The Eternal Optimist!

Was listening to a lecture by Prof Dattesh Parulekar on information and communication technology in the developing countries. The professor brought out the pros and cons of ICT in Asia and Africa with specific examples. Approximately 70-80% of cobalt needed to manufacture mobile phones comes from Africa mainly Ethiopia and as such the spread of cell phones in Africa has been awe inspiring! However the Africans are not doing so well with regards to internet connectivity where again taking the example of Ethiopia, he showed that about 90% of the internet connections in the country were concentrated the capital of Ethiopia, Aids Ababa. The rate of spread of cell phones in the developing countries rose from 2% in 1991 to a whooping 41% in 2006! The internet usage in the developing world rose from 0.2% in 1991 to 41% in2006. Talking about information and technology and political problems in developing countries, we can see how in countries like India, electronic voting machines have...

I had always thought that studying the Indian defense policy would be great but the reference books brought out the picture of a defense policy in shambles. If we try to point out that the whatever the policy is, is dismal, there has to be some policy to start with. For the first 15 years after independence India had no tactical activity at all and as a result, no defense policy outline. India’s first Prime Minister Mr. Jawaharlal Neharu had a weird logic of his own. Pakistan according to him was a manageable threat and as of China, China and India were both age old civilizations with friendship dating back centuries! He saw no reason for China to attack India. It might be due to the influence of Buddhism or even the Bhakti movement and the likes of it that there was a considerable lack of strategic thought in the Indian culture. The art of warfare was never given the attention and the dignity it truly deserves. The Neharu regime kept up this tradition in its wishful neglect of the mil...