Now CBI Director confirms what we all knew – that money amounting to billions is stashed in the Swiss Banks. And Indians are the largest depositors in the Swiss banks. “It is estimated that around 500 billion dollars of illegal money belonging to Indians is deposited in tax havens abroad. Largest depositors in Swiss Banks are also reported to be Indians,” CBI director A P Singh said speaking at the inauguration of first interpol global programme on anti-corruption and asset... Read more
Another damning indicator of health for India. Something that can be easily prevented by a bit of training and proper resources – Maternal Deaths during child birth. India tops the global list – well ahead of the #2 – Nigeria! Indians are at the top in the number of maternal deaths all over the world. India and Nigeria alone constitute one third of world maternal death rate in 2010. While India holds 19 percent (56,000) of global maternal deaths and... Read more
We had talked about designer babies and how some parents had come out with an ad for IIT-ians’ sperm. In this market, of sperm donors things keep getting stranger and stranger. Now we see parents asking for Brahmin sperms and Sunni or Shia sperms. Amongst the Hindus, caste of the sperm donor has become important, and in the Muslims whether one is Shia or Sunni is important. According to Dilip Patil, founding president of Trivector, an infertility solutions firm, there... Read more
America’s capital – Washington DC – will be the first place to allow turbaned Sikhs to join the police department. Washington DC’s police chief on Wednesday gave the green light for turbaned Sikhs to serve as officers, making the capital the first major US city to accommodate the religion’s articles of faith. The police department said that 4,000 officers have gone through cultural training to sensitize them to the Sikh faith and that the first Sikh American keeping his turban... Read more
After Wednesday brawl between Shah Rukh Khan and the Security personnel at the Wankhede Stadium, the Mumbai Cricket Association has slapped a 5 year ban on SRK and barred him from entering the stadium. “The managing committee of MCA condemns the behavior of Shah Rukh Khan,”MCA President Vilasrao Deshmukh said after an emergency meeting of his organization in Mumbai. “After his fight at the stadium Wednesday night, the actor has shown no regrets for his action and behavior. In fact,... Read more
Earlier this year (2012), the Indian patent office coerced Bayer AG to give the licence for its kidney and liver cancer medicine – Nexavar – to Cipla. It was a very disturbing judicial precedent for the future of entry of the pharmaceuticals in India. Cipla has recently cut the price of its generics – including the one for Nexavar – by 75%. It is great for the poor and middle class who cannot afford the drug for cancer treatment –... Read more
As we have been talking recently on Drishtikone, the situation in the Indian Economy is rather precarious. And this is reflected in two indicators: Free fall of the Rupee. In the trading on Friday, the Rupee hit a record low of Rs 54.90 to one USD. Sky high inflation in double digits. The urban inflation – CPI of 11.1 – is even higher than the Rural Inflation – 9.86. With both, the currency in a fall and the inflation rising... Read more
A lot of dictators and high strung powerful caricatures in Bollywood movies announce with certain grand standing voice – “Meri Ijazzat ke bina yahan koi parinda bhi nahin aa sakta” (without my permission, not even a bird can enter my area). Well Pakistani Government loves to make that happen in the virtual world. It seems that it has surreptiously blocked the Twitter bird to enter their country in certain areas at least. Just that they are coy about clearly saying... Read more
On February 15, 2012, two Indian fishermen, Ajesh Binki, 25, and Gelastine, 45, were shot dead by Italian Naval Guards aboard the ship Enrica Lexie, named Latorre Massimillano and Salvatore Girone, off the southern Kerala coast. The Italians claimed that they mistook the boat as those of pirates, while the owner of the fishing vessel said that the firing was unprovoked. The Italian ship was detained and two sailors were detained under non-bailable arrest. As the case has been going... Read more
India, unfortunately has become a country high on “symbolism” and “tokenism”. And this is generally known as “Getting the Stamp”. Therefore, there is a clamour to get in to the IITs. Since there were only 4 to begin with, and more couldn’t be created, the Government came to the help of the hapless, stamp-starved parents of kids. They arbitrarily ‘labeled’ many more who weren’t. Simply one day a college was called an IIT. To heck with the fact that IIT... Read more
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