More Indian cultural centres to showcase soft power: PM
India will set up cultural centres in five more countries to showcase its soft power and acquire a global footprint for its rich diversity, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Saturday.

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The upcoming Commonwealth Games in India present a good opportunity for Indians to show their ability of managing big events. It is true that it is not the biggest World sport event but it offers a good launch pad for staking a claim for bigger events like Olympics. This event is going to be a big gala show as the most expensive infrastructure has been developed to stage it. The initial allotted fund for this event was 15000 crore from the Planning Commission of India.  Additionally Rs 1600 crore were allotted for management of day to day activities. This figure was expected to be Rs. 200 crore at first but gradually rose to 1600 and is now expected to reach 2000 crore.

So far so good, but the real deal is how well the infrastructure has been developed and is the progress on satisfactory. The authorities who are devoting their time and money into it are Delhi Development Authority, Sports Authority of India, Government of NCT of Delhi and University of Delhi. They were determined to develop the venues for staging the games so that they can hold their own with the world-class sports complexes of the world and they seem to have achieved that. The 12 venues for holding the 17 disciplines of the Commonwealth Games have come up great as authorities like MCD and NDMC have given their best for it.

Very good preparations have been made to live up to the very hospitable country image of India. The athletes will be provided free accommodation, free trip to the Taj Mahal, health and first aid facilities, magnificent Games Village, transportation, security, entertainment backed by the finance discussed above. 71 countries are going to participate in this mega-event and their athletes and participants will converge in Delhi this October. Delhi, being the capital of India gives world class services and many advantages not available in other cities of India. The participants can get a chance to explore this historically rich and technologically up dated city if they feel like travelling around.

This mega sports gives India a chance to show itself in all her aspects. Not only is it a chance to show that the country is a sports loving hospitable country but also that the professionals and engineers that we possess are at par if not better than anywhere in the world.

Indian Air Force to showcase ‘Vayu Shakti-2010′ at Pokhran
New Delhi, Feb 22 : The Indian Air Force in a first ever display of its precision strike capability by night, will conduct a mammoth fire power demonstration (FPD), codenamed ‘Vayu Shakti-2010′ at the sprawling Chandan Air-to-Air Range, Pokhran on February 28 showcasing the operational capabilities of IAF by day, dusk and night.

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BAE Systems to showcase artillery power at DefExpo
New Delhi, Feb 13: Two of the world’s arguably most powerful howitzers will dominate the BAE Systems’ presence at DefExpo 2010 here Feb 15-18.

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