Indian Interests

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 22 Feb 2011 01:08

I dont understand this Suhel Seth writing to a non-Indian paper? Does he think the the Brits still rule India? Idiot.

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 22 Feb 2011 02:17

Suhel Seth's line carries this interesting piece about India needing "inspirational leadership" now. Could be part of the subtle buildup to look for "inspiration" in RG junior! In a sense the downdusting of MMS serves two public sphere tactics :

(1) show a pretended atmosphere of free critique of existing regime and figureheads ["India is a lively and vibrant democracy" with a "free press"]

(2) by carefully shielding RG junior from media bashing, present him as the quiet, "unassuming", "young" and "inspiring" leader who can bring a dash of "fresh colour/wind" into Indian business of government running.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 22 Feb 2011 02:48

What India needs is no nonsense leadership. It has suffered from too much inspirational leadership!

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 22 Feb 2011 03:12

A special issue of Pragati on the Percy Mistry Committee recomendations on making Mumbai an international financial center.

Mumbai Project

I think first step is to reduce the Ambani brothers long shadow on stock markets.

Percy Mistry Committee report

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 22 Feb 2011 03:34

Puuting all eggs in one basket is not a good idea. In spite of all given excuses about pre-existing infrastructure, tradition, culture of work etc - there should be multiple such centres. There are many competitive, and distributed system advantages. Its the entire network which can be the world centre.

Rony · Post by **Rony** » 22 Feb 2011 07:03

Dont know if this has been posted before.

Teesta Setalvad 's former colleague Rais Khan has made startling revelations by filing an affidavit before the Nanavati commission.. . extracts from his first ever TV interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92thZReq ... r_embedded

Arjun · Post by **Arjun** » 22 Feb 2011 08:42

Jarita wrote:^^^ This sounds like East Indian COmpany part two with Reliance acting as conduits. Selling our non renewables to the same chors

Its only 30%, not a majority stake that's being given. Control is very much in Indian hands. Further, payments to BP are based on objective performance metrics for oil exploration. I don't see any cause for alarm whatsoever - quite the contrary, this could well accelerate energy security for the country.

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 22 Feb 2011 10:03

Jarita wrote:^^^ This sounds like East Indian COmpany part two with Reliance acting as conduits. Selling our non renewables to the same chors

Hardly...the policy on royalties on petroleum (profit petroleum) in India are amongst the best on any natrual resources..In fact I wish they had similar polcies on coal and iron ore - the naxal menace would have been lesser! The BP deal is nothing but RIL monetising part of its holdings in oil blocks..

ramana wrote:I think first step is to reduce the Ambani brothers long shadow on stock markets.

Percy Mistry Committee report

This is India circa 2011, not 198X! The brothers dont "control" markets anymore in the fashion they were reputed to earlier...Too much money, especially forieng money...

Anyhow..The idea of an IFC in Mumbai was an incredibly impractical idea and remains so, IMO..

1. Mumbai (rather India) lacks the key determinant of an IFC, ie, capital account convertibility...Not only does it lack full CAC, its position was vindicated during the financial crisis...Hence movement towards CAC in India is goign to be incredibly slow...This reason alone rules out the possibility of an IFC in India..

2. For a country at India's stage of development, India will continue to run a current account deficit...A full CAC will make our position incredibly vulnerable to external shocks in that scenario....Not worth it to have an IFC..

3. An IFC facilitates "sucking out" of savings from the IFC homeland to wherever the most attractive opportnities are...India's growth demands are huge, and our savings pools just about adequate, not excess..There is no national imperative to facilitate an entity that could channel savings out of India...

4. Mumbai is a 3rd rate city, and will remain 3rd rate ever after (this is of course intensely personal POV) - it is not fit to be an IFC (Delhi should be better, for that matter Chennai should be promising as well in that respect)...

We would be better off simply improving our cities to afford a better quality of life for the urban Indian...

A_Gupta · Post by **A_Gupta** » 22 Feb 2011 10:33

CRamS' Asia:

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 22 Feb 2011 10:55

He has his own map!

beat that!

