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May the Bodhi sapling grow to United Indian Ocean States. Hindumahasagar Parivaar. Jeevema s'aradah s'atam, NaMo.

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Bodhi treesapling toGandan Monastery:NaMo presents. Dharma-dhammanations Hindumahasagar parivaar



  1. Some more photos of my visit to Gandan Monastery.
Avalokiteśvara. Tallest indoor statue in the world, 26.5-meter-high, 1996It features 2,286 precious stones and is gilded with gold leaf. 

Since 1992, the Supreme Leader of the Centre of All Mongolian Buddhists and Abbot of Gandantegchinlen Monastery has been Lama Gabju Choijamts Demberel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE7oIQu8haM (17:35)

Mongolia - Bhuddist liturgies from Gandantegchinlen Monastery monks Published on Jun 12, 2013
From : " Mongolie - Chamanes et Lamas, Radio france, Ocora"

Recorded 1991-92 & 1993 in Mongolia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25jGmRjFn1I (5:14) Published on Feb 12, 2014
The monastery was established in 1835 by the Fifth Jebtsundamba, then Mongolia's highest reincarnated lama. It became the principal center of Buddhist learning in Mongolia. In the 1930s, the Communist government of Mongolia, under the leadership of Khorloogiin Choibalsan and under the influence of Joseph Stalin, destroyed all but a few monasteries and killed more than 10.000 lamas. The monastery, having escaped this mass destruction, was closed in 1938, but then reopened in 1944 and allowed to continue as the only functioning Buddhist monastery, under a skeleton staff, as a token homage to traditional Mongolian culture and religion. With the end of communism in Mongolia in 1990, restrictions on worship were lifted.


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The sound of a morin khuur


Play the clip here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morin_khuur
    1. The Morin Khuur, Music & Mongolia...a unique gift from President .
    2. Press Information Bureau
      Government of India
      Prime Minister's Office
      17-May-2015 10:45 IST
      PM’s gift to the President of Mongolia

      The Prime Minister today presented President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj a specially commissioned reproduction of a rare 13th century manuscript on the history of Mongols from the Rampur Raza Library, Rampur. Called Jamiut Tawarikh, this work was one of the grandest projects undertaken by the Ilkhanate king Ghazan Khan (1295-1304) and was done by the king’s wazir Rasheeduddin Fazlullah Hamedani who wrote it in Persian and chronicled the history up to the reign of Oljeitju (1304-1316). The breadth of coverage of the work often caused it to be dubbed as the first world history. The manuscript has over 80 fine miniature illustrations. The manuscript is a part of Volume 1 of the work and no other copy of it is known to exist. 

PM Modi's gift to President Elbegdorj of Mongolia



    1. May 17, 2015 
       
      The Prime Minister today presented President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj a specially commissioned reproduction of a rare 13th century manuscript on the history of Mongols from the Rampur Raza Library, Rampur. Called Jamiut Tawarikh, this work was one of the grandest projects undertaken by the Ilkhanate king Ghazan Khan (1295-1304) and was done by the king’s wazir Rasheeduddin Fazlullah Hamedani who wrote it in Persian and chronicled the history up to the reign of Oljeitju (1304-1316).  The breadth of coverage of the work often caused it to be dubbed as the first world history. The manuscript has over 80 fine miniature illustrations. The manuscript is a part of Volume 1 of the work and no other copy of it is known to exist.
  1. Addenda on China-Bharatam

  2. India and China have a long history of cultural interflow and friendly interactions dating back at least last 23 centuries. Under the Tsin dynasty in 217 BC Buddhist scholars from India went to the Chinese capital. In 138 BC, Chang Ch'ien, the Chinese emperor's envoy to India, took back musical instruments and Maha Tukhara melodies to the Chinese capital Ch'ang-an. The Yuechi rulers presented Sanskrit texts to the Chinese court in 2 BC.
    The first historically owned Buddhist masters arrived in China in AD 67. Kumarajiva, born of an India father and a Kuchean princess, educated in Kashmir and Kashgar reached Chang-an in 401 and stayed there till 412 AD. He translated 106 works of Sanskrit into Chinese, the most outstanding one being Saddharma-Pundarika-Sutra or the Lotus Sutra.
    This is a great work of literature containing the core of Buddha's teaching of compassion. China has many grottoes that rival Ajanta in their synthesis of India suppleness and Chinese grace. The sandy city of Tun-huang has the sacred grottoes of Ch'ien Fo Tung or the Caves of the Thousand Buddha.
    A stone tablet of the Tang dynasty states that the first 'Cave of the Unequalled Height' was constructed by an India monk in 366 AD. In 828 AD, Emperor Wen Tsung had an image of Avalokiteshwara set up in all the 44,600 monasteries of the empire. The Chinese pilgrims to India like Fa-hsien, Wang Hsuan-tso, I-tsing and others have bequeathed historic records which are invaluable for an understanding of India's cultural and political history of those times.


    Unearthing the Sarasvati mystery -- Naveen S. Garewal & Shiv K. Sharma

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    The Tribune



    HERITAGE

    Unearthing the Saraswati mystery

    Naveen S. Garewal & Shiv K. Sharma

    Work is on in Yamunanagar to dig up what’s being claimed is the ancient Saraswati. Denying any nationalistic agenda, Haryana’s BJP government says its faith in the project to revive the ‘lost river’ is backed by science. The myth, it adds, is now a reality. In the minds yes, but the mystery remains. The truth is still out there
    17 May 2015 | 12:59 AM[ - ]
    Rigveda, the oldest of the four ancient Hindu texts, mentions the “mighty” Saraswati 45 times. When NDA’s former Culture minister Jagmohan ordered excavation in Haryana to trace the course of this mythical “lost river” in 2002, he faced criticism of pushing the Sangh Parivar’s agenda of equating the supposed pre-Vedic Harappan era with Hindus in the garb of promoting religious tourism. A related charge was of trying to establish the indigenousness of Hinduism while discounting the Aryan invasion theory, and making it appear as a continuing 5,000-year-old civilisation centered around the Saraswati.
    Denying giving Saraswati a civilisational virtue or aiming to revive Brahmanism and the sanctity of Vedas, he said it was not important whether the river was found or not. “However,” he pointed out, “in the course of the research, a certain consciousness will find its way into the minds of the people... that it was not a mythological desert river.”
    That consciousness seems to have seeped in. The Saraswati river as a reality has still not won the day, but it being a myth is losing ground as the earth is being dug up since April 21. At Rohlaheri village in Yamunanagar, fresh water has been found not far below at 7 feet, bringing a flood of outsiders and locals to the excavation site. Such is the rush that a community kitchen (bhandara) has been set up in the vicinity. Some are simply inquisitive, but there is a sprinkling of those who want to immerse themselves in the “holy goddess”. The Ramayana, Mahabharata, Brahmanas and Puranas all talk of Saraswati, some even calling it Brahma’s sacred daughter Ikshumati — the greatest of mothers, greatest of rivers and greatest of goddesses.
    Locals say a number of seasonal rivulets in the area are dotted with small temples, alluding to the notion that the river has always existed — in their minds, at least. It was March this year that Haryana’s BJP government announced excavation of the Saraswati river from Adi Badri, the point from where it is said to have originated. The digging is to be spread over 43 villages of Yamunanagar district starting from Rohlaheri (Bilaspur tehsil) to Uncha Chandna (Mustafabad sub-tehsil), a distance of 50 km.
    The government says the “revival of the ancient river” will take a couple of years, but to begin with, a 7-km water channel will be dug up. This, it claims, will act as a link for a dam and reservoir to be built subsequently over 1,000 acres. What will become of such plans is best left to the travails of time. Can an  extinct river be revived by bringing underground water to the surface?
    The work is being executed under the rural job guarantee scheme and around 400 families have been entrusted with the task. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced Rs 50 crore for the project, though the administration is yet to receive this money.
    The Development and Panchayats Department says it has conducted the demarcation by using satellite imagery. Another claim is that advanced technology resulted in the discovery of water “from Saraswati” at Mughalwali village. Water gushing out is no myth, 2,500-3,000 people paying a visit daily and some taking the “holy water” too is a fact. But is this the fabled Saraswati, or just a seasonal channel? 
    Marwa Khurd village resident Sohan Lal, 70, can’t understand what the confusion is. “I have seen Saraswati flowing near Bilaspur (in the area of Kakroni village) for many years. The goddess has always existed,” he says, referring to one of the many seasonal rivulets. The myth is a reality in his case. No confusion. “Saraswati is our cultural heritage and we are working on the path shown by satellite images. Water being found from the site has proved its past. The excavation is going on and after completion of the work, there would be a flowing Saraswati,” says a confident Khattar.
    Former Congress state secretary Satpal Kaushik exercises caution. “I am not questioning the existence of Saraswati in Yamunanagar. But, it is a fact that the water that came out in Mughalwali is not that of the Saraswati. It may be ground water,” he says, adding that the excavation will create a new problem for farmers as it will divide the land.
    District Development and Panchayat Officer (DDPO) Gagandeep Singh has a bigger picture in mind. He says the Saraswati revival project has multi-dimensional aspects such as water conservation, water harvesting, ground water recharging, flood protection, improvement in ecological balance, flourishing of flora and fauna and development of eco-tourism, recreation tourism and pilgrim tourism. Is this long list for real?  
    Going back and forth
    Hindu mythology refers to Saraswati as the goddess of wisdom and knowledge, manifesting itself in the form of a river. “Ganga, Jamuna, Saraswati” find a common mention in many theological and cultural contexts. The Rig Veda refers to Saraswati as the mighty river flowing from the high mountains to the sea. In fact, the Vedas lay more importance to Saraswati than Ganga.
    French scholar Michel Danino in his book The Lost River: On the Trail of Sarasvati suggests that Saraswati was no mythological river. He says there is strong evidence to suggest that the Saraswati of yesterday could be the Ghaggar of today.
    A major proponent of making the Indus civilisation and the Rigveda compatible has been BB Lal, former Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). He claims that the Rig Vedic Saraswati and the present-day Saraswati-Ghaggar combine, which flows through Haryana and Punjab and dries up near Sirsa, are the same. His theory thus refutes the Aryan invasion theory.
    Indus and Saraswati, Danino writes in his book, were the lifeline of the Indus Valley and Harappan civilisation (between 3,500 and 1,900 BC). Ancient Sanskrit texts as well as maps plotted by the British some 200 years ago indicate that Saraswati was the Ghajjar-Hakra river (Ghaggar in India and Hakra in Pakistan) that passes through Haryana.
    Archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein recorded in 1880s that the easternmost tributary of Ghaggar was still known as Sarsuti at that time, which he said was a corruption of the name over a period of time. Richard Dixon Oldham, an officer of the Geological Survey of India, suggested around the same time that geological changes and tectonic movement were responsible for the Saraswati changing course and finally drying up. He suggested that Sutlej and Yamuna were tributaries of Ghaggar-Hakra. Geological changes diverted Sutlej towards the Indus and Yamuna towards the Ganga. As a result, Saraswati did not have enough water to reach the Arabian Sea and it dried up in the Thar Desert that extends from Rajasthan into some portions of Haryana, Punjab and the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat.
    What science offers, and the critique
    Research conducted by various institutions, including the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO), has suggested the course of the Saraswati. Satellite images have unearthed the hidden course of what could be the Saraswati river below the sands of Thar Desert in Rajasthan. As per an ISRO report, the mapped course of the river is 4-10 km wide, passing through Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat, confirming the findings of Oldham.
    Geological studies carried out to ascertain the existence of a palaeo-channel — remnant of an inactive river or stream channel that has been either filled or buried by younger sediment — in the north-western alluvial plains by the Department of Geology, Kurukshetra University, highlight the presence of a river system in the area demarcated for excavation.
    Prof Dr AR Chaudhri, chairman, KU’s Department of Geology, says studies have indicated that Saraswati boosted the development of Vedic civilisation. “The sedimentological characteristics of the alluvium in Kalayat and palaeo-riverbed near Kurukshetra point to the presence of a trans-Himalayan river system. The channel, which is being excavated in Bilaspur area of Yamunanagar district, is along the palaeo-path of the erstwhile river which has been identified as per the official revenue record of British era,” he says. 
    Saraswati, it is believed, got lost due to tectonic movement. “Satellite images obtained from ISRO prove palaeo-channels of the lost river still exist below the ground,” says Darshan Lal Jain, president, Saraswati Nadi Shodh Sansthan, who’s been advocating the revival of the Saraswati since 1999.
    Those claiming that Saraswati is no more a myth cite research in the fields of archaeology, geology, hydrology, glaciology, remote sensing and ground water technology. Even revenue records with entries that mention the Saraswati are given as evidence.
    In revenue records, Saraswati travels from Adi Badri of Yamunanagar district to Pehowa in Kurukshetra district. Along this site are several historical temples. One such place believed to be the dry basin of Saraswati is where Lord Krishna is said to have delivered preachings of the Gita. It is believed that the battle of Mahabharata was also fought on the dry bed of Saraswati river.
    There is a folklore associated with this site. Wherever the river flows, there are shamshan ghats (cremation grounds) on the embankment. The locals do not go to Haridwar for immersion of ashes in the Ganga. They treat Saraswati as an equally holy river and immerse the ashes in the open fields, believing that the river flows there. “When we were young, the water (believed to be of Saraswati) flowed in our village. After the cremation, the villagers would immerse the ashes in the water of the river,” claims Ram Narain of Rohlaheri village.
    However, there are historians who say the Saraswati might not have been a mighty perennial river. They say remote-sensing and satellite imagery of palaeo (past) channels begin in the north, move towards Rajasthan and then get lost. There is hardly any proof, they claim, of these images being that of the Saraswati. They also point out how remote-sensing does not reveal the antiquity of the images, is not capable of dating and is ineffective on moist soil. 
    Looking back, ahead
    GN Srivastva, Superintending Archaeologist, Chandigarh circle, has collected samples of pebbles and earthen pottery from Mughalwali. “The earthenware is of the Rajputana period from the eighth to the 12th century. The Saraswati river passage found in Yamunanagar and Kurukshetra has links to Prachi-Saraswati of Pehowa (Kurukshetra),” he says. “The Prachi-Saraswati river is mentioned in the stone inscription of the time of King Bhoj of Pratihar dynasty, ruling in the 9th century AD.”
    A report of the Central Ground Water Board for Yamunanagar prepared in 2007 says the three blocks of Bilaspur, Mustafabad and Radaur have moved in the category of dark zone due to over-exploitation of underground water and mismanagement of ground water. The report recommends construction of a reservoir in the Kandi belt to enhance ground water and underground water quality and quantity.
    Several agencies are involved in the Saraswati project and the Haryana government has hired the Water and Power Consultancy Services (India) Limited (WAPCOS) to prepare a detailed project report for revival of the river. Other agencies to be involved include the United Nations Development Programme, NABARD and Asian Development Bank. 
    Director (Exploration), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Dr NK Verma, has also helped in narrowing down the location for drilling of deep borewells for tapping of the Saraswati river palaeo-channels. The ONGC has committed to carry out drilling of deep borewells in the “Saraswati river course”.
    Deputy Commissioner Dr SS Phulia says the “ONGC has identified three points in Yamunanagar district and one each in Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Fatehabad districts to install tubewells in the Saraswati river course”.
    So, it is the fabled Saraswati? It is not a no. It’s not a convincing yes either.
    COUNTING THE GAINS OF RIVER REVIVAL PROJECT
    • Yamunanagar Deputy Commissioner Dr SS Phulia claims the excavation will help in preventing flooding in the area. He says crores are spent on flood protection works on the Somb river every year.
    • The project, he says, will help in reclaiming thousands of acres of land that is rendered unusable during monsoons. The administration has associated the revival of Saraswati with construction of a dam, artificial reservoir and channelising untamed drains during monsoons, he adds.
    • The reservoir to harness rainwater is expected to be more than double the size of Sukhna Lake at Chandigarh. 
    • A recreational water park, botanical garden and zoo will also be constructed. The Chief Minister has announced an express highway along the Saraswati Revival Project which will start from Kalka (Panchkula) and run up to Kalesar (Yamunanagar).
    • A temple of Goddess Saraswati is proposed on the embankment of the reservoir. A historical gurdwara (Rampur Kamboyan) already exists. But the work regarding the construction of the dam and the reservoir will start only after project reports. The project is expected to be executed in two years.
    LOTS TO SAY ABOUT THE RIVER
    • Rigveda calls Saraswati the seventh river of the Sindhu-Saraswati river system, hence the name Saptsindhu for the region bound by rivers: Saraswati in east, Sindhu (Indus) in west.
    • Ancient texts say the Saraswati springs from Himalayan glaciers in Har-ki-dun in Uttarakhand and emerges at Adi Badri, 30 km north of Jagadhri (Haryana), through the foothills of Shivalik ranges. About 5,000 years ago, it traversed 1,600 km, through Himachal, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
    • Around 3,500 years ago, tectonic changes caused river migration and its desiccation.
    • Modern quest for the Saraswati began in the 1970s when American satellite images showed traces of water channels in northern and western India that had disappeared long ago.  
    • The finding of Saraswati river disproves the Aryan invasion theory, which states that Aryans who originally lived in central Asia migrated to India in around 1,500 BC attacking the local Dravidians and moving them south. 
    • Saraswati Heritage Project was started in 2002 by NDA. It was dropped by the UPA after a parliamentary panel termed it an unscientific quest.
    • CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, former panel head, said the project’s justification was mythological, not archaeological.
    • Some believe monsoon-fed Ghaggar-Hakra river, which flows through northwest India before entering Pakistan, is a remnant of the Saraswati.
    Unearthing the Saraswati mystery
    Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who’s sanctioned Rs 50 crore for the river revival project, says after completion of the excavation work, there would be a flowing Saraswati.

    Adi Badri, where it is believed the Saraswati river emerges from the Himalayan glaciers.
    Haryana claims the water that surfaced at Mughalwali is of Saraswati river. Is it?
    ‘Saraswati course’ and Haryana’s excavation planHaryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who’s sanctioned Rs 50 crore for the river revival project, says after completion of the excavation work, there would be a flowing Saraswati.

    http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/sunday-special/perspective/unearthing-the-saraswati-mystery/81447.html

    Hathnikund Barrage Circle, Jagadhri
    Flood Damage Report 2012

    1. Water Services Division, Jagadhri:-
    District Yamuna Nagar is surrounded by various rivers/rivulets/natural drains which are the major cause for damages and loss during floods. These rivers/rivulets are intermittent in nature with 03 to 04 months of running period during monsoons. The rivers like Somb and Pathrala originate from the Shivalik foot hills near the state boundary of Haryana and Himanchal
    Pradesh. These rivers are flashy in nature due to steep gradient and the discharge during floods run with very high velocity. This year before the commencement of monsoons various flood protection schemes were taken up along the River-Yamuna, Somb, Pathrala. Unfortunately due to limited availability of stone boulder and the Thermal Plant Jagadhri/Panipat being the solitary supplier of the stone (Coal residue) few works could be executed at site. The behavior of rivers was closely observed and found that due to heavy siltation of river bed the discharge carrying capacity of the rivers has drastically reduced and even with the very low discharge the water spills in to the adjoining abadi and fields. Although the flood protection works have been
    successful in averting the floods at the critical points but still various sites where the protection work could not be taken up due to paucity of funds and short availability of stone boulder due to ban on mining, temporary protection works by placing earth filled E.C. bags in M.S Wire crates had been executed to avoid any damage to the life and property of the villagers.

    The district Yamuna Nagar topographically situated near foot hills of Shivalik Range, Sadhura and Chhhachhrauli Blocks are the worst effected during the flood season. The rivulets originating from the foot hills are activated with even light to moderate rainfall in the mountainous catchment and due to steep gradient these creeks flow with high velocity nearly smashing anything falling in its way, The peak discharge in these intermitten rivulets remains for 3-4 hours before it starts to recede. The Naggal Nallah, Khillanwali Khol, Chicken Khol are some problematic rivulets affecting the adjoining village population/fields to a large extent. This office had been taking immediate temporary protective measures to counter the flash floods in these rivers/rivulets.

    During July where were hardly any rains in the catchment areas of river Yamuna and no floods were received.

    However during first week of July on 07.07.2012 a flash flood were received in river Somb in which approximately 20000 Cs. discharge flowed for 3-4 hours and damaged toe of some old bunds which were immediately controlled/repaired. Site was inspected on 09.07.12 and  damages were seem and directions to repair the damages were issued. Moreover it was reported
    in press that 4-5 cars were washed away in Himachal Pardesh leading to some deaths. 2 dead bodies were recovered in villages -Bhamnauli and Khanuwala. Again on 23.07.12 flash flood in rivers Somb and Pathrala were observed which caused no damaged and passed safely. On 28.07.12 a flash in river-Yamuna to the tune of 47134 Cs. and 54712 Cs. was received at 10:00 Am and 2:00 P.M respectively for an hour only and passed safely. However w.e.f. 30.07.12
    discharge in river-Yamuna started rising and on 30.07.12 it rose to 59826 Cs. at 7:00 PM and passed of safely. However no major damages occured and all the flood protection measures behaved efficiently. On the night of 11.08.12 and the morning of 12.08.12, the flood in river Somb and Pathrala was received, which scoured the pirthipur bund and the toe of old Muzafat
    bund. The site was immediately got inspected for assessment of flood damages and protective measures to be done. Nearly 20,000 cusecs of discharge was again received in river Somb, Pathrala and Sadhaura each on the morning of 25.08.12. However no damages were reported and
    the flood receded safely. But due to regular moderate to heavy rainfall deep potholes developed in the earthen embankments along river Somb, Pathrala and Sadhaura.

    A session of heavy rain beginning from 02.09.12 till 04.09.12 resulted flash flood in rivers Somb, Pathrala, Sadhaura and Markanda. The flood caused damages to villages Gadwali, Alisherpur, Ramgarh, Lopon on river Somb; Jaitpur, Nagla, Rajpur, Arjun Majra, Kotra Kahan Singh on river Pathrala; Laharpur Doomawala on river Markanda and Sultanpur, Kalyanpur on
    river Sadhaura. 

    In River Yamuna discharge started rising on 03.08.12 when discharge of approximately 50837 Cs. was received at 7:00 PM after increasing and decreasing the maximum discharge received was 98.360 Cs. at 3:00 PM on 04.08.2012. Further during the month of August discharge varied from 20, 000 to 70,000 Cs. On 25.08.2012 discharge rose to 94272 Cs. at 9:00 PM and subsided to 75120 Cs. at 10:00 PM. No significant damage was observed along RiverYamuna during this period. However in some villages such as Lapra, Bhogpur Bibipur Heavy land erosion occurred where some temporary protection works with earth filled E.C Bags in to M.S. Wire crates in the shape of spur revetment have been executed. In Belgarh the 18th and 19th
    CC stud launched due to direct hit of river Yamuna, In Kanyawala the scouring of bank occurred upstream side of the newly constructed studs. Similarly earth filled E.C bags in M.S wire crates spur were constructed where ever the permanent/pacca works could not be constructed due to paucity of funds and non availability of stone boulders.

    Drains of Distt. have been got cleared by deployment of JCB machines and labour departmentally. All the drains functioned well and there is no problem of flooding. In few village  abadis such Rajpur, Khera Haibatpur & Bamnauli & Lakshibas etc, water was accumulated which was/is being dewatered on the request of Distt. Administration by deployment of departmental pumps. The 08 nos. D.P sets were deployed for dewatering in villages Bamnauli, Rajpur, Haibatpur, Sadhaura, Lakshibas and Mali Majra during the months of August and September.

    The flood water in drains like Raksh Nadi, Chutang Nalla and Saraswati Nadi was passed through safely and no damages were reported.

