The Uncertain Future of India-Pakistan-Iran Pipeline

re: a faithful ally
Guess where behraam is in the picture?

Hint:
It is not the man ordering, nor the head of the terrorist!
Sridhar

#223 by behram1 on February 11, 2006 10:09am PT

hello inbred retard...


Two die as US shells land in North Waziristan

Four children also injured;
officials say artillery fired from Khost

By our correspondent

MIRANSHAH: Two nomad women were killed and four children sustained injuries when artillery shells fired from Afghan territory hit their tents in the border area in North Waziristan.

They said the artillery shells landed in Pakistani territory during fighting between US-led coalition forces and Afghan militants, possibly Taliban. The US and Afghan National Army troops were apparently retaliating against the militants, who had attacked the Shinkai military post across the border in Afghanistan with 18 rockets or mortar shells.

Arjun Ghaddha wants sugar cane therapy

#221 by behram1 on February 11, 2006 5:56am PT

inbred paki retard posts a letter from a paki in a paki rag without any link from the western media...

color me impressed...NOT..

Another validation of what Indians are producing (see in bold face below)

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http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/11/letted.htm#6
Pakistan is losing ground’

THIS is with reference to the article ‘Pakistan is losing ground’ (Jan 31) by Shahid Javed Burki.

For the most part the article is a repetition of old, familiar arguments and hardly contains anything new. There is the usual refrain that “some of the biggest companies of the United States” have announced plans to shift a portion of their business to India. This, Mr Burki says, will create more than 7,500 jobs and will also attract a great deal of foreign investment.

According to him, what attracts foreign companies most to India is not only low costs but also “the quality of human resources available in that country ... the quality of staff being produced by Indian universities.” The point regarding “low costs” is well-taken. However, the quality of staff being produced by Indian universities is a questionable proposition.

Newsweek in a special edition dated December 2005 paints a dismal picture of the state of university education in India.

According to the article “not a single Indian university is among the top 10 in Asia, let alone the world,” and that “only about 10,000 of the 280,000 engineers who graduate annually, or just about four per cent, are of international calibre.” Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of the Indian Express newspaper, is quoted as saying that “the graduates you see on the outside, in places like Silicon Valley, are the cherry on the cake, but underneath the cake is largely rotten.”

The magazine says further that “today there are an estimated 5.3 million university graduates in India who are unemployed” because of lack of adequate skills and knowledge.

In spite of all the media hype, India remains a desperately poor country. To lift it out of its poverty is going to require more than mere foreign investment, which in my opinion serves the economic and financial interests of the foreign companies more than it does that of the recipient country.

Without dependence on outside powers, India is, nevertheless, in a good position to gain international status commensurate with its size and population if it were to roll back its enormous military expenditure, and invest the money so saved in socio-economic projects, and work closely with Pakistan for finding a satisfactory solution to the Kashmir dispute.

The problems relating to the minorities and other disadvantaged groups in Indian society also need to be tackled in earnest. Freed from all these tensions, and from the curse of wasteful military expenditure, the vision of India as a major global player is achievable.

It is hoped that writers and experts of the calibre of Mr Burki will adopt a holistic approach when discussing the economic, social and political problems which beset developing countries like India and Pakistan instead of concentrating on one or two factors.

SALAHUDDIN K. LEGHARI
Lahore

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Another reason for sugar cane therapy for Indian hindoos should continue.

Continued over use of sugar canes on Indian hindoos has created such a shortfall. This is what I knew would happen, when sugar cane therapy was started on Indians. They still need this therapy. As such the world sugar prices will contnue to rise.

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http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/11/op.htm
SUGAR prices in Pakistan are very high now because of high world prices, says Jehangir Tareen, minister for industries, production and special initiatives. Instead of coming up with some special initiatives to solve this problem, he is singing the same old song of high world prices. And to add to that, a foreign newsagency report says that London sugar prices are touching the highest in 15 years. We are paying high prices for a number of imported items including oil for some time now, with its multiplier effect on prices as a whole.

Abay, ulloos.

Factoid junkie and empty skull sperm eater are at it again.

Get back to your railroad tracks, you sperm eaters. All your cut & pastes dung are spreading bad odor which are only suited for places where you take your early morning bowel movements. So go there and leave this chowk.

re: Some Pakis who think Pakistan suck$
A letter in The nation:
(225m spouted up in air

What is being billed as the world`s largest fountain (it actually isn`t) was recently opened to the Karachi public on January 15. Costing the Karachi Port Trust 225 million rupees, the fountain runs from around eight pm to midnight (and sometimes longer on weekends), and shoots water to a height of 624 feet. It also costs around a hundred thousand rupees daily to operate.
In a country struggling to emerge from a disaster several times more massive than the tsunami, in a country where more than half the population lives beneath the poverty line, in a country riddled with debt and perpetual money crises that have turned it into the world`s begging post, it is astonishing how the government can allow hundreds of millions of rupees to be, literally, thrown down the drain.
The justification offered to us is tourism. Who in his right mind really believes that people from all over the world are going to flock to Pakistan with their fat wads of foreign exchange just to see a big blue fountain spout water from the middle of the sea?-MINA FARID MALIK, Lahore, via e-mail, January 26.)
Farukh Salim`s article in TFT:http://www.thefridaytimes.com/page5.shtml
(What is America’s interest in us?
Farrukh Saleem
Is Bush getting frustrated? America demands we do what we have been paid to do

The latest on nuclear non-proliferation is America`s renewed interest in AQ Khan for his knowledge of the Iranian bomb. To be certain, any Pakistani leader who delivers on counter-terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation and Gwadar can count on America`s backing for his or her rule

We have no oil and no human capital. We are a poor, illiterate, resource-less country. There are at least 135 countries that are richer than us (United Nations ‘Human and Income Poverty’). We possess little – apart from our make-believe dragons of self-importance – that could be of permanent interest to America. We manufacture nothing that can be of value to Boeing, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron-Texaco, General Motors, Ford, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Walt Disney, Caterpillar or RJR Nabisco. The reality is that Pakistan is one big desert with a river running through it. What then could be America’s interest in us?

It largely revolves around counter-terrorism and nuclear non-proliferation. Counter-terrorism, from America’s perspective, is perched on a tripod: Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and Kashmir. The first two are tactical while the third is strategic. Bin Laden won’t be around for very long but Coca Cola, Pepsi, Ford, IBM, Citibank, Microsoft, Bank of America, American Express, Hewlett Packard, Novell, Lucent, Kellogg, Pfizer, Intel, Oracle and Xerox are all in India for the long haul. Corporate America sees India as a crucial partner and the US Department of Defence views an end to Kashmir infiltration as a strategic objective.....)
The third article by a Paki compares democracy in India and the lack of it in Pak and draws some important, if strange, lessons from the process.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006/02/09/story_9-2-2006_pg3_3
Excerpts:
(....A lot of people have reflected upon, written and talked about the contemporary political scenarios of sustained democracy in India, and lack of it in Pakistan. Here is a psychological viewpoint. The region that now comprises India, that is, after the partition of 1947, was more industrialised than the region that is now Pakistan. The Indian National Congress that was the political arm of the struggle of independence of the people largely represented the views and aspirations of the Indian industrialists.

That was one reason why the Indian National Congress was committed to introducing massive land reforms after independence, and facilitating and hastening industrialisation. That was also the reason why the Indian National Congress carried out its avowed agenda after independence and put the country on the path to rapid industrialisation. In the 1950s, and the 1960s, we saw the abolition of feudalism in India and the laying of the groundwork of the industrialisation of the country. These steps moved society away from agrarian feudalism and towards industrialisation, sowing the psychological seeds of the democratic mindset in people. This later sprouted and grew into the strong tree of democracy in modern India.

No force has been able to uproot the tree of democracy planted in industrialised India. The roots of democracy have become so strong that not even the political leader whose father was one of the main leaders of the struggle for independence and who was the prime minister when the Indian army won a war in 1971 could adopt an undemocratic, dictatorial posture. When she tried to stifle the democratic voice of the people by proclaiming emergency laws in the country she and her party were voted out.

Later when she and her party modified their approach, and adopted more tolerant, accommodating, magnanimous, cooperative and hospitable attitudes and norms they were again voted in.

