Institutions and Systems

India has the youngest population in the whole world. And this would be the case even in the next decade and two is the consensus among experts. It leads many to be gung ho, saying that India and Indians will be the world’s leading economy, making India a super power through the simple reason of its population.

Yes, I admit that it reason to be joyous over. But we need to look at the other side of the coin as well. The reason(s) is that it is simple; India does not have adequate systems to tackle the next 2-3 decades.

Support Systems for Old:

The population that is young now is going to age, meaning they can no longer be able to earn a living. Sure their kids and other millions of kids will have grown by then and will start earning. But, my point is that given the increases in the life expectancy, there will be a huge number of old people. We do not have any systems to support this old population. Yeah, that is 20 years in the future; let’s think about that later is the answer you would get. The problem being that systems cannot be setup in a jiffy, they take time. And in a country like India, it’s my belief that this will take at least 10-15 years if not more.

Systems for old age care have to improve by leaps and bounds in India. Currently, putting your parents in a old age home in India is equivalent to abandoning a child in say a coal mine in winter. This mentality has to be changed. Professional old age homes have to set up, to take care of the large number of people.

Look at Japan, there have a huge old population and they have yet to come to grips with that completely. They have started employing robots to help the elderly and the immobile. We need, to start working with makers of these robots. These have to tested in Indian conditions, the cultural barriers have to be broken. This will take time.

What is going to happen, when India will be youngest nation in the world has also to be addressed. Who will generate the income to sustain the population and the country has to be looked into. These are issues of economics and would require forward planning for the next 40-50 years. This is an exercise that the government has to carry out, so that we are not caught off-guard one day like a deer in a car’s headlights.

Educational Systems:

So much is being talked about the educational system in India that whatever I add will be like a drop in the ocean.  The talk has rightly shifted from academics to inclusion of sports and making education available to everyone.

I would like to add only one point. In academics, teach the children knowledge. In sports, teach them about playing as a team, coordinating with others, ethics or fairness in how one plays the game. Let not this wave of inclusion of games in education just be about how many marks are allocated based on their performance in sports.

And the other thing about the 25% quota is a good move. It will make the students interact with each other and know the different sides of life and not be hidden away from the realities of life.

Research Institutes:

Indians are quire smart in sciences and mathematics is what you keep hearing. You also hear that the number of research papers published from India, the number of patents filled for is nothing compared to that from the US or China. Admittedly, there are quite a few Indian authors behind those papers and patents from US.

Then why is there a dearth of papers from Indians in India? The answer is that institutions that have world class facilities are very few in India. The amount of money spent as part of GDP is so low that the really good ones leave for greener pastures and others simply don’t get into research.

SO, what happens is most of people who are interested in doing research look at the paucity of available opportunities and look at other employment opportunities. The pay that is paid to most of researchers in the available institutions is quite low and not many qualified people want these jobs.

Look at the collaborations map of scientific papers published across the world. The brighter and more connections mean more collaboration. India is sadly in not a bright spot. It is less bright than parts of South America.

The map was put together by Olivier H. Beauchesne of Science-Metrix.

http://olihb.com/2011/01/23/map-of-scientific-collaboration-between-researchers/

What does this all mean? This means that we need to set time to plan and build institutions in terms of education, research, and support systems for old age and many other more. These have to start one at a time. Building an institution is going to take a long time and cannot be achieved in a few short years. It makes take for all that I know 15-20 years.

Improving India’s Energy Situation

Transmission lines:

This has been something that I have thought about a lot of times, but never gave words to. And recently, given the power situation, my mind keeps coming back to this. Namely, why don’t the large number of Indian power companies that generate and more importantly transmit the power to the millions of customer use HVDC and UHVDC transmission lines.

Currently, 132/220/400kV AC transmission lines are used for the transmission of current across large distances. This should change as AC transmission at high voltage is not efficient. So, why is AC transmission being used? The problem was that the technology needed to handle high DC current did not exist or was too prohibitive for deployment across the country like India. Also, AC current has the advantages when transmitting over short distances. Also, all home appliances operate on AC current, meaning that the current reaching the plug point has to be in AC form.

