NRIs get right to vote in Indian elections, promises PM

Fulfilling a long-standing demand of its diaspora, India Sunday said it would allow NRIs to vote and participate in the election process.

'Pursuant to the law that was enacted to enable Non-resident Indians to vote in our national elections, the government has issued notifications for registration of overseas electors under the Representation of People Act, 1950,' Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.

'The government and people of India recognise and value the important role being played by Indian communities living abroad. We believe that Indian diaspora has much more to contribute to the building of modern India,' the prime minister said.

'We propose to facilitate, encourage and promote this engagement. Over the past year, we have taken a number of steps towards this end,' he added, as he formally inaugurated the 10th annual diaspora meet, the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) here.

Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said NRIs would be able to exercise their franchise in upcoming elections.

'Indian nationals living abroad can now exercise their franchise in India at the time o f the elections,' Ravi said.

Now those NRIs who have registered with the embassies of their respective countries of stay, would be eligible to vote in the upcoming assembly elections in five states including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur. Polls will take place in these countries between Jan 28 and March 3.

Did You Know - Interesting Facts

Did You Know 11% of people are left handed
Did You Know August has the highest percentage of births
Did You Know unless food is mixed with saliva you can't taste it
Did You Know the average person falls asleep in 7 minutes
Did You Know a bear has 42 teeth
Did You Know an ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain
Did You Know most lipsticks contain fish scales
Did You Know no two corn flakes look the same
Did You Know lemons contain more sugar than strawberries
Did You Know 8% of people have an extra rib
Did You Know 85% of plant life is found in the ocean
Did You Know Ralph Lauren's original name was Ralph Lifshitz
Did You Know rabbits like licorice
Did You Know the Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters
Did You Know 'Topolino' is the name for Mickey Mouse Italy
Did You Know a lobsters blood is colorless but when exposed to oxygen it turns blue
Did You Know armadillos have 4 babies at a time and are all the same sex
Did You Know reindeer like bananas
Did You Know the longest recorded flight of a chicken was 13 seconds
Did You Know birds need gravity to swallow
Did You Know the most commonly used letter in the alphabet is E
Did You Know the least used letter in the alphabet is Q
Did You Know the 3 most common languages in the world are Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and English
Did You Know skiing is the only word with double i
Did You Know dreamt is the only word that ends in mt
Did You Know the names of all continents both start and end with the same letter
Did You Know the first letters of the months July through to November spell JASON
Did You Know if you try to say the alphabet without moving your lips or tongue every letter will sound the same
Did You Know a cat has 32 muscles in each ear
Did You Know Perth is Australia's windiest city
Did You Know Elvis's middle name was Aron
Did You Know the flag for Libya is unlike any other being a solid green color
Did You Know goldfish can see both infrared and ultraviolet light
Did You Know the smallest bones in the human body are found in your ear
Did You Know cats spend 66% of their life asleep
Did You Know Switzerland eats the most chocolate equating to 10 kilos per person per year
Did You Know money is the number one thing that couples argue about
Did You Know macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs
Did You Know when lightning strikes it can reach up to 30,000 degrees celsius (54,000 degrees fahrenheit)
Did You Know spiders are arachnids and not insects

India inches closer to crisis

India may face its worst financial crisis in decades if it fails to stem a slide in the rupee.
The Indian economy is one of the most vulnerable to liquidity shocks in the region, not helped the least by deficits in its key balances

How Kerala temple treasure is being recorded

Thiruvananthapuram: The process of scientific documentation of the treasure at Kerala's Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple will begin on November 9. This was decided today at a meeting of the expert panel appointed by the Supreme Court. The documentation will involve digital archiving of temple antiques, preparing a computerised data base and recording 3-D images of the treasure, reportedly worth 100,000 crores.

While Kerala State Electronic Corporation will implement the documentation process, ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre will provide the technical expertise.

The state government will bear the cost of the documentation process. The Supreme Court had ordered a detailed scientific documentation of the temple treasure after a local activist in Thiruvananthapuram accused the trust which governs the temple of mismanagement. The temple trust controlled by the erstwhile Travancore royal family.

"We have decided to start the documentation process on November 9. The preparedness for this will be assessed at another meeting on November 4. We are hopeful that documentation will start on November 9 itself," said CV Anandabose, the chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed expert panel.

Five of the six underground vaults at the 16th-century temple have so far been explored. They have delivered unimaginable treasure, much of it allegedly donated by devotees led by the royal family of Travancore.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the ornaments, cash and gold discovered at the temple need to be digitally archived before the last secret chamber is forced open. Vault B has not been touched so far. Local superstition warns of bad luck if it is entered. The Supreme Court has said that while it will be mindful of tradition and the sentiments of devotees, it will decide when the vault should be opened at its own discretion and not in consultation with priests.

Source :NDTV

Mayawati inaugurates Rs. 685-Cr Noida memorial park

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Friday inaugurated her dream park in Noida.

Mayawati's pet project has been built at a cost of Rs 685 crore.

The Congress slammed the project calling it a complete waste of money.

A helicopter, a convoy of big cars, a red carpet and several officials were gathered to greet the chief minister as she arrived at the Rashtriya Dalit Smarak in Noida to inaugurate her dream 33-acre park this evening.

The Ambedkar Park features grand lawns, several statues and hundreds of trees and fountains.

Meanwhile, the Congress party has called the project a 'waste' and said that chief minister is wasting the public money.

World powers pre-occupied; India must stand on own feet: Manmohan

Manmohan Singh told top commanders of the armed forces that international strategic and political environment has deteriorated and it must be factored in the policies that India adopts internally or externally.