Mayur's Posterous http://agentm.posterous.com Most recent posts at Mayur's Posterous posterous.com Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:17:00 -0700 Why My Father Hated India http://agentm.posterous.com/why-my-father-hated-india http://agentm.posterous.com/why-my-father-hated-india

By AATISH TASEER

Ten days before he was assassinated in January, my father, Salman Taseer, sent out a tweet about an Indian rocket that had come down over the Bay of Bengal: "Why does India make fools of themselves messing in space technology? Stick 2 bollywood my advice."

My father was the governor of Punjab, Pakistan's largest province, and his tweet, with its taunt at India's misfortune, would have delighted his many thousands of followers. It fed straight into Pakistan's unhealthy obsession with India, the country from which it was carved in 1947.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Mohandas Gandhi visits Muslim refugees in New Delhi as they prepare to depart to Pakistan on Sept. 22, 1947.

PakistanNEW

PakistanNEW

Though my father's attitude went down well in Pakistan, it had caused considerable tension between us. I am half-Indian, raised in Delhi by my Indian mother: India is a country that I consider my own. When my father was killed by one of his own bodyguards for defending a Christian woman accused of blasphemy, we had not spoken for three years.

To understand the Pakistani obsession with India, to get a sense of its special edge—its hysteria—it is necessary to understand the rejection of India, its culture and past, that lies at the heart of the idea of Pakistan. This is not merely an academic question. Pakistan's animus toward India is the cause of both its unwillingness to fight Islamic extremism and its active complicity in undermining the aims of its ostensible ally, the United States.

The idea of Pakistan was first seriously formulated by neither a cleric nor a politician but by a poet. In 1930, Muhammad Iqbal, addressing the All-India Muslim league, made the case for a state in which India's Muslims would realize their "political and ethical essence." Though he was always vague about what the new state would be, he was quite clear about what it would not be: the old pluralistic society of India, with its composite culture.

Every day at sunset, Indian and Pakistani guards on the Wagah border face off in a militaristic flag-lowering exercise called the Beating Retreat Ceremony. WSJ's Tom Wright reports on India's effort to tone down the bizarre display.

Iqbal's vision took concrete shape in August 1947. Despite the partition of British India, it had seemed at first that there would be no transfer of populations. But violence erupted, and it quickly became clear that in the new homeland for India's Muslims, there would be no place for its non-Muslim communities. Pakistan and India came into being at the cost of a million lives and the largest migration in history.

This shared experience of carnage and loss is the foundation of the modern relationship between the two countries. In human terms, it meant that each of my parents, my father in Pakistan and my mother in India, grew up around symmetrically violent stories of uprooting and homelessness.

But in Pakistan, the partition had another, deeper meaning. It raised big questions, in cultural and civilizational terms, about what its separation from India would mean.

In the absence of a true national identity, Pakistan defined itself by its opposition to India. It turned its back on all that had been common between Muslims and non-Muslims in the era before partition. Everything came under suspicion, from dress to customs to festivals, marriage rituals and literature. The new country set itself the task of erasing its association with the subcontinent, an association that many came to view as a contamination.

Rex USA

Salman Taseer, governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, in May 2009. He was assassinated in January 2011.

Taseera2

Taseera2

Had this assertion of national identity meant the casting out of something alien or foreign in favor of an organic or homegrown identity, it might have had an empowering effect. What made it self-wounding, even nihilistic, was that Pakistan, by asserting a new Arabized Islamic identity, rejected its own local and regional culture. In trying to turn its back on its shared past with India, Pakistan turned its back on itself.

But there was one problem: India was just across the border, and it was still its composite, pluralistic self, a place where nearly as many Muslims lived as in Pakistan. It was a daily reminder of the past that Pakistan had tried to erase.

Pakistan's existential confusion made itself apparent in the political turmoil of the decades after partition. The state failed to perform a single legal transfer of power; coups were commonplace. And yet, in 1980, my father would still have felt that the partition had not been a mistake, for one critical reason: India, for all its democracy and pluralism, was an economic disaster.

Pakistan had better roads, better cars; Pakistani businesses were thriving; its citizens could take foreign currency abroad. Compared with starving, socialist India, they were on much surer ground. So what if India had democracy? It had brought nothing but drought and famine.