That hurdle has been crossed and in India itself, many HVDC lines have come up.  The notable among them are:

•   In 1990, the 1000 mw Rihand - Dadri line was commissioned in UP.
•  The 2000 mw Talcher - Kolar link, the biggest so far and spans four states: Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka which was commissioned on feb 14th, 2003.
•  A contract to build the highest ever and the world's first, multi-terminal UHVDC transmission line operating at 800 kilovolts (kV) having a converter capacity of 8,000 megawatts (MW) between Agra and Hydroelectric project in North-East has been awarded to ABB in Dec, 2011

This now has to be expanded to all the long distance transmission lines. Yes, the cost of the such an exercise is huge, but think long term. The cumulative saving over say a 15-20 years would be huge and this is only a one time investment.

Another advantage would be that DC lines cannot be illegally tapped. The reason again, being that the technology to tap into a DC line is huge. So, no illegal tapping of the lines.

In fact, the current can be transmitted in DC till the Sub-Division transformers. This would mean a huge reduction in the transmission losses and no illegal tapping of current. Both, of these would mean that the deficit in current faced across the country can be reduced.

Smart Grid:

The idea of a smart grid is very old. It has been implemented in countries like US for electricity and plans are on foot to actually integrate all public utility systems. (More about this in the next blog, if I write one.)

 The thing about Indian electricity system is that even though there is a National Power corporation, we don’t have a national grid. Each state has its own grid. Sure, the grids are connected but they are not integrated. Just look at the example given above. Power for Agra is going to be transmitted all the way from the NE states. Just imagine the amount of wastage (even in UHVDC transmission).

The point I mean to make here is that a national grid has to be setup, administered by the central federal government. All the power generated would be pooled into the grid. The power would be distributed from the grid. This would make the system more efficient. Besides, electricity can be efficiently transmitted between places where there is surplus generation to places having deficiency in power supply.

Plus, it would be easy to divert electricity away from lines where there is a disruption in the grid and route it through some other way to the place where the current is needed.

China has built the world’s largest battery, we could look into purchasing the technology and making use of it to store surplus current, if and when we produce it. The Boom box, which can store energy can be also made used in large numbers to store energy when there is difference in real time between production and demand of current.

Smart Box

Thomas L. Friedman made a beautiful suggestion in his books “The World is Flat” and “The World is Hot, Flat and Crowded”, in both he talks about how electricity can be saved by people.

For example, he cites Germany, where Solar power is generated as a community exercise. The power so generated is used by the communities. If there is any excess power, it is sold to the power grid for a profit.

Also, he called for setting up of what he called “Smart Boxes” in each house. The smart box switches off appliances when not in use. The “Smart Box” will also store energy during off-peak hours (when electricity rates are lower; some countries have a slab system where off-peak consumption and peak-consumption are billed at different rates.). Also, since the smart boxes have to be connected to the grid, the electricity board can effectively enforce “power holidays” and load shedding times. The smart boxes would have to built in such a way that it cannot be hacked by unauthorized people.

As stated above, the idea of billing current at different rates for off-peak and peak periods of demands must be looked in for implementing in India.

Alternate Energy:

India should also start looking at expanding the production of electricity from solar (The process of creating the solar cells causes quite a bit of pollution.) and wind energy. It should also look at generating current from Wave energy. Given the huge expanse of the Indian coastline, the amount of energy produced would be huge.

Energy can also be produced from algae, though the technology has not reached the level where large scale production is economic. 

Other sources are using waste (except nuclear waste) to produce electricity. In fact, this source has got a been given fresh life since high intensity lasers and plasma technology have come in. 

Smart Buildings:

Another suggestion is the use of solar cell, embedded glass panes as has been done in a few buildings in India.

The concept of smart buildings has to be explored. The windows can be controlled to allow as much light and heat as required. Thus reducing the current used for lighting and cooling (or heating) the building.

All, the suggestion above involve investments in both technology and in setting up of infrastructure.  This would obviously cost a lot of money. There are hidden benefits here. Such a scale of investment would encourage entrepreneurs in India to start companies that look into the technology aspects. It would get students interested in science (Not just scoring but the know-how).

The argument against this plan would be that given the corruption and the income disparity, this is going to only help the rich and powerful. The only answer, I can give is that there are systems in place and new systems are being put in place to tackle corruption.  The investment in energy is going to benefit all classes of people.

