India-US Strategic News and Discussion

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AKalam
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by AKalam »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Korea
History

Christianity has had a short history in Korea, with Roman Catholicism first introduced during the late Joseon Dynasty period. In 1603, Yi Gwang-jeong, Korean diplomat, returned from Beijing carrying a world atlas and several theological books written by Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary to China.[7] He began disseminating the information in his books and from these beginnings the first real seeds of Christianity were sown. Christianity as a belief system did not expand much over the following two centuries.

In 1758 King Yeongjo of Joseon officially outlawed Catholicism as an evil practice.

The Roman Catholicism was again introduced in 1785 by Yi Sung-hun. Even after this time, Korean Christians were subject to persecution and hardship but this has not put off believers.[2] Many were martyred, especially during the Catholic Persecution of 1801 and later, the most famous of whom was Andrew Kim Taegon, who was beheaded in 1846 at the age of 25 for his practice of a foreign religion.

The Joseon Dynasty saw the new religion as a subversive influence and persecuted its earliest followers in Korea, culminating in the Byeong-in Persecution of 1864, in which 8,000 Catholics across the country were killed, including nine French missionaries. The opening of Korea to the outside world in the following years brought religious toleration for the remaining Catholics and also introduced Protestantism.

The growth of both was gradual, however, until the middle of the twentieth century, when a number of factors have encouraged the growth of Christianity in Korea, and its growth since the 1960s has been significant enough that the number of adherents to Christianity surpassed that of adherents to the traditional religions. Today, Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in South Korea face different challenges, with the Korean Protestantism mired in various controversies and struggling with a declining number of followers,[3] while the Catholic Church in Korea has increased its membership by 70% in the last ten years.[4][5]
Identification with Korean nationalism

One of the most important factors leading to widespread acceptance of Christianity in Korea was the identification that many Christians forged with the cause of Korean nationalism during the Japanese occupation (1910–1945).

During this period, seven million Koreans were exiled or deported[27] and a systematic campaign of cultural assimilation was attempted. In 1938, even use of the Korean language was prohibited.[28] However, the distinctly Korean nature of the church was reinforced during those years by the allegiance to the nation that was demonstrated by many Christians. Furthermore, while the subsequent constitution of South Korea guarantees freedom of religion as well as separation of church and state, the South Korean government has been favorable overall to Christianity, regarding the religion as an ideological protection against Communism.

On March 1, 1919, an assembly of thirty-three religious and professional leaders known as the "March 1 Movement" passed a Declaration of Independence. Although organized by leaders of the Chondogyo religion, fifteen of the thirty-three signatories happened to be Protestants[29], and many of them were imprisoned. Also in 1919, the predominantly Catholic pro-independence movement called "Ulmindan" [30] was founded, and a China-based government-in-exile was at one time led by Syngman Rhee, a Methodist.[31]

Christianity was linked even more with the patriotic cause when Christians refused to participate in worship of the Japanese Emperor, which was required by law in the 1930s.[32][33] Although this particular refusal was motivated by theological rather than political convictions, the consequent imprisonment of many Christians strongly identified their faith, in the eyes of many Koreans, with the cause of Korean nationalism and resistance to the Japanese occupation. This show of resistance to the occupying nation enabled Koreans to see past the foreign origins of Christianity and accept it as their own.
If it was not for Japanese occupation, today Korea would probably look more like Japan, undivided, much higher Buddhist influence (Buddhism spread to Japan from Korea), negligible Christian spread and more influence of old Yangban aristocracy, a continuation from Joseon dynasty, which might have survived under constitutional monarchy like the Imperial House of Japan.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by jiteshn »

Sanku wrote:Oh please most tribes were converted before Independence
Actually, most tribes were converted after independence. When the british left in 47, india started to exercise control over its states which were seen by the local groups as threatening. They saw conversions as a sort of rebellion and organised huge rally's where people were converted in mass numbers.

I can't find the source right now but its said that the total newly converts in the region jumped from 20% to 80% within a span of 30 years post independence.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by sanjaykumar »

So tribes in NE wear Xianity as a badge of rebellion and to enhance their social status with respect to un-Western Hindus and their 'primitive' brethern. SK is under no such compulsion. So I do not think the two are parallel.

Of course the idea of a tribal enhancing his status by aping a Baptist from Missoura can only fly in India.
The hope is, presumably, when they learn that the 'out-reach worker's' superiors in the West consider him to be largely an anachronism, the tribal will have better examples to ape.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Sanku »

jiteshn wrote: I can't find the source right now but its said that the total newly converts in the region jumped from 20% to 80% within a span of 30 years post independence.
All right till such time let me reiterate.

