Advertise! You fools! The author is an adverising professional and obviously not schooled in finance. If not the author would have known this adage, ``Don`t throw good money after bad.`` Make better use of your $2,000/- Money can`t buy truth or suppress falsehood

The Ongoing IT Revolution and Security Implications for Pakistan Dear Gymnosophist,

That`s what I call a laddu of a reply! Thanks. I shan`t bore readers pasting copies of my post and yours.

A point by point rebuttal would help.

I am not discussing the quality of research that goes on in Indian educational institutions - which anyway given the funding levels in comparison to US universities is pathetic. In terms of turning out bright young boys and girls who make it to the best universities and jobs thereon India is still right up ahead. I really mean it - take some time off to check up the faculty lists of the top 50-75 univs and watch the monotonous regularity with which Indians have been coming in getting their Ph.Ds in record time (as little as 16-18 months) and getting tenure or the pick of jobs. Since I have a number of Chinese friends I can assure you that Indians and Chinese have a good mutual admiration society going where maths and stats is concerned. It`s just that they choose to specialise in different areas - Indians are more interested in number theory and algebra, while Chinese are into automata, econometrics etc - but watch out! I shd know because I have come here after many of my relations moved in into the US during the last 15-20 years. My famiy is a fairly representative sample of the kind of superlative impact that Indians have made on the educational and technological scene out here - spanning everything from math thru, engg to management and economics. And worse still now during the last 5 years there are a number of wholly Indian teachers (ie.s Indian Ph.Ds) gaining tenure and professorship at US universities. Prof.Paulraj at Stanford is one of the notable examples. My cousin who teaches BioTEchnology at Anna University in Madras, took his Ph.D. in IISc Bangalore, worked at University of Chicago for 5 years before returning to India. Buddy the times they`re a changing!

The stats about the economic and educational success of the Indians are not mine. They are courtesy The Economist. So please join issue with them!

Of course life is hard in certain places like Germany - but not because Indians run drugs or extortion rackets. It`s because they excel! And FYI I do have a few relations in the deep South and a cousin who is married into what you would disparagingly refer to as a ``Red Neck family`` in Alabama. When the reports last came in I heard she is doing quite well thank you! I don`t have to move out of the ``confines of my MBA program`` to learn about life here. I know what it is like in different parts of the US.

As for that bit writing payroll programs etc., you should talk to the leading business writers in the US, UK and the German Economics Minister and the PM of Japan. While you think that Indians are at the low end of the table, these guys just don`t seem to get the point. They go about meeting minor pan-chewing and snuff snorting bureaucrats in Hyderabad and Bangalore pleading with them to open businesses in their respective countries or provide them with info how to get the IT revolution going!

As I said it`s OK Foxy-Sophist if you decide that the grapes are sour. But to say that there is no grape vine around the place -- Hmmm! what does one d o about that!

And once more. WHAT`S YOUR NAME? AND DON`T SAY IT IS GYMNOSOPHIST!

The Ongoing IT Revolution and Security Implications for Pakistan The IT dominance that India has achieved on the world stage (not in terms of quantity but in terms of sheer influence) is not a result of recent initiatives. Contrary to what your correspondent believes (AND PLEASE SAC-WHAT`S YOUR NAME?-the Indian government has played a role in making this happen. The 1950s saw India invest in educational infrastructure - not just the IITs but at least a hundred other institutions - older colleges like the Colleges ofEngg. in Pune, Madras etc., and the Regional Engg. Colleges in many States (including the one in Srinagar which has produced several top-notch professors who teach in the US today), a network of research institutions. That is paying off today.

I have recently moved from India into a top-ranked business school in the US. I have several Chinese, Japanese, Korean and European classmates apart from the Americans. The awe that you command as an Indian - one from the land of IR dominance - is simply experienced to be believed. Wherever I have been - the Social Security Office, the Motor LICENSE Bureau, shopping malls - I find that being an Indian means a new respectability. The Indian presence in academia in the US is simply awesome. Of the faculty of the top 50 business schools between them - 8-10% are Indian or of Indian origin.

