To learn from ABuDhabi - Dubai experience

The bailout package for Dubai during the height of financial crisis helps us appreciate few aspects of Indian government establishment.

Although the emirates are united under one nation, but it does seem to be mainly for namesake. There is infighting amongst the emirates in United Arab Emirates to gain the upper hand in the nation dominance. The king of each of these emirates is working to benefit for himself and his emirate. Now this is useful to make us Indians proud for the way the Indian democracy is organised to make every state to be responsible and answerable to the central government.

To read in detail follow this blog which brings in more insights to this issue.

Chi-Merican seesaw

This is a tussle for power worth mentioning. It is a seesaw which requires players on either side, America and China, such that neither player can evolve into a world power single handed. China had recently disclosed its decision to acquire nearly a 3 trillion dollar worth of natural resources majorly in crude oil, gold, natural gas, copper, iron ore, etc. On the face of it, there seems to be working on in securing the nation’s supply of raw materials for the nation’s growth. Due to China’s huge demand the copper prices are pushed up. Also the natural resources too are not left alone in the Bull Run. But when the purchase is viewed from the point of view that these are the resources most fought for and with limited supply, the issue becomes severe. It becomes more severe when the acquirer is the biggest holder of dollars outside USA.

It is the making of the perfect battle of supremacy. The Chinese are looking forward to two things by this purchase. Firstly they wish to reduce their US dollar dependency as a reserve currency. Keeping these reserves with very high dependency will be detrimental to their growth of international power because of the volatile world political environment. It is a double edged sword with China. While it gives China a good leverage and a say on the American policy decisions, but a prejudicial step taken by any nation to reduce the utility power of USD will reduce the value of Chinese foreign reserves. America on the other hand needs the utility value of USD to decrease to pay off its mounting debts and also help its exports to be more competitive. And here is the making of the first centre for power struggle between the two nations.

But China wishes to use the devaluation for its own benefit. How?

Privatization of Currency

I stumbled upon this concept a few weeks back and was totally intrigued at the number of possibilities any concept can possibly have. It was a breakthrough concept and implemented in 2009. Privatizing the currency used by the people. Allowing the people be sole owners of the currency being circulated throughout the world. Allow the people to use this currency instead of a nation’s currency for all the financial transactions. This idea shifts the center of control from the Governments and transfers it to the People. Citizens become the sole owner and authority of the currency. The concept is of creating something different. It is an online currency but it is different than the online credit points which you get in Facebook. But it is also an attempt to create a real world currency which is totally decentralized and no government or bankers can rule it. It is like a Euro currency for the whole world.

The idea is called Bitcoins. It is a virtual peer-to-peer currency that can be sent and received directly over various exchanges and mediums. It provides the benefits that your money can’t be frozen, tracked or taxed, and transaction costs are very low. This idea was then implemented using the works of “Satoshi Nakamoto” - pseudo name used by the creator of the idea. He is based in Japan and has created a concept which brought power into the hands of the people using the currency and not in the hands of few (which is the current economic scenario). With his concept paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” he proposed the mechanism of working of the private currency – Bitcoin. The idea of Bitcoin is it that is a currency that can be traded peer to peer without any government interference. This idea being highly sensitive to all the governments around the world, he uses the pseudo name and his location could not be mapped. The idea has a potential to destroy governments

The Japanese Recovery – The Strategic view

The March 11 earthquake in Japan, the 5th largest in world, has affected the world economy in more ways than just economics. So while looking at this major natural disaster the two criteria discussed in the article are Economics & Politics.

The Economics: A classic case of “supply side disruption” fueled by the unpredictable and dangerous cocktail of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. Japan is amongst the major producers of capital goods and creates 10% of the world economic output. The good exported by Japan, consisting mostly of machinery and transport equipment was in 2010 worth about $470bn. This natural disaster wrecked havoc on the factories producing the goods heavily demanded by the whole world. This was visible in major reduction in production & sales figures of auto majors sourcing from Japan. Their May 2011 sales figures declined nearly 23%. Japan provides nearly 60% of the world’s computer chips and the calamity resulted in closure of 2 companies for repairs reducing the output by 25%. The nations round the world hence need an early recovery for the smoothening of the supply chain and depreciation of Yen.

The fund flowed into the nation for the reconstruction and there was a high appreciation of Yen. The bond market in Japan was also gathering pace. This proved one major point – Investor confidence in Japan’s recovery and repayment capability. The Japanese showed this capability and capacity. They have restored the infrastructure destroyed with great speed. An example of this would be the case of the Tohoku Shinkansen, a high-speed rail line connecting Tokyo and northeastern Japan. It recommenced operations 49 days after the earthquake.

