" The time for lighting candles at Wagah border has long since passed " - quips Veer Sanghvi in his latest article in the Hindustan Times. He argues that we now need to shun our 'friendly neighbour policy' towards Pakistan and embrace the military attitude of "hit back every time we are attacked".  Veer is correct from the Indian perspective - with the Taliban hovering on the borders of Islamabad - the Military and government have lost control of the country and we are soon going to deal with a loose group of multipolar infidels in our neighbourhood who neither understand nor heed 'international policy and neighbourly ties'.  However, looking beyond the limited view of India - Pakistan is a democratic experiment which the world cannot afford to fail.  In the multicultural word today, International politics is more like politics in a democracy - while the rich and powerful rule the roost, minorities and weaker sections also have their say. A majority

This is the last post in this 3-post series ; read the previous one . Sidenote: I argued in the previous post how urban slums arose as a result of "cultural pollution" by the imperial powers who attempted reengineering the socio-demographics of Indian cities and villages. I must clarify that I do not blame the continuance of these slums on imperialism - I am merely trying to identify the root causes in an attempt to better understand these phenomena and hence lead a way towards solving them.  Presented next is another example of how cultural pollution has created a problem for the modern world. Most political systems in the world which developed without any interference from outside developed through a natural cycle of tribal / feudal set ups to monarchial / semi-monarchial setups to parliamentary or councilor (community based) democratic systems. This is true of ancient democracies as well as modern. After the end of imperialism / colonialism, most of the world underwent dem

... continued from here . Taking India as the case in point - how did slums in Indian cities come about?  When the British marched into India they were unaware to the way villages functioned in India. This was because by the 18th century Industrialization had kicked in Britain and the city was the center of development - unlike India where villages played a big role in polity and economy - especially due to a strong self regulation and governance system.  In Britian due to the fast industrializing society, the city was where the seat of the kingdom lay and which controlled governing structures. In contrast, cities in India were mere 'centres of trade' meant to facilitate trade between the several villages which surrounded it. In absence of this understanding – the British  assumed  (mistakenly) that India lacked cities and so it lacked development. So what did they do – they killed the village’s internal economy by forcing cash crops like Indigo and Cotton which were completel

There is an episode in Star Treck [The Next Generation, Season 3, Episode Number 52 ] where a team of Federation sociologists are accidentally exposed to a primitive race (Mintakans). When an injured and unconscious Mintakan is taken aboard the Enterprise (star ship) for medical attention and is healed by the advanced medical methods on the starship. While coming to consciouness he catches a glimpse of Captain Picard, and so on his return to his people (as he narrates his story) Mintakans begin to perceive Captain Picard as a God. The episode makes a fascinating commentary on primitive sociology and acquired monotheism. But the more interesting part is Captain Picard's take on "Cultural Pollution". According to star trek’s lingo – cultural pollution refers to the effect a more developed society can have on a lesser developed one by not allowing the natural course of cultural evolution and exposing the lesser developed species to ‘development’ and ‘innovation’ out of their

Corporate India and Changing Face of Terrorism KPMG in India conducted a survey with over 60 companies in India, with the objective of assessing their level of preparedness in the wake of this emerging threat of terrorism. These organizations were from various sectors and the majority of them had an annual turnover of over USD 150 million. You can check out many other Thought Leadership publications by KPMG-India on our website http://in.kpmg.com/archives/archives.asp In case you need any other inputs or have feedback, feel free to leave a comment on my blog and I will get back to you. Download Report (946 KB) Privacy & Disclaimer © 2009 KPMG, an Indian Partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International, a Swiss cooperative. All rights reserved.

Link to Part I of this series    The character of an undivided India was a weak one - the leadership composed of Gandhi-Nehru-Jinnah took a decision to divide the country on religious lines [ 1 ][ 2 ][ 3 ]: On 3 June 1947, he (Lord Moutbatten) presented his plan [to partition India into India and Pakistan] to Nehru and Jinnah. They both accepted it. Gandhi, was fearful about partition but even more fearful of civil war. The AICC adopted the resolution in June, 1947. Nehru served on the Partition Council that finalized the separation of government institutions and provincial resources between the two new dominions. However, the leadership of Independent India composed of Nehru - Menon - Patel had a different character. When faced by a situation similar to partition because of reluctance of princely states to integrate their domains into independent India - the trio adopted a cunning, pragmatic yet bold and steadfast stance.  In July 1946, Nehru pointedly observed that no princely state

The world has just witnessed a celebration of sorts on Obama's swearing in as the 44th President of America. What needs to be seen is how fast Obama delivers on the promise that - " the chalenges will be met ". Whether the United States of America meets the current challenges is to be seen, but this nation has always shown a character of unity and resoluteness. One realizes this on comparing how this nation faced situations against similar situations faced by other nations. The point in case I take here is the situation of imminent partition .  In 1860s, the United States found itself divided into two halves on the issue of salvery. Just as president Abraham Lincoln was being sworn in as the 16th president - seven Deep South cotton states South Carolina, Mississippi,Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas announced secession from the US to form the  Confederate States of America . America had two choices to make at this point of time - allow America to be divided

