Indian Elections 2009

RJD and Congress headed for a Divorce

RJD and Congress have ended their understanding for the Lok Sabha elections. RJD has left the UPA coalition. The split occurred following Congress’ displeasure over seat sharing arrangement between RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s party, LJP. The Congress was left with a mere 4 seats by the new political parties.

• RJD signals break with Cong as Lalu sticks to his stand, Indian Express, Mar 22 2009

The UPA coalition has lost one of it’s key member with this split. The election results could change all this if RJD-LJP is also not able to win many seats and still wants to be part of the ruling coalition. Rest assured, they will be welcome back with open arms.

BSNL Customers get IPTV with VCAS

Verimatrix has said that its Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS) for Internet Protocol on Television (IPTV) has been deployed to protect IPTV services to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) customers.

IPTV is a system that delivers digital content services to subscribers using the Internet protocol over a broadband connection through closed network infrastructure.


The state-owned telecommunications operator has embarked on a nationwide launch in conjunction with Smart Digivision, and is planning to serve more than three million IPTV subscribers in 93 cities over the next three years.

Also read: After DTH, Bharti Airtel Launches IPTV Services

The subscribers will have access to over 140 television channels and an on-demand movie library at no extra cost.

However, for those who indulge in content re-broadcasting and content copying, Verimatrix's 'VideoMark' will help the operator to trace it.

BSNL had marked the beginning of this year by announcing the launch of its IPTV in three cities of Haryana. Late last month, ACT Television rolled out its first IPTV in Bangalore.

source : http://www.techtree.com/India/News/BSNL_Customers_get_IPTV_with_VCAS/551-100087-643.html

CHRISTMAS Festival

Christmas celebrated to honour the glory of the nativity of Jesus on 25th December is the most significant and spectacular of Christian festivals. No other celebration is so enriched with so many customs and ceremonies. There is an array of spectacles like Christmas Star, Christmas tree, the Crib, Christmas cake, Christmas presents and the Christmas Father. The last named is quite a fascinating personage, who claims above all to be the very embodiment of the most vibrant and quintessence of the gayest of all the festivals. Children allowed to occupy the central stage, in the enchanted company of Christmas Father, Christmas takes on the look of a festival of children. The mood is set with the advent of the season by the twinkling of Christmas stars and there is no home or shop without the Christmas star, the beautiful pointer to the Babe of Bethlehem.


The Christmas tree is a new feature in Kerala, perhaps less than sixty or seventy years old. The crib is a miniature production of the stable where Jesus was born. It developed from the old practice of giving dramatic expression to the events and the surroundings of the birth of Christ. Carols and songs developed from earlier nativity plays have become one of the most cheerful spectacles of the festivities.Priests hold mass in churches three times starting with the first at midnight. Just before the midnight mass, an image of the Child is brought by the priest, preceded by rows of Children holding lighted candles that are placed in the crib. The hymn 'Gloria in exelcis Deo' is intoned admidst the explosion of crackers. A sumptous lunch with rate delicacies is a significant feature of the celebration. Meat forms part of the feast even in rural homes where meat is rarely eaten. Cake has also become common in the villages where women have learnt to make it. In Kerala, Xmas retains its homeliness and expresses itself in the cultural forms of the country without losing what is native to itself.