The World This Week – 20 Mar 2009
Here’s a short recap of what went on in the world this past week.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar raised demands for a maharashtrian Prime Minister following the upcoming elections. Soon, Shiv Sena joined in.
So is this how it is going to be? Maybe we will see a rotating policy for PM in the future. Last time it was Punjab. This time Tamil Nadu. Next time West Bengal.
BJP candidate Varun Gandhi was alleged to have made some defamatory comments in an election speech. Now he is in deep shit trouble. The BJP hasn’t expelled him, but has distanced itself from him.
Meanwhile, former BJP leader and Bhartiya Janashakti Party President Uma Bharti declared her support for BJP and Advani. Her own party is not contesting the elections due to a lack of funds.
Shashi Tharoor was announced as the Congress nominee from Trivandrum. Tharoor served as UN under-secretary general and finished a close runner up in the race for the post of UN Secretary General.
Fun Fact: In January 1998, Shashi Tharoor was named by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as a “Global Leader of Tomorrow.” [link]
There were some other high profile personalities joining the election fray. Lead India winner RK Mishra joined the BJP, though at this point he hasn’t been given a ticket for the elections.
Meera Sanyal, the India head of ABN Amro bank, has reportedly taken leave from her job and is going to contest the elections from South Mumbai.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was under the grip of a computer virus for three months, which resulted in their not receiving most of the emails sent during that period.
This boggles the mind. The PMO took three months to figure out that they had an email problem?
The US cleared a $2.1bn sale of eight Boeing P-8I aircraft to India. This would be the biggest ever defense deal between the two countries.
Another big defense announcement came with the news that India is set to receive the first Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) from Israel this May. In yet another deal with Israel, India has acquired an Israeli spy satellite with night vision. This satellite will be launched by the PSLV soon, and ISRO is already working on another spy satellite.
Russia grounded its entire MIG 29 fleet citing structural defects. This comes as bad news for the already depleted Indian Air Force (IAF), which uses the aircraft as one of its front-line fighters. India did not follow suit. The IAF is going to conduct further tests to ascertain problems with the plane. They sure cannot afford to ground the MIG29s. At any rate, they have a far superior safety record as compared to the MIG 21s, which India has a lot of.
Phew! Lots of action on the defense front.
Scientists at IIT Kharagpur’s institute of medical science and technology have developed an artificial heart that would cost Rs 1 lakh (100,000). It hasn’t been tested on humans yet, but once that works out, it will be a boon for heart patients who cannot afford the existing, much pricier artificial hearts.
India is turning out to be the low cost destination of the world. First the Nano. The various Space missions. The $10 laptop turned out to be a dud, so we will ignore that.
In cricket, India won the New Zealand one day series 3-1 after crashing to a shock defeat in the last match. The team rebounded in the first test with a comprehensive win, thanks to a century by Sachin Tendulkar, and a six wicket haul by Harbhajan Singh. This was India’s first test win in New Zealand in 33 years.
High profile merger coming up in the technology domain.
IBM is in talks to buy Sun for a $6.5bn price tag. This is going to be a high profile marriage of two titans of the industry.
A woman was sent to jail for throwing a shoe at a supreme court judge. Why does this remind us of a former US president?
Talking of Presidents, Barrack Obama was on Jay Leno’s ‘The Tonight Show’ this week. Watch and enjoy!
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I am a fan of Tharoor and I was sad when he lost UN seat but to contest from Trivandrum. Hmm..he will feel like an outsider. He comes under the category who are termed pseudo-Malayalis Ha..ha.. like me.
Who is the virus in PMO?
)
solilo:
“pseudo-Malayalis”
isn’t that, like, the entire mallu world?
i mean seriously, aren’t there more malayalis outside kerala than *in* kerala? technically, i am one too (a keralite, not a malayali).
amreekandesi:
“So is this how it is going to be? Maybe we will see a rotating policy for PM in the future. Last time it was Punjab. This time Tamil Nadu. Next time West Bengal.”
how about one from karnataka? waitaminute, there’s already been one from karnataka. waitaminute#2, that was not a representative sample – we demand a mulligan!
