India-US Strategic News and Discussion

[Juggi G]

India a Natural Ally of USA : The Pentagon

[darshhan]

To say that India and US are natural allies is another way to say that they are not strategic allies and India is on its own in the fight against terrorism.

[Prem]

Obama's foreign policy needs an update
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02263.html

For help understanding the foreign policy headlines of the past week, let's return, briefly, to the spring of 1983, when Barack Obama was a student at Columbia University. What were the burning international issues of that time? Well, first was the "nuclear freeze" movement, which was prompting mass demonstrations around the world by people worried about the standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States. Obama published an article about it in a campus magazine in which he invoked the vision of "a nuclear free world." \
The Middle East, meanwhile, was still reeling from the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon - which was the apotheosis of the Zionist right's dream of creating a "greater Israel" including all of the Palestinian West Bank.
Not all of the administration's foreign policy is anachronistic. Obama's tour this month of India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan reflected a cutting-edge concern with rebuilding U.S. influence in Asia and forging alliances with its democracies in response to a rising China. Iran has been the target of a relatively successful multilateral sanctions campaign, though that has yet to affect its nuclear program. The START treaty with Russia is part of a larger strategy to coax its brutish regime toward more responsible behavior. Still, this administration is notable for its lack of grand strategy - or strategists. Its top foreign-policy makers are a former senator, a Washington lawyer and a former Senate staffer. There is no Henry Kissinger, no Zbigniew Brzezinski, no Condoleezza Rice; no foreign policy scholar.

[Prem]

India a Natural Ally of USA : The Pentagon

They did not say USA is natural alley of India .

[RajeshA]

India a Natural Ally of USA : The Pentagon

They did not say USA is natural alley of India .

USA is the dark alley of India!

[Prem]

Indo-US Defence Cooperation: Set to Chart a New Trajectory
Gurmeet Kanwal
http://www.idsa.in/idsacomments/IndoUSD ... wal_231110

Recent achievements on the India-US defence cooperation front have been truly remarkable. Hi-tech weapons and equipment will now be provided or offered to India by the United States. Advanced dual-use technologies will give an edge to India over China, both in security-related and civilian sectors. The decision to transform the existing bilateral export control framework for hi-tech exports will put an end to the discriminatory technology denial regimes which India was subjected to. The proposal to lift sanctions on ISRO, DRDO and Bharat Dynamics Limited is a welcome step forward and perhaps the Department of Atomic Energy will also be taken off the list soon.
Joint patrolling of the sea lanes (SLOCs) in the Indian Ocean is already being undertaken under the garb of joint naval exercises. Other military exercises have led to a broad understanding of each other’s military capabilities and many interoperability challenges have been ironed out. In future, joint military operations are possible if India’s national interests are at stake. Of course, there will be many caveats to such cooperation as it is not in India’s long-term interest to form an alliance with the US.
The proposal to undertake joint development of future weapons systems is also a welcome development as it will raise India’s technological threshold. However, no transfer of technology has occurred yet. Transfer of technology of the Javelin ATGM is being discussed and will be a test case. Inevitably, doubts about the availability of future technological upgrades and reliability in supplies of spares will continue to linger in the Indian mind. The case for spares which is pending with the labyrinthine US bureaucracy for long in respect of the AN-TPQ37 Weapon Locating Radars has left a bad taste. The notion that the US cannot be trusted to be a reliable supplier was not dispelled convincingly during President Obama’s visit.
India’s reluctance to sign the CISMOA and BECA agreements will lead to denial of many items of on-board technology even while platforms are still offered and sold. This issue requires dispassionate analysis. The major criterion for the decision to sign or not to sign these agreements, which have already been signed by a large number of countries, should be whether or not the operational capabilities of India’s armed forces will be adversely affected if major avionics and communications equipment is not supplied by the US. Indian defence planners should carefully evaluate the emerging threats and challenges vis-à-vis the technology required to meet them. If India continues to shun certain equipment simply because the country does not wish to sign the CISMOA and BECA agreements, it might amount to a self goal in the long run, indeed many self goals.
Massive US conventional military aid to Pakistan militates against India’s strategic interests. While US compulsions and constraints in dealing with the failing Pakistani state are understandable, beyond a point the supply of military equipment that cannot be used for counter-insurgency operations by any stretch of the imagination will inevitably invite a strong Indian backlash. This was conveyed unequivocally to the US President

[Neshant]

NATO is 'Mafia' and Obama a 'Snake Charmer'

He's a Snake Eater

[Philip]

Avoid US route: Indian minister says American way is 'recipe for disaster'Politician who has has hit headlines for green interventions warns of 'grave development risks'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/no ... y-disaster

The Indian environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, has attacked the growing Indian taste for the American lifestyle, which he called the "most unsustainable in the world today".

