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QUOTE(agnivayu @ Feb 3 2006, 07:44 PM)In the U.K. they seem to have a positive view. This goes to show how the anglo-saxons are the most friendly section of the West towards Hinduism and Indians.
But note that US (even if having substantial non-Anglo-Saxon groups) is very slightly positive: 39%>35%. This might be with the error margins statistically. I feel this is very representative of US general American attitudes towards Indians in the US- largely neutral in conclusion. And it matches the annecdotal attitude of Americans towards India- neutral or ignorant. I believe this is generally a good state to be in vis-a-vis the superpower, though the Indian mind often seeks to define its status by referal to non-Indian opinion.
It is striking to note how UK and France amongst the worst colonial powers, today have a popular commendation as against US which is viewed pretty negatively. Pair this with China which is roughly similar to India in terms of receiving a positive picture. I guess that gives positive points to Commie China's propaganda.
QUOTE(rajesh_g @ Feb 4 2006, 04:42 AM)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4676304.stm
World 'Lukewarn' to India's role
This survey is misleading and biased. Nothing has been said about the sampling mechanism. Europe has definitely influenced the whole world by making billions of people poor, what a civilzed people. Obviously, if the respondents are of European descendents, they will vote in the favor of EU.
France is a complex country. Whenever there is an aggression towards France, it immediately starts praising the aggressor i.e. recent aggression by Islamists in France. It is also most superficial country in the sense any good looking insane person will be worshipped there. Looks is all that matters. No wonder all good looking Eastern European girls are having a whale of time in France. Plus, they also consider Indians as Anglo-Saxon biased , hence their dislike for India.
Just see the xenophobic reactions to a business deal by Mittal, as if he is planning to take over whole of France...so much for "Liberté, égalité, fraternité". Can't digest the fact that a brown skinned business man is capable of taking over French business. No wonder they get correct treatment from their Islamist progenies.
Phillippines is a country which is struggling to find its own identity. It is Asian, Catholic, Islamists, Buddhists??? They can't understand India. They also feel competition from Indian expatriots all over the world...hence their dislike.
All these surveys are self congratulatroy exercises to be taken with a pinch of salt.
unanda K Datta-Ray
QUOTEJapan, don't forget how Buddha smiles
The Japanese are thoroughly disillusioned with diplomacy. This is the word doing the rounds in Jakarta and Bangkok. If so, the ingratitude that prompts the complaint might be a good reason for returning to Tokyo's earlier commitment to disarmament, which is not heard of much nowadays but whose relevance is highlighted by the crisis over Iran.
It is a mission in which India can also play a part.
Southeast Asians claim that the Japanese charge them with responding poorly to Tokyo's generosity. Here is the world's second largest economy, Asia's richest nation that spent billions of dollars in aid and investment in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
'National interest is at stake'
Yasukuni Enoki, Japan's active and 'imaginative' ambassador to India, confirms that the sum was three times more than its foreign direct investment to China. Yet, not a single ASEAN member will support Japan's quest for a seat at the world's high table.
Can that be one reason -- perhaps the most significant one -- why India, not ASEAN or China, was perhaps the first Asian destination for Taro Aso, who became Japan's foreign minister last October?
'It's the best nuclear deal India could've got'
With dates not matching, Aso's maiden trip had to change course and he landed at Japan's old enemy, benefactor, strategic ally, nuclear protector and economic competitor -- the United States.
The many levels at which Japan interacts with the United States suggests a sophistication in Tokyo that goes far beyond the simple compulsion of dollars and cents. So does the concept of a Japan-ASEAN-India triangle secretly loom large in bilateral commerce?
One example cited is Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts; a subsidiary of Bangalore's troubled Toyota Kirloskar Motors. All its products such as transmissions feed local Toyota industries in Southeast Asia. Transcending political frontiers, the triangle constitutes what is presently called a single economic space.
Uncle Sam's devious plans
This currently fashionable concept encourages the hope that Japan's imprimatur might enable India to win back some of its own lost markets in Southeast Asia. Tata trucks, Usha fans, Godrej safes, manhole covers made in Kolkata and textbooks printed in Allahabad were once plentiful in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
But for some years now, rich Asians have turned up their worldly noses at Indian products. They might no longer do so if quality, finish, packaging and after sales attention are guaranteed by a 'Made in India with Japanese collaboration' label.
That Obscure Object of Desire: Nuclear energy
For us, this would be a fair exchange for the transfer to Japan of the Brahmanical gods and goddesses, albeit in their Buddhist incarnation and by way of China and Korea, that Dwijendra Nath Bakshi described with such erudition nearly 30 years ago in Hindu Divinities in Japanese Buddhist Pantheon.
During the couple of days he spent in New Delhi last month, Aso confirmed that India will remain the largest recipient of Japanese overseas development loans for the third year running.
But reviewing progress -- or lack of it -- on previously agreed goals like a science and technology initiative, centres of teaching Japanese and an institute of information technology for design and manufacturing, one must be cautious about the aims set out this time. The spirit may be willing but the flesh -- in India at least -- is weak.
'The US has not fully delivered'
Certainly, let those tangible ends set out during the visit – ICT partnership, energy cooperation, freight corridors, human exchanges and United Nations reform -- not be neglected. Rather, let serious attention also be paid to the ninth item on the joint list, an annual dialogue on disarmament and non-proliferation.
Sadly, the circumlocutory wording is not at all reassuring. Japan and India are to talk, it says, 'with the objective of promoting commonalities and enlarging areas of convergence for mutual cooperation in a constructive manner, thereby contributing to the advancement of overall bilateral relations.'
What does it all add up to? More obfuscation.
Do we really need the nuclear deal with the US?
Given Japanese outrage and excitement over Pokhran II, why cannot an Indo-Japanese document unambiguously reiterate its commitment to Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, committing all five acknowledged nuclear powers to make progressive efforts to reduce nuclear weapons globally with the ultimate end of eliminating those weapons?
After all, the International Court of Justice has ruled that the clause is valid and binding. It says that the US, Russia, Britain, France and China are legally obliged to undertake 'general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.'
Indo-US nuclear treaty: A good deal
As Albert Einstein famously put it, "Politics is for the moment. An equation is for eternity." So is peace. So, why should the Japanese become so mealy-mouthed now about something to which they have been deeply committed, emotionally and pragmatically, for 60 years?
Japan must persuade India, not acquiesce in New Delhi's great power ambitions. But, then, an insistence on Article VI of the NPT will also mean offending the US and capping Japan's own future plans for what it still calls its self-defence force.
