Kashmir, India, Pakistan – Is there an end to this?

03 Mar 2019
India
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For about 3000 years the entire Indian subcontinent shared a common history, common culture as well as a common recognition across the world. So strong was the name of India back then that explorers went searching for it in all directions (Columbus). It’s the last 70 years where in the subcontinent has been torn apart. Original premise of the rife conflict between India and Pakistan – Kashmir, a princely state which joined the Indian union post British leaving the subcontinent after a brittle partition. The majority Muslim people of Kashmir wanted to join Pakistan while the Hindu king preferred to remain independent. And in the mayhem of the partition, a whole army of tribal Pashtuns backed by the new Pakistani govt comes in to invade Kashmir. The king of Kashmir accedes Kashmir to India in a desperate move while the local politicians backed by J&K National Conference back the move. In the mayhem, a part of Kashmir falls under Indian control, the rest goes under Pakistan termed as PoK / Azad Kashmir leading to the establishment of LoC. Yup, India never really administered PoK. PoK is a misnomer of sorts.

Fast forward to the present day and we still sit in the midst of a more complex mayhem. While India has just torn apart the paper signed back then, its still only on paper. India & Pakistan still on a bull fight of words in the UN while the people of Kashmir still battle to enjoy the free life that we all Indians get to everyday. All this after 2 major Indo-Pak wars (1965 & 1971), Pakistan losing its eastern half to Bangladesh, numerous armed conflicts like Kargil, nuclear threats, missile threats, multiple terror strikes (from Mumbai terror strike to Pulwama), armed standoffs/surgical strikes, terror strikes within Pakistan as well and multiple movies on the conflict both good (Bajrangi Bhaijan) & bad (Roja, Haider).

Its 3 generations past the original conflict kicked off and the current people of India, Pakistan & Kashmir hardly even understand well enough what are we all really fighting for. And for most Mumbaikars like me, the only thing that keeps our families worried is the fear of me returning home safely everyday for the fear of another terror strike. Who knows, Masood Azhar might be sending in another boat down here.

As for Kashmiris, the only thing they deserve is a free life. Watch movies like we do, eat what they like we do, enjoy cheapest internet across the entire world like we do, play & watch cricket like we do and also build startups like we do. India is among those countries which grants the greatest amount of freedom across the entire globe. But our Kashmiri brothers & sisters never really got to experience that. Most important of all they need to be part of India’s development story. Kashmir is the goto destination for a whole lot of Bollywood movies (classics had every second romantic song shot in Kashmir) but Kashmiris still don’t have the privilege of enjoying cinemas while we have risen from single screens to multiplexes. What have they really experienced — either die at the hands of terrorists or at the hands of armed forces — a life of fear. No-one deserves that!!

Now almost everyone knows that the only feasible solution is turning the current LOC into the international border. At the end of the day, it isn’t the land which makes a country, its the people. People who stand together, people who stand for each other, people who move ahead together. It doesn’t matter if the border is at the LOC or at the Radcliffe line. What really matters is the feeling of unity within the people living inside the border. Even Kashmiris have a right to feel that sense of unity in diversity. If they don’t want to at all, then its fine even if they separate out completely. I can only urge them to experience what really being an Indian feels like with the sense of true freedom.

While the mayhem continues the questions that I still ponder over:

  1. Will all of this mayhem ever end? If yes, when?
  2. When will my family have that peace of mind when I am roaming around the streets of Mumbai?
  3. Will I ever be able to watch a Mumbai’s IPL match against a team from Kashmir in Srinagar sitting right next to the Kashmiris?
  4. Will Kashmir ever have a film city of its own?
  5. Will there ever be an IT Park in Gulmarg where I could work from whilst enjoying the beauty of the valley and go golfing on weekends?

Why doesn’t India open an easy trade route for China

19 Dec 2018
India
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Great things have been said about the CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor), the ambitious project of China wherein the Chinese are trying to open modern day trade routes along the older historic Silk Route. The only thing they are trying to by-pass – India and the Indian subcontinent. They are building huge roads across difficult terrain as well as a large scale port within Pakistan for this purpose. For more details refer the below –

China–Pakistan Economic Corridor

China–Pakistan Economic Corridor is a collection of infrastructure projects that are currently under construction throughout Pakistan. Originally valued at $46 billion, the value of CPEC projects is worth $62 billion as of 2017. CPEC is intended to rapidly modernize Pakistani infrastructure and strengthen its economy by the construction of modern transportation networks, numerous energy projects, and special economic zones.

For this purpose, China is ready to transport its people, vehicles, infra and goods all the way across Tibet/Xinjiang provinces, through the extremely dangerous Karakoram range, and then all across Pakistan. After all this, what does it really gain – easy access to the Gulf region and further to Europe via the Suez Canal. It does save them the round trip all across the Malaysia/ Indonesia and also avoid Singapore. It is true that the piracy in the Malacca can be avoided. More on the piracy here below –

Piracy in the Strait of Malacca

Piracy in the Strait of Malacca has for long been a threat to ship owners and the mariners who ply the 900 km-long (550 miles) sea lane. In recent years, coordinated patrols by Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore along with increased security on vessels have sparked a sharp downturn in piracy.