In an interview with the Guardian, Ramesh, who will travel this weekend to Cancun in Mexico for the next round of global climate negotiations, said the world was paying the price for "the US model of development" which, he said, India and China have embraced.

"It is a paradigm fraught with grave risks. I shudder to think what will happen if we [in India] follow the suburban model of urbanisation," said Ramesh, who has established a reputation as one of the most proactive Indian environment ministers for many years.

"You can't blame the Americans. The US lifestyle has become the world lifestyle. [But] if we are going to replicate this model, it is a recipe for disaster for India as well as for the rest of the world. We should be showing the way … not just saying we are going to pay this price."

Ramesh has hit headlines in India with a series of decisions to halt industrial or infrastructure projects on environmental grounds, which have infuriated commercial lobbies and sometimes cabinet colleagues. He said there were many in India who wanted the country to "grow now, pay later. They say, let's follow the western model – or even the Chinese model."

Ramesh, who is a member of parliament for the governing Congress party in the central state of Andhra Pradesh, provoked controversy in India last week by calling the use of large SUV-type vehicles in urban areas "criminal". Such large and luxurious cars are seen as an essential symbol of success and status by India's increasingly wealthy upper-middle class, and there is a growing number on the country's choked roads.

But the 56-year-old former minister of power said such vehicles ran on fuel that is subsidised to help poor farmers.

He also spoke of his recent decision to cancel a hydroelectric project in the Himalayas to generate power for Delhi, which suffers chronic blackouts, asking: "Why should you cut forests in [the Himalayas] to feed the water demand of these farmhouses outside Delhi?" – a reference to the ranch-style residences on the capital's outskirts, popular with the wealthy. At a conference last week, the minister told an audience of businessmen that his ministry had cleared the vast majority of projects.

On Monday, Ramesh approved the building of a second airport for Mumbai, India's commercial capital, despite opposition from conservationists.

However, in recent months, he has ordered mining company Vedanta Resources to halt the expansion of its aluminium refinery in the eastern state of Orissa and denied the company permission to mine in Orissa's Niyamgiri Hills, an area deemed sacred by a local tribe. A decision on a controversial £8bn steel project by Posco, a South Korean company, is expected in the coming weeks.

Ramesh said "his whole endeavour" was to make environmentalism mainstream by linking it with public health.

"The environmental issue in India has been seen to be largely an upper-middle class elitist issue," the minister told the Guardian. "I believe that a larger number of Indians are actually concerned about the environment than we give credit for."

Hundreds of millions were worried about health issues, the causes of which were oftenproblems caused by pollution or land degradation, he said, adding that a new public health initiative, partly funded by the Bill Gates Foundation, would be launched in the coming weeks and would "transform perceptions".. A public health initiative, to be launched soon with funding from the Bill Gates Foundation, would transform perceptions, he added.

India has been repeatedly criticised by western powers for taking a confrontational position in climate-change negotiations. Ramesh warned that he had to "protect Indian economic interests", describing the Cancun meeting as "all about politics, not the environment".

Ramesh echoed other senior officials who have sought to lower expectations of next week's ministerial talks, saying that he did not expect any breakthrough. Cancun could however prove useful in creating "building blocks" towards a final agreement, he said.

PS:I totally agree with JR.The over-consumptive greedy lifstyle of the US has brought the world to the brink of a global eco meltdown,as we experienced two years ago.The US urban planning which places greatest emphasis on the motor car and not on people has resulted in cities spending billions upon billions to sort out the mess while a small fraction of that money could be used in improving the infrastructure of rural and semi-urban settlements to better their lives.The chief failure in India is that of proper transportation planning for the masses.This has forces ordinary citizens to buy two-wheelers and cars which have choked roads unfit for the volume that increases exponentially each month.Unlike Europe,where fabulous rail services are available in comparison with those in India,pedestrianisation of city centres in heritage towns and the use of water transport as in Vencie,sees a far better quality of life enjoyed by Europeans than those in the US.The kind of buildings too,multistory skyscrapers all glass,being imitated by our copycat designers regardless of our different climatic conditions,pose huge pressure upon utilities like power,water and sanitation,etc.