Industrialisation of India is obviously the root cause of why the spirit of democracy prevails in the country and why no one has been able to derail it. It is therefore not mere chance that the president of the country is a Muslim, the leader of the house a Sikh, the leader of opposition a fundamentalist Hindu, and the leader of the ruling party a Catholic Christian.

This is the manifestation of the tolerant spirit brought forth by industrialisation that is also manifest in the democratic political edifice of the country. Can we, in Pakistan, dream of such political tolerance under the given feudal, tribal infrastructure?Not without abolishing feudalism and introducing industrialised infrastructure, and not without setting the country on the path to industrialisation.

Humair Hashmi is a consulting psychologist who teaches at Imperial College)
Sridhar

re: an economic forcast
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/jan/25india1.htm?q=tp&file=.htm
(ndia to be 3rd largest economy in 2006

Suman Guha Mozumder in New York | January 25, 2006 12:37 IST

India is expected to become the world`s third largest economy this year after the United States and China, a leading economist in the US said on Tuesday.

Dr William T Wilson, chief economist for Keystone India, a Chicago-based firm providing cross-border trade facilitation and asset management services in the US and India, said after significant accelerations in economic growth recently, India`s economy is expected to equal or surpass Japan as the world`s third largest sometime in 2006.

``The results of liberalising strategic sectors such as telecom, banking, aviation and real estate are now beginning to show,`` Wilson, a former chief economist for Ernst & Young, said.

Wilson said India`s economy measured in PPP (purchasing power parity) terms will eclipse the $4 trillion mark in 2006, making it equal to or greater than Japan`s.

Wilson noted that after growing at 8.5 per cent and 6.9 per cent in 2003 and 2004 respectively, India`s economy is expected to grow 7.8 per cent in 2005-2006 and then decelerate modestly to seven per cent in 2006-2007.

``Depending upon the direction of energy prices, inflation is expected to run between 5 and 5.5 per cent range in 2006.``

Wilson, however, acknowledged that a number of hurdles lie ahead for the Indian economy, including higher energy prices and heavy dependence on petroleum imports.)
Sridhar

re: China and India
This article is from Financial times, written by a Chinese
(China could learn from India’s slow and quiet rise
By Yasheng Huang
Published: January 23 2006 20:06 | Last updated: January 23 2006 20:06

In an article published in 2003 called “Can India overtake China?” Tarun Khanna of Harvard Business School and I argued that India’s domestic corporate sector – strengthened by the country’s rule of law, its democratic processes and relatively healthy financial system – was a source of substantial competitive advantage over China. At that time, the notion that India might be more competitive than China was greeted with wide derision.

Two years later, India appears to have permanently broken out of its leisurely “Hindu rate of growth”– an annual gross domestic product increase of around 2 to 3 per cent – and its performance is beginning to approach the east Asian level. From April to June 2005, India’s GDP grew at 8.1 per cent, compared with 7.6 per cent in the same period the year before. More impressively, India is achieving this result with just half of China’s level of domestic investment in new factories and equipment, and only 10 per cent of China’s foreign direct investment. While China’s GDP growth in the last two years remained high, in 2003 and 2004 it was investing close to 50 per cent of its GDP in domestic plant and equipment – roughly equivalent to India’s entire GDP. That is higher than any other country, exceeding even China’s own exalted levels in the era of central planning. The evidence is as clear as ever: China’s growth stems from massive accumulation of resources, while India’s growth comes from increasing efficiency.

The microeconomic evidence also casts India in a better light. While India’s stock market has soared in recent years, the opposite has happened in China. In 2001, the Shanghai Stock Market index reached 2,200 points; by 2005, half the wealth wiped out. In April 2005, the Shanghai index stood at 1,135 points. This sharp deterioration occurred against a backdrop of GDP growth exceeding 9 per cent a year. It is difficult to find another country that has this strange combination of superb macroeconomic performance and dismal microeconomic performance. It is a matter of time before the two patterns converge.

Why, then, is India gaining strength? Economists and analysts have habitually derided India’s inability to attract FDI. This single-minded obsession with FDI is as strange as it is harmful. Academic studies have not produced convincing evidence that FDI is the best path to economic development compared with responsible economic policies, investment in education and sound legal and financial institutions. In fact, one can easily think of counter examples. Brazil was a darling of foreign investors in the 1960s but ultimately let them down. Japan, Korea and Taiwan received little FDI in the 1960s and 1970s but became among the world’s most successful economies.

An economic litmus test is not whether a country can attract a lot of FDI but whether it has a business environment that nurtures entrepreneurship, supports healthy competition and is relatively free of heavy handed political intervention. In this regard, India has done a better job than China. From India emerged a group of world-class companies ranging from Infosys in software, Ranbaxy in pharmaceuticals, Bajaj Auto in automobile components and Mahindra in car assembly. This did not happen by accident.

Although it has many flaws, India’s financial system did not discriminate against small private companies the way the Chinese financial system did. Infosys benefited from this system. It was founded by seven entrepreneurs with few political connections who nevertheless managed, without significant hard assets, to obtain capital from Indian banks and the stock ­market in the early 1990s. It is unimaginable that a Chinese bank would lend to a Chinese equivalent of an Infosys.

With few exceptions, the world-class manufacturing facilities for which China is famous are products of FDI, not of indigenous Chinese companies. Yes, “Made in China” labels are still more ubiquitous than “Made in India” ones; but what is made in China is not necessarily made by China. Soon, “Made in India” will be synonymous with “Made by India” and Indians will not just get the wage benefits of globalisation but will also keep the profits – unlike so many cases in China.

Pessimism about India has often been proved wrong. Take, for example, the view that India lacks Chinese-level infrastructure and therefore cannot compete with China. This is another “China myth” – that the country grew thanks largely to its heavy investment in infrastructure. This is a fundamentally flawed reading of its growth story. In the 1980s, China had poor infrastructure but turned in a superb economic performance. China built its infrastructure after – rather than before – many years of economic growth and accumulation of financial resources. The “China miracle” happened not because it had glittering skyscrapers and modern highways but because bold economic liberalisation and institutional reforms – especially agricultural reforms in the early 1980s – created competition and nurtured private entrepreneurship.

For both China and India, there is a hidden downside in the obsession with building world-class infrastructure. As developing countries, if they invest more in infrastructure, they invest less in other things. Typically, basic education, especially in rural areas, falls victim to massive investment projects, which produce tangible and immediate results. China made a costly mistake in the 1990s: it created many world-class facilities, but badly under-invested in education. Chinese researchers reveal that a staggering percentage of rural children could not finish secondary education. India, meanwhile, has quietly but persistently improved its ­educational provisions, especially in the rural areas. For sustainable ­economic development, the quality and quantity of human capital will matter far more than those of physical capital. India seems to have the right policy priorities and if China does not invest in rural education soon, it may lose its true competitive edge over India – a well-educated and skilled work-force that drives manufacturing success.

Unless China embarks on bold institutional reforms, India may very well outperform it in the next 20 years. But, hopefully, the biggest beneficiary of the rise of India will be China itself. It will be forced to examine the imperfections of its own economic model and to abandon its sense of complacency acquired in the 1990s. China was light years ahead of India in economic liberalisation in the 1980s. Today it lags behind in critical aspects, such as reform that would permit more foreign investment and domestic private entry in the financial sector. The time to act is now.

The writer, associate professor of International Management at MIT Sloan School of Management, is author of Selling China (Cambridge University Press, 2003 and Chinese edition, 2005)
Sridhar

re: India`s economic boom
We see a nauseating spectacle right here in Chowk where some Pakis just can`t take it. They are only in for more shocks in future, as India strides on majestically with her economic growth while Paki dogs keep barking. Reminds me of an article in Washington times some years ago named: The elephant and the pekinese dog; one does not have to stretch one`s imagination as to guess who the elephant is and who is the pekinese dog. My advice to jealous Pakis: either learn to bear it with fortitude or perhaps take a cyanide pill (for Beharam i recomment the sample of sh!t that i sent from www.iamapakiandiwantindianshit.com website)
Here is a revealing article that talks about the stockmarket boom. The author argues that the boom is real and not a case of ``buble``.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_pesek&sid=ajANPGD6_brs
(William Pesek Jr. is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.

