Determined to prove that the Congress has a clean image, party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi has promised to set up an inquiry into the BJP allegations that the party had salted away lakhs and crores of rupees into Swiss banks.

“You elect us. We will order an inquiry,” Rahul Gandhi said at an election rally in Qutbullahpur, Andhra Pradesh.

Gandhi claimed that the BJP would forget their promises of unlocking the money from Swiss bank accounts because they know there was no such money anywhere.

“They are raking up the issue only to derive political benefit,” Gandhi said

Is India a poor Country- Revelation on Swiss bank accounts?
This is so shocking…….wish black money deposits was an Olympics event…. India would have won a gold medal hands down. The second best Russia has 4 times lesser deposit. US is not even there in the counting in top five !! India has more money in swiss banks than all the other countries combined Recently, due to international pressure, Swiss govt. agreed to disclose the names of the account holders only if the respective govts formally asked for it. Indian govt. is not asking for the details…….no marks for guessing why ???? Is India poor, who says? Ask Swiss banks With personal account deposit bank of $1500 billion in foreign reserve which have been misappropriated, an amount 13 times larger than the country’s foreign debt, one needs to rethink if India is a poor country?.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) soared up in the sky, defying gravity with a deep throated growl, with 340 kg of luggage – 300-kg RISAT and 40-kg Anusat.

After 17 minutes into the flight guided by ISRO developed navigation systems, the 229-tonne rocket slung RISAT at 540-km above the earth and Anusat 10-km futher into its intended cicular orbit two mintues later.

Immediately after their ejections, the Spacecraft Control Centre at Bangalore
with the help of ISTRAC network of stations at Bangalore, Lucknow, Mauritius
and in other places monitored the satellite’s health.

ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair said: ‘This is a fantastic New Year gift for
the country. We are happy. Performance of the vehicle is precise. There is no
deviation to the planned flight path. Both the spacecraft being delivered into
the orbit.’ He also said that 2009 is going to be the year of fireworks for
ISRO. ‘We ll be launching resourcesat, oceansat and others. Indigenously
developed cryogenic engine will be inducted this year.

Battle-lines have been drawn between the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz who had just months back decided to come together to oust Pervez Musharraf Their hatred for Musharraf was perhaps the only glue that kept the coalition partners together. Now Nawaz Sharif is finding out the Asif Ali Zardari has turned into another Musharraf. The PPP was waiting to get to Sharif and wrest political control of Punjab province, the prize catch of Pakistani politics. It used the Supreme Court to dislodge the PML-N government headed by Nawaz Sharif’s brother.

Even at a time when extremism, terrorism and economic crisis have brought Pakistan close to being a failed state, political expediency remains high on the agenda of the nation’s politicians. The army might be tempted to reclaim its pivotal position in Pakistani polity once again as the competition between the PML-N and the PPP begins. The civilian government of Zardari is neither willing nor able to tackle the problems facing the nation head-on.

The Taliban is making inroads into the very heart of the country and the government is making deals with the extremists in the hope of staving off the inevitable. Yet, as the brazen attack on Sri Lankan cricketers demonstrates, the Islamists are getting emboldened with every failure of the government to have its writ run in the country.

Yes, we are talking about the infamous `D’ Company set up by Dawood Ibrahim. If umpteen numbers of day light robberies and cold blooded murders earned Dawood the name of a don in 80’s , his close connections with Islamic terrorist  organizations and his involvement in the 1993 Mumbai blasts made him an international terrorist wanted by Interpol. The activities of the `D’ company in India, especially in Mumbai, suffered a beating ever since Dawood who is believed to have funded the Islamic terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Toiba in its early stages had to flee from Mumbai. However, `D’ company surface in regular intervals, mostly for showering threats in Bollywood. Though not often, politicians also figure in the hit list of the `D’ company. The latest among the list, as per the reports, is none other than the BJP’s poster boy-Varun Gandhi.

CEO profile

Dawood Ibrahim (Also known in eleven other names as he holds 11 passports) Indian authorities say Dawood Ibrahim, is now based in Pakistan and that he has developed links to both al-Qaeda and the banned militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba. Delhi has repeatedly asked Islamabad to hand him over. However, Pakistan has always denied that Ibrahim is in the country. Infact, the Interpol, in its look out notice describes Dawood Ibrahim as a resident at White House, Near Saudi Mosque, Clifton at Karachi in Pakistan. The D-company Empire was assessed worth Rs 5,000-crore.

What is Facebook?

Facebook is a popular Web site that for many people today defines online social networking. The lure of Facebook and other social networking sites is that they provide a way for people to easily stay in touch with each other and keep up with changes in their lives.

Facebook reports it currently has more than 175 million active users worldwide. And it’s not just for teenagers and young adults – many use Facebook to market their business or organization. The fastest-growing Facebook demographic is now people 30 years and older.

Signing Up

The first time you visit www.facebook. com you are prompted to sign up and create a new account. It’s free – no credit card is required. On the sign-up page, you’ll also see that Facebook offers a separate option for creating a page for a business, band or celebrity.