But in the early 1990s, a reversal began to occur in the fortunes of the two countries. The advantage that Pakistan had seemed to enjoy in the years after independence evaporated, as it became clear that the quest to rid itself of its Indian identity had come at a price: the emergence of a new and dangerous brand of Islam.

As India rose, thanks to economic liberalization, Pakistan withered. The country that had begun as a poet's utopia was reduced to ruin and insolvency.

The primary agent of this decline has been the Pakistani army. The beneficiary of vast amounts of American assistance and money—$11 billion since 9/11—the military has diverted a significant amount of these resources to arming itself against India. In Afghanistan, it has sought neither security nor stability but rather a backyard, which—once the Americans leave—might provide Pakistan with "strategic depth" against India.

In order to realize these objectives, the Pakistani army has led the U.S. in a dance, in which it had to be seen to be fighting the war on terror, but never so much as to actually win it, for its extension meant the continuing flow of American money. All this time the army kept alive a double game, in which some terror was fought and some—such as Laskhar-e-Tayyba's 2008 attack on Mumbai—actively supported.

The army's duplicity was exposed decisively this May, with the killing of Osama bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad. It was only the last and most incriminating charge against an institution whose activities over the years have included the creation of the Taliban, the financing of international terrorism and the running of a lucrative trade in nuclear secrets.

This army, whose might has always been justified by the imaginary threat from India, has been more harmful to Pakistan than to anybody else. It has consumed annually a quarter of the country's wealth, undermined one civilian government after another and enriched itself through a range of economic interests, from bakeries and shopping malls to huge property holdings.

The reversal in the fortunes of the two countries—India's sudden prosperity and cultural power, seen next to the calamity of Muhammad Iqbal's unrealized utopia—is what explains the bitterness of my father's tweet just days before he died. It captures the rage of being forced to reject a culture of which you feel effortlessly a part—a culture that Pakistanis, via Bollywood, experience daily in their homes.

This rage is what makes it impossible to reduce Pakistan's obsession with India to matters of security or a land dispute in Kashmir. It can heal only when the wounds of 1947 are healed. And it should provoke no triumphalism in India, for behind the bluster and the bravado, there is arid pain and sadness.

—Mr. Taseer is the author of "Stranger to History: A Son's Journey Through Islamic Lands." His second novel, "Noon," will be published in the U.S. in September.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1383466/spaceinvader_-_zoom.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfDSub3Dnfb Mayur Bhatia AgentM Mayur Bhatia
Sat, 23 Apr 2011 08:55:00 -0700 Milking Fake Tweets » SCAMSUTRA http://agentm.posterous.com/milking-fake-tweets-scamsutra http://agentm.posterous.com/milking-fake-tweets-scamsutra

“If corporate media becomes impartial and stops serving its political masters, it will command respect of the people, instead of demanding it.”

(Disclaimer:- This disclaimer is for NDTV who unleash lawyers for stamping out free speech. I am neither an admirer of NDTV, nor of Ms. Dutt. My image gallery is proof of that. This article does not explicitly imply or state that NDTV uses fake tweets to distort public debate. I have stated my opinion.)

This show was supposed to be a discussion about the situation of Mr. Shanti Bhushan and Mr. Prashant Bhushan who are being accused without proof. A television channel is expected to be neutral, but this show appeared to be part of a media trial of Bhushans.

So I did a little experiment with this episode available online at ndtv.com website.

Show – The Buck Stops Here on NDTV anchored by Ms. Barkha Dutt. Episode title – “Bhushans: Smear Campaign or Fair Game?”

Date – 20th April, 2011

Methodology – I switched off the sound and made a note of visuals presented during the show.

(Note: I switched on sound briefly only once to listen to Agnivesh’s famous comment at 40th minute, as pointed out by folks on Twitter. This comment has been preserved at Mutiny along with a contest. Thanks to Jayant Gajria for the tip.)

My Observations

 

Visuals in the show had 2 categories of graphics: 

 

  1. Captions
  2. Twitter Buzz

Both these are labeled in the screenshot.