What we in India need to do is to go back to our roots and see what works best for us.The intimate character of Indian cities of the past which were vibrant living "organisms" ,linked by streets were the pedestrian was able to walk upon and connected by squares/chowks and gardens, was far better than the tar and concrete roadways of our cities and suburbia that force one to use private automobiles or bikes and add to commuting time.If we only develop ourr ail network and modernise it as has been done all over Europe,people can live even 100km away from major metros and commute to it within half an hour.The migration of people from the country's heartland to major cities will then be checked and it will also help in bringing down land prices which today keep skyrocketing in major metors like Bombay,etc.

The American way of life will be "the kiss of death" for India and other developing nations.Imitating it would be an act of suicide.

[ShivaS]

I agree India can not sustain the American style of consumption period no matter 15 % growth or 20% growth.

We have to have our own modl and stle of living standards

[RamaY]

^^^ what do you have against skyscrapers man? seriously, this is, i think, one thing that India needs. it's the only way to make the ever growing cities compact, and make sure that there is still some countryside that's not urbanized.

I used to think the same way, until I came across an article on holistic living by some Sri Hebbar Nageswara Rao in a Telugu daily.

He argues that (one need not agree to) a home should not go beyond two stories so as to -

Have a close association with environment, society, other life systems and so on. Imagine a family living in a 20th floor with no connection to plant, animal and social (here the author talks about Indian customs of festivals, samnyasis and so on) life. What is the joy in such a life?

Coming to the practical side of that -

Code: Select all

1,500,000,000	 - 	Population
375,000,000	 - 	No. of families (family of 4)
93,750,000,000	 - 	Sq. Yrds @ 250 Sq.Yds/Family with a build-up area of 120Sq Yrds ~1000SFT per leve
19,531,250	 - 	Acres (4800 Sq. Y = 1 Acre)
86,806	 - 	Sq.KM (225 Acres = 1Sq. KM)
144,676	 - 	Sq. KM After adding 40% common area for roads, parks etc (assumes the above living area is 60% land)
2,973,193	 - 	Sq. KM Total India Land
5%	 - 	Populated Area as a % of total land

[shyam]

India needs to revert back to joint family system. Every couple needs only a room to sleep and not a separate home. Everything else can be shared. This alone will address the major natural resource issue for large Indian population.

[Sanku]

India needs to revert back to joint family system. Every couple needs only a room to sleep and not a separate home. Everything else can be shared. This alone will address the major natural resource issue for large Indian population.

+1000000000000^100000000000

[Pratyush]

The joint family system however desirable may not be practicable in conext of the life in a metro. Especialy for the first generation migrent to the city.

However, what can be done in the city itself is to recycle every thing that can be recycled, compost the biodegradable items. Convert the sewage treatment plants to biogas plants to generate energy. move towards solar and renewable sources of energy. The marginal lands in the country side reclaimed into green areas with vegatation capable surviving on low amounts of water.

Provide every village with a population of 500 and above with a community level bio gas plant that will covert the animal and human waste into green fuel for the households of the village. Thereby reducing pressure in the forests near the village.

If a start is made now tha same will reduce the emession of the green house gases a great deal.

Every village must be made self contained. The village republic must be realised by the Indian state. The panchayate Raj is a bigining.

[Lalmohan]

just being able to collect the rubbish and disposing of it into organic and inorganic piles in properly covered areas would be a huge start... OT OT OT OT OT

[Pratyush]

True

[joshvajohn]

To all the friends in US we wish a good thanksgiving day.



US 'solidarity' with India two years after Mumbai: Clinton
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 987186.cms

[vera_k]

From here

[shyam]

The joint family system however desirable may not be practicable in conext of the life in a metro. Especialy for the first generation migrent to the city.

While this is true, the metros are sustained by the huge ponzi economic system that the world now follows. Pull that plug, the massive urban life will become unsustainable; I am not really sure how long the current ponzi scheme will continue. What India should try to achieve is to prevent migration of people from rural area to urban cities. For that it has to bring sustainable prosperity to rural population. One way to achieve that is to help every family own some form of business (even farming is a form of business) and the family members support each other by maintianing a large joint family. They should not expect poor or lower class people, aka servants, to do house hold work as they also are expected to become prosperous (unless these families can afford to pay high salaries).

[RamaY]

We think the modern human is a global citizen, but we don't think the modern family can live with their own extended family.

Why can't I live with my brother, SILs or why can't my wife live with my extended family? Why? Why? Just because they don't earn as much as I earn or they dont earn as much as my SHQ does or they are in our way to "enjoyment"???

