"I am a Maratha and my family has a glorious history of 350 years but we never divided the country on the lines of caste and creed because we believe that we are Indians first, then our caste is of any importance and then our religion," the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry told reporters here.

"Despite being a Maratha, my family never indulged in separatist ideology because we believe in a united India," he said.

"On the name of saving Marathi sanctity, Shiv Sena tried to divide people on these lines and now MNS has taken the job. Now even Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is saying that locals should be given job in the state," he alleged.

When asked that why the state government led by Congress has not taken action against Shiv Sena and MNS, he said that media should also come together with the government to deal with these issues sternly.

Seema Chishti: You have introduced changes in the Department of Posts at a time when postal services seem passe.

This is a department which I knew very little about, a department which all of us unfortunately don't care too much about because it is on the periphery of our existence. But I believe it has a value proposition that can fundamentally impact the lives of the people across the length and breadth of this country.

We conceived Project Arrow in April 2008. We looked at getting our core right in terms of systems and processes. We also looked at mail delivery on time, savings bank remittances and customer services to ensure that we present a modern face to the public. While doing that, it was very important to ensure we are all accountable. How did we bring about the change? We looked at developing workshops and HR training across all levels. Whichever post offices we chose for Project Arrow, we made sure people at the top went right down to the grassroots. We also developed automated tools for measuring performance and got external agencies to do an auditing of the results.

For phase one of Project Arrow, we took 50 post offices. Here, ordinary mail delivery that was at 97 per cent is up to 100 per cent today--that is mail delivered the same day. Registered mail has gone from 84 per cent up to 96 per cent, speed post from 89 per cent to 98 per cent, and money orders from 76 per cent to 96 per cent--all in five months. We also have two reporting systems: I have a website that is updated every single day at 5 p.m. across all the post offices in this phase where I get parameters for every single post office. Similarly, there is a software, Meghdoot, which has all the data plugged in and we have a data extraction tool to pull out the data from that software. So there is a collaboration between the two ways in which we counter-check the data. As far as infrastructure look and feel goes, we put up information boards, changed the stationery, gave postmen bags, etc, in addition to renovating and modernising the post office. I believe that if you want to bring about change, it has to be engendered bottom up and not top down. The last man on the last mile has to feel empowered. We did a number of things, small things like giving them an umbrella allowance once a year, a shoe allowance once a year, seeing to it that their children go to Kendriya Vidyalaya schools. Today, for the first time, 3.5 lakh gramin dak sevaks' children can go to the Kendriya Vidyalayas from the next academic session, thanks to Shri Arjun Singh.

At every Project Arrow post office, you have Internet kiosks. From January 1, 2009 to June 30, 2009, we will work on 4,500 post offices and it is my fervent hope that over the next two years we would be able to change the look of the entire department.

Rishi Raj: Do you still feel the need for a telegram operation when we have speed post, mobile phones and PCOs?

While it important to have a profit outlook, a social obligation is important too. The telegram service is not a service that is growing tremendously but it is a service that is still used across the length and breadth of this country. Just last week, I had an MP concerned that there was an amalgamation of two telegram offices in his constituency. That meant people would have go 3 kilometres to the next telegram office. So while it is a service that is not as widely used with the emergence of alternative technologies, it is still used, especially in rural India.

Source: Indian Express `As long as young people are joining politics, it is a very reassuring sign'

"It is a shocking incident that not only affects the government, that not only affects the corporate world but also affects the conscience of all us Indians," Scindia told IANS in an interview at his office at the Electronics Niketan here.

"There are millions of investors in the company, thousands of customers, 53,000 employees - as a promoter, you are the custodian for all of these. Therefore, it is the trust of all these that has been belied," he said.

"As far as India's brand equity is concerned, I think it's still very strong," added the 38-year-old, second-term MP who represents Guna in Madhya Pradesh in the Lok Sabha.

The Hyderabad-based Satyam, seen as a poster for India's phenomenal growth in the IT services sector in the last decade, has been in the dock ever since its founder and former chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, admitted to financial irregularities worth Rs.70 billion/Rs.7000 crores over the past several years.

Source: Thaindian.com Satyam Scam Has Shaken Our Conscience: Scindia (Interview)

The seminar was organised by Pacific Telecom Council India Foundation and was attended by senior representatives from the government and private sectors and regulators relating to the telecom industry and services.

The Minister pointed out that the better services to citizens will depend on the strength of the carrier services. He said, world class telecommunications infrastructure is the key to the rapid economic and social development. There is a crying need to upgrade the country's telecom infrastructure with the latest technology.

Next Generation Carrier Systems is technology that promises an array of future services and new opportunities for the telecom service providers. It enables a wide range of services with savings in cost and maintenance effort while providing bandwidth on demand and flexibility in service provisioning. With ubiquitous connectivity and pervasive accessibility, Next Generation Network is expected to bring an extensive range of innovative services, greater control, personalization and ease of migration between services. Use of NGNs that converge multiple networks into one by converting voice, video and data into tiny packets over a single high-speed network is also expected to bring down ILD call rates as well as enhance data connectivity. NGNs will also help in providing the ICT infrastructure that will deliver the next wave of services and applications to our citizens.

The Chinese version of these stamps were released in Beijing last month during the visit of External Affairs Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee. The common design of the stamps has been jointly done by Postal Departments of India and China.

In his address, Mr. Raja recalled the centuries of cultural exchange between India and China and described Buddhism as the mainstay of the relationship. He pointed out that the joint stamp is a reminder of the friendly relations between the two countries. He said, regional cooperation will help improve the quality of service in the region.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister of State for Communication and IT, Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia observed that the two joint stamps are the finest symbols of the cultural binding force between India and China.

The Chinese Ambassador to India Mr. Zhang Yan, Ms. Radhika Doraiswamy, Secretary, Department of Posts and delegates from both countries attended the stamp release function.