[Assam] Indian Gold Rush in Full Swing
Barua25
barua25 at hotmail.com
Sun Oct 15 22:56:40 PDT 2006
Hindu Press International October 15, 20064. Indian Gold Rush in Full Swing
www.ibnlive.com
NEW DELHI, INDIA, October 13, 2006: The famed Indian appetite for gold is being manifest with renewed vigor this season as a surge in festival demand and a recent fall in prices has fueled a virtual gold rush in the market. The current upward trend has particularly been underlined by the country's top bullion trader MMTC Ltd's business outlook for its annual Festival of Gold exhibition, which is expecting a jump of 40 per cent over last year's sales. "The response this year has been good so far and the coming weekend is expected to bring even more business," MMTC Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Batra said. The festival period, particularly highlighted by the forthcoming Divali - traditionally considered to be an auspicious time to purchase gold, and the upcoming marriage season is further adding to the already high demand for gold and jewelry products. India, which accounts for 20 per cent of the world's total gold jewelry demand, is the largest consumer of the precious metal followed by China and Japan.
October 15, 2006
1.. High Court Orders Mumbai Temple To Pull Down Temple Security Wall
2.. Ladies' Sabarimala Enters The Guinness Book
3.. Children Initiated Into Learning at Annual Vijayadasami Ceremonies
4.. Indian Gold Rush in Full Swing
5.. Six-Day Wait for US Visas Coming Soon in India
1. High Court Orders Mumbai Temple To Pull Down Temple Security Wall
www.ndtv.com
MUMBAI, INDIA, October 12, 2006: The Bombay High Court has ordered that the wall around Siddhivinayak temple to prevent terrorist attacks must go. The court order came in response to a lawsuit filed by local residents who said the wall was encroaching on a public road. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent by temple authorities on constructing a wall which was meant to be temporary in nature. The Siddhivinayak temple is Mumbai's richest and most powerful temple. The wall was sanctioned by the Maharashtra government last November for a one-year period. But local residents protested saying the structure built was a permanent one. Another objection was that instead of eight feet, the wall was built 60 feet away from the temple, thus encroaching upon the main road, causing not just traffic jams but diversions. "We plan to celebrate this order. This had become a nuisance for us. It had become difficult for us to move around here," said a local resident. Temple authorities have already said they will appeal in the Supreme Court.
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2. Ladies' Sabarimala Enters The Guinness Book
www.rediff.com
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA, October 12, 2006: The annual Ponkala festival of the Attukal Bhagavathi temple in Thiruvananthapuram, one of the world's biggest devotional congregations of women, is set to make it to the Guinness book of World Records. The festival, which draws over a million women in a single day in March, will go into the record books as an event attended by more than a million people, an official of the Attukal Bhagavath Temple Trust said. "We have already received a letter from the authorities. There would be a function soon where the formal announcement would be made," the Temple Secretary K.P. Ramachandran Nair told PTI. About 1,200,000 women attended the last festival, but the Guinness authorities have taken the figures from 1997, when about 1,500,000 women turned up, he said. The local tradition has it that Attukal Bhagavathi is the divine form of Kannagi, the heroine of Tamil classic Silappadikaram. The temple is also known as Women's Sabarimala as only women are allowed to perform the ritual on the Pooram day of Malayalam month Kumbham, which mainly falls in March on the Western Calendar.
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3. Children Initiated Into Learning at Annual Vijayadasami Ceremonies
www.hindu.com
KERALA, INDIA, October 3, 2006: Vijayadasami, a festival highlighting a child's initiation into some kind of academic or artistic endeavor, was celebrated throughout the state of Kerala at the beginning of October. The Minister for Education participated in a special ceremony organized by the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare where five needy children who were either abandoned or living on the streets were initiated into the world of letters. At the Attukal Devi Temple, 1,000 children participated in the ceremony. Other locations including the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, the Thunchan Smarakam in Iranimuttom, the Asan Smarakam in Thonnakkal and the Aadyakshara Vedi organized by the Desiya Balatharangam at the Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan also marked the special occasion with traditional pomp. At some of the events children from Christian and Muslim families also joined in the festivities. "Among the acharyas who initiated children into the world of letters were lyricist Bichu Thirumala, Soorya Krishnamoorthi, Basheer Moulavi and Sister Josephine," the news release explained.
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4. Indian Gold Rush in Full Swing
www.ibnlive.com
NEW DELHI, INDIA, October 13, 2006: The famed Indian appetite for gold is being manifest with renewed vigor this season as a surge in festival demand and a recent fall in prices has fueled a virtual gold rush in the market. The current upward trend has particularly been underlined by the country's top bullion trader MMTC Ltd's business outlook for its annual Festival of Gold exhibition, which is expecting a jump of 40 per cent over last year's sales. "The response this year has been good so far and the coming weekend is expected to bring even more business," MMTC Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Batra said. The festival period, particularly highlighted by the forthcoming Divali - traditionally considered to be an auspicious time to purchase gold, and the upcoming marriage season is further adding to the already high demand for gold and jewelry products. India, which accounts for 20 per cent of the world's total gold jewelry demand, is the largest consumer of the precious metal followed by China and Japan.
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5. Six-Day Wait for US Visas Coming Soon in India
www.rediff.com
MUMBAI, INDIA, October 13, 2006: Tired of waiting for months to get an appointment for an interview to secure a US visa? Here's some good news for you. The prolonged wait for a visa may soon be a thing of the past with US authorities looking to streamline the process for applying for non-immigrant visas to America. Their goal: clearing visas in six days, instead of the two to six months it takes currently. As part of a countrywide effort in this direction, the US Consulate General in Mumbai has announced the addition of over 8,000 appointment dates to the schedule for the next three months. Chief of Consular Services Glen Keiser said: "Every year over 125,000 non-immigrant US visas are adjudicated in India. Due to limited resources, the processing of the applications used to take almost six months. The authorities found this to be too long a delay. So, more resources, with regard to increase in the number of personnel attending to applicants, are being mobilized. In order to further speed up the process, we have a new Consulate coming up at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai, which will be operational by April 2008. The new Consulate will process double the number of applications we do here." The new building will have more staff, greater space and a larger waiting hall. With the US Consulate General here initiating steps to eliminate backlog of visa applications, Mumbai is all set to become the leading non-immigrant US visa processing post in the world, Keiser said. Other consulates are also being upgraded. Keiser also sought to dispel apprehensions about preference being given to business and student visas. "Last year, out of the 125,000 non-immigrant visa applications that were received, 33,000 (26%) were requests for skilled work visas (H1B & L), while 10,500 applications were for student visas, especially for pursuing education at the Masters level. But this does not mean that they do not go through the same process as other applications do. The procedure is the same for everyone," he said.
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