If the world's only victim of the atom bomb, the sufferers of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forget that horror, then no one else can be expected to remember.
(Photograph)
HERITAGE: Participants perform yoga in Adhmadabad, India. India is racing to document traditional knowledge like yoga and herbal remedies to prevent others from trying to patent such practices.
AJIT SOLANKI/AP
India: Breathe in, and hands off our yoga
Delhi builds a digital library of lore such as herbal remedies and yoga to safeguard intellectual property.
By Anupreeta Das | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
DELHI – India's centuries-old traditional knowledge, preserved and orally passed down through generations of households, is now going digital.
Over the coming months, India will unveil a first-of-its-kind encyclopedia of 30 million pages, containing thousands of herbal remedies and eventually everything from indigenous construction techniques to yoga exercises.
The project represents a 21st-century approach to safeguarding intellectual property of the ancient variety. The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) aims to prevent foreign entrepreneurs from claiming Indian lore as novel, and thus patenting it.
"We do not want anyone selling our own knowledge to us," says Ajay Dua, a top bureaucrat in the Department of Industrial Policy and Planning, which oversees intellectual-property rights. "Also, we would like anyone using our traditional knowledge to acknowledge that it is from India."
These concerns are not unfounded. In the past decade, India has fought several costly legal battles to get patents revoked. The impetus for TKDL came in 1997, after India successfully managed to get a US patent on the wound-healing properties of turmeric revoked.
"This patent claimed the wound-healing properties as a novel finding, whereas practically every Indian housewife knows and uses it to heal wounds," says R. A. Mashelkar, chief of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The innovative idea to translate and digitize all the available information on traditional medicine was a collaborative effort of bureaucrats, scientists, and intellectual-property lawyers.
"It was a way to prevent more patents from being granted. Also, it was a way of throwing the information open to the public because this traditional wealth is for the benefit of mankind," says Rajeshwari Hariharan, a partner at K&S Partners, the law firm that represented India in several high-profile patent cases, including its fight over basmati rice, turmeric, and the antibacterial properties of the neem [margosa] leaf.
Of about 5,000 patents on plant-based formulations granted by the US in 2000, 80 percent were on plants of Indian origin, says Vinod Gupta, with the National Institute for Science Communication and Information Resources.
Mr. Gupta heads a team of 150 doctors, scientists, and information-technolgoy experts who have worked on the TKDL project since 2002. Poring over ancient medical texts and punching code into computers in Delhi, they have already documented more than 110,000 formulations culled from some 100 texts belonging to the three principal systems of traditional medicine - ayurveda, unani, and siddha.
Patent officers call this information "prior art," or previously existing knowledge about the applications of a product. Normally, a patent application is rejected if there is prior art on the product. But in the patent offices of the US, Europe, and Japan, prior art is recognized only if it has been published in a journal or database.
Traditional knowledge and folklore passed down orally - or contained in ancient, inaccessible texts - are not prior art. "We therefore revisited the past and modernized it," says Gupta.
The TKDL uses complex computer software to translate formulations written in ancient and medieval Indian languages to English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.
The $2 million project could wind up saving India money in the long run. "It is definitely far cheaper than any litigation costs India would have to pay to fight patent battles," says Gupta.
Indian officials are recognizing an ever- widening array of traditional knowledge that may be stolen by biopirates. "You name an area, and there is an Indian product in danger of being lost to a patent," says Gupta, pointing to Indian handicraft designs, Kashmir silk, and pashmina, a premium wool derived from the Himalayan goat.
Yet many were caught off guard here when in 2004 the US granted an Indian-American yoga practitioner a patent on a sequence of 26 asanas, or physical exercises. Following the initial disbelief that anyone could claim authorship over a 5,000-year-old tradition, officials say they are finally setting up a task force with yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar to prepare a case.
Such disputes have expanded the scope of the TKDL project. Once traditional medicine entries are completed, officials say they will focus on documenting all traditional knowledge. Already, the CSIR is creating databases on traditional Indian foods, indigenous architecture and construction techniques, and oral tribal knowledge, in what Dr. Mashelkar calls "defensive protection."
"The conversion of our [traditional] knowledge into dig
India 2.0 Aims to Sustain Its Global IT Influence
By Stan Gibson
News Analysis: Continued warp-speed IT growth will require changes.
It has become practically conventional wisdom on the subcontinent: India will do in IT what Japan has done in the auto industry—dominate it. But to make that happen, Indian companies will need to reinvent themselves: Call it India 2.0.
Executives at India's top technology services companies know their extraordinary ride of recent years won't last forever, so they're hard at work coming up with new ways to turn a profit without relying on the wage advantage that has allowed them to operate at a mere 30 percent of costs in developed countries such as the United States.
That edge has enabled companies such as Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro to lead an industry that has grown 200 times in revenue in the last 15 years.
What will India 2.0 look like? Customers can still look to India for high-quality code at low prices, the hallmark of India 1.0. But, increasingly, they'll see Indian companies setting up shop down the street in the customers' own countries in offices staffed with local employees.
View slide show: Stan Gibson's travels in India
Customers also will see Indian companies eager to develop, patent and license their own IP (intellectual property), instead of just working on projects where their customer retains rights to newly formed ideas. More customers may even see Indian companies beginning to sell software products.
In the meantime, Indian outsourcing companies need to convince customers that they can do more high-level work.
"India does what it does best: low-cost, high-quality coding," said Paul Coby, CIO of British Airways, in Harmondsworth, England, adding that he intends to retain control of IT architecture decisions.
Mitchell Habib, CIO for Citigroup's North America consumer operations, in New York, added that he will "go to India for application development but not for security."
An eWEEK.com Report: Outsourcing in India
The recent Nasscom conference in Mumbai served as a forum for Indian companies to express their collective aspirations.
Two key themes of India 2.0 emerged: the need to innovate and the need to globalize. Both themes have parallels with the Japanese automotive success story.
Once dismissed as creators of cookie-cutter economy cars, Japanese automakers have innovated a host of new designs in luxury, sport utility vehicle, sports car and hybrid vehicle markets, even as they have built assembly plants around the world. The Indians aim to do no less in IT.
What follows are the seismic shifts facing Indian outsourcing companies and what they mean for customers.
India Eyes Innovation
Talk to any offshore outsourcing company and the importance of cost savings increasingly gets pushed to the background.
"The cost advantage got our foot in the door. Then we added quality. Now we need innovation," said S. Ramadorai, chairman of Nasscom and CEO and managing director of Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services.
Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer Services in Hyderabad, India, said, "The last 15 years is the end of the beginning."
The need to innovate has led India's top services companies to select key technologies for R&D and to dedicate more of their profits to R&D than ever before.
For instance, Infosys has several major initiatives under way in grid technology. In addition, the company has developed significant practices in .Net technologies, VOIP (voice over IP) and RFID (radio-frequency identification) technologies. Efforts like these, most company officials said, will lead to more patent applications, where there is plenty of room for improvement. (Wipro, for example, has only 28 patents to its name.)
However, retaining more IP in India will alter current relationships with customers.
In the past, Indian companies would often do work under contract to customers who would retain IP rights on the work. That should change, according to one major customer of Indian companies.
Habib told a Nasscom audience that Indian companies should develop and market products and services that contain home-grown IP.
"Find IP you are creating. Use domain knowledge to bring products to market," said Habib.
He said Citigroup would have no objection in principle to Indian companies selling products based on technology developed originally for Citigroup.
"We need your products," said Habib. Since 1997, Citigroup has done about $1 billion in business with Indian outsourcers.
eWEEK.com Special Report: Outsourcing the Enterprise
"Nobody would challenge that I am a believer in this community," said Habib.
Michael Cusumano, MIT professor and author of the book, "The Business of Software," said the most successful software companies have a hybrid business model that consists of both software products and services.
He said Indian companies should expand beyond their services-only approach and incorporate products and what he called "semi-products," such as tools or reusable platforms, into their portfolios.
In the past few years, Wipro has made progress in this direction using its so-called factory model, in which it has consolidated the needs of large customers into a "demand repository," from which common applications are developed to suit many similar needs for a large client.
This process innovation cut costs by 10 percent and reduced the time to deliver software by 10 to 15 percent, according to a Harvard Business School case study of the practice.
The offshore outsourcer next door
The twin target that must be struck for India 2.0 to become real is for the players to become global, rather than just Indian, companies.
As a result, services provided by Indian outsourcing companies may be located around the corner instead of across the globe. That strategy will go hand in glove with the desire of many customers to be global as well.
"You've got to be globally sourced and not have a single point of failure, whether in the U.S. or in India," said Louis Rosenthal, executive vice president for IT at ABN AMRO Bank, in a Nasscom presentation.
Scott McKay, senior vice president and CIO of Genworth Financial, agreed.
"In business process globalization, you want to move beyond a regional footprint, to cover every zone where you have customers."
In response, Indian companies have been building worldwide operations.
"We want to be a well-respected global company, with a more diverse mix of employees," said Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani.
He said Infosys will make acquisitions of foreign companies and bring their employees into the Infosys fold.
"We need to make sure we become a global employer of choice," said Nilekani.
Infosys is already well on its way to globalization. The company will spend $65 million over the next five years to build two software development centers in China.
Infosys already has established five centers in the United States—in Phoenix; Lisle, Ill.; Fremont, Calif.; Quincy, Mass.; and Berkeley Heights, N.J.—along with one center each in Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan.
Habib voiced support for the push.
"Indian companies should recruit, train and deploy students from U.S. colleges in the U.S. It creates political capital," said Habib. "Today's hires are tomorrow's customers. Look at Toyota."
India 2.0 is likely to be active in areas beyond the United States and the United Kingdom.
Moving into non-English-speaking countries such as Germany and France will require not only new language skills but also knowledge of legal systems that are highly protective of displaced workers.
PointerClick here to read more about the future of Indian IT.
As Indian companies become more skillful in addressing these issues, the larger ones will try harder to get work in Germany and France, said Vijay Khare, executive vice president and global delivery coordinator for Patni Computer Systems, in Mumbai.
Despite the challenges, Deutsche Bank has been outsourcing successfully with several Indian companies for several years, said Simon Fanning, strategic sourcing program director for Deutsche Bank, in London, who declined, however, to name the companies.
"There are huge opportunities for Indian companies in Europe, but only those with a strategy will win," said Fanning.
He said he has a program to teach project managers how to deal with Indian companies.
"But we also need to teach Indians about Germany and Deutsche Bank culture. The culture shock goes both ways."
Next Page: Wages and turnover hurdles.
Wages and turnover hurdles
To rise to the next level, Indian companies will have to become expert at managing explosive growth.
They have done well so far, but it doesn't get any easier to double in size, and there are still existing cultural barriers for every new employee to overcome.
Companies are bringing on as many as 7,000 new workers per year. To keep a fair percentage of them, raises must be awarded regularly, a practice that, while necessary, erodes India's chief selling point—low-cost labor.
Most companies report that annual raises are anywhere between 10 and 20 percent.
But Indian companies manage attrition to their advantage, often shedding 2,000 workers per year.
"Wage inflation is here to stay," said S. "Kris" Gopalakrishnan, chief operating officer and co-founder of Infosys, in an interview at the company's Bangalore headquarters.
"At 10.8 percent, we are one of the lowest," he added. He said his company continues to be committed to its core hiring practice of targeting college graduates right out of school for its entry-level positions, which pay about $5,000 per year.
As Indian companies look at the larger world, established companies are looking at India and, in so doing, may provide the Indians with their biggest competitive challenge.
IBM, for example, is in the midst of an aggressive expansion in India, with a total of 38,000 employees in India, up from 23,000 just two years ago. Key to the expansion was IBM's acquisition in 2004 of Daksh, an Indian provider of business process and business transformation outsourcing services.
What the Indian companies covet—a robust IP portfolio and international presence—IBM already has. And it may be easier for IBM to grow in India than for Indian companies to globalize and cultivate innovation.
What's more, the Indian educational system, which feeds the IT players with tens of thousands of new hires annually, may not be up to the task of providing increasing numbers of qualified applicants, according to Indian IT executives .
And cultural differences aren't going away any time soon, either. "Indians have a difficult time saying no or that you're doing it the wrong way," said Gopalakrishnan.
"Indians are more hierarchical and might not say anything unless asked. Infosys teaches culture lessons in its training program for new hires, which lasts three and a half months and includes 10 days on communication skills alone."
When young Indians go abroad, they often face an adjustment period.
"It is challenging for a lot of youngsters to go to a U.S. environment. Many people are vegetarians. There are also different sports such as football and baseball. We want to reduce the trauma as much as possible," said Gopalakrishnan.
Still, he said, the United States, because of its openness to different cultures and to business change, remains the top destination.
"The U.S. gets excited about change because they see that as an opportunity to improve," he said.