10,000 Reasons India Is a Good Investor Bet: William Pesek Jr.

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- If you`re wondering whether Mumbai`s stock market is experiencing some irrational exuberance, Indian style, Rakesh Mohan will set you straight.

As the No. 2 central bank official, Mohan won`t talk directly about India`s stock rally. Yet to spend an hour with the man who may be the next governor of the Reserve Bank of India is to be reminded why investors are rediscovering India -- and why this week they drove the Sensitive index above 10,000 for the first time.

``There`s been a huge change in the thinking of the Indian people in terms of hope and observation,`` Mohan, 57, told me over lunch in Mumbai recently. ``That`s good news, but so is the idea that people overseas are thinking similarly.``

Eight percent growth and India`s vast potential drove overseas investors to buy a record $10.7 billion more stocks than they sold last year. That`s more than triple the $2.85 billion of net purchases by local mutual funds and helped push share prices higher.

The excitement over this week`s milestone was akin to the Dow Jones Industrial Average`s breach of 10,000 in March 1999. While it took the Dow more than two years to rise from 7,000 to 10,000, India did it in less than one. That has some observers wondering whether Asia`s seventh-biggest stock market is experiencing bubble troubles.

No Bubble -- Yet

India`s stock rally is for real. With rapid growth, a young and expanding population, an impressive stable of indigenous companies and well-functioning capital markets, Asia`s No. 4 economy is merely getting its due. While China still holds the spotlight, investors are realizing Asia`s rise features not just one superpower -- China -- but two.

The question isn`t whether economic improvements are supporting the rally, but rather what the government needs to do to boost the market even further.

Stock-market landmarks are often followed by disappointment. Look no further than the U.S., where the Dow`s initial rise above 10,000 was greeted as a validation of the dot-com mania coursing down Wall Street. Pundits began predicting the Dow at 20,000. Those who bought James Glassman`s 1999 book, ``Dow 36,000,`` may have been tempted to ask for a refund.

What sent the Dow back below 10,000 in the years after its peak in January 2000 was the return of sobriety. Slowly and grudgingly, investors realized the Dow`s boom was more fiction than reality. It wasn`t being fueled by economic potential, but loose monetary policy, unabashed market cheerleaders and a compliant media.

Strong Growth

Last year`s 42 percent gain in Indian stocks wasn`t driven by hype, but progress. Nor was it the product of easy central bank policies, as evidenced by the Reserve Bank of India`s surprise rate hike on Jan. 24. The government didn`t hide its disappointment with the quarter-point move, the central bank`s fourth increase in 15 months.

``It`s almost never the case that any government wants to raise interest rates,`` Mohan said. ``Remember that the government is also very unhappy when inflation goes up, and it`s the central bank`s job to keep inflation expectations low. Inflation getting out of control helps no one,`` the deputy governor added.

While the same is true of stock values, it`s hard to argue that loose monetary conditions are fueling irrational gains in India`s share prices. Nor can it be said that India`s markets are being manipulated higher by the sort of Internet day-trading mania the U.S. saw in the late 1990s.

Foreigners Rush In

In fact, media coverage of the Sensex at 10,000 may capture the imagination of many of India`s 1.1 billion people. Getting more Indian households to invest in the market may allay concerns it`s becoming too reliant on international capital.

Not relying on foreign money helped India avoid the 1997- 1998 Asian financial crisis. Now, there is concern that its markets are becoming vulnerable to the kind of capital flight Asia experienced in the late 1990s.

Such thinking is shortsighted. India is right to seek more foreign direct investment. It also needs a better balance on investment. That means welcoming foreigners who want to trade in India`s markets as warmly as those building factories and creating jobs. It`s about financial maturity.

All this may accelerate economic change. India needs better roads, railways, ports and power systems to pull more long-term investment its way. It also has to reduce poverty, create more well-paid jobs and offer reliable, transparent markets. Failing to do so could prompt shorter-term investors to leave. That prospect may pressure the government to stay on the path toward economic improvements.

India on the Move

In the age of globalization, stock markets are playing unprecedented roles in economies. Foreign capital holds down interest rates, boosts growth and helps companies raise money in the bond market instead of borrowing from banks. In India`s case, it also holds the promise of creating a much-needed wealth effect throughout the economy.

Asked what foreigners don`t understand about India these days, Mohan said: ``We have many problems, but what exists here, too, is a huge variety of things readying India to compete globally -- entrepreneurship, education, new industries, you name it.``

It`s not hype Mohan is selling, but the idea that Indian policy makers are working steadily, if gradually, to upgrade the economy. Let`s hope so -- otherwise India`s stock gains may begin to outpace improvements in the economy. Then India will indeed face bubble troubles.


To contact the writer of this column:
William Pesek Jr. in Tokyo at wpesek@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 9, 2006 13:57 EST)
Sridhar

Pakiland makes the forbes list: The world`s most corrupt countries

India makes the Forbes list: Emerging global cities

O! Well, back to the railroad tracks and early morning bowel movements. Indians are in for a rude awakening, no matter what the propagandists wants the world to believe.

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HB11Df03.html
Risk rising along with stocks in India
By Jephraim P Gundzik

India`s benchmark BSE-30 equity index scaled record heights early this month, surpassing the crucial 10,000-point barrier. Heavy inflow of foreign portfolio investment, which amounted to nearly US$11 billion in 2005, has been crucial for the equity market`s current bull run and has pushed India`s stock of total foreign portfolio investment above $40 billion.

In contrast to foreign direct investment, foreign portfolio investment is short-term in nature. In other words, should conditions that encouraged the inflow of foreign portfolio investment deteriorate or reverse, this investment can be expected also to reverse course. Combined with other short-term foreign capital inflows over the past three years, India`s total stock of short-term foreign capital is estimated to be more than $50 billion.

The primary factors that have enticed this enormous inflow of short-term foreign capital over the past three years have been political stability and strong economic growth. Considering the pouring of increasingly large sums of money into India over the past six months, it`s easy to extrapolate that foreign investors believe this stability and strong growth will persist far into the future.

However, should India`s political environment destabilize and economic growth weaken, foreign investors are very likely to take their money and run. With more than $50 billion of short-term foreign capital, the scale of such capital flight could prompt a sharp exchange-rate depreciation, a strong equity-market correction and a significant decline in foreign-exchange reserves.

Political fragility

The government`s continued viability depends on the Left Front`s parliamentary support. The Left Front has become increasingly critical of the government`s policies. Disputes between the left and the governing United Progressive Alliance have erupted over foreign direct investment in India`s retail and financial sectors, the privatization of profitable state-owned enterprises, and the UPA`s drive to modify the Industrial Disputes Act.

In late September, the Left Front organized an enormous nationwide strike to highlight its dissatisfaction with the UPA government`s economic policies. More acrimony has exploded over the government`s close relations with the United States. After India`s vote with the US against Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in late September, the Left Front went ballistic. It accused the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of casting off India`s traditionally non-aligned status to curry the favor of Washington.

In November the Left Front, in cooperation with the Samajwadi Party, organized several mass rallies across India demanding that the government support Iran in the IAEA rather than the US. Also that month, the left organized massive demonstrations in West Bengal protesting joint India-US military exercises.

The fickleness of Washington`s favor was demonstrated last month when the US ambassador to New Delhi, David Mulford, publicly warned the government that India`s nuclear-energy deal with Washington would ``die`` in the US Congress if India did not support the United States against Iran in this month`s IAEA vote. Once again, the issue of India`s relations with the US and Iran touched off a storm of protests in India, led by the Left Front.

The Left Front again demonstrated its power of mass mobilization during the recent airport strike. This strike eventually forced the government to guarantee the jobs of striking airport employees. The left is distancing itself from the policies of the Manmohan Singh government, paving the way for the withdrawal of its support for the UPA in the Lok Sabha (literally House of the People, the lower house of parliament). This withdrawal could happen shortly after the Kerala and West Bengal state elections in May.

Insurgency woes
Political and social instability are also likely to be attenuated this year by the escalation of India`s Islamist and Naxal insurgencies. After a lull over the past 18 months, the Islamist insurgency in Kashmir will probably regain significant traction in the months ahead.

