Adani's oasis next to Pakistan:

 

A narrow airstrip that doesn't even have an air traffic controller to guide incoming airplanes and whose only infrastructure is a portable toilet and a make-shift office in a container in the midst of miles of barren land bordering Pakistan is an unlikely gateway to the world's largest renewable energy park. The airstrip was even smaller in December 2022, when Adani group head Gautam Adani, who was then the second richest person in the world, first used a small aircraft to reach the barren area  ..

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/renewables/adanis-oasis-next-to-pakistan-a-transformation-from-not-even-a-mosquito-in-sight-to-a-re-park-5-times-the-size-of-paris/articleshow/109220077.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Taller than Eifel Tower !!!!

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday to inaugurate multiple projects, including the Chenab bridge, the world’s highest single-arch railway bridge yet. Taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the inauguration of the bridge will mark the successful completion of what has been billed as the biggest civil-engineering challenge by any railway project in India’s recent history.

Approved in 2003 and contracted in 2008, after much worries over its safety and stability, the single-arch bridge over River Chenab in J&K passed all its mandatory tests and is set to mark India on the railroad history after two decades of waiting. Here is all you need to know about India’s most recent feat in civil-engineering

World's highest Railway bridge over Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav )

It has taken enginners three years to build the arch of the bridge with the help of two mammoth cable cranes which had been installed on both banks of the Chenab. (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav)

- மும்மூர்த்திகள் (Triplets)

 

The unconditional release of the eight Indian Navy veterans from prison in Qatar and their arrival in New Delhi early Monday (12 February) morning was nothing short of historic and represented a major diplomatic victory by India. 

Historic because it is the first time that a country released foreigners convicted of very grave charges like espionage to their native country.  

The eight, who were working for Oman-based Dahra Global — a defence services company — post their retirement, were arrested on 30 August 2022 on espionage charges. 

Though the charges were never made public, it is believed that the eight were working on a nuclear submarine project for Qatar and were accused of passing on confidential information on the project to Israel. 

Over a year later, on 26 October 2023, the eight were awarded the death penalty by Qatar’s Court of First Instance. 

Two months later, on 28 December last year, Qatar’s Court of Appeals commuted the death sentences to prison terms varying from three to 25 years and gave the eight 60 days to file appeals. 

An Indian legal team has been assisting the eight to file appeals against their conviction in Qatar’s Court of Cassation, the highest court in the country’s judicial system. 

“The release of the eight convicted Navy veterans while their cases were still pending in a court is a major diplomatic victory for India and is unprecedented,” a senior diplomat in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) told Swarajya. 

“The Emir of Qatar has pardoned and released prisoners in the past. Similarly, prisoners have been pardoned and released in many other countries as well. But it never happened when their cases (in this case, their appeals) were still pending in courts and a final order by the judiciary was awaited. Also, Qatar and many other countries have never released prisoners convicted of espionage,” the joint secretary-level officer in the MEA said. 

New Delhi had been working behind the scenes over the past 17 months to secure the release of the navy veterans, some of them decorated officers who commanded front-line battleships. 

Soon after they were arrested in August 2022, Prime Minister Modi is said to have asked External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar to initiate talks with Qatar on their release. 

“Right from day one, the goal was to secure their unconditional release and return to India,” the MEA officer said. 

Jaishankar constituted a group of six serving and retired diplomats — all with rich knowledge and experience of the Middle East and West Asia — to oversee the matter and negotiate with Qatar. 

After considerable efforts, Qatar shared the details of the charges with New Delhi but asked that the matter be kept confidential and out of public domain. 

India launched its own investigations and came up with evidence that the eight Navy veterans were not involved in passing on any detail of Qatar’s secret submarine project to Israel.

New Delhi also leaned on Oman, a country India has close ties with, to get Dahra Engineering & Security Services LLC (Dahra Global, the company the eight were working for) to come clean on what actually transpired. 

The Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, with whom Prime Minister Modi shares warm ties, was requested to help in getting Dahra Global CEO, Khamis al-Ajmi, a retired officer of the Oman Air Force, to pitch for the release of the eight. 

Khamis al-Ajmi was also arrested by Qatari authorities along with the eight but was released in November 2022 after intense pressure from Oman. 

A prominent Indian expatriate London-based businessman who has close links with Oman’s crown prince, Theyazin bin-Haitham, was also drafted in.

This businessman also has close links with Qatar’s premier, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, and that was also leveraged by New Delhi. 