 

 

Visual Category 1 – CAPTIONS

Please note the subtle but aggressive build-up in captions rotated throughout the show:

  • Anti-Corruption Drive
  • Hit by Controversies
  • Lokpal Panel Co-chair in CD row
  • Bhushan & Sons
  • Bhushans embroiled in CD Row
  • CD: Chat between Bhushan, Mulayam
  • CD: Phone Chat about fixing a judge
  • Conflict of Interest?
  • Smear Campaign?
  • After CD, Land Row
  • Bhushans in Land Row
  • The ‘Plot’ Thickens
  • Serious Improprities?
  • Should Bhushans Quit?

My conclusion – There is a clear negative spin in captions to defame the Bhushans in a show where they are not present to defend their position. This is also known as a Media Trial

Visual Category 2 – TWITTER BUZZ

Out of all the tweets presented in this visual, I found these most interesting.

Irrespective of the fact whether the Bhushans are corrupt or not they should quit. We can’t give them preferential treatment.….@Forever_Tarun (Tarun Arora)

How can a few unelected, ‘self-declared honest pple’ hijack d democratic process&claim 2 represent 120 crore ppl? #annahazare….@neutralviews (neutral)

caesars wife has to be above suspicion. But having said that there wud b no1 left in civil society since v r all suspect 2sum extent….@iamrana (Rana)

A glance at twitter time-line of these worthies revealed that they belong to the Barkha Dutt Fan Club. Their tweets conveniently supported the agenda she was pushing in this episode.

It reminds me of those suspicious “viewer telephone calls” and “audience questions” which anchors often use in their shows.

The following tweet is more interesting:

 

those in eye of storm should quit. the movement is too important to be disturbed by such issues.
….@abhijain03 (Abhishek Jain)

 

 

Now Mr. Abhishek Jain is interesting because his account @abhijain03 has only 2 tweets so far!

The first tweet was on 19th March and second just happened to be on the day of Barkha’s show.

 

The non-communicative Mr. Jain has 16 followers out of which 10 are females. Actually, only 9, because 1 girl “Anshu Daga” likes him so much that she follows him through 2 identical accounts!

 

The status of these 9 mysterious followers (on 21 April) -

Name Twitter Account Date of First Tweet Total Tweets
Anshu Daga anshudaga5 17 March 20
Anshu Daga anshudaga6 23 March 21
Malina Maloo MalinaMaloo5 21 March 20
Hansika Goenka HansikaGoenka6 21 March 20
Jayanti Dugar JayantiDugar7 20 March 19
Deveshi Baid DeveshiBaid5 20 March 20
Hemaksh Jhajharia HemakshiJ97 16 March 20
Aashritha Bangad aashrithab141 15 March 20
Ishta Dalmia IshtaDalmia4 8 March 21
Jigyasa Gadia JigyasaGadia3 23 Feb 10

 

List of Coincidences

  • All accounts set up in the last one month (except JigyasaGadia3)
  • None of the accounts has a bio
  • In each account, tweets are made in batches of 10 on 2 days only. This gives us 2 x 10 = 20 tweets
  • They do not appear to be bot accounts because tweets are not uniform and there is no spam
  • All are accounts have female names (mostly Marwari names)
  • All have photographs of attractive females with similar numerical filenames
  • None of these accounts has tweeted to ANYONE
  • These 9 females (2 are same) follow Abhishek Jain even though he has tweeted only twice (it was once, before 10th). So they must be his friends… right? But then, he is not following ANY OF THEM.

This means they are not friends. In that case, who are they?

Observations

  • All accounts have collected 120-220 genuine followers by following 500-800 people
  • These accounts are not bots
  • Someone is creating a number of such accounts
  • Someone maintains these accounts by posting 10 tweets, once every 2 weeks
  • Accounts like anshudaga3, anshudaga5, anshudaga6 and anshudaga7 are created at different times and kept active simultaneously
  • 10 out of 16 such accounts are followers of a similar account which was quoted in a TV show with a tweet that conveniently supported the show’s agenda

Note: The following section has been updated. Confusion was caused by the address @ShaliniSharma displayed on TV.