    2. H.K.B Division No.1, Jagadhri:- 4 No Flood protection work were executed in this division during the year 2012: 

    1. Constructing 500 mtr. Steining for protection to Village-Gumthala on River-Yamuna.
    2. Constructing 290 mtr. Steining for protection to Village-Karera Lal Chhaper on River-Yamuna.
    3. Constructing 4 No. Stone stud and 1805 feat steining apposite Vill-Karera Lal Chhaper on River-Yamuna.
    4. Constructing 4 No. Stone stud and 650 feat steining for protection to Vill-Kalanaur on River-Yamuna.

    As regard flood protection works at Gumthala a discharge of 98000 Cs. has been passed in river Yamuna on dated.04.08.2012 and the flood protection works sustained properly without any damage but the apposite bank of River-Yamuna has been eroded/scoured and river width increased by 80 to 100 mtrs. Approximately.

    So far as protection works at Karera Lal Chhaper and Kalanaur, these have also been sustained properly without any damage.

    3. Water Services Division, Dadupur:- There is no flood received during the year 2012 hence the flood report for the year 2012 may kindly be considered Nil so far as concerned with this Division.

    4. Construction Division No.14, Kurukshetra:- There is no flood received during the year 2012 hence the flood report for the year 2012 may kindly be considered Nil so far as concerned with this Division.

    Superintending Engineer,
    Hathnikund Barrage Circle,
    Jagadhri.
    http://hid.gov.in/Flood%20Report/HKB_Jagadhri.pdf
    See: http://yamunanagar.nic.in/ynr/dwd/flood/S&P.pdf
    See: https://www.academia.edu/9339359/River_Saraswati_in_Northwest_India_CHAPTER_-1 River Saraswati in Northwest India by Bidyut Bhadra

    Mini Naadam festival, Mongolia. NaMo tries archery. NaMo, celebrate Hindumahasagar Parivaar.

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    Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Community Reception in Mongolia (29:40)
    1. I was seeing the Surya Namaskar. I saw people from all age groups were doing it & spreading the message of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: PM
      1. Had I not come here and met you all, perhaps this trip would be incomplete: PM

    Mongolia - Naadam 2013 - Program

    Naadam festival, (11-13 July 2013), is the happiest time in Mongolia. It is also the peak of the tourist season. In Mongolian Naadam is known as "eriin gurvan naadam" (эрийн гурван наадам), meaning - the 3 games of men. The 3 games are horse racing, archery and Mongolian wrestling. Some call it the Nomadic Olympic Games. These games have existed for centuries and incorporate warrior skills.

    Video - news item in English describing the Mongolian Naadam wrestling.  






    The festival is performed throughout the country. The central ceremonies and competitions are held in Ulaanbaatar.
    This year (2013) in UB there will be 512 wrestlers competing in 10 rounds, 420  of them hold a state title. Horses in six age categories will be dashing across the Khui Doloon Khudag horse racing fields.

    All national events will take place in the city (Ulan Bator), except for the horse racing, which will take place in the Khui Doloon Khudag horse racing fields (west of Ulaanbaatar on the main road leading to Lun see map)

    http://tomongolia.blogspot.in/2013/06/2013-naadam-events-ulaanbaatar-and.html



    On his one-day visit to Mongolia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended Mini-Naadam festival. He wore the country's traditional dress and also tried his hands at archery. Modi, who's the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Mongolia, also addressed Parliament.


    PM witnesses Mongolia's famous Naadam festival

    Modi, dressed in traditional Mongolian attire and sporting a hat, attended the festival with Premier Chimed Saikhanbileg
    Prime Minister Narendra Modi today witnessed horse racing, traditional wrestling and archery at a mini Naadam festival here, taking time off from his hectic schedule.

    Modi, dressed in traditional Mongolian attire and sporting a hat, attended the festival with Premier Chimed Saikhanbileg.

    Prime Minister Modi drove to an open area in Chinggis Khuree near the airport here and spent about an hour watching horse racing, traditional wrestling and archery.

    He also tried his hand at archery.

    The Naadam festival is also locally termed "eriin gurvan naadam" (the three games of men). The games are Mongolian wrestling, horse racing and archery and are held throughout the country during midsummer.

    Women have started participating in the archery and girls in the horse-racing games, but not in Mongolian wrestling.

    In 2010, Naadam was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO.



    LIVE: PM Narendra Modi attends mini Naadam festival in Mongolia, tries ...
    Not to be outdone, Mongolian PM Saikhanbileg also takes aim

    Энэтхэгийн Ерөнхий Сайд - тай анх удаа сэлфидэв. My first selfie with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    AAP govt insulting northeast people: Rijiju

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    AAP govt insulting northeast people: Rijiju

    People of northeast hurt: Rijiju on Gamlin issue
    People of northeast hurt: Rijiju on Gamlin issue
    NEW DELHI: The war of words over appointment of Delhi's acting chief secretary on Sunday continued with Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju accusing the AAP government of indulging in character assassination of a lady IAS officer from the northeast and "disobeying" the Constitution.

    Accusing the AAP of insulting the people of Delhi, the Minister said the officer's appointment was made by the LG as per rules and the Delhi government was making allegations against her without any proof.

    "This is nothing but character assassination of a lady IAS officer from the northeast. They are saying she is incapable. What are the charges against her.If she is involved in any corruption, bring charges against her.By making public statements against her, they are just indulging in character assassination, it is an insult to the people of northeast," he told PTI here.

    READ ALSO: Gamlin takes charge ignoring CM

    Rijiju's comments came in the wake of the controversy over Arvind Kejriwal government's opposition to the appointment of Shakuntala Doley Gamlin as acting chief secretary of Delhi by Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung.

    Gamlin hails from Assam. The minister said the officer's appointment was made by the LG as per the rules and the Delhi government was making allegations against her without any proof.

    "What are charges against her. If you have proof, show it," he said.

    Rijiju charged that the AAP government was trying to violate rules and disobeying the Constitution by questioning the authority of the LG.

    He asked whether the city government was trying to bring anarchy in Delhi.

    READ ALSO: LG names acting chief secretary, Delhi CM attacks 'unconstitutional' order

    The Minister strongly criticised the AAP's charge that the Centre was attempting a "coup" in Delhi and questioned use of "undemocratic words" like coup.

    Making it clear the national capital is just a Union Territory, he said its government cannot be equated with any other state government as the LG enjoys special power and the state government has limited powers as per Constitution.

    "You keep saying that you are an elected government. But you must understand that the three municipal corporations in Delhi are also elected bodies.The central government is also elected by the people. All work under the Constitution and follow rules.
    "Merely because you are an elected government does not mean that you have overriding powers and work against rules and the Constitution," Rijiju, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh, said.
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/AAP-govt-insulting-northeast-people-Rijiju/articleshow/47315558.cms

    Kaalaadhan: Black Money and imposition of tax bill, 2014: Ram Jethmalani's speech in Rajya Sabha (17:31)

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    Discussion on The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Bill, 2015.

    Date: May 13, 2015 | Rajya Sabha Budget Session - 235


    Blacked out letters of Finance Ministry given to me by SIT - Do we really want our money back? Read:

    'I am ashamed of Centre, BJP leadership on black money'

    Ram Jethmalani, May 11, 2015

    My battle for the restoration of black money illegally siphoned off abroad, estimated to be around US $ 1,500 billion, equivalent to Rs 90 lakh crore, back to our country arises out of absolute moral compulsion.

    I believe it would be a betrayal of the Indian nation if I do not persist with it, even though it has become more and more a lone battle. Undoubtedly, the promise to repatriate this money was made to the nation throughout the election campaign, and was substantially responsible for the BJP’s grand election victory and enhancement of Narendra Modi’s stature as prime minister.
    The “black money” case, and the Supreme Court judgment of July 4, 2011, resulted from a petition filed by me and other distinguished citizens of India in April, 2009. Two reasons compelled me to launch this unusual litigation. First, as a lawyer of some standing, I knew that Indian wealth was being siphoned out of India and concealed in various forms in countries such as Switzerland, Cayman Islands, Mauritius, Singapore and Hong Kong, which allow their banks to enforce ‘Customer Confidentiality’ regulations and practices. These countries were known as tax havens, contributing to the poverty of several nations.

    Surprisingly, however, the finance minister replied to a Rajya Sabha question on July 17, 2014 that, “The government has not identified any country as tax haven.”  Unchecked tax havens were becoming a serious, scandalous international issue. In December 2004, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) was finalised and it detailed articles regarding preventive measures and criminalisation and law enforcement.

    As a practitioner of law and an active MP, I had kept myself in touch with the progress of this convention. India signed this convention in 2005, but no UN Convention becomes final until it is ratified by the State. The UPA government ratified this Convention in 2011, after my fierce criticism, just a few weeks before the Supreme Court judgment in my case was expected.

    The second reason for my action arose out of a remarkable job done by the German government, which in 2008, had, by bribing an ex-employee of Liechtenstein Bank, obtained a DVD containing data of 1,400 clients of the Bank who were using this Alpine tax haven to plunder money from their own countries. On February 26, 2008, the German finance ministry spokesman Thorsten Albig publicly announced that the German government would be willingly to share the information at no cost, if any country asks for it. I was stunned that neither the UPA government asked for the information, nor did the Opposition leaders agitate for it. 

    The tragedy of Indian leadership was lamented both by Admiral Tahiliani, President of the Indian chapter of Transparency International based in Germany, and Professor Vaidyanathan of IIM-Bangalore, an expert on the subject. I also learnt from the press that the US government made use of the German offer and levied a penalty of US$ 800 million on the UBS Bank Switzerland, in addition to the bank disclosing secret accounts of 300 Americans.

    Though I always suspected that the UPA government was sabotaging every move regarding the repatriation of black money from abroad, for shielding the corrupt within itself, why was the BJP totally silent when it should have been proactive? All I can say is that I am ashamed of both the Government of India, and leading BJP politicians, many of whom were dreaming of becoming the future prime minister of India. The only politician who showed serious concern about this issue was Narendra Bhai, and after that, I supported him to the hilt.

    FM responsible

    The Supreme Court delivered its judgment on July 4, 2011, and in addition to its findings and directions, it held the finance minister completely responsible for creating an appropriate infrastructure and other facilities for proper and effective functioning of the Special Investigation Team, immediately.

    As a petitioner before the Supreme Court in this matter, I have asked the FM several questions regarding his obligations under the judgment of the SC – all of which are on my Facebook page – mainly, why he was persisting with his predecessor’s ruse of invoking the amended ‘Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty’ (DTAT), that apply only to legitimate businesses which according to laws of more than one state are liable to pay tax on the same income, and not the United Nations Convention, which was specifically drafted for obtaining information about money launderers. More so, since under the amended DTAT, only prospective information can be asked for, and not information prior to signing of the treaty.

    I also asked why we had not availed of the German offer to share information about the 1,400 Liechtenstein Bank account holders, (this disclosure has nothing to do with the double taxation avoidance treaties), especially since the USA has used this information and collected huge penalties from a bank and the disclosure of more names as part of the punishment. 

    I must also inform readers that after the SC ordered that the correspondence between the Government of India and Germany about the Liechtenstein Bank names be disclosed, 17 letters were disclosed by Solicitor General to the Supreme Court, in which names of the authors and addresses in incoming and outgoing correspondence were blacked out in an irretrievable manner. I’m not aware of any action being taken or any interrogation to discover who the forgers were.

    Unfortunately, I have received no reply from anyone in the government on any of my questions. I can only recall the outrageous, supercilious statement made by Amit Shah, BJP president, during the ill-fated Delhi elections that the promise to repatriate black money was a mere election ‘jumla’. No one has contradicted this statement yet. So, my fight goes on.

    (The writer is Senior Advocate, Supreme Court and Member, Rajya Sabha)
    http://www.deccanherald.com/content/476815/i-am-ashamed-centre-bjp.html


    I will put the copy of these Annexures shortly.

    Blacked out letters of Finance Ministry given to me by SIT - Did we really want our money back?
    Annexure 1, The Confusion and Obfuscation begins - letter of Joint Secretary, (FT&TR -1)February 2008, name blacked out, intentionally confuses and links Liechtenstein Bank accounts not with money launderers but with tax payers.
    Annexures 3, 4, 9, 10 - The Confusion and Obfuscation continues: Letters of Joint Secretary, (FT&TR -1) name blacked out, clearly states that information is required under the Double Taxation Convention, that deals only with legitimate businesses which according to laws of more than one State are liable to pay tax on the same income, and not illegal money laundered abroad. United Nations Convention against Corruption, specially drafted for addressing criminal money launderers completely abandoned. Only prospective information can be asked for, and not information prior to signing of the treaty.
    Annexure 14 - Reward for delay and obfuscation. Letter from Revenue Secretary to Indian Ambassador to Germany dated February 12, 2009. Names blacked out, but did the name blackers think no one can find out who they are? Indian Ambassador rewarded for delay, and obfuscation. Goes as US Ambassador in April 2009
    Annexure 15, The Murderer's Slip: e mail address of Joint Secretary escapes black out. She was appointed Chairman CBDT, by NDA Govt in November 2014, and remains member of SIT. Draw your own conclusions.
    Annexure 16, Data to be handed over in Bonn !! Why? No paper trail should be available in Delhi?

    Land Compensation Bill should be declared Money Bill to end the looming Lok Sabha - Rajya Sabha confrontation and mis-application of power of the purse

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    This note is a suggestion that the The right to fair compensation and transparency in land acquisition Bill, 2015 (hereinafter called "Land Compensation Bill"passed by the Lok Sabha should be declared a Money Bill with the approval of the President and the Speaker of Lok Sabha.

    The suggestion is to end the ongoing confrontation between two wings of Parliament should END as soon as possible so as not to derail the process of Swarajyam won in May 2014.

    This will eliminate the logjam and needless confrontation between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha which are supreme bodies to whom the people of India, that is Bharat, have given the powers to legislate and enforce the Rule of Law

    Recently, after Swarajyam achieved in May 2014 which resulted in the installation of NaMo Government at the Centre with absolute majority, Rajya Sabha has been stalling the passing of the "Land Compensation Bill" to ratify the Ordinance which is titled: The right to fair compensation and transparency in land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 No. 4 of 2015 promulgated by the President in the Sixth-sixth Year of the Republic of India.(Ref. http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/Land%20and%20R%20and%20R/larr%202nd%20ordinance.pdf) The Ordinance seeks to amend the identically worded Act, 2013 which was promulgated on 31 December 2014.

    It is clear that the "Land Compensation Bill"  for which NaMo government seeks the approval of Parliament is a Money Bill. 

    That the related Ordinance is also in the nature of a Money Bill will be explained further in this note.

    The enactment of this Ordinance into the statue books, through an Act is being stalled in the Rajya Sabha by parties opposed to the proposal which has received overwhelming approval by the majority of members of Lok Sabha. 

    The looming Lok Sabha - Rajya Sabha confrontation is related to the power of the purse.

    This process of derailment of Lok Sabha approval of the Land Compensation Bill is sought to be done through exercise of what may be called "the power of the purse". This power of the purse is to manipulate and control the actions of executive, by withholding funding, or putting stipulations on the use of funds. 

    This power of the purse has been invoked by the members in Rajya Sabha opposed to the new NDA Government of NaMo whose party BJP has absolute majority in the Lok Sabha.

    This constitutes mis-application of the power of the purse by disgruntled defeated forces of the erstwhile UPA governance which continues to have majority representation in Rajya Sabha. 

    The opposing groups in Rajya Sabha do not have direct executive power, but seek to exercise control over what is essentially a Money Bill and has the detrimental effect of stalling development which was the mandate on which NDA Government led by NaMo assumed power through Swarjyam 2014.

    Money Bills. The definition of Money Bills is NOT restricted to only bills which provide for imposition or abolition of taxes. The term 'Money Bill' also extends to bills for appropriation of moneys out of the Consolidated Fund.  Since land as a resource is a major monetary component of any project which involves expenditure out of the Consolidated Fund, any Bill which deals with the payment of 'FAIR COMPENSATION' for land acquisition should be treated as a Money Bill.

    Money Bills can be introduced only in Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha cannot make amendments in a Money Bill passed by Lok Sabha and transmitted to it. It can, however, recommend amendments in a Money Bill, but must return all Money Bills to Lok Sabha within fourteen days from the date of their receipt. It is open to Lok Sabha to accept or reject any or all of the recommendations of Rajya Sabha with regard to a Money Bill. 

    If Lok Sabha accepts any of the recommendations of Rajya Sabha, the Money Bill is deemed to have been passed by both Houses with amendments recommended by Rajya Sabha and accepted by Lok Sabha and if Lok Sabha does not accept any of the recommendations of Rajya Sabha, Money Bill is deemed to have been passed by both Houses in the form in which it was passed by Lok Sabha without any of the amendments recommended by Rajya Sabha. 

    If a Money Bill passed by Lok Sabha and transmitted to Rajya Sabha for its recommendations is not returned to Lok Sabha within the said period of fourteen days, it is deemed to have been passed by both Houses at the expiration of the said period in the form in which it was passed by Lok Sabha.

    http://www.parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/intro/p5.htm

    The proposal made in this note is consistent with practices of the Westminster system, where a money bill or supply bill is a bill that concerns taxation and also government spending as opposed to changes in public law.

    In the United Kingdom, section 1(1) of the Parliament Act 1911 Section 1(2) of the Act states:
    A Money Bill means a Public Bill which in the opinion of the Speaker of the House of Commons contains only provisions dealing with all or any of the following subjects, namely, the imposition, repeal, remission, alteration, or regulation of taxation; the imposition for the payment of debt or other financial purposes of charges on the Consolidated Fund, the National Loans Fund or on money provided by Parliament, or the variation or repeal of any such charges; supply; the appropriation, receipt, custody, issue or audit of accounts of public money; the raising or guarantee of any loan or the repayment thereof; or subordinate matters incidental to those subjects or any of them. In this subsection the expressions "taxation,""public money," and "loan" respectively do not include any taxation, money, or loan raised by local authorities or bodies for local purposes.

    The definition of "Money Bill" is given in the Article 110 of the Constitution of India. A financial bill is not a Money Bill unless it fulfills the requirements of the Article 110. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha certifies if a Finance bill is a Money Bill or not.

    A money bill can only be introduced in parliament with prior permission by the president of India.

    That the definition of Money Bill given in Article 110 of the Constitution of India is in line with Section 1(2) of the UK Act may be seen from the Article which reads as follows:

    Article 110 in The Constitution Of India 

    110. Definition of Money Bill
    (1) For the purposes of this Chapter, a Bill shall be deemed to be a Money Bill if it contains only provisions dealing with all or any of the following matters, namely
    (a) the imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax;
    (b) the regulation of the borrowing of money or the giving of any guarantee by the Government of India, or the amendment of the law with respect to any financial obligations undertaken or to be undertaken by the Government of India;
    (c) the custody of the consolidated Fund or the Contingency Fund of India, the payment of moneys into or the withdrawal of moneys from any such Fund;
    (d) the appropriation of moneys out of the consolidated Fund of India;
    (e) the declaring of any expenditure to be expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund of India or the increasing of the amount of any such expenditure;
    (f) the receipt of money on account of the Consolidated Fund of India or the public account of India or the custody or issue of such money or the audit of the accounts of the Union or of a State; or
    (g) any matter incidental to any of the matters specified in sub clause (a) to (f)
    (2) A Bill shall not be deemed to be a Money Bill by reason only that it provides for the imposition of fines or other pecuniary penalties, or for the demand or payment of fees for licences or fees for services rendered, or by reason that it provides for the imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax by any local authority or body for local purposes
    (3) If any question arises whether a Bill is a Money Bill or not, the decision of the Speaker of the House of the People thereon shall be final
    (4) There shall be endorsed on every Money Bill when it is transmitted to the Council of States under Article 109, and when it is presented to the President for assent under Article 111, the certificate of the Speaker of the House of the People signed by him that it is a Money Bill.

    S. Kalyanaraman
    Sarasvati Research Centre

    May 17, 2015

    Bhumi Puja vidhanam; Dharma-dhamma rashtram: Bharatam, Mongolia

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    Thought I must share this- saw many similarities in how we perform our 'Bhumi Pujan'& the ceremony here.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmPgq9mwPtgPublished on May 16, 2015 (3:07)
    The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi unveiling foundation stone of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Centre of Excellence in IT, Comm. & Outsourcing, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on May 17, 2015.


    NaMo makes an insightful observation.

    Yes, Sanatana Dharma binds pratices in Bharatam and Mongolia -- the Dharma-Dhamma rashtram.

    Kalyanaraman

    Catastrophic events of Gondwana land 252 million years ago, Himalayan signatures in Spiti valley

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    Catastrophic environmental transition at the Permian-Triassic Neo-Tethyan margin of Gondwanaland: Geochemical, isotopic and sedimentological evidence in the Spiti Valley, India

    That mother of all extinctions

    - Millions of years ago, an Indian valley in the Himalaya felt repercussions of events that wiped out most species
    A section of mountains in the Spiti Valley that the geologists surveyed. The arrow points to rocks that bear signatures of catastrophic events that happened  252 million years ago. Picture courtesy: Arundeep Ahluwalia, Panjab University, Chandigarh 
    New Delhi, May 17: Close on the heels of the Himalayan earthquakes that have ravaged Nepal has come a reminder that the rocks that make up the mountains once lay beneath

    Scientists have found in India's Spiti Valley fresh geochemical signatures of a catastrophic event that wiped out over 80 per cent of species on earth about 252 million years ago.

    Spiti Valley is located in the Himalaya in the northeast of Himachal Pradesh and was described by a geologist as "a museum with pages of earth's history".

    Indian and American geologists who explored Spiti's desert mountain terrain have studied fossils and chemical elements embedded in ancient rocks that they say corroborate suggestions made earlier that multiple upheavals with global impacts may have caused the mass extinction.

    Scientists have known for decades that the planet lost 90 per cent of its marine species and 70 per cent of its terrestrial species in a relatively short period of time sandwiched between what geologists call the Permian (P) and the Triassic (Tr) eras.

    This so-called PTr extinction was the most devastating of the five mass extinctions in the planet's history, the last one occurring about 65 million years ago and linked to the end of the dinosaurs.

    "The rocks in Spiti provide us the first detailed evidence from India for the abrupt and catastrophic environmental changes during the PTr extinction event," said Asish Basu, a professor of geological sciences from the University of Rochester in the US who was part of the study team.

    Basu and his colleagues have just published their findings in the journal Gondwana Research.

    "Most evidence for the PTr extinction has come from the northern hemisphere lands -the signatures from Spiti are important because they come from a time when India was part of Gondwanaland, located far south of the equator," said Nilotpal Ghosh, a geochemist at the University of Rochester and the first author of the study. "They help establish the global nature of the PTr event."
    Previous evidence for the PTr extinction came from studies on fossils and rocks in the Canadian Arctic, the southern Alps and China among other sites scattered across the world. Palaeontologists have long documented that fossils abundant in the late Permian went missing in the early Triassic.
    "Many ideas had been proposed to explain this extinction - prolonged volcanic eruptions in Siberia, a large asteroid falling in Brazil, and rapid sea-level changes," said research team member Arundeep Ahluwalia, a professor of geology at Panjab University, Chandigarh.

    "For geologists, Spiti is a museum with pages of the earth's history," Ahluwalia told The Telegraph.

    The scientists, funded by the Indian and American governments, conducted an expedition in 2009, driving and trekking across Spiti Valley over several weeks and studying rocks that had earlier been recognised as dating from the PTr boundary period.

    At several sites, they observed a rapid drop in carbon isotope ratios in a thin layer of rock that appeared associated with the main pulse of Siberian volcanic eruptions that would have released large volumes of isotopically lighter, carbon-enriched carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

    The geo-chemical changes the team observed in Spiti could also have been triggered by what some scientists had earlier proposed as the trigger for the PTr extinction: a giant meteorite crash at a site called Araguainha in Brazil.
    Two years ago, Eric Tohver, a geologist at the University of Western Australia, and his colleagues had calculated that the Araguainha asteroid may have hit the earth hard enough to trigger thousands of earthquakes of magnitudes 9.9 - more powerful than any ever recorded by seismologists.