PointerRead more here about how outsourcing in India has paid off for some companies.
India's social problems could slow the advance of the IT juggernaut. With between 200 million and 400 million people living on $1 per day, some Indians look to the burgeoning IT sector to improve the lot of all citizens, including its poorest.
While these problems are daunting, leaders of the Indian industry are not about to believe they will prevent India from achieving its destiny as a global IT hub.
Japan, they know, overcame similar obstacles. During a session at Nasscom, an audience of several hundred was asked whether it believed that Indian companies could achieve the highest market capitalization among IT companies in 20 years. Nearly all voted yes.
But Japan benefited from corporate arrogance on the part of Detroit automakers, which repeatedly overestimated their own strengths while underestimating those of Japan.
If it's different this time, it might be because with Japan as an example, no established IT player can say it did not see India coming.
Stan Gibson can be reached at stan_gibson@ziffdavis.com.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/mar/01bush8.htm
QUOTEScientists Versus Politicians?
The nuclear deal is a technical issue. But fact is that the Indian scientific community has made it clear they would like to carry on with their research programme without intrusive inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Not because they want to hide something, but because they want independence.
I find one thing funny. I have great admiration for Indian scientists, but the scientist's job is to pursue science and knowledge. I don't think it is the scientist's business to say how many weapons India should have and so on.
The scientists have the right to say that we need X amount to have a credible minimum deterrent -- for which they are commissioned. But when the scientific community dictates agreement and all that, then I would say they are going too far.
Another thing we should note is that eminent nuclear scientists in the US, Europe and elsewhere have always opposed nuclear weapons programmes. Scientists have felt that producing destructive weapons of such ferocity is not their proper goal.
I am sure Indian scientists are also disturbed with the development having violent dimensions.
But the fact remains that Indian scientists don't want constrains in their scientific quest. I am with them all the way. But beyond that point, it is for political leaders -- not scientists -- to decide on how many bombs India needs.
<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/india.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='india.gif' /> India ready to shoulder global role: US report
Chidanand Rajghatta
[ Thursday, March 16, 2006 08:42:08 pmTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
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WASHINGTON: India is now poised to shoulder global obligations in cooperation with the United States "in a way befitting a major power," the Bush administration said on Thursday in a sweeping overview of American strategic interests worldwide.
The administration's National Security Strategy document for 2006 built on its 2002 report which first identified India as a "growing world power with which we have common strategic interest."
In effect, the latest report said New Delhi has arrived and spoke more glowingly about India than any other country.
While the 2002 report spoke about residual differences over development of India's nuclear and missile programme, the new report released Thursday referred only to the "bold agreement" of July 2005, calling it a "a roadmap to realize the meaningful cooperation that had eluded our two nations for decades."
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http://www.wfs.org/confprcetron.htm
05-13-2006, 11:38 PM (This post was last modified: 05-14-2006, 05:01 AM by Bharatvarsh.)
QUOTEUK MPs take aim at India
- By Seema Mustafa
New Delhi, May 12: A group of British parliamentarians have come together to set up a "Parliamentarians for National Self-Determination" body that will seek to get international recognition of self-determination as a fundamental human right. India is a clear target, with the organisers listing "Punjab, Nagas, Manipur, Tamils and Kashmiris" in their list of movements seeking self-determination.
The chair of the new organisation, which was inaugurated at the Houses of Parliament at Westminster on Thursday, is Pakistani-origin Labour Party parliamentarian Lord Nazir Ahmed, with Mr Ranjit Singh, a lawyer who is openly supportive of a separate state of Punjab, as its administrative secretary.
The Indian high commission in London has taken the matter up with the British foreign office, which has disclaimed all responsibility, maintaining that it cannot interfere in the workings of the British Parliament. Mr Ranjit Singh, when contacted over the telephone by this correspondent, said that the effort of the parliamentarians was to propagate self-determination as a fundamental human right, and to give a platform through the organisation to all such separatist groups seeking self-determination. He said that a group of lawyers from Punjab had made a very forceful presentation for "the Sikhs' right to self-determination" at the inaugural function. He said he himself was from Punjab and supported the right to self-determination which had assumed the shape of the "Khalistan" movement in the 1980s.
Mr Singh claimed that the inaugural function was very well attended and that apart from Punjab, the "nationalist movements" of the "Nagas, Manipur, Northeast, Tamils, Kosovo, Kurdish self-determination" ... all had figured at the meeting. Interestingly, he had to be asked specifically about the Kashmiris, to which he said: "Yes, there were several speakers actually on this issue." Asked if representatives from Pakistan's Northern Areas, Gilgit, Baltistan as well as Baluchistan had been represented, Mr Singh said: "We are a new organisation, more groups will come." It is learnt that a group of Baluchis did arrive for the conference but, sources said, "they were not allowed to speak for more than 30 seconds."
Mr Ranjit Singh said that in his view, "if people are denied self-determination, the situation eventually leads to huge human rights abuses." He said that a cross-section of MPs was represented in the organisation and it would focus on "informing the world that self-determination was a fundamental right and not just a political slogan." The vice-chair of the parliamentarians group is Mr Elfyn Llwyd, MP, who represents the Welsh, Scottish and English nationalist groups. Others who spoke and are associated with the organisation include Mr Simon Hughes, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, Daniel Hannon, member of the European Parliament from the Conservative Party, Mr Peter Wishart, MP of the Scottish Nationalist Party, and Mr Kashmiri Singh, general secretary of the British Sikh Federation. The conference was organised in collaboration with the Hague-based Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO).
Lord Nazir Ahmad could not be reached. Sources said that he is the treasurer of a newly-constituted group on Sikhs and helps raise and channel funds. He is particularly unpopular with the Indian community in London, with several members having written to him protesting against the visible anti-India bias of the new organisation. Lord Dholakia, who is chairman of the Liberal Democrats' Friends of India, spoke out against the parliamentarians' initiative in the House of Lords. He said that it was important to ensure that government subcommittees were representative of all communities, and "not restricted just to those perceived as being responsible for the atrocities on that day." He went on to point out: "When examining home-grown terrorism, we need to consider the pronouncements often made by responsible people in our community in this country. I refer, for example, to those who exploit the situation in the subcontinent by advocating self-determination of some states in that part of the world. Those are the breeding grounds of emotions and hatred and do nothing but damage the stability of some people in this country and the stability of communities."
