Aastha

Although Aastha Arora won't enter the labor force herself for at least another decade, her 19-year-old cousin, Palak Arora, who lives upstairs, started working over a year ago.

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A special debate on "swadeshi se swablamban talk" was beamed live on Aastha and Sanskar TV channels in 170 countries.

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Aastha Bhardwaj Through many years tons of progress has taken place in several fields around us, while education has remained a stagnant, outdated model which accounts for less knowledge and more stress in today's youth.

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Since its 2001 launch, the Aastha network, India's premier spiritual channel, has seen its domestic viewership climb from 27 percent of the 62 million Indian households wired for cable and satellite to more than 48 percent in 2005.

Beaming In Salvation 2007

Aastha -- whose main attraction is Swami Ramdev and discourses on yoga and alternative therapies -- is also available in high-Asian-population markets like the United States and Canada.

Beaming In Salvation 2007

When Aastha was born at 5:05 a.m. in New Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital - officials had expected a birth shortly after midnight, but other candidates were stillborn or ended up being born later - the hospital was inundated not only with reporters but doctors, senior bureaucrats and politicians eager to share the limelight.

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Designated with great fanfare as the symbolic 1 billionth Indian, Aastha - her name means "faith" in Hindi - is now called something different.

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Aastha says she likes to draw, enjoys science and is thinking of becoming a doctor, or maybe a flight attendant.

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Aastha's mother, Anjana, recalls being wheeled out of the delivery room after a tough birth, more difficult than that of Aastha's brother, only to face about 100 television cameras.

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The one gift that was delivered was a $4,000 fund to be used for education once Aastha turns 18, and even that took months to chase down.

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