A stable growth in country’s production with stable government in Japan will be beneficial for the whole world. Stability at power is one of the major criteria which will change the credit rating of a nation (recent case being the USA). Japan has seen already seen 5 leaders change guard and the sixth was due, all within the span of 5 years. Moody’s for this purpose has downgraded the credit rating from AA3 to AA2. But investor sentiment does not shake much due to this downgrade. Japan has been a customer of lower rating for more than a decade, but yet its borrowing cost hasn’t increased much.

So i call Mumbai Bombay

The Marathas were never in possession of the Bombay group of islands. These were the territory of the Sultan of Gujarat. He was forced to give Bombay to the Portuguese. Unfortunately, these very proselytizing Portuguese murdered Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. There was no Indian ruler claiming ownership of these soggy, disease-prone islands of Bombay. Not only the Moguls but also the Marathas never claimed this piece of land as their own. They had no interest in the barren wasteland.

The wasteland of Bombay was given as the dowry by Catherine of Braganza (Portuguese princess) during her marriage to Charles II of England. That is how the British got possession of the islands.

Even for the British Crown, this remained a useless piece of land. It was passed on to the East India Company. The East India Company had no particular interest, nor could they see Bombay’s potential as a great port. Surat port was becoming congested and the Surtis of Gujarat were the first people who moved to Bombay in pursuit of their trade and commerce.

It was not the British East India Company but the Parsees who put their own private money in the development of the port. Major economic actives were initiated by the Parsees, Gujaratis and Bohras from Surat, which set into motion the process of evolution of Bombay and its becoming the financial capital of India. (Historically, meaning when Bombay was soggy, disease ridden place) There was no or negligible contribution worth the name from Marathas in development of Bombay.

Some people who never studied (or at least didn’t pay much attention while studying) history have renamed it ‘Mumbai’ and demand exclusivity to make political gains …

So i call Mumbai Bombay :)

The article has been sourced from here

The Karachi Project

In the 1977 cold war thriller Telefon, a rogue KGB agent creates mayhem in the US simply by picking up a phone and reading a Robert Frost poem 'the woods are lovely, dark and deep...' to hypnotise sleeper agents who then go on to plant explosives across the continent.

The scenario could well echo a nefarious plan that India's security agencies are now grappling with: The Karachi Project set up by the Pakistan Army's ISI and groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and HUJI which utilise Pakistani-trained Indian-operatives to plant explosives in selected cities in the Indian heartland.

For at least three years now, Indian security agencies have known of the outlines of this scheme, which Home Secretary G.K. Pillai held responsible for the German Bakery blast in Pune.

"The link between the LeT and Indian Mujahideen (IM), as part of the project, has been established. The LeT pushed David Headley into India to recce potential targets. IM operatives went to Pakistan and viewed videos shot by him, so that they could be sent to India to carry out attacks," he said.

Named after the Pakistani port city and crime hotbed which has turned into a sanctuary for fugitive Indian underworld dons like Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, the joint-venture project was conceived some time after 2003. It is part of an overall strategy which, Admiral Dennis Blair the director of National Intelligence told a US Senate committee on February 3, was for Pakistan to "use militant groups as an important part of its strategic arsenal to counter India's military and economic advantages".

The Karachi Project has been directly responsible for the deaths of over 500 Indians in 10 bomb blasts since 2005.

Details of the project were first revealed by Pakistan-born American jihadi David Coleman Headley to the FBI in December last year. According to him, the fugitive Bhatkal brothers Riaz and Iqbal who founded the IM, Mufti Sufiyan and underworld don Yaqoob Khan aka Rasool 'Party' were being sheltered in Karachi by the LeT and ISI.

Headley, who checked out Chabad House close to German Bakery, also told the FBI interrogators about serving and retired Pakistan Army officers being part of the project. Headley confirmed that the ISI had put together a team of Indian jihadis in the port city, calling it the Karachi Project. They were waiting to launch them into India for attacks.

Over 500 people have been killed in 10 terror attacks carried out by the Karachi Project since 2005.

Headley recceed targets for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks while shuttling between Mumbai and Karachi thrice in 2006 and 2008. Pune also figured prominently in his terror reconnaissance missions. He visited Pune twice, in 2008 and 2009, and stayed at the Surya Villa Hotel near the Osho Ashram and the local Jewish synagogue during his latter visit. This was part of his March 2008 survey of Israeli targets--Chabad Houses across Delhi, Pushkar, Goa, Pune and Mumbai--for future terror attacks.