The powerful earthquakes that struck the region around Kashmir have given Pakistan`s Islamist organizations an opportunity to strengthen their footholds. This, combined with the return of Pakistani and Kashmir-based foreign fighters from Iraq, is likely to breathe new life into India`s Islamist insurgency, as demonstrated by the Islamist attack in Bangalore late last year.

The Naxal insurgency has already been intensifying over the past 12 months. In November the Naxalites carried out their largest ever attack, in Bihar state. More than 1,000 militants attacked the Jehanabad police station, freeing more than 300 prisoners. In addition to killing several police officers, these militants executed many members of a private militia known as the Ranvir Sena, set up by wealthy landowners. According to the Home Ministry, the Naxalites perpetrated more than 2,000 violent attacks last year, killing nearly 800 people.

The surge in Naxalite activity in 2005 can be attributed to two factors: the joining in October 2004 of two Naxalite organizations to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist), and the linking of this organization with Nepal`s Maoist insurgents. The recent escalation of Nepal`s Maoist insurgency can be expected to fuel India`s Naxal insurgency this year.

India`s deteriorating political and social conditions will weigh heavily on domestic investment. Increasing costs, declining profits and the poor condition of the country`s infrastructure are already undermining investment. This bodes ill for the growth of the industrial sector. India`s coveted service sector is vulnerable to weakening private consumption growth. Deteriorating conditions in the agricultural sector, which accounts for nearly 65% of employment in India, poses a significant threat to the growth of private consumption and services.

The economy also faces significant risks arising from much higher international oil prices and the impact of higher energy prices on Indian inflation and global economic growth. The escalating conflict between Tehran and the West could easily lead to an Iranian oil-export embargo or even a US military strike on Iran.

With the balance between global oil supply and demand exceedingly thin, any reduction in Iran`s oil exports could send international oil prices well above $100 per barrel. This would push US inflation and interest rates rapidly higher, prompting sharp deceleration in global economic growth. India`s exports and its economy would suffer greatly in such a scenario. History has shown that emerging-markets investment performance that has lived by the accumulation of short-term foreign capital has also died because of sudden foreign capital flight. And India is very vulnerable to this syndrome.

Jephraim P Gundzik is president of Condor Advisers Inc, which provides country risk analysis to individuals and institutions globally. Please visit www.condoradvisers.com for further information.

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India sucks big time.

Keep Pakistani economy rocking with old economy. Make the infrastructure solid on our own ability first, and just see how money starts flowing. We do not need the economy of code coolies or sucking up to the MNCs.

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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006 02 09 story_9-2-2006_pg5_3

Seven-month cement dispatch up 10%, capacity utilisation at 83%

Staff Report

KARACHI: Total cement dispatches for the first seven months of financial year 2006, July-January, has improved by 10 percent with increase in local sales despite marginal decline in exports due to increased focus on local market demand followed by the October earth quake and overall enhanced development activity in the country.

According to the data, total cement dispatches for the first seven months of financial year 2006 stood at 9.95 million tons compared with 9.04 million tons in the corresponding period of last year.

This, hence, depicts a year-on-year growth of around 10 percent. Local sales have increased by 11.2 percent to 9.12 million tons due to rising domestic demand from 8.21 million tons previously, whereas exports declined marginally to stand at 0.82 million tons from 0.83 million tons in July-January, financial year 2005.

India is still committed to the Pipeline, at least formally, according to the new Petroleum Minister, Deora.

India will go ahead with Iran pipeline project

BS Economy Bureau in New Delhi | February 09, 2006 01:42 IST

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora on Wednesday reiterated India`s commitment towards the $7-billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. He said he would hold further dialogue on the project when Pakistan`s oil minister visits India next week.
``We are committed to making the project a reality. We need the gas from Iran and will continue to pursue it,`` he said in New Delhi. The project is proposed to transport 90 million standard cubic meters of gas per day from Iran`s south Pars field to India from 2009-10.

On the proposed $22-billion deal with Iran to import 5 million tonnes of LNG a year for 25 years beginning 2009-10, he said, ``We are negotiating the terms. I hope the deal will come through.``

He also said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would soon call him to a meeting along with Finance Minister P Chidambaram to discuss the pricing of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene.

``I am not in favour of raising LPG and kerosene prices as these are used by the poor and vulnerable sections of the society. We need to see how through duty adjustments, raising government subsidy and the issuance of oil bonds the financial health of oil PSUs can be restored,`` he added.

Deora said the government would issue oil bonds worth Rs 5750 crore (Rs 57.5 billion) - in two tranches of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) and Rs 1,750 crore (Rs 17.5 billion) - to oil firms to partly compensate them for losses due to state control on retail prices of petroleum products.

The rate of interest for the bonds being 7 per cent, the tranches would be issued at a gap of 3, 6, and 9 years, officials added.

Meanwhile, head of a committe to look into petro pricing, C Rangarajan, met Deora and said the report on oil pricing will be submitted next Tuesday.

He said the committee would look at various aspects including steps to improve the profitability of oil PSUs, increase in retail prices of petroleum products and pricing of kerosene and petroleum gas.

He said a stand was required on LPG and kerosene prices and if dual pricing had difficulties, then the option of using cash vouchers and debit cards should be explored.

204

So no free oil for pakis, eh ???? Sugard-daddy, the Saudis, don`t like them no more...... Ah well....

Yup, the rubbish India Fund is not so sure about its dividend distribution that its waits till end of the year to distribute its dividends.

Put in the foreign exchange currency risk and political risks, it becomes useless to invest in India. As a comparison, investors in Latin American Mutal Fund of T. Rowe Price got a 76% Total Return.

Now that is what rocks. India as usual sucks. Wet dreams for sperm eaters. India sucks no matter what the propagandists in the west believe.

re: BSE`s bullish run
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4696376.stm
(
Letter from Delhi : India`s Sensex bull


By Nick Byrant
BBC South Asia correspondent, Delhi

This past week may come to be viewed as one of the most important in India`s economic history.

Call it irrational exuberance. Call it naive optimism.

But there is more to that statement than mere journalistic hyperbole.

For in the past seven days the country has witnessed two economic events of immense consequence:

* The Bombay Stock Exchange`s benchmark Sensex index crossed the 10,000 threshold for the first time in its history

* The government launched its poverty-busting National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme - a scheme of such ambition and scale that it has invited comparisons with Franklin Delano Roosevelt`s New Deal.

There was an almost orgasmic reaction to the Sensex crossing the 10,000 mark - a moment of frenzy lent even more excitement because it virtually coincided with Sachin Tendulkar blasting a century against arch rivals Pakistan.

Traders apparently punched the air in delight, exchanged western-style `high fives,` and scoffed celebratory chocolate cakes.

Then they savoured the prospect that the Sensex would end the year at 12,000.

`Christopher Columbus moment`

`Tensex`, `Shareway to Heaven`, `10K`, `Sensex Atop Magic Mountain` - the country`s headline writers also had a sugar rush.

The soaring Sensex has become a symbol of India`s growing economic self-confidence.

More important, the current spurt in the price of leading shares has reflected the confidence of overseas investors.

One fund manager said that the Sensex had just experienced its Christopher Columbus moment : Indian shares had just been discovered by the rest of the world.

Unquestionably, global fund managers have woken up to the earnings potential of India`s corporate titans - Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Reliance, the blue-chip stocks, which lend the Sensex its sheen.

As the Sensex went from 9,000 to 10,000, foreign investors invested $3bn in the market.

There has been nervous talk of an Indian bubble - that shares are over-valued and that a correction in the market is imminent.

Yet with the Indian economy pegged to grow at over 8% - of the world`s 20 largest economies only China has a higher growth rate - the startling rise in the stock market is surely more than illusionary.

`Economic celebration`

If the rising stock market is bringing cheer to the Indian middle class, then the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is aimed at ameliorating the condition of the poorest of the Indian poor.

Indian farmer sprinkles fertilizer in his field near Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu
The government is offering help for 60 million households

Launched with the promise of giving 60m households a measure of financial protection, through guaranteed work and unemployment benefit, it would be easy to write off the scheme as a political ploy - an attempt by the Congress Party-led coalition to curry favour with the very voters who brought them to power.

The less cynical interpretation is that this is a genuine and long overdue effort to address India`s gravest problem and greatest shame - that up to 400m of its people live below the poverty line, the world`s largest number of poor people in any single country.