India also requested Iran, with which it enjoys close ties, to intervene. Iran and Qatar are close allies in the Middle East. 

After Qatar shared details of the charges against the eight, matters started progressing smoothly and by May-June last year, it appeared that the charges against the eight would be diluted. 

India’s National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval was drafted in and he made a couple of low-key visits to Doha where he met his counterpart, Sheikh Mohammad bin Ahmad Al-Musnad. 

Doval struck a good rapport with the Qatari NSA and also spoke to his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan on the issue. EAM Jaishankar also reached out to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to request him to intercede with Qatar on India’s behalf. 

Qatar has developed close ties with the US which has designated the Gulf nation as a ‘major non-NATO ally’. 

Qatar has very close military ties with the US and is the US Central Command’s forward headquarters. The Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is the largest US Air Force base in the Middle East. The US Army is stationed at the Al Sayliyah Army Base in Qatar. 

Sullivan and Blinken, as well as top US State Department officials, intervened on India’s behalf and requested Qatar to step back from prosecuting the eight Indian Navy veterans. 

But things took an unexpected and serious turn with the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October last year, triggering retaliation by Israel and a crisis in that region. 

Qatar is close to Hamas and hosts the top political leadership of that group. India is perceived to be close to Israel. 

That is why, when Qatar’s First Court of Appeals awarded the death penalty to the eight navy veterans, it set alarm bells ringing in the PMO and MEA. 

“We realised that something very bizarre was happening and immediate intervention was needed,” the MEA diplomat said. 

New Delhi made urgent calls to Doha, Washington, Tehran, and Muscat seeking intervention. All these countries responded positively. 

Doval made a couple of low-key visits to Doha once again. EAM Jaishankar spoke to his Qatari counterpart. 

Prime Minister Modi decided he would have to intervene personally and take up the matter with the Emir directly. The MEA got working and a meeting was fixed between Prime Minister Modi and Emir al-Thani at the margins of COP28 in Dubai on 1 December last year. 

PM Modi, it was known, appealed to the Emir to pardon the Navy veterans. NSA Doval had, by then, laid out irrefutable evidence before his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammad bin Ahmad Al-Musnad that the eight Indian Navy veterans were innocent of the charges of passing on secret information about Qatar’s nuclear submarine project to Israel. 

Modi also highlighted India’s efforts to build close ties with the Middle East and his India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor project that would bring immense benefits to Qatar and its ally Iran. 

Reminding the Emir of India’s commitment to boost the USD 15.03 billion bilateral trade between the two countries, Modi said that India’s quest for clean energy would benefit Qatar (which has huge reserves of natural gas) a lot. 

India does have considerable leverage in Qatar: more than eight lakh Indians work in Qatar, some at very senior levels in MNCs and as senior technical and management advisors to Qatar. More than 6000 Indian companies operate out of Qatar. 

The meeting between Modi and Emir al-Thani was successful and on 28 December last year, the Court of Appeals commuted the death sentences to jail terms. 

New Delhi heaved a sigh of relief but redoubled its efforts to secure pardons for the eight Indians. 

EAM Jaishankar and the team of six (serving and retired diplomats) focused their efforts in not only filing a strong and cogent appeal on behalf of the eight against their convictions but also getting the Emir to pardon the eight. 

“We did not want to wait till the Court of Cassation in Qatar heard the appeals. That would have taken another three to four months at least. Given the unpredictability of developments in the Middle East and West Asia, we did not want to leave anything to chance and aimed for a pardon by the Emir,” said the MEA diplomat. 

As a result of intense efforts by India, the Emir ultimately agreed in principle about two weeks ago to grant the pardon. 

But Qatar’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who is also the country’s foreign minister, suggested to EAM Jaishankar that the pardon could wait till the start of Ramzan (10 March). 

Such pardons or remission of jail terms are usually granted during the Islamic holy month of Ramzan. 

However, Prime Minister Modi did not wait till March. He asked EAM Jaishankar and NSA Doval to secure the release within February. After considerable persuasion, Qatar ultimately agreed to pardon the eight Indian Navy veterans. 

The pardon decree was issued by the Emir’s office Friday (9 February) — a holy day in Islam and the usual day for issuing pardons and benevolent decrees — and the last-minute modalities for the release of the eight were worked out over the next two days.