I say let’s take a leap and see where it lands instead of dragging our feet slowly. 

Of course, all these will be helpful only and humans should start reducing their energy consumption. 

Ron Paul - The Unsung Hero

What can I say about Ron Paul that has not been said before? Well, for those of you who are still reading my blog, here’s a low down on the man.

Ron Paul is a Republican Congressman from Texas, USA. He is has been a Congressman for 12 terms. He is an air force veteran, where he is served as medic. He is an obstetrician-gynecologist who has delivered more than 4000 babies. He is currently running for the President of the United States, a third time.

The thing that makes Mr. Paul stand out is that he is not a politician but rather a Statesman. He is not so much concerned about becoming the president but about putting his ideas in the middle of the discourse.  And, what those ideas are!!! I will deal with those ideas in a few minutes. But, let me address the slanders that have been raised against him first.

The slander that is raised most often is that Mr. Paul is a racist, due to some articles that were published in a newsletter that he ran in the mid 80’s. The fact, as has been proven so many times is that Mr. Paul did not write those articles. In fact, Mr. Paul name though on the letterhead of the newsletter, did very little control over what was published as he was busy with his practice at that time. Yet, he has repeatedly accepted the responsibility though at no fault.

In fact, nothing is further from the fact than the statement that Mr. Paul is a racist. Mr. Paul is the only one who has talked about how the War on Drugs has largely failed and negatively affected the blacks, Hispanics more than any other communities.

Let’s look at some of Mr. Paul’s ideas now.

The first one is that USA must stop being the policeman of the world, close down the bases it has around the world, and stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. That US should stop waging wars in other countries. He’s gone on record saying that these wars are actually making US more unsafe and losing friends. That US should rather try and develop friendly relationships with all countries including Iran. He has said that if he becomes the president that he would immediately recall all troops from all combat zones.

Now, one would think that such views would be unpopular with the US armed forces. But, it is a fact that Mr. Paul gets about 50% of all donations made by active personnel in the US armed forces. All the other presidential hopeful combined together (including Obama) makes up the rest 50%. In fact, on the 20^th Feb, a group of veterans took out a march in Washington D.C in support of Mr. Paul shouting “President Paul” all through the march.

Mr. Paul is again the only politician running for the presidential elections who has denounced both SOPA and PIPA publically. He has repeatedly denounced the Patriot Act and called for it to be annulled both publically and in the US Congress.

Ron Paul is a steadfast believer in the Gold Standard. The idea is that currently all the central banks of each country have the power to print as much money as they would like, without having any backing. This causes inflation. The US followed the Gold Standard till the 70’s and then abandoned it. If US would go back to the Gold Standard it would mean that central banks cannot print money as they want and would have to show backing for all currency, which would mean that fiscal responsibility would increase and things like the 2008 global economy crash will not happen as the players cannot create money out thin air through financial hocus pocus.

The most important thing that draws people to Mr. Paul is his consistency. He has not ever once flip flopped any position of his. This can be shown by the fact that he is the congressman who voted against creating a Martin Luther King Jr day, even though Martin Luther King is a hero of Mr. Ron Paul. The reason he voted against is that he believes it is not the role of the government to create holidays.

He is a strict Constitutionalist, which means that in so many cases even when all other Congressmen and women voted one way he has voted the other way just because the motion was against the constitution.

He is the one of the very few congressmen or women who have consistently returned to the Treasury department, the funds that were left over from the budget allocated to their office. In fact, Ron Paul has on an average returned almost 100,000 USD every year over the past 10 years to the Treasury.

He is also against taxes. He does not believe that the government should take people’s money. SO, much so that he has not signed to get pensions from the Congress after he retires (The pension amount is considerable, in millions.). He also voted against awarding Rosa Parks a congressional medal (Rosa Parks is another hero of Mr. Paul), because the money for the medal is form the taxes. Instead, he moved a motion to give her a medal by pooling personal contributions from the members of the Congress. The motion was defeated.

Mr. Paul also believes in the freedom of speech and has spoken out in favor of Julian Assange, saying that he should not be prosecuted but rather thanked for bring into public light the dealings that happen in the dark.