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 22 Feb 2011 11:00

I suggest folks read the report before offerng suggestions. The PM Committee did recommend upgrading cities. But that is peripheral. London was dump when it became the financial capital of Europe and the world. New York was one too. The great building boom was after they were on their way.

Pranav · Post by **Pranav** » 22 Feb 2011 11:31

Gadkari to meet Manmohan on biofuel policy - http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/22/stories ... 650700.htm

Biofuel is a bad idea if it competes with food production. Maybe algae / cellulose is OK, but I don't think the technology is ready as yet.

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 22 Feb 2011 12:16

ramana wrote:I suggest folks read the report before offerng suggestions. The PM Committee did recommend upgrading cities. But that is peripheral.

I had the report on my table 4 years back!

But please read the content of the post before concluding! the "quality" of the city is not the first factor militating aginast Mumbai as an IFC - the substantive reasons are economic, and hence unlikely...the report was a bit of a "sponsored" job - parts of the finmin wanted a report in a specific format with a few recos, and hence it was done...the bigest of them all was implementation of the TArapore recos on CAC...Thankfully it didnt get done!

BTW, Mumbai is beyond redemption..No amount of rebuilding will help it become anything at all...It will get from bad to worse to worse, and redefine worst....

Maram · Post by **Maram** » 22 Feb 2011 16:42

ramana wrote:Maram garu, Also leadership of Muslims in such areas needs to be allowed to develop financial interests in those cities or else they have nothing to lose and indulge in supporting terrorists.

Ramana Garu,

You are right. I am from Guntur in A.P. I have so many friends and family in Hyderabad . Who can Hyderabadi Muslims be proud of? Azharuddin of the match fixing fame or Owaisi of MIM party who is fairly extreme in his views or Madamsoille Mirza oops I forget what her new surname is...? There are no role models to idolise, take a lead from. Old City folks are a million miles away from integrating them to main stream society, it is unbelievable. I once ventured out of curiosity into Bhagya nagaram paatha basti( mainly into dhool peta and bharkhas) and it was unbelievable poverty,deprivation and there was clear evidence of how every political party was just using them as a vote bloc. Women were home makers and quite scared of even talking to a stranger, even though all I was asking was directions...

Its a whole different ball game out there.. I tell You. I was shocked! at the state of affairs... It is akin to Ghettoisation of the worst kind. JMT

Venkarl · Post by **Venkarl** » 22 Feb 2011 17:11

It was 2005 and the place was Abids,Hyderabad. I saw a lady sitting on the steps of a Timex showroom building and she was begging. I was shocked and asked myself-- is this India or Afghanistan?....because she was in this dress

and I am not sure if anything has changed in those miserable lives..In Muslim groups' grievances...do women like these form atleast 1%? I have a good feeling that if every minority area has Vastanvi like people...something better might happen.

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 22 Feb 2011 17:17

Vastanvi is not the answer, and in some ways Vastanvi is more damaging than non-Vastanvis. Vastanvi either makes theocracy more acceptable by being able to deliver on economic front thereby increasing the political clout of theologians, or immediately rouses the suspicions of the other mullahs and is forced to go back 20 steps for the one step he took forward thereby strengthening the hands of the other mullahs.

Vastanvi et al, all of them need to be made irrelevant. The rashtra must have direct correspondence with its citizens where the basics of life are concerned - like education, opportunities for economic productivity, basic infrastructure like health, social welfare and housing. No intermediaries should be allowed to hijack and create a middleman!

Pranav · Post by **Pranav** » 22 Feb 2011 21:43

Jarita wrote:This is quite funny

Baba Ramdev reacts to Digvijay attack on him
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjSYFNva ... r_embedded

Although that was quite funny, I do hope the Baba will take help from folks like S Gurumurthy or our RVaidya ji, so that he may avail of technically sound analyses.

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 22 Feb 2011 22:08

China, Pakistan have strategy to invade India: Mulayam Singh

I cannot believe myself. What happened to our Mullayam Singh, did he had been bitten by a patriotic bug or what. In the past he had accused Chinese aggression, now he is now blaming Pakistan too

.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 22 Feb 2011 22:24

They are preparing for the inevitable war

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 548518.cms

"We are looking into the possibility of reintroducing the executive guest control order created in the early 1960s," an official at the ministry of food and consumer affairs in New Delhi said.

