Indian Cricket Team wins Glorious World Cup after 28 yrs !!

First of all, Congrats ! Indian Cricket team for winning the world Cup 2011, Well done !
Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni's stellar partnership paved the way for India to end its 28-year wait for a World Cup title even as Mahela Jayawardene's century and Muttiah Muralitharan's swansong ended in hurt and despair.

Chasing a target of 275, India were pegged on the back foot as early as the second ball of their innings when Lasith Malinga trapped Virender Sehwag plumb in front, and though the Indian opener asked for a referral, it was upheld. Malinga then struck again in the seventh over when he had Mumbai's icon Sachin Tendulkar caught behind in the seventh over. But, the title was sealed when Dhoni hit the first ball of the 49th over for a massive six to put the icing on the cake and send a billion people into raptures.

And, to make things even sweeter for India, Yuvraj Singh was named Man of the Series for his 15 wickets and 362 runs. This win has also completed the career CV of Tendulkar, who didn't contribute to the final as much as he may have liked to, but his innings in the lead-up to the final, not least in the semi-finals against Pakistan, It was also the perfect send-off for coach Gary Kirsten, who has now ended his tenure with the Indian team.

Coming back to the loss of those two early wickets, Gambhir and Kohli got the run chase back on track with a 83-run partnership as the Delhi boys got India right back into the match taking minimal risks and milking the Sri Lankan bowling to the fullest. And, even after Kohli was caught off his own bowling by Dilshan, Dhoni and Gambhir took the chase forward.

Dhoni has not been in the best of forms with the bat in the World Cup, but he potentially played the knock of his career in the final as he remained unbeaten on a 79-ball 91 and shared in a 109-run partnership with Gambhir as they snuffed the fight out of the Sri Lankan attack and broke their spirit with each run they made. And, even though Gambhir was bowled going for a massive hit when on 97, India wasn't denied to be a win and it was fitting that Dhoni and Yuvraj, who have shared in so many monumental partnerships were in the middle, when the mission was finally achieved.

Malinga (2-42) made the early dents, but wasn't able to make any more inroads in his subsequent overs. But, however, the most telling blows was felt by the Sri Lankan spinners, Suraj Randiv and Muralitharan, who bowled 17 overs for 82 runs without taking a wicket; and that's really where Sri Lanka lost the match and plot.

Earlier, Jayawardene scored his 14th one-day international century as his unbeaten 103 helped Sri Lanka set India a target of 275 to win the final of the 2011 World Cup at Mumbai's packed Wankhede Stadium.

Jayawardene was the anchor in Sri Lanka's innings as he scored at more than a ball without taking too many risks and he also strung together important partnerships with his skipper Kumar Sangakkara, Thilan Samaraweera, Nuwan Kulasekara and Thisara Perera to negate the good work done early in their innings by Indian pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who bowled three maiden overs on the trot at the start of the match.

Sreesanth, who shared the new ball with Zaheer, bowled reasonably well in his first two overs, but Tillakaratne Dilshan it him for a couple of boundaries over midwicket and to the midwicket boundary to break the shackles the left-arm pacer had sprung on the Sri Lankan opening batsmen. In between, Zaheer had Upul Tharanga caught by Virender Sehwag at first slip. Tharanga was all at sea against Zaheer and was beaten on more than one occasion; in fact the Sri Lankan opening batsman was unable to score a single run off the 18 deliveries he faced of Zaheer before he was put out of his misery. Zaheer's first spell figures read 5-3-6-1 and he was the main reason Sri Lanka scored only 31 for 1 in their mandatory power play, their lowest score in this spell of play in the entire tournament. Zaheer's bowling apart, exceptional fielding by Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina at point and cover point respectively further shackled the Sri Lankan top-order.

Earlier, Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat. However, there was some controversy as the toss took place twice as no one including match referee Jeff Crowe had heard Sangakkara's call first time round. India made only one change with S Sreesanth coming in for the injured Ashish Nehra; but Sri Lanka made four changes as Chamara Kapugedera, Thisara Perera, Suraj Randiv and Nuwan Kulasekara replaced Chamara Silva, the injured Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath.

