(Click on photo to enlarge) Self-sufficiency became the mantra after the British rule ended in 1947. When the use of American hybrid seeds in the 1960s spawned a “green revolution” of more fecund farms, food security became the hallmark of sovereign India, says a report in The International Herald Tribune. “Now all that appears to be over. “This year, the country imported wheat for the first time since 2000. And then this week, traders worldwide bid up wheat prices after a...

So even if we forget Iraq for a while, it is the same old story of bad management/intention that can be seen repeated in Afghanistan. Terrorism and Opium/drugs feed on each other and have a corrosive impact on the ground action/policies of high and mighty in the world, who get sucked into the vortex of corruption and easy money. So the nexus between terrorism and drugs leads to self-perpetuating business dealings at the highest international levels, including the USA. Hence, there develops a vested...

India’s leading environmental NGO – Centre for Science and Environment had alleged that the amount of pesticides in colas was dangerously above the acceptable mark (see link below), as compared with colas sold in Europe and the USA. In turn, the Pepsi and the Coke launched a high-powered campaign in the Indian media to counter this charge. But the woes of the Cola giants do not seem to be ending. The CEOs of Coke and Pepsi could have sleepless nights if the momentum picks up after...

My earlier post talks about the serious reservations expressed by the Pentagon and members of the Congress about the Iraq war. Even the recent public opinion polls are showing that a majority of people oppose this war, says The Christian Science Monitor. “A series of polls taken over the last few weeks of August show that support for the war in Iraq among Americans is at an all-time low. “Almost two-thirds of Americans in each of three major polls say that they oppose the war, the highest...

If this is not another moment of crisis in American history then what would be. Here is the fighting/intelligence arm of the American nation virtually informing the lawmakers of the USA the futility of continuing the war in Iraq. Yet another report from the Associated Press highlights the failure of the U.S.-backed strategy to fight Afghanistan’s massive drug trade. The Pentagon – the nerve centre of the United States Department of Defense charged with coordinating and supervising all...

If this is not another moment of crisis in American history then what would be. Here is the fighting/intelligence arm of the American nation virtually informing the lawmakers of the USA the futility of continuing the war in Iraq. Yet another report from the Associated Press highlights the failure of the U.S.-backed strategy to fight Afghanistan’s massive drug trade. The Pentagon – the nerve centre of the United States Department of Defense charged with coordinating and supervising all...

(click on photo to enlarge) Water crisis in Australia? Yes, this news took me by surprise, especially as I am preparing for my Christmas vacation there. I wouldn’t have taken the story seriously but for the fact that it comes from a staid British magazine, The Economist. “The world’s driest inhabited continent, Australia is facing water shortages unprecedented in the two centuries since Europeans settled it. There is a long-running drought in the country’s east, the main farming...

UN chief Kofi Annan Thursday heads for talks in Syria, a key supporter of Hezbollah, whose stance will be critical to the success of the tenuous ceasefire between the Shiite Muslim movement and Israel, says the Middle East Times. “After failing Wednesday to convince Israel to quickly end its blockade of war-devastated Lebanon, Annan faces in Syria a regime that has taken a hard line against the UN resolution that led to the end of the month-long conflict. “Israel, the United States,...

Learn Arabic for peace! A veteran Israeli military officer is giving this advise to fellow Israelis as the Jewish nation grapples with pressures to make peace with the Arab world post-Lebanon, says DNA World – India’s prestigious daily from Mumbai. Avi Azrieli says in the International Herald Tribune that one problem Israel faces is very few Israelis speak Arabic even though it is one of the country’s two officials languages alongside Hebrew. The former Israel Defence Force officer...

In the Western mind when the word Arab seems to have become synonymous with ‘terrorism’, it is interesting to read such fullsome tributes to an Arab writer. ‘Egypt’s National Treasure’, writes Lev Grossman in Time magazine paying tribute to Egyptian novelist, Naguib Mahfouz, who died Wednesday at 94. “Mahfouz was considered the eminent literary voice of the Arab world — a title that was as much a burden as it was an honor.” “When the Swedish...

Wow! This is a royal treat and good news. At a time when Classics are just disappearing from students’ mindscape, Google is making available thousands of great old books free to read and download. “Just in time for the start of a new school year,” says The Boston Globe. “For now, the Google Book Search service offers full downloads only of ‘public domain’ books, whose copyrights have expired. These include many of the most famous titles of all time, such as the...

What if the dinosaurs had survived? Or Hitler won in 1945? Or the aeroplane had been invented 1,000 years earlier? Would there even be life on earth if the moon had failed to form? Science fiction writer Stephen Baxter takes an interesting look at the possibilities in The Independent.

So says The Washington Post. “After decades on the sidelines, U.S. defense contractors are eyeing India’s growing military budget and aging arsenal as a multibillion-dollar opportunity that could help offset a projected slowdown in Pentagon weapons spending and extend production lines for such items as the F-16 fighter. “India has been effectively closed to U.S. defense firms since the 1960s, initially because of its ties with the Soviet Union, and later under formal sanctions...

