Swine flu cases in India tally to 183

As of 12th July India reported 14 new swine flu cases, taking the total number of people infected with the influenza A(H1N1) virus to 183.
"Of the 183 positive cases, 131 have been discharged. Rest of them remain admitted to the identified health facility."
Out of the 1,117 people, 340 were identified through the airport entry screening.
Health officials said the new laboratory-confirmed cases have been reported from Delhi (4), Ahmedabad (2), Pune (3), Hyderabad (2) and Chennai (3).
In Delhi, the four cases, including three teenagers, are from one family that had come here from Singapore on July 8. They tested positive for the flu on Saturday.
In Ahmedabad, two people testing positive were part of a group of 40 students who travelled by American Airlines and had reached Delhi on July 4. The two returned Ahmedabad on July 7.
The officials said the group of 40 students had gone to the US on a yearlong exchange programme through an NGO and had traveled back to India from Chicago.
These students belong to Maharashtra (9), Gujarat (18), Karnataka (1), Tamil Nadu (7) and Delhi (5).
"All of them and their contacts are being traced and also their modality of inland travel ascertained."
In Chennai, a 34-year-old woman and her nine-year-old son and six-year-old daughter tested positive for swine flu. Her husband has also been quarantined.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 94,512 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection have been reported from 135 countries till July 6. There have been 429 deaths globally, most of them in Mexico and the US.

Finally, Pak admits LeT top gun plotted 26/11

Seven months after the terrorist strikes on Mumbai, Pakistan has admitted that Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a former close aide of Lashkar-e-Toiba Hafiz Saeed has links with the attack.
Malik said 13 people, including Ajmal Amir Kasab the lone terrorist captured in India for the Mumbai attacks, had been declared "proclaimed offenders" by Pakistani authorities.
He handed over a dossier on Pakistan's probe and 15 questions seeking more information on the attacks to the Indian side.
After getting further information from India, investigators had prepared a second and updated chargesheet, he said.
The trial has been held up due to the non-availability of a judge and Malik indicated proceedings would get underway during the next hearing set for July 18.
The updated chargesheet accuses Lakhvi of masterminding the attacks while Zarar Shah alias Abdul Wajid has been charged for being a facilitator and using his computer expertise to aid the attackers.
Hamad Amin Sadiq has been charged with facilitating the transfer of funds and providing hideouts for the attackers.
Abu al Qama alias Mazhar Iqbal is named as a "handler and facilitator" in the chargesheet while Shahid Jamil Riaz has been charged with facilitating the transfer of funds.
Riaz, who was arrested on March 19, also served as a crew member of the boat Al Fauz that was used by the attackers, Malik said.

Ganguly and Bhajji support Gavaskar, Yuvraj, Tendulkar

Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has rubbished Aussie John Buchanan's swipe at Indian cricketers.

Ganguly said that Indian's are used to facing criticism from the Aussies and the latest remarks by Buchanan do not surprise him at all.
The former Australia and Knight Riders coach Buchanan had recently in his book criticised legend Sunil Gavaskar as being blinkered by bias. Buchanan had also not spared Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan from his criticism.
Ganguly's remarks echo the sentiments shared by Bhajji who too hit back at Buchanan questioning his credientials as a coach after his miserable performance with the Knight Riders from where he was sacked.

What all people do just to get some publicity and here of course Buchanan is trying to increase the sales of his book!!!!!

Heavy rains predicted in Mumbai - 2009

A valuable input from BMC is being circulated for your information. Floods - 2009 :Mumbai Floods in Mumbai are attributable to simultaneous occurrence of rainfall and high tides. If, the rainfall is in excess of 200 mm in a day (24 hrs), floods can occur anytime irrespective of tides. However, if there is moderate rainfall but the tide is in excess of 4.50 meters at the same time, the city of Mumbai is sure to get flooded.

