India celebrates 60th Republic Day

Kaleidoscopic images of India's rich cultural diversity and the might of its military were on full display on the magnificent Rajpath as the nation celebrated its 60th Republic Day amid an unprecedented security cover. An impressive and colourful parade, a traditional attraction of the national event, marched down the thoroughfare connecting the Rashtrapati Bhawan and the historic India Gate as President Pratibha Patil took the salute from marching contingents. Armed forces in battle regalia proudly marching before their supreme commander, scintillating show of air power, fascinating tableaux depicting the diverse culture and hundreds of colourfully-dressed dancing school children were part of the parade. The march-past was watched by the Republic Day chief guest Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Defence Minister A K Antony and the country's top political and military brass, including UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, besides a large enthusiastic crowd that had gathered on either sides of the Rajpath. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is recuperating from his bypass surgery in All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Antony performed all the customary duties of the Prime Minister during the Republic Day celebration. Minutes before the parade began, Antony and chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force
laid wreaths at 'Amar Jawan Jyoti', the British-era World War-I memorial at India Gate, where an eternal flame burns in memory of those who laid down their lives while defending the nation's frontiers.

Wishing the PM a speedy recovery

The PM had a successful bypass operation at the AIIMS but will need 4-6 weeks to get back to office.

More about the Malegaon Conspiracy

The accused in the Malegaon blasts case, Lt Col Prasad Purohit and his associates, may have been booked for a relatively minor explosion as far as terrorist attacks go, but the group had ambitious plans of setting up a Hindu rashtra. Their ‘‘constitution’’ talks about economy, education, defence, one nation, training of its citizens and even SEZ. A few paragraphs of the constitution which Purohit read out in a conspiracy meeting talk about strengthening Bharatiya culture along with nationalism as defined in Vedic literature. Delhi-based doctor R P Singh was also present in the meeting where the constitution was discussed. Recordings of these discussions were on the laptop of the accused, Dayanand Pandey. Here are some excerpts: There’s need for self reliance and agricultural development while maintaining cultural and ethnic unity of India. The ‘‘statute’’ calls for implementation of the law by the strictest possible means. It speaks about the need of ‘‘Bharatiya armed forces’’ with ‘‘Bharatiya traditions and values’’. Purohit suggests that the Army should be converted into a one-crore force. The defence minister should be called War minister. Pandey suggests that in their plans, Pakistan should not be mentioned since it’s not a country but part of Akhand Bharat.A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court on Thursday took cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the ATS in the Malegaon blast case. Defence lawyers had opposed the chargesheet, saying that MCOCA was not applicable to the case and the matter could be dealt with only under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
Key Accused: Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit (37) He is the brain behind the September 29, 2008, blasts and the man that held it all together. He was the founder and one of the chief fundraisers of the Pune-based organisation, Abinhav Bharat. He is also accused of procuring the RDX that was used in the blast He was arrested on November 5, 2008.
Swami Dayanand Pandey alias Shankar Acharya alias Sukhakar Dwuvedi (40) He can be seen as the key ‘point man’ and is said to have been present at the meetings held in Bhopal, Pune and Faridabad before the Malegaon blasts. He is also accused of conducting meetings with the other accused. Prior to his arrest, he ran two ashrams in Kanpur and Jammu and Kashmir He was arrested on November 14, 2008.
Ajay Rahirkar (39) He was the treasurer of the Abhinav Bharat, and a part of the fund raisers’ group. He paid Rs 2.5 lakh to Swami Dayanand Pandey prior to the blast He was arrested on November 2, 2008 .
Jagdish Mhatre (40) A habitual criminal and an accused in a murder and an extortion case in Kalyan and Thane, he is believed to have paid Dhawde for the weapons He was arrested on November 2, 2008 .
Sameer Kulkarni (32) A former member of the Akhil Bharatya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), he was employed at a printing press. He is suspected to have supplied the chemicals used in the bomb. He was arrested on October 28, 2008 .
Sudhakar Chaturvedi (37) Originally a resident of Mirzapur in UP, Chaturvedi was picked up from Deolali where he stayed in a rented room. He is accused of conspiracy; the bomb was assembled in his house He was arrested on November 4, 2008 .
Sham Bhanwarlal Sahu (42) He is suspected to be one of the bomb planters. A commerce graduate from Christian College in Indore, Sahu has a mobile phone shop and also acted as a realty broker. He is also accused of abetting the blasts and conspiracy He was arrested on October 23, 2008.
Shivnarayan Kalsangra Singh (36) A BSc graduate Singh is seen as a “mechanical and electrical’’ expert by the ATS. He is suspected to have assembled the timer device while making the bomb. He was arrested on October 23, 2008 .
Retired Major Ramesh Upadhyaya (64) A resident of Akurdi, Pune, he worked with the military’s intelligence unit, and is suspected to have provided the training required for procuring and assembling the bombs. He was arrested on October 28, 2008 .
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur (38) Her bike was used to plant the bomb in Malegaon, and she is accused of engineering the blast. She has a Masters in History, and became a sadhvi in January 2007. She was arrested on October 23 .
Rakesh Dhawde (35) Dhawde, an arms expert, has been booked for four previous bomb blast cases. He provided the required weapon training and supplied arms to Purohit. He was arrested on November 2, 2008 .

Modi launches eGram

More than 70 years ago, Subhash Chandra Bose was unanimously elected president of Indian National Congress at Haripura. Now, the village near Surat is gearing up to go into history books yet again. On Friday, the birth anniversary of Netaji, the Gujarat government dedicated its 'eGram Vishwagram' project, to provide satellite based internet connectivity to 13,693 villages, which was launched by CM, Narendra Modi. A separate Gujarat information portal was also launched at the function.
Completed in three years by the state's panchayat department, among those that have participated in the project are Google, Microsoft, Airtel, Reliance Infocomm and CMS. The connectivity part was completed in a year.

Telecom Buzz

India's growth story in the telecom space shows no signs of slowdown. The country added 113.26 million new customers in 2008, the largest globally. To put this growth into perspective, the country’s cellular base witnessed close to 50% growth in 2008, with an average 9.5 million customers added every month. The country had 346.89 mobile phone users as of December 2008-end compared to 233 million in the corresponding period a year ago. As per sector regulator Trai, the total number of telephone connections (mobile and fixed) has touched 385 million as of December-end, taking the telecom penetration to over 33%. This implies, one out of every three Indian has a telephone connection. On the other hand, fixed-line numbers continued to tumble. The landline customer base was down by 3% in 2008 to 37.90 million. Mobile customers now out-number landline users by around 9 times. Despite registering close to 75% growth in its broadband subscriber base, the penetration of highspeed internet connections remains dismally low. A mere 5.5 million users have a broadband internet connection. The growth in 2008 was led by Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest communications provider. Bharti had 85.6 million customers as of December-end, when compared to 61.3 million of Reliance Communications and about 61 million of Vodafone Essar. In fact, Bharti has more customers than the stateowned BSNL’s mobile and landline users combined. The PSU finished 2008 with 46.2-million mobile subscribers and 29.5-million landline customers. Telecom companies estimate growth in 2009 to be higher.

This needs to stop !

It's time strict action is taken against people defiling our heritage.

Somewhere in Agra....

Hollywood actor Julia Roberts with husband Daniel Moder visited the Taj Mahal and Jaipur