YOU ARE WRONG.

The conversions in NE had nothing to do with any issue you mentioned.

Most tribes were converted before Independence, and after Nehru stopped the missionary activity from outside, very few new tribes converted.

There is no reason-weason -- its simple tons of money coupled with light and sound show for naive population, who are deliberately exposed to only one strain of light and sound and others not allowed to compete.

Zimble.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Gus »

Just in the past few months, I have come across many white massa xtian people who are going as missionaries to China. Two of them are actually couples. Seems like there's lot of demand. I wonder if they will start outsourcing even this, like sending Indian Christians..hmmmm.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by jiteshn »

@sanjaykumar
The rebellion cause was a long time ago. Today, they preach it to remove all traces of tribalism. They only safeguard the "cosmetic" stuff like dances and attires specially during functions. Rest is labelled as evil. Missionaries have strongly connected christianity with education and healthcare. That is another cause of attraction.

@Sanku
Stop what conversions? Nagaland and mizoram are 90% christians each. Meghalaya is 70%. The NE society, especially the youth are hardcore bible-nuts. NE India is called as india's bible-belt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt

I once read a local NE newspaper label incidents of rape and murder as "diseases that came from mainland india".
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by AKalam »

White massa is well aware of what effect their appearance have on the chini natives (Rent a white man effect), so outsourcing to Indian Christians may not be likely, but I could be wrong.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by sanjaykumar »

I once read a local NE newspaper label incidents of rape and murder as "diseases that came from mainland india".


Sure but then certainly the intravenous drug abuse comes from their superiors. I wonder if the missionaries also imported pedophillia. I am sure you will find the epidemic in the right places but the docile Indian press will never even think to look.


Part of the post-colonial experience is the willing annihilation of one's past as excrable . Because the white man finds it so. That is why I make it a point to affirm any native traditions that still flicker. A pristine tribal is more worthy of respect than an ersatz white man.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by sanjaykumar »

Maybe there is a connxion between Nagaland and SK.


http://www.easternmirrornagaland.com/in ... &Itemid=62
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Cosmo_R »

Sanku wrote:
jiteshn wrote: I can't find the source right now but its said that the total newly converts in the region jumped from 20% to 80% within a span of 30 years post independence.
All right till such time let me reiterate.

YOU ARE WRONG.

The conversions in NE had nothing to do with any issue you mentioned.

Most tribes were converted before Independence, and after Nehru stopped the missionary activity from outside, very few new tribes converted.
Sanku, YOU ARE RIGHT!

None of this will matter if as someone ^^^ put it, "Mainland India" :) gets a NE (or a Indo-Tibetan) as a Minister of External Affairs. Chokila Iyer was FS of course, but she was a nebbish--scared of her own shadow.

The amount of racism that NE people have to endure in Delhi is unbelievable. Just one example:

"Racial attack on North East people and easy targeting North East women for sexual advances are still grim concerned in Delhi and Gurgaon. “We will appeal to Gurgaon Police Commissioner to prevent the prevailing racial attack on North East communities,” Madhu Chandra said."

http://manipuronline.com/headlines/mani ... 2011/02/15

BRFites, just use unkal googal (per Shiv) to see how prevalent this is. While eyes (as they should be) are on Shiv Sena against North Indians, it's not a pretty picture in ND. On the dilli billi circuit, the smart set talks just like the lower middle class brit ranis from yesteryear.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Amber G. »

Sent to my congressmen and senator

This morning (April 12, 2011), the New York Times posted an online headline: 
Pakistan Tells U.S. It Must Sharply Cut C.I.A. Activities

As an American taxpayer, I am requesting that you convey the message that: 

The U. S. will sharply cut aid (including all military aid) to Pakistan. 

Thank you,
XXXXX XXXXX
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Manny »

OK since we are talking about NE India and the Baptist influence there.

Not all Tribals are converted and are anti Mainland India!

Here is one. She blogs about her life in India and now having married a Danish guy and has moved to Denmark blogs about the life of a desi in Denmark. I love her blog.. She is extremely bright and has an amazing sense of humor. She moved from the NE to Mumbai and ran a very successful PR firm which she had to shut down when she married this young reporter trainee from Denmark and moved there.

One particular blog entry about racism in India towards "chinks" (sic) she writes about is very said and infuriating.

http://shetalkslikejune.com/?p=885

And no..she is no India basher....although you may feel that way if that entry was only one you read.