An event happened with me a couple of days back which left me wondering about the levels to which value of human life has fallen in India.  I, Somnath and Anoop were returning from a walk at about 8.30 PM last Saturday. Two people passed us riding on a bike - but when we were right in front of Hiranandani Hosptial , the person riding pillion suddenly started falling down.  The other guy stopped the bike, some other passersby helped the pillion get down only to realise that he was undergoing an Epileptic Seizure . All passerby stopped and as usual started giving their suggestions - usko chamde ki chappal sunghao ... Pyaaz le ke aao (Give him a leather footwear to smell, find a onion). But no one was volunteering to even pick the poor guy lying on the road. We feeling a little responsible, decided that the best course was to seek professional help and since we were right in front of HN hospital - we went in and informed the staff on duty about the incident. We were expecting a stretcher

I have been restraining myself from making any blog post on the Mumbai Terror drama since the past 24 hours - but its gone on for too long now for me to keep it low ... First things first - I think its essential that our ministers take moral responsibility of what has happened. The two Home Ministers in specific - Shivraj Patil (India) and RR Patil (Maharashtra) should show some sense of morality by resigning. Why - you would ask .. well the lesser said about their performance and attitudes in such situations - the better. Next - all our intelligence and security agencies (including Defense forces, Coast Guard, and IB/RAW) must take it up on them to identify where their systems failed when these kids with guns were running their mock-sessions to take Mumbai under siege. Then - we must take some stern action against the organizations who have been involved. Laskhar, we know now operates out of Muzaffarabad in PoK - what is stopping us from taking a US-like approach and bombing their hid

Lot of analysis and discussions are going on across the internet and media about the current meltdown, the way out of it. Lots of conspiracy theories have popped up and quite a lot of economists have discussed opposing theories. Check out the two videos below for example: I personally believe there is too much simplification of the issue in most media discussions. What is happening is not a result of simple economic theories, nor the result of pure political manipulation at the international level.  There is too much of a mix of US domestic policies vs. US and Europe's international economic policies and India-China's sudden rise and emergence as global "cheap" goods and services destinations (and resulting loss of low value jobs in the developed economies).  Add the large scale immigration of Africans to Europe, Mexicans to US (Indian immigration to US is mostly skilled jobs and far too less in no to become a factor though), and thus the loss of low value jobs for na

The news of an Indian origin financial advisor committing suicide after killing his entire family hit the headlines within hours of the event. I wonder if it had been an Indian farmer instead of a financial advisor, whether the news would have taken the same position on the newspapers. However, the stark similarity in context of the suicide with that of the Indian farmers prodded me to think which one of them was worse - the Financial Advisor's or the Farmer's. The farmer in India lives on the bottom edge of the economic ladder, is uneducated and enjoys little socio-economic security. However, the financial advisor was an affluent citizen (having made a fortune of $1.2mn once), had a social security number and was well educated. His committing suicide indicates a complete failure of the much touted "social security" which the west claims to be its achievement. However, look at it from another perspective. The financial advisor works on estimates and projections of se

I wrote about an idea of a high-speed railway service for India which I christened द्रुतगामिनी Railroad . Indian Railways is now planning a small pilot in a similar direction - a bullet train connecting Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Pune [ HT reports ]. Inspired by China’s plans to develop the world’s fastest bullet train, the Indian Railways has taken the first step to construct high-speed corridors on the Pune. Mumbai-Ahmedabad route for bullet trains running at speeds between 300 km and 350 km per hour .. it could mean the 93-km Mumbal-Pune stretch could be done in 20 minutes. The fastest train on this route, Deccan Queen. presently takes 3 hours 15 minutes.  Similarly, 444 km between Miunbai and Ahmedabad could be travelled in 120 minutes. The fastest train on this route, Shatabdi Express, currently takes 6 hours 45 minutes. Even if it wasn't this blog post which sparked the fire, it makes me happy that the idea is going to be a reality. However, the only grouse is that the Indian rail

In my previous posts [ 1 ][ 2 ], I highlighted how intertwined energy business and politics (namely on oil) have become and how they are blocking the ushering of clean fuel technologies in the developed world. Shubham commented in response to Part II - ... the developing countries have the wherewithal to come up with alternate methods of energy. If something good and sustainable has to be found, it has to come from the developed world.... Since most of the cutting edge research in the world happens in the US, no progress has been made on finding alternate sources of energy in the recent past. The point he is making is exactly what I am refuting, that it is not merely about research any more ; the technology that is needed is already there (at least basic if not advanced) , the problems are more political in nature. Therefore, if say the Indian govt creates a legal and political ecosystem favourable for use of renewable energy, all the research which has been done (in India or abroad

