Current Indian actions versus Pakistan

Any action of nation should be aligned to its strategic objectives.

The type of surgical strikes we heard of is not entirely new. It have been done in the past albeit on smaller scales but no side has talked about it. e.g. BAT attacks were the heads were cut from the body of Indians and ofcourse the obvious counter actions.

This time it is different in its scale and public declaration. Along with its dialog on Indus water water treaty GoI is following a 2 pronged strategy.

1) Showing Pakistan its dependance on India by mentioning about river waters. It should be noted Even in the ambit of IWT India can wreak havoc on Pakistan without firing single bullet e.g. lahore is on river Ravi on which India has unrestricted right of use. Imagine big canal through rajasthan and Gujarat using water from Ravi and Sutlej. It can add lakhs of acres  land to Indian agriculture in lieu of signigicant if not similar amount of land getting wasted in Pakistan. Lahore itself may cease to grow though it may survive as there is a network of canal in Pakistan.

2. By declaring the surgical strike it has sent a signal that India can cross LoC at will. It is a big political statement.

It is always risky to send the troops in enemy territory, when the same could have been done without much risk with guided missile artillary and drones. But now the message is lot more stronger.

Now there shall be retaliation from Pakistan but its has taken the confrontation to next level as the cost for Pakistan has significantly increased
A. Strategic and economic loss in water wars
B. Compare to send sending unemployed youth across Loc  in name of Jehad (too cheap) increasing profesional vigil and carrying out war is too costly. As per one speech of our NSA total cost of maintaining jehadis was one unit (around 600 professional men). Now compare it with deploying. 60000 additional men on Border on vigil and support duties. If not 100 times cost will increase by at least 20 times.

In comparision to it India can reap benefits of additional water. About the cost of war it will also increase but instead waiting passively in defense its is actively engaging enemy and is keeping it guessing.   (India cost of defence are already high as it has been in defensive mode since last 3 decades)

War will be destructive for both nations, but our enemy is not peaceful 2 initial wars 1948 and 1965 were initiated by it and also the 1998 Kargil war.

Thanks for reading.

A rightist take on jeweller Strike in India

Yesterday I read in the news that blogger strike has entered 21st day. The jewellers went to strike on 16-Mar-2012 to protest against the increased in 2% import duty of Gold (2 to 4 percent) and introduction of 1% excise duty on Gold jewellery. It will amount to around 3 % increase in the final items then why such huge uproar? What does Indian government want to achieve?

India imports were more than 700 tonnes of Gold each year. The immediate impact would be to hike the price of jewellery in India to as much as three to four percent. It may not seem much but it will result in eliminating

• Competitive advantage of unbranded jewellers
• Demand to an extant as the a large portion of buyer thinks it as an investment. Now as the resale value drops the profit on this will recede.

Many of the analyst are predicting 33% decrease in gold demand. This will decrease current account deficit by 12.5 billion dollar and increase revenue by 100 million dollars. This is a bird eye view but devils are in detail. From the point of industry it will wipe at least 33% of industry and will further result in the larger portion of the artisans becoming unemployed. It may also result in the negative effect on the revenue generated by income tax.This hike may have the potential to wipe the unbranded jewellery industry in India, but why would government want this to happen (on the premise my observation are correct). The possible reason to this may be

1. GOI actions are idiot as usual and they never foresee this happening thinking too much of easy option to decrease deficit
2. GOI actions are greedy as usual (under the influence of lobby(read bribery) of branded jewellery outlets) or leading to an action of extorting bribe from unbranded jewellers.
3. Combination of the above two points i.e they are greedy and and also want to reduce deficit and let an industry be doomed so what.

Unscruplous Insurance practices: Reliance as an example

My wife was coming to london and I decided to purchase insurance for her. I went to the website of reliance fill in the relevant details and pushed the button to purchase. Webpage went to ask the payment option of which I chose the netbanking. The money was debited from my account and then instead of policy I was presented with an error page.

These were the ordinary events that takes place in the world of online purchases. Especially when I had purchased the railway tickets this is a very common incident. What follows afterwards was much strange. I make an ISD call to the the company support centre who politely ask me to email and then after a polite response to look into the matter nothing else happens.

So nearly three thousand ruppees are swindled from an unsuspecting customer. This inspires me to dwell more into the business of insurance and the practices followed around it. I shall be reguraly posting on the insurance practices followed in India and the issues around it to make the customer more informed.

Poem: Quagmire

In a quagmire I am wondering,
Wind is rough clouds thundering
Its just my nature to forget,
All nature gifts, talents I get .
I am a miser sometime; sometimes spendthrift
Sometimes I construct the bridges sometimes - rift,
On moments I blame others for my downfall
At other I am down trodden lacking control.
There are times when I have lied.
Looking back why am I surprised?
The material things I have run after
but even the sprituality has been a desire.
It seems a never ending Puzzle
Optionless to experience the drizzle.

Poem of love and inspiration

This is the original poem I wrote:

Someone said that "best friend is book"
I dont debate it
but know one should keep +ive outlook

Someone said that "Youth comes just ones"
I have seen it
therefore be bold, be righteous and have fun

Someone said that "fortune favor brave"
I know without wit
it can be foolishness leading to grave

Someone said that "Do what your heart say"
Who am I to contest
so this one I created for your birthday

Someone said that "Love is Devine"
I achieved Nirvana
how does it matter if you are not mine.

I then changed it for it seemed unfit for reciting to your loved one ;), here is another version.

Someone said that "best friend is book"
I dont debate it
but know one should keep +ive outlook

Someone said that "Youth comes just ones"
I have seen it
therefore be bold, be righteous and have fun

Someone said that "fortune favor brave"
I know without wit
it can be foolishness leading to grave

Someone said that "Do what your heart say"
Who am I to contest
so this one I created for your birthday

Someone said that "Love all, trust few"
I believe in it
thats why I changed orginal added new

What is our censor board/ lawmakers doing?

Roadies 5.0 an MTV serial in India started in Rajasthan and displayed some interesting as well as shameful tasks. It is a classic example where fight for TRP has led to producers stooping to very low levels. The roadies were divided into two groups. In one of the tasks the boys were asked to stand on a platform and the girls have to answer some questions. For every right answer from a team all the boys in opposite team received a hit on their genitals. For every wrong answer the girls from other team chose a boy from the answering team to receive the punishment. Public display of such things should be banned. These acts come under the obnoxious/sadist activities of using genitals for punishing the people.

When I started on this article I was in a great dilemma। Dilemma stemmed from the fact that the very act of writing an article of this nature makes the serial controversial attracting eyelids which in turn have a very positive effect on its TRP, but then turning a blind eye to these issues will also encourage heinous act in future. Here I ask a simple question, is act of hitting on the genital of boys is for public viewing? If yes, then I expect in that in the next task it would be the turn of girls. The other question that comes into mind is, where the buck stops? Is it stops on the gender? Does it stops on the objects used to hit genitals? or is the act of hitting genitals is fine as long as they are covered?

In India normal people don't watch porn with family. It is a show which every age group can watch and is shown at prime time. In these shows such scenes should have been censored. In fact they should not be the part of game at all. The concept of roadies has been altered; roadies were about strong will power, attitude and balanced behaviour but what is now depicted is masala. As I have already pointed out controversies help the media therefore the action against such acts are needed to be very strict e.g. a very heavy fine should be imposed on those responsible, the unit responsible should be barred from normal duties of production for at least five years. The history is the witness that the strict rules on costume malfunctioning eliminated those things from happening, similar actions are necessary in these regards.