Sunday, July 20, 2008

http://davidharvey.org/ - David Harvey is a Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) and author of various books, articles, and lectures. He has been teaching Karl Marx's Capital for nearly 40 years


Whether you support the ideology it propagates or not, Karl Marx's Das Kapital (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Kapital) is widely considered as a great work. If you wish to learn more on this work, check out : http://davidharvey.org/, where a series of video lectures on this book by David Harvey, who has been teaching this subject for the last 40 years, is being posted.


Fwd: Three top scientists and the Left caution on deal



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: suresh
Date: Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 3:04 PM
Subject: Three top scientists and the Left caution on deal
To: Nam Sahasra <naamhs@gmail.com>


Nam

In the event this deal is not signed, then two countries in the international arena are going to be very happy - namely Pakisthan and China. To their utter dismay they found some friends india!!!

Suresh

Fwd: Three top scientists and the Left caution on deal



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: V.C.Job
Date: Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 12:39 PM
Subject: Re: Three top scientists and the Left caution on deal
To: nam <naamhs@gmail.com>


Not only the three scientists but also the CPM,CPI and other Left parties are also opposing the deal. The Chineese Government also would like to see that the country is destabilized on this account , however Chineese are not opposing to it as otherwise the energy burdon will fall back on them. The left is unable to see the Chineese logic. So let the deal be abandoned to the great joy for the Left and the three scientists while hundreds of other scientists and the people of India want the deal to go ahead.

The crux of the matter is that we the Left objected to Computerisation, Concrete Mixer, Tractor, Harvesting machine and the whole lot saying that all these are not in the best interest of the nation, still we had all of them, so will be the nuclear issue.

V.C.Job



--- On Sun, 7/20/08, nam <naamhs@gmail.com> wrote:

From: nam <naamhs@gmail.com>
Subject: Three top scientists caution on deal
To:
Date: Sunday, July 20, 2008, 11:16 AM

Three top scientists caution on deal  Sandeep Dikshit  NEW DELHI: Three of the country's top nuclear scientists have said that once the nuclear deal is in place, India's commercial nuclear interaction with other countries will be "firmly controlled" by Washington through the Hyde Act enforced through the U.S. "stranglehold" on the Nuclear Suppliers Group.  The scientists — P. K. Iyengar (former chairman, Atomic Energy Commission), A. Gopalakrishnan (former Atomic Energy Regulatory Board chief) and A.N. Prasad (former Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Director — have written a letter of appeal to Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation and pointed out several lacunae in the draft safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  "We are strongly of the opinion that the government should not seek the IAEA Board's approval for the current draft safeguards agreement until its implications are debated more fully within the country and with a group of experts who were not party to the IAEA negotiations," they observed, adding that analysts had convincingly refuted the government's main reason for pushing the deal — energy security to the country.  http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/07/19/stories/2008071961631200.htm


Saturday, July 19, 2008

Three top scientists caution on deal

Three top scientists caution on deal

Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI: Three of the country's top nuclear scientists have said
that once the nuclear deal is in place, India's commercial nuclear
interaction with other countries will be "firmly controlled" by
Washington through the Hyde Act enforced through the U.S.
"stranglehold" on the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

The scientists — P. K. Iyengar (former chairman, Atomic Energy
Commission), A. Gopalakrishnan (former Atomic Energy Regulatory Board
chief) and A.N. Prasad (former Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Director
— have written a letter of appeal to Members of Parliament (MPs) on
the Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation and pointed out several
lacunae in the draft safeguards agreement with the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"We are strongly of the opinion that the government should not seek
the IAEA Board's approval for the current draft safeguards agreement
until its implications are debated more fully within the country and
with a group of experts who were not party to the IAEA negotiations,"
they observed, adding that analysts had convincingly refuted the
government's main reason for pushing the deal — energy security to the
country.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/07/19/stories/2008071961631200.htm

Zimbabwe to introduce $100bn banknote

Zimbabwe to introduce $100bn banknote
Agencies
Published: July 20, 2008, 08:56

Harare: Zimbabwe is to introduce a $100bn banknote, as rampant
inflation shows no signs of slowing down.

But the note may soon be worthless in a country where the official
inflation rate is 2.2m per cent.

Several new notes have already been introduced in 2008 as a response
to the problem.

The $10m banknote which came into circulation in January 2008 has
already become almost worthless.