The rules limited the number of guests at weddings and other functions to deal with the scarcity of food, he said.

"Today the issue is not scarcity, but food is still being wasted and maximum amount of food is wasted at weddings," the official, who declined to be named, added.

Read more: Govt mulls proposal to limit number of guests at weddings - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... z1Ei3GESdR

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 22 Feb 2011 22:35

Maram, Think of this picture.

A small sphere on the ground representing the Hindu ethos of Indian Muslims. On top another sphere representing Indian Islam(Sufism und so weiter) and on that another sphere representing Modernism (sans repugnant practices and tribal loyalties).

This is the picture I want Vastanvi to go forward with to bring forth a new resurgence and integration once he gets removed form Deoband due to the fear of the ulema that they will lose power. They had to bring Mullah Diesel from TSP which shows how desparate they are.

BTW, Renovation of Musi River banks was away to bring forth propserity to Old hyderabad.
If that idiot MF Hussain had any vison he could have spearheaded a movement to make Old Hyderabad like Paris on the Siene!

Both banks of Musi paved and a hazar shops and arcades and artisan studios glittering it.

GD walking along the path munching on kababs and listening to ghazals wafting in the air.

But he is another false leader.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 23 Feb 2011 01:16

Thanks raman for explaining which I was working on for some time now.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 23 Feb 2011 02:42

Hindu reports:

Jamia Millia declared a minorty insititution

What to do the guys in charge dont see things in larger context. Denying their seats to SC/ST gives them less opportunities to influence young minds and build bridges. If they want intellectual ghettoes what can one do!

Must be an Ashraf mind-set.

ManjaM · Post by **ManjaM** » 23 Feb 2011 03:35

"We are looking into the possibility of reintroducing the executive guest control order created in the early 1960s," an official at the ministry of food and consumer affairs in New Delhi said.

The rules limited the number of guests at weddings and other functions to deal with the scarcity of food, he said.

"Today the issue is not scarcity, but food is still being wasted and maximum amount of food is wasted at weddings," the official, who declined to be named, added.

Read more: Govt mulls proposal to limit number of guests at weddings - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... z1Ei3GESdR

The sheer absurdity and irony of this proposal is breathtaking. This would find a spot on "onion news" if it hadnt been for real. It is a good way to collect money from hapless father of the hapless bride/bridegroom by local policemen and politicians.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 23 Feb 2011 03:55

Wilson Center has a report

India Security 2011

Has series of essays by India scholars with foreward by US.
Interesting that they need a US based org to study Indian security.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 23 Feb 2011 03:59

ramana wrote:Wilson Center has a report

India Security 2011

Has series of essays by India scholars with foreward by US.
Interesting that they need a US based org to study Indian security.

Most of the Indian think tanks are based out of US and funded by US based people

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 23 Feb 2011 04:01

So who studies the world for India? I was told even ORF funded by Ambanis is also US connected.

Koi tho hoga who is not connected to the borg!

somnath · Post by **somnath** » 23 Feb 2011 06:32

ramana wrote:So who studies the world for India? I was told even ORF funded by Ambanis is also US connected.

Thats been an oft-repeated lament of the strategic community in India...IDSA does in parts, but very limited intellectual bandwidth...Officially, the NSCS is supposed ot do it - again the grapevine has it that its really constrained on bandwidth..

Montek Ahluwalia is trying to refshion the Planning Commission to do that job - Arun Maira is heading that effort...Its a promising initiative - PC has the infrastructure and bandwidth (especially as they have no work anymore!) to morph into a really large strategic studies unit for the govt...

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 23 Feb 2011 07:03

GOI has all the tools it needs.
What is needed is ouside so people don't end up group think. I once told KS he should have founded a parallel IDSA in order to provide B team inputs. He said its for the youngsters to carry on.