Interestingly, several Baloch and Sindhi groups are active in the UK and submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Tony Blair last year demanding that Pakistan should stop "committing ongoing atrocities against our peoples in Pakistan. Over the last six months, Pakistan's military and paramilitary forces have once again started a widespread operation using heavy air and ground artillery in various parts of Balochistan. This violent and illegal operation was started to suppress the legitimate demands of the Baloch people." The signatories to this memorandum, which is with this newspaper, included the World Sindhi Congress, Sindhi Baloch Forum and Balochistan Rights Movement, who incidentally were not invited to the parliamentarians and the UNPO's inaugural conference.
http://www.asianage.com/main.asp?layout=2&...&RF=DefaultMain
Well things change and we Hindus will get our chance to screw them also soon, we can then demand that Britain recognise the right to self determination of Muslims and create a Bradfordistan.
agnivayu
Most British people dont' care about this. It's just a couple of idiots creating trouble. Most people in Britain don't like Paki's anyway, so this Pakistani muslim radical will not get much support.
QUOTEIndia ready to shoulder global role: US report
Everything comes at a price. Every deal we make is only going to be in their favour. And if it does anything good for our country it is wholly by accident, not by their design, and only grudgingly given.
"shouldering global role" who are they to give it? All countries in the world need to shoulder a global role. But the US means, a role in their policy for the world. That includes Indian army personnel taking part in the wars the US maps out.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GG30Df03.html
In the US Army now
QUOTEAccording to reports, of the 15,000 new US citizens who were naturalized in the week of July 4, hundreds were from the military. Foreign legal residents make up 2% to 3% of the US military, but they are becoming citizens in record numbers. The largest number of foreigners in the US forces is from the Philippines (25 %). According to the Migration Policy Institute, 410 Indians were actively serving the US military in the year 2004. QUOTEThe carrot of citizenship through the army, of course, is a response to the US administration coming under increasing pressure over rising casualties in Iraq. With nations around the world, including India, refusing to officially deploy troops in Iraq, various methods have come to light that encourage people to join the war effort.
Mercenaries make up the second-largest occupation force in Iraq, outnumbering even the biggest US ally, Britain. A recent report by a news agency pegged the number of personnel from private military firms at more than 15,000 in Iraq.QUOTEIndia has been tough about the involvement of its citizens in Iraq. In April 2004, the Indian government for security reasons banned workers from going to Iraq, but it seemed that the government, as well as US authorities, were prepared to turn a blind eye to the illegal transit of Indians through Kuwait or Jordan on their way to Iraq.
However, matters changed quickly when in August last year three Indian truck drivers illegally operating in Iraq were kidnapped for ransom and were released only after protracted negotiations with New Delhi. After the episode, the government issued instructions to crack down on recruiting agencies that were sending Indian workers, whether ex-servicemen, drivers, cooks or menial hands, to aid the US troops.QUOTESince September 11, 59 posthumous citizenships have been given out. Among them is US Army private Uday Singh, 21, from Chandigarh (a north Indian city known for its laid-back yet modern lifestyle) who was killed in Iraq in December 2004. His cremation in Chandigarh was attended by the head of the US Pacific Command and his remains interred in Arlington, Virginia. Singh, who was eager to become a US citizen, wrote to a close relative from Iraq last November. "I got some more good news. My citizenship process has finally gone through." It shows how the US goes over and above the Indian government's control of its own army to get Indians to do the soldier-work in Iraq for America: by promising green cards to all Indian army professionals who will disobey Indian govt.'s own position on the matter.
Then, when the Indian soldier dies in Iraq (quite a high chance of that happening), he'd have done what the US wanted (fought in Iraq, instead of them having to lose one of their own precious American soldiers' lives) and fortunately for the US, never get to live in America. It works out so perfectly for them. They're very clever. It also shows how much they really care about Indians and others recruited as mercenaries. And we need our army for our own, real and actual conflicts.
If only communists and the usual terrorists would aim for a green card instead.
And if only Hindus in the Indian Army would act against the communist government and for India's long-term interests as easily as they disobey and act for America's interests.
Myanmar junta wonders about US invasion
MONE: Myanmar's military junta said on Sunday it wondered whether the US exemption of the Karen refugees from immigration laws presaged an invasion of the southeast Asian country.
Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan said the last time Washington allowed an exemption from laws aimed at keeping terrorists and their supporters out was before the "Bay of Pigs" invasion of Cuba after the communist victory there.
"The US government then provided these Cuban exiles with shelter and food and then military training and weapons," he told a news conference.
"After that, in 1961, the US had these Cuban exiles invade Cuba through the Bay of Pigs," he said. "The recent exemption made by the US in their immigration law reminds us of the Bay of Pigs Invasion."
The exemption by the United States, which has imposed sanctions on Myanmar because of the junta's detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, was for Karen in refugee camps on the Thai border.
But Kyaw Hsan they were really relatives of rebels who have been fighting Yangon for decades. "Bearing this in mind, we now need to ask the US what makes them amend that law and what they want out of this?"
Karen rebels say the people in the camps have been forced to flee junta forces who routinely kill rape or force people into slave labour.
Meanwhile, a report said that over the last month, more than 800 ethnic Karen have fled the biggest Myanmar army offensive in a decade to a makeshift jungle camp near the Thai border. Hundreds more are likely to follow.
In some of the first independent confirmation of a growing refugee crisis inside the former Burma's Karen State, report included interviews of dozens of families who walked for weeks through malaria-infested forests to escape soldiers of the SPDC, as Yangon's ruling junta is known.
Protected by Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) guerrillas in a steep valley one mile from Thailand, they spoke of friends and relatives murdered, villages burned to the ground and the ashes seeded with landmines.
Some of them used the word "myo dong". In Karen, it means genocide. "The SPDC is trying to make sure the Karen are wiped off the map of Burma – the people, the culture, the language," said 30-year-old Sor Law Lah Doh, who arrived two days ago in the camp near the Salween river with his wife and three children.
Another new arrival, 70-year-old Kya Kwa Po, agreed.
"The SPDC will only be happy when there are no more Karen in Burma," he said, sheltering from the midday sun beneath a blue tarpaulin slung across bamboo poles on the edge of the jungle. The Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a Christian group that helps refugees inside Myanmar, says more than 15,000 ethnic minority people have been forced to flee their homes but remain inside the country as internally displaced people, or IDPs.