But the thing that hurts me the most is that mainstream media has largely ignored him, called him cranky, laughed at him, and discredits him. Well, I am going to place some links below. Watch them and come to your own conclusions.

US Troops Support Ron Paul March: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yewKCcFSvQ&feature=player_embedded#!

Ron Paul on Wikileaks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM20w0jHH8A&feature=BFp&list=FLtkYK1qWJ4rqKzq4J5KRm_A

Ron Predicting the 2008 crash in 2003: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KONpt9a6HrI&feature=BFp&list=FLtkYK1qWJ4rqKzq4J5KRm_A

Ron Paul- What If Speech:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s_IUwwGq-A&feature=BFp&list=FLtkYK1qWJ4rqKzq4J5KRm_A

Hilary Clinton on Ron Paul:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK1qGDQZpBI

People running on the street cheering Ron Paul:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151193984565215

Btw,  a fact that I would like to point out is that Ron Paul at 76 years of age is the most popular among the youngsters in US. And, they are among his most enthusiastic supporters.

How I wish that we had more people like Ron Paul and not in the US but in every country of the world. Becuase, then we can truly start building the foundation of an peaceful world.

Masochistic-Sadism

This is a question that I have wondered about for a long long time now and of recently it seems to me that the answer to that question is growing more and more important. It is as if, the very answer to the question itself will avert some great disaster that is to befall on all of humanity.

So, you would wonder what that question is? The question is simple: “Is there any purpose at all to life? If there is? What is it? And if there is none, then why does humanity exist at all?

Let’s take the case that there is a purpose to life. What could it be? Surely it could not be “Earth+Plastic”, as the great George Carlin claimed it to be? Is nature trying out an experiment with us? See what happens when it lets loose complex life forms and allows them to evolve in what way the life forms take?

As you can probably tell, I am more inclined to the answer that life has no purpose whatsoever. That it is due to a combination of various factors like Earth being in the Goldilocks Zone, the values of the various constants like Boltzmann’s being what they are lead to the evolution of single cell life forms that mutated to form us Humans billions of years later.

Then why is that humans have created such a complex social structures that seems intended on getting more and more complex. Most of humanity faces difficulties to attain a standard of life that it wants to maintain. Yet, once one reaches a standard of life, he/she doesn’t rest there but continues to struggle to get a better standard of life…the cycle is endless.

Think about the Hunter-Gathers who were our ancestors had a more simpler and easier life. Sure, the life expectancy was low; there were more physical dangers and no Internet!! But, their lives in many ways were easier, they didn’t have to involve in complex financial chicanery to stay at the same social status given the inflation levels.

There are people out there who actually like what they are doing. But what percentage of humanity do they represent? A small insignificant number and mostly I am inclined to say would contain people of fields such a research, arts and fields were the people are allowed, expected to use ingenuity.

But the vast majority of humans by the needs of the keeping the economy running and thereby providing for themselves are forced to do non-ingenuous work, work that is mundane and terribly boring. 

It has always been my belief that Humans are Hedonistic beings, I mean seriously, have you met any human who wouldn’t like to relax without any worries. Sure, there are workaholics, I am not denying that, but explanation will incorporate this detail.

I am going to go out on a limb and claim that humanity has some degree of “masochistic-sadism” that is embedded into our genes. I am not using the term “sadomasochism”  but “masochistic-sadism” because while the former is used to primarily refer to sexual acts the latter term(my own creation) I think refers to what I am trying to convey better.

Of course, I think I’ll leave it to psychologist to come up with a proper term, but I would be honored if they use the term that u have coined here. (Me be honored? More like I’ll have anyone who comes up with an alternate term decapitated. That should be incentive enough, don’t you think?)

The reason why I have chosen to use the term “masochistic-sadism” is because the behavior is primarily aimed at causing pain to others rather to oneself. It is just as an after effect that one is affected. The extent being of such a magnitude that it causes a pleasure response in the human brain.

This explains why hedonistic creatures like us subject ourselves into creating a complex structure that serves no purpose other than to keep us doing something that gives us no pleasure. I would like to clarify here that I am not referring to individuals alone here but also to groups (of people). In fact, humanity as a whole, as a single entity would be the first under this category.