The eight were released Sunday (11 February) and seven of them were flown out of Doha that evening. Only one of them — Commander (retired) Purnendu Tiwari — remains in Qatar at his relative’s place since some formalities about his return to India are still being worked out. 

The release of the eight Navy veterans who were convicted of espionage — a very grave offence that invariably carries the death penalty — is, thus, a historic victory for India. 

Not only were the eight charged with spying, they were convicted of doing so for Israel. Till now, no person convicted of spying for an adversary country has been pardoned and released from prison in Qatar. 

India could pull off this diplomatic coup thanks to its new heft at the global level and the goodwill it has cultivated among nations across the globe. 

Courtesy: Swarajya

India is shining !!!

 This painting is done on the walls of some flats at Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India by some foreign artists

Is not India shining ?

 Courtesy: Rahul from Quora 

Will you vote for Modi next time?

I will answer this question on behalf of Savitri, a girl from Mumbai.

She was 4 years old when she travelled for the first time in Mumbai local train. She was very happy. Children feel excited as they see new faces, new things around them & they love how trees run away from them as they travel in train. She returned home safely but many others did not. Mumbai came to halt as 13 bombs killed hundreds of people & leaving many people behind who could never walk. It happened in 1993. It was the first example for Savitri, of a man killing a man.

Savitri was trying to forget those visuals of the city. It took her a few years before she could return to normalcy however that was temporary. There were terrorist attacks in Jama Masjid in 1997. There was another next year in Malad & another one the next month in Virar. Savitri had turned 8 & had already seen casualties a few times, in newspapers & on the TV at the sweet shop near her house. She did not have a TV at her place.

Indians are amazing at cooping up with the circumstances, Savitri was trying the same. She started restricting her visits to the crowded places like markets, temples & railway stations.

Savitri had turned 12 & she had to start using Mumbai local because that was the quickest & cheapest option to reach her new school.

Since her childhood, she was always told to stay away from crowd. But it was no more an option. She could attend her school only for a few days before the city was shaken by a series of blasts. There was a blast in Ghatkopar, followed by one at a railway station, 4 days later. It wasn't over. There was one more in Vile Parle the next month.

She had stopped going to school because he parents thought survival was more important than education. However mental truama did not stop following her because her father also used to travel by train. She wasn't sure when would it be his turn.

A couple of months later, another bomb blast happened at Mulund Railway Station. Savitri kept crying till her father returned. Less than one month, another blast at Bandra & then another one in Ghatkopar after 3 months. That was followed by a deadly attack at the Gateway of India & Zaveri Bazaar. Savitri had visited both of those places previously. She could emotionally connect with the people who died in those attacks.

City was calm for 2–3 years & Savitri thought that the good days had arrived for Mumbai but then everything returned, with a worse face this time.

Mumbai was shattered as the largest scale attacks happened in Mumbai. 7 high intensity blasts at 7 different locations of Mumbai had left hundreds of people dead & a few hundreds got disabled permanently. That happened in 2006.

Savitri had realised that Bomb Blasts won't stop, they had become a routine thing for her, as it happened in Syria & Afghanistan. However what happened on 26th November 2008 was something new to her. Terrorists with leathal weapons in their hands & their backpacks walked on the roads of Mumbai & shot everybody that came their way. Savitri & her family locked themselves in the house for hours, hopeful that their door isnt knocked by anyone unknown. She was lucky again, nobody knocked her door. She survived while many others lost their lives. The government again disappointed Savitri as the Prime Minister did not let the security forces take action, he remained quiet, again. A top leader said that all terrorist attacks cannot be stopped, another crossed all limits & blamed Hindu organisation for these attacks.

It was still not the end of the show. There were a few more of serial bomb blasts in 2011. It was when Savitri had turned 22 & got married to someone in Ghatkopar.

From last 10 years, there hasn't been any terrorist attack in Mumbai. Savitri doesn't feel scared as her husband & her kids travel in Mumbai local. They can visit the temple, crowded market & all those places which Savitri could never dare to visit.

---

Who do you think will Savitri vote for? The government which made her entire childhood & her teenage a bag full of fear or a government which makes her kids feel safe?

This question isn't just about Mumbai. It's about entire country. National security had always been a concern.

I will join Savitri & vote for the Prime Minister that makes me & my family feel safe. I will vote for the one who has guts to let his brave soldiers use those bullets & not just hang those machine guns on their shoulders as people burn candles & cry for the death of their loved ones.

Thanks for reading,

Rahul.

Is not India shining ?