Dilshan was kept uncharacteristically quiet thanks to Zaheer and with Munaf Patel also keeping things tight at the other end it was tough going for the Sri Lankan opening batsman and Sangakkara. Dilshan did all the hard work and just when he looked as though he would play yet another big innings in the 2011 World Cup, he was unfortunate to get a glove as the ball lobbed back and ht the stumps as he was out for a 49-ball 33. Dilshan though ended the World Cup on exactly 500 runs, and became only the fifth batsman to score so many runs in the mega-event after Sachin Tendulkar (twice), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Jayawardene. Sangakkara and Jayawardene then looked untroubled during their 62-run partnership for the third wicket in just over 11 overs before 'golden arm' Yuvraj Singh had the Sri Lankan captain caught behind by Dhoni for a well-made 48 in 67 balls.

Jayawardene, who continued to look as though he was batting on another pitch, was in full control even as Samaraweera led a charmed life in his 34-ball 21 before he was trapped in front by Yuvraj, who finished the 2011 World Cup with 15 wickets. And, though, Zaheer dismissed Kapugedera with a slower ball soon after, Jayawardene continued on his merry ways and was well supported by Kulasekara and the pair added 66 runs for the sixth wicket in quick time.

Jayawardene got to his half-century off 49 balls and then accelerated thereafter bringing up his ton off 84 deliveries. Sri Lanka also took maximum advantage of the batting power play scoring 63 runs for the loss of only Kulasekara's wicket with Jayawardene getting to his century in the space of three deliveries in the 48th over bowled by Zaheer including back-to-back boundaries. Perera then finished the Sri Lankan innings off in style scoring 16 runs including two boundaries and a six as he finished unbeaten on 22 off only 9 balls.

India will attain total literacy in the next 10 years: Sibal !!

With the literacy level in the country climbing to 74 per as per the provisional 2011 census, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today exuded confidence that India will attain total literacy next 10 years.

He said the Census figures have shown that India would be able to achieve education for all in the age group of 6-14 by 2015 and "I am confident that if we progress at this pace India will have total literacy in the next 10 years".

Releasing a report on the completion of first year of Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, Sibal said the Census has also silenced critics including international organisations who said India will not achieve its millennium development goals.

"They said that literacy rate will be 72 per cent in 2015. We have proved the world wrong by achieving 74.4 per cent literacy," he said.

Sibal, however, expressed concern about eight million children who are still out of school, saying a lot of effort has to be done in this regard to reduce the number.

During the last 10 years, roughly 21 crore literates were added to the population while the country also saw a 12 per cent jump in female literacy level, he said expressing happiness.

During the last one year after the implementation of the RTE, he said 15 states have notified state rules while notification of academic authority has been done by 20 states.

He said 11 states have constituted state child protection council while 20 states constituted the academic authority and 28 states have enacted policies on eight year elementary education.

Similarly, 28 states have done away with corporal punishment and 18 states have banned private tuition.

Importantly, he said 18 states have banned screening procedure and capitation fees.

He said some of the provisions of RTE would be implemented in the next two years while the provisions related to teacher qualification would be implemented within five years time.

The financial commitment for RTE is 2.31 lakh crore between 2010-11 to 2014-15, which includes Rs 24,068 crore of the 13th Finance Commission.
Read more: India will attain total literacy in the next 10 years: Sibal

Cabinet approves five more pacts to bring back black money !!

India can now sign treaties with five more countries in its pursuit to bring back black money stashed abroad with the Cabinet today approving such pacts.

Under the agreements, India can seek information regarding secret bank accounts. The five countries include Malta, Georgia and Uruguay, sources said.

India has already signed Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with 79 countries and modifications in such pacts were needed in 74 of them to broaden the scope of article of exchange of information to include exchange of banking information.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee earlier this month said negotiations for a total of 23 pacts in line with international standards have been completed and 10 for Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs).