The Indian in the US is typically the best educated immigrant available (among the 1 million Indian Americans school dropouts are unknown, 75% hold a college degree and 55% hold graduate degrees)

Now Japan and Germany are queing up in India to woo Indian talent. But find that Indian companies already operating in these countries have picked up the best already!

In terms of competitive strategy India is trying to raise the stakes to a level where Pakistan can simply not afford to compete. As happened recently with the defence budget.

Just as the service companies vital information is nestled within India we have intrepid businessmen like Dhirubai Ambani who enjoys a private audience with Bill Clinton! Ambani`s Reliance Industries refinery - the largest greenfield refinery in the world - has securitised its receivables for the next 30 years and floated them on debt markets. Obviously the financiers who have piced up this stock will ensure that Reliance Jamnagar wil remain safe in any war by working on the US government to intervene!

So that`s the way the cookie crumbles. It would be vainglorious of Pakistan to ignore these signs especially at a time when economic indicators are turning sour. India`s GDP per capita is and GDP per capita PPP is already ahead of Pakistan`s. The Indian leahe dership at last is showing the maturity not to be PAkistan centric and is boldly taking on world opinion. Unlike in the past when every sundry Pakistan dictator would be cordially addressed by the Indian leadership, this time the BJP has cold shouldered the CEO and de facto denied him recognition. Notice that no official Indian comunique ever referes to the HEad of State of Pakistan!

The options for Pakistan are few. Get on woth the job of governance and leave this business of competition aside. It`s a lost battle, especially when the adversary is running a marathon and you have to sprint to catch up!

India Unvarnished Dear Murad,

You like anyone else have the right to interpret or postulate an history. But please understand that there are many historians who could offer an explanation quite different from yours to many of the questions you pose.

The construction of Buddhism as an alternative traditional source of Indianness is not new. The best guide on this matter would be Surendranath DasGupta`s tratise ``History of Indian Philosophy`` a 10 volume book. I suggest that you and several readers spare the time to glance through it before arriving at rash conclusions. By the way what you have said adds nothing new to what has been said and is a regurgitation of the by now discredited ``Aryan Invasion Theory`` and its derivations.

For instance scientific evidence about the Sarasvati river does exist and so does evidence of older and more extensive inhabitations along its banks right upto Gujarat.

Another excellent contemporary authority about the Rig Veda is Prof. Subhash Kak of the Lousiana State University.

For your information I believe that the Hindu texts are spirutually inspired but not divinely revealed.

Where Mountains Move Dear RMS Azam,

Are you sure you guys know how to operate a seismic recorder!!?? Tee Hee!!

Indians and Pakistanis Must Start Anew Dear Uday,

This is the most ridiculous suggestion I have heard! Federation of States within the Indian sub-continent!? Wheerever was that need? Just because you want ``peace`` in JK at any cost doesn`t mean this!

I don`t give a damn how many terrorists get killed in JK. As for the people of JK (those 90% lazy bones) they`d better know what`s good for them. If not well - bad luck!

A story sans redemption FK Islamic and Hindu thought have been interacting on this sub-continent for centuries. The Islam that is practiced in its many local forms is a product of this synthesis.

As for Sikander Bakht. Ex-Olympian Hockey player, member of RSS for a long time. Left the choice of religion to both his sons to be made after they reached majority. One became a Muslim and the other is a Hindu.

From Cisco to Kashmir in 6 minutes Azim Premji is a model of simplicity. Years back I worked as a journalist and used to meet his wife (also a journalist with an interior decor mag). It took me a long time to realise who she is!

Viva Azim! You are our pride!