And she is no Maoist sympathizing leftie either... I loved this blog entry of hers as well

http://shetalkslikejune.com/?p=689

There are tons of gems in her blog..you could spend hours reading her and knowing there are brilliant minds out there in India who are not necessarily pontificating reporters or idiots who consider themselves "intellectual" authors of books. That is so reassuring and comforting.

I would suggest reading from her older blogs to the recent ones.. if you are going to read her stuff.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by sanjaykumar »

One particular blog entry about racism in India towards "chinks" (sic) she writes about is very said and infuriating.


Have I ever exempted Indians from the jackasses of the world?
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

From RamN

IS THE US REALLY ARM-TWISTING INDIA? What do you think?

http://telegraphindia.com/1110413/jsp/o ... 845251.jsp

THE TELEGRAPH, APRIL 13, 2011

MIGHT IS ALWAYS RIGHT
- The US knows how to arm-twist India into giving it concessions
Diplomacy K.P. Nayar

Hats off to the Americans! Those guys in Washington know how to exercise power, just as our Congress politicians of the Indira Gandhi brand used to know once.

When President Barack Obama’s dreaded internal revenue service chose Republic Day this year to make an example of Vaibhav Dahake, an Indian American, by sending his savings to banks back home, and accusing him in a New Jersey court of conspiracy of trying to “defraud” the United States of America by the use of undeclared accounts in India, some of those who are good at reading political tea leaves suspected that this was a signal.

A few days ago, the signal turned into a threat. The threat is serious enough and has the potential to rock India-US relations on a scale Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger did when they sent the US Seventh Fleet into the Bay of Bengal during the creation of Bangladesh.

Four decades ago, a crude display of military might was the weapon to try and bring India in line. Today, when sophisticated financial instruments have as much manipulative power as naval fleets and air force squadrons, Washington is using the economy to make New Delhi toe its line.

The threat by the Obama administration demands that HSBC Bank should provide the IRS authorities with a list of Americans of Indian origin, who have savings of more than $10,000 in their branches in India under various schemes for attracting foreign currency and non-resident external rupee deposits which have been in operation for more than three decades now without any hitch.

Although HSBC is the largest European bank in terms of assets — because it is the bank of choice for the enormously wealthy Hong Kong tycoons and draws on mainland Chinese business from there — it has chosen to crawl when asked to bend, to borrow L.K. Advani’s famous description of sections of the Indian media during the Emergency. The bank has hastily closed its offices in New York and in Fremont, California, the two branches which exclusively deal with clients of Indian origin and through which Dahake dealt with HSBC to service his accounts in India.

As soon as Dahake pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiring with five HSBC bankers to hide his Indian accounts from US tax authorities, an HSBC spokeswoman, Juanita Gutierrez, told reporters in an email: “HSBC does not condone tax evasion and is cooperating with law enforcement in this matter.”

A California judge has now given permission to the IRS to serve a summons on HSBC for a list of Americans of Indian origin who have accounts in India which are perfectly legal under the Indian law but have a shade of opaqueness under the US tax laws. There is no doubt about what this will lead to.

Switzerland’s biggest bank, UBS, last year gave Americans a list of its top 4,450 American clients, lifting the historically prized veil on Switzerland’s banking secrecy laws. HSBC is unlikely to act any differently to protect the secrecy of its Indian American clients and thus risk its ability to do business in the US.

But HSBC is only the tip of the iceberg. It is actually a warning. Next in line will be the State Bank of India, the Bank of India and the Bank of Baroda, all of which have offices in New York that deal primarily with the inflow of remittances from Indian Americans.

Wealthy clients of UBS left the bank in thousands as the threat of legal action by the IRS loomed until the Swiss parliament agreed to a treaty to give the Americans details of clients whom the US government insists were tax dodgers.

India is not Switzerland, at least not yet, and is by no means a tax haven for wealthy Americans seeking to dodge US taxes. So, by choosing to make an example of Dahake and in threatening HSBC, the Americans are sending a political message that has shades of Mario Puzo’s “Godfather” tactics.

It is an open secret in both Washington and New Delhi that India-US relations are lately not going too well, notwithstanding protestations of deep and abiding friendship on both sides and a continuing flurry of bilateral engagements. Unguided by political directives and on their own, Indian officials in New Delhi have willingly genuflected before diplomats from the US embassy in Chanakyapuri as the WikiLeaks cables now reveal.

