Sunday, March 29, 2009

Black Money

Rs 700,00,00,00,00,000

is the amount of money which Indians have stashed in secret Swiss bank accounts. The amount involved constitutes 3-10 times India's overseas debt, and 50-120% of India's GDP. This money is sufficient to:

  • Relieve the debts of all farmers and landless
  • Build world-class roads all over the country from national and state highways to district and rural roads;
  • Completely eliminate the acute power shortage in the country and also to bring electricity to every unlit rural home;
    Provide safe and adequate drinking water in all villages and towns in India
  • Construct good-quality houses, each worth Rs. 2.5 lakh, for 10 crore families;
  • Provide Rs. 4 crore to each of the nearly 6 lakh villages; the money can be used to build, in every single village, a school with internet-enabled education, a primary health centre with telemedicine facility, a veterinary clinic, a playground with gymnasium, and much more.

And Indias response -

Transparency International (TI) said that India has maintained "a stoic silence over the issue and has not approached the German government for this data'' (The Economic Times, 25.5.2008). Some ministers in the UPA Government are reported to have made several trips to Switzerland as the personal leg of their official tours abroad.

*** TI’s response was specific to investigations pertaining LGT Bank in Liechtenstein

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

% of this money stashes by RSS people = 0 (on other hand, I know many swayamsevaks who run into debt in doing their social work selflessly).

% of this money stashed by congress = quite highly - likely close to 90%