 Can you recognise the lady in the frame below ? For a guess, her father is a very high profile man in India. Well, her name is Swati

Untill last month she was a flight attendant in Air India. She worked in that capacity in the Carrier's Boeing 777 & 787 aircrafts for several years on the long distance hauls like Australia, Europe and America.

But do you know - the full name of this 5'4" tall young Swati...? Her name is Ms. Swati Kovind!

Yes, you've guessed it right - she's the daughter of President of India, Ramnath Kovind!

Until now, even the Air India authorities did not know about this connection as neither her father nor she had herself disclosed the matter, so it was a secret till recently...!

But it's no longer so... because Air India has been handed over to the Tatas. Upon learning the fact, the present Tata authorities have honourably and silently transferred Swati Kovind from the post of flight attendant to the internal affairs division of the Air India office - probably out of concern for her special security needs (as the President's daughter).

It is a rare instance for us in India. The president of India has quietly done his duty as a father by instilling sterling qualities... in his daughter... This is the height of ultimate politeness, humility and amiability of a brave young Indian girl who wants to live on her own terms.

Is not, India Shining !!!!

 

Pravaig Extinction Mk1- Made in India | Real-life review

Light & Sound Show | 3D projection performance on the life journey and t...

Is not India shining ?

India is a leadership driven society—it suffices to look at Popatrao Pawar, the village head of Hiware Bazar in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. In the span of twenty years, he transformed his drought-struck poverty-ridden village into one of the best models India has seen.



Before he took over the reins, the village suffered many problems: there was hardly any agriculture in the village from a lack of water, causing villagers to migrate elsewhere as daily wage labourers; the school was non-functional; domestic violence and village fights punctuated lives as alcoholism was rampant; and the surrounding eco-system was seriously degraded.

So how does one actually make a village rise against such problems?
The first thing Pawar did was get rid of the 22 illicit liquor dens, ban consumption of liquor all together, and ban tobacco and gutka.

Then he inspired the villagers to pitch in to build dams and dig ponds to trap the little rain that came in. This new water management system helped immensely as the wells soon filled, allowing farming to begin anew with fields becoming lush and green.

Not wanting to take change for granted, Pawar got water audits done so that there was a close check on water availability. Water was never wasted, as selfless villagers built 52 earthen bunds, two percolation tanks, 32 stone bunds and nine check dams—All through the use of the same government funds available to any other village.

Before 1995, there were 90 open wells with water at 80-125 feet, whereas today, there are 294 open wells with water at 15-40 feet. To put this into context, other villages in the Ahmednagar district have to drill nearly 200 feet to reach water.

Farming flourished as Pawar got farmers to invest in milch cattle, making milk the new gold of the village. While milk production was only 150 litres per day in 1995, today, it has crossed the 4,000 litre threshold! All this helped reverse migration see over 60 families return with the desire of becoming farmers once again to live life with dignity.

Now there are decent-looking houses all over and villagers look content, glowing with happiness. The monthly per capital income has crossed Rs. 30,000, and in a village of 235 families and 1,250 individuals, there are 60 millionaires!

Today there are only three families who live below the poverty line, but the village is now working to help them improve their income with hopes that in another year, no villager be poor. All this is more amazing when taking into account that in 1995, there were 168 BPL families in the village.

But Pawar has not only tackled the economic needs of the village. With regards to the waning ecosystem, he facilitated the planting of over ten lakh trees to fuel languishing bio-diversity; even Babool trees that were earlier cut for fuel are now cared for, as villagers began harvesting its gum that sells for Rs. 2,000 a kilo.

One would think that these accomplishments already make Pawar one of the great leaders of India, but on top of everything, Hiware Bazar is spotlessly clean—all without sweepers; villagers take pride in keeping their home clean, and defecation or urination in public is unheard of. Best of all, now that cleanliness has overtaken the village there is a crucial benefit for the villagers: widespread disease has become a thing of the past.

In addition, to get children to learn the benefits of good governance, Pawar began a children’s parliament giving them specific roles to work under. The “Education Minister” for example, goes from house to house inquiring if the school is functioning well. Even the teachers themselves learn from their students and respect this monitoring to incorporate the childrens’ advice into their work!

But how did Pawar address caste and communal conflicts that often divide society into sparring aggressive groups? It was very simple: he relentlessly stressed that change could not be brought about without communal amity, and his efforts were so beautifully embodied when the village Hindu community built a mosque for the only Muslim family in the village for them to not have to pray in the open.

