By not putting in place mechanisms to ensure there is punishment for sinning, India is creating the right environment for 'moral hazard'.
'It is not the individuals, but the system of propaganda and inducement of hatred that is to blame. And that suits the Pakistani establishment just fine: It sustains their failing State.'
The iPad might allow Apple to disrupt the publishing industry, as it has done with music and telecom already, says Rajeev Srinivasan.
Three issues should be dominating media coverage in India: China's imperial ambitions, Pakistan's increasing closeness to the US and its crucial role in Afghanistan and the Naxal insurgency, not the IPL controversies, writes Rajeev Srinivasan
Rajeev Srinivasan considers the legacy of the man who popularised strategic intent and the Bottom of the Pyramid.
There is a ritualised quality with the negotiations conducted by the Indian government; and this may be fitting in the context of many other things done in India, where one goes through the motions.
Ever since President Obama unveiled his timetable for an American pull-out, the Taliban and the Al Qaeda have gone from strength to strength -- they are winning the psychological war.
This was a crucial year for India. Its economy is doing fairly well, but it continues to suffer from a non-existent long-term agenda. The latter may well result in India seizing defeat from the jaws of victory: Despite the 'demographic dividend', the lack of a compelling 'idea of India' may well cause it to flounder aimlessly, if not disintegrate into a million pointless mutinies. Events in 2009 would have sown the seeds of either success or failure.
Rajeev Srinivasan samples the fare at the 14th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala 2009 underway in Thiruvanathapuram.
'The two parties that will benefit the most from the American debacle in Afghanistan are India's sworn enemies: China and Pakistan,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
'A nation that has no long-term strategic intent, and whose leaders can be easily manipulated through flattery, is a banana republic. Unlike China, which intends to rule the world, India, which can only imagine itself as a second-rate power, will remain one.'
'Indian civilisation has thrived for millennia because of the element of Dharma in society, however strong the demons are.'
The LTTE certainly did not expect to fade into oblivion, their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran a fugitive. A couple of years ago, the Tigers were rampant, scoring victories on land and sea, and terrorising Colombo with their makeshift air force. What turned things around? Probably much covert aid from governments, including India's, wary of the Tigers' propensity for redrawing boundaries by force
After sixty years of Congress misrule, India has most of the world's poor people, and some of the worst health and nutrition indicators, even worse than much poorer sub-Saharan Africa. This is truly a crime and a national shame.
The ISI has achieved their desired strategic depth by creating a Pushtunistan across Af-Pak that they control. The US and India can now look forward to more 9/11s and 26/11s.
The global recession is beginning to seriously hurt international migration, and many migrants are forced to go home again.
'I am suspicious of the Democratic Party in the US; two, that I fear that Obama is all style and no substance; and three, that I believe his war-cry of 'change!' is no more than election rhetoric, because there is no way anybody is going to turn the battleship that is America except very, very slowly.'
What is the solution to problems like this? It is probably not more intrusive government regulation. Despite the noises being made in America blaming all finance-sector problems on a lax regulatory environment, it is not clear that more paperwork is the answer.
I would say it was unwise, but not necessarily wicked. I suggest that Satyam was ill-served by its M&A investment bankers and lawyers regarding the public-relations backlash such a move would cause
The very future of the Indian State, suddenly, is in question. And it is mostly from self-inflicted, avoidable wounds. The failure of leadership is causing India to cease to exist.
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