    The impact, scientists believe, could also have released an explosion of methane into the atmosphere, leading to global warming and killing marine and terrestrial species. The rocks in Spiti show chemical residues that would be expected under a methane-laced atmosphere.

    "We also see evidence of changes in marine geochemistry and rapid changes in sea levels," said Uma Kant Shukla, a geologist at Banaras Hindu University.
    At the PTr boundary, he said, the rocks in Spiti were under an ancient ocean but were later brought up by the rise of the Himalaya.

    Basu and his colleagues have suggested that the catastrophic conditions that contributed to the PTr extinction could have been "simultaneously triggered" by the after-effects of the Siberian volcanic eruptions and the asteroid impact in Brazil.

    "The asteroid hit itself could have intensified the Siberian volcanism," Ahluwalia said.

    A team of US scientists has independently proposed a similar connection between an asteroid impact in Mexico and volcanic eruptions in India's Deccan plateau. Both events occurred about 65 million years ago, spawning rival theories about what led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
    Geologist Mark Richards at the University of California, Berkeley, had calculated that the asteroid that fell in Mexico would have triggered a magnitude 11 earthquake. Richards and his colleagues have now proposed that the Mexico impact may have triggered a much more voluminous eruptive phase.

    "Seismic waves from the impact were likely strong enough to have triggered eruptions from existing volcanoes worldwide, including the Deccan Traps," Richards told this newspaper.

    The precise trigger mechanisms are unclear, he said, but may have involved changes in permeability that would mobilise and facilitate a rapid rise and ascent of magma.
    http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150518/jsp/frontpage/story_20681.jsp#.VVkjbbmqqko

    Civilizational bonds of Hinduised states of the Ancient Far East

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    Civilizational bonds of Hinduised states of the Ancient Far East

    Mirror: https://www.academia.edu/12430339/Civilizational_bonds_of_Hinduised_states_of_the_Ancient_Far_East

    The only instance in World History of peaceful spread of a civilization was recorded in the Ancient Far East. This extraordinary narrative is provided in a scintillating work by a French Epigraphist, George Coedes in a tour de force titled Histoire ancienne desétats hindouises d'Extrême Orient,1944; English trs Hinduised States of Far East.

    The spread of the civilization is a chronicle founded on Dharma-Dhamma gestalt which can interpreted as: structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or metaphysical phenomena. 

    Dharma-Dhamma gestalt finds expression in many cultural facets recorded in many nations along the Indian Ocean Rim. It is an apt recognition of this geographical reality that an Indian Ocean Rim Association was founded in Mauritius on 7 March 1997 and now claims membership of 20 states including Australia, Bangladesh, Comoros, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailans, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. A category of 6 dialogue partners participating in this community are: China, Egypt, France, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. All these 26 states together have participated in the development initiatives of over 2 billion people of the Indian Ocean Community, representing almost one-third of the world population.

    How did the idea of an Indian Ocean Community (IOC) take shape in history?

    As we venture into the mists of pre-history, only snippets of indicators can be gleaned, but there is an over-arching environmental reality exexmplified by three natural phenomena: 1. Plate tectonics resulting in the dynamic Himalayas; 2. Super eruption of Mount Toba; 3. Monsoon Asia. Each of these phenomena have inexorably shaped the cultures of the nations of IOC. 

    Dynamic Himalayas

    Plate tectonics are related to the continental drift with the Indian plate sheared from African landmass and moving at a majestic rate of about 6 cms. every year northwards jutting into the Eurasian Plate and lifting it up like Varaaha resulting the dynamics of growing Himalayas which grow taller by about 1 cm. every year. The presence of the Himalayan ranges meant the accumulation of monsoon waters as snow and ice frozen into glaciers and melting down as some of the largest river systems of the globe: Brahmaputra (Tsangpo), Sindhu, Ganga, Mekong, Irrawaddy, Salween, Huanghe, Yangtse. All these river systems originate from the heights of the Tibetan plateau near Manasarovar and other glacier locations. In cultural terms, the glacier lake is located at the foothills of Mount Kailas which is presided over by Divinity Siva. The abiding metaphor is that of Siva holding the rivers in his locks of hair and releasing the rivers such as Ganga. The veneration of this natural phenomenon gets recorded as worship of Sivalinga to which puja is performed with continuous dripping of water from a pot held above, a prayer form called abhishekam. This is an evocation of the water-giving divinity, the Himalayas. The remarkable feature of the Himalayan dynamics is that since the ranges continue to grow taller due to seismotectonics, the water reservoir held as snow and ice in glaciers of Himalayas continues to grow in the quantity of water available to service the major river systems of the Indian Ocean Community. This natural phenomenon started earlier than a million years ago.

    Toba supereruption and Tin Road of Bronze Age

    The supervolcanic eruption of Mount Toba reportedly occurred ca. 69,000 - 77,000 years ago at the present-day Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia. Linked to the eruption is a theory of a population bottleneck in human evolution. The reality of the eruption is recognized by the archaeologically attested ashfall of over 2800 cubic kilometres of erupted magma which spread all over the IOC region leaving behind a 15 cms. (6 in.) thick volcanic ash crust. This extraordinary natural event also leads to a refinement of a reconstruction of human migrations out of Africa along the Indian Ocean Rim. Clearly, there have been maritime movements of people of IOC with links to the Mediterranean, creating a Tin Road which preceded the famed Silk Road. The world's largest Tin Belt is located in Southeast Asia and accounts for the emergence of the Bronze Age revolution from ca. 5th millennium BCE with the production of tin-bronzes to replace naturally-occurring but scarce arsenical copper.

    Monsoon Asia

    The characteristic feature of monoon Asia which impacts IOC in the agricultural production activities of the IOC nations is that the wind currents flow clock-wise and anti-clockwise from the south and from the north during Summer and Winter months respectively. These clockwise wind currents affect the ocean currents in the tropical belt close to the Equator and result in virtual churning of the oceans, for example, near Ramasetu (between India and Sri Lanka) resulting in the deposition of placer deposits of rare earth minerals including monazite (thorium). Monsoon Asia is a phenomenon which explains the emergence of domestication of rice cultivation in Southeast Asia utilizing the Himalayan glacier waters flowing down rivers such as the Mekong. The monsoon wind currents also have influenced the maritime navigation patterns finally resulting in the discovery of a safe navigable route to connect IOC with the Mediterranean and the Levant in Europe. These seafaring artisans of IOC had established a Tin Road reaching the Tin resources from the world's largest Tin Belt to Europe, thus creating civilizational contacts between the Ancient Far East and the Ancient Near East. The Monsoon Asia together with Plate tectonics explains the history of Tsunamis which have devastated the nations along the Indian Ocean Rim; the most recent recorded tsunami occurred on December 26, 2004 triggered by a plate tectonic earhthquake with epicentre in Aceh, Indonesia.

    Asian Summer Monsoon
    Summer Monsoon
    Asian Winter Monsoon
    Winter monsoon


    These three overwhelming natural phenomena have profoundly influenced the people of IOC in their gestalt which is signified by the veneration of Hindu divinities of Siva, Ganesa and Vishnu and veneration of Bauddham. Both Hindu-Bauddham world-views were governed by the cosmic order of Dharma-Dhamma as a recognition of both cosmic and consciousness phenomena resulting in the formulation of fundamental duties of citizens to support fellow citizens and to overcome the life-travails of sorrow (dukkha) in the quest for recognizing supreme bliss (nihsreyas) and uniting with the divine (paramatman). It is significant that both Dharma-Dhamma define the cosmic order in terms of two impacts: abhyudayam (welfare) and nihsreyas (bliss). This constituted the founding principle for the IOC recognized from centuries earlier (ca. 5th cent. BCE) to the turn of the Common Era as Hinduised States of the Far East. The date of ca. 5th cent. BCE is suggested based on the inscriptions in Samskritam discovered and reported by George Coedes. It is likely that the contacts between ancient India and ancient Far East predated these inscriptions got strengthened during the Bronze Age along the Tin Road which linked Hanoi, Vietnam and Haifa, Israel.

    Possibilities for strengthening IOC Economic Community

    Thanks to the painstaking work of professionals in United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), two projects have been formulated which have the potential to catapult the IOC nations with a phenomenal economic multiplier-effect. The projects are Trans-Asian Highway and Trans-Asian Railway linking Bangkok, Thailand and Vladivostok, Russia. Together with the projects to manage the Himalayan river waters through expanded irrigation projects such as the Mekong Delta Project with mutl-lateral support, the two infrastructure projects can help strengthen the trade bonds among the IOC nations apart from promoting cultural tourism among the nations of IOC.

    The history of the formation of European Community provides the model for the formation of Indian Ocean Community. EC evolved out of two economic groupings called European Coal and Steel Community and European Atomic Energy Community. Similar Communities for facilitating Free Trade can be initiated in IOC. The nations of IOC are endowed with enormous solar energy, located as they are in the tropical zone of the globe. An additional Community of interests relate to the promotion of projects to harness IOC Solar Power. This can be augmented by the support from India of using her thorium reserves to benefit the IOC nations with thorium-based nuclear reactors to meet the energy needs of the IOC nations. With the satellite technologies available, the IOC nations can monitor the hydrological flows and the movements of aquatic resources identifying migrating schools of fish and other aquatic resources. Indian Ocean mineral resources are also an abundant source for opening up new avenues of additional employment generation in IOC nations.

    Overcoming the colonial infirmities to achieve fairshare of world GDP

    Almost all IOC nations have been subjected to colonial imperial domination resulting in the stifling of local initiatives for development. One way to overcome the infirmities caused by the colonial loot of the wealth of IOC nations is to constitute IOC as a Free Trade Zone with free movement of labour force across the national boundaries to undertake new economic, entrepreneurial activities using the local natural resources and the wealth of the alluvial agricultural lands, apart from sharing the ocean resources taking advantage the new Law of the Sea which extends the territorial waters to 200 kms. from the coastline.

    The nations of IOC are endowed with a solid historical, civilizational foundation of Dharma-Dhamma evidenced by the presence of Bauddham in almost all nations of IOC, the largest Vishnu temple of the globe in Angkor Wat, Cambodia and the celebration of Arjuna Wijaya by a magnificent sculptural edifice in front of the Central Bank of Indonesia; celebration of the unifying force of King Rama of Thailand -- an institution which rivals the Royalty of England; celebration of Sita Temple in Sri Lanka and restoration of Siva temple in My Son, Vietnam. The people of IOC have a common gestalt gmitigation of dukkha (sorrow) and suffering.

    Together, IOC nations have a goal to reach, overcoming the infirmities created by the global order of colonial regimes which impoverished all these nations. The goal is to reach a fair share of the world GDP which existed in 1CE (pace Angus Maddison).



    S. Kalyanaraman
    Sarasvati Research Center
    May 18, 2015


    Meluhha hieroglyphs on copper seal of Karandai plates (1053 CE), legacy of Indus script

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    Mirror: https://www.academia.edu/12431925/Meluhha_hieroglyphs_on_copper_seal_of_Karandai_plates_1053_CE_legacy_of_Indus_script

    From the notes of R. Nagasamy (given below), the hieroglyphs identified on Rajendra Chola copper seals of Karandai plates (1053 CE)are: 

    • tiger
    • two fishes
    • bow
    • lamp on stand
    • sword
    • arrow
    • paras'u
    • royal parasol
    • fly-whisk
    • boar
    • svastika
    • cakra
    • lotus

    Since these hieroglyphs appear on copper seals of royalty, it is apparent that the hieroglyphs were deployed by artisans working in mints, metalwork.

    I suggest that most of these hieroglyphs are a recollected continuum of the memory of hieroglyphs used by artisans -- metalcasters, in particular, Bharatam Janam -- of Sarasvati-Sindhu (Hindu) civilization. Based on rebus-metonymy cipher of Indus script, a deciherment of the hieroglyphs is presented:

    kola'tiger' Rebus: kol'working in iron, kolhe, smelters'
    dul ayo'pair fish' Rebus: dula'cast'aya'iron, metal', thus, metal casting
    kuTa'parasol' Rebus: kuTi'smelter'
    eraka'nave of wheel' Rebus: eraka'moltencast copper'
    kamaDha'bow' Rebus: kampaTTa'mint'
    kANDa'arrow'; khaNDA'sword' Rebus: khANDa 'tools, pots and pans, metalware'; kaND'fire-altar'

    badhia'boar' Rebus: baDhi'artisans who work both in iron and wood'; baRea'merchant'
    tAmara'lotus' Rebus: tam(b)ra, tAmra 'copper'
    satthiya'svastika glyph' Rebus: satthiya, jasta'zinc'

    Notes of R. Nagasamy on the heiroglyphs on Karandai plates:

    Seated tiger; two fish in the centre placed on a bow; emblems of Chola, Pandya, Chera respectively.

    Behind the tiger in a row are: lamp on stand, sword placed vertically on its handle, an arrow?, a spear, an arrow and a paras'u. Above these emblems is royal parasol flanked by fly-whisks (cauri). Further up are seen: a svastika, a cakra and an indistinguishable object (which is seen on Karandai seal and also on Tiruvalangadu seal). On Tiruvalangadu seal it is identified as an open lotus.
    Below the bow are: a seat on a tripod, a boar and an entrance torana.

    Boar is the emblem of Calukya. Fish is the emblem of Pandya. Bow is the emblem of Cera.

    http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/befeo_0336-1519_1987_num_76_1_1716



    S. Kalyanaraman

    Sarasvati Research Center




    May 18, 2015



    THE BIGGEST COPPER plate charter discovered anywhere so far, with 86 leaves fastened on a ring that has the Chola royal emblem. It was issued by Rajathiraja Chola in 1053 CE and was among the hoard unearthed at Tiruindalur village in May 2010.
    Buddhas and Tirtankaras: They formed an eclectic collection. Two exquisite Buddhas, one standing and the other seated on a throne with two Naga attendants, were from Nagapattinam.
    Nagapattinam, in Tamil Nadu, was an important port on the east coast and a flourishing maritime trade centre in ancient India. It lay on one of the two sea routes to India from China and became an important centre of learning and pilgrimage for Buddhists from China, Sri Lanka and Kadaram (Kedah). Between 1856 and the 1930s, about 350 Buddha bronzes were found at Vellipalayam and Nanayakkara Street in Nagapattinam.
    In the estimate of T.N. Ramachandran, former Joint Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, the discovery of 350 Buddhas “unfold an interesting phase of Nagapattinam's history and have recovered for us a lost page in the history of South Indian Buddhism” (The Nagapattinam and other Buddhist Bronzes in the Chennai Museum, first published in 1954).
    The royal emblem up close. The 'tiger' was the symbol of the Cholas, and the fish, the bow and the boar were the emblems of the Pandyas, the Cheras and the Chalukyas respectively, whom Raja Raja Chola conquered. The emblem has two fly-whisks and a parasol. It also has auspicious symbols, such as lamps, incense stands and a conch.
    Nagapattinam was a Buddhist centre even during the Pallava rule. The Pallava king Rajasimha (circa 690-728 CE) built a Buddha vihara there. It was an established Buddhist centre when Raja Raja Chola ascended the throne in Thanjavur in 985 CE.
    The Sri Vijaya king Sri Mara Vijayotunga Varman sent an emissary from Kedah to Raja Raja Chola, requesting his permission to build a Buddha vihara near Nagapattinam in the name of his father Sri Chulamani Varman. Raja Raja Chola granted permission and also gifted wealth and a village, Anaimangalam near Nagapattinam, for this in 1006 CE. This is recorded in Raja Raja Chola's copper plate charter called Anaimangalam Grant, now displayed in the Leiden Museum in the Netherlands.
    The seated Buddha, according to Nagaswamy, is “an illustrious example of a Buddhist bronze from the age of Raja Raja Chola”. Two Naga attendants, holding fly-whisks, stand behind the Buddha. This small, 73-cm-tall bronze of riveting beauty was found in Nanayakkara Street in 1934. The Buddha's hands are in the dhyana pose, indicating attainment of knowledge, and he is seated in the Padmasana posture. Behind the Buddha is a prabha in three parts with beautiful designs. There is a circular aureole around the Buddha's head with 35 flames. The Buddha's ear lobes are broad and proportionate to the face. He has seven rows of curls of hair, with an “ usnisa” (flame of knowledge) on top.

    http://www.orientalthane.com/archaeology/news_2010_11_08_A.htm


    The royal seal of Rajendra Chola on the Karanthai copper plate
    The Tiruvalangadu copper plates of Rajendra Chola, which records his gift of the Palaiyanur village to the Tiruvalangadu Siva temple. Photo: R. Shivaji Rao
    The Tiruvalangadu copper plates of Rajendra Chola, which records his gift of the Palaiyanur village to the Tiruvalangadu Siva temple.
    http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/chronicles-of-the-past-in-copper/article70517.ece


    Rajendra Chola : 1014 - 1044
    Thanjavur Silver Kasu

    A silver Kasu of Rajendra Chola (1014 - 1044) of Thanjavur in ThamilNadu, after he adopted the titls GanGai Konda Chola He was the son of Rajaraja Chola (985-1014) who invaded Lanka in 990 AD.
    SPECIFICATIONS
    DenominationKasu
    AlloySilver
    TypeStruck
    Diameter18.9 mm
    Thickness2.6 mm
    Weight4.19 gms
    ShapeRound
    EdgePlain
    DieAxis-30°
    Rajendra_chola_ag_obverseRajendra_chola_ag_reverse
    Rajendra CholaMitchiner #741-745 ; Biddulph #27
    Obverse : Tiger (Chola symbol) seated right faces towards two upright fishes (Pandyan symbol): bow (Chera symbol) behind: umbrella above. GanGai Konda / Chola - in Devanagari script below.
    Reverse : The Same
    Rajendra Chola succeeded in extended Chola occupation over the whole island of Lanka in 1018. He lost his life in the famous battle of Koppam on the Tungabhadra in 1044. Lanka became regained independence from Chola occupation in 1070 under Vijaya-bahu (1055-1110). This "seated Tiger" design is also used in a gold fanam coin.
    The emblem of a "tiger facing two fish" was adopted by ThamilNadu, Thanjavur Uttama Chola (973-985) silver kasu coin The seated tiger represented the Chola homeland, the upright fish for the Pandya conquest, and the Bow for the chera conquest, under the umbrella of great Chola Empire.
    Rajendra-I founded his new capital at Gangaikonda Cholapuram and he assumed the title GanGai Konda Chola. The coin is discussed by Biddulph in his 1966 monogram on Coins of the Cholas. In his catalog he lists this coin #27 as by Rajendra I Chola (AD 1012-1044).
    The silver coin was scanned at 600 dpi and displayed at 300 dpi. It was obtained in 2004 April from Satya Bhupatiraju who had purchased from Scott Semans.
    Text edited from
    * Coins of the Cholas: C. H. Biddulph, NSI #13, 1966.
    * Oriental Coins: Michael Mitchiner, London, Hawkins Publications, 1978.

    The royal Chola insignia mounted on the copper ring that holds the plates together. Photo:A. Rangarajan/Leiden University Library (special collections)

    The first plate with Sanskrit lines in the Grantha script. Photo:A. Rangarajan/Leiden University Library (special collections)
    The Leiden plates provide a glimpse of the story of how a great Buddhist centre of learning and spirituality flourished in Nagapattinam thanks to the benevolence of a Chola emperor. By A. RANGARAJAN

    THE copper plates preserved in Leiden University in the Netherlands, commonly referred to as the “Leiden Plates”, have a unique story to tell—of a royal charter issued by a great Chola emperor granting resources and revenues to ensure the upkeep of a Buddhist vihara. Interestingly, it was for a monastery built by a distinguished king from the distant Malay region in close-by Nagapattinam.
    This document spells out in great detail the legal tenets, fiscal stipulations and bureaucratic machinery involved in the assessment and execution of the deed. Drawn and executed in the 11th century, this deed is impressive in its thoroughness and precision.
    The use of copper plates to record royal charters or “sasanas” followed the initial use of stone tablets in temples and monuments and the later tradition of using palm-leaf inscriptions. Copper plates are believed to have been in use from as early as the 1st century A.D., and the earliest authentic copper plate charters containing the proclamations of the Pallava kings date back to the 4th century. Copper plates had been in extensive use in north India as well, while rich finds in the south have greatly helped construct the history of the region. In keeping with this tradition and fashioned after the Devapala Charter, the mighty Rajaraja Chola I made this grant. King Devapala of Bengal, in the middle of the 9th century, executed a similar grant, offering revenues of five villages for the maintenance of a Buddhist vihara built in Nalanda by a Sailendra king. In Nagapattinam, too, another Sailendra king, referred to as “Chulamanivarman” in the Leiden plates, constructed the vihara and hence it is often referred to as the “Chulamanivarmavihara”.
    These great Sailendra kings, who find reference in the memoirs and chronicles of Chinese scholars such as Xuanzang and Yijing, ruled the watery straits of Malaya, Java, Sumatra and adjacent parts.
    Possibly considered to be of Indian descent, their ancestors having left Indian shores in the distant past, they established in the 8th century their suzerainty over the famed Kadara (or Kataha) and Sri Vijaya kingdoms of the Far East. This led to the creation of a great religious and political intercourse between India and the Far East.

    The beautiful and astoundingly magnificent temple at Borobudur in modern-day Indonesia is said be a timeless legacy of these kings. Much like the Borobudur temple which, during its extended construction, alternated between becoming a Hindu and Buddhist monument and eventually ended as a Buddhist monument, the Sailendra kings too were in the end more Buddhist than Hindu. Thus, the Sri Vijaya Buddhists, the Nalanda monks, the Kancheepuram philosophers and the Nagapattinam Sangha enriched one another’s theology and practice.
    The Leiden plates contain several of these references. The kings of Sri Vijaya and Kadara are referred to as being associated with a mystical animal, Makara. Makara was a motif adopted by these kings and is represented with the body of a fish and head of an elephant. This Sailendra emblem often occurs as an ornamental representation in Javanese architecture.
    The plates
    The Leiden Chola plates are a complete set of 21 large plates and three small plates. The large plates were committed to writing by Rajendra Chola in five Sanskrit plates and 16 Tamil plates, honouring his father Rajaraja’s oral commitment. The small plates are all Tamil plates, executed later by Kulotunga I, making certain additional grants to the Sangha associated with the vihara in Nagapattinam, which is interestingly referred to as the Rajarajaperumpalli in the smaller plates (palli was a word used to denote Budhhist and Jain assemblies). It is on the large Leiden plates that we shall dwell on in relative detail.
    The Sanskrit part of the plates, using the Grantha script, totalling 111 lines set out in poetic metre and rich imagery, talks about the genealogy of the Chola kings and their various exploits, conquests and accomplishments. It further invokes the gods and the elements to keep the Chola domination in perpetuity for the good of the world. Interestingly, the backward tracing of genealogy in the plates beyond a specific individual named Chola, after whom the subsequent kings adopted the dynastic identity, dissolves into mythical ancestry leading right back to the sun god himself. It goes on to proclaim that in the 21st year of Rajaraja’s reign, the village of Anaimangalam is the subject of the grant to the lofty Chulamanivarmavihara. It further states that the boundaries of the grant-land have been established after the ceremonial circumambulation by a female elephant and the marking having been completed with stones. And finally, the Sanskrit part mentions the person who composed the prasastis (the poetic compositions of these texts), the officials who executed the edict, the artisans who wrote out the words and the sculptors who rendered the inscription.