And how has Hiware Bazar brought a new respect to women in the face of strong gender inequality in India? First of all, Pawar has got the gram panchayat to take care of the education and marriage expenses of the second daughter of any family, but also, out of the seven-member panchayat, three are now women. In addition, Pawar has stepped down from the village headman’s position (remaining as deputy sarpanch) to allow a woman to replace him.

Finally, to bring in holistic change, Pawar is now motivating villagers to adopt family planning. A lot of stress is being put on health and hygiene as it is crucial for the future of the village. In fact, Hiware Bazar is also the first village in India to persuade couples take an HIV test before marriage.

Interestingly, none of Pawar’s suggestions or schemes are opposed as the village has full confidence in him as he goes about trying to better their lives.

Hiware Bazar has shown that stimulating change is easy.  All it requires is good leadership and the political will to empower others in rising to a better future.

Is not (south) India shining ?

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

MAY 10, 2011, 10:54 P.M. ET 
India’s Southern Promises
A region that is more vibrant economically, and also more appreciative of relations with the U.S.

By MICHAEL AUSLIN

Chennai, India
Forty miles south of Chennai, on the Bay of Bengal, lies Mahabalipuram. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, abounding in temples and massive frescoes, all cut from solid rock. Yet in the seventh century, when carvers began chiseling out the temples, this was India’s portal to Southeast Asia. From here, trade networks reached as far as Indonesia, spreading Indian goods along with the influence of the ruling Pallava kingdom.

More than a millennium later, Mahabalipuram’s legacy lives on in Chennai, formerly Madras and now India’s fourth-largest city. Located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Chennai remains India’s gateway to the Indo-Pacific region.

This city and this region are deeply embedded in the global supply chain and trading network. It is here that American businesses are finding some of their largest markets. It is also the place where U.S. policy makers may find the greatest opportunities for building the U.S.-India relationship, especially given New Delhi’s recent mixed signals about its interest in closer ties with America.

Most Americans think of northern or western India when they consider the rise of the world’s largest democracy. New Delhi, the political capital, and Mumbai, the financial one, regularly receive Western visitors. India’s tense relationship with Pakistan draws attention to its northwest borders, while its ongoing territorial troubles with China similarly center on its far northern boundaries.

Yet India’s north is poorer and less developed than the south. During my visit, Maoist rebels in the northeast ambushed and killed 11 policemen, while farmers in Uttar Pradesh state, near Delhi, rampaged against police, killing some and holding state officials hostage.

That’s not to say that the south of the subcontinent isn’t plagued by poverty. Still, it is more educated than the north and is home to some of India’s most vibrant cities and industries. Bangalore, located several hundred miles west of Chennai, is the center of the country’s space and IT sectors. Kerala state, also to Chennai’s west, boasts of near-universal literacy in a country in which only 74% of the populace can read.
Tamil Nadu hosts hundreds of universities and colleges—from the University of Madras, founded by the British in 1857, to tiny technical schools located in crumbling buildings. While it is hard to believe that many of the state’s 532 engineering colleges provide an education comparable to their larger counterparts, they nonetheless testify to the region’s focus on education.

This climate is drawing leading global companies to Chennai. Long after the region served as the gateway to Asia, it became the original home of the East India Company during the 1640s. Madras’s cosmopolitanism grew throughout the centuries of British rule. The East India Company has been succeeded by Ford, Hyundai, Nissan and auto-components manufacturer BorgWarner, to name a few of the corporations that have made Chennai known as the "Detroit of the East."

Indeed, the automotive industry is one of Chennai’s standouts, just as IT shapes Bangalore. India is the world’s largest small-car market, and Ford, for example, has seen growth of sales quadruple since 2009. Chennai is the small-car hub for the region for Ford, a senior company executive tells me, and from here it exports cars, engines and components to Africa, Oceania and Japan. Suzuki, BMW, Hyundai and others similarly produce in Chennai hundreds of thousands of cars and motorcycles, making this city and its surroundings one of India’s most vibrant economic clusters.
American companies are clearly but one part of the landscape here. N. Srinivasan, head of the Tamil Nadu branch of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, stresses that the Chennai region is increasingly linked to a broadening Asian network. Over 900 Australian companies operate in the region, he tells me. And of the 120,000 Indian students who go to Australia to study—one-fifth more than those who travel to the U.S.—those from Tamil Nadu, native speakers of the Tamil language, can interact with the Indian diaspora in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, since most of those expatriates speak the same language.