Murugan · Post by **Murugan** » 23 Feb 2011 09:34

^^ Wedding Guest Thingy

It is moral responsibility of people and govt has nothing to do. Govt should provide enough information about the wastage nuisance to mass instead mulling laws and other bakwas. People who arrange simple wedding should be rewarded and given recognition thru media.

Congi-dhongi creates issues out of non-issues. Who wastes the resources more thant congi dhongi? who is responsible for free hooch tradition in election? Useless non-issue blabber is congi dhongi trade mark now.
Seems all congi dhongi MLAs MPs and their kids have got married after wasting a lot.

Murugan · Post by **Murugan** » 23 Feb 2011 09:45

Pranav wrote:
Jarita wrote:This is quite funny

Baba Ramdev reacts to Digvijay attack on him
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjSYFNva ... r_embedded
Although that was quite funny, I do hope the Baba will take help from folks like S Gurumurthy or our RVaidya ji, so that he may avail of technically sound analyses.

Baba knows the best way to educate people on national issues. Making it funny connects more less educated/uninterested people to difficult national issues.

He uses all the NLP (neuro-linguistic) technics to educate the mass on national issues in a very systematic way. He has planned to meet 1 crore people directly by this year end. He started his latest mission from west in Dwarka and now he is camping in extreme east meeting people while on the move addressing people in 3 villages everyday. Muslims and christians also support him as he has built a good rapport amongt these groups. As a byproduct, promotes hindi. Very well recognised all over india except kerala and tamilnad as he cant speak good english and majority people from these states do not know good hindi. In these states Sri Sri is doing better but his ways are different from BRD.

As rightly said by you, all these guys, subraminiam, gurumurthy, kiran bedi etc should come together under one umbrella and strategise together.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 24 Feb 2011 01:55

X-post...
I linked a book "Brown Skin, White Mask" in the book review thread.

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 0#p1035340

Here is an example of such work. From Hindu:

The Muslim as BJP supporter in Gujarat

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 24 Feb 2011 03:57

Murugan wrote:
Pranav wrote:="Jarita"]This is quite funny
As rightly said by you, all these guys, subraminiam, gurumurthy, kiran bedi etc should come together under one umbrella and strategise together

Bhai Sahib,
Apna Rahul Mehta ji has already joined forces with Baba Ramdev . My guess is some of his agenda will seep in to do urgently required political/ governing clean up .

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 24 Feb 2011 04:37

One reason why India appears indecisive is that the Indian interests are nto clear. It leads to Alice in Wonderland situation with the Cheshire cat.

Alice approaches the Cheshire Cat: Would you tell me,
please, which way I ought to go from here?
Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you
want to go.
Alice: I don't much care where.
Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't matter which way you go.
Alice: So long as I get somewhere.

Cheshire Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if you only walk
long enough

If we do not know our preferences ie interests we can't make good choices. We saw that in the KS tribute thread where sections of GOI were pushing for NPT.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 24 Feb 2011 04:47

IMHO, For the next 10-20 years our interests are mainly 70%economic and Military 30%. Next Decade for 50% economic and 50% national security and then ratio reverse to 70% military strength to recover the lost assets of last hajar saal and 30% economic priorities to keep the stick well oiled.

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 24 Feb 2011 09:15

Alice in Wonderland is the best book on Philosophy ever written in English, although "Haroon and the sea of stories" comes close

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 24 Feb 2011 21:38

While Indinas are not paying attention to themsleves others are working fast and furious to figure out what India is going to be!

Fletcher School of Diplomacy Journal:

India’s Approach to Great-Power Status

Note how he does not throw up his hands like Tanaham and claim India has not strategy!

