Yoga has given India a stunning international shimmer.  The ethos, values and practices of a long ago past, of a far away country, seem to have been directly, successfully embedded in the minds and bodies of millions in a manner in which even IT and Bollywood—put together—haven’t, can’t. There isn’t a city without its local yoga guru dispensing his/her wisdom. Cities like Mysore and Poona resemble mini Olympics Games villages every day of the year. More→

For India’s founders, political freedom was their great prize. Yet decades on, what that freedom has delivered measures up poorly for many. For India’s business elites eager to compete with China, for the middle classes fed up with corruption, for radical intellectuals, for desperate citizens who have taken up arms against the state – democracy in India is a story of unravelling illusions.Democratic politics itself has come to be seen as impeding the decisive action needed to expand economic possibilities.

In a society of swiftly inflating expectations, where old deference crumbles before youthful impatience, frustration with democracy is perhaps not surprising.

The citizenry’s ire expresses perhaps instinctively something that India’s government, caught in inertial routines, is in danger of missing. Societies are at their most vulnerable when things are improving – not when they are stagnant. More→

India will hold its first Grand Prix this weekend – a glitzy coming-out party for an emerging economic juggernaut that is lost on villagers like Meera, standing by a fetid pond near the brand new Formula One race track with a child covered in warts. More→

Four years, six months and five days after work began on it, the first official train of Namma Metro rolls out, to the coconut shells of the priests, the wave of the politicians, and the throng of passengers and the press, through crowded M.G. Road and Ulsoor, in Bangalore on Thursday, 20 October 2011.

Apparently, it took 96,900 tonnes of cement; 33,400 tonnes of structural steel; 1,500 tonnes of hi-tension wire; 215,000 metres of electrical cables; 3000 workers and 300 workers for just the first 6.7 kms of the 108.66 route, spread over six stations, a distance that will be traversed in 14 minutes. More→

Rarely does the U.S. government want anyone more than it wanted Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death.” U.S. government officials say Bout became the world’s most notorious arms dealer by fueling civil wars around the world. Courted by drug lords and dictators, the U.S. saw him as a threat because of his ability to arm terrorists targeting the United States.

A former Russian military officer, Bout has been protected by powerful friends, and long considered simply untouchable by law enforcement. But three years ago the DEA devised a bold undercover operation to capture him. More→

India desperately needs a new political leader and it looks as if there is a chance it might get the person who many people fear and despise. He is Narendra Modi (elow), chief minister of Gujarat and the most charismatic politician in the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the country’s main parliamentary opposition. Article by: John Elliot More→

With gold and other jewels tumbling out of the vaults of the Padmanabhaswamy temple in Trivandrum—figures upto and beyond Rs 100,000 crore are being mentioned, more than twice Rs42,000 crore of Tirupati—newspapers are busy calculating the true value of the haul (at current gold prices) and what can be done with the windfall.

The Times of India reports that one lakh crore rupees is almost equal to Wipro’s market capitalisation of Rs 1.04 lakh crore, nearly one-third of Reliance Industries, and the more than twice Posco’s proposed investment of $12billion in India.

ToI says the gold will…

# Almost meet the cost of rolling out food security Act (around Rs 70,000 crore) and NREGA spend (Rs 40,000 crore)

# Meet central government’s education budget for two-and-a-half years

# Help meet government’s interest liability for over four months and seven months’ defence spending

Mail Today reports that Rs 100,000 crore can be used to…

# Build 290 super-speciality hospitals

# Lay 14,000 kilometres of national highways

# Buy 255 multi-combat aircraft such as the Eurofighter

# Build 1,000 sports arenas like the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium

The Supreme Court will, of course, decide who the money belongs to: the temple, the temple board, the State government or the Centre.

The first gun to have been reported as the weapon used to take down Bin Laden was

the Sig Sauer P226 pistol.  There is nothing wrong with the Sig P226. It is a very fine pistol, but it is hard to believe that the elite of the elite would assault a highly fortified compound armed with a pistol in a relatively weak cartridge (9mm or .40 S&W) that is unable to penetrate even Type II body armor.

Soldier System updated their original report, saying instead that the H&K HK416 rifle was used by SEAL Team 6 to kill Osama.

While not the most exotic gun, it is a highly regarded piston-operated version of the AR-15. It makes a lot more sense that the SEALs were using short-barreled carbines rather than a submachine guns or pistols. The HK416 is also notably used by the USMC as the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle.

Unlike the Colt CM901 or MP7, civilians can purchase the HK416 as the civilian legal H&K MR556A1.

We will probably never know exactly what the SEALs used, but the HK416 is more feasible than most.

Al Jazeera presents: Gods Business: Swaminarayan

Swaminarayan is best described as cultural & ethnic propaganda.  While the religion has done much good for the progressive mind, it has come at a very big sacrifice both on the views For life & financial responsibility. The religion plays as a 5 million person social network which has set their foundation on possibly one of the best Marketing scheme’s that most fortune 500 companies would die to master.  From articulate temples, priest who speak only to brainwash & the scent of money in all aspects of the religion, this sect could soon be a publicly traded company in the near future.