Government has been under attack from the Opposition which has been alleging that it was not doing enough to retrieve the black money.

Government has been insisting that it has been making all efforts to bring back the black money but it was going to be a long haul.

Detailing the steps being taken, Mukherjee recently said that government has formulated a five-pronged strategy to combat the menace of illicit funds generated both as a result of tax evasion and corruption.

He said during the last 18 months, the government had collected tax on black money to the tune of Rs 34,601 crore and detected undisclosed income of about Rs 15,000 crore.

Source: Cabinet approves five more pacts to bring back black money

Arushi murder case: The untold story !!

A disturbing sexual angle has emerged in the murder of Aarushi Talwar, 14. Crucial facts left out from her post-mortem report suggest that her private parts were "extraordinarily dilated". But there were no signs of rape. These facts, established by the CBI after they questioned the doctor who performed the post-mortem, give a new twist to the case."The vaginal orifice of the deceased was unduly large and mouth of cervix was visible," says the CBI's closure report.

Her private parts were cleaned. This caused water stains on the bedsheet. There was no semen on the bedsheet. But the pyjamas Aarushi wore did not have water stains on it. This shows that the crime scene was dressed up. The CBI believes Aarushi may have been killed elsewhere and the body placed on her bed.
parallel investigation by Headlines Today reveals that the chairperson of the National Commission on Women (NCW) Girija Vyas allegedly scuttled a probe into the Aarushi's murder by a two-member NCW committee. Soon after the killing, this committee visited the Talwar house in Jalvayu Vihar, Noida, to investigate. Former NCW member Nirmala Venkatesh alleges that as soon as they stepped into Hemraj's room, she got five calls from Vyas, asking her to stop the probe. Vyas initially denied there was an inquiry and that a committee was formed. She later admitted that there was, but said the report was not made public because the CBI was about to investigate.

These sensational revelations fly in the face of the CBI's closure report. Last month, the CBI sought the special court's permission to close the double murder case because it could not solve it.

Though the CBI has been unable to nail the accused, its investigations have completely ruled out the possibility of outsiders having killed Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj Banjade. Circumstantial evidence points to the complicity of those inside. The crime scene was methodically "dressed up"or cleansed of all evidence which could implicate the Talwars. An expert from the forensic science laboratory, Gandhinagar, who inspected the crime scene, says that the crime had been committed by someone "very close to Aarushi".

Nobody except the killer or killers, of course, knows what exactly happened in the Talwar residence during the six crucial hours between 12 midnight and 6 a.m. on May 16, 2008, when both Hemraj and Aarushi were brutally murdered within an hour. Aarushi was bludgeoned on her forehead and her throat slit with a small, sharp object. So was Hemraj.

A reconstruction of the crime, however, increasingly points to an inside hand. The assailants had gained easy access to the flat because there were no signs of forced entry. They killed Aarushi and Hemraj, moved their bodies around the flat and even stayed behind for drinks. The parents of Aarushi, Nupur and Rajesh Talwar, seem to have slept through an incredible amount of activity in their small flat. They claimed their bedroom door was shut and the air-conditioner turned on.

The murderer dragged Hemraj's body to the terrace using a sheet. The body was cursorily covered with a cooler lid and a bedsheet on a clothesline. The murderers then locked the terrace door and re-entered the house. They even seemed to know where the Talwars' mini-bar was-behind a wooden panel near the dining table. They drank from a bottle of whiskey and left it on the dining table. The bottle had bloodstains of both victims.

At around 3.43 a.m., the Internet router in Aarushi's room was switched off. That means that somebody entered her room nearly three hours after her murder. Whoever it was, failed to raise the alarm or even spot her body.

