India's Nano

Four years after its conception, Tatas, India's leading automobile manufacturer, have unveiled the world's cheapest car for Rupees 100,000($2500)at the 9th Auto Expo in New Delhi.The car comes fitted with a rear-mounted 623cc engine,hollow steering-wheel shaft,an analog speedometer in place of a digital equivalent and runs with a horsepower of 33.


With innovative engineering that spurs superflous technology, the car is aptly called 'The People's Car'.Chairman Ratan Tata has said the car will be the least polluting car in India and will meet necessary safety standards. He said the Nano would pass domestic and European emission standards and would average about 50 miles per gallon. The major downside of this ultra-cheap car would be the clogging of the already choked and crowded roads. And with 80 new models expected to be introduced in India this year from a slew of manufacturers, the nightmare of traffic on the city roads will be unimaginable.

Is India under threat from the Chinese?

The Chinese are long since the aggressors where India is concerned. For some time now, China has been eyeing the North-East border state of Arunachal Pradesh and not even issuing visas to Indian tourists from that state of India to its country as it considers the residents of Arunachal Pradesh to be Chinese! India, it seems, is still to wake up from the all too real threat! Even after 146 incursions in 2006! Isnt that strange!

Latest Indian Land Scam

A fleet of 50 luxury cars with VIP number plates,10 fancy bikes-also with fancy number plates, seven Kilograms of gold, 5500 plots (yes, you read right- 5500 sites)illegally acquired and sold at exorbitant prices and 1.7 million in cash at his residence. Who is the lucky owner of this cache of wealth? Its one Ashok Malhotra, a non-entity as far as ordinary Indians are concerned and now absconding from the law after a probe has been made into a massive land scam. Astounding as it may sound,he was running only a small tea stall in the Delhi Assembly but with the help of the Delhi Development Authority corrupt officials managed to get all those sites, which were meant to be distributed among displaced slum dwellers,allotted to himself under fictitious names and sell it later at astronomical sums.Some guy,this!

He is rumored to have a lot of political connections (goes without saying that anyone in India having that much of ill-gotten wealth has to have immense political, administrative and judicial clout)including the Chief Minister of Delhi. No surprise here!

Do your math. If an ordinary man selling small eats and tea can have so many billions,then the riches of the Indian politicians-who are known for their corrupt practices- must be of stratospheric proportions.

Online Patent Filing

The Indian Commerce Department, last Friday,launched E-filing of Patents and Trademark applications for ease and convenience of the applicants.
There are only a dozen or so countries which have e-filing facilities at present and India now gets into this elite group consisting of countries like USA, Japan, South Korea, China and the European Patent Office.

Is the new President of India worthy of respect?

Its official.
Pratibha Patil has finally made it as the first woman president of India with 2/3rd majority of votes from the electoral college. It would have been a sweet victory for women's empowerment if not for the tainted baggage of past misdeeds that have come alongwith her of being involved in financial scams by way of unpaid loans to the tune of 20 crores and shielding her husband and brother in a suicide scandal and murder probe respectively.
More on all her (un)doings in this website aptly named knowprathibhapatil.com.

Unique Anti Corruption Drive

Corruption is a bane in India. Almost no government and administrative work of yours can be done without bribing the corrupt officials in that department. Even entry level workers in almost all government enterprises rake in the moolah by being corrupt.According to the World Bank report on the corruption level in 200 countries,India was ranked at the 47th place in the list of most corrupt countries.
The temptation to abuse public power for private gain is mainly because of the selfish interests of these corrupt public servants.So ubiquitous is the malignant spread of this disease of corruption that it is almost socially accepted in Indian society.
In such a low morale environment, it is encouraging to see someone fight against it by blogging against the corrupt system.Jayshree, whose husband,Vijayakumar,a Government employee,is fighting high level corruption from within the system. Since he has made powerful enemies by trying to expose the corruption, she is aiming to protect her husband by building an internet shield of people around him. Hence, the blog that she started.Read about their struggle here.

Jekyll and Hyde Deal?

The bilateral nuclear agreement between the US and India called the Henry Hyde Act was passed by the US congress last December. Under this Act,the draft detailing the peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement — known as the 123 agreement,after the numbered clause of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act from which it is derived —and which is a prerequisite of the Act, is now facing major differences as USA is now taking a hard stance on nuclear testing, life time fuel guarantees and reprocessing rights of spent fuel.
The press briefing of the white house on may 17th 2007,indicated possible travel plans for Nick Burns, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, next week to India.It also stated that the 123 Agreement was not complete, but positive discussions would take place soon on important issues of Nonproliferation and Nuclear Energy.
Hence, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told members of Parliament that several rounds of discussions had already taken place and joint statements of the PM,Manmohan Singh and US President George Bush have been laid on the table of the House and that next week may be the decisive round to sort out the remaining issues for finalising the agreement when Burns meets with Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.

In a new turnaround,even though the Bush administration has claimed progress on the 123 agreement as a prerequisite to implement the Indo-US nuclear deal, Nicholas Burns has cancelled his planned visit to New Delhi.
On May 2nd of this month, some US representatives have sent an open letter to Indian PM indicating concerns about an increasing cooperation with Iran. Read the document here

A contrarian view to the Hyde Act is that it will tie India's options and make her a vassal state of the US is opined in this article