There are speculations about very high waves on 22 July 2009 due to solar eclipse. Public should, therefore, keep away from the beaches that day. Also, please advise your friends and relatives outside Mumbai not to plan a trip to Mumbai around these days.

Mumbai got off to a wet start on Wednesday (8th July 09) as incessant downpour the previous night caused severe waterlogging in several places across the bustling metropolis.By 8.30 a.m. Wednesday, the Colaba and Santacruz stations of the Regional Meteorological Centre recorded 73.7 mm and 32.2 mm of rain. Flooded streets greeted rush-hour crowds at Parel, Wadala, Sion, Elphinstone, Grant Road and Do Taki and in the congested Gol Deul area at Bhendi Bazaar. Commuters waded through long stretches of knee-deep waters.Trains, flights delayed. Train schedules went awry for a few hours, grounding many office-goers. Heavy bunching (trains lined up in one area) was reported between Parel and Byculla from 8 to 9.30 a.m.

At the Grant Road and Mumbai Central stations on the Western line, water entered the rail track. Local services were delayed on average by 20-25 minutes. At some stations, the delay was up to 45 minutes. Flights also suffered a delay of 15-30 minutes. However, there was no diversion or cancellation. The Air Traffic Control suspended runway operations for half hour due to poor visibility, an airport spokesperson said.

The weather bureau has predicted spells of rain or thundershowers for the next 24 hours. Elsewhere in Maharashtra, the Nagpur bureau has issued warnings of heavy rain during the next 24 hours in the Vidarbha region.

Broaden Your Travel Horizon with 78mm

Hi people !
You wanna see what real adventure is????
78mm Adventures is gearing up to take you into the Forbidden Lands for 10 days on one road trip.
In some of the most challenging conditions for life, discovering new dimensions of India with self indulging camping & cooking - and support. Shooting photons of our experience. Sharing an open minded quest for sustainable lifestyle alternatives, amidst the unchartered Himalayas of Kinnaur, Lahaul & Spiti.
If you aren’t married and even if you are but have somehow managed to preserve your sense of abandon, here’s your chance to create very own road adventure. Biking, hiking, camping, rappelling and any and everything in between – this is your chance to scorn every five star facility wooing you with their fancy poolside dinners, discos and ‘cultural nights’ for an experience that will change the very direction of your so predictable memory lane.
78 mm Adventures, a one-of-a-kind startup in India, has penetrated the emerging turf of alternate tourism. The website 78 mm Adventures.com started off as a virtual club where like-minded enthusiasts shared information about their trip experiences and provided insights about interesting places to stay, eat and explore. The concept evolved into guided adventure trips and outbound programs.
Call of Adventure
Weekend escapades had always been high on the menu of life of the three 25 year olds who concocted the formula of the perfect weekend adventure. A year into their high flying careers (the kinds that awaited MBA grads from high ranking institutes a couple of years back), Jagrit Gupta, Jeet Sachdeva and Vivek Pratap Singh found time for weekend trips at least once a month.
Three best three buddies slipping out of the urban jungle into the lap of nature, ‘Gradually, these trips became business brainstorming sessions. We were convinced that there's a huge opportunity in experimenting with a different beat,” explains Vivek. Each of them were earning hefty packages when they decided to sacrifice their comforts for a vision.
By mid-2008, they had given up their regular jobs and designed and launched their alternative travel portal, and tagged it with the slogan, ‘Every declaration of independence is an act of adventure.’ 78mm Adventures is an overlap between eco-tourism, anti-tourism, awareness and exploration travel mixed with social networking.
Trippin Isn’t Easy
So far, they have got themselves into trips as varied as a beachfront jam on East-Coast Road (Tamil Nadu), an overnight trek into Tada falls (Andhra Pradesh), exploring caves and ruins and mountain climbing at Savandurg (Karnataka), a trekking camp at Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh), jeep safari near Jaipur (Rajasthan), a corporate workshop trip in Dalhousie (Himachal Pradesh) and an endurance bike trip to the haunted ruins of Bhangarh (Rajasthan)
The latest trip coming from the stables of Team 78mm is a road trip to the Forbidden Land (Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti). Ten days (May 28th to June 6th 2009) will flag-off from Naggar, near Kullu. Apart from bike and jeep safaris, the trip will include lakeside and jungle camps, treks, campfires, rappelling and more. “India always had an inclination towards unknown and new experiences, which is to be explored within.”