    Serious students of history have compared the genealogy traced out in the Anbil plates of Sundara Chola and the Tiruvalangadu plates of Uttama Chola. These plates, along with the Kanyakumari inscription of Virarajendra and the Leiden plates, provide a wealth of information about the Chola period. The Tamil classic Kalingathu Parani too dwells on the mythical ancestry of the Cholas as eulogised in these inscriptions. K.V. Subrahmanya of Coimbatore published the results of his extensive study of the plates in Epigraphia Indica in the mid-1930s. We owe a great deal to this seminal work and from it we learn a lot about the contents of the plates.
    As a matter of physical detail, all the 21 plates are held and bound by a circular copper ring and the impressive regal seal is mounted on this ring. The Chola emblem, the tiger, along with two lamps and fish forms, and a Sanskrit text are etched in the seal. It is the extensive Tamil portion consisting of 332 lines that sets out all the practical details of the grant in amazing detail. While the Sanskrit section deals with the ethereal, the Tamil section dwells on the practical. This portion specifies that it was on the 92nd day after the 21st year of Rajaraja’s reign that the intent of grant was declared by the emperor to take effect from the very same day. That an income of 8,943 kalam, 2 tuni, 1 kuruni and 1 naliof paddy accruing from the assessment of some 97 veli of land (the charter specifies sophisticated subunits and fractions that needs to be added to the 97 veli) would constitute the grant. It lists out the 26 villages that border Anaimangalam—constituting a schedule—and the officials who surveyed it and the authorities who signed on behalf of these villages concurring with the grant. Further, taxes from the village, which would have been naturally the right of the king, is bequeathed again on the vihara and the monastery.
    The taxes levied make an awesome list—water cess, taxes due to the state when people marry, taxes on sheep herds, grazing, cloth taxes on looms, washermen stones, pottery, etc. The Tamil phrases used are specific for each kind of tax. The officialdom and the nomenclature used to describe bureaucracy are equally impressive, establishing yet another versatile facet of the Tamil language. One finds phrases like Tirumandiravolai-nayagam, denoting the superintendent of royal writs, naduvirukkum,meaning arbitrator, puravuvari, the tax department, and varipottayam, officials who maintained the tax registers. The recording of dates is so meticulous that one can infer that the survey of Anaimangalam took two years and 72 days to complete and that the construction of the vihara took no less than nine years.

    Further, certain specific conditions are stipulated upon the beneficiaries. Adherence to them was laid down as preconditions for continued peaceful enjoyment of the grant and the attendant privileges. These conditions spoke about irrigation, maintenance of channels, digging of wells, and sharing and passing of water through grant-village and other villages. There are conditions about planting trees and groves, about using oil presses, about using burnt bricks and maintaining quality in constructions, etc. The idea seems to be proper upkeep of the lands left in the charge of the monastery and peaceful coexistence with neighbouring villages. Use of big drums and ornaments by families living nearby the monastery was to be tolerated and lived alongside with. Plurality of cultures and practices seems to have been an abiding feature.
    Thus arose and flourished this great Buddhist centre of learning and spirituality in the south, benefiting from the benevolence of a king who built a mighty Siva temple in Thanjavur. And history would take its course and Buddhism would decline and cease to be the dominant philosophy of India. Quite evidently, having lost patronage and support, the Chulamanivarmavihara fell into ruin. We may never know all the details.
    The sad finale to this grand vihara structure came in the 19th century when the British were ruling India. Sir W. Elliot recorded: “Till within the last few years there was to be seen on the Coramandel coast, between one and two miles to the north of Negapatnam, a tall weather-beaten tower, affording a useful land mark to vessels passing up and down coast.” That was a virtual epitaph, reducing the tower to a mere navigational aid. The Jesuits who were expelled from Puducherry at that time settled nearby and petitioned the government, demanding the tower’s destruction.
    After some wrangling within the government and after the files having gone up and down, finally, on August 28, 1867, orders for demolition were passed. The orders started with the following lines: “The Governor in Council is pleased to sanction the removal of the old tower at Negapatnam by the officers of St. Joseph’s college, at their own expense….” And some time later a fine bronze image of the Buddha was recovered at one of the excavations nearby. It was given to Lord Napier as a present and a trophy. Thus disappeared a great legacy.
    And finally the Leiden copper plates leave some important questions unanswered. Why did a great Chola emperor help the construction of a Buddhist vihara at the behest of a Sailendra king from a faraway land? Was it out of respect for other faiths? Was it a part of a truce with the Sailendras? Or was it a mixture of both or something else? Students of history should do more to solve this puzzle and other similar ones.



    A. Rangarajan is a freelance writer.

    Rajaraja Chola - 1 & Chola Maathevi alias Panchavan Maatheviyaar --------Rajaraja Chola - 1 (on the left front wall at the main entrance 'of the Rajarajaeswarem Temple' at Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu) 
    Gangaikonda Chola being anointed by Somaskanda. Gangaikondacholapuram temple sculpture.
    Prasasti Logam: antara Indonesia dan India


    Vernika Hapri

    Prasasti logam tidak seperti prasasti batu yang hanya dikeluarkan satu setiap ada keputusan dari seorang raja. Prasasti logam yang umumnya terbuat dari tembaga ini berjumlah beberapa lembar lempeng bahkan puluhan. Hal tersebut dikarenakan media lempeng yang terbatas untuk menulis. Namun berkat hadirnya prasasti logam ini, kekreatifan para citralekha pun kian terbuka luas, dengan disisipkannya nomor lempeng untuk menentukan urutan pembacaan lempengnya, keahlian seni ukir aksara yang kian diperindah, adanya berbagai media tulis seperti perunggu, tembaga dan emas, serta hiasan atau ukiran gambar yang dipahatkan pada lempeng prasasti. Ukuran lempeng prasasti umumnya berkisar 40 x 30 cm atau lebih kecil 1) yang memuat dari empat baris hingga kurang lebih sepuluh baris tulisan, bahkan ada yang lebih.  Ditulis umumnya dikedua sisi (recto dan verso).

    prasasti tembaga
    http://anangpaser.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/laguna-copperplate.jpg?w=549

    prasasti emas
    http://hurahura.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/prasasti-lelang.jpg
    prasasti perunggu

    Beberapa prasasti lempeng juga digunakan sebagai prasasti tinulad (turunan) yaitu prasasti yang pernah dibuat dan ditulis kembali pada saat yang berbeda dengan beberapa perubahan. Umumnya berisi penetapan sima seperti prasasti batu, juga tentang keputusan peradilan (jayapatra) 2).

    Di India prasasti logam juga terdiri atas puluhan lempeng, namun mereka dikaitkan dengan satu cincin besar yang diatas cincin itu terdapat cap kerajaan yang mengeluarkan prasasti tersebut. Hal ini tidak ditemukan di Indonesia (mungkin belum ditemukan), hanya saja telah diketahui pasti bahwa ada beberapa prasasti yang terdapat lubang kecil di pinggirannya. Kemungkinan lubang tersebut merupakan tempat kaitan prasasti. Belum ditemukannya kaitan prasasti di Indonesia karena kemungkinan bahan kaitan tersebut beruapa bahan yang mudah rapuh. Di India, bahan kaitan prasasti juga sama seperti bahan pembuatan prasasti. Contoh terkenal adalah prasasti Tiruvalankadu masa pemerintahan Raja Rajendra Chola I.

    Prasasti Tiruvalankadu ditemukan dalam jumlah 57 lempeng dengan dua kaitan berstempel. Ke-57 lempeng tersebut terbagi atas tiga kelompok, yaitu kelompok I yang terdiri atas tiga lempeng berisi kalimat berbahasa Sansekerta, kelompok II terdiri atas 22 lempeng berisi atas anugrah raja di Tamil umumnya dan kelompok III terdiri atas 33 lempeng berisi para peyumbang dana dari kaum Brahmana, candi-candi yang dibuat serta pelayanan lainnya. Kelompok I berat 3 lempeng mencapai 3,4 kg dengan ukuran masing-masing lempeng 42x24 cm dengan tebal 0,13 cm. Kelompok II berat 22 lempang mencapai 34,07 kg dengan ukuran masing-masing lempeng 42 x 22,9 cm dan 35 x 22,9 cm dengan ketebalan 0,13 cm. Kelompok III berat 32 lempeng mencapai 44,70 kg, ukuran lempeng berbeda-beda mulai dari 41,4 x 22,9 cm, 40,7 x 20,3 cm, dan 38,6 x 21 cm dengan ketebalan antara 0,1-0,5 cm. Sedangkan berat keseluruhan kaitan yang berbentuk cincin besar beserta stempel mencapai 7,5 kg dengan diameter stempel 18 cm 3). 

    prasasti Karandai/Tiruvalankadu
    cincin kaitan dengan beberapa lempeng logam prasasti
    (foto: Emmanuel Francis)

    (bagian atas) lambang raja pada cincin kaitan prasasti Karandai/Tiruvalankadu 
    (foto: Emmanuel Francis)

    Stempel tersebut terdiri atas beberapa gambar yaitu harimau Chōḷa yang sedang mengaum (membuka mulutnya) sambil duduk, dibelakangnya terdapat tiang lampu, panji (bendera), belati dengan ujung menancap tanah dan galah, didepannya terdapat sepasang ikan (lambang Pāṇḍya) yang membelakangi tiang lampu, panji, belati dan galah, diatas keduanya terdapat payung (chhatra) yang diapit sabetan lalat (chauri), dibawah keduanya (kanan ke kiri) terdapat swastika, babi hutan, kursi yang sangat mungkin adalah singgasana dan gendang. Babi hutan merupakan lambang Chālukya. Lambang tersebut dibingkai dengan lingkaran yang disisipi tulisan yang melingkari stempel berbunyi:

    Rājad-rājanya-makuṭa-śrēṇi-ratnēshu śāsanam
    ētad-Rājēndra-chōḷasya Parakēsarivarmmaṇaḥ 4)
    “ini adalah keputusan Parakēsarivarmman Rājēndrachōḷa (yang lahir) dalam kilauan permata dari keturunan mahkota kerajaan”

    Di Indonesia memang jarang ditemukan lubang pada prasasti seperti kebanyakan yang ada pada prasasti logam di India. Beberapa contohnya ialah prasasti E.14 yang kini disimpan di Museum Nasional yang berasal dari daerah Temanggung, Jawa Tengah, dibagian tengah atas ada lubang kecil 5). Kemudian prasasti E.18 yaitu prasasti Landa (Kwak V/Mulak IV) yang kini disimpan di Museum Nasional yang berasal dari desa Ngabean, Magelang yang dibagian pinggir kiri ada lubang kecil 6).

    prasasti Pamintihan
    (foto: Arlo Griffiths)
    prasasti Marinci


    Sedangkan prasasti logam yang berhias pun jarang ditemukan, hanya beberapa prasasti logam saja seperti prasasti Marinci (E.49) yang kini disimpan di Museum Nasional berasal dari desa Princi, Malang dengan hiasan Garuḍa? Atau kakak tua? 7). Prasasti Pamintihan (E.88a) yang kini disimpan di Museum Nasional dari desa Sendang Sedati, Bojonegoro di lempeng pertama terdapat ukiran seekor burung yang sedang terbang mengembangkan sayapnya, diatas pohon yang penuh buah dan untaian bunga. Pohon ini tumbuh dari sebuah jambangan besar berbentuk bunga teratai yang sedang mekar 8).

    Di India Selatan di daerah Chennai ditemukan prasasti yang berukirkan babi hutan yang  merupakan lambang raja Chālukya, juga prasasti logam Mainamati yang terpengaruh Bengal pun ditemukan ukiran hiasan sapi berpunuk. Kesimpulan yang dapat diambil ialah walaupun kebudayaan India sangat berpengaruh besar terhadap masa Indonesia kuno, namun kebudayaan Indonesia kuna masih menyisakan ciri-ciri pembeda antara Indonesia dan India, baik aksara, ragam prasasi logam, serta hiasan pada prasasti.

    prasasti Mainamati
    (foto: Arlo Griffiths)

    prasasti Chennai, India Selatan
    (foto: Emmanuel Francis)



    Catatan:
    1) berdasarkan beragam ukuran prasasti logam dalam buku Prasasti Koleksi Museum Nasional, jilid I.
    2). Prasasti Koleksi Museum Nasional, hlm: 52.
    3).  K.G.Krishnan, 1984: 1-3
    4) --, hlm: 4-5
    5)--, hlm: 56
    7). --, hlm: 111
    8). __-, hlm: 179

    Daftar Acuan:
    K.G.Krishnan, 1984. Karandai Tamil Sangam Plates of Rajendrachola I. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.
    Museum Nasional, 1986. Prasasti Koleksi Museum Nasional, jilid I. Proyek Pengembangan Museum Nasional.
    Translation:
    Metal inscription: between Indonesia and India


    Vernika Hapri

    Unlike metal inscription stone inscriptions were only issued one every decision of a king. Metal inscriptions are generally made of copper amounts to several pieces of plates even decades. That is because the media plates were limited to writing. But thanks to the presence of this metal inscription, creativity of citralekha also becoming widely open, with disisipkannya plate numbers to determine the order of reading lempengnya, sculpture literacy skills are increasingly embellished, their various written media such as bronze, copper and gold, as well as decoration or carving pictures inscription engraved on the plate. Inscription plate sizes generally range from 40 x 30 cm or smaller 1), which contains four rows of up to approximately ten lines of writing, there are even more. Generally written on both sides (recto and verso).

    copper inscriptions
    http://anangpaser.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/laguna-copperplate.jpg?w=549

    gold inscription
    http://hurahura.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/prasasti-lelang.jpg
    inscriptions bronze

    Some inscriptions are also used as the inscription plate tinulad (derivative) the inscription ever created and written back at different times with some changes. Sima generally contain such determination stone inscriptions, also on judicial decisions (jayapatra) 2).

    The Indian metal inscription also consists of dozens of plates, but they are associated with a large ring on the ring are issued a royal stamp of the inscription. It is not found in Indonesia (possibly undiscovered), only had known for sure that there were some inscriptions there is a small hole in the rim. The hole is a possibility of connection inscription. Have not found the inscription link in Indonesia because of the possibility of the connection material beruapa easy fragile material. In India, the same material as well as connection inscription inscription making materials. Famous examples is the inscription Tiruvalankadu the reign of King Rajendra Chola I.

    Tiruvalankadu inscriptions found in the amount of 57 plate with two hook-stamped. All 57 of these plates are divided into three groups: group I consisting of three plates containing the phrase Sanskrit, group II consists of 22 plates containing over grace king in Tamil generally and group III consists of 33 plates containing the peyumbang funds from the Brahmans , the temples are made as well as other services. 3 Group I weight reached 3.4 kg plates with each plate size 42x24 cm with 0.13 cm thick. Group II weight 22 lempang reached 34.07 kg with the size of each plate 42 x 22.9 cm and 35 x 22.9 cm with a thickness of 0.13 cm. III group weight 32 plate reached 44.70 kg, different plate sizes ranging from 41.4 x 22.9 cm, 40.7 x 20.3 cm and 38.6 x 21 cm with a thickness of between 0,1 0.5 cm. While the overall weight of a large ring-shaped connection along with stamps of 7.5 kg with a diameter of 18 cm seals 3).

    inscription Karandai / Tiruvalankadu
    ring linked to some of the metal plate inscription
    (Photo: Emmanuel Francis)

    (Top) of the royal emblem connection ring inscription Karandai / Tiruvalankadu
    (Photo: Emmanuel Francis)

    The stamp consists of several images that roaring tiger Chola (open mouth) while sitting, behind there lamppost, banner (flag), dagger pierced with the tip of the ground and the pole, in front there is a pair of fish (symbol Pandya) that turned a lamppost, banner, a dagger and a pole, above both are umbrellas (Chhatra) is flanked flick flies (chauri), under both (right to left) are the swastika, wild boar, the seats are very probably the throne and drum. Wild boar a symbol Chalukya. The emblem is framed by a circle encircling the article inserted stamp reads:

    Rajad-king-Makuta-śrēṇi-ratnēshu śāsanam
    ētad-Rajendra-chōḷasya Parakēsarivarmmaṇaḥ 4)
    "This is a decision Parakēsarivarmman Rājēndrachōḷa (born) in the glow of the descendants of the royal crown jewel"

    In Indonesia it is rare to find a hole in the existing inscriptions like most on metal inscription in India. Some examples are inscriptions E.14 which is now kept in the National Museum from areas Temanggung, Central Java, in the upper center there is a small hole 5). Then the inscription inscription E.18 Landa (Louie V / Mulak IV) which is now kept in the National Museum from the village Ngabean, Magelang section left edge there is a small hole 6).

    inscription Pamintihan
    (Photo: Arlo Griffiths)
    inscription Marinci
    While inscription ornate metal was rare, only a few metal inscription just like inscriptions Marinci (E.49) which is now kept in the National Museum from the village of Princi, Malang with Garuda decoration? Or older brother? 7). Inscription Pamintihan (E.88a) which is now kept in the National Museum of the village Spring Sedati, Bojonegoro in the first plate are carving a bird spreading its wings in flight, above the tree full of fruit and garlands. This tree grows from a large vase shaped like a lotus in full bloom 8).

    In South India in the area of ​​Chennai found inscriptions carved boar which is a symbol of Chalukya king, also affected Mainamati metal inscription was found carved ornaments Bengal humped cattle. The conclusion that can be drawn is that although the Indian culture very big influence on ancient Indonesian times, but still leaves the ancient Indonesian culture traits distinguishing between Indonesia and India, a good script, prasasi variety of metals, as well as the decoration on the inscription.

    inscription Mainamati
    (Photo: Arlo Griffiths)

    inscription Chennai, South India
    (Photo: Emmanuel Francis)



    Note:
    1) based on various sizes of metal inscription in the book inscription National Museum Collection, Volume I.
    2). Inscription National Museum Collection, p: 52.
    3). K.G.Krishnan, 1984: 1-3
    4) -, pp: 4-5
    5) -, p: 56
    7). -, Pp: 111
    8). __-, Pp: 179

    References:
    KGKrishnan, 1984. Karandai Tamil Sangam Plates of Rajendrachola I. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.
    The National Museum, the National Museum Collection 1986. Inscriptions, Volume I. Development Project of the National Museum.
    http://epigraphyscorner.blogspot.in/2013/05/prasasti-logam-antara-indonesia-dan.html

    Notes from the 1984 volume on Karandai plates:

    -- a list of 1083 brahmins to whom lands where distributed (for creating an /agrahāra/). For each brahmin receiving a share, the grant records  his gotra, his sūtra, his place of birth and his name. The grant was made during the 8th year of the king's reign (supposed to have started in 1012 A.D.)

    -- a description of the endowments for Vedic studies: on that occasion Atharva veda is mentionned but specific individuals are not mentionned.
    (See below).

    K.G. Krishnan, the editor, describes the endowment in the following way (p.63):

    <Begin Quote>
    Endowments for Vedic studies were also made in the following manner: for Mīmāṁsa - 5 /vēli/, for Vēdanta - 5 /vēli/ and for Vyākaraṇa - 4 /vēli/ -- these three are described as /bhaṭṭavṛitti/. The following described as /kiḍaippuṟam/ (/ghaṭikaippuṟam/) get each 2 /vēli/: 1) Paviḻiyam, 2) Taittiriyam 3) Vājasanēyam, 4) Chandōgam (Chhandōgam), 5) Atharvam, 6) Talavakāram and 7) Rūpāvatāram. Paviḻiyam derived from Bahvṛicha stands
    for Ṛigvēda.Taittirīyam and Vājasanēyam represent respectively the Kṛishṇa and Śukla Yajurvēda. Chhandōgam and Talavakāram are of Sāmavēda. Rūpāvatāra is a work on grammar stated to have been composed by Bhaṭṭanārāyaṇa and Dharmakīrti [FOOTNOTE: /History of Sanskrit Literature/ (M. Krishnamachariar), p. 733, note 8] Two /vēli/ of land
    were assigned to the person teaching the recital of /Smṛitimūla-grantha/ and to the person reciting Bhāratam.

    War-chariot gifted to Rajendra Chola by a Kamboja King

    Karandai (Tanjavur or Tanjore) plates (v.48) (Sanggham Copper Plate Charter) of about 1020 issued by Rajendra Chola (c. 1012 - 1044) in the eighth year of his reign states that a Kamboja king solicited friendship of Rajendra Chola by sending him for the protection of his royalty (atmalaksmim) a victorious war-chariot with which he (Kamboja king) had defeated the armies which opposed him in battle. The inscription issued in the eighth year of his reign (1020) contains a significant verse in its separate Sanskrit section and it refers to one Kamboja Raja:
    Kamboja-rajo ripu-raja sena-jaitrena yen= ajayad=ahaveshu |
    tarn prahinot prartthita-mitra-bhavo yennai ratham ||.
    The above inscription says that, in order to seek Chola’s friendship, Kamboja king presented to Rajendra Chola a chariot with which he (Kamboja raja) had won his enemies in many battles.

    The Kamboja king mentioned in the Karandai (Tanjavur or Tanjore) plates (v.48) is also believed to be Dharmapala of the Kamboja-Pala Dynasty of Bengal. There can also be doubt that Dharmapala of the Tirumalai Inscription of king Rajendra Chola is the Kamboja king Dharmapala of Dandabhukti who was a scion of the Kamboja dynasty to which Nayapalaa, Narayanapala and Rajyapala of the Irda Copper Plate grant & the Kalanda Copper Plate grant belonged. He was ruling in Dandabhukti-mandala at this time and therefore, was a contemporary of Rajendra Chola.

    When threatened by illustrious Pala ruler Mahpala-I, this Kamboja Dharmapala appears to have sought friendship and help with Rajendra Chola against Pala ruler by forming an alliance with Rajendra Chola and presenting him a valuable Ratha (Chariot) as a token of friendship. As a consequence, Rajendra Chola led his victorious northern expedition to the banks of the Ganges and also met Dharmapala in Dandabhukti. This fact demonstrates Kamboja rulers' weakened position and Rajendra Chola’s political influence in Bengal and Bangladesh. (Some scholars however, think that “Kamboja king sent his ratha as a friendly present to Rajendra Chola to avoid war with the latter" ).

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharmapala_Kamboja

    Kaalaadhan: Some lessons for NaMo to learn from US Dept. of Justice. See how USA goes about investigating financial frauds.

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    USA has successfully brought the tax havens to submission to US Laws. This has been achieved because that nation has an effective team in place. 
    While NaMo should be commended for setting up SIT immediately after the Swarajyam Govt. came into office in May 2014, mere passing of bills to control future kaalaadhan accretions will NOT result in restitution of kaalaadhan already held in institutions outside Bharatam. 
    NaMo has to institute institutional changes beyond SIT headed by Justices Shah and Pasayat to restitute kaalaadhan. A good start will be to see what additional support systems are needed for Finance Ministry's Enforcement Directorate the Serious Frauds Division of Commerce Ministry.
    Good leads have been provided by Dr. Subramanian Swamy in his WP in the Hon'ble SC which supervises SIT work.
    Kalyanaraman
    The United States Department of JusticeU.S. Department of Justice
    About the Fraud Section
    The Fraud Section plays a unique and essential role in the Department's fight against sophisticated economic crime.   The Section is a front-line litigating unit that acts as a rapid response team, investigating and prosecuting complex white collar crime cases throughout the country.   The Section is uniquely qualified to act in that capacity, based on its vast experience with sophisticated fraud schemes; its expertise in managing complex and multi-district litigation; and its ability to deploy resources effectively to address law enforcement priorities and respond to geographically shifting crime problems.   These capabilities are an essential complement to the efforts of the United States Attorneys' Offices to combat white-collar crime.   The Fraud Section also plays a critical role in the development of Department policy.   The Section implements enforcement initiatives and advises the Department leadership on such matters as legislation, crime prevention, and public education.   The Section frequently coordinates interagency and multi-district investigations and international enforcement efforts. The Section assists prosecutors, regulators, law enforcement and the private sector by providing training, advice and other assistance.   The Section, often in a leadership capacity, participates in numerous national, regional and international working groups.   To fulfill its mission, the Fraud Section seeks to build and enhance its most valuable resources by maximizing opportunities for its dedicated professionals.   By providing direct supervision, training and mentoring for its attorneys and other professionals, the Section seeks effectively to develop the knowledge, skills and judgment required to fulfill its unique and important mission.


    Criminal Investigations

    The United States Secret Service is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the nation's financial infrastructure and payment systems. As a part of this mission, the Secret Service constantly implements and evaluates prevention and response measures to guard against electronic crimes as well as other computer related fraud. The Secret Service derives its authority to investigate specified criminal violations from Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 3056.