From India... a trio of canny Web tools

From India... a trio of canny Web tools

Anand Parthasarathy

Photo: Anand Parthasarathy

HARNESSING THE WEB: New Indian online resources reach out to a global
Net community.

Bangalore: Indian innovation is increasingly centred around what is
known as Web 2.0, the Internet's Second Coming, where the user is in
more effective control of content, and the way it is deployed.

The week gone by, saw at least three innovative new extensions to the
Web experience, which The Hindu has put to the test before sharing
details with readers of this page.

Based in Gurgaon, iXiGO is a travel search engine created just one
year ago by a small group of IIT and management graduates. On Friday,
they unveiled what they claim, is India's biggest hotel search
service, encompassing over 6,000 establishments, across 400 Indian
towns; trawling 40 of the best hotel and hostel price comparison
sites. Among the bigger Web resources covered are the Travelguru hotel
network; Inasra, a Chennai-based aggregator and HostelWorld, a
specialist who concentrates on budget accommodation favoured by
international 'back packers' and students.

We tried out IXiGO's hotel search facility. It usefully turns up some
facilities not covered by most hotel search engines in India — like
home stay addresses and service apartments. For reservation, it links
to Travelguru. Another useful feature is the ability to check if any
customers have given feedback at review sites like HolidayIQ and
OKTataByeBye. What we missed is a filter in the opening search menu
that would allow us to specify the type of accommodation we are
looking for and a price band. ( www.ixigo.com)


* * *

Those who prepare PowerPoint-type presentations, either as lecture
material or to support a job application, know the hassles of sending
them by e-mail: such files can be very bulky … and most email clients
rarely permit attachments larger than 10 MB.

A Chandigarh-based computer science and mass communications graduate,
Umesh Sharma, has helped create a web resource called AuthorStream (
www.authorstream.com) which is essentially a platform for sharing
presentations on the Internet. Once registered, a user can use the
free resource to upload as many presentations (currently in PowerPoint
format), as often as one likes — and this is the nice part — each of
them can be up to one GB in size!

The site will also help you format it as a slide show, YouTube video
or an iPod file using the iTunes format. Once uploaded, the owner gets
to decide with whom to share it — everyone or selectively among
friends who can be authorised. It is also a great way to post one's
resume as a presentation or a video — and in effect tell a prospective
employer: "I'm Web 2.0-ready. Are You?"


* * *

The final Web tool this week is possibly the most elaborate — a
full-fledged virtual classroom where both teachers and students can
benefit from a range of tools: paint brushes to create art work; an
electronic 'white board', audio and video sharing; PowerPoint
presentations...

All sessions are recorded for future reuse; live chat allows teachers
and students to interact. The basic structure is entirely free — but
there is nominal annual charge for premium services where teachers
have fuller control. It is called WiziQ ( www.wiziq.com ) and works
with all standard PC systems, Windows, Mac and Linux. Founded by
Harman Singh, this truly innovative educational resource, like
AuthorStream, is Chandigarh-based and has seen investment from the
Educomp group. All three Web services are crafted in India — but it is
obvious even from a superficial look, that in this borderless, virtual
world, users are everywhere — and these are indeed tools for the
world, only incidentally , 'made in India'.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/20/stories/2008072055801200.htm

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Myth Of Free Nuclear Energy

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 4:27 PM

The Myth Of Free Nuclear Energy

Prabir Purkayastha

THE Congress and its spokespersons have been on overdrive selling a
number of myths about the benefits of the India-US Nuclear Deal.
Foremost in that has been that of a mythical nuclear bus, which if we
do not hop on right now, will leave us in permanent electricity
deficit. The bus apparently carries free nuclear energy; all we need
to do to tap into this free source of energy is hop on to the bus. In
this spin, it is this intransigent Left, stuck in a time warp, which
is causing India to miss the bus. The media has been lapping up this
vision of free nuclear energy, without any application of either mind
or checking up on the facts of nuclear energy. Given the wide-spread
credence that the myths about nuclear energy are being given, we are
now forced to spend some of our energy on de-constructing these myths.

Myth number 1, the 123 Agreement will give us additional 40,000 MW of
nuclear energy: The 123 Agreement does not provide us even one MW of
electricity. All that it does is it allows us to import nuclear
reactors and uranium fuel from outside. The imported reactors will
have to be paid for by us, and therefore setting up of nuclear power
plants with imported reactors will be from the total kitty we have for
investments. In case we make very large investments in plants with
imported reactors, the money will have to be taken out of either our
future power sector investments or from other sectors such as
infrastructure, health, education, etc. As the Americans say, there is
no free lunch. If we want equipment, we will have to pay for it. And
as we shall see, importing nuclear reactors is the most expensive way
of setting up power plants.

