India's 9/11-Mumbai Terror Attacks

Watching news coming from home on this Thanksgiving has made me sad and angry. There has been unprecedented coverage of Mumbai attacks in Western Media. Never in history have news channels CNN, NBC; FOX covered any terror attack in India in such details as they are covering since last 24 hours. CNN's partner CNN IBN and NBC's partner NDTV have been source of excellent media coverage to the western world. Most of the TV journos are on vacation here in US but the tragedy of this magnitude has made them engaged and busy over this holiday.
Because of foreign hostages, Western media and Government are very much interested in knowing developments happening in India minute by minute.
These attacks have put Mumbai's name in mouth of common American who otherwise doesn’t care to know anything other than what's happening here in US. It's a great learning for western media of what India and Mumbai are. Their lack of knowledge was widely apparent in shows such as Larry King live and American Morning on CNN.

Attacks after attacks from Jaipur to Bangalore to Mumbai have become norm and India is becoming one of unsafe places in the world. You go from Virar to Churchgate in morning for work but your family is never sure that you would return back Virar at night. There have been more than 7 attacks in India this year alone but not a single attack in US since 9/11 which happened seven years back. America has unique geographical advantage of being surrounded by Atlantic and Pacific oceans on both sides and no base of islam in whole of North America (Canada, US, Mexico) but that fortune is not shared by countries such as India.

These attacks were well planned and have achieved 100% success in causing damage to India's reputation and inspiring terrorist organizations from Albania to Afghanistan.
In all these attacks, ideological fanatics from Islamic world are involved. Time and again everyone has said that not all Muslims are extremists but incidents like this give bad name to 1.5 billion Muslims around the world. As Spiritual leader, Deepak Chopra rightly said, moderate Muslims have to do more than just condemning these attacks.

Indian Intelligence and Central and state governments are equally responsible for failure to get any clue on all the attacks including this one. They haven't busted a single attack till date. Because of appeasement politics, no party has shown guts to crack down on this Islamic fundamentalism. Various Islamic extremist organizations including SIMI continue to operate in India.
India is extremely complex and diverse society. It is difficult but not impossible to detain and destroy networks of these ill minded people. So what should be done now? Should we let this rescue operation over and forget these attacks as we have forgotten all other attacks? The answer is No. This time media should take this agenda of terrorism comprehensively and create a public opinion on terror. They should focus their stories on financing of these organizations. They should put pressure on Indian government to create strict Anti terrorism laws and form a Terror Intelligence body of constitutional structure.
Share your comments on what more can be done to bust these terror organizations?

Disclaimer: I have used Muslim and Islam words many a times in this post but I am in no way against any religion or faith including Islam.

image:http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/11/26/world/26india3-600.jpg

More things change, more they remain same

It has been close to two months since I “put pen to paper”. Since I have just been to India, I think this is good time to share the observations that I made in this trip.
I went home after close to 1.5 yrs. Hence, I was anxious to go and see family and friends. I boarded from Minneapolis Airport for Chicago. Baggage check in and security check were smooth. These days, airport security staff and travelers have learnt to cooperate with each other and they are taking traveling travails in good spirit. The flight from Minneapolis boarded and arrived on time in Chicago. I had lot of time on my hand in Chicago and hence made use of time to see the airport, buy some gifts and read books and paper.
Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is world class airport. I could see lot of shops selling promotional items for 2016 Olympic Games, planned to be organized in Chicago while in Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Intl Airport, there were hardly any signs of Commonwealth games which are just 2 years away. This clearly tells you why sports are non priority for India.
I bought and read Financial Times as I had never read this paper before. I was surprised with lot of articles on India and China in paper and felt as If I am reading some paper from subcontinent. I was also carrying a book, “Exporting America” by Lou Dobbs. Since I had seen Lou Dobbs tonight on CNN several times, and main theme of this book is on outsourcing, I was interested to read the book. I was not impressed by reasoning presented in book. It seemed to be chauvinistic and exaggerated writing with sole agenda of presenting facts in negative light. But, I was impressed with the fact that after outsourcing of Manufacturing and high paying service jobs, how the employees and future generations would be trained to something that is unthinkable currently.
My American Airlines flight to New Delhi boarded on time. I liked the cabin crew services, especially sumptuous Indian food. I felt American Airlines serves good food and has good in-flight services. I am making these comparisons with experiences that I had with NWA-KLM which I feel grossly under serves.
My India experience started as soon as I landed in GMR Delhi Intl Airport at 9pm in Night. Nobody needs to tell you that you have arrived in India. The appalling infrastructure (more so because of revamp being done at the airport) and sad faces you see at immigration present a disappointing picture. You can make world class Infrastructure but how will you change mindset of people in immigration, customs and security check? All the claims of world class airport will fall flat if we don’t make folks at airports customer friendly and service oriented.