    Criminal investigations can be international in scope. These investigations include: counterfeiting of U.S. currency (to include coins); counterfeiting of foreign currency (occurring domestically); identity crimes such as access device fraud, identity theft, false identification fraud, bank fraud and check fraud; telemarketing fraud; telecommunications fraud (cellular and hard wire); computer fraud; fraud targeting automated payment systems and teller machines; direct deposit fraud; investigations of forgery, uttering, alterations, false impersonations or false claims involving U.S. Treasury Checks, U.S. Saving Bonds, U.S. Treasury Notes, Bonds and Bills; electronic funds transfer (EFT) including Treasury disbursements and fraud within the Treasury payment systems; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation investigations; Farm Credit Administration violations; and fictitious or fraudulent commercial instruments and foreign securities.

    Counterfeit Currency

    The Secret Service has jurisdiction over violations involving the counterfeiting of United States obligations and securities. Some of the counterfeited United States obligations and securities commonly investigated by the Secret Service include U.S. currency (to include coins), U.S. Treasury checks, Department of Agriculture food coupons and U.S. postage stamps.

    The Secret Service remains committed to the mission of combating counterfeiting by working closely with state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as foreign law enforcement counterparts, to aggressively pursue counterfeiters. The Secret Service maintains a working relationship with theBureau of Engraving and Printing and the Federal Reserve System to ensure the integrity of the nation's currency. For more information, visit the Know Your Money page on this website.

    History of Counterfeiting
    • The counterfeiting of money is one of the oldest crimes in history. At some periods in early history, it was considered treasonous and was punishable by death.
    • During the American Revolution, the British counterfeited U.S. currency in such large amounts that the Continental currency soon became worthless. "Not worth a Continental" became a popular expression of the era.
    • During the Civil War, one-third to one-half of the currency in circulation was counterfeit. At that time, approximately 1,600 state banks designed and printed their own bills. Each bill carried a different design, making it difficult to detect counterfeit bills from the 7,000 varieties of real bills.
    • While a national currency was adopted in 1862 to resolve the counterfeiting problem, it was soon counterfeited and circulated so extensively that it became necessary to take enforcement measures. As a result, on July 5, 1865, the United States Secret Service was established to suppress the widespread counterfeiting of the nation's currency.
    • Although the counterfeiting of money was suppressed substantially after the establishment of the Secret Service, this crime still represents a potential danger to the nation's economy.
    • Today, new forms of counterfeiting are on the rise. One reason for this is the ease and speed with which large quantities of counterfeit currency can be produced using modern photographic, printing and computer equipment.
    • You can help guard against this threat by being more familiar with your currency. Only with the public's cooperation and the aid of local law enforcement agencies can the Secret Service reduce and control this crime. Visit the How to Detect Counterfeit Money section of Know Your Money to find out more on how to guard against forgery losses.

    Financial Crimes

    The Secret Service exercises broad investigative jurisdiction over a variety of financial crimes. As the original guardian of the nation's financial payment systems, the Secret Service has a long history of protecting American consumers and industries from financial fraud. In addition to its original mandate of combating the counterfeiting of U.S. currency, the passage of federal laws in 1982 and 1984 gave the Secret Service primary authority for the investigation of access device fraud, including credit and debit card fraud, and parallel authority with other federal law enforcement agencies in identity crime cases. The Secret Service also was given primary authority for the investigation of fraud as it relates to computers.

    In the early 1990s, the Secret Service's investigative mission expanded to include concurrent jurisdiction with the United States Department of Justice regarding Financial Institution Fraud. Also during this time, the Internet and use of personal computers became commonplace and expanded worldwide. The combination of the information revolution and the effects of globalization caused the investigative mission of the Secret Service to expand dramatically. As a result, the Secret Service has evolved into an agency that is recognized worldwide for its investigative expertise and for its aggressive and innovative approach to the detection, investigation and prevention of financial crimes.

    On October 26, 2001, President Bush signed into law H.R. 3162, the USA PATRIOT Act. The U.S. Secret Service was mandated by this legislation to establish a nationwide network of Electronic Crimes Task Forces (ECTFs). The concept of the ECTF network is to bring together not only federal, state and local law enforcement, but also prosecutors, private industry and academia. The common purpose is the prevention, detection, mitigation and aggressive investigation of attacks on the nation's financial and critical infrastructures.

    The following are primary offenses investigated by the Secret Service:
    Identity Crimes - Identity crimes are defined as the misuse of personal or financial identifiers in order to gain something of value and/or facilitate other criminal activity. The Secret Service is the primary federal agency tasked with investigating identity theft/fraud and its related activities under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1028. Identity crimes are some of the fastest growing and most serious economic crimes in the United States for both financial institutions and persons whose identifying information has been illegally used. The Secret Service records criminal complaints, assists victims in contacting other relevant investigative and consumer protection agencies and works with other federal, state and local law enforcement and reporting agencies to identify perpetrators.

    Identity crimes investigated by the Secret Service include, but are not limited to, the following:
    • Credit Card/Access Device Fraud (Skimming)
    • Check Fraud
    • Bank Fraud
    • False Identification Fraud
    • Passport/Visa Fraud
    • Identity Theft
    Counterfeit and Fraudulent Identification - The Secret Service enforces laws involving counterfeit and fraudulent identification which means, where someone knowingly and without lawful authority produces, transfers or possesses a false identification document to defraud the U.S. Government. The use of desktop publishing software/hardware to counterfeit and produce different forms of identification used to obtain funds illegally remains one of the Secret Service's core violations.

    Access Device Fraud - Financial industry sources estimate annual losses associated with credit card fraud to be in the billions of dollars. The Secret Service is the primary federal agency tasked with investigating access device fraud and its related activities under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1029. Although it is commonly called the credit card statute, this law also applies to other crimes involving access devices including debit cards, automated teller machine (ATM) cards, computer passwords, personal identification numbers, credit card or debit card account numbers, long-distance access codes, and the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) contained within cellular telephones that assign billing.

    Computer Fraud - Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 1030, authorizes the Secret Service to investigate computer crimes. Violations enforced under this statute include unauthorized access to protected computers, theft of data such as personal identification used to commit identity theft, denial of service attacks used for extortion or disruption of e-commerce and malware (malicious software) distribution to include viruses intended for financial gain.

    The proliferation of the Internet has allowed the transition of traditional street crimes to flourish in the anonymity of cyberspace. The borders of a state or a country are no longer boundaries for cyber criminals to reach their victims. As a result of advancements in technology, the Secret Service established the Electronic Crimes Special Agent Program (ECSAP) and a network of Electronic Crimes Task Forces throughout the United States.

    Agents assigned to ECSAP are computer investigative specialists, qualified to conduct examinations on many types of electronic evidence, including computers, personal data assistants, telecommunications devices, electronic organizers and other electronic media. ECSAP is the only program of its kind in the country with the level of expertise and culture of partnership-building with stakeholders across the spectrum of critical infrastructure.

    The Secret Service's Electronic Crimes Task Force and Electronic Crimes Working Group Initiatives seek to prioritize investigative cases that involve some form of electronic crime. These initiatives provide needed support and resources with field investigations that have any one of the following criteria:
    • Significant economic or community impact
    • Participation of organized criminal groups involving multiple districts or transnational organizations
    • Use of schemes involving new technology
    The task force/working group model brings together state and local law enforcement, prosecutors, private sector interests and academia in an effort to prevent cyber-crime and identity theft.

    Forgery - Hundreds of millions of government checks and bonds are issued by the United States each year. This large number attracts criminals who specialize in stealing and forging checks or bonds from mail boxes in apartment complexes and private homes. During a fraudulent transaction, a check or bond thief usually forges the payee's signature and presents false identification.

    Money Laundering - The Money Laundering Control Act makes it a crime to launder proceeds of certain criminal offenses, called "specified unlawful activities," which are defined in Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1956 & 1957; as well as Title 18, United States Code, Section 1961 (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act). The Secret Service monitors money laundering activities through other financial crimes such as financial institution fraud, access device fraud, food stamp fraud and counterfeiting of U.S. currency.

    Electronic Benefits Transfer Fraud - Congress enacted the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to provide nutritional food to low-income families. It further directed the Secret Service to aggressively pursue fraud in the food stamp program. The possession or use of food stamp coupons, "Authorization to Participate" cards or Electronic Benefit Transfer cards by unauthorized persons compromises the integrity of the Food Stamp Program and is a criminal violation of the Food Stamp Act. Please visit http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp for further information regarding the Food Stamp Program and the Electronic Benefits Transfer cards.

    Asset Forfeiture - The seizing and forfeiture of assets is a byproduct of the Secret Service's criminal investigations. As a result, the Secret Service, through its asset forfeiture program, provides assistance to investigative offices by supplying direction, expertise and temporary support personnel, as needed, in criminal investigations seizure and during the seizure and the forfeiture of assets.

    Advance Fee Fraud- The perpetrators of advance fee fraud, known internationally as "4-1-9 fraud" (after the section of the Nigerian penal code which addresses these schemes), are often very creative and innovative. A large number of victims are enticed into believing they have been singled out from the masses to share in multi-million dollar windfall profits for no apparent reason.

    If you have received an e-mail or fax from someone you do not know requesting your assistance in a financial transaction, such as the transfer of a large sum of money into an account, or claiming you are the next of kin to an wealthy person who has died, or the winner of some obscure lottery, DO NOT respond. These requests are typically sent through public servers via a generic "spammed" e-mail message. Usually, the sender does not yet know your personal e-mail address and is depending on you to respond. Once you reply, whether you intend to string them along or tell them you are not interested, they will often continue to e-mail you in an attempt to harass or intimidate you. If you receive an unsolicited e-mail of this nature, the best course is to simply delete the message.

    Due to a number of aggravating circumstances -- the use of false names, addresses, stolen/cloned/prepaid cell phones and remote e-mail addresses -- verifying the location of and subsequent prosecution of these persons or groups is difficult. The act of sending an e-mail soliciting your assistance in a financial transaction is not a crime in itself. The installation of a credible spam filter and contacting your Internet Service Provider may help deter these unsolicited e-mails. However, there is currently no available program to completely block these types of messages.

    If you have suffered a significant financial loss related to advance fee fraud, please contact your local Secret Service field office. Telephone numbers are available in theField Office Directory on this website or may also be found on the inside cover of your local telephone directory. Any investigation regarding this type of fraud will be conducted on a case by case basis at the discretion of the local Secret Service office and U.S. Attorney's Office.
    http://www.secretservice.gov/criminal.shtml
    Justice Department Secures Record $13 Billion Global Settlement with JPMorgan for Misleading Investors About Toxic Mortgage Securities
    Department of Justice Sues Bank of America for Defrauding Investors in Connection with Sale of Over $850 Million of Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities
    UBS Japan to Plead Guilty to Fraud Charges for Manipulation of LIBOR Rates

    FinCEN Reminds the Public to be Wary of Fraudulent Correspondence and Phone Calls

    http://www.stopfraud.gov/ 

    What did Harappans eat, how did they look? Haryana has the answers -- Riddhi Doshi. What language did they speak? Meluhha -- Kalyanaraman

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    See:Previous report http://asi.nic.in/pdf_data/rakhigarhi_excavation_report_new.pdf Excavations at Rakhigarhi 1997 to 2000 (Dr. Amarendranath)

    Rakhigarhi seal with the carving of a tiger is reported by Prof. Shinde of Deccan College.

    Here is a decipherment using the rebus-metonymy layered Indus Scipt cipher in Meluhha language of Indian sprachbund (language union):





    kul ‘tiger’ (Santali); kōlu id. (Telugu) kōlupuli = Bengal tiger (Telugu) 

    कोल्हा [ kōlhā ] कोल्हें  [kōlhēṃ] A jackal (Marathi) 

    Rebus: kol, kolhe, ‘the koles, iron smelters speaking a language akin to that 

    of Santals’ (Santali) kol ‘working in iron’ (Tamil)



    I suggest that the language spoken by the Sarasvati's children was Meluhha 

    (Mleccha), a spoken, vernacular version of Vedic chandas. This may also be 

    called Proto-Prakritam, not unlike Ardhamaadhi identified by Jules Bloch in 

    his work: Formation of Marathi Language.



    S. Kalyanaraman

    Sarasvati Research Center

    May 18, 2015

    What did Harappans eat, how did they look? Haryana has the answers









    • Rakhigarhi village

      Rakhigarhi village in Hisar district is situated on the dry bed of River Saraswati. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Harappan home

      Mound 6 in this village is the site of a complex structure of a Harappan home. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Harappan house

      Excavations revealed the outer wall of a Harappan house. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Harappa

      A toy animal made of clay found in the excavation. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Harappan

      An ancient business seal bearing the pattern of a tiger is among the antiquities found in the excavation. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Harappan

      Prof Vasant S Shinde, Vice Chancellor of Deccan College and head archaeologist for the excavations inspects Mound #4. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Harappan

      Mound #4 dug up to the natural level of earth, at 22 metres, reveals the various stages of Harappan culture. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Harappan

      Painted Harappan pottery found during the excavation. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Harappa

      Modern-day pottery in Rakhigarhi bear resemblance to the ones found in excavation. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Hisar

      This wall in Rakhigarhi, Hisar district created naturally over the years shows the different stages of Harappan culture. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    Harappan home

    Mound 6 in this village is the site of a complex structure of a Harappan home. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    Harappan house

    Excavations revealed the outer wall of a Harappan house. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Harappa

      A toy animal made of clay found in the excavation. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Harappan

      An ancient business seal bearing the pattern of a tiger is among the antiquities found in the excavation. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)


    Along the banks of the Ghaggar-Hakra river lie the graves of a typical family. The woman was likely the daughter of a wealthy trader. In death, she wears her favourite shell and copper bangles. A large pot placed at her head would have been filled with foodgrain and objects meant to make her journey to the next world a comfortable one.
    She is buried in the centre of a large graveyard, as are most women. This, and the large number of objects in the women's graves is believed to indicate that women had wealth and status in this society. Buried beside her is the body of a boy, most likely her son, who probably died at the same time. Close to her, his head pointing north as well, lies the grave of a man, most likely her husband. Their home would have been one of those in the 'urban' settlement outside the graveyard.
    The houses here are rectangular, with three or four rooms each, made of mud and baked bricks in extra-strong layers of alternating horizontal and vertical tiers. The floor is covered in clay, decorated in a mosaic of coloured stone. A small granary attached to the home, also made of brick, kept their food safe.
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    Wheels of varying sizes found in the excavation. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    Scattered within the remains of the home are the child's toys - little dogs, bulls and deer made of clay. It's hard to tell exactly what the man did for a living, since he and his family were laid to rest approximately 5,000 years ago.
    But the team of archaeologists working at this Harappan site of Rakhigarhi, 90 minutes east of Hisar in Haryana, have excavated skeletal remains with DNA samples intact and sent them to a special DNA and palaeontology lab in South Korea for testing - a first for a Harappan site.
    Soon, the DNA could tell them approximately how old these people were, offer hints as to what killed them, even allow scientists to recreate their faces to give us an idea of what they looked like.
    The three skeletons were unearthed between January and May, along with two symbolic, empty graves, believed to have been dedicated to people who disappeared or went missing.
    The skeletons were found in one of three mounds excavated by a team led by archaeologist Vasant Shinde, vice-chancellor of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune. Their findings, based on preliminary research, were revealed last month.
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    Bangles made of clay and stones belonging to the Harappan culture. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)
    "Professor Shinde and his team's recent excavations are phenomenal and pathbreaking for the archaeological study of Harappan sites in the country," says archaeologist Kishore Gaikwad of the Mumbai university, who specialises in the study of ancient Indian history. "It is exciting to know that we could soon have an idea of what the Harappans looked like, and know more about their socio-cultural life."
    While numerous skeletons have been uncovered from Harappan sites, including this one, the advanced technology to glean DNA data from them is recent.
    "We attempted to extract such data in the last few excavations on the site, between 2012 and 2014, but failed, because we didn't handle the skeletons as required and contemporary DNA got mixed up in their DNA," says Shinde. "This time around, we wore surgical masks, gloves and coats while excavating the skeletons."
    In addition to the skeletal remains, soil samples in which parasite eggs could be found have been sent to the lab in South Korea. The results are expected in August.
    LAYER UPON LAYER
    If the DNA samples are the most exciting find, the 22-metre-deep trench unearthed at Rakhigarhi is a close second. This is one of the deepest trenches of any Harappan site, offering insight into two different eras of Harappan culture - from 4000 BC to 2600 BC, and from 2600 BC to 2000 BC.
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    This wall in Rakhigarhi, Hisar district created naturally over the years shows the different stages of Harappan culture. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    "After days of excavation, we reached a depth of 14 metres and I thought we were done," says Yogesh Yadav, a PhD scholar at Deccan College. "But we weren't. The trench was a phenomenal 8 metres deeper, with a whole lot more to unearth."
    Through the layers, one can trace the Harappan culture's economic growth, its advancements in architecture, art and crafts, and even aspects of the structure of their society.
    "Nowhere on this or any other Harappan site has there been evidence of a culture of slaves or any kind or of work done through the use of force," says Shinde. "This suggests a relatively equitable society where work was done collectively."
    When it comes to trade and craft, the layers suggest that, from initially making jewellery from materials such as shell and beads imported from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the civilisation progressed to using intricate tin-glazed pottery, then lapis lazuli imported all the way from Afghanistan, and finally, trinkets made of 18-carat gold imported from the Hatti gold mines in Karnataka.
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    A portion of clay pottery with engravings found in the excavation. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    A rare find is a mini, unfinished seal featuring an intricately carved tiger, made of steatite or soapstone. Usually a seal features writing beneath the image. On this seal, there is just a blank space for text, suggesting that the site housed a seal-making workshop, says Shinde.
    The team also found carnelian beads decorated with alkaline material, identical to beads found in ancient Mesopotamia, a region now comprising Iraq and parts of Iran, Syria and Turkey.
    "By 3000 BC, the Harappans were already trading far and wide and had a deep understanding of art, architecture and material use. They also had the technology to build complicated homes and made metal jewellery," Shinde says.
    SITE MAP
    The Rakhigarhi excavation is part of a research project begun by Deccan College four years ago.

    "The site was discovered in 1965, and was pegged at 40, 65 and 216 hectares respectively during three different surveys between 1965 and 2011," says Shinde.
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    Prof Vasant S Shinde, Vice Chancellor of Deccan College and head archaeologist for the excavations inspects Mound #4. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)
    • Harappan

      Mound #4 dug up to the natural level of earth, at 22 metres, reveals the various stages of Harappan culture. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Harappan

      Painted Harappan pottery found during the excavation. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    • Harappa

      Modern-day pottery in Rakhigarhi bear resemblance to the ones found in excavation. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)

    After three years of painstaking excavation to determine its edges, Shinde's team released its findings in August 2014 - the size of the Harappan site was not 216 hectares but 350 hectares, making it 50 hectares larger than the famous Mohenjo Daro site in Sind in present-day Pakistan, which had so far been considered the biggest Harappan site on the subcontinent.
    While still awaiting the results of DNA testing and analysis of the samples and artefacts collected, the team of six - Shinde, PhD scholars Nagraja Rao, Yogesh Yadav, Shalmali Mali and Malvika Chatterjee, and archaeologist Nilesh Jadhav - has already discovered enough material evidence to reveal in some cases, and confirm in others, a few vignettes of Harappan life circa 4000 BC.
    These include pieces of pottery, semi-precious beads and stones, tiles, seals, ornaments, stone blades, toys and vessels.
    There is now a plan for a museum here, where visitors can view some of these artefacts and perhaps tour a section of the excavated 'town'.
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    An agricultural field, which is a former excavation site. (Saumya Khandelwal/ HT Photo)
    Already, the remote village of veiled women and hookah-smoking men seated on charpais - with a khap panchayat centre in the centre - has begun to open up to homestays and research scholars and students from around the world head to Rakhigarhi.
    "Over the past two years, about 5,000 people have visited the site," says local Congress leader Dinesh Cheoran. "The homestays and excavation work are providing employment, so the panchayat has already sanctioned land for the museum."

    In the meanwhile, it's business as usual. The villagers continue to plough their fields and scrub their cattle in the village pond and, every now and then, stumble upon human skeletons from thousands of years ago.

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    http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/what-did-harappans-eat-how-did-they-look-rakhigarhi-has-the-answers/article1-1348101.aspx

    Published: March 27, 2014 22:24 IST | Updated: March 27, 2014 22:24 IST  

    Rakhigarhi, the biggest Harappan site

    T. S. SUBRAMANIAN
    The newly discovered mound number nine situated to the west of the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi in Hisar district, Haryana. Photo: Vasant Shinde
    The newly discovered mound number nine situated to the west of the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi in Hisar district, Haryana. Photo: Vasant Shinde

    Bigger than Mohenjo-daro, claims expert

    The discovery of two more mounds in January at the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi in Hisar district, Haryana, has led to archaeologists establishing it as the biggest Harappan civilisation site. Until now, specialists in the Harappan civilisation had argued that Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan was the largest among the 2,000 Harappan sites known to exist in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The archaeological remains at Mohenjo-daro extend around 300 hectares. Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Ganweriwala (all in Pakistan) and Rakhigarhi and Dholavira (both in India) are ranked as the first to the fifth biggest Harappan sites.
    “With the discovery of two additional mounds, the total area of the Rakhigarhi site will be 350 hectares,” asserted Professor Vasant Shinde, Vice-Chancellor/Director, Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute, a deemed-to-be university in Pune. The two mounds are in addition to the seven mounds already discovered at Rakhigarhi, about 160 km from New Delhi. The eighth and ninth mounds, spread over 25 hectares each, are situated to the east and west of the main site. Villagers have destroyed much of these two mounds for cultivation. A team of archaeology teachers and students of the Deccan College discovered them when they surveyed the site in January.
    Dr. Shinde, a specialist in Harappan civilisation and Director of the current excavation at Rakhigarhi, called it “an important discovery.” He said: “Our discovery makes Rakhigarhi the biggest Harappan site, bigger than Mohenjo-daro. The two new mounds show that the Rakhigarhi site was quite extensive. They have the same material as the main site. So they are part of the main site. On the surface of mound nine, we noticed some burnt clay clots and circular furnaces, indicating this was the industrial area of the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi.”
    Dr. Shinde had earlier led the excavations done by the Deccan College at the Harappan sites of Farmana, Girawad and Mitathal, all in Haryana.
    On the surface of mound eight were found terracotta bangles, cakes, and pottery pieces, typical of the Harappan civilisation, said Nilesh P. Jadhav, Research Assistant, Department of Archaeology, Deccan College.
    Artefacts found
    From January 10, the Deccan College team has excavated five trenches on the slope of the mound four and another trench in the burial mound numbered seven. The excavation in mound four has yielded a cornucopia of artefacts, including a seal and a potsherd, both inscribed with the Harappan script; potsherds painted with concentric circles, fish-net designs, wavy patterns, floral designs and geometric designs; terracotta animal figurines, cakes, hopscotches and shell bangles, all belonging to the Mature Harappan phase of the civilisation. The five trenches have revealed residential rooms, a bathroom with a soak jar, drainages, a hearth, a platform etc … The residential rooms were built with mud bricks. The complex revealed different structural phases, said Kanti Pawar, assistant professor, Department of Archaeology, Deccan College.
    Much of the Harappan site at Rakhigarhi lies buried under the present-day village, with several hundreds of houses built on the archaeological remains. The villagers’ main occupation is cultivation of wheat and mustard, and rearing of buffaloes.
    Making cow dung cakes is a flourishing industry. There is rampant encroachment on all the mounds despite the Archaeological Survey of India fencing them. Amarendra Nath of the ASI had excavated the Rakhigarhi site from 1997 to 2000.
    An important problem about the Harappan civilisation is the origin of its culture, Dr. Shinde said. The Harappan civilisation had three phases: the early Harappan from circa 3,500 BCE to circa 2,600 BCE, the mature Harappan which lasted from circa 2,600 BCE to circa 2000 BCE, and the late Harappan from circa 2000 BCE to 1,600 BCE.
    Dr. Shinde said: “It was earlier thought that the origin of the early Harappan phase took place in Sind, in present-day Pakistan, because many sites had not been discovered then. In the last ten years, we have discovered many sites in this part [Haryana] and there are at least five Harappan sites such as Kunal, Bhirrana, Farmana, Girawad and Mitathal, which are producing early dates and where the early Harappan phase could go back to 5000 BCE. We want to confirm it. Rakhigarhi is an ideal candidate to believe that the beginning of the Harappan civilisation took place in the Ghaggar basin in Haryana and it gradually grew from here. If we get the confirmation, it will be interesting because the origin would have taken place in the Ghaggar basin in India and slowly moved to the Indus valley. That is one of the important aims of our current excavation at Rakhigarhi.”
    Printable version | May 18, 2015 12:51:03 PM | http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/rakhigarhi-the-biggest-harappan-site/article5840414.ece

    Harappan surprises


    Archaeology students of Deccan College, Pune, who were part of the excavation team.Professor Vasant Shinde, Vice-Chancellor/Director, Deccan College, with a student, Pranjali Waghmere, in a trench.Students of Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and Deccan College sieving the soil for artefacts.A drainage structure, a washing platform (top) and other structures of a residential complex unearthed in RGR-4. This mound could have housed the citadel where the ruling elite lived.Mound number nine, discovered by the Deccan College team in January 2014. This is about 20 hectares in size, but half of it has been destroyed for farming. The presence of burnt clay clots and circular furnaces here indicates that this mound might have been the industrial area of the Harappan site at Rakhigarhi.The soak jar and bathing platform of a residence of the mature Harappan period (2600-1900 B.C.)A granary built of mud bricks. It has seven small chambers, the walls of which are lined with lime and decomposed grass to absorb moisture and ward off insects.Broken lids, miniature pottery, perforated jars and other artefacts excavated from RGR-4 between January and April 2014.Ritual pottery excavated from a symbolic burial at Rakhigarhi.Beautifully painted potsherds found in the trenches in RGR-4.Terracotta artefacts such as animal figurines, bangles, cakes and lids, and beads made out of carnelian, lapis lazuli and agate unearthed from RGR-4.A concrete shed for buffaloes built on top of RGR-4, which the ASI had fenced off as a protected area.A mechanised ploughshare used by a wheat field owner to dig up mud to make bricks. In the process, many Harappan burials got destroyed. Adjacent to the ploughshare is the symbolic Harappan burial excavated by the Deccan College team, which yielded ritual pottery.Sheep being herded by a shepherd after grazing on mound three (RGR-3). A dargah sits on top of this fenced-off mound.

