Going by the latest figures that reveal India’s billionaire contingent of 103 forming the sixth largest group in the world, one can only expect the scope of this tradition of giving to enlarge in imaginative ways and eventually set new trends. Marking a beginning is IT giant, Wipro’s head, Azim Premji, who also is one of the country’s foremost billionaires, writes Priyanka Bhardwaj.

Given India’s diversity, politicians in the country are known to espouse every strategy, right, wrong, legal or illegal, to win or influence votes. It is already happening with state elections underway and national voting soon, writes Siddharth Srivastava.

As Immigrants in a foreign land we work hard to eke out a better livelihood for our families, but in the process of doing so we subject ourselves to many subliminal stresses that adversely affect our bodies. Yogesh Verma discusses how this chronic stress affects our heart health and shows simple techniques to cope with stress.

A few months ago, approval of the critical Pension Bill sailed through the Rajya Sabha. The bill will allow 26 percent foreign direct investment in the insurance sector, seeking to create some sort of regulation for the country’s almost nonexistent formal pension system. This is all good news, save for one major caveat: only about 6 percent of India’s labor force falls under the protection of this bill; the other 94 percent are engaged in the informal economy and arguably, are the ones who have a more urgent need for social security cover, writes Apoorva Jadhav.

When it comes to space exploration India vows not to be left far behind the super powers of the world. With the ‘Mars Orbiter Mission,’ an assignment that has a 70 percent success rate for U.S. endeavors and rendered all Russian ventures almost fruitless, India has attempted to set for itself a difficult objective, and if successful, a new record of sorts would be created for others to emulate or envy, writes Priyanka Bhardwaj.

A new documentary explains extreme devotion for film stars in South India by exploring the lives of fans during a film release, and birthday celebrations for Superstar Rajnikanth, writes Joyojeet Pal.

This year, the San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival featured over 20 films originating from India, Sri Lanka, U.S., Canada and Pakistan. The spotlight on Pakistan was important here because the feature film industry in that country is slowly and steadily emerging during the last decade from near extinction, writes Ras H. Siddiqui.

Siliconeer wishes all readers a safe and happy holidays!