Pakistan's classic game - dupe, and get paid

Another day, another report of Pakistani mischief in Afghanistan. Now the NYT says Pakistanis helped the Americans pick up a Taliban leader to scuttle peace talks he had been having with Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai without the ISI's blessings. And the Americans, it seems, fell for it lock, stock and barrel.

At least that latter part is not surprising, considering the Americans have let themselves be fooled by the wily Pakistanis for decades now.

And then there is a report from Somalia that Indian and Pakistani jihadis were killed there. While the part about Indian jihadis should be shocking, that reference should be to Pak-trained Kashmiri terrorists.
What is surprising to me is how deeply involved Pakistan is into all this -- all across the globa -- and how the world is swallowing the explanations that the country's army and government have been forking up time and again to hide their roles.

The world has donated them millions of dollars and they get this in return.

Hmm, may be that should not surprise either. The United States has been doling out billions to Pakistan for years, and what do they get in return? WTC attacks, sanctuary for Taliban ...

It seems like there is no solution to the Pakistani problem but to nuke that country. That is a very extreme solution, I would agree. But extreme situations need extreme solutions. And Pakistan is quickly becoming an extreme situation for the global community -- a gangrene on the world body-politic.

The Obama administration is holding on, hoping that constant engagement would help them bring Pakistanis to march the marked path. I now think that is at best a dream. The Pakistanis won't end their deceit and guile for anything. And why should they -- the more they do it, the more the world is willing to bankroll them.

True, the Pakistani people deserve sympathy and help. But most of that help will be diverted by the jihadist elements in their society and government to harm the very people who extended that help -- if past record is any indication.

Every calamity, political or natural, is just another way for these Islamist terrorists to get money from the world to push their agenda. It is like biting the hand that feeds.

The question now seems to be how much longer the world community is willing to let the Pakistanis continue with their mischief. There is no answer to this. Religious and geo-political considerations would mean the Pakistanis always will have backers, from China to Iran to Jordan.

The only solution will come when the Israelis decide enough is enough.

My own gut feel is if Pakistan is taken off the map, much of the world's terrorism will end. Of course, the world will have to pay a price. But that would be much better than allowing the Pakistanis to destroy world civilization itself.

IndiaPay to swipe Visa, MasterCard out of India!

Have you ever wondered how much money you contribute to the U.S. economy when you use your credit or debit cards? Visa and MasterCard have been minting money from India, thanks to the soaring use of plastic among Indians.

And now, the Economic Times reports that the Reserve Bank of India is working to dam some of those flows and keep some of that money inside India -- with IndiaPay, a state-backed payment platform.

China, as always, and Malaysia have already put in place such platforms.

Once IndiaPay goes on stream, a India's banks can pay a lot less as charges for such plastic transactions.

This is definitely good news; in a free-trade world the flow of money should come both ways.
And as with outsourcing, you can now expect the West to cry 'Wolf' over this too. Because, for them free trade is trade that benefits the West.

Another Arab invasion pushes into Indian subcontinent

Here is a candid look at the forces shaping the Pakistani political and cultural landscape -- came across it in livemint.com through a friend's Facebook post - Losing Faith in Pakistan

It is all the more insightful as it is written by someone with Pakistani roots.
Yes, the writer has hit the na0il on the head. Pakistan's problem is not just hate for India.

It is fast succumbing to a second wave of the intolerant and rigid of Islam is trying to push into the subcontinent from the Arabian deserts.
The hate that the Punjabi ruling elite in Pakistan has been injecting into the populace there has served as nourishment to the proponents of this version of Islam.

And it is no secret that petro-dollars have been flowing into India, too, into the hands of radical Islamists.

And Indian politicians have, in their quest to preserve vote banks, been helping these zealots in one way or another.

The British conquest of India put an end to radical Hindu forces that were expanding to fill the void left by the decline of Islamic rule in India.

But if India's democratic rulers cannot rise to the occasion and crack down on zealots of all hues, soon we will be seeing history, and bloodshed, repeating itself -- with radical Hindus rising to challenge radical Islam.

Both are bad -- for the country and for the syncretic culture that India has been famous for.

