Wednesday, September 21, 2011

MySnaps : India Trip in Sept 2011

MySnaps :: Kaas -> The Plateau of Flowers



Last week, along with Anajali and Hemant Pardikar, we went to the Kaas near Satara in Maharashtra. This place is known as  is  a Plateau of Flowers.  The lateritic plateau of Kaas  becomes home to millions of tiny flowers in late monsoons.More than 300 varieties of wild flowers, herbs, orchids, shrubs, insectivorous plants etc. can be seen here in Aug and Sep ….. This plateau overlooks the lush evergreen forests that serves as a water catchment area of Koyna Dam  In the monsoons,  the whole area transforms into a carpet of flowers : the yellow  of Smithia and Sonki flowers, the pink  of Balsam, the purple  of Karvi etc…. here is a link to the pictures I clicked while there.......




Split Personality?




( from a display in Lavasa, near Pune)

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Why S&P downgraded the US - A short and simple explanation








Why S&P downgraded  the US ? See these numbers: 


• U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
• Federal budget:    $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt:             $1,650,000,000,000
• National debt:     $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cut:    $38,500,000,000

Confusing? OK , let's remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:




• Annual family income:                                        $21,700
• Money the family spent:                                     $38,200
• New debt on the family credit card:                     $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the family credit card: $142,710
• Total family budget cuts:                                         $385


Would you give this family an AAA credit rating?





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Monday, September 5, 2011

Indian Lady Is Trinidad's Prime Minister













Barely 24 hours after she was sworn in as the first woman prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar donned a life jacket and waded into the flood waters to tour areas affected by torrential rains sweeping across the Caribbean. A devout Hindu, she swore on the Bhagavad Gita - the Hindu holy book - to do her duty to her people.Even as congratulations poured in from around the world, she remained focused on "dealing with the people's business".
It was the most important task at hand, she told her 1.3m citizens during the live televised address of her historic swearing-in ceremony.
A descendant of Indian indentured labourers who came to Trinidad to work the sugar plantations from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar between 1845 and 1917, Ms Persad-Bissessar grew up with traditional Indian values and strong religious ties.
'No novice'
The landslide victory of the coalition led by her United National Congress (UNC) party in last month's election has brought a sense of euphoria and feeling of hope to this incredibly wealthy republic.
Trinidad and Tobago has sailed smoothly through the global recession, cushioned by a sea of oil and natural gas.





A woman walks past graffiti promoting Ms Persad-Bissessar in Port of Spain on 23/05/2010
Ms Persad-Bissessar ran a high-profile election campaign
The squandering of billions of dollars by the former government and alleged corruption helped bring this 58-year-old grandmother- of-two into power.
She unseated former PM Patrick Manning whose People's National Movement (PNM) party had governed the country for 42 of the 48 years since its independence from the UK.
An attorney by profession, Ms Persad-Bissessar is no novice to politics having been the MP for her area Siparia, a rural town in the south of the island, since 1995.
She launched her bid to take over the UNC, Mr Panday, the opposition leader, unleashed an attack on her reputation, suggesting that she was an alcoholic.
Ms Persad-Bissessar called the accusation "total falsehood".


Ms Persad-Bissessar is of Indian origin
"It is a smear campaign of lies, half-truths and innuendoes. Smear campaigns do not win elections. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words cannot hurt me."
Indeed, they did not.
On 24 January, Ms Persad-Bissessar became leader of the UNC with a landslide victory.
When Mr Panday refused to step down as leader of the opposition, she dealt with that too - persuading his loyal MPs to cross over to her side.
After she was appointed leader of the opposition, she hired the strategist who worked on Barack Obama's presidential campaign to assist her.
After a blistering, hugely expensive campaign that used high-tech, slick advertisement in all the media, including the internet, Ms Persad-Bissessar and her coalition emerged victorious.
And on 24 May she became prime minister.












NETRA Project : MIT

Sunday, September 4, 2011

MAGIC?





MAGIC



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