Corruption and bad governance, two other Indian afflictions, are almost certain to limit the scheme`s effectiveness.

But the programme is underpinned by honest redistributive intent, a belief that as the country grows economically and its tax coffers swell, all its citizens should come to enjoy a more abundant life.

So the rural poor and the urban rich have both had cause for economic celebration - which, if not entirely unprecedented, is something of a novelty.

The bulls are roaring on Dalal Street, the home to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

And a measure of relief may finally be at hand for the country`s `bullock cart belt.`)
Sridhar

re: India`s sensex recently touched a historic high
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/feb/06sensex.htm
Sridhar

re: Lee Kuan Yew`s views on Pakistan
LKY thinks Pak rocks: with terrorism, that is.
For the uninitiated, LKY made Singapore what it is today.
http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501051212/lky_intvu3.html
Excerpts:
(....TIME: The 2002 plot to blow up seven embassies in Singapore using truck bombs—our sense is that you were taken completely by surprise.
LEE: Of course. How could we, in this most cosmopolitan and open of cities, where 15% Muslim Malays are completely mixed up with Chinese, Indians, Eurasians and others, go to English-language schools, do similar jobs, live in similar homes, produce 30-plus would-be jihadists?

TIME: You had no idea?
LEE: No idea at all. It was a stroke of good fortune. Our intelligence had under surveillance a few religious types [in Singapore]. One of them left for Karachi and went on to Afghanistan, soon after the country was bombed by the Americans [in late 2001]. He was captured by the [anti-Taliban] Northern Alliance. He was of Pakistani descent. So we found that this wasn`t just a religious study group. If that fella had not gone off to Karachi to fight with the Taliban, we would have been hit with seven truck bombs. The nitrates were sitting [across the causeway] in [the Malaysian state of] Johore.

At the same time that this Pakistani, born and bred in Singapore and English-speaking, was caught by the Northern Alliance, another Pakistani born and bred in Bradford, U.K., was caught in Iraq and sent to Guantánamo Bay. I watched his father on the BBC, and thought to myself: two Pakistani families left Pakistan, one for Bradford, the other for Singapore, produced children, brought up in two totally different environments, quite distant from the Islam of Pakistan, and yet they both end up fighting in Afghanistan. This Islamist pull is more powerful than that of communism. The communists never fully trusted one another across racial boundaries. The Vietnamese communists never trusted the Chinese communists and so on. But with the Islamists there is total trust: You are a warrior for Islam, so am I: We swear to fight together....)
Sridhar

re: Pakistan rocks: with Al Qaida terrorists!

Sridhar

re: Pakistan rocks?
As Saudi King visited Pukistan, everybody tried to impress him for what else but Oil.
Mushy`s GUBO technique, so successful against colin Powell, failed to impress the Saudi King. Then Mushy resorted to what he knows best. Bending on his knees he begged: ``Dey dey baba, allah key naam sey dey dey`` wailed Mushy and the rest of the nation. Saudi King was not impressed.
(S Arabia declines Pak request for `free` oil

Press Trust of India

Islamabad, February 9, 2006|14:25 IST

Saudi Arabia has declined Pakistan`s request to resume supply of free crude oil worth two billion dollars under the Special Financing Arrangement, a Pakistani official said.

Pakistan made a well-publicised request to the Gulf nation during the recent visit of Saudi King Abdullah Bin Aziz to the country and it figured prominently in the talks with President Pervez Musharraf.

``But the King did not entertain such a request,`` the official was quoted as saying in local daily `Dawn`.

``The issue did come up (for discussion), but the chapter stands closed now,`` the official said.

Considering the close ties between the two countries (my comments:Mushy doing GUBO, the king riding on Mushy, very close ties indeed!), Musharraf had initially requested the King during his visit to Saudi Arabia in December last to restore SFA, the paper said.

Pakistan imported about 110,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Saudi Arabia costing around two billion dollars per annum and Pakistan wanted this import under the SFA to reduce mounting pressure on foreign exchange reserves.

The request to Saudi King for SFA was made in the back drop of growing Pakistan trade deficit which has already increased by over 132 per cent to 5.6 billion dollars during first six months of the current fiscal year compared with 2.4 billion dollars of the same period last year.

Saudi Arabia had started supplied oil to Pakistan at the rate of about one billion dollar per year under the special financing arrangement commonly known as Saudi Oil Facility (SOF) in 1998, following US-led international nuclear sanctions against Pakistan.

The two countries have signed five agreements mostly on higher and technical education during the King`s visit but no accord was reached on energy security.)
Sridhar

re: Pakistan rocks: with terror!
News flash in MSNBC:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11247934/
(Shiite procession in Pakistan attacked; 22 dead
Dozens of others injured as attack on Ashoura holiday sparks riots

USTARZAI, Pakistan - A suicide bomb ripped through a Shiite Muslim procession Thursday in northwestern Pakistan, sparking riots during the Muslim sect’s most important holiday. At least 22 people were killed and dozens injured, officials said.

The bomb targeted hundreds of people in a bazaar soon after they emerged from the main Shiite mosque in the town of Hangu, district police chief Ayub Khan said.

The Shiites responded by burning shops and cars while clashing with police in the town, located about 125 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad, Khan said. Army troops moved in to restore order and a curfew was imposed, he said.)
Sridhar

re: Pak rocks?
It does seem Pakistan rocks: with terrorism from Karachi to Kandahar.
And Pak`s brightest and the best are returning home to be of service to their nation:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006/02/09/story_9-2-2006_pg7_34
(hursday, February 09, 2006 E-Mail this article to a friend Printer Friendly Version

51 deportees arrive from United States

By Shahzad Malik

ISLAMABAD: Fifty-one Pakistanis deported from the United States for violating various laws reached Islamabad by a chartered flight on Wednesday.

The US embassy spokesman in Pakistan told Daily Times that the deportees were involved in several cases including fraud, forgery, burglary, drug smuggling, murder, illegal immigration, sexual assault, rape and possession of illegal weapons.

“The governments of the US and Pakistan coordinated with each other through the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for the deportation of these people,” the spokesman said.

US law enforcement agencies arrested them in Virginia and Texas. Up to 29 deportees was jailed for over 18 months while the rest of them had been in jail for over eight months, FIA sources told Daily Times.

A chartered flight carrying the deportees landed at the Islamabad International Airport at 12.30pm. Officials of the Pakistani embassy in the US and US commandos accompanied the deportees.

Most of the deportees are from the interior parts of Punjab. Emotional scenes were witnessed at the airport when the plane landed as the deportees kissed the land after getting off the plane.

Naveed Ahmed, one of the deportees, told his family that US law enforcers had put him behind bars on charges of having a “long beard”. He said the deportees were handcuffed in the plane during the 19-hour flight.

He said US security personnel raided his house in Virginia because of his suspected links with extremists but they could not prove the charge.

Tanveer Khan, another deportee, said that Muslim prisoners in the US were treated roughly and they were not given proper food.

Syed Kaleem Imam, the FIA Immigration Cell deputy director, said the deportees were allowed to go to their hometowns after brief interrogation. He said none of the deportees was carrying illegal documents or wanted by Pakistani law enforcement agencies. He said the Pakistani embassy had given $30 to every deportee so that they could reach their hometowns.)
Sridhar

#197 by behram1

[The United States regards Pakistan as a non-Nato ally, a designation given to close friends.]

Wow! perhaps that is why the US doesn`t have to ask for permission when it bombs Paki territory, after all what is a few bombs between friends? Yeah, Pakistan rocked.....but by bombs.

Re#199
Jesus,behram you are a man .You are always welcome to join us in performing our bowel movements.It would be nice change to have a few circumsized Penises out there.It would be nice change for you from sh**ing in your pants

Re:#193 by rsridhar on February 7, 2006 4:54pm PT

Always a sperm eater, always.

{Ha, ha. } plop, plop.

India will build some more railroad tracks for hindoos to have early morning bowel movements.

---

http://dawn.com/2006/02/09/int11.htm

India’s infrastructure woes dampen growth

By Chris Sanders

MUMBAI: India needs to spend as much as $200 billion on boosting electricity supplies, running water, highways, ports and runways to bring its infrastructure to levels of other Asian nations.

