Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dropped a bombshell at the meeting of the full planning commission on Tuesday when he disclosed that the US computer hardware giant Dell was looking at shifting out of China, and hinted that the company may be looking at India as its sourcing base. Dell, he quoted the company’s chairman as saying, buys $25 billion from China. China’s loss could mean a huge gain for India, he added.

The news comes on the heels of software giant Google shutting down its search engine in mainland China and redirecting Chinese language search traffic to Hong Kong.

The prime minister, in his closing remarks at the plan panel meet, said: “A very important point has been raised regarding development of the hardware sector of information technology. This morning I met the chairman of Dell Corporation. He informed me that they are buying equipment and parts worth $25 billion from China. They would like to shift to safer environment with climate conducive to enterprise with security of legal system. So I think this is an area where there are immense opportunities. I urge the Planning Commission to apply their mind about development of hardware and parts of computer industry.”

Full article here

Google picture courtesy:  Apple Investor

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“Putin has been the architect of the strategic partnership between India and Russia,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said after meeting with his Russian counterpart in New Delhi today. “Relations with Russia are a key pillar of our foreign policy.”

Putin, in five visits over the past decade, has spearheaded Russia’s effort to revive Cold War-era ties to India and fend off growing competition for defense and energy contracts from the U.S. and Europe. The Kremlin is playing on Indian ambitions to become a global power capable of rivaling China and sending manned missions to outer space.

Russian companies signed more than a dozen deals, including agreements to deliver India’s second aircraft carrier in 2012, build as many as 16 nuclear reactors and sell 29 MiG-29 fighter jets. India also became the first country to win access to military use of Russia’s Glonass navigation network, a rival to the U.S. Global Positioning System. Putin promised to help send India’s first cosmonaut into space in three years and held open the possibility of joint moon exploration.

Full article here

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Approach road to the airport

Another example why the Government of India has no business running any critical infrastructure in the country.  Look at the shabby airports run by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and then pass through the Hyderabad airport.

The airport air traffic control tower

You will never realise that its situated somewhere in India.  Top class infrastructure with top class service has resulted in RGIA gatecrashing into the hallowed group of airports worldwide. To be even talked in the same breath as Changi, Incheon, Hong Kong etc is an honour and GMR must be roundly applauded for bringing up RGIA to international standards.

This is how the Airports Council International (ACI), an autonomous body representing world airports, adjudged the airports

1.  Incheon, South Korea

2. Changi, Singapore

3. Hong Kong International Airport

4. Beijing International Airport, China

5. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad, India

News source: Economic Times

Pictures source: Blacknwhite, Marie, Vincent Tulio, Bert Roos

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The Agni 3 test, which took place from the Wheeler Island off the Orissa coast, has made the missile ready for induction, the Defence Ministry announced on Sunday. “The launch is part of the pre-induction trial. The Indian Army (the user) has carried out the total launch operations guided by the Defence Reseach and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientists. Now the Missile system will be fully inducted into the Armed Forces,” a statement by the Defence Ministry said.

While the formal induction will take at least two more years and a few more tests, the missile is strategically vital in India’s nuclear deterrence plans that rely on the second strike theory. India’s stated policy has been of no first use, which makes it vital to have long range missiles to strike back in the event of a nuclear attack.

Full article here

Pictures courtesy: Rediff & Mensa-Barbie

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Thomas Friedman & Bill Bonner

In his article, The Long and Short of China, Bonner goes hammer and tongs at Thomas Friedman saying…

Oh happy days are here again. Obama is going to get our money back from the banks. Jeffrey Sachs is telling Haiti how it can get its economy back in order (with other people’s money, naturally). And Thomas Friedman is offering investment advice.

This should be fun. We’re all on the bus…and it’s driven by the blind, the deaf and the very dumb. Oh, sorry, we meant the visually impaired…the hearing impaired…and the mentally deficient.

Friedman is, as we all know, full of advice on just about everything. He advises finance ministers on how to soup-up their economies. He advises the Arab world on how to update its religious institutions. He advises whole nations on how to improve the future before it happens.

And here he is now counseling Mr. James Chanos, noted short seller, on how to make money

Big egos are at play here.  But its not to discount the value of the words being spoken here.  Bill Bonner, Thomas Friedman and James Chanos are all good at what they do.  They have built up a career full of backing their claims with the work they have done.

Last word on whether China is a bubble or not is yet to be spoken.  Meanwhile, Thomas Friedman finds another supporter in Keith Fitz-Gerald of Money Morning.

Above pictures courtesy: Theteemingbrain, Cityfile & Stockopedia

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Often referred to as a “sleeping giant” in scientific literature, India seems to be waking out of its slumber, says a recent global research report on “Research and Collaboration in the new Geography of Science” by Thomson Reuters.

As per the report, Chemistry and Pharmacology are fast becoming the most “published” disciplines in India; USA remains its largest research partner even as South Korea is racing ahead of China to partner with India. And Japan’s University of Tokyo collaborates most frequently with Indian researchers.