If the 123 Agreement does not provide additional power, what is its
significance? India has been under nuclear sanctions since 1974, the
first Pokhran explosion. At that time, the sanctions and the ensuing
isolation did damage our nuclear energy program quite severely.
However, in the last 30 years, we have come a long way and can build
nuclear plants completely on our own. Not only can we build nuclear
plants with our technology, we can also build it faster than others.
The last plant commissioned in the US took 23 years to build. The
latest European Union plant being built currently in Finland, has
already run up a delay of 18 months in the first 18 months of its
construction! Therefore, importing reactors or technology for reactors
today is far less important than 30 years back. As we shall see later,
the cost of Indian reactors, built with indigenous technology, is also
much lower than corresponding western reactors.

Myth number 2, there is a nuclear renaissance in the world and all
countries are turning to nuclear energy: The myth of a nuclear
renaissance has been created by the nuclear industry. In the 70s and
80s, nuclear industry was building about 20 reactors a year in the US,
Western Europe and Japan. Currently, the number of reactors being
built in Western Europe, North America and South America is a grand
total of 2! If we include Japan also in these countries, the total
number goes up to 3. The major growth of nuclear energy is in Asia
where countries such as India, China and Korea have seen major growth
of the energy sector itself. Where energy needs are growing, nuclear
energy is also growing. Even here, the proportion of nuclear energy as
a proportion of the total electricity sector is very small. China gets
only 1.8 per cent of its electricity from nuclear plants, not very
different from that of India. Even if we take the future nuclear
plants that China proposes to build, nuclear energy is not going to be
more than 5 per cent of its total installed capacity.

It is important to note that out of 223 countries in the world, only
30 have gone in for nuclear power. They have done so after evaluating
their energy options and taking decisions based on their energy needs
and energy sources available to them. Some, such as Japan and France,
have invested heavily in nuclear energy as they sought to be
relatively free from the imported sources of energy. For them, it was
a case of energy security, as they lacked either coal or oil/gas
resources. Countries such as Germany and Sweden are phasing out
nuclear plants. UK has yet to decide whether to replace their ageing
nuclear plants or phase them out. Therefore, every country turning to
nuclear power is nothing but bunkum.

The US, which had invested quite heavily in nuclear energy turned
xaway from it due to huge overruns in costs and time. "Between 1975
and 1989, the average period required to complete a plant soared from
5 years to 12. The bill for a group of 75 first-generation plants
totaled $224.1 billion (in current dollars), 219 per cent more than
estimated" (Business Week: Nuclear Power's Missing Fuel, July 10,
2006). Most analysts agree that nuclear plants, given their track
record, are unlikely to find favour with investors in the US.

The major hype about this so-called nuclear renaissance has come from
the global nuclear industry. This today, is a small club, concentrated
in only 4 countries – the US, France, Japan and Russia. If we take the
Russians out of this, there are only four major nuclear plant
producers – Toshiba owned Westinghouse (US-Japanese), GE-Hitach
(US-Japanese), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan) and Areva (French).
GE and Westinghouse are big players in the global energy market and
are also big spenders in campaign contributions to the Republicans.
Bush and Cheney are known to be close to the energy lobby and have
pushed through a slew of measures to revive the dying nuclear industry
in the US. There is up to a half a billion available as subsidy for
the first six nuclear plants in the US, apart from numerous other
measures such a soft loans and government indemnity against time and
cost overruns. Despite that, the first licenses to construct and
operate nuclear plants are as much as 5 years away. Jim Rogers, the
CEO of Duke Power, one of the companies proposing to build a new
nuclear plant in the US expressed his pessimism about Duke's ability
to build this plant. About nuclear renaissance, he said, "I'm not a
true believer.... We're talking about a renaissance in nuclear. I
don't see it."

The nuclear industry is building only 3 reactors in their home
countries. The prospects of new nuclear plants do not look very bright
in any of these countries. That is why they are flogging this story
about a nuclear renaissance in India and elsewhere. It is nothing but
hype to sell their expensive reactors, which have few takers at home.

