strategy and candidates — came up trumps, leaving a virtual carnage in the BJP camp.

For a man to have clocked 125 meetings, covering 87,000km, Rahul also proved a tireless campaigner. And it can be said with some evidence that he struck a chord with the youth across the country. The show may only have begun, feel partymen.

With UPA back in power with more strength, now his primary goal is to rejuvenate the party cadre in UP. With people of UP already showing signs of disenchantment with the BSP regime, he can have his best shot in the 2012 state polls.

Wild celebrations erupted in large parts of Sri Lanka, including capital Colombo, as the authorities announced that the elusive 54-year-old – who fled his home in 1972 with nothing more than a dream to carve out an independent Tamil homeland – had died, ending one of the world’s longest running insurgencies that bled the tiny country of 20 million people dominated by the Sinhalese.

Soldiers fired at an ambulance in which Prabhakaran was being taken by his loyalists from the war zone in the north. His face apparently caught fire and he breathed his last in a small stretch of land near the coast in Mullaitivu district, an area about 400 km from here, which he had made his hideout a long time ago, building seemingly impregnable underground bunkers.

The death came hours after his elder son Charles Anthony, who headed the group’s IT wing and was being groomed to succeed him, was also killed. It marked the collapse of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which Prabhakaran set up in 1976 and which became one of the most well-armed and ruthless insurgent groups in the world with its own army, navy and air force.

President Obama’s public relations acumen which galvanized the American people does not cease to amaze. Taking the Independence route from the old capital Philadelphia, to Washington D.C. for his inauguration, for instance. He also brought the dormant civil rights issue to the fore, garnering applause.

Most important, he brought the politically reluctant African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities back as one: Americans, the vision of the founding fathers of the country.

Every American President goes through the inauguration ceremony. The difference is how each of them weave their way to the event. Barack Obama gathered history and its people to the oath of office podium.

The core of President Obama’s inaugural speech on January 20 was that his predecessor honestly tried for the betterment of the US, but his policies were wrong. “We must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, begin the work of remaking America”, was the theme of his promise to the US and the world. He sent a message to the Muslim world to rebuild bridges, but told Pakistan the time to deliver on terrorism had come.

The stress test finding, favouring small countries, goes against generally prevalent economic thinking that large
economies like China and India are better placed to face economic slowdown because of the diversified nature of the economy, in which some sectors witness robust demand to mitigate the impact of a demand slowdown in other sectors.

The IMD test ranks India 13th, with a score of 68.1 on 100, and China 18th, with 64.6 points, while Denmark topped the list. The report identified general issues facing the world economy, too. For example, Stphane Garelli, director of the IMD World Competitiveness Centre, warned that a severe drop in prices could hit specific sectors like automobiles across the globe. He predicted a rise in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, as emerging powers, their sovereign funds and some companies moved in with free cash. Garelli warned some signs of recovery could be expected during the second half of 2009, but added stronger results were due only in early 2010.

The 100 top global companies had some $600 billion in cash and this money could be used to buy back shares or acquire industrial assets and companies, he added. Garelli indicated that with some $6,000 billion in currency reserves, emerging powers would increase their weight in international organisations, while sovereign funds with around $3,000 billion would finance infrastructure projects, buy assets abroad and finance the development of local companies and brands.

Mr. Mansouri said that Zanjan province due to its location which is in the nearness of the most important industrial centers of the country such as Tehran, Qazvin, eastern and western Azerbaijan can be considered as a distinguished area for creation of the industrial regions in the northwest of Iran. This province by having powerful infrastructure facilities such as airport, railway, custom office, freeway. The province is also situated on transit route to Europe and the existence of miscellaneous mineral potentialities has created varied opportunities for growth and development of mineral and industrial investment.

Various excise incentives on readymades, food mixes, reduction on excise on petrol and petroleum products as well as doing away with import duty on steel scrap and coking coal are steps in right direction. The province’s main export industrial commodities are as follows: Transformator-Chinaware-Cable-Wire, Granule, Different kinds of BCF thread, Textiles – Machines – made carpet, handmade carpet, granite stones.

Mr. Mansouri further added that India with its unique characteristics such as the second most populous country and existence of widespread market and high level of consumption and economic growth has always been a potential country for bilateral trade. India’s leading position in the field of IT makes it very attractive destination
for the Iranian companies for outsourcing and finding investment partners.

The Hoover Medal, founded in 1929 and named after its first recipient Herbert Hoover, former President of the
United States, was created to honor engineers whose preeminent services have advanced the well-being of humanity and whose talents have been devoted to the development of a richer and more enduring civilization. Some of the previous recipients of this honor include former United States presidents Dwight David Eisenhower and James Carter, Jr., and inventors Arnold Beckman and David Packard. The Hoover Board of Award is made up of representatives from five American engineering societies – the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Dr. Kalam was chosen for “making state-of-the-art healthcare available to the common man at affordable prices, bringing quality medical care to rural areas by establishing a link between doctors and technocrats, using spin-offs of defense technology to create state-ofthe-art medical equipment, and launching telemedicine projects connecting remote rural-based hospitals to super-specialty hospitals.”