A story sans redemption To YLH and others who talk about racial purity etc. The Tamil poet of the last century Subramania Bharati had this to say about ancestry,

``Naangu thalaimurai aanaal, naavidanum chittappan aavaan``

``After four generations a barber could become your chaacha``

Meaning that this talk of endogamy and racial purity is nonsense and that races, cultures families and communities are mixing all the time. We seek our identity as humans first before anything else

A story sans redemption Dear Anjum Altaf,

Sudheendra is the best guy who can help you with your visa. I don`t have Sudheendra`s permission to say this but here goes anyway! The next time you watch Vajpayee on the dais on TV (any public meeting, press conference etc.) look closely at the row of people behind him. You WILL find Sudheendra. He is unmissable. A balding man with a silver mane, sharp nose and chin and square jaw and his ever present notebook (not paper but PC!) Now he is in ABV`s inner circle and HE IS THE GUY WHO CAN HELP U WITH YOUR VISA REAL PRONTO!!!

A story sans redemption Dear Sudheendra,

An excellent and interesting review. Going by what you have written it`s clear that you are a ``reader`` first and last and not some zealous ``literary critic`` who loves to clutter up the review with post`s and pre`s and streams and modernisms and consciousness and constructs and levels and planes. That you have tried to understand a society thru its art is admirable.

On the subject of peace in the sub-continent your quest/dream/hope represents the third and latest approach.

The first approach was that of the Mahatma who was an anarchist and wanted to subsume nationalism to small local communities and panchayats and carry on as if there was no difference.

And then we had Nehru and his secular friends (of whom Kuldip Nayar, Gujral and Khushwant are the present day examples) who tried to locate the unity in a never-has-been-Akbar/Birbal court mushaira setting - pretend that there is this mythical past in recent times - the times of the Mughals - where the populace was united under an Islamic monarch and went about its business without a care about religion etc. This crowd also believes that progress on the Indian sub-continent contends with reactionism led by the ``Brahminical Orthodoxy`` in the guise of Hinduism. In the same sense the Mughals are seen to be successors to the Ashokan times when it is fondly believed that an egalitarian society based on Buddhism kept Brahminical reaction at bay. The only way in which this group can carry on is by imposing its own version of ``Indiyanat`` which begins and ends with ``sher`` shairi`` and Lahore and Delhi. And needless to say it can be done by ignoring the manifest Hindu-ness of some 99% of the people of this sub-continent who some way or the other are or were Hindus. Despite the fact that there are so many places in Pakistan and Bangladesh that have a Hindu etymology (Pushpapur, Mulasthana, Lavapur, Shalkotta, Takshasila, Dhakeshwari, Kshattagrama, Jayeshpur, Shilhatta, Mayasimha) all attempt is made to deny this connectivity. Iqbal never fought shy of these connections in the early part of his life - took pride in his Pandit ancestry - challenged the Syed Ashrafs in debate with the Brahminical Mind of Hind that produced the grace of Lat and Manaat.

This was bound to fail sooner or later. It is impossible to build up a feeling of fraternity where the larger group has to completely disown its past. Your approach is a marked departure and is in line with Vajpayee`s sojourn to Lahore. Vajpayee visited the Pakistan monument invited ``pradhan mantri`` ``nawaz sharif`` and spoke in the Hindi he knows - a judicious mixture of sanskrit and persian and urdu - a true natural - Accepted partition as an accomplished fact and still commended the need for a new unity not based on history but on the demands of geography. No papering over of any differences or salients. Accept it as it is and start afresh. We will remain different from each other but will do so with decency and civility and no pomposity or presumptuousness. We must carry this forward. I am sure more peoplr like you would help take this process further.

And for those who question Vivekanada`s quote ``Hindu mind in an Islamic body`` the man also said ``there`s more to be learnt from playing a game of football than there is to be learnt from a day-long session of meditation``

Bullock Cart to IT Bandwagon: India’s IT experience It`s hard for some in Pakistan to acknowledge that India is going better. So Pra-fool Bidwai continues to provide the only counterpoint! Expectedly so!

