Gutka Pouch , Unmanageable Threat

The Government's proposal to ban the use of multi-layered laminated plastic packaging has elicited a strong response from the industry with several pleading to present their case before the environment ministry. The Justice Chopra report recommended that the small pouches segment of the vast plastic based packaging industry had become unmamageable.The notification also proposes to increase the thickness of polybags from 20 microns to 40 microns.The proposed notification recommends a strict control and license system for manufacturers of plastic carry bags and containers and also requires the manufactures to label their products based on whether they are made from virgin plastic,recycled plastic or biodegradabele material. With debate also...

Nine Indian-origin people work in White House

At least nine Indian-origin people work in the White House, with some getting $100,000 or more a year, official figures released by President Barack Obama's office have revealed.According to the figures, Sonal Shah, who's the deputy assistant to the US President and director at Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, gets an annual salary of $120,000. Both Rachana Bhowmick, who is the director of special projects, and Aditya Kumar, also director of special projects as well as special assistant to Office of Chief of Staff, earn $99,000 a year each. Those in the salary slab less than $90,000 are Anisha Dasgupta who works as a Counsel at an annual package of $86,927 and Pradeep Ramamurthy, the Director of Response Policy, whose gross...

Happy Independence Day

On 3 June 1947, Viscount Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British Governor-General of India, announced the partitioning of the British Indian Empire into India and Pakistan, under the provisions of the Indian Independence Act 1947. At the stroke of midnight, on 14 August 1947, India became an independent nation. This was preceded by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's famous speech titled Tryst with Destiny.“ At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again....

Raksha Bandhan - Festival Of India

Raksha Bandhan (the bond of protection in Hindi and Panjabi) is a Hindu festival, which celebrates the relationship between brothers and sisters. It is celebrated on the full moon of the month of Shraavana.The festival is marked by the tying of a rakhi, or holy thread by the sister on the wrist of her brother. The elder brother in return offers a gift to his sister and vows to look after her same while an elder sister returns offers to her younger brother. The brother and sister traditionally feed each other sweets. It is not necessary that the rakhi can be given only to a brother by birth; any male can be "adopted" as a brother by tying a rakhi on the person, that is "blood brothers and sisters", whether they are cousins or a good friend....