Why India’s offer of talks with Pakistan might not be that bad
So India has offered Pakistan “open-ended talks on all outstanding issues affecting peace and security”, emphasising counter-terrorism, at the level of the foreign secretaries. The offer was made two weeks ago and Pakistan is yet to respond. Also, Siddharth Varadarajan reports that “this is [...]
Almost three years ago, the Percy Mistry Committee report recommended that India develop Mumbai into an international financial centre. Like other plans to modernise the city’s infrastructure and public services, the Mistry Committee’s recommendations were substantially unimplemented.
This month, we argue that it is time for the Indian government to revisit the Mumbai project. It [...]
The opportunity in the crisis
In today’s DNA, Mukul Asher & Azad Singh Bali argue that it is an opportune moment for India to make a serious play in developing international financial services:
It may seem odd to stress the need for developing international financial services (IFS) during the fragile recovery from the global financial and economic [...]
Shouldn’t he tell his boss “to be alive to the impact of his government’s counter-terrorism strategies on minorities?”
The New York Times reports that a “radical Islamic group planning a protest march through the streets of a town that has achieved iconic status in Britain for honoring the passing hearses of British soldiers killed in [...]
India cannot be competent in internal security without being competent in overall governance
“If 26/11 is not to become another one in an endless series of fatalities,” Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes “we need to keep asking the question: how can a people who have much to be proud of, be endowed with a state that has [...]
Democracy cannot operate without sunlight
Y P Rajesh in the Indian Express on Mumbai’s unanswered questions:
26/11 deserved an inquiry commission on the lines of the US commission that probed 9/11 and went on to blame the FBI and the CIA for intelligence failures. Particularly since the failures in India involved central and state, civilian and military [...]
Washington and New Delhi must understand how the jihadis have drawn their battle lines
The first message, mainly for those in the Obama administration who use catchy phrases like ‘offshore strategy’ and ‘light footprint counter-terrorism’, is that with drone attacks, you can never really be sure whether the target was taken out. Baitullah Mehsud is probably [...]
Urban India’s failure to vote requires greater study
The Acorn has previously invited the ire of the citizens of Mumbai and Bangalore by blaming their neglect of voting for the sorry state of their cities’ (and India’s) governance.
Now, you would have thought that the series of terrorist attacks over the last few years—in commuter trains, [...]
A conversation with a Pakistani foreign affairs scholar
Ahsan Butt, at Five Rupees, proposed a public conversation on India-Pakistan relations after the Nov 26th terrorist attack on Mumbai. He has posted our email exchange on his blog.
You should see it, and perhaps add your thoughtful two cents worth.
A question for the apologists of terrorism
It is certainly not easy for professional analysts, leave alone television-friendly commentators and editorial writers, to offer solutions to the central problem—what are we to do with Pakistan? So many take the lazy way out by inserting the word “Kashmir” somewhere in their answer. As V Anantha Nageswaran wrote [...]
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