It’s a pressing issue: top corporate executives and economists at this week’s Reuters India Summit cited infrastructure woes as a key threat to India’s phenomenal economic growth.

“If a consignment has to take seven days to cross 1,400 kilometres, it is a misuse of resources,” said the India head of Chinese appliance maker Haier Electronics Group Ltd., T. K. Banerjee, at the summit in Mumbai.

Hurdles to expanding infrastructure include political squabbles between state governments and national politicians as well as financing. When there is progress, it’s slow.

Under a national highway programme, just 13,000km have been completed while more than 60,000km are needed, said Y. M. Deosthalee, the chief financial officer of India’s largest engineering firm, Larsen & Toubro Ltd.

“It must be done at a much, much faster pace,” Deosthalee said. Infrastructure is taxed to the hilt, threatening to soften industrial output in Asia’s third-largest economy in the 2006/2007 fiscal year, said Indranil Pan, chief economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank in Mumbai.

Strong manufacturing, as well as services, are expected to lift gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 8.1 per cent this year.

Indian roads carry 85 per cent of passenger and 75 per cent of freight traffic. Highways make up just two per cent of the total road network yet carry 40 per cent of this traffic.

“If the infrastructure is not developed, then you will have bottlenecks,” said Bharat Doshi, executive director at tractor and utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

More than 14,280km (8,900 miles) of national highways are being widened to between four and six lanes at an estimated cost of 650 billion rupees ($15 billion).

Infrastructure problems run deeper than roads, they touch shipping, water and power — India has a 10 per cent electricity shortfall during peak hours.

“The quality of power is horrendous. There are shortages all over the country,” said Haier’s Banerjee, adding that washing machine sales are stuck below the two million mark because most cities do not have running water 24 hours a day.

India’s power deficit could cap growth in a couple of years, warned Ajit Ranade, chief economist at the Aditya Birla Group conglomerate.

“Electricity is directly connected with GDP. We shouldn’t land up in a situation where GDP can’t grow any more because there’s no electricity,” he said.

Improving the country’s infrastructure supports many other industries, said L&T’S Deosthalee.

“It boosts the capital goods sector because a lot of equipment manufacturers would benefit from it and it brings in FDI (foreign direct investment).”

The government is keen to boost cash coming into the country and recently partially liberalized FDI limits in sectors such as airports, mining and retailing.

Ports and airports need immediate attention.

At India’s ports — where container traffic grew 15 per cent a year in the five years to 2004 — insufficient capacity, inefficient operations and a lack of deep drafts capped growth.

Turnaround times at Indian ports improved to between three and four days in 2005, from about eight days in 1996, but still lag Asian rivals like Hong Kong where turnaround is one to two days.

“Most Indian ports have drafts of less than 10 metres and you cannot really take advantage of international shipping unless you have ports with drafts, cranes and storage,” said Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Chairman Subir Raha.

Passenger traffic at 125 state-run airports topped 50 million in the year to March 2005 and is estimated to rise 12 per cent each year between now and 2009. Already, passengers queue in long lines inside as carriers battle it out for terminal space outside. Regulatory delays bogged down construction of Bangalore’s new international airport, due to be finished in 2008. The antiquated airport, pot-holed roads, flooding and power outages are constraining the outsourcing boom in Bangalore, a city that accounts for 35 per cent of India’s $17.2 billion software and business services export industry.—Reuters

Pakistan rocks, always

http://dawn.com/2006/02/09/top3.htm

America waives export curbs for Pakistan

WASHINGTON, Feb 8: US President George W. Bush on Wednesday waived restrictions on exports to Pakistan, saying it would ease the democratic transition in the South Asian nation and help combat terrorism.

In a memo to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Mr Bush said he was easing prohibitions under the Appropriations Act, which targets countries where a democratically elected government has been overturned by a coup, according to a White House statement.

Mr Bush said the waiver would “facilitate the transition to democratic rule in Pakistan” and is “important to United States efforts to respond to, deter or prevent acts of international terrorism,” according to the statement.

“Accordingly, I hereby waive, with respect to Pakistan, the prohibition contained” in the Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programmes Appropriations Act, Mr Bush told Ms Rice, asking her to inform Congress about the change.

Following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, Washington passed broad legislation waiving restrictions on US arms exports and military assistance to Pakistan and India.

These countries were sanctioned following nuclear tests in May 1998, and additional sanctions were levied against Pakistan when President Pervez Musharraf launched the coup.

US-Pakistani ties have improved considerably since President Musharraf made a key decision after the 2001 attacks to back Washington’s ouster of Afghanistan’s radical Taliban regime, which had supported the terror group Al Qaeda.

The United States regards Pakistan as a non-Nato ally, a designation given to close friends. —AFP

re:#195 by soysauce
I agree with u there. Iran seems to have decided that being a nuclear power can give it the kind of security that North Korea has.
Sridhar

#192 #194
Ahmedinejad seems to be taking a cue from the North Koreans who fire a few missiles into the ``sea of japan`` just to get some reaction. It`s noteworthy that Bush sabre rattling with respect to north korea has come to an end even tho they may or may not have the bomb.
I do agree that the iranians, like us, have loose lips.

re:#191 by soysauce
A nation whose aim is only to defend itself will not go public proclaiming war on Israel, destruction of Israel etc etc.
Iran seems to be on the path of self-destruction.
Sridhar

re:#187 by behram1
Ha, ha.
Harami is now quoting an article written by a Hindu!
Sridhar

191

That was true until the new president guy started shooting off his mouth about wiping israel off the map..... I mean, what`s iran`s problem with Israel anyway? What exactly did jews did to Iran?.... nothing..... After that kind of bombastic threat - what do you expect?.... Iranis are actively seeking trouble....and they are going to get it.... It ain`t nobody else`s fault....

I mean, if they really have to make the bomb - all they have to do is hunker down and make the bomb.... why shoot off mouth... stupidity knows no bounds.....

#189
In light of this, it`s quite understandable that iran would want to have the bomb. They have never initiated a war against another country and here they are, surrounded on all sides by a nation that labeled them an ``axis of evil`` and threatens to attack and has been invading and occupying sovereign nations quite unprovoked.

Re: # 183 subroto
[....If so then please let me know for I too can be really articulate and offer some similar meaningful interacts....]

Bring it on - We at chowk love all that stuff....:)

Even after Iraq, 57% support an attack on Iran..Idiot Ahmedinejad has done the impossible..he`s made warmongering cool again..

Hawks have warplanes ready if the nuclear diplomacy fails
By Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor
IT IS the option of last resort with consequences too hideous to contemplate. And yet, with diplomacy nearly exhausted, the use of military force to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme is being actively considered by those grappling with one of the world’s most pressing security problems.

For five years the West has used every diplomatic device at its disposal to entice Iran into complying with strict conditions that would prevent its nuclear programme being diverted to produce an atomic bomb.

Those efforts, however, are now faltering. US leaders are openly discussing the looming conflict. A recent poll showed that 57 per cent of Americans favoured military intervention to stop Iran building a bomb.

Tehran scoffs at threats by the West, has pledged to press on with its nuclear progamme and defend itself if attacked.

The military option may be the only means of halting a regime that has threatened to annihilate Israel from developing a bomb and triggering a regional nuclear arms race.

Experts agree that America has the military capability to destroy Iran’s dozen known atomic sites. US forces virtually surround Iran with military air bases to the west in Afghanistan, to the east in Iraq, Turkey and Qatar and the south in Oman and Diego Garcia. The US Navy also has a carrier group in the Gulf, armed with attack aircraft and Tomahawk cruise missiles. B2 stealth bombers flying from mainland America could also be used.

The air campaign would not be easy. The Iranians have been preparing for an attack. Key sites are ringed with air defences and buried underground. Sensitive parts of the Natanz facility are concealed 18 meters (60ft) underground and protected by reinforced concrete two meters thick. Similar protection has been built around the uranium conversion site at Esfahan.

“American air strikes on Iran would vastly exceed the scope of the 1981 Israeli attack on the Osiraq centre in Iraq, and would more resemble the opening days of the 2003 air campaign against Iraq,” said the Global Security consultantcy.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sam Gardiner, a former US Air Force officer, predicted that knocking out nuclear sites could be over in less than a week. But he gave warning that would only be the beginning.

