Bharat Rakshak

A_Gupta

Pervez Hoodbhoy thinks Pakistan is no longer Jihadistan.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1801824/no-longer-jihadistan

A_Gupta

Posting the meaningful part of the Intercept article: “We strongly assert that such reports are fake and completely fabricated,” Indian spokesperson Shri Arindam Bagchi wrote. “This is part of a sustained disinformation campaign against India,” the spokesperson continued, also questioning The Interc...

A_Gupta

To really understand America, understand this: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/19/roy-cohn-donald-trump-documentary-228144/ Roughly speaking, there is a three-tier system: rich folks, middle class folks, and the rest. In each tier there is a gradation of white, various ethnicities, b...

A_Gupta

An OK one on Siachen: https://thefridaytimes.com/21-Dec-2023/dissecting-meghdoot-the-buildup-to-the-siachen-conflict After the first war on Kashmir in 1947, a UN mediated ceasefire came into effect on 01 January 1949. Thereafter, military commanders from both sides clearly delimited the working boun...

A_Gupta

This is a Santa/Banta leak.

A_Gupta

"Pakistan’s current economic model is not working since it has fallen behind its peers, significant progress in poverty reduction has now started to reverse, and the benefits of growth have accrued to a narrow elite, observes World Bank Country Director Najy Benhassine." Full set of report...

A_Gupta

Any takes on
Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India's Economic Future
Raghuram Rajan, Rohit Lamba

A_Gupta

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has witnessed a distressing rise in the number of suicide attacks with a staggering 29 such incidents leaving the country terrorised in 2023, data by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) showed on Monday. According to The News, the surge is said to be...

A_Gupta

UPA and Modi Sarkaar difference in use of government revenues:
https://youtu.be/plfc3Du4KWQ?si=bA7wTvplruZZL88q

A_Gupta

Trump committed insurrection on Jan 6, 2021. It is as simple as that, there is no need to read in "deep state" and other such stuff. Exactly the reaction if Indians would have if RaGa loses in 2024 but says he did not lose and organizes a march on Parliament to void the election results. A...

A_Gupta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JGPGOi83NA A Paki who acknowledges that most of their ancestors converted under duress; that most of their ancestors are Indian only; the genetic tests of Syeds and Qureshis and such show them to be 99% South Asian only. Who is this strange creature? "Salman Ras...

A_Gupta

I see India's push to develop economic relations with ASEAN (650 million people, $8 trillion economies); and then realize that Central Asia, while a lesser prize for India, needs Pakistani collaboration to be anything more than a Russian & Chinese playground. I don't think China and to some exte...

A_Gupta

^ that would be true if money then was the same as money now . The example also illustrates how imperfect gdp calculations are . Back in 1947 India had 10% literacy , 90% homes didn't have electricity and almost nothing was manufactured. Average life expectancy was half of what it is today .Yet Ind...

A_Gupta

In nominal (i.e., not PPP) terms, India was 4% of the world GDP at Independence. It declined to 2% of world GDP over the next 40+ years. Now it is back to almost 4% of the world GDP. That too, India was 12% of the world population in 1947 and is now about 18% of world population, so Indian per perso...

A_Gupta

The mistaken picture of India created by indices and statistics collected both by international agencies and by Indian government agencies; and if you listen to the end, you will find out how/when sex-selective abortion was introduced into India. Talk by Sanjeev Sanyal: https://youtu.be/20UZfX2xx1Q?...

A_Gupta

Not sure this is the correct China thread to post this in. https://www.npr.org/2023/12/20/1220559016/some-leaving-china-as-political-controls-tighten-and-job-prospects-wane Last year, one of China's most popular buzzwords was runology, a pun referring to the art and science of emigrating. This year,...

A_Gupta

The Shahtoot dam news is from 2020. Much water has flowed down the Chitral since then.

A_Gupta

The Czech lowest court has cleared the way for Nikhil Gupta's extradition to the US, but has also said that he can appeal to the higher court and then to their supreme court.

A_Gupta

I agree with Abhijit Iyer-Mitra that the babus in the Czech Embassy are total failures. How can an Indian citizen be held in the conditions that Nikhil Gupta claims with no advocacy by the MEA? Especially, if by some chance, Nikhil Gupta is indeed an asset of some Indian agency, how can he be abando...

A_Gupta

^^ After Dulat said right at the start that the indictment in the US court tells a nice piece of fiction, I could not proceed much beyond that. All the rest is based on the premise that the story has truth; but the interviewee said up front that the premise is false.

A_Gupta

NEW DELHI: Remittances to India are estimated to rise over 11% to $125 billion in 2023, helping it retain the top spot ahead of Mexico ($67 billion) and China ($50 billion), data released on Monday showed. A strong base of skilled and unskilled workers in the US, the UK, Singapore and Gulf nations ...