You are ashamed at mistreatment and feel like not coming to your home country. Nevertheless, one has to come and so did I.
To be on Delhi roads with so much traffic, noise and pollution is an experience in itself. I now imagine why foreigners become scary of Indian conditions when they are not accustomed to these in their home countries. while going to my friend’s place, I zipped through Chankyapuri area where all embassies and consulates are located. It was reminiscent of days when I came to Delhi for getting Belgium Visa.
I was soon going to start early morning when I was supposed to catch a train to go home.
I reached New Delhi Railway station early morning. It was crowded as expected but signs of grand railway station were missing. As soon as I entered the station my luggage was searched by two police men. I felt happy that there are people who are keeping eyes on people in such crowded areas. But, Here is a problem, when hundreds going in and out of station are two ill-equipped policemen sufficient to carry out this job? Can’t we have some x-ray machines installed at entrances and exits of National capital’s railway station?
My train came on time. As soon as it stopped, all passengers lined up at the door not even allowing passengers to get down. This is another typical behavior that you will find on all railway stations in India. Despite knowing that train is going to stop for 20 mins still people don’t have patience to let the passengers disembark from train. Why Indians are so Impatient? Why can’t they display more civilized behavior?
I was using Railway e tickets for first time. TTE came, saw my tickets but never bothered to ask for my identity card. After a while, a retired tourist couple hailing from New Zealand boarded the train. They were heading for Rathambore to see tigers. We had good conversations. At least it helped me pass time. One thing that I heard from them was differential pricing of tickets in tourists attractions like Taj Mahal. Indian govt charges Rs 20 to Indian citizens and Rs 750 to Foreign tourists. This lopsided pricing of tickets is unjustified and leaves a bad taste among foreign nationals. I have never seen this kind of pricing in any tourists location here in US.
After some time, lunch that I ordered came. I was surprised that IRCTC has outsourced the pantry services to RKHS(RKHS also serves in Infosys canteens) . I found no difference in service or quality of food which left a dangling question in my mind that whether organizations consider “customers” in their quest for outsourcing services?
My train journey was about to end as Ratlam(You can find references about Ratlam in "India Unbound" by Gurcharan Das) station was about to come. I reached Ratlam in evening after 12 hours of train travel. I have nice memories of Ratlam as I have spent my childhood days here. Out of station, I saw same old buildings, congested roads and tempos guzzling pollutants in plenty.
Dad had come to take me to home. We started our 2.5 hours journey to my home on a bumpy ride. I felt sad with road full of pot holes and more so uncomfortable life that has been in India for centuries. I was feeling drowsy and tired after traveling for more than 40 hours. Finally, I reached home with a thought in mind that “More things change, more they remain same”. I once belonged to the place and now I don’t desire to be part of it.

An Idea whose time has come

In the above interview, Manmohan Singh clearly mentions, Left parties as source of opposition to India-US Nuclear Cooperation. He would have never imagined the kind of tussle that has existed between Congress and Left since last two months at the time of the interview.He shares his dreams and vision about India in this interview. India has been blessed with very few prime ministers who have such depth of knowledge and understanding about World's affairs. He shares his views on china and Iran impresssively.Very few politicians can express any kind of insight on such countries. It's remarkable to hear from prime minister about India's desperate need for Infrastructure. He is also critical about Government's role as Ma-Baap. Beaureucrats and politicians should take lessons from his vision about Government’s role as helper and facilitator.
Hear this interview to get insight on his thoughts and dreams for India.