ShauryaT · Post by **ShauryaT** » 26 Feb 2011 00:49

The Politics of Social Justice -- PRATAP BHANU MEHTA

There is, rightly, a great sense of optimism in India, for India. For the first time in our history, real social and economic change seems possible, and the sheer unleash- ing of aspirations and energy across Indian society is staggering. However, notwithstanding this newly buoyant and optimistic era, there are some concerns about the form the politics of justice will take. This is the theme of this paper. We first reflect on the limited set of instruments we have which can do full justice to the aspiration of social equality. The second part reflects, somewhat more briefly, on why caste still remains such an entrenched category around which the politics of social justice is constructed, and the consequences of this entrenchment. It tries to connect four different strands that have acquired salience over the last couple of years: new axis of social conflict; the rise of the new welfare state; the continuing power of caste; and the unanticipated consequences of the growth in state capacity. The aim of this paper is, to borrow Judith Shklar’s phrase, to be more a tour of perplexities than a guide for the perplexed.
....
Perhaps the best that we can hope for at the current conjuncture is ‘small equality’ effects that growth and welfare can produce. But how we will resolve the contradictions that Ambedkar talked of still remains an open question. Where will be the locus of a politics of justice? Will the historical logic that made caste the dominant paradigm in which we think of justice continue? And, will it crowd out the essential challenge we face? This challenge is best summed up in the striking formulation of the Chinese thinker Qin Hui: ‘What is excessive now is not liberalism or social democracy, but oligarchy and populism. It is therefore essential to critique both oligarchy from a liberal standpoint and populism from a social democratic standpoint.’ Reading these words I wonder if there can be any better formulation of the challenges for Indian democracy. And, I wonder how far we are from meeting these challenges.

A_Gupta · Post by **A_Gupta** » 26 Feb 2011 21:50

http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/2356/roy_2_15_11/
Arundhati Roy:

Guernica: Your critics say that you often see the world only in black and white.

Arundhati Roy: The thing is you have to understand, Amitava, that the people who say such things are a certain section of society who think they are the universe. It is the jitterbugging elite which considers itself the whole country. Just go outside and nobody will say that to you. Go to Orissa, go to the people who are under attack, and nobody will think that there is anything remotely controversial about what I write. You know, I keep saying this, the most successful secession movement in India is the secession of the middle and upper classes to outer space. They have their own universe, their own andolan, their own Jessica Lal, their own media, their own controversies, and they’re disconnected from everything else. For them, what I write comes like an outrage. Ki yaar yeh kyaa bol rahi hai? [What the hell is she saying?] They don’t realize that they are the ones who have painted themselves into a corner.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 27 Feb 2011 01:09

A_Gupta wrote:http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/2356/roy_2_15_11/
Arundhati Roy:
Guernica: Your critics say that you often see the world only in black and white.
They have their own universe, their own andolan, their own Jessica Lal, their own media, their own controversies, and they’re disconnected from everything else. For them, what I write comes like an outrage. Ki yaar yeh kyaa bol rahi hai? [What the hell is she saying?] They don’t realize that they are the ones who have painted themselves into a corner.

Acutally she is the one globe tottering elite who pretends to know the aam admi and tries to give western world view of that. Indians - the poor do not want a western view or western concept of nationhood and false pretense.

Maram · Post by **Maram** » 27 Feb 2011 03:19

All of us look at Strategic thinktanks in the US. Rand Corporation, Brookings etc........ are looked good models for Strategic Thinktank Community. But look at what they have achieved for the US?
My Questions are :-
1) Have they increased the Geostrategic knowledge of your average GI Joe and his family in Wyoming?
2) Have they been able to establish the USA as the Primadonna of the World Order? US of A had a head start in terms of being the sole superpower for quite a while. Yet today we are seeing signs of " the beginning of the end, my firend" (Jim Morrison of the doors fame) of US Supremacy and Primacy.
3)Were they able to predict 9/11?
4) Could they predict the Current Arab Uprising?
5)The think tanks, atleast some of them became addas for NPAs(non proliferation ayotullahs) where they could bash Indian and its nuclear program.
6)The whole Eyeraq mess. were there WMD? Did they forsee the insurgency once they had boots on the ground?

Most of the strategic community think tanks are just chai-biskoot onlee and may be load of Hot Air!

Our Bureacracy/technocrats and politicians have been making good choices over the past 20-25 years( I know this period well, they may have done well previously as well).Why follow the British/American Model. We need to develop our ways of thinking and planning and stop aping the west is the best routine. Oh... the impact of Macaulay Education... which has turned us into subservience, rather than think for ourselves!