While the obeisance of Indian civil servants may have made US diplomats in New Delhi feel good, that is really not what Washington seeks. The Americans need a bigger slice of the expanding Indian economic pie in terms of import orders, market access and, most of all, defence purchases by India’s army, navy and air force. They also need orders from India for nuclear plants on their terms and they need them quickly: a big order from India which will offset the damage to the nuclear industry worldwide as a result of Japan’s post-tsunami travails at a time when America’s nuclear manufacturers were just about recovering from a long winter of campaigns against nuclear power not only in the US but also abroad.

But such orders have not been forthcoming: they are, as defence and nuclear imports show, clearly going in favour of Russia, France and Israel. That is not what the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations invested their political capital in India for. {Its moot that it was the US that imposed all those restrictions in a fit of pique! At same time looked otherway when theri ally PRC was spreading nukes all around.} The Dahake case and the notice to HSBC represent a Shylockian demand {Bad choice of phrase by KPN} to India to pay its dues to Washington for what the Americans see as the extraordinary lengths they went to in order to end India’s long nuclear winter and for having supported New Delhi on a score of other issues under the terms of their bonhomie that turned a page, starting with the Jaswant Singh-Strobe Talbot talks on India-US strategic cooperation 12 years ago.

The Americans know that turning the screws on non-resident Indian accounts in Indian banks is a pressure tactic that the Manmohan Singh government will not be able to stand up to. India now ranks at the top of countries which have impressive foreign exchange reserves, but those reserves will significantly evaporate if American actions to curb alleged tax dodging by their citizens of Indian origin were to force Indian Americans to pull out their deposits from such accounts which constitute the bulk of India’s foreign currency holdings. :?: The same applies to NRI stock holdings in Indian companies. In other words, the Obama administration has the wherewithal to turn India’s impressive foreign exchange reserves into hot money that can evaporate and push India back to the 1990s, when it virtually begged for foreign currency.

{Is this true or a fear?}

But it need not come to that. Indeed, it will not, given the nature and composition of the Indian power structure. The Americans have known for some time now that Indian Americans have considerable influence on their system. But the way NRIs in America were mobilized — first by the National Democratic Alliance government to thwart sanctions against the 1998 nuclear tests and then by the United Progressive Alliance government in support of the nuclear deal — has convinced Washington that NRI power is a double-edged sword: that it is a force which can be used to influence New Delhi as well.

{Now he is blaming NRIs and making a strawman scape goat. How can RBI Resurgent India bonds be bought by Gulf NRIs and suddenly US NRIs take the credit? Cant be both.}
Powerful Indian politicians and senior civil servants have their children, siblings and a variety of other friends and relatives in the US who have NRI accounts in Indian banks which are now under the scanner of Obama’s IRS.

{If the NRIs had such account to dodge taxes then they cant be protected by India buying shoddy goods with money earned by hardwroking resident Indians. I think KPN is going overboard at some threat by someone after too many pegs.}

Those who hold the levers of power in New Delhi and state capitals are not going to stand by and let the threat of prosecution — as in Dahake’s case — hang over the heads of their family members or cause them to lose sleep. That is how the Americans will secure orders for at least a significant share of the 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft, the biggest military aviation deal in history. That is how the Americans will secure other import orders and significant concessions from New Delhi.

{Is he laying out an excuse in case US goods are bought? Didn't India already baliout Boeing by buying unwanted C-17s at inflated prices?}

If these orders and concessions are forthcoming, the threat to India’s foreign exchange reserves through withdrawal of hot money through the prosecution of NRIs in US courts will evaporate. In any case, the Americans will have proved that they can decisively influence the making or unmaking of India despite the illusion in New Delhi and Mumbai that India is a rising global power.

{Hopefull too much delusion. He heard someone crying in their chai and decided to write about it. UPA after the scams and Anna Hazare fast is not strong enough to pull of this bigger scam of making US rich after they siphoned so much wealth toTSP's terrorists.}
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by vera_k »

^^^

IMO, the INC as usual wants to shield black money. There should be no reason why SBI or any other Indian bank should not want to cooperate with a tax authority.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by somnath »

ramana wrote:From RamN

IS THE US REALLY ARM-TWISTING INDIA? What do you think
Stupid article, really stupid attempt at CTs...I thought KP Nayar was better than that..

One, he is almost suggesting that ALL NRIs keeping money in India do so for tax evasion purposes! What crap...India is hardly a tax haven...

Two,
Next in line will be the State Bank of India, the Bank of India and the Bank of Baroda, all of which have offices in New York that deal primarily with the inflow of remittances from Indian Americans
Factually wrong..Bulk of the business of these banks is in trade finance, NRI deposits are big, but not the "primary" business..