The logical question anybody is going to ask me is there any empirical evidence that you can place before us, one that can be independently verified. I am going to say look around you. What more evidence do you need than what is happening right around you.  You all have in all probability been seeing it everywhere but not observing it. (There is a lot of difference between seeing and observing.)

The solution to this type of behavior? The obvious that most would think about is to locate the gene that causes the “masochistic-sadism” and have it removed from every human’s DNA. But, I assure you this would only lead to many other problems, for humans have not progressed to the stage and never may when they can predict exactly what the aftereffects of removal of a particular gene may cause. This of course is assuming that the behavior is caused by a single gene and not due to interplay of many genes. This of course depends on whether humans will be able to locate the gene(s) that affect behavior.

If it were possible to point out that this gene affects precisely this attribute to such an extent,  then I would have designed for myself a new body and transferred my consciousness into the new body (Of course, my most loyal followers to will be given new bodies…bodies that might last significantly longer than the human body that I currently reside in.) More on this later my dear subjects.

Instead, my solution is simpler…destroy humanity….ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (Evil laughter).  Or at least cull the human species.  There is a reason why I am saying what I am saying. (What is it exactly that I am saying??) I think the “masochistic-sadism” behavior is due to the over population that we have. The current total resources available to humanity are not enough to sustain the current human population. And I am sure the situation will continue to persist for quite a long time, unless someone ( like me) takes decisive action to correct it. At one go, we are serve many purposes. We remove the scourge of earth and all living creatures -humans. We also get rid of the “masochistic-sadism” problem that is facing humans.

The above paragraph was of course to quench my megalomania. But here’s the answer, there is no solution. There are only options that we can try. One would be to consciously try to simply things. Like teaching our children that growing or becoming powerful are not the only thing in life and more importantly following that in our own lives.

Hopefully, over many many generations this behavior, may be even couple of centuries (If the human species survives that long, and I don’t think it will last that long.) would become strong enough to override the “masochistic-sadism” tendency.

Of course, one may ask what was the purpose of the long winded article above that does not even have a proper ending. But, isn’t the question what if there is a purpose to the drivel? An unnoticed (hopefully) purpose that will show itself quite later upon careful introspection.

The Fourth Estate – Sold??

Yes, people I think that the Fourth estate is for sale or most likely has already been bought off by the people who have the money.

When there are so many other issues like Naxal problem, J& K problem, the rising inflation, food grains rotting in godowns, the perennial corruption, and so forth. The news item that really has caught the imagination of most of the new channels is that of the Spot-fixing done by some Pakistani players.

Over the last few weeks the Indian News Media at least the so called News Channels have been covering the Spot-Fixing scandal like it is the most important news item that everyone should know about. They have run expose video & audio taken by News of the World reporters again & again so much so that I am sure many people who have by-hearted it by now.

The fact that these News people are missing is that, a common Indian doesn’t really care it. Sure, the people would have cared if it had been done by an Indian but we are least interested if it was, is being done by a non-Indian player.

 Somehow, the fact that many Indian athletes who were to participate or were probable for the Common Wealth Games have failed the doping test is not big news. In fact, this is supposed to be the all-time record for the number of athletes caught doping for a host country.

Just imagine, how it would be, if in most of the events the host countries athletes are banned from participating because of drugs use? And, here we are worried about Pakistani players involved in spot-fixing.

Here’s a quick statistics:

I went to the Times Now website and did search for “doping + CWG”, I got 9 hits.  Do a search for “spot-fixing” and I got 10 hits. I did a search for “sopt-fixing” and guess what? I got a total of 66 hits, most of them relevant to the on-going row.

Okay, one may argue that since corruption scandal hit the CWG and given the fact that India was never anyways gonna be a contender to win the most medals in the games, people were least interested in the doping scandal.

What about the Rotting Food Grains in the godowns of the FCI? That is an important issue given the price rise, right? I did a search for “food grains” and “rotting food grains”. Yes I did get many hits, but almost 95% of the hits had nothing to do with this issue. In fact, most of the hits for the “food grains” were about the cooking shows that are broadcast on the channel.