More details of the plot emerged after the arrest of Abdul Khwaja, second-in-command of Shahid Bilal, who headed the Bangladesh HUJI unit. Khwaja was picked up by the R&AW in a clandestine 'rendition' operation in Bangladesh in December last year.

Open your eyes to the complete information @ Yahoo @ this link

Criticising GM crops may land you in jail

BANGALORE: Criticising Genetically Modified (GM) products could land you in jail — if the draconian draft Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill (BRAB) of 2009, which will be tabled in the current session of the parliament by the UPA government, is passed.

In an unprecedented muzzle on the right to freedom of speech of the citizen, Chapter 13 section 63 of the draft bill says, “Whoever, without any evidence or scientific record misleads the public about the safety of the organisms and products…shall be punished with imprisonment for a term that shall not be less than six months but which may extend to one year and with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees or with both.” The BRAI Bill drafted by the department of bio-technology under the Ministry of Science and Technology comes on the heels of a moratorium on Bt Brinjal announced by the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.

“What they are doing is much worse than what Hitler or Mussolini did. Through this bill, they want to take absolute authority. They are behaving like a vendor instead of a regulator,” Pushpa M Bhargava, a member of the Supreme Court appointed Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) said.

There are also other provisions in this bill which are disconcerting.

Article 27 (1) of the bill seeks to keep the information related to the research, approval and science of the GM Products out of the purview of the Right to Information ( RTI) Act.

In other words, farmers, NGO’s and Environmental groups that have been on the forefront of the campaign against BT Brinjal and other genetically modified crops, can no longer obtain information about it.

Not only that, the three member experts of the Department of Biotechnology will override any existing legislation about GM technology in the states.

The draft bill also states that the BRAI will set up its own appellate tribunal which will have the jurisdiction to hear arguments on the issues concerning biotechnology. In case of any disputes, petitioners can only approach the Supreme Court of India.

“The BRAI bill is more draconian than what the nation faced during the Emergency ‘’ says Devinder Sharma, writer and Food Policy Analyst. “If the Bill was already in force, I would have been in jail.

Jairam Ramesh too would have been in jail for challenging the health and environmental claims of the company developing Bt Brinjal,” he said. The bill demonstrates the extraordinary hold the multinational companies have over the UPA government, he added. Kavitha Kurugunti of Kheti Virasat Mission said that this bill is just a way to silence the voices who are opposed to GM technology.

Sourced from here

Tamil Nadu rediscovers Hindi

Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray answers criticism against his party’s often violent agitations in Mumbai by citing the long history of anti-Hindi agitations in Tamil Nadu. He points to the state’s official policy that has led to insignificant use of Hindi in Tamil Nadu. Thackeray’s sense of history is impeccable because Tamil Nadu established the supremacy of Tamil through blood, in much greater intensity than the Sainiks do on the streets of Mumbai.

But Thackeray may have missed a finer point. Life has come full circle for Tamils. Today, Hindi is the most popular third language for the younger generation to learn across the state. “Everybody who once opposed Hindi is praising it now and sending their children to learn the language,” says C N V Annamalai, general secretary of the Chennai-based Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha.

Bollywood news is devoured, migrant labourers from Bihar have begun coming in, and politicians are learning Hindi to be able to make an impact in Delhi.

Tamils began protesting against Hindi as early as 1938. The Congress Party, which had come to power in the then Madras Presidency under C. Rajagopalachari, had made Hindi compulsory in schools. Tamils saw this as a cultural invasion that could render their mother tongue a secondary language on their own territory. There was a burst of protests, forcing the government to withdraw its order. Over the next decade, the Congress would try to impose Hindi several times, each time facing a bigger groundswell of protests.

The campaign against compulsory Hindi quickly became a political issue. The protests were led by E V Ramaswamy Naicker (known as Periyar) who had ironically given out his house just 16 years earlier to start a Hindi teacher training college. But by 1938, he had become a separatist, convinced that the South Indian “Dravidians” should form their own nation and get Purna Swaraj from “Aryan” conspirators.

The agitation was mainly sustained by students. One such man was Muthuvel Karunanidhi, who at the age of 14 showed a genius for organisation. As the protests raged year after year, the political careers of Karunanidhi and his mentor C N Annadurai blossomed. Soon after independence, they started a party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, promoting Tamil nationalism. Their propaganda made the Congress Party look like a Brahmins’ party seeking to impose Hindi, Hindu supremacy and caste hierarchies on the secular Tamil national identity.