    Life goes on as usual in Rakhigarhi. An old woman sweeps the lane in front of her house.
    Schoolchildren of Rakhigarhi.
    A woman making cow dung cakes, which are used as cooking fuel. Heaps of them arranged in pyramidal shapes dot the protected mound of RGR-4
    Mound number two (RGR-2), which was excavated by Amarendra Nath of the Archaeological Survey of India between 1997 and 2000.
    At a pond situated at the edge of the village. Buffaloes and cows roam the lanes and alleys of Rakhigarhi.
    Elderly residents of a village, on the way to Rakhigarhi.
    A Rakhigarhi resident surveys RGR-2, which has a periphery dotted with houses. This makes it difficult to excavate the site completely.
    Wheat fields in Rakhigarhi.

    With the recent discovery of two mounds, Rakhigarhi in Haryana has staked its claim to be the biggest Harappan civilisation site out of an estimated 2,000 sites in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Text by T.S. SUBRAMANIAN and photographs by D. KRISHNAN

    LIFE went on as usual in an early morning in March at Rakhigarhi where history lies buried. Men sat in groups on cots, smoking hookahs, outside their homes in the rural hinterland of Haryana. Women carried cattle dung on their heads to turn them into dry circular cakes to be used as cooking fuel. Hundreds of buffaloes roamed the lanes and alleys. The smell of dung was thick in the air.
    We set out to Rakhigarhi around 6-30 a.m. on March 8 from the farmhouse we had been staying in, with Professor Vasant Shinde leading the way. In our group were Professor G.B. Deglurkar and his family members. Shinde is the Vice-Chancellor of Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute, a deemed university in Pune. Deglurkar, a noted historian, is its president. It was a trip worth remembering.
    On a big mound we had climbed, dung cakes were arranged like pyramids or domes to a height of about five feet. The villagers have encroached on this and other nearby mounds in the location which the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has fenced off as a “protected” area. We were told that a dargah sprang up on a mound some years ago. On top of another stood a concrete shed for buffaloes.
    Open fields of fully grown wheat and mustard crop stretched as far as the eye could see on both sides of the road. “All this is high-quality, high-yield wheat because this is the catchment area of the river Drishadwati, or the Chautang,” said Shinde. “The groundwater level is high, just 10 or 15 feet below the surface. This area is, therefore, ideal for large-scale cultivation. The fertile nature of this region is the reason for the existence of the biggest Harappan site at Rakhigarhi,” said Shinde, a specialist in the Harappan civilisation.
    With the recent discovery of the two mounds in addition to the seven discovered earlier (designated RGR-1 to RGR-7) in Rakhigarhi, it now has emerged as a competitor to Mohenjo-daro as the biggest Harappan civilisation site out of an estimated 2,000 Harappan sites in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Until now, Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Ganeriwala (all in Pakistan), Rakhigarhi and Dholavira (both in India) were ranked as the five major Harappan sites in that order.
    A team of teachers and students of the Department of Archaeology, Deccan College, made the “important discovery”, as Shinde put it, in January 2014. The eighth and ninth mounds are about 25 hectares each. They are located to the east and west of the main site. “With the discovery of the two additional mounds, the total area of the Rakhigarhi site will be around 350 hectares,” said Shinde. The archaeological remains at Mohenjo-daro extend over 300 hectares.
    “The two new mounds show that the Rakhigarhi site was quite extensive. They have the same material as the main site. So they are part of the main site,” said Shinde. On the surface of mound nine, burnt clay clots and circular furnaces were found, indicating that this might have been the industrial area of the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi.
    Harappan civilisation
    The growth and development of the Harappan civilisation can be divided into three phases: early Harappan (3000-2600 B.C.), mature Harappan (2600-1900 B.C.) and late Harappan (1900-1500 B.C.). Much of the Harappan site lies buried under the present-day Rakhigarhi village situated about 25 km from Jind town in Hisar district. It actually comprises two villages—Rakhi Khas and Rakhi Shapur.
    Acharya Bhagwan Dev of Jhajjar town was the first person to notice the Harappan remains at the site, in the early 1960s. Not knowing what they were, he informed Professor Suraj Bhan, who was Professor of Archaeology, Department of Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology, Kurukshetra University, Haryana, about it. Bhan confirmed the site’s Harappan character.
    Amarendra Nath, former Director, ASI, was the first archaeologist to excavate Rakhigarhi. He wrote extensively about the findings of his excavations in Indian Archaeology: A Review, the annual publication of the ASI, in 1998, 1999 and 2000. The cornucopia of Harappan artefacts found during the three fields of excavation includes seals in square, rectangular and circular shapes; bangles; fish hooks and arrowheads made of bronze; potter’s kilns; the remains of a drainage system; and terracotta figurines of a mother goddess, males, animals, including humped bulls, and goats and sheep.
    “We have been able to extensively identify the purpose behind the early Harappan structures and trace the beginning of the emergence of town planning in early Harappan levels, wherein the structures are well laid out and there is evidence of a public drainage system,” said Amarendra Nath. Although other sites had yielded potsherds with graffiti marks, “here we have graffiti arranged in a sequence, which suggests the beginning of writing in the early Harappan level”, he said (“Harappan link”, Frontline, February 1, 2008). Amarendra Nath said the discovery of a needle suggested that some kind of stitched cloth was used. Importantly, a potsherd with a painting on it was also found. “This is a rare painting in the Harappan context, wherein you get the evidence of a person wearing a dhoti and a stitched upper garment,” he said. (According to Vijai Vardhan, who wrote “Rakhigarhi Rediscovered”, published by the Department of Archaeology Museums, Government of Haryana, evidence of textile working was found at Rakhigarhi.)
    In the early 1970s, Professor R.S. Bisht was the Superintending Archaeologist of ASI’s Srinagar Circle, which had jurisdiction over Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. “I used to visit Rakhigarhi frequently. I found a few mounds there. I got the site mapped and got it approved as a protected site. In addition to that, I identified two separate mounds, which are older than the Harappan civilisation. They are locally called Arada mounds. They lie to the west of the Harappan mounds,” said Bisht, who made a name for himself with the excavation of Dholavira, a Harappan site in Gujarat, from 1990 to 2005.
    Such early phases of the Harappan culture were found at Kalibangan in Rajasthan and Banawali in Haryana. “We call them Sothi culture. These two mounds belong to the Sothi culture,” said Bisht. The ASI excavated Rakhigarhi between 1997 and 2000.
    Teachers and students of the Department of Archaeology, Deccan College, and Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, resumed the excavation of RGR-4 from January 10 this year under Shinde’s leadership. They dug five trenches.
    “We wanted to find out the total area of the site because there was a controversy about the area. So we did an extensive survey last year and this year. We came across two additional mounds in January this year,” said Shinde, on the discovery of mounds eight and nine. “After that, we undertook a scientific scanning of the site with a ground-penetrating radar [GPR]. The GPR helped us in understanding the nature of the remains of the site.”
    Sampling was done to get an idea of the human activities on the site—what the living areas were, where manufacturing was done, and so on. It was found that RGR-2 had large remains of crafts manufacturing.
    Structural phases
    Then began the excavation from January 10 of RGR-4 in an area where the early Harappan phase began and it ended with the mature Harappan phase, Shinde said. “In four metres [of depth] so far, we have found evidence of only the mature Harappan phase. We have found five different structural phases,” he added.
    When we visited the excavation site on March 7 and 8, there was a flurry of activity led by Nilesh P. Jadhav, Research Assistant, and Kanti Pawar, Assistant Professor, both belonging to the Department of Archaeology, Deccan College. Research Assistants Pranjali Waghmere, Amit Pendam, Avradeep Munshi, Sutapa Lahiri and Diya Mukherjee were assiduously working in the trenches. They had unearthed a seal which had the Harappan script but no animal motifs, a potsherd inscribed with the Harappan script, terracotta cakes, beads and bangles made of terracotta, and an assortment of painted potsherds. Other artefacts unearthed included terracotta figurines of pigs and dogs, toy cartwheels, fishnet sinkers, sling balls to scare away birds, tiny beads made of steatite, agate and carnelian, etched carnelian beads, micro weights, banded agate weights, pieces of perforated jars and painted pottery.
    RGR-4 housed a Harappan residential complex built of mud bricks. There was evidence of a hearth, a bathroom, drainage and a room, Jadhav said.
    The bathroom or the washing place had a platform and a soak jar. Nearby was a drainage system, the construction of which could be traced to two different periods. The bricks at the lower level belonged to an earlier period than the ones used for drainage, Pawar said.
    The excavating team also found terracotta cakes in square, rectangular, circular, triangular, and “idli” (disc) shapes. “They were used as tiles for decoration or for heating purposes. Some of the cakes have graffiti on them, but we did not find any such here,” said Pranjali Waghmere, who had just dug up a circular cake.
    The potsherds unearthed were engraved in wavy, horizontal and concentric lines, fishnet designs, peepal leaf images and hand motifs. Some of them were bichrome. “The sheer variety of pottery, with aesthetic designs, shows the prosperity that the Harappan people enjoyed. This pottery is a classic example of the mature Harappan period,” Jadhav said.
    Mud-brick granary
    One of the trenches had the remains of a “beautifully made” mud-brick granary, which “is still in remarkably good condition”, said Shinde. The granary’s floor was made of rammed earth and plastered with mud. It had rectangular and square chambers. Traces of lime and decomposed grass were found daubed on the lower portion of the granary walls. Seven chambers were found in the granary. “It appears to be a big structure. We do not know whether it is a private or public granary. Considering that it extends on all sides, it could be a big public granary,” he explained.
    Shinde called the presence of lime and decomposed grass “a significant indication that it is a storehouse for storing grains because the lime acts as an insecticide and grass prevents moisture from entering the grains”. This was “strong proof for understanding the function of the structure”, he said.
    This is the second time that a granary has been found in Rakhigarhi. In RGR-2, too, Amarendra Nath had unravelled a granary with a guard’s room. “We found grains in the granary. We exposed the entire structure of the granary,” he said. The booklet “Rakhigarhi Rediscovered” says that the “modest granary” consisted of “cells in two segments with a corridor in front and a guard’s cell” and that “the accumulated dust and earth from these cells yielded barley”.
    Shinde said Rakhigarhi was “an ideal site to believe that the beginning of the Harappan civilisation could have taken place here”. A significant problem relating to the Harappan culture is about its genesis. It was earlier thought that the origin of the early Harappan phase was in Sind (now in Pakistan).
    In the past 10 years, many Harappan sites have been discovered in Haryana. “About half a dozen of them, including Bhirrana, Mitathal, Girawad and Farmana, are early Harappan sites dating back to circa 5000 B.C.,” claimed Shinde. Carbon-14 dating of charcoal found in these sites indicates that the beginning of the Harappan civilisation was earlier in this region than what was believed so far, he said.
    He, however, stressed the need for further confirmation on this. “We have not excavated at the lower level” at Rakhigarhi this year, he said. “We do not want to rush to any conclusion unless we have sufficient data. We hope we will get the data here. If we get that confirmation, it will be interesting because the origin of the Harappan civilisation would have taken place here and it would have slowly moved to the Indus valley.”
    Heritage endangered
    The Global Heritage Fund (GHF), in its report released in May 2012, identified Rakhigarhi as one of the 10 most endangered archaeological and heritage sites in Asia. The GHF is a non-profit organisation that helps to sustain and preserve heritage sites in developing countries and regions around the world. It said the Rakhigarhi site, “one of the oldest and largest” Harappan sites in the world, faced threats from development pressures, insufficient management and looting.
    According to the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, which was amended in 2010, a prohibited area extends to 100 metres in all directions around a protected area/monument. The regulated area runs to a distance of 200 m in all directions, beginning at the limit of the prohibited area. While any construction activity is banned within the prohibited area of the first 100 m, construction can be done with the ASI’s permission in the regulated area in the next 200 m.
    However, be it the prohibited area or the regulated area, the Harappan site at Rakhigarhi is being encroached upon on all sides. Rakhigarhi has hundreds of houses built on the remains of the ancient civilisation, making it difficult to excavate the site completely. Besides, the villagers use the fenced-off mounds for various purposes.
    Much of the two pre-Harappan mounds, which are called Harada mounds, have been levelled for agriculture. A burial site belonging to the Harappan period has also made way for the cultivation of wheat.
    Painting a picture of contrast with the artefacts was a mechanised ploughshare (some feet away from the symbolic burial) in a field the size of a football ground. The landowner had used it to dig up the field to get mud to make bricks. In the process, hundreds of ritual pottery and skeletal remains were destroyed, erasing evidence of an ancient civilisation.
    But the owner of the field had allowed the Deccan College team to excavate a Harappan grave there. The researchers said it was an aesthetically laid-out symbolic burial of the Harappan period. The four sides of the grave, on the surface, were lined with bricks.
    Shinde is confident that the site can be saved by educating the people of Rakhigarhi on its importance. “We have realised that unless there is participation from the people, we cannot save it. So we want to ensure the involvement of the people,” he said.
    To ensure community development in Rakhigarhi, representatives of the Deccan College and the Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development (ITRHD) had already held meetings, the Vice-Chancellor said. In Shinde’s estimate, Rakhigarhi has the potential to be a good tourist spot. It is just 160 km from New Delhi.
    The Haryana government, the ASI and the Deccan College together were planning to set up a site museum at Rakhigarhi, he said. The Haryana government had earlier allotted land for the museum construction, but it was located away from Rakhigarhi.
    “We surveyed the village and found a lot of abandoned havelis. “We want to convert these havelis into museums,” Shinde said.
    http://www.frontline.in/arts-and-culture/heritage/harappan-surprises/article6032206.ece

    Kaalaadhan: Fake diplomas, real cash: Pakistani company Axact reaps millions -- Declan Walsh

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    Fake diplomas, real cash: Pakistani company Axact reaps millions

    Axact, which has its headquarters in Karachi, Pakistan, ostensibly operates as a software company. CreditSara Farid for The New York Times

    Their websites, glossy and assured, offer online degrees in dozens of disciplines, like nursing and civil engineering. There are glowing endorsements on the CNN iReportwebsite, enthusiastic video testimonials, and State Department authentication certificates bearing the signature of Secretary of State John Kerry.
    “We host one of the most renowned faculty in the world,” boasts a woman introduced in one promotional videoas the head of a law school. “Come be a part of Newford University to soar the sky of excellence.”
    Yet on closer examination, this picture shimmers like a mirage. The news reports are fabricated. The professors are paid actors. The university campuses exist only as stock photos on computer servers. The degrees have no true accreditation.


    In fact, very little in this virtual academic realm, appearing to span at least 370 websites, is real — except for the tens of millions of dollars in estimated revenue it gleans each year from many thousands of people around the world, all paid to a secretive Pakistani software company.

    Photo

    Axact makes tens of millions of dollars annually by offering diplomas and degrees online through hundreds of fictitious schools. Fake accreditation bodies and testimonials lend the schools an air of credibility. But when customers call, they are talking to Axact sales clerks in Karachi.

    That company, Axact, operates from the port city of Karachi, where it employs over 2,000 people and calls itself Pakistan’s largest software exporter, with Silicon Valley-style employee perks like a swimming pool and yacht.
    Axact does sell some software applications. But according to former insiders, company records and a detailed analysis of its websites, Axact’s main business has been to take the centuries-old scam of selling fake academic degrees and turn it into an Internet-era scheme on a global scale.
    As interest in online education is booming, the company is aggressively positioning its school and portal websites to appear prominently in online searches, luring in potential international customers.
    At Axact’s headquarters, former employees say, telephone sales agents work in shifts around the clock. Sometimes they cater to customers who clearly understand that they are buying a shady instant degree for money. But often the agents manipulate those seeking a real education, pushing them to enroll for coursework that never materializes, or assuring them that their life experiences are enough to earn them a diploma.
    To boost profits, the sales agents often follow up with elaborate ruses, including impersonating American government officials, to persuade customers to buy expensive certifications or authentication documents.
    Revenues, estimated by former employees and fraud experts at several million dollars per month, are cycled through a network of offshore companies. All the while, Axact’s role as the owner of this fake education empire remains obscured by proxy Internet services, combative legal tactics and a chronic lack of regulation in Pakistan.
    “Customers think it’s a university, but it’s not,” said Yasir Jamshaid, a quality control official who left Axact in October. “It’s all about the money.”
    Axact’s response to repeated requests for interviews over the past week, and to a list of detailed questions submitted to its leadership on Thursday, was a letter from its lawyers to The New York Times on Saturday. In the letter, it issued a blanket denial, accusing a Times reporter of “coming to our client with half-cooked stories and conspiracy theories.”
    In an interview in November 2013 about Pakistan’s media sector, Axact’s founder and chief executive, Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, described Axact as an “I.T. and I.T. network services company” that serves small and medium-sized businesses. “On a daily basis we make thousands of projects. There’s a long client list,” he said, but declined to name those clients.
    The accounts by former employees are supported by internal company records and court documents reviewed by The New York Times. The Times also analyzed more than 370 websites — including school sites, but also a supporting body of search portals, fake accreditation bodies, recruitment agencies, language schools and even a law firm — that bear Axact’s digital fingerprints.
    In academia, diploma mills have long been seen as a nuisance. But the proliferation of Internet-based degree schemes has raised concernsabout their possible use in immigration fraud, and about dangers they may pose to public safety and legal systems. In 2007, for example, a British court jailed Gene Morrison, a fake police criminologist who claimed to have degree certificates from the Axact-owned Rochville University, among other places.
    Little of this is known in Pakistan, where Axact has dodged questions about its diploma business and has portrayed itself as a roaring success and model corporate citizen.
    “Winning and caring” is the motto of Mr. Shaikh, who claims to donate 65 percent of Axact’s revenues to charity, and last year announced plans for a program to educate 10 million Pakistani children by 2019.
    More immediately, he is working to become Pakistan’s most influential media mogul. For almost two years now, Axact has been building a broadcast studio and aggressively recruiting prominent journalists for Bol, a television and newspaper group scheduled to start this year.

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    A screengrab taken from the website Columbiana University. This and other Axact sites have toll-free American contact numbers and calculatedly familiar-sounding names.

    Just how this ambitious venture is being funded is a subject of considerable speculation in Pakistan. Axact has filed several pending lawsuits, and Mr. Shaikh has issued vigorous public denials, to reject accusations by media competitors that the company is being supported by the Pakistani military or organized crime. What is clear, given the scope of Axact’s diploma operation, is that fake degrees are likely providing financial fuel for the new media business.
    “Hands down, this is probably the largest operation we’ve ever seen,” said Allen Ezell, a retired F.B.I. agent and author of a book on diploma mills who has been investigating Axact. “It’s a breathtaking scam.”
    Building a Web
    At first glance, Axact’s universities and high schools are linked only by superficial similarities: slick websites, toll-free American contact numbers and calculatedly familiar-sounding names, like Barkley,Columbiana and Mount Lincoln.
    But other clues signal common ownership. Many sites link to the same fictitious accreditation bodies and have identical graphics, such as a floating green window with an image of a headset-wearing woman who invites customers to chat.
    There are technical commonalities, too: identical blocks of customized coding, and the fact that a vast majority route their traffic through two computer servers run by companies registered in Cyprus and Latvia.
    Five former employees confirmed many of these sites as in-house creations of Axact, where executives treat the online schools as lucrative brands to be meticulously created and forcefully marketed, frequently through deception.
    The professors and bubbly students in promotional videos are actors, according to former employees, and some of the stand-ins feature repeatedly in ads for different schools.
    The sources described how employees would plant fictitious reports about Axact universities on iReport, a section of the CNN website for citizen journalism. Although CNN stresses that it has not verified the reports, Axact uses the CNN logo as a publicity tool on many of its sites.
    Social media adds a further patina of legitimacy. LinkedIn contains profiles for purported faculty members of Axact universities, likeChristina Gardener, described as a senior consultant at Hillford University and a former vice president at Southwestern Energy, a publicly listed company in Houston. In an email, a Southwestern spokeswoman said the company had no record of an employee with that name.
    The heart of Axact’s business, however, is the sales team — young and well-educated Pakistanis, fluent in English or Arabic, who work the phones with customers who have been drawn in by the websites. They offer everything from high school diplomas for about $350, to doctoral degrees for $4,000 and above.
    “It’s a very sales-oriented business,” said a former employee who, like several others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared legal action by Axact.
    A new customer is just the start. To meet their monthly targets, Axact sales agents are schooled in tough tactics known as upselling, according to former employees. Sometimes they cold-call prospective students, pretending to be corporate recruitment agents with a lucrative job offer — but only if the student buys an online course.
    A more lucrative form of upselling involves impersonating American government officials who wheedle or bully customers into buying State Department authentication certificates signed by Secretary Kerry.

    Photo

    Axact employees often follow up aggressively with previous customers, pushing them to buy more. Some pose as American officials, badgering clients to spend thousands of dollars on State Department authentication letters. Payments are funneled through offshore firms.