And the biggest of all is that most of the News Channels and the print media have kept silent about the Paid News scandal. In fact, if any other group had anything like this these news channels and print media would have been hounding away about the scandal for 24 hours for at least 4 months.

But when they themselves were caught, with their hands in the cookie jar, these institutions have decided to act as if the whole thing never even happened.

I did a search for “paid news” on the times now website, I did not get even one relevant hit. That just about sums it all up for you.

Here, I have to note that The Hindu has been publishing many articles about the paid news phenomenon and so has Outlook magazine on its blog. However, these two institutions have not gone public with the report, though outlook has provided a link on its blog.

Imagine, being able to control what news you want to see published or broadcast. The power of propaganda is so powerful that any news can be twisted to suit your needs.

Here are some links for you to look at:

Paid News You Can't Read About

 A blog on the paid news scandal with extracts from the report.

http://blogs.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?ddm=10&pid=2290&eid=5

Who Voted How?

Details of who on the PCI council voted for the report to be made public and who did not.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266559

'Paid News': The Buried Report

The full report of the PCI subcommittee, which has been buried by the publishers.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266542

Final Report on Paid News

The final report created by PCI that does not have the sub-committee’s report.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35436980/Final-Report-on-Paid-News

The above links clearly show that the Fourth Estate - at least a major share of it is up for grabs.now, who grabs that up is something we can never be sure of.

What needs to be done is that the News Publications involved in the paid news should be investigated and all thsoe involved should be banned for life from participating in any other media institution. Legal action taken should also be initiated against the institutions. 

The PCI's functioning must change, eminent members of the public should be invited on board. The PCI given more powers to act against erring members.

The Fourth Estate should act as the soul of a nation, if it is corrupted then the nation itself will become corrupted. This will lead to a rot from the inside and we can forget about India being a Superpower by 2050 let alone 2020. 

India's Foreign Policy - My Views

I have always been interested in how a country comes up with its foreign policy. More so with how India’s foreign policy is formulated because I am citizen of this country.

But the current trends of  India’s foreign policy, I must say does not look as if it was being formulated by people in touch with the present day reality.

Here’s what I think that India should do about its foreign policy.


Russia:
Consider the relationship between India and Russia. We have a bilateral trade of just $8 billion and that too with a country that has stood with us in thick and thin of our history. The rules on travel and trade between the countries read more like restrictions than guidelines.

How many people know that the BrahMos missile system that we Indians feel so proudly about is actually based on an existing Russian missile system called the Oniks? (The propulsion system is based on the Oniks.)

Though agreed that we have had disagreements on the price for the Aircraft Carrier, considering the past history, this should be treated as a one off event.

Russia has and is building some many civil nuclear plants in India for India and yet the GOI doesn’t take more steps to have closer ties Russia. Also, take into fact that Central Asia and Siberia have huge energy deposits and given India’s growing energy needs one would think India would make all the efforts to get closer to Russia.


China:
China is the fastest growing economy in the world. It will soon become a world power, if it already isn’t so. Given that China has never commented about other countries and that it has recently started to do so shows China’s growing self confidence.

China has also started modernizing its army, something that India can learn from.

Yet, the view is of India and China as enemies. In ancient times, these were two cultures that were mpost friendly to each other, why it cannot be so today is something that we must think about.

Sure, there are outlaying issues like the border issues, but the Russia-China have solved their border dispute and a much longer border at that shows that, is political will is applied the border issue can be amicably solved mutually.

Imagine if China and India were to work together in every field as they beautifully did in Copenhagen, the developing world will greatly benefit and institutions like IMF and World Bank can be easily reformed so that it benefits the poorer countries.

Though we are a part of the BRIC, the forum does not have much influence on the global scale. Also, we need China’s help to get into ASEAN which is more powerful than the SAARC.

China has substantial presence in Africa, India being a growing country needs to explore new channels for investment and what other continent than Africa has the highest potential for growth. China could defiantly help India in securing investments in Africa.


Iran:
I take the example of Iran to show how not to conduct a foreign policy.

India and Iran were in negotiations for building a pipeline that would deliver natural gas from Iran to India. The deal was nearing completion and any other country would not have taken an antagonistic step towards the other, especially the one providing the natural gas.