Those of you who have grown up in the Hindi speaking states would have read Munshi Premchand ’s iconic story Panch Parmeshwar . Briefly it goes like this: Algu Chaudhary and Jumman Sheikh are two close friends in the village. One day a dispute between Jumman and his neighbours comes to be arbitrated by the village Panchayat , (village council cum judicial body) of which Algu Chaudhary is nominated as the Sarpanch (head). While everyone expects Algu to rule in favour of Jumman, with responsibility of being righteous upon him, Algu finds himself in tricky situation to see that Jumman actually is on the wrong side. Finally, Algu rules against Jumman leading to a major drift in their friendship. A few months later, Algu is similarly involved in a dispute. Realising that Jumman would be eager to take revenge, Algu’s adversary requests appointment of Jumman as the Sarpanch . However, as soon as Jumman assumes the post, he realizes the immense responsibility that the position comes with and

Continued from Part I The strategy of increasing domestic oil consumption worked well as the indigenous oil reserves were going well and sufficient reserves were secured in the middle east. But OPEC stepped in and soon after being formed, it caused havoc in 1970s with the oil embargo . Soon, a reverse trend was to set in - just as war had lead to increase in oil production, now oil was to lead to war. By the mid 1980s it was well clear that the encouragement of oil consumption had backfired on western governments and something had to be done to control the menace of increasing oil prices. Iraq presented a classic opportunity to the US in the early 90's by invading Kuwait and opening doors for a direct and legitimate intervention of the western politicians and regimes into the middle east. The war for oil has continued with stops and spurts thereafter well leading upto into the recent Iraq conflict. With more than a decade of war and 5 decades of politics behind it, governments in t

While travelling on the crowded Powai belt of the JVLR [ map ], a colleague exclaimed that it is surprising that rising fuel costs and pollution have not yet created enough concern for serious research and product development in the area of Alternative Fuels. This lead me to wonder as to why, just like an increase in fuel production in the mid 1900's cause an increase in automobile traffic worldwide, is an increase in fuel prices not causing a wave of alternative technologies? The reason, I think is - what it has always been - political will! Oil was discovered way back in the 9th century, however it did not find much use till the industrial age began. But even after the onset of the industrial age in the 17th century, coal remained the primary source of energy till the 1950s. And then suddenly, the consumption of oil started rising thereafter - why? Coal was a viable source of energy till it was used as a fuel for factories and other static energy consuming centers. However, earl

The Mobile revolution in India is no more a dream but a reality - the benefits of which we are already reaping everyday. « Image Source : blog.ThematicMapping.org India emerged as the hottest mobile market in the world during 2006 [ 1 ], overtaking China to claim the top spot by adding more than 73 million new mobile customers in 2006 [ 2 ], a 97 percent increase, to reach 149.5 million in total. But what makes Indian Mobile market more attractive is that it has the world's lowest service charges and huge future potential for further growth. Apart from the growth factor - Telecommunications industry is significant from another perspective to India. This is one industry where India is leading the pack in technology adoption. While we might not lead the pack in premium services (VAS etc) but in terms of ubiquity of connectivity and introduction of innovative services using this ubiquity is something India is actually ahead of even some developed nations. I personally have an exa

I wrote this post about an year ago, and it has remained a 'draft' since. Got round to completing it today - however, it can also be read as a continuation of posts I made a few days ago . I once travelled about 35 odd kilometres within Mumbai at a time. Started from Powai for Nerul via Ghatkopar-Mankhurd-Vashi and back to Powai via Kharghar-Aeroli-Mulund and then went to Vile Parle and came back. Click to see on Google Maps It was a good bike ride - the roads have improved - yet back breaking. During the bike ride, travelling through Mumbai, I somehow remembered my visit to Switzerland and started comparing cities in India to cities in Switzerland. Below is what I could theorize .... As per the wikipedia , "cities formed as central places of trade for the benefit of the members living [in them]". The keywords here are - 'trade' and 'benefit'. I think cities even today can be classified into those which are built with the intent of enhancing &

A constant debate in India is between public and private sectors - which is better for growth, which is better for social equity and which can propel the nation to the next orbit? Clearly, given the last decade and half's run that the economy has had, private sector has won the debate as far as Industry is concerned. However the debate still continues for public utility services like education and healthcare. Especially with such a large part of the population still to become literate and quality of education being under doubt (even for the private sector in some cases), the pendulum is still oscillating between private and public for the educational sector. While there are several arguments in favour of privatization of education and private education vouchers , the one's against it are not completely unfounded. I quote: The assumption of competition in turn assumes three things: a) that “school choice” is real, b) that it is not possible to cheat the system, and c) that in

In this Series: Part I , Part II Today whether you visit Mumbai or Dehradun the same scene awaits you – traffic bursting from the seams, lack of amenities, overcrowded public transport (whether it is the Mumbai local, the tempo in Dehradun or shared-rickshaw in Vadodara). Why has this happened? Clearly, we have never looked at our cities in a scientific and organized fashion, our cities emerged just like other countries, as centres of trade. However, cities which should have evolved gradually underwent destruction and a military set-up was imposed on them. Today are imposing a commercial infrastructure over the same military set-up creating a further confused landscape on one hand and choking the amenities and resources on the other. What can we do to solve these problems? I have few thoughts in mind: Macro level We should de-congest existing cities by shifting out industries from them to newer, better planned cities (for example the way industries were moved from Mumbai to