Some clarifications. The IITs and IISc. in Bangalore are a small part of the technical education infrastructure that India has. There are several other institutes in every part of the country that have equally good if not better students. For instance, Madras Institute of Technology (Abdul Kalam`s alma mater), Birla Institute of Technology and Science (Sabeer Bhatia went there) and Roorkee University, Guindy Engg. Madras, UVCE Bangalore and over 15 Regional Engg. Colleges (including one at Srinagar which has now fallen on bad days with an Osama Hall of Residence) Guindy, Roorkee are nearly a couple of centuries old!

These schools have been producing talent consistently and meeting the needs of the market for a century. My grandfather an alumnus of Guindy, worked in the Railways in the 1st half of the century. My uncles and my father all engineers contributed to building India`s public sector. And my contemporaries are now leading the IT surge! And IT has been an area of interest in India right from independence. The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research built a 1st generation computer in 1954 one of the earliest in the world. There are a number of Indian scientists in other fields too and in the US constitute the largest expat educational professional group. Check out the websites of the top 50 Business Schools-Indian representation in the faculty is as high as 15%. It`s not for nothing that IIM Ahmedabad has been rated Asia`s best by Asiaweek.

The IDC report that Pra-fool so gleefully quotes must be subjected to Iqbal`s dictum. ``A true democracy is one where heads are weighed and not counted`` Considering that Sweden which scores 5000+ is yet to produce a single netpreneur or influential idea shaking the net, it`s a lightweight. Recently the German Economics Minister sat quietly at Bangalore hearing Azim Premji on how to promote an IT friendly climate back home! (Only 500 Indians applied for Germany`s 5-year work permit out of an expected 50,0000!)

IT is striking deep roots in India in the most unlikely places. And today it is generating employment on a massive scale. At a time when manufacturing is declining, IT organisations are setting up 2000 people strong development centres. Aditi Technologies` Talisma Online Software Support Centre at Bangalore employs 3500 people round the clock! In TamilNadu the government is setting up IT Parks in the smaller towns like Trichy and Tirunelveli. And that`s the trend.

As I said in an earlier post India is reaping the rewards of the hard work it put in during the 1950s. Not only developing the educational sector but also a Constitution, Clear Centre-State relations, separation of the various arms of the State and several other significant steps. There`s a lot more we could have done and better too. But good all the same.

For Pakistan it is not merely a question of getting NRPs to return or invest in the country. It must provide a conducive climate for growth, organise itself on secular lines, become more constitutionalist rather than Bonapartist. It`s a tough task to put it mildly. But it can be done if people like Dr.Hoodbhoy and Prof.Daudpota are encouraged and co-opted into the system.

It`s easy to dismiss India`s standing as ``show and tell projections`` But then there are many people who don`t buy just projections. Even before the current NASDAQ listing craze among India`s IT companies, Reliance Indistries became the FIRST COMPANY FROM ASIA JAPAN INCLUDED to issue 100 year bonds on the NYSE. NASDAQ, LSE and NYSE don`t list show-and-tell companies. If these people (including someone like rediff.com) can meet the rigourous listing requirements there must be something isn`t it? It`s no point talking sour grapes (which the good professor doesn`t).

Negotiating Peace in Kashmir Friends,

Please check out http://www.iitk.ac.in/alumni/html/doctrine.html.

It has the speech delivered by K. Subramanyam on the occasion of the Kelkar Memorial Lecture at IIT-Kanpur in Jan this year.

It`s a pretty realistic and practical piece of plain talk. If the economic sums don`t match no diplomatic policy can be sustained. You can sustain any political policy within the State despite bad economics by deficit financing. But diplomacy needs hard cash!

India too spent a lot of its time promoting global causes - Non-Alignment, Third World Information Order, Counter-trade - but more through jaw-jaw than through its pocket! OTOH Pakistan has spent PLUS money on Kashmir. In the process everything else has taken a back-seat. The process of formation of the State has been incomplete with the Military taking over all three of its arms.

