Friday, November 30, 2012

Chapter I, Minority Report

Banning Hindraf is akin to killing human rights in Malaysia

Wars and segregations in name of religion have put a question mark on the very existence of humanity and social values. Human rights find no place in the new setup and are severely butchered even in democracies. The hollow democratic setup in Malaysia is the latest addition.

The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), which comprises of 30 Hindu NGOs in Malaysia and gives voice to two million plus ethnic Indians, majority being Tamil Hindus, was banned by the government on grounds that it is a threat to Malaysia’s internal security and peace under the country’s draconian Internal Security Act. Home Minister, Syed Hamid Albar clarified the stand by saying, “Hindraf is clearly using religion as a tool to create disharmony between religions and between races..." This clearly means that the voice of the minority Indians in Malaysia is being gagged and being further pushed into socio-economic disparity to curb the interests of dominating Malays community.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

WAR DOCTRINE: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The twentieth century saw the development of some of the most gruesome war doctrines. Yet, ironically, a few even contributed to save the world... like the MAD doctrine, or Mutually Assured Destruction!

But the US had/has dwarfed perhaps both of them with their ‘Shock and Awe’ strategy with the annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan eventually conceded defeat. With time, names changed but the resonance of the doctrines of Blitzkrieg, Kamikaze and ‘shock and awe’ still make their presence felt every now and then. With the dropping of the two atom bombs on August 6 and August 9, 1945, by the B-29 Superfortress bombers, the superiority of the Air force in warfare was established. It brought in the new concept as to how a war can be won and an invincible enemy can be brought down on its knees from a height of 40,000 feet without even putting a foot on the ground just as the Germans had baptised the indispensability of the submarine, which had almost won the war for the Germans. Wish Napoleon had the same luck.

The end of the Second World War was also the beginning of the biggest polarisation that the world had ever seen. The Berlin Wall put the final stamp on the clear demarcation between the Western Capitalist Bloc and the Eastern Soviet Bloc and it was the green signal of the beginning of a 40 year long Cold War. This era saw a flurry of activities in literally carrying forward the legacy of Second World War [without actually fighting the real war] and perhaps bettering it. At times, with the world remaining with the constant fear of an impending war, many felt that it would perhaps do a whole lot of good to fight it out once and for all. But that did not happen. What happened, instead, was the constant upgradation of weapon systems and their delivery mechanism. So while B-29 bombers gave way to the colossal B-52 [powered by eight engines] and TU-142 type long range bombers and later TU-160, [which could travel half the earth, bomb a place and then comfortably come back] in response came the era of interceptor aircraft, the foremost and the pioneer among them being the ubiquitous and the ever versatile Soviet made Mig- 21. In fact, since the end of the Second World War, two of the biggest revolutions in warfare have been pioneered by the Russians. If one of them is the Mig-21, which forced the Americans to think of stealth, dogfights and supersonic bombers, the invention of the AK-47 by Mikhail Kalashnikov changed the very paradigm of the foot soldier. Probably no other fighter aircraft or assault rifle has been made in so many variants by so many countries as has been in the case of Mig-21 & AK-47. The whole era of Cold War is imbibed with several instances of Soviet Tu-142 being intercepted and escorted out of the Western territory by US or British interceptors like the F-102 Delta, F-106, F-14, or Tornado.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

EU: RECESSION FEARS

It's the policies... obsolete, superfluous & unpractical policies

The main reason, according to Dr. Nick Bloom, Associate Professor, LSE is that “Europe has worse management and organisational practices, which mean it is very inflexible.” Much of this inflexibility is the result of lack of clarity between the EU (as a central entity) and member nations on policies. Take the labour market for instance. Countries like France have not yet benefited from labour market regulation and with their stringent internal policies, the day is still far. High oil prices are eating into the earnings of people and the lopsided monetary policy of European Central Bank (ECB) is killing whatever economic sentiment is left, thus maintaining a constant level of unemployment and constantly lower levels of growth. Records show that EU has built assets which have under performed. The biggest being the Euro. The growth rates haven’t changed much pre and post Euro. Putting all the blame on the Lisbon agenda is like blaming the thermometer when one has the flu. A recent survey done by New York Times shows that people are unhappy with the way EU is handling the economy. Problems are more internal than external and need to be addressed soon enough.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Monday, November 26, 2012

Bad times be damned!

Interest rate hike and mounting inflation has put the brakes on the speeding auto financing industry in the country. Bad times be damned!

 India is undergoing unprecedented change and auto financing is no exception. Earlier 80-85% of auto financing was undertaken by the banks and financial institutions, but with rising interest rates and higher disposable income, more people are opting for an outright purchase using their savings. This seems to be logical to some extent as auto loans are costlier today by 2-2.5% since the beginning of the year. This implies that an auto loan of Rs.5 lakhs for a three year period will get expensive by a further Rs.10,000. And as lenders still account for 70% of auto financing, a rise in interest rates, which subsequently implies a hike in EMI instalments further aggravates the problem, thus leaving the buyer confused! “The high interest rate is very negative for the auto industry,” asserts S. Ramnath, Analyst, SSKI to B&E. However interestingly even in such a scenario there is some good news. As for auto loans (for new car) fall, an increase in sales of second hand cars is bound to happen.