Individualism (the Ayn Rond types) is the corner stone of western society and individualism of jagadaika kutumbam (Jagamanta kutumbam nadi, Ekaki jeevitam naadi = My family consists of entire world, but I live a lonely life {emotionally detached}) is the corner stone of India society.

birds of the same feathers flock together!

[shyam]

Individualism is actually motivated by individual financial independence. Individual financial independence is based on the modern economic structure where your retired life is taken care of by government guarantees like pensions, social security, government health care, etc. In the latest ultra modern era of bankrupt governments, these guarantees are no longer guaranteed. Individualism also has to go down along with that. Human beings are not individuals, they are social animals and they need support from each other. Families and tribes provide best support structure without any external help.

[RamaY]

Yes. That individualism also thinks money can buy everything and puts money before people.

[abhischekcc]

While this is true, the metros are sustained by the huge ponzi economic system that the world now follows. Pull that plug, the massive urban life will become unsustainable; I am not really sure how long the current ponzi scheme will continue. What India should try to achieve is to prevent migration of people from rural area to urban cities. For that it has to bring sustainable prosperity to rural population. One way to achieve that is to help every family own some form of business (even farming is a form of business) and the family members support each other by maintianing a large joint family. They should not expect poor or lower class people, aka servants, to do house hold work as they also are expected to become prosperous (unless these families can afford to pay high salaries).

Actually, my own assessment of the Urban - rural conundrum is that Urbanisation is the key to solving many of India's problems - delivery of health services, education, jobs, telecom etc - these become much more cost effective when the potential customers are all concentrated in one area.

Your suggestion of every rural household owning a business is nice, but the current government (and BJP as well) have been goinf in the opposite direction - dismantling the SSI sector protections. Moreover, most of the young generation of rural people do not want to go into farming. They would rather become taxi drivers and can drivers for BPOs than farm (this is not as exageration).

[Pratyush]

Mods,

I request you to move the past few posts on this thread to the Indian interests thread including this one.

ABC,

I have the opposite view from your's. India's problems can be solved if the village is made sulf sufficient in terms of the ability to produce the goods and services. The city will alway exist. But it is the village repubilc that is self sufficient and is freely trading with the ones arround it holds the future of India.

That is the only way the vast nimbers of Indians will be freed from poverty. Not by massive industries where man is ut a cong in the wheel of production. But one where man produces because he owns the factor of production. In a way it is deeply individualistic. Yet it is collective effort.

The only way I see it takining place is by distributing wealth. Today the problem in the rural economy is that agriculture is nearly the sole means of sustaining livelihood. Resulting in a migration of masses to the cities in order to search for a living.

Make that man able to earn his living in the village it self. You will see that the problems of rural to urbam migeration take care of it self.

I my view the conundrum is one of our own making. We have not yet succeded in reviving the village trading ecomomy that was destroyed by the English. If the future growth is to happen. That the village econmy must diversify and revive.

JMT

[CRamS]

Guys,

Just watching CNN honoring heroes from around the world. They honored one Indian guy who feeds the homless & mentally ill. So far so good. But what pissed me off was CNN deliberatley showing a huge Temple, and then showing a destitute man, with the said hero saying that this destitute man was eating his own waste for survival. It was disgusting. Then there was the grautitous reference to Brahmins by the hero, who probably is a Brahmin himself, that they are not supposed to touch an "untouchable". I mean, there might be truth to this, but unless this f$%^&ing caste angle is brought in, it seems nothing else about India is worth talking about as far as western consciousness goes.

[Pratyush]

In the morning edition of asia today there was a similar case of grautitous reference to Brahmins. By the news reader. I changed the channel after that in disgust and moved to CNN IBN showing the events in Mumbai.

It is getting more and more difficult to watch news without seeing Psy ops against India in one way or the other.

[abhischekcc]

That is because the whites are afraid of India's rise now, after China and Japan in the earlier years. For some reason, the most criminal (un)civilization in the world cannot help but be jealous of others.

In all the ages of history, Europe has killed more people and more brutally than the other three civilizations of the old world combined (India, China, and West Asia).

[abhischekcc]

Pratyush, the model you talk of is the Amul model. It may not be possible in every industry. The Amul model was successful because:
1. It leveraged the expertise of farmers in cattle management, and the fact that cattle management is a labour intensive job.
2. There was no large scale investment in this area by corporates.
3. Amul WANTED to create employment/income and was willing to eschew 'efficiency' for it.