Myth number 3, nuclear power is going to be cheaper than coal as it
has very low operating costs: There are layers of lies built into this
statement. Yes, the operating cost of a nuclear plant is lower than
that of coal fired plants. However, the cost of electricity comes not
only from the operating cost but also its capital cost. We have to pay
for the capital cost of the plants also in the electricity charges we
pay as consumers. And for the record, the operating costs of nuclear
plants are not as low as the proponents of nuclear power are making
them out to be.

CAPITAL COST

Let us accept the argument that nuclear energy has low operating
costs. The question is how much is the capital cost of imported
reactor-based nuclear plants? And when we convert these capital costs
to the cost that the consumer has to pay per unit of electricity, what
will be that cost? The calculations are quite simple. When we build a
plant, we put in some money, called equity and borrow the rest. This
is called the debt equity ratio. According to Central Electricity
Regulatory Commission's (CERC) norms, the debt equity ratio for
thermal plants is 70:30, we need to put in 30 per cent of the total
capital cost as equity and are allowed to borrow the rest. As per CERC
guidelines, the return on equity allowed which comes out of the tariff
the consumer pays is 14 per cent. The loans carry interests, and the
interest charges also come out of the tariff. Lastly, there is plant
depreciation, which is computed at 3.6 per cent of the plant cost. All
these have to be included in calculating the tariff. If we take only
these components into account and the cost of the plant as Rs 9 crore
per MW (around $2000 per KW) and the accumulated interests during
construction, in which period obviously there is no sale of
electricity, the total capital cost including this interest is Rs 11.2
crore per MW. The cost of electricity using just the capital cost of
the plant alone for imported reactors would be Rs 3.65 per unit as
against the cost per unit from coal including the fuel and all other
operating costs of Rs 2.20-2.60, depending on their distance from the
coal mines. If we take plants at pit heads, the cost committed by
Reliance for the Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project is only Rs 1.19. Even
after using high cost imported coal, the cost of power from the Mundra
Ultra Mega Power project is Rs 2.26!

If we take indigenous reactors, the capital cost of nuclear plants
would be about two thirds of imported reactor based plants. Nuclear
power from Indian reactors would cost therefore quite a bit less than
that from imported reactors. Even then, it will be somewhat more
expensive than that of coal fired plants. However, taking into account
the long-term scenario, we need to keep nuclear option alive and
should invest some money in nuclear energy, particularly to develop
Indian technology further in this area.

OPERATING COST

The operating cost per unit from imported reactors is not as low as
the UPA spokespersons are making it out to be. In the case of Kaiga,
the operating cost including fuel, heavy water and other operating
cost was computed by Nuclear Power Corporation to be Rs 1.48. If we
add that to the cost of capital, the cost of electricity becomes Rs
5.13! This is more than twice that from coal fired plants. Therefore,
the argument of cheap power from imported nuclear plant is just sheer
hogwash.
Recently, the NPC CMD, has claimed that Kudankulam would not be Rs
3.50-3.75 as they had indicated earlier, but will be much lower.
However, unless the NPC comes clean on the basis of these
calculations, we would consider it to be a statement to justify import
of nuclear reactors. Kudankulam was a special case, with Russia
agreeing to give us two reactors on soft loans and other concessional
terms. If we take the commercial reactors being built abroad, say the
Finnish reactor being built by Areva, the French company, its price
has already gone to more than $2,500 per KW (Rs 10 crore per MW), well
above the figure we have taken above. And we have yet to see the final
price of Kudankulam, which we will know only after it finishes
construction. All international studies have used $2000 per KW as the
base cost of nuclear plants. At these costs, the cost of electricity
will be higher than any other source of electricity such as gas, coal
or hydro.

Myth number 4, we will run out of coal in 50 years, so we need to
build nuclear plants now: This is perhaps the most bogus of all
arguments. When geologists calculate mineral reserves, they take into
account what the country needs for the next 30 years. If this amount
is available as reserves, they then would say we can prospect for more
only if we do not have enough for the next 30 years. By this, we have
more than adequate reserves of coal.

The fraud that is performed on calculating coal is first to propose
that India will need astronomical amount of energy and then argue that
since we will run out of coal by 2050, we need to turn to nuclear
energy now. First, India has additional billions of tonnes of coal,
which are known to be there but not converted to firm reserves, as
there is no immediate need. Second, only 50 per cent of the known coal
bearing areas have been fully prospected. Third, we are still using
very primitive methods for extracting coal, wasting a huge amount of
coal reserves. To find more coal reserves or mine more efficiently,
requires far less money than buying expensive reactors from
Westinghouse and GE!