At 6.01 a.m., housemaid Bharti arrived. She rang the doorbell four times. Normally, Hemraj, the domestic help, would open the door, but this time Nupur opened it. Rajesh was also awake. This was unusual because the couple were late risers. The iron grill door at the entrance was locked from outside, so Nupur threw the keys from the balcony to Bharti. Three minutes later, when Bharti entered, she found the couple sobbing. "Dekho Hemraj ne kya kar diya (look what Hemraj has done)". Aarushi was found on the bed in a pool of blood. Bharti rushed out to inform the neighbours. Hemraj's room had an independent entry and opened into the flat from inside.

Another strange incident happened around this time. Nupur called Hemraj's cellphone from her landline at 6.01 a.m. The call was immediately disconnected. This means the dead servant's phone was attended by someone near the crime scene. Inexplicably, both Hemraj's and Aarushi's cellphones disappeared. Hemraj's phone was never found but Aarushi's Nokia N72 was found on a dirt track by a housemaid near Noida's Sadarpur area a fortnight later. Its memory was wiped clean. The cellphone was a crucial piece of evidence.

Aarushi would usually be up chatting with her friends until well past midnight. On the night of May 15, her cellphone was inactive after 9.10 p.m. At around midnight, her friend Anmol called on the Talwar landline because he could not get through her cellphone. There was no response. Anmol then sent an SMS to her cellphone at around 12.30. This SMS was not received by Aarushi's phone.

What were the Talwars doing before the murders? According to the CBI closure report, after reaching home at 9.30 p.m., they dined with Aarushi, then took a few pictures on a new digital camera they bought for Aarushi as a birthday gift and retired by around 11 p.m. Around this time, Nupur came to Aarushi's room to switch on the Internet router. Aarushi was reading a book.

The parents controlled access to Aarushi's room by locking it; the keys to her room would usually lie by Nupur's bedside. Nupur told the police that she was not sure whether she locked Aarushi's door the last time she went to her room. Rajesh received a call from the US on his landline at this time. This indicated that his ringer was not silent. He surfed the Internet, sent some emails, surveyed stock market sites and some dentistry sites. He sent his last email at 11.57 p.m. before presumably going to sleep.

The following morning, the bunch of keys to the flat and terrace were found on the bed in Hemraj's room by Nupur. Aarushi's bedroom keys were found in the living room. It was the only set of house keys, so it is still not clear how the Talwars were locked from the outside. The police arrived an hour later, at 7.15 a.m. They were met by a crowd inside. There were 15 people in the living room and five-six people in the Talwars' bedroom. Only Aarushi's room was empty. The crime scene was completely trampled upon.

The "Hemraj killed Aarushi" theory was gospel for a full day. Rajesh repeatedly told the police officers to pursue Hemraj and not to waste time in his flat. He dissuaded them from opening the locked terrace door and even offered the policemen Rs 25,000 to rush to Hemraj's village in Nepal.

The CBI and police mention they saw the concerted efforts by the Talwars to put the blame on Hemraj as a diversionary tactic. Meanwhile, doctors visiting the Talwars saw bloodstains on the handle of the locked terrace door. They also saw wiped bloody footmarks and blood stains on the upper staircase. Rajesh was asked for the keys but he went inside his residence after seeing the blood-stained door handle. The police failed to open the door for a full day.
Aarushi's body was taken for a post-mortem in Noida at about 9 a.m. and her last rites performed late in the evening. The Talwars' domestic staff showed undue haste in thoroughly cleaning up floors and walls of Aarushi's room with soap and water. Aarushi's blood-stained mattress was dumped on the terrace belonging to neighbour Puneet Tandon.

Meanwhile, when the post-mortem report was being written between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. on May 16, a telephonic loop was created between Rajesh's elder brother Dinesh Talwar, family friend Dr Sushil Chaudhury, K.K. Gautam, a retired deputy superintendent of police, and an unidentified number. Dinesh would call Chaudhury who would call Gautam. The latter would dial an unidentified number. This sequence was then reversed. This loop was created six times that evening. The CBI claims that it was done to delete references to "rape" in Aarushi's post-mortem report.

