Yipeee!!! My vacations have begun and I cant believe myself the amount of work I have put in the last few weeks. Easily “the most challenging” 3 months I have had in quite a few years. Its been a terrific learning experience and I am loving it. Now that I am into vacations before the exams begin in mid Jan, it is a very nice time to get back to some bit of travel, photography and Free Software. For photography, I am looking at buying either a Nikon D60 with 18-55mm VR kit lens (which costs like 639 CHF and Nikon CH promises a 100 CHF cash back, which means an effective 23,500 INR) or go for the point and shoot ones (costing from 220 CHF). Canon P&S cameras seem to be much more feature rich than Nikon. For the uninformed 
I am an intermediate level photographer, looking to have better control over the pics I take 
As of now I have listed a few P&S cameras as follows, Canon A2000 IS, A1000IS, A590IS. Any suggestions are most welcome.
Take a look here: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q408enthusiastgroup/
I don’t use a digital compact myself so I’m pretty unbiased, but that Panasonic LX3 looks really, really sweet both from what I hear and from handling it in store. Another option that quite a lot of photographers use as their pocket camera would be the Ricoh GX200.
For digital SLR’s on the other hand I am biased so I don’t think I can contribute a lot. But overall, a DSLR is not something you bring with you at all times; it’s just too big and heavy for that. You use an SLR when you actually go out to take pictures. A pocket cam like the above, on the other hand, is something that you can have in your coat pocket at all times.
I bougth an A590IS recently, and it’s a great product. The quality of the photos are great, even on bad conditions, and it take photos really fast. And it is very portable, I can take it anywhere I want.
One thing is that it really is point and shoot. It has a lot of options, but it looks it’s intended more to beginners.
Anyway, I did some research before buying my camera, and by far Canon is the most recommended brand (for point and shoot at least), and I really loved my camera.
It may be out of your price range but the Canon G10 is a really nice camera. It may not be as small as other point and shoot options but it’s far more capable.
Hey, nothing can beat the customisability and control of a DSLR. The Nikon D60 is a pretty good entry level DSLR. I think it’s wrong to compare a DSLR with a P&S camera. If you are looking for a P&S, consider the new Nikon Coolpix P6000. It’s very solid and has an internal GPS receiver for geotagging your photos automatically!
The control you have with the D60 is incredible, at least with the D40 I have.. You have a lot more control, but you need to take some time to learn to control it
The nicest about a DSLR is that you can change the lens, I wish I have some different lenses to make better pictures, the normal lens is just not good enough (although it is not bad for starting and portrets 
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+1 for Cannon A590IS
Best buy for beginners (like me). Nice options too. Takes pics well. Takes a bit of time when shooting in the dark. But other than that.. I don’t have any complaints.
Please remember the new Canon A2000 IS & A1000IS doesn’t have manual controls.
You can even go for A720 IS in canon. I myself have canon 450d (aka Rebel XSi) and its a great camera. If you are in budget, you can try Canon 1000d (Rebel XS) too.
I own a Canon 400D plus the Kit lens (18-55) plus the 50mm 1.8 II plus the 55-250 IS plus a Canon 430ex II flash.
All in all