 

Do put the ministers on the Lokpal Bill committee under same scrutiny. Can’t wait for that
….@ShaliniSharma_ (Shalini Sharma)

 

Alert folks on Twitter (including Hari, David and Vikas in comments section below) pointed out that NDTV had made a typing error and credited @ShaliniSharma (blank account) instead of @ShaliniSharma_

Ms. Shalini Sharma has made an excellent point. The screenshot of her tweet is presented below:

Real Shalini Sharma Tweet

 

I thank everyone for this correction and sincerely hope that NDTV is more careful in the future.

Now that the issue of the second suspicious tweet has been resolved peacefully, this post stands corrected.

My opinion that NDTV shows are not impartial still holds because their anchors (English and Hindi) continue being predictable by following the same strategy:

  • Dominate and browbeat guests who disagree, or belong to NDA. The way Nidhi Razdan ill-treated Rajiv Pratap Rudy of BJP in a March 2011 show, is a perfectly good example.
  • Politely allow excessive time to guests who are saying “the right thing”. Usually, Congressmen and Communists get sufficient time to blow their trumpet.
  • Selectively edit sound bytes from the person they target. This ALWAYS happens when NDTV is forced to show Narendra Modi (as in the case of Anna Hazare praising him recently)

To this list I can now add:

  • Shameless, blatant manipulation of social media such as Twitter to support their viewpoint by padding their shows with favourable tweets
  • Misleading viewers into thinking that selective social media extracts telecast on NDTV are a truthful representation of public opinion

All of this is my personal opinion, and it is possible I may be wrong.

Therefore, I request readers to verify facts from links provided and draw their own conclusions.

(All screenshots on this page were taken on April 21 and 22, 2011)

(Comments moderation will be done in case of spam)

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1383466/spaceinvader_-_zoom.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfDSub3Dnfb Mayur Bhatia AgentM Mayur Bhatia
Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:32:00 -0700 BBC News - India to buy advanced fighter jets from Russia http://agentm.posterous.com/bbc-news-india-to-buy-advanced-fighter-jets-f http://agentm.posterous.com/bbc-news-india-to-buy-advanced-fighter-jets-f
 India to buy advanced fighter jets from Russia

Indian Defence Minister AK Antony
The deal has been announced by the Indian Defence Minister AK Antony

India will buy 250 to 300 advanced fifth-generation stealth fighter jets from Russia over the next 10 years, Defence Minister AK Antony has said.

Fifth-generation aircraft are invisible to radar, have advanced flight and weapons control systems and can cruise at supersonic speeds, officials say.

Mr Antony told a news conference in the Indian capital, Delhi, that Russia would also supply 45 transport planes.

India is a top buyer of Russian weapons and the two countries have strong ties.

"We have a 10-year programme and it is quite challenging (but) we have very good experience in military co-operation," news agency AFP quoted Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying at the conference.

The deal, which could be worth up to $30bn, is believed to be the richest in India's military history.

The agreement is expected to be signed when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits India in December, officials say.

This is potentially a huge deal, which could dramatically increase India's military capabilities, the BBC's defence and security correspondent Nick Childs says.

The two sides have been in talks for some time.

The fifth-generation stealth fighter is currently being developed in Russia and the prototype flew for the first time earlier this year.

At the moment the United States is the only country that has a fifth-generation stealth fighter actually in service.

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1383466/spaceinvader_-_zoom.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfDSub3Dnfb Mayur Bhatia AgentM Mayur Bhatia
Sat, 18 Sep 2010 20:01:00 -0700 India's 35-dollar tablet will come out 11-Jan-2011 http://agentm.posterous.com/indias-35-dollar-tablet-will-come-out-11-jan http://agentm.posterous.com/indias-35-dollar-tablet-will-come-out-11-jan

India will launch its much anticipated ultra-cheap tablet PC, the Sakshat, on 11 January 2011, the ministry of Development has announced. The tablet, which will cost no more than 35 US dollars (or 27 euros), is aimed at students and low-income groups in India. The announcement of the launch date came as a surprise to many, as some experts say a PC this cheap is simply impossible.
 
India's Development minister Shri Kapil Sibal (pictured, with a prototype of the tablet) looks determined to turn this project into a success, despite the criticism. "We are constantly customising the device to the needs of our target groups, students in particular," Mr Sibal told reporters earlier this week. "So the machine simply does what the user requires. This has enabled us to keep the price as low as possible."
 