Three,
India now ranks at the top of countries which have impressive foreign exchange reserves, but those reserves will significantly evaporate if American actions to curb alleged tax dodging by their citizens of Indian origin were to force Indian Americans to pull out their deposits from such accounts which constitute the bulk of India’s foreign currency holdings
Poppycock..One, NRI remittances are a large component of capital flows into India, but hardly a "make or break" component..For instance, in Apr-Dec 2010, latest data available, NRI remittances were <10% of total capital flows..
http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/Publicati ... x?id=13043

Things like FII/FDI/Software are FAR more critical..

Two, even within the category of NRI flows, US NRIs would be a sub-set, and a smallish one, as bulk of the remittances are from the Gulf...

Net net, wholesale withdrawals by US NRIs, even if that were to happen, isnt going to strain Indian's fx reserves too much...

Four,
Powerful Indian politicians and senior civil servants have their children, siblings and a variety of other friends and relatives in the US who have NRI accounts in Indian banks which are now under the scanner of Obama’s IRS
So the siblings of all bureaucrat/politicians are dodging tax in the US! That being the case, maybe they should all wholesale shift to Dubai!

A suspected tax evador has been prosecuted, and HSBC has shut down a couple of branches (most likely because it suspected process failures on AML there)...That becomes an elaborate CT on arm-twisting based on completely erroneous data... :twisted:
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by harbans »

Tnaks Somnath Ji, thats what i inferred to. Some sort of CT being peddled in that report as i also thought that other inflows would be much more than remittances of these kinds.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by jiteshn »

June is an anomaly
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Sanku »

jiteshn wrote: @Sanku
Stop what conversions? Nagaland and mizoram are 90% christians each. Meghalaya is 70%. The NE society, especially the youth are hardcore bible-nuts. NE India is called as india's bible-belt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt

I once read a local NE newspaper label incidents of rape and murder as "diseases that came from mainland india".
My dear Sir, the issues exist, however the conversions had happened BEFORE independence, much before these issues came to exist.

Don't mix up very different things.

Thank you.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by joshvajohn »

India, US pursue sustainable alliance in coal sector
http://www.business-standard.com/india/ ... or/431791/
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UBanerjee »

Gus wrote:Just in the past few months, I have come across many white massa xtian people who are going as missionaries to China. Two of them are actually couples. Seems like there's lot of demand. I wonder if they will start outsourcing even this, like sending Indian Christians..hmmmm.
Christianity is taking hold in China and the only thing keeping it in check is Communist govt doesn't want too large a foothold for foreign influence. But the popularity is there because of the spiritual vacuum Maoism has left and the destruction of own traditions.

Power begets power. India's soft power in China is so much more limited now because India is seen as weak. American soft power is strong because America is seen as strong. Reality begets perception which begets reality...
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

UB Check History of China in the 19th century. There were a couple of major revolts due to new religion. Good old Mao was a convert who took up Marx as new apostle and brought about the change in China's society. So after cleansing the society (Great Leap backwards), the Commies are allowing their old inspiration to come back in order to prevent old religions staging a resurgence as in Russia.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by svinayak »

svenkat wrote:China is contemptuous of India.US knows that.US 'cannot' have the same contempt for India(It has to pretend neutrality like its controlled media) because of 'democracy,liberalism,blah-blah'.US is playing both sides.US would like Dragon to squeeze Indias balls and then offer support to India on piddling issues and infiltrate and subvert India.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Cosmo_R »

I have always felt that 'Religion' could be India's 'assassin's mace' WRT to PRC. I mean, we have Buddhism, lots of Gurus/Seers and spiritualists. We even have Bahai. Beaming spirituality to the Chinese am admi will create a signal that competes with the monotonous drone from CCP.

There's nothing like religion to create 'splittists'
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by NRao »

MIGHT IS ALWAYS RIGHT
- The US knows how to arm-twist India into giving it concessions
I am not sure what to make out of this article.

Any US citizen has the right to invest the world over, but has to declare his/her income at the end of the year.

I suspect that when an investment mechanism becomes large enough the IRS finds it worth the while to chase such "offenders" (if they are real offenders). If the tax payers do not respond the IRS finds alternative means to recover the taxes. Sure it is painful and has a political angle, but, if the people investing pay their taxes I do not know if this issue would arise.

JMTs.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

joshvajohn wrote:India, US pursue sustainable alliance in coal sector
LINK

JJ, The holy grail of clean coal energy was held as a carrot for India to give up nukes since 1990. Try to read UPenn's CASI reports edited by Francine Frankel. The talks had presentations by Foster Wheeler about fluidized bed coal burners that would cleanly burn Indian coal which has high ash content.