Iran has threatened to defend itself if attacked. It could use medium-range missiles to hit Israel or US military targets in Iraq and the region. It could also use its missiles and submarines to attack shipping in the Gulf, the main export route for much of the world’s energy needs. “Once you have dealt with the nuclear sites you would have to expand the targets,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Gardiner. “There are another 125 to deal with including chemical plants, missile launchers, airfields and submarines.”

While this huge US offensive is underway Iran would almost certainly deploy its most powerful weapon. It would unleash a counter-attack through proxies in the region. Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia, would attack Israel. Moqtadr al-Sadr, the militant Iraqi Shia religious leader, could order his Mahdi Army to rise up against American and British forces in Iraq. Iranian-backed groups could wreak havoc against Western targets across the world.

What began as a military operation to maintain a balance of power in the Middle East, could instead plunge the region into another conflict.

“It will have to be diplomats, not F15s that stop the mullahs,” said Joseph Cirincione, an expert on non-proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “An air strike against the uranium conversion facility at Esfahan would inflame Muslim anger, rally the Iranian public around an otherwise unpopular government. Finally, the strike would not, as it often said, delay the Iranian programme. It would almost certainly speed it up,” he wrote in an article.

behram: great quote from kierkegaard. unfortunately, the article unintentionally illustrates the point of the quote - by writing things stupid, ignorant things like:

1. ``It is they (europeans), with their agendas for endless growth and prosperity (self-enrichment), who have enslaved everyone in their jobs ``: Wrong. The fact is that today the europeans work much less than they ever did before. In summers, european streets are emptied as europeans had for the beaches around the mediterranean.

2. ``It is they who have sought cheap labor from North Africa, the Middle East and many poor parts of the world``: Wrong. North Africans and middle easterners are falling over themselves to get to europe - just a few months ago, they actually physically stormed a spanish island (knowning that once on spanish soil, spanish laws apply and they would spend months in legal proceedings before being deported or finding some loophole).

By writing such patently absurd stuff, the author thus illustrates his own slavish mind that is incapable of breaking the shackles of anti-westernism that bind too many third world people.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HB07Ak03.html

SPEAKING FREELY
The misplaced defense of free speech
By Aseem Shrivastava

``People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.``
- 19th-century Danish Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard


{It is often heard in Europe (less often in the United States) nowadays that immigrants – and Muslims more than others – are destroying the age-old culture of the West. It is true that Western culture has seen far more happy times, when the meaning of life was not lost. However, if truth be acknowledged, nobody has robbed Europe of its culture and its heritage as effectively as the organized greed of multinational corporations.

It is they, with their agendas for endless growth and prosperity (self-enrichment), who have enslaved everyone in their jobs (when they are lucky to have one), who have made people too busy to dance, sing and create culture. It is they who have sought cheap labor from North Africa, the Middle East and many poor parts of the world, often sending headhunters to these countries looking for workers cheaper than their own. It is they who have brought on the more or less rapid unraveling of the welfare state, robbing the working classes of the benefits of public services while levying more taxes from them (while reducing those that the rich pay), making them work harder, and pushing for an increase in the age for retirement. Much of this is meant to meet the competition from East Asia, especially totalitarian China, which was introduced to capitalism by president Richard Nixon and secretary of state Henry Kissinger back in the mid-1970s. }

Re:Subroto#183

[...Is there a reason abusive posts are not filtered out in Chowk?...]

Excellent point!! I appeal to the chowk editors to filter the posts of both Indian and Pakistani interactors that are consistently abusive. It has become very difficult to follow any article when the discussion gets hijacked by behram1, arjun_m etc.

Let people know about nuclear deal with U.S.: former Ambassadors

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Eight former Bangalore-based Ambassadors have expressed disquiet over the secrecy surrounding the negotiations with the United States on separation of civilian and military nuclear facilities.

They have urged the Government to share with the people ``all that they are legitimately entitled to know.``

``Given the sharp divergence of opinion on this landmark agreement and the strong passion it has generated in the country, the very least that the Government could do, before finalising the terms of implementation, is to present a full picture to the Indian public of

where we are heading...

``Not only the strategic community and the scientific community but also concerned citizens have the right to know and should have access to full and correct information,`` the former envoys said in a statement.

The signatories are C.B. Muthamma, who was in Hungary and the Netherlands;

N. Krishnan, who was stationed as the former Permanent Representative of India at the United Nations;

A.P. Venkateswaran, former Foreign Secretary;

A. Madhavan, who was posted in Japan and Germany;

Peter Lynn Sinai, who had worked in Austria and was the Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency;

C.V. Ranganathan, who represented India in China and France;

A.M. Khaleeli, who was based in Iran and Italy,

P.A. Nazareth, who served in Egypt and Mexico

---

exactly -- let`s see how cheaply the Mongoloid Bush Khan is getting the pathetic Congress walas to be his Towel Boys when he bloodies his hands in Iran......

ahem...DM...

Pakistani gas pipeline blown up

Tribesmen have blown up a gas pipeline in Pakistan`s troubled southern province of Balochistan, officials say.

Armed militants also fired more than 200 rockets at a major base belonging to the Pakistani security forces in the area, they said.

Both attacks took place in the district of Dera Bugti, about 350km (250 miles) from the provincial capital, Quetta.

The situation in Balochistan has deteriorated with increasing violence between rebels and security forces.

Dera Bugti is Pakistan`s main gas producing area.

The district co-ordination officer, Abdul Samad Lasi, said a gas well and a 60-foot gas pipeline were damaged in the attack.

``These people have also planted landmines on major roads in Dera Bugti, and we are advising people to avoid travel until we clear the landmines,`` the Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.

Powerful tribesmen

One security person was injured in the rocket attack on the base of the paramilitary Frontier Corps which also damaged nearby government buildings, Mr Lasi said.

Tribal militants in Balochistan, the source of Pakistan`s main gas reserves, are demanding greater control over natural resources.

They are said to be led by Nawab Akbar Bugti, the leader of one of the most powerful tribes in the area.

The army launched a major crackdown last month after rockets were fired during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf.

Is there a reason abusive posts are not filtered out in Chowk? Or does Chowk Staff believe that they really enhance the discussions here. If so then please let me know for I too can be really articulate and offer some similar meaningful interacts.

nasah
[....mohar miaN -- be thankful...]

Yeah - sure, we are all thankful to commies for leaving a billion people poor and pathetic ..... you must be out of your mind....

re: China versus India debate
While some people in this forum are as usual spreading their excrement as usual, in the corporate sector the question is: Is it China or India.
The following article is more gung-ho about China than India:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/02/06/ubric.xml&sSheet=/money/2006/02/06/ixcitytop.html
(China versus India transfixes business world
By Robert Miller (Filed: 06/03/2006)

For years it has been the development of China and India as the world`s biggest emerging markets that has kept investors agog with the prospect of enormous returns.

A factory in Shizuishan, China
Jim O`Neill believes China is `slightly better positioned` to deliver on its potential

Now, however, it is China versus India and the growing rivalry between the two that has transfixed the business world as both powers engage in a new form of combat to outdo each other as the emerging world force this century.

Jim O`Neill, the Goldman Sachs seer who is just back from the World Economic Forum at Davos, the talking shop for world leaders, says: ``This year the contest between China and India to become the next big influence on the world economy emerged as a dominant issue.``

It was in the Swiss ski resort that the Indian government launched a campaign to persuade the world that when it comes to doing business a democratic India is the place to be. Davos delegates arrived at a Zurich airport plastered with adverts proclaiming ``India: Fastest Growing Free Market Democracy``. Davos itself was bedecked by the same message. The clear inference being that democracy beats autocracy when it comes to doing business.

But is that necessarily true? Certainly the two are in the same race when it comes to economic growth. In his latest Global Economics Weekly bulletin, Mr O`Neill reckons that so rapid is China`s growth ``it could overtake the US by 2035, six years sooner than we estimated in 2003.``

Mr O`Neill predicts that at about the same time ``India may be overtaking Japan``, the world`s second largest economy.