One Asian country that draws negative remarks is China. I am told by various executives and officials that China poses the greatest threat to Indian economic growth. It undercuts prices and is not considered a reliable supplier of goods. Yet, in the long-run, argues a managing director of BorgWarner, India’s production costs are more competitive than China’s, since its quality is higher and it will have a younger, more educated work force far into the future. In particular, the south will lead the way, he and other businessmen tell me, with skilled labor and managerial capacity.
Not all is rosy, of course. Many of India’s graduates are functionally illiterate, though perhaps less so in the south. This part of the country is plagued by the same poor infrastructure as the rest. Poverty here is similarly appalling, not only in Chennai’s slums, but throughout the city, where makeshift lean-to’s butt up against the walls of the Madras High Court. Corruption is also a factor here: The daughter of the state’s chief minister is currently under indictment for bribe-taking in a national telecom scandal, a charge she denies. Graft has become an issue in the ongoing elections in the state, the results of which will be out Friday.

Yet there is a dynamism in Chennai that should attract American (and other foreign) companies. The real growth, I’m told, is in the small and medium enterprise sector. American SMEs can find willing Indian partners, and be assured of an Anglo-inspired system of law to protect their rights, unlike in China.

Over the next decade, perhaps Washington should focus on this part of the country, creating business opportunities (Chennai’s consulate already handles more work visas than others in India) and fostering cultural ties with the local communities, instead of concentrating solely on New Delhi’s recent rejection of U.S. entrants for a major fighter plane contract and the scuttling of the heralded civilian nuclear deal. Moreover, staff of the U.S. Consulate tell me, people in the south have much more positive images of America than their countrymen do in the north.

Touring Fort St. George, first headquarters of the East India Company, I run into a French couple. He is helping build Michelin’s €1 billion ($1.43 billion) tire plant in Chennai, which will be their hub for Asia. Nearly 400 years after the British first arrived to trade in Madras, the opportunities of the Indian south remain bountiful.

The lesson here is that Americans will benefit most if they focus where they are wanted. In the long run, that will create a more stable Indo-American relationship that could lead to true partnership.
Mr. Auslin is the director of Japan studies at the American Enterprise Institute and a columnist for WSJ.com. He is the author of "Pacific Cosmopolitans: A Cultural History of U.S.-Japan Relations" (Harvard University Press, 2011). 


sent by Mr. Seshadri Srinivasan
Anonymous said
True true. It is only a matter of time, 2 or 3 generations, before this is also ruined. Chennai and tamil nadu are a tad better than kerala and the rest. The north has suffered a lot compared to the south.

World’s Youngest Red Hat Certified Engineer

M. Lavinashree – World’s Youngest Red Hat Certified Engineer

After passing the Microsoft Certified Professional test, when she was just eight years old, young M. Lavinashree has now become the world’s youngest Red Hat Certified Engineer.

M. Lavinashree was born in rural Tamilnadu, India, but her parents noticed her incredible mind, when she was just a baby. At just 1 and a half, her mother taught her the English alphabet by playing with colored letters. She would dictate the alphabet letters and Lavinashree pointed at them accurately. Then she began learning national symbols, songs, Indian personalities, shapes, fruits, and many other things. When her older sister started studying Thirukural (a Tamil poem written by a sage, over 2,000 years ago), Lavinashree begged her mother to teach her the kurals, and at the tender age of three, she won her place in the Limca Book of Records (Indian equivalent to the Guinness Book of Records) for her photographic memory. She managed to recite 1,330 couplets of Thirukural… 

But this was just the beginning for young Lavinashree. Though her parents never forced her to study, they admit they encouraged her to always try new things and develop her interests. This made the child prodigy study computers, and at only eight years of age, she passed the Microsoft Certified Professional test, with a score of 842 out of 1,000. The MCP test measured the ability to perform specific, real world job functions or set of tasks, including installing, configuring and administrating Windows XP. The previous record was held by a 10-year-old Pakistani girl, but Lavinashree’s feat was much more impressive, due to her age.

Time passed, and even though she received numerous audiences with important personalities, including the Indian president and prime-minister, and her name was mentioned in various publications, Lavinashree didn’t just sleep on her laurels. She kept learning new things like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Corel Draw, Flash and became a master at using them.

