Funding of election campaigns by politicians and the return they try to achieve after they win, as one of the basic reasons for corruption in the country.

C K Prahalad, the management guru has reports the Business Standard that India is at an interesting crossroads and the cost of corruption in India could easily exceed Rs 2,500 billion (Rs. 2,50, 000 crore). The spending on the election campaigns has been humongous these days and the return they try to achieve after they win, is one of the basic reasons for corruption in the country.

The Lok Sabha elections happened in 2009 have cost the country Rs. 100 billion (Rs. 10, 000 crore) and if the cost of state elections are were also covered, this could easily exceed Rs. 25, 000 crore, Prahalad added. While Rs. 1,300 crore (Rs. 13 billion) was spent by the Election Commission and Rs. 700 crore (Rs. 7 billion) by the Central and State governments, the remaining Rs. 8,000 crore (Rs. 80 billion) were spent by political parties and individual candidates.

Given the risky nature of the investments in elections, politicians as venture capitalists, we can assume, will not settle for less than a 10-fold return.

Chalking out a road map for the country, Prahalad called for reducing the irregularity of information, reduce the number of points of interpretation of laws and asked for an increase in accountability. He called the unique identification programme of the government as the building block of social justice and asked to focus on massive education so that inequality of opportunity is eradicated.

London: ‘King of Pop’ Michael Jackson was “murdered”, a British newspaper claimed today quoting a death certificate issued by a Los Angeles coroner.

British newspaper News of the World has claimed to obtain a copy of the original document and an amendment to it.

In the original certificate dated July 7, deputy coroner Cheryl MacWillie does not cite the cause of death.

But the certificate was later amended on August 31 by medical examiner Christopher Rogers who gives the cause as “homicide”, according to the newspaper.

Rogers concludes that the 50-year-old pop icon died from “acute Propofol intoxication” due to an “intra-venous injection by another”.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles police department has finished its investigation into the circumstances which led to the death of the ‘Thriller’ hitmaker on June 25 last year.

His personal physician Conrad Murray, who is reportedly being considered responsible for the death, has hired a lawyer in case he is charged.

Murray already has a Houston law firm building his defence. Police affidavits say he admitted loading up Jackson with Propofol and other drugs in the hours before his death.

“We are all keeping our faith with the police. We want them to do this case properly, and put away the man who we feel is responsible for Michael’s death,” said a Jackson family source.

“We want the paperwork to come out to show just what drugs were put inside him and what happened in his last few hours alive. Much of the documentation has been kept secret – and we can’t understand it,” the source added.

“We still feel that there is more than one person responsible for Michael’s tragic death. Joe (Jackson’s father) won’t give up on getting justice for his son, and a lawsuit is his focus,” the source said.

The entire planet has been predicting the two asian nations India and China as the future economic superpowers and the competition has been very tough. The renowned economists expect that India can overtake China in 2020 as the fastest and healthy growing economy in the world.

 Swaminathan Aiyar, a  Renowned mediaperson says that the China’s export-oriented model will diminish gradually and the world will not be able to absorb its exports. 
     
      According to Swaminathan, China will suffer from declining workforce and will be forced to revalue its currency. The situation would be similar to Japan in 1990s which was exactly in the same shoes of present China in 1980s. Meanwhile, India has been growing in terms of quality workforce that is more encouraging than ever before. The poorer Indian states will start catching up with the richer ones which will take India’s GDP growth to 10 percent by 2020, while the China’s growth can be 7-8 percent.
     
      Swaminathan also believes that India will become the largest English speaking nation in the world by 2020, overtaking even the U.S.

The arrest of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallah’s has yet again brought to light the fact that terror groups prefer recruiting techies for their operations. Intelligence Bureau reports and a study by two European sociologists have shown that the recruitment of techies into terror outfits are on the rise.

Indian security agencies say the recruitment of techies was maximum in 2009 when recession hit the world.

At a recent seminar in New Delhi on counter-terrorism, several experts on internal security explained that 2009 saw the most number of techies being recruited by Al Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. Many lost their jobs or were not finding jobs and such ones were easy targets for terror groups. The techies, who were targeted by two outfits, were mainly mechanical engineers. Such professionals are preferred for bombing operations since they are well versed with the subject and no additional time is spent to train.

European sociologists Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog, who researched over 400 terrorists, including 25 men involved in the 9/11 attack, have found that 44 per cent were engineers. Researchers say in an article in the New Scientist that engineering as the most popular field; the percentage of terrorists who had pursued it was more than twice as high as the second place field, Islamic Studies.

The IB says that recruiting techies for terror operations has become quite a common phenomenon world over. It was first started by the Al Qaeda when it undertook the 9/11 attack. However, the Lashkar was quick to pick up this plan and gradually the Students Islamic Movement of India and the Indian Mujahideen, too, followed suit.

The tech cell of the Lashkar and the Al Qaeda is probably the most important wing in a terror outfit. The recruited are mainly used for bombing, hijacking and also hacking operations. Al Qaeda tops the list with over 400 techies while the Lashkar has nearly 200.

IB sources say last year, the Lashkar with the help of IM operatives has picked up nearly 60 techies. Cadres in the sleeper cells have worked round the clock last year to pick up techies who were desperate and looking for jobs. Security experts say that the recruiters wait a long time until the person becomes desperate for a job.

They take advantage of the financial commitments that these techies have and later with a blend of religious brainwashing they manage to attract them into the fold. However in the case of both Abdul Subhan and Mansoor Pheerbhoy, the recruiters did not have to adopt such a strategy since the two were well placed and they were convinced solely on the basis of misconstrued ideology.

India security agencies say that while terror groups prefer techies in their outfit, they had found it hard to recruit them all these years. The salaries that they were being paid was sufficient for them and they had no other reason to look out.

However, they did manage to brainwash a couple of them and recruit. It was sort of a bonanza for outfits last year though with several techies finding it hard to sustain themselves without a job. The recruitment of techies is a worrying factor not only for Indian security agencies, but for agencies across the world.

Techies usually do not go wrong when they plan out attacks, having had the ability to outsmart security agencies when they carry out a task.

The bigger worry is that the outfits may use them to launch a cyber war which is deadlier than any other form of an attack since it can cripple the entire economy.