Today, with corporates moving into farming in a big way (and willing to learn), the mainstay of that model is not present. There is large-sized competition to Amul model now (or will be in the near future).


-----------

Re Village self sufficiency:
There is another reason why village self sufficiency is not possible now (apart from the fact that British invented blood sucking economics). It is this - energy is sourced from outside the village, mainly fuel (electricity is free). This has made villages economically dependant on a global market place for energy, which in turn deprives them of any surplus income.

[Pratyush]

ABC,

We have well and truly derailed this thread .

I did not have AMUL in mind when I made my post. The model was the pre british rural economic sector. That existed and the same was systematicly destroyed by the British. Resulting in large scale papurasation of the population.

Recreate that economy in amodern context is what I am looking for. This may not solve all the problems. But, if it reduces the scale of the problem by even 50 % that will be a great start.

AMUL is for milk products. Same can be done with textiles or manufacturing (SSI). Instead of having one large centralised located factory have ten cooperatively run samll factories doing the job locally with locally available resources. Saving logistic and energy costs. Resolving the issue of urban congestion and the problem of rural unemployment.

WRT Large scale corporates entering agriculture. Block them using legislation if necessary. Using block level resources encourage the farmers into creating large cooperative farms and corporations. That will be able to bring the advantage of modern large scale agriculture to a small and marginal Indian farmer.

WRT energy, the energy consumption of a large Indian village will never equal that of a similar sized urban population. That being the case renewable energy like a cooperative Biogas plant if fed by waste from say 500 cattle will be able to meet the energy requirements of either the industry or the rural households.

Add to the above the solar technology in the future ought to make the Solar panels cheap. Every house having 2 to 4, 4*4 ft panels ought to meet the domestic energy needs. This approach is espisialy useful consideting India is a sun surplus country. With at least 300 days of clear sunlight.


JMT

[AKalam]

http://www.ifoam.org/

Organic farming has similar yield, keeps soil fertility intact and is more labor intensive - hence more suitable for developing countries. Will add more comments later. Sorry if this is OT.

[arjunm]

Guys,

Just watching CNN honoring heroes from around the world. They honored one Indian guy who feeds the homless & mentally ill. So far so good. But what pissed me off was CNN deliberatley showing a huge Temple, and then showing a destitute man, with the said hero saying that this destitute man was eating his own waste for survival. It was disgusting. Then there was the grautitous reference to Brahmins by the hero, who probably is a Brahmin himself, that they are not supposed to touch an "untouchable". I mean, there might be truth to this, but unless this f$%^&ing caste angle is brought in, it seems nothing else about India is worth talking about as far as western consciousness goes.

This India bashing programs are so deliberate and disgusting, as if ,who ever own CNN,I think the Australian Rrupert Murdoch ,has given a very specific instructions on India and Hinduism in particular to make it as derogatory as possible. I really do not buy the left right media non-sense arguments what I can only anticipate that they just pissed off because of India's soft power influence(Yoga,meditation,vegetarianism etc) and probably some of these programs are basically EJ funded. When mainstream NEWSWEEK declare that "we are becoming Hindu now" about average Americans, they really can't take it any more and find it extremely difficult to accept such a thing. The best way get even to show India and her Hindu cultures as a poor/disgusting cult type nuisance with no values. This type of petty shitty narrowness can be stooped with in 24 hrs If GOI took a strong objection by just closing down all their operations in India and that includes CNN/IBN etc. You will see the effect, they will crawl back and not only rewrite their script on India right,they will be very careful about the consequences in the near future. Being a friend of"DOROTHY"
Anderson Cooper still much milder and less frequent and aggressive in India bashing than Christian Amanpore's earlier programs. Luckily she just left CNN for ABC.

[ShivaS]

Having just completed fund raising for Shankara Eye foundation (95% effort bySHQ) to the tune of 8,000 to 10,000 USD (with Pfizer matching contributions) for the Anand in Gujrat and Ludhiana Punjab Clinics.

People here dont move their butts and crticize the folks who are doing it, honestly have you donated a dime to this guys effort.

DO something then talk this is where the EJ and conversion people score

We just pout uvachas

Think like EME

Karam hi Dharam (action is duty)

[SwamyG]

Shiva gaaru: I agree. Three of us friends - who met online, started a small effort in collecting few dollars to send it back to desh for different charitable causes. We could sustain it about 6 months or so, with friends pooling 10 bucks a month. That's it.