After you create an account, you will receive a confirmation e-mail that includes a link to the registration wizard, which guides you through the entire Facebook registration process. During the registration process, Facebook encourages you to join one or more networks to discover more about the people around you. Facebook networks are based on a workplace, region, high school or college.

Connecting With Friends

Creating an account is the first step, but the real fun comes from connecting
with other Facebook users you know. Adding other users as Facebook friends allows you to share your lives online. In Facebook, this takes the form of posting messages, personal photos and videos, interesting Web site links and “status updates” – quick blurbs describing what you are currently doing, thinking or feeling. Facebook also lets you send e-mails to friends and engage in real-time chat (instant messaging).

The Facebook Friend Finder offers three ways to find other Facebook users to establish friendships with: You can have Facebook search your email contacts. If Facebook can match any of your contact e-mail addresses to existing Facebook users, it sends friendship invitations to those users. This feature works only with widely used e-mail domains, however.

Corruption can be countered by five Cs. The first is a sense of connectedness.
Lack of a sense of belonging breeds corruption in society. That is why corruption
is lowest at the village level. But in urban areas, it’s high because there is little or no sense of community.

The second C is courage. Lack of self-esteem or confidence in one’s own ability is one of the causes of corruption. Fear or insecurity makes one corrupt. When you try to find security only through money, it doesn’t work. Even after acquiring more money, the insecurity doesn’t disappear. In fact, you become more fearful because the money might not have been earned in the right manner. So you need to have courage and confidence in your ability and in the laws of nature. The third C is an understanding of cosmology: looking at one’s own life in the context of extended space and time. What is the human lifespan, just 80 or 100 years? See life in the context of the huge dimension of time. Billions of years have passed since creation. And everything in this creation is recycled. The air we breathe is old, every cell in our body, every atom is old, the oxygen and hydrogen is old!

The fourth C is care and compassion, important since they bring dedication. Its lack causes corruption. The Kumbha Mela was attended by 30 million people nearly three million people each day without violent incidents, theft or robbery! The fifth one is commitment. When a person has a goal, a commitment to a higher cause in life, it brings a shift from taking to giving. If you only think ‘What can I gain?’ rather than ‘What can I contribute?’, corruption cannot be rooted out. We need to shift our attitude to commit ourselves to give.

Indian immigrants started coming to the United States more than a century ago. They faced many difficulties, suffered numerous hardships and encountered rampant discrimination. In the beginning, they could find only menial jobs, but with their hard work and determination many of them became successful farmers with their own land. They had a burning desire to succeed, made many sacrifices and despite their small population, succeeded in gaining rights of U.S. citizenship. They paved the way for people of Indian origin in the US to enjoy freedom, liberty and equal rights under the U. S. laws. They were our pioneers and we will recognize and celebrate their achievements.

The Indian Immigrants had experienced liberty and freedom in the US and thus were motivated to gain freedom for India from British serfdom. In 1913, they formed Hindustan Association of the Pacific Coast with the hope to liberate India with the force of arms from British colonialism, just as Americans had done more than two hundred years ago. A few thousands went back to India; many were arrested and prosecuted and some were incarcerated for varying terms of imprisonment. Although the movement did not achieve its stated objective but it left a major impact on India’s struggle for freedom. The freedom fighters are our heroes and patriots.

Yes there are those who enter politics to serve the public cause but they are exceptions rather than the rule. Entering public life is now an investment of time and effort for dividends to be earned from political entrepreneurship.

In a country where over 77 per cent of the populace, or an estimated 836 million people, earn an income of Rs 20 per day and over 300 million are living below the poverty line, nearly half the Rajya Sabha members and nearly a third of those from the Lok Sabha are worth a crore and more. Just the top ten Rajya Sabha members and the top ten Lok Sabha members have reported a cumulative net asset worth Rs 1,500 crore.

And don’t look for a correlation between the state of the state and the wealth of the legislators. Uttar Pradesh boasts of the largest number of people 59 million or over a third of its population living below the poverty line. Not only is Mayawati the richest chief minister in 30 states, the state also
boasts of 113 crorepati MLAs. Similarly, Madhya Pradesh which has over 25 million of the 60 million people living below the poverty line boasts of 80 crorepati MLAs.

As the old maxim goes, power begets power and money attracts riches. Clearly, it pays to be in power. Take the last round of Assembly elections which afforded the study an opportunity to compare the increase in wealth. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh where the BJP was in power, the average assets of candidates increased by five times. In Karnataka too where the Congress ruled in rotation with Deve Gowda’s JD(S), Congress candidates reported a fivefold rise in their assets. Mercifully, wealth doesn’t always ensure success. In all, 365 crorepatis contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2004; 88 lost their deposits, and 114 came second. The caveat emptor here, as with all matters concerning transparency in public life, is that we are going by what the political class has chosen to declare. After all, the statement of assets filed by candidates is at best a confession of sorts mandated by two Supreme Court judgements of May 2002 and March 2003.