This business about a pledge to the people of Kashmir, is a lot of hot air! I still maintain that the Kashmiri Indian is a pretty pampered person. Attention out of proportion to any real importance. Thankfully economic progress means there will be lot of different people within India vying for global attention! We are going to have ``International Community`` talking of its pledge to the people of Hyderabad/Andhra Pradesh, to provide investment, or to the people of Gujarat etc., on similar lines.

This talk about Human Rights is pure hogwash. Tell me why there is no refugee outflux from Indian Kashmir (or even earlier from Indian Punjab) despite all this talk about oppression! The truth is that the Kashmiri Indian has it going good. AN INDEPENDENT CONSTITUTION, strict property and family laws that make it impossible for any Indian from outside the State to own property in Kashmir, bounteous financial assistance! Who`d like to leave all that?

Negotiating Peace in Kashmir The good doctor is in error. Pakistan is not in the same league as India is-economically, socially -and most important- politically. Much as we might try to talk in terms of similarities, South Asianism or 3rd Worldism, it is just not the same.

Although the Paritition of British India occurred 50 years ago, Indian India is yet to be partitioned. Bangladesh is straight forward and has stuck to its Bengali identity - a sunset of the larger Indian identity. But as far as Pakistan is concerned it has failed to evolve a distinct culture or diplomatic space for itself. And that is unfortunate because Pakistan defines its entire interests as anything that is not in India`s. So if secularism is India`s policy, Pakistan will work as a theocracy. If India follows democracy, Pakistan will follow autocracy. If India aligns one way, Pakistan will align the other way. This fashion of zero-sum games and one-upmanship works when it is a contest of equals. So it helped the European Powers UK, Germany and France from 1880 to 1945. US and USSR (some of the time). Here the contestants were equally matched economically and militarily.

But Pakistan made a mistake (I doubt if anyone in Pak realises it) in following a policy of zero-sum strategy. Pakistan missed certain important milestones and paths altogether.

1.Framing a constitution

2.Designing a political cum administrative system providing for decentralisation

3.Developing an industrial base

4.Delineating the three Montesquion arms of the State - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary and developing each into vibrant institutions

5.Developing human resources

6.Ushering a modern, rational and secular order and in Jinnah`s words ensuring that, ``...religion is no business of the State``

Jinnah envisioned a liberal democracy (although I doubt if he could have succeeded given that he was surrounded by men who were his intellectual inferiors). Pakistan is instead a political mess (although not all that bad economically)

Pakistan could have avoided the mistakes India committed - the Public Sector, Bureaucracy, Corruption and host of others - and been an Asian

Tiger 30 years back. If Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and others could why not Pakistan?

Net nett. Pakistan is neither here nor there. Now diplomatic significance is a product of

economic power, spunk and bluster. China had lots of the last two and played the USSR off against the US. Now that it has the economic power too the product becomes significant. Pakistan unfortunately didn`t build itself up economically. The US and the ``Islamic Ummah`` made the right noises, the former provided the right advice and everything was OK. As long as the Cold War lasted the US propped up Pakistan in its rear-view mirror, misleading it utterly. Now that the Cold War is gone, Pakistan is discovering that everyone has taken it for a ride.

India has made bigger mistakes, but has a much wider margin of safety. And finally today India is forging ahead of Pakistan on per capita economic indicators.

The Kashmir problem has to be seen in this light. For India, Kashmir is a problem it can live with. For Pakistan it is a tiger by the tail. So this advice to India about Kashmir is out of place. The Indian political establishment and the people at large are simply not bothered.

