India temple treasure brings riches, challenges

(Reuters) - A stream of bare-chested religious devotees step gingerly through metal detectors at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in southern India as armed commandos with AK-47s guard perhaps one of the world's greatest treasures to surface in recent times.For months now, following a court order to prise open subterranean vaults sealed for centuries at the heart of sleepy Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of balmy Kerala state, shell-shocked experts have been coming to terms with the vast hidden hoard, estimated at one trillion Indian rupees, or $22 billion (13 billion pounds).In a nation where 500 million people are still mired in poverty, the find has been a revelation, stoking debate over how to best safeguard and use this newly discovered wealth at a time of financial uncertainty and modernisation across India.Put in a broader context, the find in the lush, spice-growing but relatively undeveloped Kerala, where infrastructure is patchy and per capita income lags richer northern states, could salvage the state's rickety finances, lift millions out of poverty and even help wipe out a quarter of India's overall fiscal deficit.The treasure, an accumulation of religious offerings to the Hindu deity Lord Vishnu, includes a four-foot high gold idol studded with emeralds, gold and silver ornaments and sacks of diamonds




Reuters

Dat is Arab money  ::rofl::

see why lee tun pandit