13 Sunday Oct 2013
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Even after 12 days of the government shut down in US, no settlement could be reached between the Obama led Democrats and the opposition Republicans, creating a situation in which the people are the casualties. If the issues are not settled, according to President Obama, there may be an economic shut down.
What has happened to the great leader of the capitalist system? No way to come out of the shut down?
12 Saturday Oct 2013
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A Super Cyclone named Phailin, half-the-size of India is feared to hit the eastern sea shores of India by evening of today, 12th October. The weather department and other such agencies have forecasted that the coastal districts of Odisha and A.P. will be seriously affected. The Central and State Governments have already started evacuating lakhs of people from the coastal areas. The memory of the Tsunami, in which thousands of people lost their lives is still haunting the people.
BSNL has already taken precautions to maintain its services to the extent possible and repair damages so that the communications networks are available.
We extend all our support to the people of Odisha and A.P. and specially to our comrades of BSNL and hope that the Cyclone may not result in loss of lives as at the time of Tsunami. At that time government was not prepared, but it is well prepared now, as it states.
10 Thursday Oct 2013
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Zurich: Global wealth has risen by 68 per cent over the past 10 years to reach a new all-time high of $241 trillion and the United States accounts for nearly three quarters of the increase, Credit Suisse said in its World Wealth Report.
Average global wealth has hit a peak of $51,600 per adult but this is spread very unevenly, with the richest 10 per cent owning 86 per cent of the wealth, analysts at the Credit Suisse Research Institute said.
The top 1 per cent alone owns 46 per cent of all global assets.
The report further said that global wealth may jump another 40 per cent by 2018 to reach $334 trillion.
The richest nations, with wealth per adult of more than $100,000, are concentrated in North America, Western Europe and among the rich Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern countries.
They are headed by Switzerland, where average adult wealth amounts to $513,000, followed by Australia, Norway and Luxembourg.
However, two thirds of adults in the world have assets worth less than $10,000 and together account for just 3 per cent of global wealth.
Since mid-2012, the number of millionaires worldwide has risen by nearly two million, the vast majority of them in the United States, the report said. By contrast, Japan lost 1.2 million millionaires during the same period.
The rise in US wealth has been driven by a recovery in house prices and a bull equity market.
In Japan, the central bank’s aggressive monetary policy drove the yen/dollar exchange rate down by 22 per cent, leading to a drop in household wealth of $5.8 trillion this year alone, equivalent to 20 percent of Japanese net worth, the report said.
Despite its strong economic growth over the past decades, Chinese hold barely 9 per cent of global wealth while accounting for more than a fifth of the global adult population.
For Africa and India, the population share exceeds the wealth share by a factor of ten, the report showed.
Credit Suisse said there were 98,700 individuals with net worth exceeding $50 million, more than half of them in the United States. Europe ranked second, home to nearly 25,000.
The biggest emerging markets, the so-called BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – are each estimated to have around 5,830 such ultra-high net worth individuals.
Nevertheless, the number of billionaires in the BRICs has risen from 5 percent of the world’s total in 2000 to 19 per cent in 2010. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of billionaires in China alone rose from 1 to 64, the study showed.
By contrast, the number of billionaires in older developed countries such as France and Japan fell in that period.(Courtesy : NDTV)
10 Thursday Oct 2013
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Danger signals are already there about the increasing heat of the earth, year after year, mainly due to the green house emissions and pollution. The climate is changing drastically, unlike in the past. Now a study by the scientists from the University of Hawaii at Manoa has calculated that by 2047, plus or minus five years, the average temperatures each year will be hotter across most parts of the planet till now.
The scientists put it in a sharp way: ” The coldest year in the future will be warmer than the hottest year of the past.”
Unless the governments and people of all the countries do not make coordinated efforts, the climatic condition is going to be drastic and a threat to man kind. But whether the governments,mainly that of the developed countries from where the green house emissions are the maximum, will hear and act?
