Month: February 2011

Sorry if you fell off your chair on reading the post title. But I could not resist using the title of a rediff slide-show (they put it on multiple pages so that the number of page clicks goes up) that some people have started breathlessly forwarding. These people are the type who are always in a hurry to report that “India is the second largest this” or “India has the most of that” and other hyper bullshit generally peddled by the likes of The Times of India and other rags. Anyway, that reminded me of a story.
Continue reading “India will be the World’s No.1 Economy by 2050”

One thing that constantly astonishes me is my ignorance of Indian history. I admit that freely and feel sorry for myself — and for the hundreds of millions of Indians who are ignorant like me. I am partly to blame but we should remember that the Indian government — what I should really call the British Government 2.0 which started off with faux Britisher Jawaharlal Nehru at the helm — did much to misrepresent Indian history. Thanks to the interwebs (and thanks to Al Gore for inventing them internets), slowly I am learning a bit of history.
Continue reading “India’s Debt to Veer Savarkar”

I am totally thrilled to report that our campaign to raise around US$2,200 for Chandrasekaran Balakrishnan’s visit to the US to present his paper at a conference is successful. Congratulations are in order all around.
Continue reading “Congratulations. We’ve Raised the Funds”

Update Saturday 8 AM:

I have not done the exact calculation, but I suspect that the goal has been reached. Thank you all. Please do not pledge any more. I will do the sums shortly and report back.

Thanks to all who have responded to my previous post seeking financial support for Chandrasekaran. The details of support pledged so far is as follows.
Continue reading “Update on the Previous Post on Financial Support for Scholar”

I had not heard of Gene Sharp until Rajesh forwarded me a link to a NYTimes profile on him. He appears to be an interesting fellow. A BBC article says this about him, “His central message is that the power of dictatorships comes from the willing obedience of the people they govern – and that if the people can develop techniques of withholding their consent, a regime will crumble.”
Continue reading “Gene Sharp: The Man Who Wrote the Rule-book on Non-violent Struggle”

My friend Veer asked me to comment on what is posted at this site — 10 Economic Charts That Will Blow Your Mind. OK, my mind is blown away. One thing is apparent to me. The US is in economic decline. But it is not clear whether that decline is long-term or not.
Continue reading “Is the US Economy in Long-term Decline?”