People across the India will get smart cards as vehicle registration certificates and driving licenses by April 2008.  And all these smart cards would use the common software developed by National Informatics Center (NIC).

The Center has asked the States that the implementation of smart card based project for issuance of Driving License and Registration Certificate needs to be completed by 31st March next year by all the States and UTs.

Image: Typical smart cards in many countries

Transparency International (TI) is a leading international non-governmental organization addressing corruption. This includes, but is not limited to, political corruption.  Due to the hidden nature of corruption and the paucity of criminal convictions, scientific evidence is difficult to come by.

TI has index from 0 to 10 , which is a corruption score. The higher the score, the less corrupt the country.

In 2007 , with a CPI ’score’ of 9.6 are Finland, Iceland and New Zealand are the countries with very very little corruption.
At the bottom, with a score of 1.8 is Haiti is the most corrupt country in the world.

Countries that have significantly improved their rating since the 2005 index were Algeria, Czech Republic, India, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Mauritius, Paraguay, Slovenia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uruguay.

Least Corrupt  countries

Finland, Iceland and New Zealand

Here is the list of Most Corrupt Countries in the world from forbes

1. Haiti
2. Myanmar
3. Iraq
4. Guinea (Conakry)
5. Sudan
6. Democratic Republic Congo/Kinshasa
7. Chad
8. Bangladesh

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India’s economy expanded by a faster than expected 9.3% first fiscal quarter 2007(Apr-june). This is because of the growth of manufacturing output and services.

India’s GDP grew 9.4 % in the fiscal year ended in March, India’s strongest annual growth in 18 years.

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German Software tycoon SAP announced that it will invest around USD $1 billion in India by 2010. Chunk of this money will go toward expanding its support and service centers in Bangalore and Gurgaon, a suburb of Delhi.

What does it means to India??  It means more money into India. Since India is one of the fastest growing economies, SAP sees India as its one of its long term future market(see Indian Economy growth).

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