Obviously nothing happened as Indian coal is different!

Hence this constant pursuit.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by somnath »

Marten wrote:That is not entirely correct. Remittances from North America are almost the same as from the Gulf
Yes, that is right..But North America is still only about a third of the total...
http://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/Publica ... /72983.pdf

So its important, but not a mission breaking (or "forex reserves wrecking"!) variable...
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Re: Nukkad - 60

Post by Singha »

word is the IRS has a list of 9000 PIO/NRIs suspected of hiding taxable income into indian accounts.

yahoo news:
Another Indian American pleads guilty to tax evasion
IANS India Private LimitedBy Indo Asian News Service | IANS – Thu, Apr 14, 2011 9:01 AM IST

New York, April 14 (IANS) Another Indian American banking with HSBC India has pleaded guilty to tax evasion days after a New Jersey businessman admitted to conspiring with five HSBC bankers to hide offshore accounts in India.

Josephine Bhasin with an HSBC account worth as much as $8.3 million, according to the prosecution, entered the guilty plea before a magistrate judge in US District Court in New York Wednesday.

Bhasin is the second taxpayer charged in a crackdown focusing on whether HSBC helped clients with Indian accounts hide assets from the IRS as part of a wider US investigation of banks that attract tax dodgers.

Her case follows the guilty plea by New Jersey businessman Vaibhav Dahake, 44, Monday to keeping his Indian accounts 'below the radar' to evade taxes in the United States.

Dahake, who faces a federal prison sentence ranging from 10 to 18 months under the guilty plea is scheduled to be sentenced July 22.

Dahake was doing business with HSBC NRI Services for non-resident Indians, which 'encouraged US citizens to open undeclared bank accounts in India,' according to the indictment.

Bhasin and Dahake's guilty pleas came days after a US judge in California gave permission to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve a so-called John Doe summons on HSBC for information about Americans who may have banked in
India to hide accounts from the IRS.
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Re: Nukkad - 60

Post by Singha »

bloomberg:

U.S. Tax Officials Seek HSBC India Offshore Account Information in Probe
By David Voreacos and Richard Rubin - Apr 8, 2011 9:31 AM GMT+0530

An investigation of HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) by U.S. tax authorities was stepped up with the government’s request seeking authorization to pursue information on thousands of Americans who may have used accounts in India to evade taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service asked a U.S. judge in Oakland, California, for permission to serve a so-called John Doe summons to get information about Americans using HSBC’s Non-Resident Indians, or NRI, services. The IRS cited the Jan. 26 indictment of client Vaibhav Dahake, who is accused of conspiring with five HSBC bankers to hide Indian accounts from U.S. tax authorities.

“It is not only reasonable to believe, it is abundantly clear that thousands of other NRI clients in the United States may have failed to meet their obligations to disclose those accounts - and pay tax on the income,” Justice Department attorney Stuart Gibson wrote in court papers filed yesterday.

The request signals a sharp increase in U.S. pressure on HSBC, Europe’s largest bank by market value, to cooperate in a widening probe of offshore tax evasion. UBS AG, the largest Swiss bank, avoided U.S. prosecution in 2009 by paying $780 million, admitting it helped Americans evade taxes and disclosing data to the IRS on account holders.

“While we haven’t seen the summons, HSBC does not condone tax evasion and fully supports the U.S. efforts to promote appropriate payment of taxes,” Juanita Gutierrez, a bank spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “While complying with the law in all the jurisdictions in which it operates, including India, HSBC cooperates with request from U.S. authorities.”

‘Constructive Dialogue’

Gutierrez said the bank has been “engaged in a constructive dialogue with U.S. authorities” and hopes the John Does summons matter “can be resolved expeditiously.”

The IRS seeks data from HSBC USA about accounts holders at HSBC India from 2002 to 2010. Through September, about 9,000 U.S. residents were “Premier” clients with NRI deposits of $100,000 or more at HSBC India, and only 1,391 had disclosed their accounts to the U.S. in 2009, according to a court filing by Daniel Reeves, who runs the IRS Offshore Compliance Initiatives Program.

Through December 2009, Premier clients had NRI deposits of almost $400 million, Reeves wrote.

Reeves said the bank helped clients conceal accounts from the IRS through a number of NRI services, citing the Dahake case. His indictment alleges that HSBC bankers said that with an Indian account, no U.S. forms were required, he didn’t have to furnish a social security number, and no Form 1099 reporting the interest income would be filed with the IRS.
Secret Assets

Dahake is scheduled to plead guilty on April 11 in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, court records show.