So both are growing at a far more dramatic rate than Mr O`Neill first forecast. ``However, if we were forced to choose between the two, our most objective assessment would be that China is, at this point in time, slightly better positioned to deliver on its potential than India.``

The Goldman`s forecast is based on its own growth environment score, which consists of 13 variable items, including local schooling, tax and law and order issues, rather than solely on economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP).

``Our scorecard is revealing. China did better than India on virtually all components. Only in terms of `rule of law` and `corruption` did India score more highly than China.``

India`s supposed superiority in education, for instance, is a myth, says Mr O`Neill. ``Although India does have an English-speaking educational elite, the depth and breadth of the education system, particularly at the primary and secondary levels, falls very short of the standards necessary to deliver India`s growth potential.``

Mark Williams, manager of Foreign &Colonial`s Pacific Growth fund, says: ``Perceptions of China and India as economies based entirely on low-cost manufacturing are starting to change. I believe that a key theme during 2006 will be a growing recognition of the importance of the emerging Chinese service sector.

``These services are not the low-end call centres historically associated with India, but increasingly value added one in rising competition with the developed world, including London.``

For Ian Kernohan, economist at Royal London Asset Management, the rapid growth of China in particular means the country has to make some important adjustments.

``A reorientation of China`s growth towards domestic demand remains one of the biggest prizes in global rebalancing,`` he explains.

``The two major long term issues it faces now are both the result of high levels of economic growth. Income equality has risen and pollution has become a problem in many urban areas. The strong fiscal position should help the government to alleviate any social tensions which arise from the growth in inequality, through a combination of tax cuts and increased public spending.``

Mr Kernohan suggests the problem of pollution ``is a much more difficult issue to tackle, particularly given China`s dependence on coal for electricity generation.``)
Sridhar

re:#164 by arjun_m
You probably did not follow my post.
I was just making an observation that there was a time (during the Cold War) when India was seen as the leader of non-aligned movement. Remember the time when Yasser Arafat and Fiedel Castro rubbed shoulders with Indira Gandhi during the NAM meets?
India could then defy the West (no doubt to its own detriment).
Now things have changed. India is fast globalising and her interests are served by aligning with the West.
Sridhar

Crazy Indian monkies are on the loose. Garbage eaters are infesting this site with same old cut & paste. Sperm eaters have their mouths between the legs of Iran, and have sugar canes being inserted by Pakistan. Their skulls are empty with huge godown between their hearing posts. They are begging for mercy from the Saudi King, but he is now recommending some khajoor injected sugar canes instead.

Indians are strange creatures hard for humans to understand.

But then - these folks were NOT ruling India 40 years since the beginning of the country....were they?.....No - commies were ruling ..... and they made the country as it exists today - poor, wretched and pathetic ........

mohar miaN -- be thankful -- thank God those Hindutva vultures were NOT -- as the eager beaver chilum boys for the then Uncle Sam for 59 years -- they would have made the country as -- `poor wretched and pathetic` -- as Pakistan....:)

Re: # 171 behram
[.....That is exactly what I have been saying for the last so many months .....]

Did you? Awwww - poor boy - nobody is listening to you - but it`s ok boy - don`t cry......... But what are you doing outside the asylum anyway - Where is your nanny, where is Mullah32?...... Ahmed - come here, take Behram back to his room - yeah, the one next to the railway tracks - it`s time for his bowel movement therapy ...... let him watch people doing bowel movements..... for 4 hours today..... yes, same as yesterday..... yeah - it`s disgusting - but what are you going to do? ... that`s what works for our demented little fellow :))))

nasah
[..... and let the Mongoloid Arsonist from Texas .....]

In your opinion - India is `letting` Bush do his thing in middle east - and india has the ability to stop him......are you smoking something.... Didn`t you read my post?.... India has no power, no nothing... india can`t even take care of the pesky pakis next door, not to speak of buffoon bangalis on the other border ..... and you expect India to stop Bush from middle east...... your bluster is beyond pathetic.....

++++

[.....blame the BJP fascistas the `muscular` guys on the block with the spindly legs ....]

Sure - let`s blame them too. And while at it - let`s also blame charlie and his aunt...... But then - these folks were NOT ruling India 40 years since the beginning of the country....were they?.....No - commies were ruling ..... and they made the country as it exists today - poor, wretched and pathetic ........

Hello inbred retard.

REad this document:
PriceWaterHouseCoopers 9th Annual Global CEO Survey

Now search the document for India..now search it for Pakistan..

the results should be enlightening(for pakis)...

Re: # 81 AlephNull
The point is that the US has the NSG – a cartel for control – ie.e denial – of nuclear technology and fuel – under its thumb. The deal if it goes through – a very big if - would - in theory - allow India to purchase power reactors or equipment from NSG members such as Russia and France, and uranium from other NSG members such as Australia.

Is Russia a part of NSG? Do they need an OK from the US before selling to India?
Assuming that the US Congress permits this accord to go ahead, what precisely would that bring india? My understanding is that all the sanctions on india have been lifted and india is not a signatory to the NPT. Why can`t india, which is a significant buyer of military hardware from GE and the like pressure them to sell nuclear technology as well without taking this route?

Re: # 81 AlephNull
The point is that the US has the NSG – a cartel for control – ie.e denial – of nuclear technology and fuel – under its thumb. The deal if it goes through – a very big if - would - in theory - allow India to purchase power reactors or equipment from NSG members such as Russia and France, and uranium from other NSG members such as Australia.

Is Russia a part of NSG? Do they need an OK from the US before selling to India?
Assuming that the US Congress permits this accord to go ahead, what precisely would that bring india? My understanding is that all the sanctions on india have been lifted and india is not a signatory to the NPT. Why can`t india, which is a significant buyer of military hardware from GE and the like pressure them to sell nuclear technology as well without taking this route?

Re: # 171

behram

now that the danes, norwegians, french have indulted islam, arn`t you going to talk about the danish bowel movement and railway tracks ???

hello inbred retard...

Attracting foreign investment


SPEAKING to heads of foreign firms on Friday, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that Pakistan had made significant headway in trying to attract overseas investors. In this context, he said that economic reforms, investment-friendly policies and availability of skilled human capital had helped to reduce the cost of doing business in Pakistan. He also spoke of an investment of two billion dollars being made in the telecom sector — a claim that should be taken with some reservations given PTCL’s on-off privatization. While Mr Aziz’s remarks may well be true, and partly reflect the fact that he was speaking to potential investors to whom he would want to present a favourable picture, the amount of foreign direct investment that Pakistan receives is quite small compared to what other emerging economies are receiving.

A study last month of top destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI) had China ranked first, followed by India and then the US. China came out on top thanks to its rapidly growing reputation as a manufacturing powerhouse and home to the world’s fastest growing and largest consumer market while India achieved its best ranking to date because of its IT and telecom sectors. So the question that comes to mind is that if India can do so well, what is holding us back, other than that we have a smaller domestic consumer market. As Mr Aziz said, reforms are underway, projects to expand and improve infrastructure are being undertaken and it does seem that the government has its priorities in place in terms of attracting foreign investment. However, a lot more needs to be done before we begin to realistically compare ourselves to countries like India as a favoured FDI destination. First and foremost, the enabling environment is not quite there so far. Labour costs may be lower than in developed countries but there may be little advantage for us on this count compared to other emerging markets like India or Mexico. Besides, the quality of human capital in terms of education and skill is lower. An educated and literate population translates into an educated and skilled workforce but unfortunately we lag behind in this compared to some other regional countries. So, spending on education in general and on vocational and technical training in particular will have to be increased or else the claim by Mr Aziz of Pakistan having a skilled manpower will sound unconvincing.

Then comes the issue of rule of law and a judicial system that can settle business disputes in a reasonable period of time. Investors tend to shy away from countries where they feel their investment is not given the protection they expect. In the context of Pakistan, this means having a judicial system in which foreign investors have confidence and which they expect will settle disputes promptly. They also want to deal with a bureaucracy which works efficiently and expeditiously. Hence, reducing red tape — especially in key departments like the CBR — and putting in place a fully functional ‘one-window’ system for potential investors could be of great help. Then there is the matter of security and law and order, on which Pakistan tends to suffer much in the eyes of the outside world. This perception — whether accurate or otherwise is not important — will only change if law and order is not just improved but stabilizes to a point where it is no longer a matter of concern.