All Efforts On To Acquire Gandhi Letter

The Indian government has launched all out efforts to acquire a rare letter Mahatma Gandhi wrote 19 days before his 1948 assassination which is up for auction in London next week.In the Jan 11, 1948 letter written for the 'Harijan' newspaper, which he edited, Gandhi makes an emotive appeal for tolerance towards Muslims.'My view remains unalterable especially at this critical juncture in our history. It is wrong to ruffle Muslim or any other person's feeling when there is no question of ethics,' Gandhi wrote, just 19 days before Nathuram Godse shot him dead.The rare letter is part of a collection titled 'the Albin Schram Collection of Autograph Letters', a personal collection by Albin Schram, a Switzerland-based collector. It also includes some of the greatest letters written by legends like Napoleon, Winston Churchill, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde.

Memorial to come up for 1857 martyrs

The Haryana government announced that a memorial would be set up at Ambala in memory of those who sacrificed their lives in the country's first war of independence in 1857.He was addressing a public meeting organised to observe the martyrdom day of Ch Udmi Ram Nambardar of village Liwaspur, who was crushed to death along with his wife and 22 others of the village, as the villagers had killed some British soldiers who were going to join troops at Ambala from Delhi in 1857.

Red Fort is World Heritage site

The Red Fort, the imposing 17th century Mughal architectural marvel in the capital, was Thursday declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco - a rare honour expected to attract more tourists to the fortress from where the Indian tricolour is unfurled on Independence Day.The honour to the Red Fort, located in old Delhi, makes it the third for the Indian capital - after Qutub Minar, the 239 ft-high sandstone minaret completed in the 13th century, and the 16th century Humayun Tomb.The planning of the palace is based on Islamic prototypes, but each pavilion reveals architectural elements typical of Mughal buildings, reflecting a fusion of Persian, Timurid and Hindu traditions, Unesco underlined.

Millionaire club expands to 1,00,000

India has added over 17,000-dollar-millionaires in 2006, recording the highest growth in high net worth individuals (HNIs) after Singapore. At the end of the year, the number of millionaires in India rose to 1,00,000 from 83,000 in the previous year.This comes in the back of a record 8.8% real growth in gross domestic product, second only to China. Also, there has been a sharp increase in the asset values with the Sensex being among the best performing in emerging markets. According to the 11th annual world wealth report brought out by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, Singapore, India, Indonesia and Russia witnessed the highest growth in HNI populations

Internet Protocol Television

Shakti Extratainment, the first Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) channel
one of the very first from India, will be launched here at a cultural ‘Bani Festival’ to be inaugurated July 4. People can choose what to view and when, rather than rely on a channel’s programming schedules, using superior technology that offers higher than DVD quality resolution, with encryption to protect content providers and artists against piracy.The programmes are in five broad categories — Classic Shakti (classical music, dance and culture), Kala Shakti (popular entertainment including films and serials), Gyan Shakti (educational shows), Atma Shakti (devotional, philosophical/spiritual) and Jan Shakti (community centric).

IPOs market

India's IPOs market According to the study, India's increasing number of larger deals has been driven by the growth of Indian corporations and their need for additional capital for potential acquisitionsemerged as the eighth largest with $7.23 billion (Rs 30,000 crore) in net proceeds through 78 public issues, global research and consultancy firm Ernst & Young said in its Global IPO report.Across the world, the companies raised $246 billion, up from $167 billion in 2005, through a total of 1,729 IPOs, led by Chinese companies at the top with net proceeds of $56.6 billion.However, the biggest number of IPOs came from the United States with 187 offerings, followed by Japan with 185 and China with 175 IPOs.According to the study, India's increasing number of larger deals has been driven by the growth of Indian corporations and their need for additional capital for potential acquisitions.

UNESCO's Memory of the World Register

The Rig Veda manuscripts from Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, have been selected for inscription in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, 2007. India has had three other nominations inscribed on the Register, The IAS Tamil Medic Manuscript Collection (1997), Archives of the Dutch East India Company (2003), a Dutch nomination, and the Saiva Manuscripts in Pondicherry (2005).The Rig Veda, oldest of the four Vedas, is among the 38 items of documentary heritage of exceptional value which have been added to the prestigious World Register, bringing the total number of inscriptions since 1997 to 158.The Memory of the World programme seeks to guard against collective amnesia, calling upon the preservation of the valuable archival holdings and library collections all over the world, ensuring their wide dissemination.The Vedas are the first literary documents in the history of humankind, and they transcend far beyond their identity as scriptures.The Rig Veda, oldest among the four Vedas and a collection of 1028 hymns of exceptional literay qualities eulogising the Vedic deities, is the fountain source of the Aryan culture in all its manifestations that spread beyond the Indian subcontinent to large parts of South and South East Asia as well as parts of Central Asia.Out of the total number of 28,000 Manuscripts housed at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, the 30 manuscripts of the Rig Veda form a valuable part of the collection.Besides the Rig Veda, the list of 38 items of documentary heritage includes Unpublished Papers of Christopher Okigbo, considered one of the most renowned African poets of the 20th century, killed during the civil war in Nigeria.