American Telecom Mess

Government Fees and Taxes

1. California State Telecomm. Relay Svc Surcharge
2. California State Universal Service Fund
3. California State Excise Tax Surcharge
4. California State 911
5. California State High Cost Fund Surcharge
6. California State Deaf Tax Surcharge

Surcharges & Fees

1. Federal Wireless Number Pooling And Portability
2. Federal Usf Non-Ld Surcharge
3. California State P.U.C. Fee
4. Federal E911

Above is list of taxes and surcharges that is part of your cell phone bill.For the first time, When I saw this list ,I was surprised to see so many taxes and surcharges.What's the need of so many taxes? Couldn't the Government collect some kind of single tax which can replace all the other taxes and fees? Single Tax/surcharge is easier to manage both by payer and payee.Some of the taxes are obvious but some like California State Telecomm. Relay Svc Surcharge are difficult to fathom. What could be Telecomm Realy Svc? Only California state could answer.You have state 911 and federal 911 tax.What's the need for two 911 surcharges? You have many surcharges charged both by both State and Federation.

Most ludicrous tax is High Cost Fund Surcharge. Whose cost of funds are high? Have you seen somebody charging you because some body's cost of funds is high?

Overall,this doesn't present a good picture of American Telecom sector.Higher number of taxes impede growth of any sector.

Take notice of some other indicators of existing Telecom mess::

1. Incoming calls are charged to receiver of call.(Operators in countries like India where Average revenue per user per month less than $15 do not charge customers for incoming calls.)
2. Non presence of pan US operator.(AT&T has license to operate in 22 states only.)
3. Not enough competition among telecom operators.
4. Non existence of cellular network in some parts of the country.(Hard to believe but truth is that there are some regions which don't have cellular coverage.)
5. Strong lobbying by incumbents like Verizon and AT&T etc(Their recent opposition to Google's suggestion of shared spectrum.)

Things don't look enthusiastic for Consumers.

Regulators should step in and take some path breaking decisions to clear this mess.It's sad to note that sorry state of affairs exists in an industry like Telecom which is considered to be backbone of knowledge society.

Bring jobs back from India

Yesterday, I stopped on c-span TV channel while I was jumping from one channel to other. For those who don't know C_SPAN http://www.c-span.org, let me tell you that it's a channel dedicated for airing government debates in senate,seminars etc involving public policy. Its a kind of government's interface to connect with citizens. Prasar Bharti (Indian Public Boradcaster) should take steps and transform Rajya Sabha and LokSabha channels to cover more public debates out of parliament.

The live telecast of National Governors Association (http://youinnovate21.net on subject of Innovation and technology was going on. I started listening to Mr Randell's ( AT&T CEO) speech followed by Mr Schmidt's (Google CEO ) speech.
The presence of these two CEOs glued me to channel till end of council meeting.
Randell talked about challenges in broadband penetration and competitiveness of Telecom Industry while Schmidt talked about Transformation of Govt. Services using new and latest technologies.Mr Schmidt is a glib talker while Randell seem to be regulated like his industry is.

All the governors seemed to be concerned about growing importance of new technologies and were deeply interested in learning new ways to bring innovation in government services and change in society.

I was day dreaming of this becoming a reality in India where 99% politicians and 90% IAS officers can't even define innovation.

The speeches were followed by Q & A round.I was struck by question from Mr. John Baldaccid Governor of Maine.He talked about creating IT clusters in his state and asked about Industry's role in partnering Government . His question could have been straight forward but he added chauvinistic spice by mentioning IT clusters will help bring back jobs from India.

This is another example of how India has taken centre stage in Government policy formation on Job creation and losses. Ten years back, these Governors would not have known what and where India is. But today it is a different world.

This development is significant as it highlights the achievement of Indian IT Services Industry.
It very easy to blame Indians for all job loses and but hard to evaluate the core reason behind such development.

The Senators and unaware public in large forget the hard labour that Indians apply to deliver IT Services at low cost to make American economy competitive and robust. They forget the taxes that Indians and Indian companies pay to federal and State Government without availing any Social Security benefits.

Its sad that Indians' hard work for American companies doesn't get much deserved acknowledgement and appreciation