Indian money in Swiss banks

Left parties had raised the issue before anyone else
but no one lent them an ear. But when L.K. Advani
speaks, the world listens, at least the Congress party
did. And P. Chidambaram is out there with a promise
for swift action. It pays to be a popular party,
as the left parties might have found out with this
episode. This incident also establishes L.K. Advani's
credentials as a man who can raise reasonable issues,
though many leaders in his own party must be wiring
their money out of Switzerland after Chidambaram's
assurance :-)

PS: Advani quoted Wikipedia in his statement. Either Indian
politics has come of age in becoming tech savvy or there were
no reliable sources for Advani's claims.

New initiative by Govt. Of India

Government of India has an online Grievance forum at http://www.pgportal.gov.in

The govt. wants people to use this tool to highlight the problems they faced while dealing with Government officials or departments like
1) Railways
2) Posts
3) Telecom (incl. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) & Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)
4) Urban Development(Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Land & Development Office (L&DO), Central Public Works Department (CPWD), etc)
5) Petroleum & Natural Gas
6) Civil Aviation(Air India, Airports Authority of India, etc)
7) Shipping, Road Transport & Highways
8) Tourism
9) Public Sector Banks
Allahabad BankAndhra BankBank of BarodaBank of IndiaBank of MaharashtraCanara BankCentral Bank of IndiaCorporation BankDena BankIndian BankIndian Overseas BankIndustrial Development Bank of India LtdNational Bank for Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentOriental Bank of CommercePunjab & Sind BankPunjab National BankSmall Industries Development Bank of IndiaState Bank of Bikaner & JaipurState Bank of HyderabadState Bank of IndiaState Bank of IndoreState Bank of MysoreState Bank of PatialaState Bank of TravancoreSyndicate BankUCO BankUnion Bank of IndiaUnited Bank of IndiaVijaya Bank
10) Public Sector Insurance Companies
GIC of IndiaLife Insurance Corporation of IndiaNational Insurance Company Ltd.The New India Assurance Company Ltd..The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd.United India Insurance Company Ltd.
11) National Saving Scheme of Ministry of Finance
12) Employees' Provident Fund Organization
13) Regional Passport Authorities
Regional Passport Office, AhemadabadRegional Passport Office, AmritsarRegional Passport Office, BangaloreRegional Passport Office, BareillyRegional Passport Office, BhopalRegional Passport Office, BhubaneswarRegional Passport Office, ChandigarhRegional Passport Office, ChennaiRegional Passport Office, CochinRegional Passport Office, CoimbatoreRegional Passport Office, DehradunRegional Passport Office, DelhiRegional Passport Office, GhaziabadRegional Passport Office, GoaRegional Passport Office, GuwahatiRegional Passport Office, HyderabadRegional Passport Office, JaipurRegional Passport Office, JalandharRegional Passport Office, JammuRegional Passport Office, KolkataRegional Passport Office, KozhikodeRegional Passport Office, LucknowRegional Passport Office, MaduraiRegional Passport Office, MalappuramRegional Passport Office, MumbaiRegional Passport Office, NagpurRegional Passport Office, PatnaRegional Passport Office, PuneRegional Passport Office,
RaipurRegional Passport Office, RanchiRegional Passport Office, ShimlaRegional Passport Office, SrinagarRegional Passport Office, SuratRegional Passport Office, ThaneRegional Passport Office, TrichyRegional Passport Office, TrivandrumRegional Passport Office, Visakhapatnam
14) Central Government Health Scheme
15) Central Board of Secondary Education
16) Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan
17) National Institute of Open Schooling
18) Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti
19) Central Universities
20) ESI Hospitals and Dispensaries directly controlled by ESI Corporationunder Ministry of Labour
Many of us say that these things don't work in India .
Couple of months back, the Faridabad Municipal Corporation laid new roads in his area and the residents were very happy about it. But 2 weeks later, BSNL dug up the newly laid roads to install new cables which annoyed all the residents. A resident used the above listed grievance forum to highlight his concern. To his surprise, BSNL and Municipal Corporation of Faridabad were served a show cause notice and the guy received a copy of the notice in one week. Government has asked the MC and BSNL about the goof up as it's clear that both the government departments were not in sync at all.

So use this grievance forum and tell others who don't know about this facility.

Funny : How was Pranab Mukherjee inducted into cabinet for the first time

"His initial inclusion was an accident, having gone to witness
the swearing in of ministers at Rashtrapathi Bhavan, when
the number to be sworn in was found inauspicious, the
spectator Pranab was added on to make it auspicious."

Source

The Black Trillion

I never knew about this report until I read it
today here.

According to a Swiss Banking Association report of 2006-07 India leads the
top five countries in deposits — the others are Russia, the UK, Ukraine and China.
Here are the top 5 countries in terms of foreign deposits in Swiss banks :

India : $1.45 Trillion
Russia : $470 Billion
UK : $390 Billion
Ukraine : $100 Billion
China : $96 Billion

For those of us who are unaware, Swiss banks provide a real easy way
to park one's money. They don't ask any questions. They don't hand
out your information to anyone, that is actually anyone.

So it has long been suspected that almost all the black money
amassed by Indian Politicians and Businessmen goes to these
banks.

And the issue was raised in parliament by Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPM).
Honestly, no other party could have raised this issue.
One may hate the Communist parties for so many things, but
there are times I truly feel thankful that they are doing a good job.
A much better job indeed.