However, when it comes to uranium fuel, the same people claiming we
will run out of coal do not calculate the same way about uranium
reserves. If we take the existing uranium reserves, we will run out of
these within next 70 years even if we do not add any new nuclear
plant. If we double the number of existing nuclear plants, we will run
out of uranium in 35 years!

Myth number 5, we need nuclear energy to reduce global warming:
India's position has been that our per capita emissions are one
twentieth to one tenth that of developed countries. Therefore, unless
they are willing to cap and bring down their emission levels, India
will not take binding commitments but will institute only voluntary
measures. Recently, Pradipto Ghosh, the former environment secretary
has stated that the cost of limiting emissions at this stage would hit
Indian economy very hard and could cost us as much as $2.5 trillion.
Suddenly, we are making an about turn and are now willing to take the
most expensive route for power generation – imported reactors – for
reducing greenhouse gases!

Just for the record, even if we put in 40,000 MW of nuclear energy,
the reduction of greenhouse gases for not burning that amount of coal
will be of the order of 2.5 per cent, that is, by adding this 40,000
MW, we will reduce our emissions by 2.5 per cent only. And this, with
an additional cost of Rs 2,20,000 crore that we would require for
using the coal fired plants as a route. Using other technologies such
as Carbon dioxide sequestration (putting back into the mines the CO2
burnt in the power plants) would be cheaper than using the imported
reactor route.

The worst part of the greenhouse gas argument is that the US, which
has consistently refused to limit its emissions – it is the sole
standout on Kyoto protocols – will now help India reduce its emissions
by exporting its expensive reactors for which there are no takers at
home.

CONCLUSIONS

The Congress spokespersons have tried to relate the current shortage
of power to the slow growth of nuclear energy. The reality is that for
the last 17 years, successive governments have starved the power
sector of funds, pleading lack of capital. Suddenly, we have so much
capital that we are going to choose the most capital expensive route –
that of imported reactors – for building new power plants!

To justify the nuclear deal, they have constructed a huge but
imaginary shortfall in the year 2031-32, then zeroed in on nuclear
energy -- that too with imported reactors -- as the only path to
salvation. Once this false future of calamitous shortages is created,
it's that much easier to rush the country into hasty decisions. This
is not necessarily a new route; the same one was taken during those
bad old Enron days. The recurring image on this route is now a nuclear
bus about to leave from some unspecified terminal; if we do not catch
this bus today, we will be left in darkness by 2032. The reality is
that there is no nuclear bus leaving from anywhere. Nor will we be
condemned to darkness in 2032 if we do not to get on board of this
mythical bus now.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

The Hindu : Front Page : Looking for output samples

The Hindu : Front Page : Looking for output samples: "Looking for output samples

Dan Glaister

NASA is calling upon its employees — and indeed anybody passing by who has the urge — to give their all in one of its trickiest missions: to boldly go into a beaker.

Researchers on the Orion programme have called for volunteers to donate urine as it tests toilet designs for the latest generation of space capsules being developed by them. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008"

Monday, July 14, 2008

പൊട്ടന്‍

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: സനാതനന്‍ <sanusrija@gmail.com>
Date: 2008/7/13
Subject: [focus] പൊട്ടന്‍
To: കവിത <malayalakavitha@googlegroups.com>
Cc: focusnri@googlegroups.com


സ്കൂളിന്റെ മതിലില്‍
'ലൌ' ചിഹ്നം കണ്ടാല്‍
ആണ്‍കുട്ടികളും പെണ്‍കുട്ടികളും
ചിരിയോടു ചിരി.

കാര്യമറിയില്ലെങ്കിലും
കൂട്ടത്തില്‍ ചിരിക്കാത്തവനെ
ചിരിക്കുന്നവരുടെ കൂടെയാകയാല്‍
ഞാനും ചിരിച്ചുപോന്നു
അര്‍ത്ഥമില്ലാത്ത ചിരി.

ജിജ്ഞാസയുടെ
കെട്ടുപൊട്ടിയ ഒരുദിവസം
കൂട്ടുകാരനോട് ചോദിച്ചു,
ചിരിയുടെ രഹസ്യം.

"പൊട്ടാ"അവന്‍ പറഞ്ഞു,
"ഒന്ന് പെണ്ണിന്റെ സാതനം
മറ്റത് ആണിന്റെ സാതനം"

പേര് പൊട്ടനെന്നായെങ്കിലും
ഞാനും തുടങ്ങി അര്‍ത്ഥംവച്ച ചിരി.