The UN refugee agency confirmed two weeks ago that 1,800 had crossed into Thailand since December, where 120,000 ethnic minority people from Myanmar live in permanent refugee camps. agencies
QUOTESecularists on a sabbatical
Pioneer.com
Why doesn't Government speak out against the ongoing minority bashing in Pakistan and Bangladesh, asks Anuradha Dutt
India's western and eastern neighbours - Pakis-tan and Bangladesh - are increasingly pushing minorities, especially Hindus, into a corner. The latest outrage is the demolition of the sole temple in Lahore.
The Krishna Mandir has been razed to the ground so that a huge commercial complex can be built in its place. Adding insult to injury is the disclosure that the order was issue by the Evacuee Trust Property Board, a body that is meant to protect the properties of minorities. It also manages Sikh shrines through the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee. ETPB earlier allowed razing of a Hindu shrine in Vehari, Punjab, last year.
These offences are grave enough to derail the peace process between the two countries since they violate the Nehru-Liaquat Pact, providing for reciprocal protection of places of worship of minorities. Pakistan had invoked this clause when the Babri Masjid was demolished in December 1992 as well as during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
While the Congress and the Left, which equate secularism with minorityism, can hardly be expected to take up a Hindu cause, the BJP's response to the report so far has been lukewarm. A similar transgression targeting Muslims here would have brought the nation to a standstill, with riots erupting, and politicos and social activists launching campaigns to uphold secular values.
This, in fact, was the scenario in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Rioters in Bangladesh and Pakistan attacked Hindus, Jains and Sikhs in reprisal, and the violence spilled over to England. However, the incident in Lahore seems not have stirred the secular conscience. The hounds that bay against any Hindu indiscretion are silent.
Similarly, there was no whisper of protest from the secular lobby and human rights groups in India after this paper reported that fundamentalists in the Bangladesh Government are pressurising the Khaleda Zia regime to relocate the historic Dhakeswari shrine, which gives Dhaka its name. It is one of the 51 shaktipeeths that mark the place, where one of the parts of the severed body of Goddess Sati fell. Most of these shrines are in India, but some are located in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Since the site is deemed most sacred in Hindu religious lore, the pilgrimage cannot be relocated. The belief in sanctity of place is also integral to the demand for the restoration of the original sites of the Ramjanmabhumi in Ayodhya, Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and Krishnajanmasthan in Mathura. Arguments that favour Muslim claims to these pilgrimages completely miss the point that their spiritual importance for Hindus is irreplaceable. For Muslims, they are symbols of Islamic conquest and pride.
Unfortunately, the BJP, by deploying the temple campaign as a mere tool for capturing power, trivialised the issue. Ms Sushma Swaraj, among the second-rung leaders, tipped for better things, is reported to have dismissed the Ram temple cause as "an encashed cheque". If this statement is true, it indicates a degree of cynicism, for long associated with the Congress's brand of caste and communal politics.
On the Dhakeswari shrine issue, Bangladesh's Hindu Boudhya Christian Aikya Parishad, headed by Maj Gen CR Dutta, is spearheading protests against the relocation move. Hindus, as a persecuted community, would be fighting a losing battle if India fails to take a firm stand on the issue by supporting them.
The 12th century shrine, a major centre of tantra. The existing records credit Raja Ballal Sen of having built the Kali shrine in the 12th century. Subsequently, Gopal Giri, a monk of the Badrinath Ashram at Joshi Math in the Himalayas, set up a religious seat for his guru at the place.
Great saints frequented the shrine. Its sanctity attracted enemy ire when the retreating Pakistani forces during the 1971 war attacked the temple. Many mendicants and pilgrims were killed. Much later, in retaliation for the Babri Masjid demolition, rioters attacked the pilgrimage.
The BJP, confused about its course of action ever since career politicians hijacked its Hindutva agenda, is yet to react in a demonstrable way. In the event that the UPA Government does nothing, UNESCO would do well to intercede by declaring the temple a world heritage site.
What a shame? I don't know whom spineless MMS will summon this time?
Indian official at UN accused of steering contracts suspended  QUOTEUnited Nations/ New Delhi 01: An Indian government official on deputation to the UN has been suspended on charges that he bent rules to help a state-run company of the country get contracts worth million of dollars, an allegation the individual and the firm rejected.
Sanjay Bahel, who was on deputation to the UN from the Indian Defense Auditing services, has been accused by an internal inquiry of helping Telecommunications Consultations of India Ltd (TCIL) get contracts worth 100 million dollars during his posting as chief of commodity procurement for the world body between 1998 and 2003.
A Superpower in the Making?
The rise of this growing nation will change the balance of power in Asia—and potentially the world.
BY JEFFREY R. AMBROSE
With nearly 1.1 billion inhabitants, India is the second largest country on earth in population, and seventh largest in geographical area, over 1.1 million square miles. This is almost 1,000 people for every square mile of area nationwide—much denser than even China.
Since achieving independence from British rule in 1947, it has seen its share of conflict, struggle and setbacks. Although India still faces many challenges, it is now poised to reach a higher position on the world scene than at any previous time.
The Indian economy has grown an average of around 6% annually over the past decade and 8% per year over the past three years—among the fastest rates in the world. It boasts an emerging middle class and increasing gross domestic product, exports, employment and foreign investment. This is complemented by a roaring stock market (index value up by a third in 2005 and by 200% since 2001), low external debt and large foreign exchange reserves.
Recent visits from leaders and officials from the United States, France, Germany and Russia have spotlighted India's rise. These wealthier nations see India as a trading partner with enormous potential.
Although it has not yet matched the financial performance of China—currently the fastest-growing economy in the world—according to some analysts, India shows even more long-term potential for rapid growth. Leaders from both nations have discussed the creation of a Chinese-Indian common market based on the European Union model. Although only an idea at present, if realized, it would be the largest economic system in the world, home for about 2.5 billion consumers—almost 40% of the human race (or 3 of every 8 people on earth)!
India's growth becomes more impressive in light of the fact that it is driven by a fraction of its population. Much of the nation remains a picture of rural poverty. Nearly all foreign investment in India goes to its six most urban states, with 22 other less developed states virtually ignored. This gap between city and country is keenly felt in places such as Gurgaon, a suburb of the Indian capital New Delhi: "In a land still plagued by deep poverty and backwardness, Gurgaon has become a renowned home of international call centers, business-processing operations, and information-technology firms. There are gleaming, glass-paned high-tech towers, condominium blocks, multiplexes, and shopping malls, where Indians dine at Ruby Tuesday, browse for Samsung electronics, or kick the tires at a Toyota, Ford, or Chevy dealer. If one overlooks the dusty pockets of poverty nearby, a few water buffaloes picking at garbage near shantytowns, the look is more Southern California office park than the India of yore" (U.S. News and World Report).