Not so, in India’s case. India voted against Iran in a crucial IAEA meeting; not that India’s vote tipped the case against Iran but still why did India vote against Iran especially at such a crucial juncture? No one knows the answer. And Iran simply like any sensible country simply stepped away from the deal.

So, we lost a crucial source of energy supply that to at a time when our energy needs is growing by leaps and bounds.


Turkey:
Turkey is one of the most modern countries in the middle-east. It is a country that has a blend of both Arabic and European cultures. It’s also a country that has a large degree of influence in the middle-east.

Did you know that the Turkish Army is the guardian of secularism and democracy in that country? That it was the army that secured the country against fundamentalism that was rampant in the country in the 1970’s.

India must develop better relationships with Turkey; for one thing we can learn how to seamlessly blend seemingly opposing views. Also, India was ill-afford to lose friendship with what could be a major power from the middle-east.


Africa:
The one continent that has the potential for the most rapid growth in all sectors in the globe is Africa. And yet, as pointed out in a recent editorial in Hindu, India does not have any kind of foreign policy document on Africa.

Sure, the continent is facing various kinds of problems that range from natural to man-made, but the potential is there. Just consider the geographic of the continent; it has rich store of energy- a large number of river systems, source of metals, the large market potential for every products.  

Any country that can make investments in Africa now is bound to make huge dividends later. That is precisely what China is doing.

India, which has pretentions of being a super-power, should invest money, material in Africa. The short-term returns maybe negligible but the long-term returns are bound to be huge.


Myanmar:
Now, here is an example of a country that is ruled by a military junta that has kept one of the most fearless voices of democracy jailed for more than 15 years now.

For a country that boasts about being the world’s largest democracy, how can one explain India’s policy towards Myanmar?

India has not once issued a statement that criticizes the conduct of the military junta, nor has it taken any steps in helping get Aung San Suu Kyi released.

India in fact has cordial relations with the country in which democracy is blatantly violated. India has voted against UN bills condemning the violence unleashed by the military junta.


South & Central America:
These are another two continents which are growing at a fast pace and are bound to grow faster in the next few decades. The market potential, the amount of available natural resources all point to an investment destination that is bound to make huge profits for the people investing in these regions.

Take the case of Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico – though all these countries face problems of rampant crime, the potential for growth far outweighs any of the risks of investments in these countries.


Israel:
India does not have good relationship with Israel; I think that India should develop much better relationsip with Israel. The point being that I am not condoning Israel’s sometime over the board actions. But, India can learn a lot about counter-terrorism from Israel.

Israel’s security forces including its police are after all doing a hell of a job keeping Israel safe. Our security forces could do well from closer interactions that are not just limited to the defense industry as at present.


 Of course, I have more views on India's foreign relations but at present i shall limit myself to the above. You may or may not agree with what I have to say but don't deny that what I say does not make sense.

Mercenary Vs Employee

Being jobless is boring, taxing, drives one crazy (don’t ask how can a crazy person become crazy, tats beside the point.) but it also means that you have a lot of time to think about stuff that you wouldn’t think about otherwise (in my case,  at least I wouldn’t have spent so much time thinking about it.)

Okay, so now back to the topic being discussed: Mercenaries and employees. Do you think that there is a difference between them? Well most people me myself (at one point of time) included would say Yes they are different.

Mercenary seems to have a negative connotation to it.  Think of mercenary, freeze that image in your mind. Now think of employee, and freeze that image in your mind.

The Oxford dictionary gives the following meaning for Mercenary: As one primarily concerned with money. Know what’s the definition of employee? It’s given as: As one working for wages.

So, primarily there is no difference between the definitions of a mercenary and an employee.

Let’s explore employees. After all the global meltdown happened due to some employees; the Bhopal accident happened due to some employees; the BP oil spill happened due to some employees and the list is endless.

In comparison what an mercenaries do may result in direct loss of life, they may steal something valuable but it doesn’t have such a wide global impact as what an employee does.

And yet who gets the bad name? It’s the mercenaries.

Well, I am dedicating this article to all the mercenaries out there in the universe….

Note: The above article is written by me without any coercion on anyone’s part. Nor is it intended to hurt anybody’s feelings.