However, auto financiers are on their toes to increase their profit margins. While, a few have shut their financing operations, others are now approaching customers directly instead of routing through intermediaries. Certainly, the economic activity (the high interest rate & burgeoning inflation) has had a knock-down effect and unless these are resolved, the predicament will continue to haunt the auto industry. Screech... Heard those giant brakes?!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Friday, November 23, 2012

Why religion will always be trafficked religiously!

The nature of the beast is clearly hypocritical, given the way the State ‘deals’ with ‘secularism’

A casual walk near my house in Delhi the other day triggered memories of a dilemma I had faced as a youngster long ago in 1986. I saw a bunch of people sticking posters on walls. Curious, I went up to read the words and was shocked into nostalgia. The posters talked about the Amarnath Yatra and how Hindus were being denied the right to worship in their own homeland. The posters exhorted Hindus to rise to save their religion. More shocking, I actually saw fellow citizens read the posters and nod in tacit agreement. Way back in 1986, I would frequently encounter fiery young people who were out to save Hinduism. In those days, it was the great ‘Shah Bano’ betrayal that prompted the self appointed guardians of Hinduism to proclaim that Hindus had become second class citizens in their own country.

Both then, and now, angry ‘Hindu’ activists are accusing the State of adopting a policy regime that is partial towards one religion and discriminates against the other. In 1986, the Indian Parliament passed a Bill that basically overturned a Supreme Court verdict that granted alimony to Muslim women. Most sober analysts trace the rise of the BJP and that even of the extremist fringe outfits like VHP and Bajrang Dal to that one day of infamy in Parliament. In 2008, the Jammu & Kashmir government initially allotted forest land for the construction of temporary shelters for Amarnath pilgrims. In the face of massive protests in the Valley, the allotment has been withdrawn. And now, VHP activists are claiming that once again, Hindu rights are being trampled upon.

Any Indian with common sense would know that the charge hurled by VHP activists – of pampering Muslims at the cost of Hindus – is utter hogwash. Be it government jobs, access to health and education, employment opportunities and what not, Muslims have a lot to be angry with policy makers in the country.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Thursday, November 22, 2012

What Russia wants

From Gorbachev to Yeltsin to Putin, every new Russian president has drastically altered his country’s relationship with the world. How will President Dmitry Medvedev change it again? Here are the clues that reveal what the Kremlin is thinking, and, more importantly, what it really wants.

This much we know: In the two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has transformed itself from a one-party state into a one-pipeline state – a semi-authoritarian regime in democratic clothing. At the same time, Russia has grown increasingly independent and unpredictable on the international political scene. And now that Vladimir Putin has successfully installed his handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, is nowhere near relinquishing his grip on power. Putin’s foreign policy is here to stay.

But there’s so much we can’t know about the direction Russia is heading. It is, at once, a regime that offers its citizens consumer rights but not political freedoms, state sovereignty but not individual autonomy, a market economy but not genuine democracy. It is both a rising global power and a weak state with corrupt and inefficient institutions. The Kremlin’s regime seems both rock solid and extremely vulnerable, simultaneously authoritarian and wildly popular. Although Russia’s economy has performed well in the past 10 years, it is more dependent on the production and export of natural resources today than it was during Soviet times. Its foreign policy is no less puzzling. Russia may be more democratic today, but it is less predictable and reliable as a world player than was the Soviet Union. The more capitalist and Westernised Russia becomes, the more anti-Western its policies seem. The more successful Russia’s foreign policy looks, the more unclear its goals appear.

Russia’s contradictory development has succeeded once again in capturing the world’s political imagination. Putin’s tenure has left most people confused about what role Russia now wants to play in the world. In recent years, for example, Moscow has orchestrated a noisy and confrontational return to the international scene. It decided not to cooperate with the West in taming Iran’s nuclear ambitions or in settling the final status of Kosovo. Last year, the Kremlin unilaterally suspended the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. It blocked the work of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Gazprom, Russia’s gas monopoly, aggressively tries to control the energy supply throughout the region. The country’s military budget has increased six fold since 2000. Russian planes are patrolling the Atlantic. Moscow’s intelligence network is creeping into all corners of Europe. Not since the hottest days of the Cold War have so many wondered just what was going on behind the Kremlin’s closed doors.
 

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Obama had a dream last night

Barack Obama has won the battle. Will he also be able to win the war?

Will Senator Barack Obama achieve what Martin Luther King dreamt of? Downing Hillary Clinton in America's mother of presidential battles, Obama has inspired Americans like few other Presidential hopefuls have, and is being put in the same league as the great Lincoln and Jefferson. His speeches, sharp, fresh, eloquent – and most importantly honest – have remarkably struck a deep chord in even sections that were earlier prone to partisan passions. After two disastrous Bush terms that saw America's popularity plummet to a record low, Obama's triumph is seen by all as the one thing this great country needs to stay together. With an economic slowdown besetting it along with so much else, the Americans and all those whom its well being impacts, now feel they have the man who can pull the country out of the current quagmire. Yet, all agree that Obama's choice of running mate will be crucial in the long haul. Texas-based analyst, Mike McIlvain, told B&E: "Obama will need strong support to help carry some areas, but former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war McCain has hurt himself by embracing Bush programmes and policies rather than be his own man. There is still a lot of hard work to be done by anyone involved in presidential politics between now and election day in November."

Being his own man has been the cause of Obama's super delegate winning spree, with delegate after delegate embracing his once obscure candidature.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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