- s.b.
The PMO should have hired me. I would have taken care of the virus
IBM – Sun deal would face a great deal of scrutiny by the anti-competition fellas.
Thanks for the recap. And I saw the complete video. This guy sounds quite intelligent. At least he knows what he is talking about.
@solilo and @somebody – interesting comments there! I have heart the saying that you can go anywhere in the world and find a Malayali there!
@Philip – They took care of the virus by installing some third party email application instead of outlook express. Somehow i am not convinced…seems like one of those ‘dog ate my homework’ stories!
@Amit – Yes he does. He has written some 3-4 books on India which are pretty informative reads.
Question to all the Indians:
Why do you people find it so difficult to adjust to the place you are moving to and have to live as “America Desis” in small groups of your own? Where ever the likes of you have gone – whether Europe or Americas or Australia – you people have found yourself segregated from the mainstream. Why is it so difficult to adapt to the new cultures?
I mean… live like a Roman in Rome. Thats the way things work.
Why do you Indians have to still stick with your culture of caste system, arranged marriages, racism and other such backward practices even when you come to the developed world?
Another thing I find really interesting is the confusion among the Indian immigrants about their identity. I’ve seen you guys being really proud of India, and always vigilant about politics and trends back there. But they why do you emigrate from their first of all? I find it really interesting. Could anyone clear this for me? I am just asking for the sake of knowing.
Hi Amreekandesi.
This seems like a nice collage of India and more. Thanks.
Am wondering if I should ask for a PM from Delhi…on second thoughts, delhites are mostly migrated from someplace
@fallenmonk: Arrange Marriages are not backward so I dont understand how its the same category as caste system!!
Btw @amreekandesi I am now following you on twitter
@fallenmonk – I dont quite agree with your thoughts there.
I wouldn’t say that Indians are anymore segregated from the mainstream than any other immigrant community. There’s a bunch of Indians in the Obama administration. That has to count for something!
As for sticking within the community, its certainly not an Indian thing. Here in New york, there’s a huge Chinatown. A Korea town. A Little Italy. Huge Russian area in Brooklyn. People prefer to stick together in their own little communities – be it based on religion, race, or culture. There’s nothing Indian to it.
Arranged marriage a backward custom? Apparently not so to a billion Indians. I can say from personal experience that there’s nothing bad with an arranged marriage.
lastly, if i migrated to America i can not stop being Indian. I love and respect America, but that doesn’t mean i give up on the country i grew up in.
@amlistening – Thanks, and thanks for the twitter follow!
@amlistening : “Arrange Marriages are not backward so I dont understand how its the same category as caste system!!”
Well, arranged marriages are certainly backward because, even in moderate arranged marriages, the potential bride/groom base is restricted by the parents. Also, because parents almost always have to give the ultimate consent for the non-arranged (aka natural/love) marriage. Mostly, the parents break all ties with the kids who break these laws. Thats what I have learned about, after staying there for some time too.
Furthermore, according to my studies of India and its culture, arranged marriages are nothing but a subpractice of caste system. If there were no castes, why would there be arranged marriages???
@amreekandesi : “Here in New york, there’s a huge Chinatown. A Korea town. A Little Italy. Huge Russian area in Brooklyn.”
These are the people who fled their countries after the world war 2 or later wars. They were perhaps nationalists and were driven out by their communist counterparts; and given safe haven by the US, for being their allies in these wars. They didn’t come deliberately in the peaceful modern times. And yet, most of these people do follow the American culture completely.
But thats not the same for Indians, who have recently started immigrating in masses (for reasons unknown?) in these peaceful times. Moreover, they are more reluctant to adopt the free liberal western culture, and still end up practicing these arranged marriages, caste system, racism etc even in the states. Why is it so?
Video tells the all….
Politics peoples….uffffffffffffffff