കാലം കടന്നപ്പോള്‍
മനസ്സിന്റെ ചുവരിലൊക്കെ
ചിലര്‍ ലൌ ചിഹ്നങ്ങള്‍
കുത്തിവരക്കാന്‍ തുടങ്ങി.

അപ്പോഴാണറിയുന്നത്
വരകളില്‍ തെളിയുന്നത്
ഒരു ഹൃദയവും അതില്‍
തറച്ച കൂരമ്പുമാണെന്ന്.

അമ്പുതറച്ച ഹൃദയം
തലയണകൊണ്ടമര്‍ത്തി
ഞരങ്ങി ഞരങ്ങി
ഉറങ്ങാതെയെത്ര രാത്രികള്‍..

പിന്നീടെവിടെയതുകണ്ടാലും
ചിരിവന്നിട്ടില്ല.
പകരം, അറിയാതെ
നെഞ്ചിലേക്കൊരു കൈ പോകും.

പൊട്ടനല്ലാത്തതുകൊണ്ട്
ഇനിയും അമ്പുതറച്ചിട്ടില്ലാത്ത
കൂട്ടുകാരനിപ്പോഴും തുടരുന്നുണ്ടാകും
അര്‍ത്ഥംവച്ച ചിരികള്‍.

World’s oldest blogger at 108 & her last blog post !


Posted: 14 Jul 2008 07:16 AM CDT

World's oldest blogger, an Australian woman "Olive Riley" passed away peacefully on Saturday, July 12. She began her blogging journey in February last year.
She constantly shared stories from her life during the two world wars, raising three children on her own and working as a station cook in the outback.
Olive jokingly called her blog as 'blob' which now has more than 70 blog posts (www.allaboutolive.com.au). You can read more of her blog posts at (http://worldsoldestblogger.blogspot.com/).
In her last posts she revealed about her bad health and re-location to a nursing home for treatment. And the last post announce end of her blogging journey as:
"… Oue dear friend Olive Riley passed away peacefully on Saturday, July 12. She will be mourned by thousands of Internet friends and hundreds of descendants and other relatives."
God bless you!
[Source - Photo By Maggie's World]
© 2008 tothepc All Rights Reserved

Friday, July 11, 2008

Source : http://archive.eci.gov.in/Affidavits/Affidavits_fs.htm

The analysis of assets declared by the candidates to Kerala Assembly Elections reveal some interesting figures. This is based on the first list of candidates, for constituencies No.140 to 100. Other details are yet to be posted on the Election commission's website.

The Total assets of these 41 candidates is Rs.38 Crores 22 Lakhs ! Hold on, the assets of Thomas Chandy, DICK Candidate in Kuttanad alone is Rs.16 Crores 26 Lakhs !!! Almost 50% of the total !!! Balakrishna Pillai has Rs.8 crores 88 Lakhs ! The rival candidate of LDF, Aysha Potty has a meagre Rs.10 lakhs 16 Thousand in assets. So, Thomas Chandy & Balakrishna Pillai, hold almost 66% of the total assets declared by the 41 candidates !!! A large number of UDF candiates have taken bank loans.

These 41 candidates hold 3,406 sovereigns of Gold !!! But LDF candidates hold only 16% of the total. A few of the UDF Candidates hold 50% of the total gold declared. Of course Balakrishna Pillai leads the list, followed KB Ganesh Kumar, N.Shaktan, Palode Ravi & Shobana George.

The total assets of 41 UDF candidates is Rs.33 Crores 81 Lakhs & the total assets of 41 LDF candidates is only Rs. 4 Crores 40 Lakhs !!! Balakrishna Pillai has two elephants and his son KB Ganesh Kumar has one, so of the 41 candidates, they are the only one having elephants.

So, where are the white elephants? From this list it appears that the candidates, both UDF & LDF, in Kunnathur constituency are the poorest of the lot; just Rs.1,813 & Rs.42,500 in assets, respectively.

