Bharat Rakshak

Actually the very first steps towards economic reforms started after IG's 1980 victory, and RG substantially increased it....... Rajiv was probably the first politician who was ideologically oriented towards liberalization in both economic and social aspects, but his inexperience held him hostage to...

GD, the Constitution does have a list which the States can levy income tax on, primarily agriculture, but no state has taken that step. But quibbles aside, I think what we really need is a MASSIVE overhaul of the way we govern ourselves- 1. Local govt looking after all local needs, and with financia...

A simple fix is to disallow slums voting rights, no legal residence no legal vote. Who is going to bell the cat? Err....... thats not exactly what I meant, in fact quite the opposite. Slums are an outcome of our lopsided economic development, not a cause Once we get locally responsive government, a...

The problem in urban (and even rural) development, IMVVHO, is not resources or lack thereof, it is the colonial governance structure we have continued with. Ideally, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai should not be state capitals, just centres of industry which they have alrady become. Given o...

Not sure if this the right thread, but here goes: Does anyone know the TOTAL per capita fresh water availability in India, and how it compares to the ROW? What I am looking for is how much we get if we look at rainfall+rivers+ groundwater in terms of availability, how much of it we can actually capt...

"Creating more Ph.Ds" is not even a chicken-egg issue....... it has to be preceded by some degree of economic prosperity first, perhaps USD 2000/ capita GDP (just an arbit cut-off based on when Japan/ Taiwan started their high-tech bandwagon). We are progressing well down that road, nothin...

Dept of Official Languages?? :rotfl: :rotfl: But seriously, not sure how different you and Vijay J were, both emphasized the same point that empannelment does not indicate any right, what he was saying was that traditionally supercession that has not led to any public whining in the past... Okay-wok...

I am not sure if ABM or anything we do in the will change Pukestan- even if Mush's mush is mush, so what? Democrazy in Pukistan still does not change their anti-India DNA........ the solution to the Pubes is not so easy, and in fact may perhaps get worse for some time- see below IMVVHO, this changes...

Ah yes, the FMCT........ and now someone should hopefully look at Unkil's options also, not just limit it to Pubestan and even PRC

IUCNA, TMD.... interesting variables introduced now

Vijay J, Maybe I am the dumb one here (as usual), but what causes me REAL unease are the two assumptions I sense in your comments: 1. That jehadis are separate from PA.... I think the general consensus is that the two are only only as separate as changing uniform into mufti 2. That global nuclear di...

At least to me, the idea that we are lowering the threshhold with Pubistan is laughable.... all their actions would suggest that they (and the Chinese) are crossing every previously perceived red line- 1. Attack on Parliament 2. Threatening Bangalore (and by implication the IT industry) 3. Opening 3...

Act appropriately to every transgression, starting now, and pretty soon NFU will be seen as adequate by your enemies. Deterrence does not lie in policy statements Shiv, Rye, the populi everywhere in the world always clamours for the "least troublesome" option, Indians are nothing exception...

Kgoan, read it......... thanks a ton for that. Amazing article, never expected something so lucid from an American thinktank. Well, some parts of it clearly seem to have been accepted by the Bush Administration, but some clearly have not- witness the attempts by the still flourishing Ayatollahs to c...

I seriously doubt if we have any means to credibly threaten the US now or in the foreseeable future, so any other alternates?

This is with reference to JYang's posts, and others subsequently. JYang, 1. FWIW, my personal opinion is that India is "NOT" the most at risk from a JDAM..... if IROT could get away with it, they would have nuked India by now. I know if sounds incredulous coming from us "whining India...

More people read this forum than what we are perhaps aware of.... if we do have to spend time to come with solutions, let us try to come up with some alternate ones? Ones with at least some obvious steps analysed?

Sure, deterrence. But in a world where there are multiple poles of nuclear weapons, MAD between two-only will not have the deterrence stability of the previous MAD More critically, the difference is this- the previous MAD depended on only strictly controllable actions, whereas here, a declration of ...

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It will make the Chinese think very long and hard about letting their proxy Pakistan do a JDAM on India knowing what the consequences could be. Ahh....... so we all place our faith on MAD, in fact let us try to increase the threat levels all around. Yup, sure, very good idea I find it ironical that...

ramana, what makes you distinguish between the current regime and an islamist takeover in IROT?

Also, please do let me point out that even if what Lewis says is true, this is more of a Shia mahdi belief than Sunni

Appreciate your views

There is a difference between inaction and SAYING nothing. I am advocating the latter, not the former. Please do read carefully :lol: As for my reasoning- 1. let us assume that India has lots of weapons, lots of delivery systems contained in a viable triad (which is the find jingo hope). 2. Now let ...

A declared policy of nuking xxx or yyy or both or any, for that matter, will only result in India being nuked by China and/ or US IMMEDIATELY in the event of a nukular strike. That would only make IROT all the more eager for nuke JDAM on Indian soil... " sanam, hum dubey ya na dubey, baki dunia...

Bhailog, a favour- would anyone be able to point me to a reliable CPA in the Boston area pls?

I read Lawrence James "RAJ- The Making and Unmaking of British India" quite some time back, and time permitting, will try to make a more detailed submission sometime next month when I am back home... but if the events as depicted by James is accurate, then the whole Raj happened by acciden...