In August of 2010 M. Lavinashree became the world’s youngest Red Hat Certified Engineer, at 10 year old. Known as the “crown jewel of LINUX certifications, RHCE is a three and a half hours exam that tests things like server configuration and server streaming in Red Hat OS. Lavinashree got an impressive score of 178.1 out of 200 and was praised by Red Hat representatives in Mumbai.

God only knows what Lavinashree’s next feat will be, but one thing is for sure, her future looks mighty bright.

sent by Bhaskaran Sivaraman 
Source:: http://wn.com/Certified_MBA 

20 facts you must know about India's growth

 
The Indian economy is the eleventh largest in the world by nominal GDP and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP).

India  is poised to achieve 9 per cent economic growth in the current financial year itself, driven by robust performance by the agriculture and industry sectors.
The economy grew by 8.9 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal.

India has emerged as one of the world's top ten countries in industrial production. The nation's industrial production grew at the fastest pace in three months at 10.8 per cent.
Manufacturing grew 11.3 percent in October after a 4.6 percent gain in September.

India is one of the fastest growing automobile markets in the world, expanding at 35 per cent on average in the first four months of the current financial year.

The Bombay Stock Exchange has been rated as the world's best performing stock market recently. With a 13 per cent gain, Sensex is among the world's 10 biggest markets, according to data collected by Bloomberg.

Indian companies have become bigger and stronger in the last ten years with the average revenue of a company on the Fortune India 500 list standing at Rs 7,632.5 crore (Rs 76.32 billion).
The total revenue of the Fortune India 500 companies stands at Rs 38,16,239.40 crore.

India is the world's largest recipient of overseas remittances. The remittances grew from $49.6 billion in 2009 to $55 billion in 2010.
It is also the country with the second largest number of emigrants after Mexico, according to the World Bank.

India owns over 18,000 tonnes of above ground gold stocks worth approximately $800 billion and representing at least 11 per cent of global stock, according to estimates of World Gold Council.
India ranks 11th in the world with 557.7 tonnes of gold reserves.

India is among the top 10 nations in terms of foreign exchange reserves. The country's foreign exchange reserves breached the $300-billion mark for the first time since 2008 with an addition of $2.2 billion on the back of a healthy rise in foreign currency. The nation's forex reserves currently stand at $296.40 billion

India's services sector, backed by the IT revolution, remains the biggest contributor to the country's GDP, with a contribution of 58.4 per cent.

The industry sector contributed 24.1 per cent and the agriculture sector contributed 17.5 per cent to the GDP.

India's civil aviation sector will be among the top five in the world in the next five years.
Indian domestic air traffic is expected to reach 160-180 million passengers per year, while international traffic will exceed 80 million.

India's exports during November jumped by 26.8 per cent to $18.9 billion year-on-year. India's exports during April-September aggregated to $103.65 billion registering a year-on-year growth of 28 per cent.

India, China and Brazil are the top three target countries for foreign direct investment until the end of 2012 with the United States, for years number one, now in fourth place, according to the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD.

The Indian telecommunications industry is the world's fastest growing telecommunications industry, 723.28 million telephone (landlines and mobile) subscribers and 687.71 million mobile phone connections as of September 30, 2010.

The number of Internet users in India is estimated at 81 million. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India pegs the number of broadband subscribers at 10.08 million in August 2010.

The Indian IT-BPO industry is expected to exceed $70 billion in fiscal 2011.
The Indian IT-BPO exports are projected to grow by 13 per cent to 15 per cent while domestic IT-BPO will grow slightly more by 15 per cent to 17 per cent during fiscal 2010-11.

India has the largest number of post offices in the world. The world's highest post office, Hikkim is located at 15,500 feet in the Lahaul Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh.

The largest employer in India is the Indian Railways, employing over 1.6 million people. Indian Railways started operations on April 16, 1853.

India ranks second in farm output globally. India is one of the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper.

Tourism is the largest service industry in India, with a contribution of 6.23 per cent to the national GDP. The number of foreign tourists visiting the country during September this year is higher than that of the same month last year.
Around 3.69 lakh (369,000) foreign tourists came to India in September this year as compared to 3.28 lakh (328,000) during the same month in 2009.

 

SARAVANA PRAKASH said...

Inspiring to see India moving ahead in all spheres. But, if we consider Human Resource Development, we still lag behind. Based on HDI index released by UN, India ranks 134 out of 145 countries. So, our rate of growth can be pushed ahead, if our human resource is properly utilized.

December 16, 2010 9:54 PM