How to cut India's fiscal deficit? Stop paying taxes!

When the government got an unexpected pay check in the form of 3G and broadband auction payments it seemed like the fiscal deficit monster was finally on the way to be slayed.

But it seems our politicians never learn -- in any case why blame them; there is absolutely no pressure on them to perform or to stop the plundering of national resources.

Govt to gobble up 3G cash; wants Rs 50,000 cr more -- said rediff.com

So the more taxes we pay, the more we will be told every year that India is deep in fiscal deficit. While daylight robbery in various forms -- from the Commonwealth Games contracts to the iron ore mining in Bellary -- goes on unhindered.

Democracy was supposed to bring accountability to rulers. Here we see them exploiting differences in the ruled community to plunder away.

Is there no recourse for tax-paying citizens? Yes, just stop paying your taxes.

Demand that the government stop paying lazy and corrupt bureaucrats.

Well, it may sound like a steep ask, but it is not.

If the tax payers finally come together and demand accountability no government can hold out for long. It is time to do that instead of forking up cash every time a bunch of unscrupulous and effete politicians ask us to pay up.

Why are we still not showing the Brits their place?

Cameron flew ‘blind’ over Delhi?

Here is yet another instance of the British media trying to trash India. It is as if their prime minister was put to grave peril because a flight control system failed at the Delhi airport. The Brits really need to get out of their colonial hangover. It is as if such systems do not fail in their country -- just think of the SeaKing helicopters they sold the Indian Navy and were grounded almost immediately because almost every system in that chopper started to fail.
After being daylight robbers for centuries, and then having spawned the world with many of the geo-political conflicts in the world in their attempt to keep their superiority despite losing their empire, the Brits still think of themselves as the saviors of the world.

Such a puny country that has lived on the blood and sweat and food of billions of people, being allowed to continue with their gratuitous meddling in the world's affairs is beyond my understanding.

But then, they have been past masters of the divide-and-rule policy!

India's IT sector starting to roar again? Maybe not

So India's vaunted IT/ITES sector is on the roll again, media reports indicate. Q1 Earnings: TCS, Infy, HCL emerge as showstoppers - screamed an ET.com headline today. But is it all that rosy a picture? Is the IT sector about to regain the glory it lost once the downturn hit in 2008?

Rents in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, are still depressed. And it is rather easy to find vacant houses for rent in Indiranagar and HAL II stage, in the heart of the city -- unlike in 2008.

IT hiring is up, stats indicate -- but my talks with friends say those hirings are for freshers.

Salary hikes are not what they used to be; foreign assignments have dwindled.

Mid-level professionals are disenchanted; many feel under-utilized. Media going to town about India emerging as a global IT research powerhouse, professionals I spoke to felt they were still doing the repetitive tasks of a backroom operation than real, cutting-edge research.

My own gut-feel is the IT sector will never be what it used to be. It would sure be a job engine -- but that would be for entry level people; there will not be much that the sector can offer in terms of promotions or pay.

So why is India not banning the BlackBerry?

UAE, Saudi set to ban BlackBerry services
The Associated Press reports that both UAE and Saudi Arabia are set to ban BlackBerry messaging services. Research in Motion, the Canadian maker of the popular communications device used by business and corporate users worldwide had been in talks with UAE authorities from 2007 over the issue, the report said.

The Gulf states' concerns are similar to what Indian authorities have been raising over the last couple of years -- the encrypted messages that zip between BlackBerrys cannot be intercepted, and that terrorists could make use of the devices and the network to plan attacks.
Why the Indian authorities chose to remain quiet after raising a hue and cry is a mystery. Contrast that to how the two Gulf states have wielded their power to deliver a strong no-nonsense message to the Canadian company.

While there would never be an end to the debate on whether it is right to ban the service or not, what I loathe about the Indian authorities is their apparent surrender to the arrogance of the foreign company.

Many of these western companies still think India is a banana republic and they can get away with what they want to do; think of how Canada denied visas to Indian security officials recently.

These companies still are living in a time warp and would like to believe they are the master of the world.

Whether India would end up banning the BlackBerry or not, we need to send companies like RIM a strong message -- that we will tolerate no nonsense when it comes to national security.