Sceptical
But even with a launch date now set, many people remain sceptical about the Sakshat project. "There is no 35-dollar PC," says Satish Jha of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project in India, which distributes cheap laptops in schools in India for approximately 100 US dollars per laptop. He told RNW: "It is not clear who is producing the device. The government can always buy any number of pieces and subsidise it and ask any manufacturer to create it. Such a product can only be sold at a subsidised price."
 
Realistic?
Mr Jha also wonders whether it's actually up to the government to create this kind of technology. "To try to do this without a track record of virtually any product seems impossible," he says. "It raises questions about the ability of those behind the project to understand how technologies evolve and how products get created. We hope they'll be a little more realistic about the expectations they generate."

Watch a promotional video of the Sakshat here (story continues below):

 


 

Features
Despite its unusually low price, the Sakshat apparently carries many features that can be found on any (tablet) PC - a 7-inch touch screen, connections for wi-fi and USB and a 2GB storage capacity. Its use of Android software enables it to browse the internet.

  With its 35-dollar price tag it will be the cheapest computer in the world, but Mr Sibal thinks the price could go down even further. "I expect the price will gradually drop down to 20 dollars and ultimately to only ten dollars," he said.

  Rural areas
If successful, the Sakshat provides internet access to millions of Indians who until now, simply couldn't afford even the cheapest PC. It is part of the Development ministry's drive to bring technology to low-income groups, especially in rural areas.

  But the Sakshat may not be what some people in these target groups actually need, Mr Jha warns. "The Sakshat is aimed at universities. During the course of our OLPC project, we have discovered that what's good for university students may not be good for schools. What is good in privileged environments may not work in the villages and for the underprivileged. Hopefully the decision makers will keep those two tracks separate."

  Mobile banks
Another example of bringing technology to low-income groups is the government's scheme to introduce "mobile banks" to all parts of India by 2015, as announced by the Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday. Customers will have access to bank services through specially equipped vans that will travel to even the smallest villages.

  Incidentally, India - one of the world's fastest growing economies - is making a name for affordable consumer products. In 2008, the cheap Tata Nano car was introduced with only a 2,000 dollar price tag attached to it (6,000 dollars in Europe). Despite initial reservations from the automotive industry about the success of the project, it is still the world's cheapest car.
 
 
 
 

via rnw.nl

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1383466/spaceinvader_-_zoom.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfDSub3Dnfb Mayur Bhatia AgentM Mayur Bhatia
Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:36:00 -0700 Coming Nuclear Flashpoint | The Diplomat http://agentm.posterous.com/coming-nuclear-flashpoint-the-diplomat http://agentm.posterous.com/coming-nuclear-flashpoint-the-diplomat

If the West has had any success in Afghanistan, it has been in encouraging India to make a massive investment there of economic aid, infrastructure projects and national prestige. New Delhi is the largest regional investor in the country, and ranks second among all donors. With the West’s looming defeat in Afghanistan, however, India’s success will prove Pyrrhic, and may well set the stage for another, perhaps nuclear, confrontation between Pakistan and India.

In their usual ahistorical manner, Washington and its NATO allies believed their 2001 occupation of the major Afghan cities signified not only the complete defeat of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, but also an erasure of two millennia of Afghan history and religion that afforded an opportunity to start the country anew. In this context, they looked for other countries to share the enormous cost of nation-building, and India stepped up to the task without having to be asked twice.

And what has India been up to? Mostly infrastructure projects, such as a 250-kilometre highway from Zaranj near the Iran-Afghanistan border to the town of Delaram on the road that connects Kabul, Kandahar and Heart. Indian firms and Indian-government funding are also rebuilding the Salma Dam power project in Heart Province; building the new Afghan parliament house in Kabul; and constructing a power line that will use 600 transmission towers to bring electricity from Uzbekistan, over the Hindu Kush, to Pol-i-Khumri, and thence to Kabul. These and other projects now employ up to 4000 Indian nationals in Afghanistan. In addition, Indian firms are investing in Afghan agriculture and mining, and New Delhi is providing student scholarships, medical aid programs and training for Afghan police and civil servants.