If the prospect of unearthing your inner Indiana Jones has adequately piqued your interest, visit their website

(Registration is open till May 7th):

http://78mmadventures.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=175

Check out for more information here too and join the group

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=66182920508&ref=mf

Pak minister blames India for attack on Lanka team

Islamabad: A Pakistani minister accused India of being behind the attack on Sri Lanka's cricket team in the city of Lahore on Tuesday, saying the attackers had crossed into Pakistan from India.
"The evidence which we have got shows that these terrorists entered from across the border from India," Sardar Nabil Ahmed Gabol, minister of state for shipping, told private Geo television.
"This was a conspiracy to defame Pakistan internationally." "This incident took place in reaction to 26/11," he said referring to the Mumbai attacks in November in which at least 170 people were killed. "It is a declaration of open war on Pakistan by India," said the minister, who is not one of the government's official spokesmen, but belongs to President Asif Ali Zardari's party.

Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor's Summit 2009

The Government of Gujarat is organizing the 4th Global Investors' Summit on 12-13 January 2009 in Ahmedabad. Aimed at bringing together business leaders, investors, corporations, thought leaders, policy and opinion makers; the summit serves as a perfect platform to understand and explore business opportunities in the State of Gujarat.
The 2003 Global Investors' Summit was held to coincide with the glorious Navratri Festival. During the Summit, a total of 76 MOUs, worth USD 14 billion, were signed. The 2005 Summit saw the signing of 226 MOUs garnering an investment of USD 20 billion. The year 2007 Summit, attended by industry majors like Tata, Birla, Reliance, Shell, General Motors, ICICI to name a few, resulted in the signing of 675 MOUs worth USD 152 billion.
In the year 2009, the initiative that began six years ago, will be intensified and the state of Gujarat will be propelled to the next stage of development process: focused and intensive growth in the socio-economic index.

Who should represent India?

The Central government's sports ministry has proposed a policy that will no longer allow Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) to represent India in sporting events, as they are technically `foreign citizens'. The argument proffered is that allowing sportspersons of Indian origin to wear Indian colours even after they acquire the citizenship of another country would be tantamount to depriving Indian citizens of the opportunity to play for their country. The decision will leave currently registered players in the lurch, as their future would be uncertain. It will have serious implications for India's tennis team, as Prakash Amritraj, Sunitha Rao and the Uberoi sisters, Shikha and Neha, will all become ineligible to play for it. These columns have consistently promoted the idea of an elective identity that will help us do away with restrictions that curb talent and aspirations. The government, too, has gone to the extent of setting up a ministry of overseas Indian affairs to felicitate and honour members of the Indian diaspora. The ministry organises the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event every year that is a huge draw for people of Indian origin from all over the world. When we value their services and make so much effort to appreciate what they do, why the step-motherly treatment when it comes to their wishing to represent the country of their origin?

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ARE WE PREPARED?