The Strait of Malacca’s geography makes the region very susceptible to piracy. It was and still is an important passageway between China and India, used heavily for commercial trade.

But apart from trade links, China seems to gain sovereign control over Pakistan through these investment tactics. Well now that China has invested such huge amounts in Pakistan, it shouldn’t be surprising if China wakes up one fine day and says to Pakistan “Hey Pak, I have invested so much in you now. Unfortunately you can’t really pay it back. Why don’t you give some pseudo sovereign control over you to me.”

Should India keep waiting while China keeps building? Thats a real question at hand. Will India be at the China’s gun point if they get to cover us from the Pakistan’s side as well? Please note that China has already controls the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka.

How China Got Sri Lanka to Cough Up a Port

And then the port became China’s.

Would India be at any financial loss, if China gets better trade access to the Middle East? Its very well known that China can build refineries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_refineries#China). Time will tell if the Chinese can make India’s Jamanagar refinery feel timid. Probably Reliance, the company that runs the Jamnagar refinery, already sensed this and is diversifying into telecom/digital with Jio. After all proximity to the Middle East would mean proximity to crude oil.

What can India really do?

India has been playing the victim cards on the international circuit and gaining substantial sympathy from China’s arch-rival in trade, the US.

But will international diplomacy really help. As of end 2018, several energy projects are already operational, Gwadar port is partly operational and several parts of road building projects are nearing completion (http://cpec.gov.pk/progress-update). India needs to think and act faster. Well before the onset of the CPEC, there was a mention of the Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM Corridor). This in fact should be a lot more exciting for China from a pure trade perspective. China is essentially the eastern part of China. The Western regions of Xinjiang/Tibet are relatively backward and there are still political problems that China needs to sort out within. These are still autonomous regions. Its the eastern and south eastern regions of China that are densely populated, where Chinese people work hard to generate all the Chinese goods we see in markets all across the world. A simple look at the highway density in China would make it extremely clear.
China highways
Now if the Chinese get any form of access to the Indian highway network, port network and other infrastructure via Myanmar then its a short cut by passing the vast Western Chinese regions. All the Chinese companies would definitely love such an option. Apparently BCIM didn’t really take off as fast as CPEC did. All that really happened was an adventure group from Autocar India drove across the broken roads into India from China in a couple of Audi Q7 en route from Germany to India.

Myanmar is probably still fighting Rohingyas and it would take time for it to become a stable site.

india-china-gateway

At the same time, India does have a direct border with China as well on its eastern side, albeit across the disputed territories of Arunachal Pradesh (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Indian_border_dispute). If the two sides can keep their border disputes aside and put across a plan to link their roadways via Arunachal for trade purposes, it can greatly benefit both the countries. While this region is also mountainous, it is far lesser challenge as compared to the Great Karakoram. There are also a few sweet locations like the Chayu river valley where in a road construction can easily connect the two sides. And these sweet spots could be used to build across a direct gateway for China to all of the Indian infra whether it be the Golden Quadrilateral or the ports across the entire southern Indian subcontinent from Mumbai to Kolakata. If nothing comes up, at least the Indian markets can get Chinese goods directly over land leading to a reduction in prices. A lot of mobile components are actually flown over to Delhi nowadays. And thanks to such economic activity the states of Arunachal and north-east can definitely reap some development on the sidelines. The Indian government should probably throw a proposition to their Chinese counterparts for bridging across their highways across the Arunachal the way they did with Pakistan leading to the opening up of the Kartarpur corridor. India builds and operates its side of the corridor while China builds and operates on its own side. That would be a pretty economically beneficial proposal to both India & China. After all, the world is headed to become a gloconomy. Rival countries continue to have very deep trade ties. Best example would be the China & the US.

China can probably fight against India but would they ever wanna fight against economics??

Chhoti si yeh kahaani suno (छोटी सी ये कहानी सुनो)

26 Dec 2017
Music Mods
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Listen Now

 Lyrics in Hindi

छोटी सी ये कहानी सुनो
एक लडका थी, एक लड़की थी
होती क्या है खामोशी सुनो
एक लडका थी, एक लड़की थी
वो भी एक दौर था
वक़्त ही और था
जब वो थे अजनबी
हर दिन मिलते थे
पर वो ना कुच कहा
ना वो कुछ भी कही

छोटी सी ये कहानी सुनो
एक लडका थी, एक लड़की थी
होती क्या है खामोशी सुनो
एक लडका थी, एक लड़की थी

आमने सामने रहते थे दोनो
फिर भी दिल में कहते थे दोनो
कोई दूरी कभी ना आए
एक दिन आखिर दूर हुए वो दोनो
बातें होंटों पे ही रह गए
मौसम बदला जोगी फ़िज़ाएं …
तब वो पहचाना, क्या वो खो बैठा?
कहने को जा रहा था
फिर ना जाने, क्या हो गया
दुरी बढ़ती गई …