There was a time, and even now, many so-called educated people blamed India’s huge population for everything that went wrong in the country. That seems to be changing now. Take for example Thursday’s story ‘The Next Industrial Giant Is…India?’ in the New York Times. “India’s economic advancement no longer rests on telephone call centers and computer programmers. “A prime reason India is now developing into the world’s next big industrial power...

Deadly floods in India’s desert state of Rajasthan have turned a part of this land of sand dunes into a virtual “sea”. This doomsday futuristic scenario, a la Nostradamus predictions, unfolded in India’s Thar desert with at least 138 persons dying as river waters swirl around sand dunes and people watch bewildered from their rooftops. The Munnabao-Khokrapar rail link between India and Pakistan has also been suspended as flood waters have washed away parts of the track. A...

“Domestic wineries are gearing up to put China’s name on the map of wine culture, helped by experts from home and abroad. So get ready for a chardonnay from Huadong, a cabernet from Changyu or a dragon’s seal from Beijing. Or how about a smooth cabernet sauvignon from Xinjiang? “The vines are weighed down with grapes and the local wines are sweetish but surprisingly tasty, and the dry desert soil around Turpan produces serviceable cabernet sauvignon and riesling grapes.” So...

(click on photo to enlarge) The Hindustan Times, India’s leading newspaper, comments editorially under the heading ‘Pakistan vs Pakistan’: “The needless death of 79-year-old Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti is a multiple tragedy – for his family, Balochistan and Pakistan. While the aged leader died as he would have undoubtedly wished – a warrior at the head of his tribe – the manner of his death speaks volumes of the values with which Pakistan is governed. “India,...

Will President Musharraf invite the “wrath of the bees” after killing Sardar Akbar Bugti, a powerful rebel leader of Balochistan province of Pakistan on the highly sensitive border of Iran and Afghanistan? Some say that it is a matter of time before the “bees” settle down. But others fear that this killing could further destabilise Pakistan. “A general strike called by the Baloch Alliance to condemn the killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti crippled life in Balochistan...

“THE WAR on Terror and windfalls from rising oil prices have helped to push American military sales to foreign governments to their highest level since the first Gulf War,” says David Robertson in The Times of London. Pakistan is among the largest spenders on U.S. arms, The Times adds. “An investigation by The Times has found that the US Congress was notified of sales worth $12.9 billion (£6.8 billion) in July — the largest monthly total since the beginning of the Bush...

This is a different kind of war that has been raging for the past three years in India and refuses to end. Last week Coca Cola and Pepsi came under a renewed and fierce attack in different States in federal India. “Pesticides in sodas rekindle Indian ire,” says Scott Baldauf, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor. “Coke and Pepsi face bans and government takes heat following a study last week. “After investing more than $1 billion in India over the past decade, Coca-Cola...

(click on photo to enlarge) In his article ‘How China’s secret deals are fuelling war’, Stephen Pollard, a senior Fellow at the Centre for the New Europe, Brussels, says the “STORY behind the story in the Middle East today is the proxy war, as Israel, on behalf of the US, takes on Hezbollah, which fights on behalf of Iran and Syria. “Indeed, one can widen it further and describe the participants as proxies for the West versus militant Islam. “This analysis of...

Illegal phone tapping is such a nuisance but is a reality in most of the countries. One is by the State…and now by the news hounds. Three men have been arrested on suspicion of intercepting telephone calls at the official residence of Britain’s Prince Charles, London police said on Tuesday. The royal correspondent for The News of the World is among the three suspects, the paper said. The alleged phone tapping may have compromised the security of members of the royal family and other...

I haven’t yet heard of any peace march or demonstration in any part of this Planet Earth despite the ongoing cold-blooded killings of children and women in Israel and Lebanon (or for that matter in Afghanistan and Iraq). Have people in all the countries become totally “insensitive”? Is this what economic liberalization and globalization all about? The naked dance for economic advantage/prosperity…and in the process forgetting any human values/concerns. Will the new slogan...

(photo courtesy Richard Ambler) Brij Khindaria’s perceptive pieces in the TMV have prompted me to undertake a nostalgic trip. Incidentally, I have also read a lot of other comments about the complex Israel versus “they” conflict, its genesis and the future scenario. Some insights were very useful in understanding what is happening now. I will not like to go back too far into history, but just narrate from my own experience. The year was 1976 (exactly 30 years ago) when I got an...

“Most Likely Future Sponsor of Hezbollah is Baghdad’s Shiite Tyranny of the Majority,” says The Washington Note quoting former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and former Asst. Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Chas Freeman. “The most interesting item I came across tonight on the Middle East crisis came by way of an email from Ambassador Chas Freeman. “Freeman provides a fascinating look at the ‘game behind the game’ –and rather...