    Such certificates, which help a degree to be recognized abroad, can be lawfully purchased in the United States for less than $100. But in Middle Eastern countries, Axact officials sell the documents — some of them forged, others secured under false pretenses — for thousands of dollars each.
    “They would threaten the customers, telling them that their degrees would be useless if they didn’t pay up,” said a former sales agent who left Axact in 2013.
    Axact tailors its websites to appeal to customers in its principal markets, including the United States and oil-rich Persian Gulf countries. One Saudi man spent over $400,000 on fake degrees and associated certificates, said Mr. Jamshaid, the former employee.
    Usually the sums are less startling, but still substantial.
    One Egyptian man paid $12,000 last year for a doctorate in engineering technology from Nixon University and a certificate signed by Mr. Kerry. He acknowledged breaking ethical boundaries: His professional background was in advertising, he said in a phone interview, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid potential legal trouble.
    But he was certain the documents were real. “I really thought this was coming from America,” he said. “It had so many foreigner stamps. It was so impressive.”
    Real-Life Troubles
    Many customers of degree operations, hoping to secure a promotion or pad their résumé, are clearly aware that they are buying the educational equivalent of a knockoff Rolex. Some have been caught.
    In the United States, one federal prosecution in 2008 revealed that 350 federal employees, including officials at the departments of State and Justice, held qualifications from a non-Axact-related diploma mill operation based in Washington State.
    Some Axact-owned school websites have previously made the news as being fraudulent, though without the company’s ownership role being discovered. In 2013, for instance, Drew Johansen, a former Olympic swim coach, was identified in a news report as a graduate of Axact’s bogus Rochville University.
    The effects have sometimes been deeply disruptive. In Britain, thepolice had to re-examine 700 cases that Mr. Morrison, the falsely credentialed police criminologist and Rochville graduate, had worked on. “It looked easier than going to a real university,” Mr. Morrison said during his 2007 trial.
    In the Middle East, Axact has sold aeronautical degrees to airline employees, and medical degrees to hospital workers. One nurse at a large hospital in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, admitted to spending $60,000 on an Axact-issued medical degree to secure a promotion.
    But there is also evidence that many Axact customers are dupes, lured by the promise of a real online education.
    Elizabeth Lauber, a bakery worker from Bay City, Mich., had been home-schooled, but needed a high school diploma to enroll in college. In 2006, she called Belford High School, which had her pay $249 and take a 20-question knowledge test online.

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    Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, the founder of Axact, in an image taken from social media.

    Weeks later, while waiting for the promised coursework, Ms. Lauber was surprised to receive a diploma in the mail. But when she tried to use the certificate at a local college, an official said it was useless. “I was so angry,” she said by phone.
    Last May, Mohan, a junior accountant at a construction firm in Abu Dhabi, paid $3,300 for what he believed was going to be an 18-month online master’s program in business administration at the Axact-ownedGrant Town University.
    A sales agent assured Mohan, a 39-year-old Indian citizen who asked to be identified only by part of his name, of a quality education. Instead, he received a cheap tablet computer in the mail — it featured a school logo but no education applications or coursework — followed by a series of insistent demands for more money.
    When a phone caller who identified himself as an American Embassy official railed at Mohan for his lack of an English-language qualification, he agreed to pay $7,500 to the Global Institute of English Language Training Certification, an Axact-run website.
    In a second call weeks later, the man pressed Mohan to buy a State Department authentication certificate signed by Mr. Kerry. Mohan charged $7,500 more to his credit card.
    Then in September a different man called, this time claiming to represent the United Arab Emirates government. If Mohan failed to legalize his degree locally, the man warned, he faced possible deportation. Panicking, Mohan spoke to his sales agent at Axact and agreed to pay $18,000 in installments.
    By October, he was $30,000 in debt and sinking into depression. He had stopped sending money to his parents in India, and hid his worries from his wife, who had just given birth.
    “She kept asking why I was so tense,” said Mohan during a recent interview near his home in Abu Dhabi. “But I couldn’t say it to anyone.”
    Chasing Bill Gates
    In Pakistan, Mr. Shaikh, Axact’s chief executive, portrays himself as a self-made tycoon of sweeping ambition with a passion for charity.
    Growing up in a one-room house, he said in a speech posted on the company’s website, his goal was to become “the richest man on the planet, even richer than Bill Gates.” At gala company events he describes Axact, which he founded in 1997, as a global software leader. His corporate logo — a circular design with a soaring eagle — bears a striking resemblance to the American presidential seal.
    Unusual for a software entrepreneur, Mr. Shaikh does not habitually use email or a cellphone, said several people recruited to his new station, Bol.
    But his ambition is undimmed: Last year he announced plans for Gal Axact, a futuristic headquarters building with its own monorail system and space for 20,000 employees. His philanthropic vision, meanwhile, has a populist streak that resonates with many Pakistanis’ frustrations with their government.


    As well as promising to educate 10 million children, Mr. Shaikh last year started a project to help resolve small civil disputes — a pointed snub to the country’s sclerotic justice system — and vowed to pump billions of dollars into Pakistan’s economy.

    Photo

    Barkley University claims that its degrees are recognized all over the world.

    “There is no power in the universe that can prevent us from realizing this dream,” he declared in the speech.
    But some employees, despite the good salaries and perks they enjoyed, became disillusioned by the true nature of Axact’s business.
    During three months working in the internal audit department last year, monitoring customer phone calls, Mr. Jamshaid grew dismayed by what he heard: customers being cajoled into spending tens of thousands of dollars, and tearful demands for refunds that were refused.
    “I had a gut feeling that it was not right,” he said.
    In October, Mr. Jamshaid quit Axact and moved to the United Arab Emirates, taking with him internal records of 22 individual customer payments totaling over $600,000.
    Mr. Jamshaid has since contacted most of those customers, offering to use his knowledge of Axact’s internal protocols to obtain refunds. Several spurned his approach, seeing it as a fresh effort to defraud them. But a few, including Mohan, accepted his offer.
    After weeks of fraught negotiations, Axact refunded Mohan $31,300 last fall.
    The Indian accountant found some satisfaction, but mostly felt chastened and embarrassed.
    “I was a fool,” he said, shaking his head. “It could have ruined me.”
    Deception and Threats
    Axact’s role in the diploma mill industry was nearly exposed in 2009 when an American woman in Michigan, angry that her online high school diploma had proved useless, sued two Axact-owned websites, Belford High School and Belford University.
    The case quickly expanded into a class-action lawsuit with an estimated 30,000 American claimants. Their lawyer, Thomas H. Howlett, said in an interview that he found “hundreds of stories of people who have been genuinely tricked,” including Ms. Lauber, who joined the suit after it was established.
    But instead of Axact, the defendant who stepped forward was Salem Kureshi, a Pakistani who claimed to be running the websites from his apartment. Over three years of hearings, his only appearance was in a video deposition from a dimly lit room in Karachi, during which he was barely identifiable. An associate who also testified by video, under the name “John Smith,” wore sunglasses.
    Mr. Kureshi’s legal fees of over $400,000 were paid to his American lawyers through cash transfers from different currency exchange stores in Dubai, court documents show. Recently a reporter was unable to find his given address in Karachi.

    Photo

    A broadcast studio at Bol, a television and newspaper group owned by Axact that is scheduled to start this year. CreditSara Farid for The New York Times

    “We were dealing with an elusive and illusory defendant,” said Mr. Howlett, the lawyer for the plaintiffs.
    In his testimony, Mr. Kureshi denied any links to Axact, even though mailboxes operated by the Belford schools listed the company’s headquarters as their forwarding address.
    The lawsuit ended in 2012 when a federal judge ordered Mr. Kureshi and Belford to pay $22.7 million in damages. None of the damages have been paid, Mr. Howlett said.
    Today, Belford is still open for business, using a slightly different website address. Former Axact employees say that during their inductions into the company, the two schools were held out as prized brands.
    Axact does have regular software activities, mainly in website design and smartphone applications, former employees say. Another business unit, employing about 100 people, writes term papers on demand for college students.
    But the employees say those units are outstripped by its diploma business, which as far back as 2006 was already earning Axact around $4,000 a day, according to a former software engineer who helped build several sites. Current revenues are at least 30 times higher, by several estimates, and are funneled through companies registered in places like Dubai, Belize and the British Virgin Islands.
    Axact has brandished legal threats to dissuade reporters, rivals and critics. Under pressure from Axact, a major British paper, The Mail on Sunday, withdrew an article from the Internet in 2006. Later, using an apparently fictitious law firm, the company faced down a consumer rights group in Botswana that had criticized Axact-runHeadway University.
    It has also petitioned a court in the United States, bringing a lawsuit in 2007 against an American company that is a competitor in the essay-writing business, Student Network Resources, and that had called Axact a “foreign scam site.” The American company countersued and was awarded $700,000, but no damages have been paid, the company’s lawyer said.
    In his interview with The New York Times in 2013, Axact’s chief executive, Mr. Shaikh, acknowledged that the company had faced criticism in the media and on the Internet in Britain, the United States and Pakistan, and noted that Axact had frequently issued a robust legal response.
    “We have picked up everything, we have gone to the courts,” he said. “Lies cannot flourish like that.”
    Mr. Shaikh said that the money for Axact’s new media venture, Bol, would “come from our own funds.”
    With so much money at stake, and such considerable effort to shield its interests, one mystery is why Axact is ready to risk it all on a high-profile foray into the media business. Bol has already caused a stir in Pakistan by poaching star talent from rival organizations, often by offering unusually high salaries.
    Mr. Shaikh says he is motivated by patriotism: Bol will “show the positive and accurate image of Pakistan,” he said last year. He may also be betting that the new operation will buy him influence and political sway.

    In any event, Axact’s business model faces few threats within Pakistan, where it does not promote its degrees.
    When reporters for The Times contacted 12 Axact-run education websites on Friday, asking about their relationship to Axact and the Karachi office, sales representatives variously claimed to be based in the United States, denied any connection to Axact or hung up immediately.
    “This is a university, my friend,” said one representative when asked about Axact. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

    Krazywal, subsidies, Delhi topi, fight with LG. Rich Delhiites get the AAP topi (read toppi in Tamil).

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    Krazywal thinks Delhi voted for him. Wrong. It voted for his various subsidies. Now poor Indians will pay for rich Delhiites.

    Topi is explained by a Tamil phrase: தொப்பிபோடு-தல் toppi-pōṭu-
    v. tr. < id. +. Loc. 1. To cap, deceive; ஏமாற்றுதல். 2. To confound and ruin; மயக்கி நாசஞ்செய்தல்.

    Kalyanaraman
    Published: May 18, 2015 13:08 IST | Updated: May 18, 2015 17:18 IST  

    Delhi govt. replaces Principal Secretary Anindo Majumdar

    PTI
    Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accuses Governor Najeeb Jung of not acting
    The Hindu
    Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accuses Governor Najeeb Jung of not acting "as per provisions of Constitution." Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

    Official who okayed Gamlin's appointment replaced by CM's aide.

    The AAP government today appointed Chief Minister’s Secretary Rajendra Kumar as Principal Secretary (Services) which was promptly rejected by Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung.
    Mr. Kumar’s appointment by the AAP government came hours after the Kejriwal-led government locked the office of Principal Secretary (Services) Anindo Majumdar who had issued an order notifying the appointment of Shakuntala Gamlin as the acting chief secretary.
    Reacting to the appointment, Mr. Jung shot off a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, declaring Mr. Kumar’s appointment in place of Mr. Majumdar “void”, noting that it did not have his approval.
    Our Correspondent Jatin Anand adds
    After its temporary Chief Secretary, the Delhi Government, on Monday, went after a bureaucrat who had cleared her appointment.
    Principal Secretary (Services) Anindo Majumdar reached his office only to find it out of bounds as per a direction from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's office. He has been replaced, for the time being, by one of the CM's close aides.
    Mr. Majumdar had cleared the appointment of Shakuntala Gamlin as acting CS for an interim period of ten days during which KK Sharma had applied for leave late last week.
    The Delhi Government said it took action against the said bureaucrat as per rules deeming it the final authority in relation to the transfer and postings of AGMUT cadre bureaucrats.
    His work will now be looked after by Rajender Kumar, Mr. Kejriwal's principal secretary.
    BJP leader Vijender Gupta said, "The vengeful way the Chief Minister has been acting might either have been triggered by lack of experience or pure arrogance."
    On Sunday, Mr. Kejriwal had targeted Ms. Gamlin at a public event, accused her of 'working for power' discoms and vowed to 'keep an eye in her activities'.
    Printable version | May 18, 2015 5:52:15 PM | http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-govt-replaces-principal-secretary-anindo-majumdar/article7219150.ece


    Ground truth of Vedic River Sarasvati

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    Vedic River Sarasvati: Drainage and tributaries in northern Haryana. Pilgrim sites/Tirthas
    Simplified palaeochannel map course of Vedic River Sarasvati in NW Rajasthan
    Palaeo-drainage map of Thar desert region using IRS P3 WiFS satellite image, ISRO

    HT Spotlight: The hype over Saraswati's revival

    • Hitender Rao, Hindustan Times, Yamunanagar
    • Updated: May 16, 2015 23:17 IST

    Remnants of inactive Saraswati river at Mugalwali village, Haryana. Keshav Singh/HT


    Call it a lucky strike. A chance discovery of aquifers during the excavation of the alignment of the underground channel of the mythological river Saraswati at Mugalwali village in the first week of May was more than sufficient to set-off veneration, euphoria, claims, counter-claims and futuristic plans of river engineering and religious tourism.
    The findings are bound to trigger debates, both in its favour and against it and revive the argument as to whether Saraswati was a glacier-fed Himalayan river or a monsoonal stream.
    The aquifers being termed as palaeo-channels (leftovers of an inactive river or stream filled or buried with younger sediment) by the geologists were not intended to be discovered when the digging in several villages started under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) to unearth the alignment where, as per the local revenue records, the mighty Saraswati river once flowed.
    Khaleel, a Muslim labourer credited with scooping out the most abundant aquifer at Mugalwali was, like many co-workers, asked to dig till five feet only by the authorities. "Probably in his enthusiasm or ignorance, Khaleel went beyond five feet and discovered the most prolific aquifer,'' said a revenue official.
    No sooner several other aquifers, mostly shallow, cropped up in the dug up area prompting the villagers and the local administration to declare that the lost Saraswati river has finally been found.
    Geologists from Kurukshetra University were quick to descend at Mugalwali to examine the aquifers and take samples of the pebbles and sediment recovered from the aquifers.
    Dr AR Chaudhary, head of the geology department, says prima facie he is convinced these were river-generated. "The lab examination to confirm their authenticity is being done,'' he said.
    Superintending archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), GN Srivastava too looks convinced with the findings.
    Darshan Lal Jain, the octogenarian president of Jagadhri-based Saraswati Nadi Shodh Sansthan is elated. "I firmly believe that the water discovered at Mugalwali is of the lost Saraswati. The river's path is clearly mapped in the revenue records and digging was done according to it," Jain said.
    Mugalwali, meanwhile, has become the centre of attraction as crowds throng the excavation site to sip the "holy water" from the aquifer and offer their prayers. A sacred flag hoisted by devotees from Vrindavan signals the location of the aquifer; its crevice has been metalled to protect it from damage and a feast was organised by villagers last week. A temple may soon come up at the site.  

    HYPE AND HOOPLA
    Traces of river Saraswati, which finds mention in Rig Veda, have reportedly been found at various places in Haryana earlier. Water trickling from a hill at Adi Badri - christened as Saraswati Udgam Sthal (point of origin) - was cordoned off by the forest department. Also, a buried river bed was found at Bhor Sayidan village in Kurukshetra some time ago.
    So why so much hype and hoopla this time? The BJP government's recent move to restore Saraswati creek from Adi Badri to Mustafabad in Yamunanagar district and setting up of Adi Badri Heritage Board probably explains this. The saffron party, which is euphoric over "discovering" the Saraswati waters, is keen to put its stamp on this endeavour for posterity by coming up with a religious tourism model.
    Chief minister ML Khattar, in fact, announced a financial support of Rs 50 crore for Saraswati restoration project. Assembly speaker Kanwar Pal too pitched in with Rs 11 lakh. Officials said the government wants to develop this area from tourism point of view with a proposal to construct a water recreation park.

    BJP CONNECTION
    It was during the rule of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre in 2003 that an advisory committee of experts was constituted for multi-disciplinary study of Saraswati river. Its charter was to locate source of river, define its course and identify items for geo-technical study and archaeological research. The committee then recommended setting up of Saraswati Heritage Project which was launched by then Union tourism and culture minister Jagmohan. The project though was shelved after the Congress-led UPA came to power in 2004. Now, there are indications that the present NDA regime led by Narendra Modi is keen to revive it.

    RAP TO ASI
    The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture in its report, tabled in the Parliament on November 2005, had objected to the Saraswati Heritage Project, leading to its burial.
    "The Committee is of the firm view that Saraswati Heritage Project did not conform to the criterion fixed for excavation of archaeological sites since no academic body or university had recommended the project. The Ministry is not clear as to which research agency/scientific survey actually pointed out that the dry beds of Ghaggar and Chautang (Drisadvati) were the bed of Saraswati river," the report said.
     The committee said the existence of Saraswati was purely a mythological one and a scientific institution like Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has not correctly proceeded in the matter.  "The Committee regrets to note that a major project to the tune of Rs 36.02 crore was prepared, which though was reduced to Rs 4.98 crore, just to excavate a mythological river whereas several other monuments of national importance were languishing due to fund shortage. The ASI should prevent itself from taking up exercises without scientific basis which have potentiality for subjective interpretation of historical facts thereby leading to controversies,'' the report said.

    PUBLIC SUPPORT
    The hype surrounding the recent discovery at Yamunanagar has helped in gaining public support for the project. Revenue officials said that large chunks of under-excavation government land was under illegal occupation. "Saraswati has come to our rescue as the reverence for the sacred river is enormous. Getting the land vacated would have been a big problem otherwise,'' said an official.   

    MAN-MADE RIVER
    Yamunanagar district and development panchayat officer (DDPO) Gagandeep Singh, who used revenue records, a global positioning system (GPS) device and Google maps to sketch the site plan for the restoration of Saraswati, says the plan is to construct a dam at the Somb river whose torrent causes destruction during monsoons and divert that water into the dug up Saraswati creek through a feeder channel constructed at Ranipur.
    The DDPO said that the administration plans to construct a water reservoir spread over 400 acres at Chhalour village.
    "We are in touch with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to drill groundwater wells along the palaeo-channels of Saraswati. A survey will be done for identification of fresh locations for drilling. The idea is to revive the Saraswati creek and the state has sought assistance of WAPCOS, a Government of India enterprise,'' Singh said.

    http://www.hindustantimes.com/haryana/ht-spotlight-the-hype-over-saraswati-s-revival/article1-1347950.aspx

    https://www.scribd.com/doc/265734533/News-report-from-Amar-Ujana-17-May-2015-on-River-Sarasvati

    Matching geomorphological study of Pinjaur dun with the archaeological reality of 90-degree deflection of Sutlej River at Ropar

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    Sequential NW deflection of Sutlej is demonstrated by a sequence of westward shifting abandoned channels of Sutlej, as shown on a map of the Vedic Sutlej joining Vedic River Sarasvati at Shatrana as a tributary.

    Vimal Singh and SK Tandon in a geomorphological evaluation of the Pinjaur dun note that 1) the Himalayan orogenic belt, formed as a result of collision tectonic processes, shows abundant evidence of neotectonic activity, active tectoics, and the occurrence of historical earthquakes; and 2) Himalaya's frontal formation zone is characterized, in some segments, by intermontane longitudinal valleys (duns).

    Discussing a particular Pinjaur dun in NW Himalaya, the authors note that the dun is developed and marked by three mountain fronts: MF1A and MF1B associated with the southermost Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT), MF2 associated with the Sirsa fault, and MF3 associated with the Barsar thrust along the southern margin of the relatively higher main part of the sub-Himalaya. 

    The authors underscore the important drainage divide separating the Sirsa and Jhajara drainage networks. Remarkable river deflections are aligned linearly over tens of kilometers in a zone about 10 km. south of the HFT.

    In a fascinating analytical framework using structural and geomorphological approaches, the authors postulate "the formation of an incipient mountain front that is evolving ahead of the HFT and the outermost Siwalik hills."

    I suggest that this formation of the incipient mountain front is exemplified by the deflection, by a virtual U-turn of Sutlej River at Ropar (Rupnagar) during the historical periods. 

    The crux of the geomorpholocal challenge is to date this deflection of Sutlej.
    The study notes that the ongoing collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian plate has resulted in the southward migration of the Himalayan front and associated landforms with time.

    The location of the Pinjaur dun may be seen in Fig. 1B.


    Fig. 1. (A) Map showing the regional geology of the area; (B) Map of the geomorphic setting of the study area which lies on the margin of the Nahan salient. a-Chandigarh, b-Pinjaur, c-Kalka, d-Baddi, e-Ropar (Rupnagar), f-Kurali, g-Nahan, h-Paonta Sahib, 1-Sutlej River exit, 2-Ghaggar River exit, 3-Markanda River exit, 4-Yamuna River exit. (C) Map of structures and mountain fronts present in the study area.



    Fig. 2(B) shows the Tilt direction of Mountain Fronts 1A and 2 in relation to the Sutlej River deflection in the context of E-W trending HFT.

    Noting that the faults and related structures in the area are active, it can be suggested that the activity of the Sirsa fault together with the tilts caused by Mountain Fronts 1A and 2 in a series of seismotectonic events caused the virtual U-turn deflection of Sutlej River at Ropar (Rupnagar) over an extended period of time. There are signature markers available in the nature of scores of naiwals recognized by the palaeo-channels between Sutlej River at Ropar and Ghaggar River. It is clear from the presence of a significant clustering of archaeological settlements that these palaeo-channels splintering out, south of Ropar, of the Sulej River would have served as navigable channels of Himalayan glacier waters, for the people of the settlements. In this scenario, Sutlej River would have been, PRIOR TO THE DEFLECTION, a tributary of Ghaggar River flowing down south from Ropar to Shatrana. This may explain the ground truth of the width of the palaeochannel complex at Shatrana to be a significant width of 20 kms.

    A drainage divide of Kalka surface separates the Sirsa and Jhajara River networks. Sirsa river drains into the Sutlej River. Jhajara river drains into the Ghaggar River.

    The authors surmise that the drainage divide resulted probably by the upliftment of the outermost Siwalik hills in front of the Kalka surface. This uplift forced the Sirsa River to flow toward the NW and the Jhajara River toward the SE.

    This is demonstrated in the Map (Fig. 5) showing the flow of Sutlej River along a NW-SE lineament (marked 1).

    Fig. 5 (A) Map showing river anomalies and possible incipient structures in the Indo-Gangetic plains, Sutlej River flowing along a NW-SE lineament (marked 1). Streams draining outermost Siwalik hills between the Sutlej and Ghaggar Rivers take a sudden northwestward bend after initially flowing toward the SW for some distance (shaded region). The incipient structure identified in the Indo-Gangetic plains probably meet the HFT on the southeastern bank of the Ghaggar River...(B) IRS LISS III imagery showing lineament along which the Sutlej River flows after debouching into the plains. Note that just befor flowing along this lineament the flow direction of the Sutlej River is SW and flow direction becomes NW when the river follows the lineament.

    This is the geomorphological explanation for the 90-degree turn of Ropar  following the lineament.

    Fig. 5A, B demonstrate the fact that Sutlej flowing adjacent to the outermost Siwalik hills shows a remarkable deflection toward the NW after flowing some distance to SW.

    Source: Singh, Vimal, SK Tandon, 2008, The Pinjaur dun (intermontane longitudinal valley) and associated active mountain fronts, NW Himalaya: tectonic geomorphology and morphotectonic evolution, Geomorphology 102, 376-384


    That there are archaeological settlements of Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization in this SW flow of Sutlej River are the definitive indicators that Sutlej River was flowing SW during the mature phases of the archaeological settlements of the civilization.

    Such settlements south of Ropar along the Sutlej River as a tributary of Sarasvati (Ghaggar-Drishadvati) River are: Kunal, Banawali, Rakhikgarhi, Kalibangan as may be seen from the following map and the sites marked between Ropar and Shatrana along the reconstructed palaeochannels using Optical (IRS P6) and SAR (Radarsat) images.