The U.S. had filed a similar summons in the UBS case. The UBS case helped prompt more than 18,000 Americans to avoid prosecution by revealing their secret offshore assets to the IRS, agency Commissioner Douglas Shulman said April 6 at the National Press Club in Washington. The IRS is using those disclosures to learn about banks, advisers and tax evasion, he said.

“We’re using that data to then pursue the next wave,” Shulman said. “This is a multiyear effort. It’s not going to stop.”

Dahake attorney Lawrence Horn said the HSBC John Doe summons case may serve to draw more people into another voluntary disclosure program that the IRS is offering. He said that if the summons is granted and HSBC complies, “there’s a great likelihood” that the IRS will get the taxpayer names it seeks.
Voluntary Disclosure

Those HSBC clients will then have to choose whether to risk prosecution by doing nothing or enter the voluntary disclosure program, said Horn, of Sills Cummis & Gross in Newark, New Jersey.

In his filing, Reeves said IRS agents interviewed HSBC India clients. They said NRI representatives told them that if they opened HSBC India accounts, they would not have to pay U.S. income tax on interest earned, and that the bank would not tell the IRS about them. The clients had deposits at HSBC India ranging from several hundred thousand dollars to more than $1 million, Reeves wrote.

Last year, Congress imposed new requirements on foreign banks with U.S. accountholders. The disclosure rules, which take effect in 2013, banks based outside the United States face 30 percent withholding on certain payments from within the U.S. if they do not share certain information with the IRS.

The case is In the Matter of the Tax Liabilities of John Does, 11-cv-01686, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.
Cosmo_R
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Cosmo_R »

Looks like the message has gone out to the media to squeeze Pakis until they (presumably) yell 'Unkil':

"In the wake of 9/11, the Bush Administration famously sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to Islamabad to explain that the U.S. was going to act forcefully to protect itself, and that Pakistan had to choose whose side it was on. It's time to present Pakistan with the same choice again.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... ns_opinion
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by CRamS »

Two SDREs, a Muslim & a Hindu (?), Fareed bhai and Indra Nooyi sitting on CNN and pontificating about US economy. Must be pissing off all those tea party abduls about how US is beig overrun by "them" :-).

I have seen & heard Indra Nooyi. I don't know about her management style, but based on her public talks, she seems pretty run of the mill to me and way too over-rated :-). Am I being harsh?
Last edited by CRamS on 17 Apr 2011 22:31, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Vikas »

CRamS ji, It is very hard to please you :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Prem »

CRamS wrote:Two SDREs, a Muslim & a Hindu (?), Fareed bhai and Indra Nooyi sitting on CNN and pontificating about US economy. Must be pissing off all those tea party abduls about how US is beig overrun by "them" :-).I have seen & heard Indra Nooyi. I don't know about her management style, but based on her public talks, she seems pretty run of the mill to me and way too over-rated :-). Am I being harsh?

She did not rule out political role down the road in future . Perfect running mate for Trump .
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by abhischekcc »

She has been a member of the Bilderberg group for a long time. She is a loyal camp follower of the powers that be.

A woman and a colored person - two minorities in one person. And loyal as hell.

The only thing that is better than this combination is if the person's genes are half caucasian. Then such a person can even become president.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by svinayak »

The americans are realizing slowly that all of it is a show.
President Trump? The joke's on us

Caille Millner

Monday, April 18, 2011


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z1JuRFaBDP
Once upon a time, Americans expected their celebrities to have a modicum of skill for entertaining the masses, and their politicians to have a modicum of skill for serving the public. The former expectation was demolished in the previous decade, with the rise of Paris Hilton and the Kardashians. In this decade, the latter expectation will be demolished. Donald Trump's latest potential presidential campaign run is the latest signal of this new condition.

Donald Trump has run for president before. He was a potential Reform Party candidate for the 2000 presidential elections. The obscure political party was a tip-off that it was nothing but a sideshow, and Trump delivered with celebrities at every stop and a gold-plated "Trump One" campaign plane. We all had a good laugh, and Trump went home before he had to face any voters but after he got a boost of what Trump likes best: media attention.

This time, the joke is on us. This time Trump is running for the Republican Party nomination. While he has shown absolutely no inclination of taking any of this more seriously than he did the first time around - he's running on a platform of "birtherism" and bullying the Arab states into handing over their oil - the American people are.