Despite the problems seen in India's underdeveloped countryside—for example, massive unmet infrastructure needs; more illiterate citizens than any other single nation—there are several areas in which the nation excels. These particular specialized talents have allowed a tiny percentage of the populace—perhaps less than 1%—to spearhead its move toward a higher standing in the world order.
India's economy is divided between agriculture (which accounts for a quarter of the gross national product), manufacturing (constituting another quarter) and the high-tech service sector, which now makes up fully half of the gross national product. Striving to become a "knowledge superpower," it hopes to skip the intermediate step of industrial development that has preceded other nations' march into the Information Age.
Scientific and information technology companies from around the world are opening research and development labs in India—more than 100 in the past five years. One mainstay of the new economy is software development, with ever more global firms outsourcing to India the time-intensive work of programming. Businesses worldwide also rely on the country for customer service—phone calls from around the world are directed to call centers in Indian cities such as Bangalore. Other developing markets include pharmaceutical and biotechnology research. Currently, the majority of top American companies send some of their IT work to India, and there is little evidence of a slowdown in this trend.
The business world is also looking in India's direction. Graduates of the nation's business programs are in high demand among multinational corporations, with each graduating class commanding a higher average salary than the one before. Those who complete MBA degrees at schools such as the Indian Institute of Management can now expect starting salaries ranging from $75,000 (USD) at Indian firms to over $200,000 outside the country. This is comparable to graduates of top American business schools such as Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth—testimony to the market value of Indian talent in this area of study.
Military Buildup
As its clout has grown, India has placed a high priority on improving its military capabilities as well.
New Delhi has not joined 187 other nations in signing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), and appeared on the world's radar screen as a nuclear-armed nation in May 1998, with the detonation of five warheads in the desert near the border of Pakistan. This disturbed many governments around the globe, naturally including that of Pakistan, which responded with nuclear tests of its own.
This stand-off was the turning point that began India's pursuit of a full-fledged nuclear weapons program. According to The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, additional nuclear missile tests occurred in the summer of 2004; since then, the Indian Defense Ministry has earmarked $2 billion annually to build 300 to 400 weapons over the next 5 to 7 years.
India maintains a "no first strike" nuclear policy, and asserts that it only seeks enough nuclear weaponry to effectively deter aggressors. U.S. President George W. Bush, during a March 2006 visit with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, announced cooperation between the two countries on civilian nuclear programs, and had previously called India a "responsible" nuclear nation (Der Spiegel). These measures drew an American diplomatic line between India and other nations that have nixed participation in the NPT, such as North Korea and Iran.
Whatever its nuclear aspirations, the country has a long military shopping list. Last year, it announced plans to build the first aircraft carrier ever put to sea by a developing nation, and to lease two nuclear submarines from Russia. America has openly discussed the sale of naval vessels, combat aircraft, patrol aircraft and helicopters to India. One former U.S. ambassador to India opined, "Of course we should sell advanced weaponry to India. The million-man Indian army actually fights, unlike the post-modern militaries of many of our European allies" (The Economist).
A Turning Point in Relations With China?
Many have compared India's pattern of growth to its neighbor, China. The countries have much in common—physical borders, immense populations, similar challenges, ancient civilizations, and quickly-rising economies. India also measures itself against China, coveting its economic power and international standing, including its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Though a degree of tension does remain between the two nations, with lingering memories of the brief 1962 war in which China soundly defeated India, the relationship between these two Asian giants is warming up. Trade between them is now increasing at a vigorous pace, and diplomatic relations are at a post-1962 highpoint. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, during a recent visit to New Delhi, hailed cooperation between the two nations as the driving force of a new "Asian Century." Indian Prime Minister Singh spoke of the potential for India and China to rearrange the world order by working together.
Many have pointed out that their economic strengths seem to be tailor-made for a partnership. India seeks to be a major player in the computer software world in the same way that China is in the area of hardware. Cooperation between Beijing and New Delhi could prove a dominant force in the information technology market.
Both nations have a voracious appetite for natural resources, and a recent energy deal neatly symbolized the new Sino-Indian dynamic: India acquired a 20% share in the development of the largest onshore oil field in Iran. The venture happens to be operated, and 50% owned, by Sinopec—China's state-run oil company.
However, India could seek to undercut China's manufacturing prices (as China did with many Southeast Asian countries in the 1990s). But it is more likely to pursue a different segment of the world market by producing higher-quality goods, as well as entirely different products.
Time will tell exactly how the relationship will mix competition and cooperation. These two nations both aspire to "first-world" status—and economic gains could be the incentive for a more tightly allied Asia.
Between East and West
With its newfound power, India faces a dilemma: Should it ultimately pursue closer ties with Western nations, or with other Asian countries?
After India gained independence, its first prime minister spoke of an Asian renaissance, envisioning a tightly bound continent changing the post-World War II landscape. Though premature at the time, the idea is now more feasible than any time since the Cold War era. Along with the improving relations with China, India is also friendly with Russia and Japan. And, as of 2004, the value of India's trade with other Asian nations surpassed that of exchange with the United States and Western Europe put together (International Herald Tribune).
But the United States—after courting India's arch-rival Pakistan as an ally in the war on terror after the September 11 attacks—is now distancing itself somewhat from the current Islamabad regime led by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, focusing on India instead. India's common ground with the U.S. includes liberal democratic government, capitalism and, among the more educated urban residents, the English language.
However, America's courting of India is viewed by some as a way to limit and contain Chinese influence in Asia. Some Indians resent this perception of their nation as a pawn of the U.S. Though they appreciate the American lifestyle and culture, much of the Indian population still sees this lone superpower as a bully.
While it may be able to dance with both partners alternately for a while, India will eventually be forced to choose. Which way will this nation turn?
"Kings of the East"
We need not merely guess where world events will ultimately lead. While many of the details remain to be seen, the overall framework of the future has been recorded in advance in one book—the Holy Bible.
In nations such as India, the size of population alone pulls them toward superpower status. Bible prophecy describes global power blocs—superpowers, or groups of superpowers—that will be prominent at the end of the age, shortly before Jesus Christ returns.
These powers will be based in the north (Europe), the south (the Arab world), and the "kings of the East"—a group of Asian nations that will band together, eventually fielding a standing army of two hundred million (Rev. 16:12; 9:16; Dan. 11)!