For a long time India has followed a policy of defensive-defence towards Pakistan. Protect your own territory and turf and ensure that no one grazes on it. As long as this went on it was the Pakistan military-poltical establishment that was belligerent (1000 year War, We will nuke them even if it means that we wil be destroyed). But now that is changing. India is literally trying to outspend Pakistan militarily and isolate it diplomatically. Economically too India is forging ahead. After failing to capture the international market with commodities (leather, tea) manufactures, India has hit it good in services, especially IT. With 50% of Silicon Valley in Indian hands, the potential is enormous (unless we manage to botch it again!!). Pakistan has no such great white hope on the horizon. And hence all this attempt at Peace, Arms control etc. India is in no mood to listen.

The alternatives for Pakistan are

1.Sink deeper into political and economic difficulties by chasing the mirage of Kashmir and parity with India. Have the assorted ruffians, cutthroats like Lashkar-e-toiba, etc. take over the State and then wake up one morning to find a lunar landscape. (Mind you agriculture in Pakistan isn`t bad at all. But with no land reforms, agricultural productivity does not translate into prosperity for the rural poor.)

2.Forget Kashmir. Offer to accept the LoC as an International Border. And focus on the economy like hell. Cut out the oxygen to Masood Azhar and other scum. Carve them up (like Gen.Zia did to the Palestinians in Jordan in the early 1960s). Declare a secular republic and constitution. Forget those spoilt brats - the 6 million odd lazy bones in Indian Kashmir (1 million others in the State are a good lot) - who one-for-one receive more Central Assistance than their fellow citizens in any other State in India. A most ungrateful and unreliable lot! Watch the fun. I am sure Pakistan will gallop ahead in the years to come. It`s not too late!

The day I got circumcised Dear Pardesi,#49

I don`t know what you are talking about! Whose side are you taking?

OTOH you say, ``It is the duty of every duly elected government to protect its citizens from lawlessness and terrorists. That is why you sent the army in Punjab...``

OTOH you talk of ``state terrorism...`` That`s how the terrorist symapathisers usually talk. Are you one?!!?

Bhindranwale is appropriate on this thread because of what he said about religious rituals. It used to be a big joke those days (1982 to `84) in the North.

Of course the government dragged its feet on the Delhi Sikh massacre. Rajiv is no more. A few other guys were shot dead (Sajjan Kumar, Arjun Das and Lalit Maken) Such a crying shame! I wish the other goons who perpetrated that massacre (Bhagat, Tytler etc.) also get bumped off. You won`t find me shedding a tear.

But ``state terrorism`` is a different thing. India has a number of na-layak organisations whose chief job is protecting criminals and cut-throats in Kashmir, Punjab etc. These guttersnipes are popularly known as freedom-fighters, mujahi-dung, etc. I fully support state terrorism in the extermination of these bandits. The brutal power of the gun is the only language these vermin understand. In fact I have a drink every time these scum are shot down by the cops or the army! Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Amanullah Khan, Gurmeet Singh Aulakh, Prabhakaran. I have reserved some Talisker for the day these cut-throats get a bullet in their brains. Good show! The only language these scum understand is Russian. Fuel Air Explosives wiping out the oxygen from a mujahi-dung`s lungs. Wow!!!

BTW

I condemn any sort of name-calling or disrespect towards the rituals of another religion - unless I find it repugnant. This particular custom is not. Obviously I leave it to the individual`s choice.

The day I got circumcised Circumcision is an ancient practice. Several communities follow it, the world over. It is just one way of keeping your pecker clean. The alternative is to wash the pecker regularly - a simple matter of hygiene. It`s only when one starts finding religious significance to such everyday practices does the trouble begin. In India, Muslim boys are sometimes called names like ``katwa`` and ``landeya``. While the Muslim boys in turn have their own abuse for those not circumcised. And the great terrorist of the 1980s Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale (who was finished off by the cops) used to differentiate the Sikh community from others with following words (Punjababis please translate!) ``Hindus cut their tops - hair and beards - Muslims cut below - their * * * *s. Only Sikhs are complete!``

So if one wants to blow an issue out of all proportion and ignore the human experience here, we shan`t get very far!!!