How come our media do not publish such interesting facts? Why only the poor K. Muralidharan was targetted? Who knows, when the complete list of 140 constituencies are available, we might have more interesting facts? Which are definitely better than the fiction spread by these rich politicians !!! Notes:- Gold is calculated at Rs.750 per gram Following candidates details are not fully available TVM West [Shobana & Surendran] Varkala [Varkala Kahar & Sundaresan]

LIC Policy Values not shown Shibu Baby John's affidavit is shown as "0" Kunnathoor - UDF Candidate has only Rs.1,813?? Kottarakara - Balakrishna Pillai remits Rs.20,000 per month for Post Office savings Kottarakara - Balakrishna Pillai also has 2 elephants worth Rs.18 Lakhs Pathanapuram - KB Ganeshkumar has an elephant worth Rs.8 lakhs [son's elephant is less in value than the father's??]

Panthalam candidates details are not available Mavelikkara candidates details are not available Chengannur candidates details are not available Kayamkulam candidates details are not available Ambalapuzha candidates details are not available Alapuzha T.Anjalose's details are not available

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Agreement with the Government of India for the Application of Safeguards to Civilian Nuclear Facilities / PUBLIC OR SECRET ?

IAEA Press Releases

Press Release 2008/08

Draft India Safeguards Agreement Circulated to IAEA Board Members

9 July 2008 | At the request of the Government of India, the IAEA Secretariat today circulated to Members of the IAEA Board of Governors for their consideration the draft of an Agreement with the Government of India for the Application of Safeguards to Civilian Nuclear Facilities.

The Chairman of the Board is consulting with Board Members to agree on a date for a Board meeting when the Agreement would be considered.

Note to editors: The text of the draft Agreement is not public. IAEA Officials will not be giving interviews at this time.

Press Contact

Melissa Fleming
Spokesperson and Head, Media and Outreach Section
Division of Public Information
[43-1] 2600-21273
press at iaea.org

Deshabhimani, Malayalam News, Online Malayalam News, Malayalam Varthakal, Malayalam Daily, Malayalam Newspaper, Daily Newspaper of Kerala, Latest News, Lead News, and Kerala News, World/International News

Deshabhimani, Malayalam News, Online Malayalam News, Malayalam Varthakal, Malayalam Daily, Malayalam Newspaper, Daily Newspaper of Kerala, Latest News, Lead News, and Kerala News, World/International News: "kp-c£m- IcmÀ- clky-am-¡n-bXv- Bcv-: Im-cm-«v-
\yq-Uð-ln-: BWh Icm-dp-am-bn- _Ôs¸«v- sFFCF kp-c£m- Icm-À- clky-tcJbm-¡n-bXv- Bcp-sS \nÀ-tZi{]Im-cam-sWóv- kÀ-¡mÀ- hy-Iv-Xam-¡Wsaóv- kn-]n-sF Fw- P\dð- sk{I«dn- {]Im-iv- Im-cm-«v- Bhiy-s¸«p.- .....Read More"

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Visit the future website

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nath, Jayesh
Date: Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Subject: FW: Visit the future website
To:


Visit the future website. In this Website there is no need to click anywhere (except on the first page) to navigate through the site.
It's amazing.............

www.dontclick.it

Download TVTonic to watch Olympics Free of charge

Download TVTonic to watch Olympics Free of charge

Posted: 03 Jul 2008 10:05 PM CDT

Olympics fever is about to begin. Besides the live action on TV you can also catch the same on your computer. While NBC has partnered with Microsoft to bring exclusive Olympics portal, it has also partnered with TVTonic to deliver live action on your computer.

Using TVTonic you will be able to subscribe to your favorite Olympic sports and watch the action from Beijing, free of charge. Video is cached on your PC for you to view in up-to-HD quality.

On any Windows Vista Ultimate or Home Premium PC, you will find NBC Olympics On The Go in the Online Media section of Media Center. Simply select the tile to initiate the free download.

For Windows XP computer you either need Media Center installed or watch the coverage in Internet Explorer 6 or later. There is loads of content access using TVTonic and its all free supported by advertisements.

You need to high speed broadband connection (preferable no-limit restriction account) as it keeps downloading video content in the background to make it available at the click of a button. Download TVTonic to enjoy Olympics on your computer.

Related - Download Microsoft Silverlight to watch Beijing Olympics live

Thursday, July 03, 2008

We did it!




Download Day 2008

We did it!

We set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. With your help we reached 8,002,530 downloads.

You are now part of a World Record and the proud owner of the best version of Firefox yet!

Don't forget to download your very own certificate for helping set a Guinness World Record.

Pledge Map

s e a r c h

Custom Search

JustACounter

The Hindu - Breaking News

BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition

Blog Archive