Clearly, Afghanistan’s battered infrastructure needs this help and much more. Like all foreign aid, however, India’s aid has come with accompaniments the Hamid Karzai regime fully accepts, but which tend to drive Pakistan’s government—and especially its general officers—to distraction and deep strategic worry. New Delhi, for example, has built one of its biggest embassies in the world in Kabul, and with it has built four consulates—some media reports say as many as seven—two of which, in Jalalabad and Kandahar, face Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. In addition, New Delhi has deployed nearly 500 men from the Indian Army’s Border Roads Organization to assist in highway construction, and as many or more paramilitary soldiers from its Indo-Tibetan Police force to guard Indian diplomatic facilities and construction projects.

"India’s role in Afghanistan is hailed as a triumph of soft power. In fact, it has just made conflict with Pakistan more likely."

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1383466/spaceinvader_-_zoom.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfDSub3Dnfb Mayur Bhatia AgentM Mayur Bhatia
Sat, 17 Jul 2010 12:12:00 -0700 India unveils new Rupee symbol http://agentm.posterous.com/india-unveils-new-rupee-symbol-world-news-gua http://agentm.posterous.com/india-unveils-new-rupee-symbol-world-news-gua
new indian rupee

Udaya Kumar with his winning design for the Indian rupee symbol.

It may look like a melted British Rail sign but it's hoped that a new symbol for the Indian rupee will signal India's growing economic strength ‑ and it will be coming soon to a keyboard near you.

The winning design was selected by the Indian cabinet yesterday from a shortlist of five following a national competition.

Measures are already afoot to have the rupee sign declared a computer standard, meaning it could join currencies such as the pound, dollar, euro and yen on keyboards within two years.

"The distinct symbol denotes the robustness of the Indian economy," India's information minister, Ambika Soni, said.

References to sums in rupees currently involve spelling out the word (as is the case in the Guardian's style guide) or giving it the abbreviation Rs or INRs to distinguish it from other Asian countries that use rupees or variations thereof.

"Once accepted, it will stand clear from the clutter of currencies that call themselves rupee or the rupiah," India's Telegraph reported.

The winning symbol was the work of Udaya Kumar, a lecture in design at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. Speaking to the Indian news website Rediff.com he said: "My design is based on the tricolour, with two lines at the top and white space in between. I wanted the symbol for the rupee to represent the Indian flag. It is a perfect blend of Indian and Roman letters: a capital 'R' and Devanagari 'ra' which represents rupiya, to appeal to international audiences and Indian audiences."

Michael Johnson, a director at the award-winning London-based design consultancy johnson banks, said the new symbol fitted with other currency signs but lacked imagination.

"I think it's a B or B plus. Most currency symbols follow an established route now ‑ E for euro, Y for yen, now R for rupee. You could argue that a dynamic emerging economy could have gone for something more unusual and got away with it ‑ I think in the end conservative voices prevailed."

I had posted the shortlist earlier and this design seems to be a modified version of #4. I think it's  pretty cool that the new currency symbol will be a keyboard standard within 2 years.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1383466/spaceinvader_-_zoom.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfDSub3Dnfb Mayur Bhatia AgentM Mayur Bhatia
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:51:00 -0700 Indian Rupee Symbol to be Decided Today http://agentm.posterous.com/indian-rupee-symbol-to-be-decided-today http://agentm.posterous.com/indian-rupee-symbol-to-be-decided-today

The Union Cabinet will today decide on the symbol for Indian Rupee, a privilege (unique identity) available only to major currencies like dollar, euro, pound, sterling and yen.

Indian Rupee Symbol

 

Indian Rupee Symbol

The proposal, said to be prompted by the growing influence of the Indian economy in the global arena, involves a shortlist of five symbols (finalists above) for the Indian rupee drawn up the finance ministry, reflecting the Indian ethos and culture (via)

A year back, Government announced contest to design the symbol (winning entry gets Rs 2,50,000) and the prime criteria for the selections were

  • The symbol should be applicable to standard keyboard.
  • The symbol has to be in the Indian National Language Script or a visual representation.
  • The symbol should represent the historical & cultural ethos of the country as widely accepted across the country.

Take a look at the five options above. Which one do you think should be the winner?

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1383466/spaceinvader_-_zoom.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AfDSub3Dnfb Mayur Bhatia AgentM Mayur Bhatia