What is the best email address to reach you; I like to get some tips on fund raising activities. One of my friends wants to do something for "AIM for Seva".

[ShivaS]

Boss without boasting SHQ and I motivated Chinmaya mission Ann Arbor devotees and well wishers to give interest free loan of $750,000 in 2004 which was repaid in installments by CMAA by 2009 (yearly repayment of 500 or 1000 multiples there of, this saved the institution 250,000 in interest payments alone in addition to making the institution debt free!), thanks to Guru Dev and the great teacher Mrs Sharada Kumar who heads the CMAA activities. We modeled our campaign on the lines of NPR station fund raising efforts. Quick small window and high intensity... (Like LNW)

Yes I will be more than happy to share our experiences....

[RamaY]

Having just completed fund raising for Shankara Eye foundation (95% effort bySHQ) to the tune of 8,000 to 10,000 USD (with Pfizer matching contributions) for the Anand in Gujrat and Ludhiana Punjab Clinics.

Karam hi Dharam (action is duty)

ShivaS garu, with your inspiration I started donating to Shankara foundation, EKal and Akshyapatra. Now every occation in the family (B'days, M'day, Parents anniversaries) are occations to donate to these institutions. That is personal effort.

Next year I plan to make it a fund-raising effort - Offer matching donations to my friends and see the response...

The problem is that I believe in "Do but dont say/claim" vakyam and I don't know where the buck stops

[ShivaS]

Yes I agree Gupta danam is the greatest, but good should be propoagated. I am not here to boaqst but to just give a credential that I am not just preaching but doing it Udtah Bhakthi
Bantu reethi koluvu iya vaih Rama
st. Thyagarajar krithi

[arjunm]

Having just completed fund raising for Shankara Eye foundation (95% effort bySHQ) to the tune of 8,000 to 10,000 USD (with Pfizer matching contributions) for the Anand in Gujrat and Ludhiana Punjab Clinics.

People here dont move their butts and crticize the folks who are doing it, honestly have you donated a dime to this guys effort.

DO something then talk this is where the EJ and conversion people score

We just pout uvachas

Think like EME

Karam hi Dharam (action is duty)

I think many of us(NRI_ involved with different types of social programs in many Indian states. India is a country of million deficiencies.My interest is in literacy related programs. We organised cultural programs to collect funds for India literacy programs(ILP) in eradication of illiteracy. Recently about 600 homes of poor Hindus were burnt in West Bengal in Deganga, as a matter of fact not only we are collecting funds in various ethnic gatherings(Durga Puja) I will be there in December to filming and interviewing the victims to get a handle over on spot fact finding missions and to help to rebuild their modest homes. Also to make political statement to create awareness where main stream media blacked out the whole incident(it's a three day collective mayhem) under political pressure.(many videos that were taken by us have already put in this thread by myself). In India also many unsung hero those who are selflessly doing great jobs and create an indelible impact on the whole society's motivation. Many foreign funded NGOs are doing also with their agenda of exploitations.CNN's effort to high light such efforts are commendable except their special defamatory extra script that becoming as kosher with every India related programs, are deplorable.

It's like Danny Boyles's effort to create global awareness about the life of Dharavi slum dwellers.It is a commendable effort and a sure Oscar materials but only one may question like a young College girl asked during questionable missions of such films that what was the necessity of changing the original story line with visual of "pile of shit"to define extreme filth and poverty?

[joshvajohn]

Indian rich owners should think of investing an international media company or run their own. It is a major success after NDTV influencing the English espeaking audience in India. It will be a big profit and people would watch for its neutrality if Indians run a TV and Radio stations across the world. The Murdoch family runs a big industry in this regard but a bit biased. It is very essential India support such an attempt to establish an international English Television station that is both private as well as neutral and also objective. This will als help India to influence the public opionion in some Western countries in their favour and also to promote Indian cultural values at times to the world.

[joshvajohn]

India, US to sign aviation safety agreement
http://sify.com/finance/india-us-to-sig ... jjicf.html

Milestone 26/11 US suit points finger at Kayani
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101126/j ... 223986.jsp

[SwamyG]

Shiva garu: You must have my email address, can you email me?

[Victor]

Next WikiLeaks Release Could Embarrass US Allies

Friday, November 26, 2010
The US government has briefed allies about potentially embarrassing revelations in WikiLeaks' impending publication of classified memos, according to the Financial Times and other sources. The memos, which WikiLeaks calls the Embassy Files, are expected to appear on Wikileaks this weekend.

This one is expected to be 4 times bigger than the last one.