INS Arihant - India's nuclear powered submarine ..

Not only is India making its presence felt in air and land preparedness, starting the sea trials of its first nuclear powered submarine makes everyone sit and take notice of this power from Asia.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8169360.stm

A responsible power with no aggressive designs, is how the economist  PM, Dr Manmohan Singh has clarified Indian position. It will take roughly 2 - 3 years for the submarine to be inducted in the navy.

With this superb master stroke, India has squeezed itself into a global league of nations set to dominate the world in the coming century. With democracy alive and kicking, Indian technological development will reflect as global development on which the world can rejoice.

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George Easaw 

High tide brings huge waves into Mumbai ..

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George Easaw

Two dawns in North India ..

The solar corona, one of the many unexplained wonders of the Universe, in majestic view at Varanasi, UP at 6.30 AM IST on 22 July 2009. The day that saw two dawns in most parts of North India.

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George Easaw 

Sri Ram Sene playing truant ..

With the Karnataka police revealing reluctantly that it was the Sri Ram Sene, which threw pig caracas at a Muslim Madrasa in Mysore which led to communal clashes in Mysore and the death of innocent citizens, the ploy of these anti national elements in disturbing the peace in society, is getting clearer day by day.

Let us hope the leaders of these communities understand the threat it poses to the growth and development of the country, in this crucial phase in its march to development and world leadership.

--

George Easaw 

Rising with the tide !!

By JOHN LEE From today's Wall Street Journal Asia.
 
 China and India will likely defy the economic malaise in Western
 economies and grow at more than 7% this year. But that is where the
 comparison should end. Contrary to popular hype, India is actually
 outpacing China where it counts most -- the economic growth of the
 rural poor.
 
 Half of China's population and two-thirds of India's still live in
 rural areas -- roughly 700 million people in each country, most of
 whom remain poor. In China, the urban-rural income ratio has become
 increasingly disparate; it was 1.8 times more in the mid-1980s, 2.4 in
 the mid-1990s, 2.9 in 2001 and now around 3.5.
 
 This trend starkly contrasts with the early years of Chinese economic
 reform. Over 80% of the poverty reduction in China occurred during
 Deng Xiaoping's reforms, between 1978 and 1988. Although per-capita
 incomes have risen since then, the net incomes of about 400 million
 people have declined over the past decade.
 
 India started from a lower economic base but has made greater gains:
 Its urban-rural income gap has slowly but steadily declined since the
 early 1990s. Over the past decade, economic growth in rural India has
 outpaced growth in urban areas by almost 40%. Rural India now accounts
 for half of the country's GDP, up from 46% in 1993. Unlike the
 Chinese, rural Indians do not have to migrate to already crowded urban
 areas to earn a better living.
 
 These trends mirror the path of economic reform in both nations. China
 had a huge head start in alleviating poverty. It began free-market
 reforms in 1978, while India only started on its current journey away
 from socialism toward a market-based system in the early 1990s. Since
 the turn of the century, India has been rapidly improving, but China
 has been getting worse. And since 2000, poverty and illiteracy in
 India have halved, while the same figures doubled in China.
 
 The role of domestic consumption in the economy also demonstrates the
 divergent paths of these two developing giants. In China, domestic
 consumption as a proportion of GDP has fallen to 35% from around 60%
 in the 1980s. The Chinese "economic miracle" depends mostly on exports
 and state-led fixed investment. Even Beijing consistently admits this
 is an unbalanced, unsustainable strategy. Moreover, depressed
 consumption levels and correspondingly high levels of savings by the
 citizens of a still-poor country mean growth is uneven and benefits
 relatively few. In contrast, domestic consumption composes more than
 two-thirds of the Indian economy. India has a lot of catching up to
 do, but its poor are rising with the tide, unlike in China.
 
 China's emphasis on state-led fixed-investment growth in urban areas
 may have fostered this trend, exacerbating inequality and heavily
 favoring a relatively small number of well-placed insiders. After the
 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Beijing decided the state should
 reassert its control of economic growth, which had rested on
 private-sector entrepreneurship. Before Tiananmen, private-sector
 investment growth in rural China was growing at 20% annually. After
 Tiananmen, it dropped to 7%. Hundreds of millions of Chinese have
 since missed out on the fruits of the country's spectacular growth.
 
 The Chinese and Indian development models are not actually in
 competition, despite what newspaper headlines and books may suggest.
 But as magnificent as Shanghai now is, its shiny buildings have been
 built on the backs of peasants forced to deposit their savings into
 state-owned banks and receiving little in return. In contrast, India
 started its reforms 15 years later than China but is quietly and
 gradually building its base. Now that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is
 starting his second term, he will do well to reject the dangerous
 appeal of the Chinese approach.
 
 Mr. Lee is a foreign-policy fellow at the Centre for Independent
 Studies in Sydney, a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute in
 Washington. (CIS, 2008).

perhaps the most popular MJ video on youtube, 35 million views ..

Beat it !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqxo1SKB0z8&feature=related

Since I am not such a big fan of MJ, can somebody tell me is there any better video, popular than this ?

ge..