A_Gupta

California Senate District 10, per Wikipedia:
"The district includes the East Bay in Alameda County and the northwestern corner of Silicon Valley in Santa Clara County, including Fremont, Hayward, Union City, Newark, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara."

A_Gupta

> Too many people hide behind process for masking their own lethargy. It is less innocent than that, at least in three of the five cases that Sanyal mentioned. 1. A sarkari babu has to advertise in the newspapers that a corporation is shutting down, creditors have so much time to register any claims...

A_Gupta

26 years ago Aadhar wasn’t there; procedures have changed, I think; can’t judge by 26 years ago.

Added: not too difficult:

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/m ... 21293.html

A_Gupta

Yawn: For instance, remittances dropped by 10.3 per cent year-on-year during the five months from July to November, resulting in a $1.3 billion loss compared to the year-ago period. This decline followed a $4bn decrease in remittances in the last fiscal year. Export figures are also not encouraging,...

A_Gupta

Sanyal talks, with examples of five types of process changes to improve things. If I remember correctly: 1. Rearrange a process (e.g., get necessary approvals in parallel instead of one after the other.) 2. Remove steps from a process 3. Add more people to work the process. 4. Change the regulation ...

A_Gupta

A great talk by Sanjeev Sanyal, explaining process reforms, with five examples.
I can see why the embedded economic parasites (“rent-seekers”) have such a hatred of the current government.
https://youtu.be/3NoOtpKg9d0?si=jvRCo0k4mQAU-eny

A_Gupta

How easy or difficult is it to get a passport in India based on a stolen identity? Stolen identity plus passport or forged passport can explain many of the facts re: Nick and Nikhil Gupta (I assume Mr X would not dare lie in a petition to the Supreme Court of India). This includes that the US has a ...

A_Gupta

The dogs are barking louder and louder: (posting without the link) The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent federal government commission, said “recent efforts by the Indian government to silence activists, journalists, and lawyers abroad pose a serious threat to...

A_Gupta

https://thewire.in/world/nikhil-gupta-pannun-assassination-plot-documents "'Nick', a Money Courier and a Hitman: What New Documents Say About The Pannun Murder Plot" The habeas corpus petition, submitted to the Supreme Court by Nikhil Gupta’s family, urging the Indian government’s active i...

A_Gupta

...but the inflation adjusted wages of labour is actually going down. Not per the numbers published by the US Federal Reserve, but no point in arguing about it. The political/information universe reality is that the US economy is not doing well, while the actual truth is different and irrelevant, b...

A_Gupta

Per this reading of the Quran, the Quran itself says that Allah granted the Jews the authority in the land of Israel to kill anyone who makes mischief in their land.

A_Gupta

The divided US government can't put together funds for Israel or Ukraine, so what to say of Nagaland? Not that the US is short of money; but the House, Senate and President are unable to collaborate to authorize the money. So why this promise? > He said the US had financing mechanisms to help variou...

A_Gupta

The US economy is actually doing very well. A major economy having a 5% GDP growth rate even for a quarter is rather unusual. Unemployment is at a historic low, etc. The one down side was that blip in inflation. "If this is a bad economy, please tell me what a good economy would look like"...

A_Gupta

This Indian commission of investigation into the Pannun affair should request access to Nikhil Gupta who is in FBI custody. When the Americans deny it, this entire matter can be thrown in the dustbin.

A_Gupta

A number of factors are believed to be behind the US administration’s decision not to take up the Republic Day invitation, including Biden’s focus on his re-election bid in the face of a resurgent campaign by former president Donald Trump, the State of the Union address expected in late January or ...

A_Gupta

disha wrote: ↑11 Dec 2023 23:24 Cashmeres have to behave before they get their own state.

It is not the Kashmiris as such, it is the Abdullahs and Muftis, and their hangers-on.

A_Gupta

I find it amusing when these progressives are trying to influence the US foreign policy by opposing Biden's Israel policy. Have they actually thought, what happens to them when republicans return to power. In 2015-16, in the aftermath of the bitter nomination fight between a centrist Hillary Clinto...

A_Gupta

To that point: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/12/biden-israel-palestine-conflict-democrats-progressives-criticism/676243/ Why These Progressives Stopped Helping Biden Biden’s support for Israel is straining his coalition. Many progressives are protesting the administration’s suppo...

A_Gupta

^^^^X has reader-added context: Context: "...Austin warned Congress Tuesday that if lawmakers fail to pass more aid to Ukraine that it "very likely" will lead to U.S. troops on the ground in Europe defending NATO allies in other countries Russia may target next." https://themesse...

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