Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai to donate 40-Kg gold to Modi's gold scheme

The two-century-old Shree Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai, devoted to Lord Ganesha, is reportedly holding 160-Kg of gold in the form of jewelry that had been donated by devotees. The temple trust plans to deposit a portion of this with banks under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan to recycle tonnes of idle bullion to reduce imports and the country's current account deficit.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 10 December 2015.

The deposit would be a big boost for the gold monetisation scheme that has attracted only one kg in its first month. AS the trust says - it plans to melt 40-Kg of the jewellery with lower purity to make bars and deposit those bars under the gold monetisation scheme.
The Siddhivinayak temple has in the past given 10-Kg of gold to a bank under an old deposit scheme. However, the final decision will be taken later in the month.
It may be recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the scheme to tap a pool of over 20,000 tonnes of gold that is held by households and temples in India. Such deposits would reduce imports of the precious metal that accounted for 28 per cent of India's trade deficit in the year ending March 2013.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Defense Minister Parrikar on narrow eyed Ganesha idols Made in China

Manohar Parrikar, a graduate from IIT and ex-Chief Minister of Goa has suddenly realized that idols of Lord Ganesha that are made in China and flow into India during the festive season have eyes that are narrower than what we Indians believe.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 4 June 2015.

His remarks on the slit-eyed Ganesha was made during his address in a seminar on "Design and Make in India (Electronics)", organized by Vivekananda International Foundation.
He stressed on the thrust of the Modi government's 'Make in India' policy and commented that India would have to kick off the Make in India program right from Diwali gifts to our own gods.
He must also realize that any foreign entity that joins the Make in India would be having an eye in making profit – the location of their operation is immaterial. Therefore, expecting China to change their moulds to produce large-eyed Ganeshas instead of the narrow-eyed ones, as at present, overnight would be stretching things a bit too far.
It may be recalled that Parrikar has already made several remarks on different subjects like terrorism and Pakistan, and Somali pirates that have ruffled feathers and have embarrassed the government. He holds an important portfolio and must weigh his words carefully. Moreover, it has been observed that he, at times, turns up at solemn military functions in half-tucked shirts and floaters.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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