India First

Thoughts on Widespread Unemployment and what the Indian Government Could Do About it - Views Not Based on Statistical Analysis! During a recent conversation, a friend mentioned that his car had the automated parking feature. I wasn’t aware that any aspect of driverless technology had been commercialised, which is what led me to have the discussion with both of them. We all must’ve read about Uber testing driverless taxis in Singapore and elsewhere a few months ago. We’ve seen how technology is making inroads in aspects of our lives that we wouldn’t have imagined a few decades ago. I mentioned to both that this could mean widespread shrinking in entire professions, or their elimination. I related it to a book my father had read in the nineties, in which the futurist (I can’t recall if it was Alvin Toffler or someone else) predicted that with increasing advancement in technology, in this century employment will exist for only 20% of the world’s population, while the remaining 80% w...

On Pakistani Actors featuring in Indian Movies (Originally published on FaceBook in Oct-16) In recent weeks much has been spoken, shouted, written and done (in the form of physical action) over banning/boycotting employment of Pakistani actors, and their movies in India. There are compulsions as well as wrongs on both sides – the Pakistani actors and movie making Indians. The issue has been “resolved” after a Constitutional authority had to negotiate it simply to avoid violence in his state. Here are a few thoughts… Firstly, let’s look at Pakistani’s unwritten policy towards India. Four wars on India by them have made it amply clear to them that they cannot defeat India in conventional warfare, in wars they have declared on us. So, decades ago the Pakistan Army decided to make export of mass murder a state policy. Since my childhood days to now, Indians have been killed – by bullets and bombs – in accordance with the policy of bleeding India with a “thousand cuts”. India being ...