The nations of the West, including the United States, are headed for hard times as a result of their national and personal sins against the God that inspired the Bible. He reveals that they will be forsaken by their allies, called "lovers" in Scripture:
"And when you are spoiled, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you rend your face with painting, in vain shall you make yourself fair; your lovers will despise you, they will seek your life…All your lovers have forgotten you; they seek you not; for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquity; because your sins were increased" (Jer. 4:30; 30:14).
India is today one of these "lovers," but one that will soon prove to be something very different. So will other nations that Western countries now consider to be allies.
Keep watching India's growth toward superpower status—just one part of the inevitable rise of Asia!
Capt Manmohan Kumar,
Please provide source (website URL)
www.realtruth.org
The article quoted by Capt Kumar is a very balanced report on the developments of India and particularly its economy. However, we need not be too optimistic of the outcome in the next twenty five years as we Indians will have to work very hard to sustain the present rate of growth. Secondly, very hard decisions are required to be taken for resource mobilization as it is necessary for the creation of the infrastructure, which is one of the important pre requisites for the future economic prosperity of India.
Much will depend on how the people of India vote in the next general election to the Parliament. As it has been observed the present combination in the ruling front has its inherent drawbacks. The pace of liberalization has to be slowed down due to the constant pressure from the left front. Let us hope that there will be new alignment of political forces before the next general elections and so the next Government will be in a better position to carry forward the onward march of the nation.
Special emphasis need to be continued to be given for the economic development of the rural population, with better facilities of education and health care. Apart from the Central Government, the role of the various State Governments will be very crucial in giving effect to the various rural development projects. The participation of the people in all development projects needs to be increased, so that corruption in the implementation of the projects can be brought down substantially.
Writing about UN Reforms in the IHT (27/9) Prof Ikenburry and Ms Anne-Marie Slaughter have proposed a new theory to make the Security Council more representative and effective.
They are of the view that the Security Council can be made more effective by expanding its membership to include Germany, Japan, India Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria and at least one Muslim nation such as Egypt or Indonesia, as well as a rotating group of smaller nations.
This would mean the creation of a Concert of Democracies to lobby for effective reform and create a possible alternative decision making body if such reforms ultimately proves impossible. The columnists pointed out that Germany, Japan, India, Brazil and South Africa, one of the two African countries that would join under any of the plans currently being circulated for Security Council expansion, are all stable democracies. They wondered that why wouldn't this appeal to the Bush administration, which has made democracy promotion its highest foreign policy priority and why shouldn't it appeal to America as a whole.
The standard argument against expansion is that it will make the already slow decision making process even worst. However, the answer to that is not preserving the status quo, but rather getting rid of the biggest obstacle in the process- the Security Council's permanent member's veto. They felt that the Permanent members would retain a veto on resolutions to censure nations or declare support for or opposition to particular policies, but resolution requiring action in the face of international crisis would pass by either simple majority or weighted majority vote.
The reasoning put forward is very sound but will the Permanent Members be interested in getting their exclusive rights curtailed?
QUOTEThe reasoning put forward is very sound but will the Permanent Members be interested in getting their exclusive rights curtailed?
This can only happen when other new members pay some money to UN. At this moment USA gives maximum money to UN. Basically run UN.
Nothing comes free. I don't think Americans are fool. <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />
India should wait and improve living standard of people by giving equal right to every citizens, not by state sponsored discrimination against one section of society as current government is doing.
Sucking up NAM was a bad start. Towing commie agenda will bring no good to India, unless and until they are dreaming to be China's shoe cleaner.
India should get elected PM not appointed.


A laptop / desktop PC consuming data (bandwidth) heavily could be a nightmare not only when you are on a limited data plan but also when your transfer speed is capped. In most cases, background processes auto-updating, downloading or uploading without your knowledge are to blame for your data plan getting exhausted rather quickly. In my previous guide on how to fix a Windows PC consuming too much data / megabytes , I'd introduced a really helpful freeware called Cucusoft, today, I'll be sharing one of my favorites; GlassWire .
Ask to connect: Refuse new network connections until you're asked to approve or deny the connection by GlassWire.
Click the Firewall tab to view a list of applications currently connected to the internet. Simply click an application to block it from accessing the internet. Once blocked, a red flame should appear beside the app on the list.
Click the Usage tab to monitor your live data / bandwidth usage, active applications and how much data they have consumed so far.
its a really nice software.


text:
Q: Crystal handle json file of known format but dynamic keys So I have a JSON file of a somewhat known format { String => JSON::Type, ... }. So it is basically of type Hash(String, JSON::Type). But when I try and read it from file to memory like so: JSON.parse(File.read(@cache_file)).as(Hash(String, JSON::Type)) I always get an exception: can't cast JSON::Any to Hash(String, JSON::Type)
I'm not sure how I am supposed to handle the data if I can't cast it.
What I basically want to do is the following:

*

*save JSON::Type data under a String key

*replace JSON::Type data with other JSON::Type data under a String key

And of course read from / write to file...
Here's the whole thing I've got so far:
class Cache
  def initialize(@cache_file = "/tmp/cache_file.tmp")
  end

  def cache(cache_key : (String | Symbol))
    mutable_cache_data = data
    value = mutable_cache_data[cache_key.to_s] ||= yield.as(JSON::Type)
    File.write @cache_file, mutable_cache_data
    value
  end

  def clear
    File.delete @cache_file
  end

  def data
    unless File.exists? @cache_file
      File.write @cache_file, {} of String => JSON::Type
    end
    JSON.parse(File.read(@cache_file)).as(Hash(String, JSON::Type))
  end
end

puts Cache.new.cache(:something) { 10 } # => 10
puts Cache.new.cache(:something) { 'a' } # => 10

TL;DR I want to read a JSON file into a Hash(String => i_dont_care), replace a value under a given key name and serialize it to file again. How do I do that?

A: JSON.parse returns an JSON::Any, not a Hash so you can't cast it. You can however access the underlying raw value as JSON.parse(file).raw and cast this as hash.
Then your code is basically working (I've fixed a few error): https://carc.in/#/r/28c1

A: You can use use Hash(String, JSON::Type).from_json(File.read(@cache_file)). Hopefully you can restrict the type of JSON::Type down to something more sensible too. JSON::Any and JSON.parse_raw are very much a last resort compared to simply representing your schema using Hash, Array and custom types using JSON.mapping.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Relative Location: north of Uruguay.
Physical features: Amazon river basin.
Depend on government: They depend on the gov. to fix there homes.
traits of culture: main language Portuguese, favelas, roman Catholicism, and shrimp and rice.