(Courtesy: New York Times/NDTV)
09 Wednesday Oct 2013
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PTI
Lucknow Oct 9 The focus of the convention called by Left parties in Delhi later this month, in which leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Nitish Kumar will take part, will be on strengthening secular values and isolate communal forces.
CPI national secretary Atul Kumar Anjaan today said here that the Left leaders are trying to ensure participation of all secular parties in the convention.
The “National Convention in Defence of Secularism” will be held at Talkatora Indoor Stadium in Delhi on October 30.
Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, JD(U) leaders Sharad Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda have confirmed their participation, Anjaan said, adding that Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik is also likely to come.
Besides them, a large number of activists will also attend the convention, Anjaan said.
He said that this convention is being organised in the backdrop of Muzaffarnagar riots and repeated efforts by communal forces to create disturbances.
09 Wednesday Oct 2013
The Govt. Shut Down is adversely affecting every thing in US. Even the families of the dead soldiers are denied the death benefits. What is happening in US. the leader of the capitalism? I am giving below a report from NDTV:
Washington: The families of four soldiers killed in Afghanistan last weekend will not receive death benefits or the money to pay for their funerals because of the government shutdown.
The bodies of Sergeant Patrick C Hawkins, 25; Pfc. Cody J. Patterson, 24; Sergeant Joseph M. Peters, 24; and First Lieutenant Jennifer M Moreno, 25, will arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday. The four soldiers were killed Sunday in the Zhari district of Kandahar province when enemy forces attacked their unit with explosives.
But if their families want to meet the plane, they will have to pay their own way to Delaware.
Under the shutdown, Carl Woog, a Defense Department spokesman, said Tuesday, “the Department of Defense does not currently have the authority to pay death gratuities and other key benefits for the survivors of service members killed in action.”
The benefits include $100,000 to each family; a 12-month basic allowance for housing, usually given in a lump sum to survivors commensurate with the rank of the service member; and burial benefits. The benefits are also being withheld from the family of Lance Cpl. Jeremiah Collins Jr, 19, of the Marines, whose death on Saturday in Helmand province is being investigated by the Pentagon. New hardships caused by the shutdown seem to emerge every day as the standoff between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans entered its second week. But the denial of benefits to the families of fallen soldiers – however temporary – led to an unusual burst of outrage. (Courtsey : NDTV)
09 Wednesday Oct 2013
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The Supreme Court has directed the central and state governments to ensure and strictly implement 3% reservation for the disabled. The condition that reservation should not be more than 50% of the jobs will not adversely affect the 3% reservation for disabled.
08 Tuesday Oct 2013
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The Supreme Court in an important judgement has ordered that the voters after voting should be given a receipt for the fact that they have voted. I think this is a good decision. We have to see the details of the judgement to know the procedure etc. for this practice.
08 Tuesday Oct 2013
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I am very glad that many of our friends/comrades are visiting this blog-site daily. Some of them are also putting comments as well as some questions for information. Many do not give their name and address while making the comments/questions, but e-mail id only is there. I would request our visitors to give their name and address also while making comments/questions. Otherwise it will be difficult to answer or publish the same in the blog. Thanks.
07 Monday Oct 2013
Posted in General
PTI
New Delhi, Oct 7 : CPI(M) is in talks with SP, JD(U),
JD(S) and BJD and other parties in a bid to forge a grouping
of non-Congress secular forces ahead of the general elections, with the first step being to ensure their participation at a convention against communalism here later this month.
“Discussions are being held with non-Congress secular
parties like the Samajwadi Party, JD(U), JD(S) and BJD to
safeguard our secular democratic republic from threats
emanating from communal forces,” senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told a press conference here.
To questions whether this grouping would lay the foundations for a ‘Third Front’ ahead of elections, he said all this would depend on the poll outcome. “We are working for the success of the convention. That is the objective now.”
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