More than twenty four hours after the shocking attacks in Mumbai that left over a hundred and twenty five dead and hundreds more injured, there is one glaring question that we must ask ourselves – is India prepared? Are we prepared to face a terrorist attack of such a nature and magnitude? When Barkha Dutt said that this was every government’s worst nightmare, she was wrong. This isn’t a nightmare. This is reality…
Mumbai watched helplessly as terrorists took citizens hostage in extremely well-planned, meticulously executed and audaciously bold attacks. The first question that comes to mind is ‘How did a grand plan of such magnitude fail to go unnoticed by the intelligence agencies in India?’ And if they did get a whiff of such a plan, were they sitting on it like hens hatching their eggs? The idea that any such warning had gone unheeded by the government or any of its agencies, is unthinkable and unforgivable, to say the least.
Granted that the terrorists had the edge with the element of surprise. But after the initial jolt, one must ask oneself; what was the government’s response? Not very impressive. Mumbai is no stranger to terror yet there seemed to be no counter-terrorist system or measures in place. Till now, most of the terrorist activities have been concentrated on bomb scares and blasts, - which required police intervention only after the initial action by the terrorists. In a majority of the previous cases, the police arrived after the ‘deed was done’. In the 26/11 attacks, aggressive and proactive action was required and this is where, the police seemed to be lacking. In spite of repeated terror attacks, there is still no infrastructure, no system, no procedures, not even a SWAT team to deal with a terror situation like this. Two of the ‘finest’ officers were taken out by the terrorists within the first hour of the encounter. When the Army was called in, one message was loud and clear - our police forces are neither adequately trained nor mentally and physically prepared, to counter this type of terror. With a few officers down, most of the force seemed to be running around like ‘headless chickens’. Even after over six decades of conflict, we are hopelessly unprepared in terms of manpower readiness, logistics and tactical training in counter-terrorism.

India has never seen a terror attack at this level. There was confusion galore. Fire fighters were hopelessly unequipped. Fire brigades could not reach the fifth floor as the water force in the pipes was inadequate. Mumbai burned while viewers watched. Worse still, communications between various government organisations were quite ambiguous. From the media to the NSG, no one was actually certain about the number of hostages and terrorists.
Indeed, the government seems to be the least prepared for this kind of an eventuality. To echo the sentiments of Shobha De, there was a severe ‘leadership failure’. Not one leader came forward in this time of crisis to unite a city broken with repeated assaults. The tragedy was that even at this critical moment the Prime Minister’s speech on TV seemed totally ‘lacklustre’, ‘robotic’, and failed to inspire any sentiments whatsoever. His feeble assurances of ‘India will not tolerate this’ sounded empty and hollow and only served to remind us of the harsh reality that politicians still continue to live in their ivory towers, totally unaffected and unperturbed by everything around them. In fact, no substantial steps seem to have been taken to alleviate the fears of the city and the country.
Another pertinent question is that of security. We need to ask ourselves. Why is so much money being spent on the security arrangements for politicians and their progeny while the common man tiptoes around in fear? Take for instance, Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Kanpur, which was highly dramatized by the ruling party. The CM of Uttar Pradesh was asked to provide an explanation as to why there was a ‘lapse’ in the security arrangements of the Congress ‘yuvraj’. At the same time, ironically, Guwahati was reeling under the effect of the bomb blasts!! Yet there was not a word or mention about security for the common man! Why does the common man have to pay the price of vulnerability while the politicians chose to live in barricaded mansions in heavily guarded localities? More importantly, these are the leaders we have chosen to lead us; the very leaders who refuse to budge an inch without security from head to toe. Why is the taxpayer’s money being used to guard a handful of parasitical self serving leaders?
One consistent characteristic of Indian leaders is that they always talk so futuristically, whether it concerns terrorism or oil prices – the attitude is the same; we will do something!! Why have they not done something till now? More than ever before, we are now faced with the wonderful irony that we have become second class citizens in our own country, terror having taken precedence over us. Terror has walked in and all over us, and we, as Indians, have stood by and watched helplessly. Is this the beginning of the end?
The last question that haunts us is the motive for these attacks. Mindless suicidal attacks with no clear motive have emphasized the grim fact no place, whether it is a station, a hospital or a posh hotel, is safe. This has created fear and panic even as citizens now realize that there are no rules of engagement any more. The battle lines are drawn and the message is clear. There is a new battleground. And it is here. Near you, near us. Are we prepared?