The flashpoint came on January 26, 1965. The day marked the completion of 15 years of the Constitution, which provided for removing the use of English and making Hindi the sole official language of the Union. Central government offices across the state had their boards blackened by tar. Protests brought life to a standstill. Scores of young people set themselves ablaze and died in the cause of Tamil. The police couldn’t control the agitation. The army came in but failed too.

It was then the Centre made the historic decision to continue with English as an official language. Tamil Nadu, till today, follows the two-language system with Tamil and English. If we are an English-speaking nation today, thank the Tamil protesters for it.

The Congress lost power in Tamil Nadu in 1967. Annadurai and later Karunanidhi became chief ministers. The protests entrenched the Dravidian parties so deeply that Congress hasn’t been able to come back to power till today. This is a story of great inspiration for any regional politician seeking to consolidate his constituency and drive out national parties.

Meanwhile, the Hindi Prachar Sabha is quite busy. As many as 600,000 students appear for its exams in Tamil Nadu each year, a number that is growing at 20 percent. In 1965, at the height of anti-Hindi protests, the number was less than 20,000. “The anti-Hindi agitation basically did our job. It raised curiosity among the people and brought them to us,” says Annamalai.

Sourced from here

Link is this

Why attacks on India embassy in Afghanistan?

While Afghan security sources have projected the incident as an attempt to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the neo Taliban has projected it as an operation to demonstrate its capability even in Kabul, despite all the security precautions taken by the government. The incident has revealed serious deficiencies in route security and perimeter security.

The deficiencies in route security enabled six heavily-armed terrorists enter the city and reach the hotel without being detected and intercepted anywhere. The deficiencies in perimeter security enabled the perpetrators to take up position in a room of the hotel without being detected and fire from there.

Apart from these physical security deficiencies, was there also complicity by any member of the security forces? That is a question, which should be worrying the Afghan authorities. In Iraq, many successful terrorist strikes have been made possible by internal complicity.In Afghanistan, till now, there have been few instances of such complicity." Forty one people are reported to have been killed by a suicide bomber with a Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device outside the gates of the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7. Four of them are stated to be Indian nationals -- including the Indian defense attaché, a counselor-level diplomat and two security guards.
From the indications available so far, it is evident that it was a targeted attack on the Indian mission. Was it also a targeted attack on the defense attaché? This question arises from the fact that the vehicle-borne suicide bomber reportedly rammed his vehicle against two cars of the mission as they were about to enter the mission. North Atlantic Treaty Organization officers in Afghanistan have spoken of a 40 per cent increase in the infiltration of terrorists from the tribal belt of Pakistan into Afghanistan since the new Pakistani government suspended military operations against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and entered into peace negotiations with them. Even as acts of terrorism -- including suicide terrorism -- have increased in Afghan territory, there has been a sharp decrease in acts of suicide terrorism in Pakistani territory.

The increasing Indian presence in Afghanistan for assisting in the economic development of Afghanistan and for strengthening the capability of the Afghan government in various fields has been a constant source of criticism by Pakistan, which has taken up the issue repeatedly with the US and other NATO countries. Urdu newspapers in Pakistan had even accused India of fomenting trouble in Balochistan from covert bases in Afghan territory.
Pakistan thus has a strong motive to target Indian nationals and interests in Afghanistan through its surrogate, the Taliban. During the last three years, there has been a steep increase in acts of suicide terrorism by the neo Taliban of Afghanistan headed by Mulla Mohammad Omar.

Initially, the suicide attacks were by individual suicide bombers who carried the IEDs on their person. The modus operandi using VBIED, which causes many more fatalities than individual bombers carrying the IED, was and is still being used with devastating effect in Iraq by Al Qaeda. Training in this has been imparted by Al Qaeda to neo Taliban volunteers in the training camps of Al Qaeda, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Islamic Jihad Group, another Uzbek organization, in North Waziristan in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
The successful attack outside the Indian mission has been made possible by poor security on the road in which the Indian mission is located. One would have, therefore, expected the level of road security and access security on this road to have been high. The details available so far do not speak of any specific physical security deficiency in the Indian mission itself .

Al Qaeda has been looking for opportunities for a major terrorist strike against the US and Israel. Even if Al Qaeda has no motive presently for targeting Indian nationals and interests, it badly needs a successful terrorist strike against the US or other Western powers in order to prove to its followers and admirers that its capability for action against the US and Israel remains strong.