Some 28 fingerprint samples were lifted from the scene of crime and handed over to the CBI on May 20. This was 10 days before the case was formally handed over to the CBI. Most of the fingerprints, especially those on the whiskey bottle, were smudged.

Between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on May 17, this loop was repeated twice. Soon after these calls were made, Gautam arrived at the Talwar house and asked for the terrace door to be opened after examining the site of crime. Before calling the local police to open the door, he called a top Uttar Pradesh police officer and then his journalist friends so that the door is opened in media glare. Gautam told them that there was likely to be an interesting discovery.
When the local police arrived at the Talwar residence, the media was already there. The keys to the terrace were still missing, so the lock was broken to enter the terrace. Hemraj's body was discovered. However, vital clues were missing-the blood-soaked clothes of the perpetrators, the cloth used to clean the floor and the sheet on which Hemraj's body was dragged.

Source: Arushi murder case: The untold story

Happy New Year 2011 !!

Very Happy New year 2011 !!

Mahatma Gandhi has maximum quotes on Internet !!

Mahatma Gandhi is known for many things but he has to his name the maximum number of quotations by any Indian on the Internet.

The Internet has a large number of sites which offer quotations on a variety of topics ranging from friendship, love, destiny, life, death, peace and politics. But the net has one site which gives quotations from people from all walks of life all over the world.

The site address is http://www.quotationsbook.com and it features 106 quotations from the Mahatma.

One quotation attributed to him says "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

Another quotation says "It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business."

The Mahatma is also quoted as saying, "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

He has also said "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."

Apart from Mahatma Gandhi, there are a number of other Indians from whom quotations can be seen on the site. These people include the Nation's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former president S Radhakrishnan, Swami Vivekanand and Indira Gandhi.

These people do not match the Mahatma as individually they do not have even 20 quotes to their credit.

One Indian whose name comes as a surprise on this site is that of Oscar award winning music composer, A R Rahman.

He has got only one quote which reads simply, "All my life I have had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I am here."

Among world politicians, those who surpass the Mahatma are former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill with 183 quotes and former US President John F. Kennedy with 146 quotes.

Noted English writer Oscar Wilde have got 432 quotes and he is followed by William Shakespeare with 420 quotes.

Among religious texts the Bible leads with 370 quotes, The Bhagavad Gita has 45 quotes while the Quran nine quotes.
Read More: Mahatma Gandhi has maximum quotes on Internet

Each Unique ID number costs Rs.100: Nilekani !!

It costs the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Rs.100 to generate each 'aadhaar' number, which will help address the challenges of inclusion, the authority's chief Nandan Nilekani, said here Thursday.

Ideally It costs the authority Rs.50 to enrol each individual for the Unique ID (UID) and another Rs.50 on back-end costs, he said.

In his address at the annual Rajinder Mathur Memorial Lecture here, Nilekani said that the aadhaar number will help in making public expenditure more equitable and in building new services for the people.

Nilekani, who took questions after speaking of benefits of the UID, said the country needed well-defined privacy laws to prevent any malicious use of data.

Answering queries about the demand by social activists like Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze against linking the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) to the UID, he said that the number should not be used in a way that it denies benefits to anyone.

'Aadhar should not be a basis of discrimination,' he said.

The social activists had, in a statement, said plans to link MGNREGA to Aadhaar should be revoked as it 'threatens to cause havoc' in the fragile structure of the scheme that provides for 100 days of jobs a year to rural households.

Nilekani said the UID can be sufficient identity to open a bank account or get a mobile phone SIM card. Pointing out that penetration of banks was quite low in rural areas, he said the UID can facilitate extending banking to every village.

The UID number will also be beneficial for people who migrate from one part of the country to the other, he added.

Answering queries about possibility of data being misused, he said that the only service provided by the UIDAI was authentication.

'UID is one part of privacy issue. We need a larger privacy and data protection law,' he said.

Nilekani said he wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue in May and the government has come out with an approach paper to elicit the people's viewse.

Read more Each Unique ID number costs Rs.100: Nilekani