It does'nt matter if you're black or white .. MJ

It does'nt matter if its black or white .. MJ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI9OYMRwN1Q

ge..

Heal the world by Michael Jackson

One of the best songs of Michael Jackson for the world .. Heal the World .. His voice is soft, touching and melodious ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W61Q-EZ8R7M&feature=fvst

ge..

Open admission by Zardari of US complicity in the Af-Pak region ..

What a way to own up responsibility ?? President Zardari of Pakistan has finally shown the courage the accept that terrorism and extremism were supported by the Pakistani state as a deliberate, sytemic ploy to achieve tactical goals ...

We need to understand what these tactical goals are ..

The US pressure to show India in bad light during the seventies and eighties, as we maintained a close rapport with USSR than US, had forced the Pak authorities who were under US patronage and funding, to turn their guns and intelligence agencies against India to cause maximum damage. To realise later that such a policy has not paid off and would do more damage to US and Pakistan than anybody else took some time. Democracy has such relief valves whereby policies of one administration are completely overturned by the succeeding one and re-introduced by the following one !!.

The realisation that India is a world power in the reckoning, set to achieve super power status, has forced US and its allies in Pakistan to understand that such tactics of guerilla, proxy warfare would not payoff, but cause more damage to Pakistan than anybody else. Such open admissions of guilt and "mea culpa" by Pakistan reinforces Indian stand throughout of a defensive policy than an offensive policy with regard to its small, fragile and terribly vulnerable neighbour Pakistan. Our patience has been tested time and again by the Pak leaders and their supporters from US.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Editorial/EDIT-Plain-Speaking/articleshow/4754295.cms

This admission of guilt by Pakistan President, should make the US bow its head in shame as US has been a major power broker in this region during the seventies n eighties, propping up the Taliban and extremism in Pakistan as a state sponsored policy to face the Soviet threat.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Zardari-US-to-be-blamed-for-Talibanization-of-Af-Pak-region/articleshow/4754863.cms

Openly holding the US responsible for Talibanisation of the Af-Pak regions and growth of Al-Qaeda will indeed cause lot of heartburn in the US and self-introspection as to its diminishing influence in the region. 

After all, everyday is not a Sunday !! And one day, every nation will reap the consequencces of its actions, good or bad, abetting or partnering in crime..  How fast one realises it is the only question remaining unanswered !

George Easaw ....

Millions are starving .. Notice in XIME mess hall..

not only millions but some more were starving last year ...

ge.

The most touching moment of the farewell service for MJ ..

The most touching moments of the farewell service for Micheal Jackson at Staples Centre, LA on 7 July, 2009. (courtesy Reuters..)

Paris Catherine Jackson, MJ's daughter bids farewell to her father and is being consoled by her famous aunt Janet Jackson and uncle Marlon Jackson. 

Sad that MJ to keep off his debtors, finally drugged himself to death !!

george ..

Will Varun Gandhi get public sympathy this time ??

Isi'nt it natural for people who live in fear of being penalised by the legal system for their utterances against the unity and integrity of the country, to come out with reports that they are being targetted by the underworld criminals? All this to gain official apathy and divert public attention ..?

Varun Gandhi who made utterances against the minority Muslim community, in the garb of getting votes as a candidate of the communal BJP from Pilibhit, won the seat on communal grounds and BJP has still not disowned him. This makes it easy for the electorate to read between the lines..

The only trick up Varun's sleeve is to pick up the news that he is being targeted by criminals and seek VIP security. In fact all the senior politicians who want to be shielded from the electorate, legal system and the law enforcing agency, have been provided tight security by the govt. In India about 55,000 policemen are being used to provide security to VIPs and VVIPs on the tax payer's money !!

With Maneka Gandhi too joining the fray, with a mom's affection for her son's security, both BJP MPs, and accusing the government of being lackadaisical in its approach to take care of her son, the issue gets interesting .. Maybe for her it is only her intellectually challenged son that matters most, not the thousands who would have got killed by his irresponsible and communal enraging utterances, with an ever supporting party ready to wash its hands off when the situation gets out of hand ..

ge..

Valuable lessons from history ..

With the severe drubbing the communalists in India, aka RSS/BJP got in the elections, they are lying low, only to hit back with greater vengeance and venom against all secular forces, who gave them this severe beating !! 

The RSS/BJP got severe reprimands from the Lieberhan Commission, probing the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, indicted its leaders for wreaking havoc on the rich Indian culture and legacy.  Indian culture is multi-religious, not dominating and and tolerant, that is what makes it richer and richer .. There is no scope for a majoritarian agenda there..

That is why after the momentary blips in the timeline of history, indicating the rise and fall of the western civilization, world interest is focusing back to India and the Oriental East.. (it may be too early to write off the western civilization of splurge, materialism  and individualism) 

The ability of the Indian comity to silence disruptive communal forces, looking for momentary gains and benefits, is phenomenal. Will the common man be ever able to see through the divisive tendencies of the communalists who do not believe in unity and integrity of the country and keep them out ?

The infinite wisdom of the common man is beyond any comprehension !!

george..