A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll showed that Trump is tied with Mike Huckabee as the top Republican presidential candidate. The Arizona state Senate just passed a "birther" bill requiring 2012 candidates to prove they were born in the United States after Trump met with the bill's author. Serious Republican candidates, like former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, are now being asked on national television how they feel about being Trump's vice president.

Fortunately, Trump will never be president. The man has no intention of ever standing before the voters - once he's milked all that he can out of the increased ratings for his reality television show, he'll ride off into the sunset on a Trump-branded horse. So the only question worth pondering here is how a nightmarish parody of self-actualization became a contender - or rather, how the American people allowed him to become a contender.

Something has happened in this country. The sole genius of Sarah Palin was to recognize the shift in the air. Once she realized that she could earn far more money and attention by pretending to be a serious politician than to actually be one, she left that boring job in the Alaska's governor's office and never looked back.

Now she endorses candidates, makes policy proposals, speaks at political engagements - all without having to bother with the messy business of governing. She's responsible for the rise of all those candidates who never should have been taken seriously and yet somehow manage to suck all of the oxygen, the attention, and the funding out of the room - from Michele Bachmann to Donald Trump.

Now, I'm not blaming her or anyone else for taking advantage of this new climate. Everyone needs a hustle in our ruthless economy, and they're only giving the people what they want. And apparently what people want is endless distraction, even in politics - all the better to pull them away from the desperation of our crumbling infrastructure, terrible schools and bankrupt job market.

But the problem is that this is not a reality show. This is our country. And while we may get the democracy that we deserve, the price we have to pay for our enjoyment of all of these ridiculous candidates may be larger than we expect.

Caille Millner is a Chronicle editorial writer. You can e-mail her at cmillner@sfchronicle.com.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z1JuR7M5ub
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

A person who declared bankruptcy is denied security clearance. Trump did that twice and he wants to be the President who is Commander in chief of all those with security clearances!
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by CRamS »

Acharya:

She makes good points, but she herself exaggarates and hyperventilates by saying "crumbling infrastructure, terrible schools and bankrupt job market". Come on, US has the most pristine and sophisticated infrastrucure, a few air traffic controllers falling asleep nothwithstanding :-). Fact of the matter is that because Americans have everything in plenty, despite current downturn, that politcis is pretty much an entertainment for most and hence clowns like trump, palin, and bachman make hay providing some fun.

Contrast that with India, the difference between BJP, and MMS/Sonia cabal is like night and day. And India has real problems unlike US where the political divide is along religious/cultural lines (homosexual marriage, abortion etc) using issues like national debt. For most people national debt sounds scary in the abstract, but it means nothing from a day to day stand point. Hence both parties can talk about about it as though there is an impending disaster, but in reality nobody gives a s@it about it, and dems and reps pursue ideological agendas which as I said are mostly religious/cultural.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by somnath »

CRamS wrote:She makes good points, but she herself exaggarates and hyperventilates by saying "crumbling infrastructure, terrible schools and bankrupt job market". Come on, US has the most pristine and sophisticated infrastrucure, a few air traffic controllers falling asleep nothwithstanding . Fact of the matter is that because Americans have everything in plenty, despite current downturn, that politcis is pretty much an entertainment for most and hence clowns like trump, palin, and bachman make hay providing some fun
CRAMS-ji, you are being more than just harsh :shock: One doesnt get to become CEO of PepsiCo by being over-rated...Being of the sex/colour she is may have given her some points, but the essential talent has to be there..

BTW, she belongs to the new generation of home-grown managers who are reaching the very top of Corporate America - Banga, Indra Nooyi, Vikram Pandit, the Reckitt Benckiser chap (forget his name)...Its a huge advert for Indian talent...

About the point she is making, its not on an absolute scale, but relative...Us is used to have the "best" infrastructure in the world at unimaginable scale...They see now others catching up in both qaulity and scale (primarily China, but also in small ways India)...So people like Nooyi are expressing their concern "at the margin"...Of course, some of the adjectives are merely to amplify the point...I wouldnt be so hard on her..She is a true blue Tam Brahm AFAIK :wink:
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

There was trend watcher saying the new thing is Indian women CEOs and to watch the space.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Ravi Karumanchiri »

^^^
A US President must have been born in the United States. Immigrants are not permitted to be either President or Vice President. Presumably, this would also apply to anyone who could wind-up in the 'chain of command', so therefore also the Speaker of the House, the Secretary of the Interior and the Chief of Defense Staff. Accordingly, Indra Nooyi will never be anyone's Vice Presidential running mate.
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