    The evidence provided validate the possible reconstruction of the palaeochannels along archaeological settlements which were demonstrably involved in maritime trade. An archaeological artifact attesting to this trade is the presence of cylinder seal in Kalibangan which is characteristics of Mesopotamian/Sumer contact areas. Another indicator of significance is the arcaheological site record of a tectonic event dated to ca. 2600 BCE at Kalibangan: B. B. Lal, former DG of ASI writes,"Kalibangan in Rajasthan ... has also shown that there occurred an earthquake around 2600 BC, which brought to an end the Early Indus settlement at the site." ( B.B. Lal 1984. The earliest Datable Earthquake in India, Science Age (October 1984), Bombay: Nehru Centre).

    See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/01/incisions-of-sutlej-and-90-degree-turn.html
    A canal carrying industrial effluents merges with the river Sutlej near Ropar international wetland http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/mobile.aspx?article=yes&pageid=7&sectid=edid=&edlabel=TOIPU&mydateHid=24-08-2009&pubname=&edname=&articleid=Ar00700&publabel=TOI 
    Hill erosion near river Sutlej, Ropar. Ropar is the location where River Sutlej takes a 90 degree turn weswards to join the River Sindhu (Indus). 
    Hill view near River Sutlej. 

    In summary, a possible sequential NW deflection of Sutlej can be demonstrated by a sequence of westward shifting abandoned channels of Sutlej, as surmised in the following map of the Vedic Sutlej joining as a tributary to Vedic River Sarasvati:

    This is the abrupt shift of Sutlej river westwards near Ropar, cutting ...

    That there are NO archaeological sites along the present Sutlej until it joins the Panjnad and Sindhu rivers in Bahawalpur Province, Cholistan is also a telling evidence that the present Sutlej NW flow is an event closely intertwined with the mature periods of Sarasvati-Sindhu (Hindu) Civilization evidenced by over 80% of archaeological settlements on the Sarasvati River Basin.

    The unresolved task is to date the dates of deflections of Palaeoyamuna and Palaeosutlej abandoning Vedic River Sarasvati, thus denying Sarasvati of perennial flows of glacial waters.

    S. Kalyanaraman
    Sarasvati Research Center
    May 18, 2015

    Australia gave prominence to NaMo over Beauty Kim Kardashian. NaMo has ways to go in twitter following to overtake Kardashian.

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    మోడీ ముందుతేలిపోయిన బ్యూటీ కిమ్ కర్దాషియన్! Posted by: Srinivas Published: Wednesday, November 19, 2014, 16:50 [IST]

    Kim Kardashian Could Not Break Modi Charm

    మెల్‌బోర్న్: గ్లోబల్ గ్లామర్ క్వీన్‌గా పేరుగాంచిన అమెరికా ముద్దుగుమ్మ కిమ్ కర్దాషియన్ కంటే భారత ప్రధానమంత్రి నరేంద్ర మోడీకే ఆస్ట్రేలియా మీడియా ఎక్కువ ప్రాధాన్యత ఇచ్చింది. మోడీ ఆస్ట్రేలియాలో పర్యటించిన విషయం తెలిసిందే. అదే సమయంలో బ్యూటీ క్వీన్ కిమ్ కర్దాషియన్ కూడా ఆస్ట్రేలియాలో పర్యటించారు. అయితే, మోడీ పర్యటనకు ఆస్ట్రేలియా మీడియా అత్యంత ప్రాధాన్యమిచ్చింది. పర్యటనలో భాగంగా ఆయన పాల్గొన్న కార్యక్రమాల వివరాలను పత్రికలు పతాక శీర్షికలతో ప్రచురించాయి. 

    అటు, ఎలక్ట్రానిక్ మీడియా కూడా మోడీ పర్యటనను కవర్ చేసింది. దీంతో, ఆస్ట్రేలియా వ్యాప్తంగా మోడీ చర్చనీయాంశం అయ్యారు. కిమ్ కర్దాషియన్ ఓ వైపు ఆస్ట్రేలియాలో పర్యటిస్తుండగా.. ఆమె కంటే మోడీకే ఆసీస్ మీడియా కవరేజ్ ఇచ్చింది. ఆహార్యం మొదలు.. ఉపన్యసించే తీరు, హావభావాలు, భావాల్లో స్పష్టత, భావ తీవ్రత, ముఖ్యంగా ఆయన హాస్య చతురత తదితర అంశాలు ఆస్ట్రేలియన్లను బాగా ఆకట్టుకున్నాయి. ఇదిలా ఉండగా.. ఆస్ట్రేలియా పార్లమెంటు ఉభయసభలను ఉద్దేశించి ప్రసంగించిన తొలి భారత ప్రధానిగా మోడీ నిలిచారు. ఈ చారిత్రక సందర్భాన్ని ఆస్ట్రేలియా అధికారిక వార్తా చానల్ ఏబీసీ లైవ్ టెలికాస్ట్ చేసింది. కాగా, ఆస్ట్రేలియా పర్యటనలో మోడీ ఆ దేశ ప్రధాన మంత్రి టోనీ అబాట్‌కు అరుదైన కానుక ఇచ్చిన విషయం తెలిసిందే. కాన్‌బెర్రాలో ఇరువును ప్రధానుల మధ్య జరిగే ద్వైపాక్షిక చర్చల ముందు మోడీ కానుక అందజేశారు. భారత్‌లో స్థిరపడిని ఆస్ట్రేలియా న్యాయవాది జాన్ లాంగ్ 1857లో రాణి ఝాన్సీ లక్ష్మీబాయి తరఫున ఈస్టిండియా కంపెనీ కోర్టులో వేసిన పిటిషన్ కాపీని మోడీ ఆస్ట్రేలియా ప్రధానికి బహూకరించారు. 

    ఈ విషయాన్ని విదేశాంగ మంత్రిత్వశాఖ ప్రతినిధి సయ్యద్ అక్బరుద్దీన్ మీడియాకు వెల్లడించారు. భారత్‌లో జాన్ అద్బుత ప్రయాణాన్ని ప్రతిబింబించే మరో బహుమతిని టోనీకి అందజేశారు. ఆస్ట్రేలియాకు చెందిన లాయన్ జాన్ లాంగ్ 1842లో భారత్ వచ్చి స్థిరపడ్డారు. ఆయన ఈస్టిండియా కంపెనీకి వ్యతిరేకంగా పోరాడారు. ఓ పత్రికను సైతం నడిపారు. తరువాత ఝాన్సీ లక్ష్మీబాయికి సలహాదారుగా సేవలందించారని అక్బరుద్దీన్ స్పష్టం చేశారు. మీరట్ నుంచి 1845లో ‘ద మఫిసిలైట్'అన్న పత్రికను ప్రారంభించిన జాన్ తరువాత ముస్సోరీ నుంచి తీసుకొచ్చారు.

    Read more at: http://telugu.oneindia.com/news/international/kim-kardashian-could-not-break-modi-charm-146704.html


    Modi is a social media wizard, says US study




    Modi is a social media wizard, says US study
    Prime Minister Narendra Modi
    WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is turning out to be a savvy social media superstarwhose online postings, banal on the face of it, are reshaping his public image as a technology-capable leader aligned with the aspirations of a new Indian modernity, a US study has said. 

    In a paper titled "Banalities Turned Viral: Narendra Modi and the Political Tweet," University of Michigan scholar Joyojeet Pal says Modi - whose social media following is next only to Barack Obama's (but a distant second) among world politicians - has used a pro-technological discourse to reframe his political image and overcome the fusty baggage of the sangh parivar. 

    "The capture of social media allowed Modi to cater to aspirations for a modernity that mirrored blueprints from the global North. The BJP no longer stood only for older Hindu men in saffron. Instead, here was a man who could take a selfie with one hand and use the other for a trident when needed," the paper says, adding that or the first time in its history, "the BJP leader emerged as more central to the public discourse than the ideology he stands for." 

    Pal says the gentle tenor of Modi's "twitter banalities" on global events, carefully crafted and global public thank-you notes, and consistent reinforcement of national development themes suggest no shadow of a man who was once-rejected by the international community and was banned from entering the United States for gross violations of religious freedom. 

    "The young demographic of Twitter users in India are from a generation that has grown up with little memory with the riots of 2002. The enduring memory of Modi for them will be the political maverick who talks directly to the people, whether through Twitter or via his popular radio and YouTube missives called MannkiBaat. For a party long branded as appealing to constituents of traditional Hindutva values, the use of technology in the party's reimagination has been particularly salient," Pal writes. 

    Analyzing Modi's social media approach and postings, Pal, an assistant professor at UMich's School of Information, says he has evolved significantly from the time he used it as a chief minister, and has been quick to adopt latest tech updates, such as taking advantage of the video feature on Twitter almost as soon as it as available. He also gives the appearance of composing messages himself unlike Obama, whose messages make it evident it is being managed on his behalf. 

    During his tenure as prime minister, Modi's tweets have also changed. He posts fewer political statements and more casual messages, such as greetings, condolences and updates of his addresses. ''Modi uses Twitter as a personal signal than for issues, per se. For instance, he goes between 'karyakarta' to a 'mai baap style' (worker to a benign ruler). This is different from say Obama who has kept up with agenda-based tweeting,'' Pal said. 

    If he keeps it up, Pal says, Modi will overtake Kim Kardashian on Twitter, "and we won't be able to say that we didn't see that coming." Kardashian (in 65th place) has 14.2 million followers compared with Modi's 12.3 million (85th place). At the top are entertainers Katy Perry (69 million) and Justin Bieber (63 million), followed by Barack Obama with 59 million followers. 

    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Modi-is-a-social-media-wizard-says-US-study/articleshow/47335787.cms

    Read full text:



    Banalities Turned Viral

    Narendra Modi and the Political Tweet

      1. Joyojeet Pal1
      1. 1University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
      1. Joyojeet Pal, School of Information, University of Michigan, #3445 105 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI48108, USA. Email: joyojeet@umich.edu

      Abstract

      Narendra Modi’s social media presence is among the most extensive for any politician in the world, including on Twitter where he currently stands second in following only to Barack Obama. With a mix of “feel good” messages, shout-outs to other celebrities, and well-timed ritualized responses, as well as a careful strategy of “followbacks” for a small selection of his most active followers, Modi has been able to grow his following dramatically especially since 2013. Twitter helps Modi directly reach a significant constituency of listeners, and use it as a channel to talk to the main stream media. In addition, the very appearance of his using social media effectively is in itself valuable in reshaping his public image as a technology-savvy leader, aligned with the aspirations of a new Indian modernity.

      Jazz for cows (2:03)

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      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXKDu6cdXLI

      Jazz for Cows Uploaded on Sep 6, 2011
      http://www.newhot5.com. The New Hot 5, American-based jazz band plays for a herd of cows in Autrans, France. The unedited footage is now uploaded on our channel in two parts. If you want to hear more, check out our other videos of concerts for humans.

      The two songs in this video are both in the public domain:
      1. "When the Saints Go Marching In" is a traditional early American folk hymn of unknown origin.
      2. "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home" composed by Hughie Cannon (1877--1912) was published in 1902.

      NaMo, follow guidance of Dr. Subramanian Swamy, put Bharatam on a fast, 12% growth trajectory

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      Published: May 19, 2015 03:29 IST | Updated: May 19, 2015 03:53 IST  

      Kick-starting an economic revival

      SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY
      Photo: Mohammed Yousuf
      The Hindu
      Photo: Mohammed Yousuf

      The factors hampering Indian economic growth can be addressed only by second generation, systemic reform that makes the economy an efficient, competitive one and which minimises the inefficiency, squandering and corruption in the deployment of the country’s vast resources

      When Narendra Modi took oath as Prime Minister on May 26, 2014, there were great expectations from him making decisive moves to put the economy back in recovery mode and on to a high growth trajectory of a ‘10+’ per cent per year growth rate. It is ‘10+’ because the Finance Ministry had chosen to use Paasche’s Index instead of Laspeyres Index to calculate growth rate, which, under present inflationary conditions, will artificially raise growth rate figures (see Paul Samuelson and Subramanian Swamy, “Invariant Economic Index numbers and Canonical Duality”, American Economic Review, 1974, and also Economic Journal, 1984 for the reasons.)

      Hence, what I have been stating in the past, of a 10 per cent growth rate target as being desirable is now, by the Finance Ministry’s revaluation of index numbers, more than a 10 per cent target now, perhaps even 12 per cent.
      The blueprint for such a recovery, to a ‘10+’ growth rate, had already been prepared before the general election, and the steps to be taken were documented by a committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Nitin Gadkari, now Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, had been entrusted with task. On his suggestion, I had collaborated with a number of committed intellectuals to produce a ‘Vision Document 2020’, a road map for Mr. Modi to implement as soon as he became the Prime Minister. These steps have still to be taken.

      Regressive markers

      The regressive markers in the projected path of the economy today make it worrisome as these indicate that if not rectified soon, the Indian economy can go into a tailspin. Though these markers are a consequence of the disastrous tenure of the previous government, now nearly a year on, they cease to be a credible excuse.

      Some of these markers are: the Basel III norms for banks (effective from 2018) which require Rs.2,40,000 crore for capitalisation. Moreover, to retain 51 per cent of the equity of public sector banks by the government, it will need, this financial year, Rs.1,21,000 crore. The 2015-16 Budget has provided for only Rs.11,200 crore, which is not even a tenth of this. With rising non-performing assets of banks, there is a risk of a banking crash much like the 1997-98 East Asian crash.

      This year, the rainfall deficit affecting 67 per cent of the single crop farmers, will cause inflationary pressures and a substantial shortfall in production, thus causing more misery to the farmer. While rainfall is in nobody’s control, the economy, even today, lacks the necessary financial cushion to absorb the liabilities arising from crop failure and farmer destitution.

      The rupee is on the edge of a fall as it happened in 2012-13. This is because there has been a large-scale sell-off or dumping of shares of Indian companies purchased by foreign investors earlier last year. Some foreign direct investment (FDI) companies have also pulled out. The fall in the rupee was a little moderated three months ago, but for the wrong reason: the increased inflow of funds from the subversive, corroding, money-laundering Participatory Notes (PN) derivative. But PNs are hot money derivatives and so can be pulled out anytime to cause a further devaluation of the rupee.

      All these destabilising trends have had a profound impact on the stock market. One of these is in the form of market valuations now being well below the long-term average and even below the level in 2013. Therefore, it is no surprise that the top 10 corporate entities have reached a stage where their annual profits do not cover even their yearly debt repayments.

      Negative factors

      While India has demonstrated impressive prowess in IT, biotechnology, automobile ancillaries and pharmaceuticals, and has also accelerated its growth rate to become the third largest nation in terms of GDP at PPP rates, nevertheless, it still has a backward, agricultural sector employing 62 per cent of the labour force and where farmers are ending their lives unable to repay their loans.

      The Indian economy is also saddled with a national unemployment rate that is over 15 per cent of the adult labour force, and a prevalence of child labour arising out of nearly 50 per cent of children not making it to school beyond standard five, a deeply malfunctioning primary and secondary educational system, 300 million illiterates and 250 million people in a dire state of poverty.
      Moreover, India’s educated youth is skill deficient, risk averse in attitude and largely unemployable in the cutting-edge manufacturing sector. According to Macaulay’s Minute on Education, our universities still produce clerks for government administration and not innovators of the future.

      Besides these, India’s infrastructure is in a pathetic state, with frequent power breakdowns even in metropolitan cities, a dangerously unhealthy water supply system in urban areas, and a very poor road network where there are gaping holes even on the National Highways.

      India’s infrastructure requires about $150 billion to make it world class, while the education system needs six per cent of GDP instead of 2.8 per cent today.

      Need for reform

      These problems can be addressed only by comprehensive, second generation, systemic reform that makes the economy an efficient, competitive market oriented one that leverages our potentialities (such as our civilizational heritage of innovative intellect), and which minimises the inefficiency, squandering and corruption in the deployment of our vast resources.
      India has much potential today to become a booming economy; it has a demographic dividend of a young population of average age of 28 years compared to China’s 35 years, the U.S.’s 38 years, Europe’s 46 years and Japan’s 49 years.

      Internationally, Indian agriculture has the lowest yield in land and livestock-based milk products whose yield can easily be raised judging by the performance in experimental agricultural plots of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and by also borrowing agricultural techniques from Israel. Indian agriculture and milk products are also internationally at a low cost of production. With proper infrastructure and packaging, India can certainly become a global player in agricultural exports.

      Even though India is also gifted with a full 12 months a year of farm-friendly weather, it grows just one crop a year in over 75 per cent of arable land when it can grow three crops a year. It also has the advantage of a highly competitive, skilled labour force and low wage rates at the national level, the advantages of which have been already proved to the world by the outsourcing phenomenon. What is needed is a bold commitment of sufficient resources to harvest this potential.

      An open competitive market system can find these resources as has been demonstrated in the auction of the 2G Spectrum licences if the quality of governance and accountability is improved.

      A transparent policy regime, auctioning of natural resources (if it is used for commercial private enterprise), and the unearthing of the vast $1.5 trillion in black money stashed abroad will enable the government to marshal sufficient resources for a massive investment in a second generation economic reform while reducing the tax burden on people.

      As an economist, the only advice I can give the Modi government is to take some steps that will raise the morale of the consumer and investor. That means income tax abolition and reducing the annual interest rate to nine per cent.

      The good news is that the built-in potential in the economy is easy to tap for revival, as is the basic resilience of the Indian people to face any situation as demonstrated from past crises.

      Only one year of the mandate has elapsed, so there is still time to make the necessary course correction and put India on a fast, 12 per cent growth trajectory.

      (Subramanian Swamy is a former Professor of Economics and Union Cabinet Minister of Commerce.)

      http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/kickstarting-an-economic-revival/article7220401.ece?homepage=true

      For those with the mask of long faces, a NaMo performance report of Swarajyam 2014 --MJ Akbar. NaMo, restitute kaalaadhan, the nation trusts you.

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      The foundation has been laid

      It is always the most difficult part of construction. Much has been done. Much more remains to be done.

      Narendra Modi, Jan Dhan Yojana, Modi Jan Dhan Yojana, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, BJP, Mihir Sharma, Mihir Sharma book, IE columnNarendra Modi had to get the multiple levers of government, jammed by disarray, confusion and corruption, back into sync, immediately.
      The foundation has been laidWritten by M J Akbar | Updated: May 19, 2015 11:16 am
      The mild outbreak of long faces among pundits one year after Narendra Modi became prime minister is entirely dependent on short memory. A recent review of Mihir Sharma’s aptly named book, Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy, in The Economist offered a glimpse of the gloom in May 2014: flight of capital, catapulting inflation, mess in public finance and a nervous power grid that kept India in the thrall of incompetence. Throw in top-to-toe corruption breezily protected by zero-loss theories plus governance gridlock, and the narrative morphs into a horror story.
      Twelve months later, inflation has halved. Growth is heading north of 7 per cent. Public finance is healing, with the fiscal deficit held at 4 per cent and revenue deficit at 2.8 per cent. Power output has soared to 22,566 MW, against a targeted 17,830 MW. Road construction, reduced by the Congress to a crawl of two kilometres a day, is now 10 km a day. The Jan Dhan Yojana brought some 300 million impoverished Indians into the banking sector. The first stage of a comprehensive social security network for the poor is in place, with Rs 2,00,000 life insurance at a premium of just Rs 330, and accident insurance for a mere Rs 12 per year.
      Industry is back in business: Indian companies raised Rs 56,801 crore in equity capital against Rs 29,381 crore the previous year. For the first time, there is a Mudra Bank, which will give loans to the informal sector, to small business units like vegetable vendors, from an estimated resource base of Rs 1,00,000 crore. Work on 100 smart cities, which will transform the map of India, has begun. Defence has been fork-lifted from the A.K. Antony swamp.
      A new railway vision won applause from every side of Parliament. Corruption, that fatal cancer coursing through the nation’s lifeblood, has been contained: A Rs 1,74,000 crore loss in coal mines has been transformed into a Rs 2,00,000 crore profit from the auction of just 10 per cent of mines, to provide only one instance. A black money bill has been passed, despite tremors among the elite. The nationwide Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has turned cleanliness into a mass effort. This is not even a comprehensive list, just top-of-mind recall.
      You have to be blind or biased to suggest that nothing has happened.
      The urgent necessity in a crisis is to perform. The second requirement is reform. Why? Because the second cannot succeed without the first. Narendra Modi had to get the multiple levers of government, jammed by disarray, confusion and corruption, back into sync, immediately. Having set its house in order, the government embarked upon the reform process, which requires difficult passage through a Parliament where the Congress, now under the control of Rahul Gandhi, has repeatedly used its numbers in the Rajya Sabha to wreck what it can.
      The reason is obvious. The Congress needs public disenchantment for its revival, and will therefore do what it can to sabotage India’s growth. The Congress is no longer invested in the welfare of Indians. Its only interest is the high-cost maintenance of a putative leader whose headlines emerge mainly from the jumble box of low expectations.
      More surprisingly, someone has been feeding Rahul Gandhi the outdated weed of pseudo-Marxism, repackaged in misleading soundbites. The politics of sulking meshes easily into the economics of despair through a corrosive formula: Keep Indians poor, and then milk poverty for votes. Does Rahul Gandhi want to turn India into the wasteland that Bengal became after three decades of Marxist rule? This politics of stop, slash and burn is anathema to a youthful India, which wants to build, grow and earn its way to prosperity. The people want a better life, not a permanent scowl.
      Despite the Congress’s tantrums, the government has pushed through key legislation, most notably in energy. As that familiar adage goes, get coal right and manufacturing will move. Coal India has set in motion a billion-tonne plan, with 2019 as its target.
      Question: How big does a bang have to be to qualify as “big bang reform”? Are the new FDI norms in defence, railway infrastructure and insurance minor? Both the GST and the land bill, which will find essential space for employment and rural revival, will pass by the next legislative session.
      The biggest reform, in my view, happened in the first weeks, when the prime minister announced zero tolerance for corruption. His signature sentence, “Na main khaoonga, na khaney doonga”, needs no amplification. Modi has delivered on that commitment. Businessmen accept that decisions are not on sale any more. Defence purchases, a traditional snake-pit of suspicion and slush funds, have, under two capable and honest ministers, Arun Jaitley and Manohar Parrikar, been made without a hint of controversy. There is far greater transparency in process. Delhi is a different city for barons who worked their way through opaque corridors of power under Congress rule, ordering the appointment of ministers and transfer of bureaucrats (you do recall the Radia tapes, surely).
      But good governance is not merely about checklists. Good governance is powered by a philosophy. Modi set the moral compass for his government in the very first speech he made in Parliament. Poverty alleviation, he said, was not enough; the new tryst is with poverty elimination. History demands an answer to a question we can no longer evade. If it took nearly seven decades to bring extreme poverty down from 60 per cent to 30 per cent, will it take another 65 years to reduce 30 per cent to zero? Can Indian democracy bear the burden of such betrayal?
      Modi was clear not only about objective but also method. The surge forward could best be shaped through the economic and social empowerment that comes with jobs. Jobs gave individual meaning to a common purpose, development. Skills-creation and manufacturing are the twin engines of this propulsion. Jobs are the pillars of a new architecture. Smart cities mean jobs, across the line. “Make in India” means jobs.
      This is complemented by the fiscal inclusion of the poor. Those who take a bank account for granted can never truly appreciate how much it means for a person who has never had one. The Jan Dhan Yojana is also the first substantive challenge to chit funds, which mop up cash from the poor and divert it into unsavoury directions. The poor simply had no place to keep their very limited surplus.
      Much has been done. Much more remains to be done. A government is elected for five years. The foundation is always the most difficult part of construction, but it has been laid and is visible. The people recognise this. Check PM Modi’s popularity ratings after a year in office, if you insist on wearing the mask of a long face.
      The writer is national spokesperson of the BJP.
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