If the current trajectory continues, the study estimates, India’s productivity would well be on par with that of most G-8 nations within eight years and could even overtake them between 2015-2020.

In a testament to its strength in information technology, computer science accounted for the highest increase in world publications from India between 1999-2003 and 2004-2008, increasing by more than 100%. When it comes to research, India’s strength lies in Chemistry and emerging sectors like pharmacology, microbiology and traditional agricultural sciences.

Between 1993-2003 and 2004-08:

• In Chemistry, India’s research output increased from 21,206 world publications to 33,504

• From a 2.8 per cent share of the world output in pharmacology and toxicology, India’s share is up to 4.25 per cent

• Output in engineering rose from 2.69 per cent to 3.57 per cent

• Microbiology saw publication output rise from 1.62 per cent to 2.79 per cent

Agricultural engineering, Tropical Medicine, Organic Chemistry and Dairy & Animal Science are areas of research where India is picking up well besides Crystallography and Textiles.

Read the full news here

Above picture source: 30yearchallenge

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Its been just a matter of time when Google fell afoul of the Chinese authorities. When it comes to the Chinese, there are no friends or foes.  Just like the Americans, everyone and everything is just a means to the end.  Therefore am not surprised that inspite of Google agreeing to be censored, its servers and data were being hacked by the Chinese government.

Not that it affects the Chinese internet community anymore.  They use Baidu, Sohu etc for their search, email and other services.  Google was just another player in the market.  As for Google, pulling out will mean that it can occupy the moral high ground.  And also save its data and servers from getting hacked.  For most of its businesses came from American companies and they wouldn’t have taken kindly to news that would imply that Google’s services were getting repeatedly hacked.  That would have been bad publicity for Google.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

Read the full article here

Pictures source: Richswebdesign & Atlasshrugs

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Is it just co-incidence or is there too much that is not being read into it?  With Pakistan fast spiralling into a deep abyss, are India and US practising for the time when the threat of the Pakistani govt being run over by the Taliban comes true?

Is the close co-operation a signal that the governments of both sides accept the fact that Pakistan is fast losing its fight against the Taliban and the ISI propped up terrorists.  Maybe the governments know something that people in general dont know. Maybe its an exercise to practise how to decamp with Pakistani nuclear weapons in case of a runover of the Pakistani government by terrorists.

Finally the monster created, nurtured and propped up by successive Pakistani governments against India is coming back to bite the master itself.

Like the saying, “the one who digs a hole for the other falls into it himself first”. How true.  Not a good sign for India to see its neighbour descend into chaos, but there is nothing much India can do other than exasperate at the happenings in the neighbourhood.  The chickens have come home to roost.

How long the Pakistani government and its army will bury its head in the sand like an Ostrich before they understand that the monster they created is finally too big for them to control and is hell bent on destroying their own country.

It was Pakistan’s Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who declared that Pakistan will eat grass, but will make a nuclear bomb.  Looks like the time to eat grass has come.  Finally.

All pictures source:  LiveFist Visit that website for lots of pictures, videos of the Indo-US exercises.

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Its in these changing times we wonder if a group that consists of countries like Italy, Canada etc wield any power when the world is going throught the worst recession (courtesy the developed countries).  Of course the US, Japan and Germany are also a part of the G-7 group of countries, but do they really have any clout?  The G-7 as usual came out with a statement asking China to re-value it currency and hardly anyone cared a hoot.

After decades in charge, the club of rich, industrialised nations is fast losing sway as a share of global economic power shifts towards big developing countries. That was a lesson of the Group of Seven’s meeting in Istanbul at the weekend, when the absence of China showed the G7 could no longer tackle the world’s economic problems on its own.

Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G7 implored China in a diplomatically worded statement to let the Chinese currency rise, as they have done for several years. But China showed no sign of complying, and the G7 spent much of its time to discussing whether it should meet less often, with less pomp and perhaps with fewer public statements.

G7 statements have all too often “interested nobody because there’s no follow-up most of the time”, said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund.

Read the full article here

The G-7 or the group of Industrialized countries comprise

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States

The G-20 comprises of

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa,  South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, European Union

A G-7 official hit the nail on the head when he mentioned

“The moment you have to tell people you are still relevant, it’s because you are not relevant,”

Above picture source: Astrocrush

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Mangte Chungneijang Merykom also known as Mary Kom is the joint Rajiv Gandhi Kehl Ratna award winner for the year 2009 along with boxer Vijender Singh and wrestler Sushil Kumar. A mother of two who came back from a 2 year break from the sport to win her fourth successive World Amateur Boxing gold medal in 2008.

Sad that so less is known about her.  There is some detailed information about her at the Women Boxing Archive Network here. A true champion who is described by the International Boxing Association as “Magnificient Mary”.

Boxing is the only Olympic sport where women couldnt participate.  The sport at Olympics was restricted to men only.  From the 2012 London Olympics, this barrier is to go and women’s boxing will make a grand entry.

Of course, Mary Kom has her eyes fixated on the top prize at the Olympics.  Click on this link for a video on CNN-IBN about the boxer.

Above pictures source:  WBAN and Dailylife

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