छोटी सी ये कहानी सुनो
एक लडका थी, एक लड़की थी
होती क्या है खामोशी सुनो
एक लडका थी, एक लड़की थी

Lyrics in English script

Chhoti si yeh kahaani suno
ek ladka tha, ek ladki thi
hoti kya hai khamoshi suno
ek ladka tha, ek ladki thi
woh bhi ek daur tha
waqt hi aur tha
jab woh the ajnabi.
har din milte the
par woh na kuchh kaha
na woh kuchh bhi kahi

Chhoti si yeh kahaani suno
ek ladka tha, ek ladki thi
hoti kya hai khamoshi suno
ek ladka tha, ek ladki thi

aamne saamne rehte the dono
phir bhi dil mein kehte the dono
koi duri kabhi na aaye
ek din akhir dur hue woh dono
baatein honton pe hi rah gaye
mausam badla jaagi fizaayein…
tab woh pehchana, kya woh kho baitha
kahne ko jaa raha tha
phir na jaane, kya ho gaya
Duri badhti gayi…

Chhoti si yeh kahaani suno
ek ladka tha, ek ladki thi
hoti kya hai khamoshi suno
ek ladka tha, ek ladki thi.

 

DISCLAIMER: This is inspired by the sing Pyaar Ki Yeh Kahani from the film Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlbGL4mCksI). This is just a rendition of the same with a new lyric. Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Digital Payments, Digital Payments, Digital Payments

15 Dec 2016
India
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Notebandi Note Ban

There has been a lot of hulla-gulla/shoo-shaa/noise on digital payments in recent times. Thanks to the note ban. Every body is driving their own agenda with digital payments.

  • The government wants to stoop over all your transactions to collect more Tax in the name of black money clean up
  • The wallets want to grab as much money in their eco system as they can
  • Banks should ideally make hay while the sun shines but instead they are too busy handling the insane queues outside their branches
  • Visa/Mastercard have Rupay to handle
  • Network operators are jumping to this new financial business rather than actually setting up a network that works (read more about network on my article on Airtel’s Open Network). They are a critical player as anything digital needs a network
  • NPCI is pushing its own half baked UPI
  • Even E-Commerce players like Amazon are turning into wallet companies (#AmazonPay although this was just a rename of Amazon Gift Card balance to Amazon Pay Balance)

In this entire picture nobody is thinking about the end consumer. What does he really care about?

Before we try to answer this question let’s look at cash first. Cash is KING. Its as simple as that. Two reasons:

  1. Nobody has a problem accepting cash
  2. Nobody SEEMS TO HAVE a problem giving cash (well, until recently)

Lets go deeper into what these 2 things mean. A few instances of acceptance:

  • A local roadside vegetable/fruit vendor accepts cash
  • Mom & Pop stores accept cash
  • My friends & relatives accept cash as gifts (I can’t give them quick gifts as otherwise I would have to ask them for their account details which they would never give if I ask them)
  • Banks & Post Offices accept cash
  • Government courts, RTOs, Municipalities, electricity providers, waterworks, gas providers, phone companies, schools & all public utilities accept cash
  • Temples & other religious places accept cash
  • Newspaper, cable guys, milkmen, servant maids accept cash
  • NBFCs accept cash
  • Daily wage & agricultural workers accept cash
  • Restaurants, street food vendors accept cash
  • Wholesale dealers accept cash
  • Travel agents, railways, waterways & airways as well as toll checks, petrol pumps accept cash
  • House owners accept cash as rent
  • Event organizers, movers & packers, courier guys, caterers, launderers & all other service providers accept cash
  • Hospitals, diagnostic centres, doctors & medical shops accept cash
  • Stock brokers, insurance companies and all other NBFCs accept cash
  • Jails accept cash (well if you need a bail 😉 )
  • Money exchangers sitting in places like Beijing accept cash
  • The guy serving Kashmiri Kawah to Amarnath Yatra devotees at 10000 ft accepts cash

As an accepter of Cash the only downside I see is the risk of receiving counterfeit Cash and of course the need to carry, count & manage it. Cash is physical!

Coming to the second point, well if the first point is so strong then it is natural that people are forced to give cash and they are already well used to now. Moreover the self reliant nature of cash makes it pretty easy to transact with. Self reliant in the sense it does not have any third party dependence for transacting – no machines, no network, no bank accounts, no wallet apps, no settlements, no transaction failures, no frills. Actually not really you still need a pocket, purse or at least your fist, essentially a little space, to carry it at least. The only downside of Cash as a giver of Cash that I can see is the it needs carrying and thus opening fears of theft. Cash is physical!

No doubt Cash is KING.

We are all living in an era of Fiat Money across the world. The cash we hold has no value in itself without the guarantee by the government. Yet cash is KING. Cash is physical and that gives everyone the feel that it is real ’cause they can actually feel it.

Now on the other hand Digital payments rely on virtual money. You can’t feel it. It is actually information money – information that is getting recorded somewhere whenever a transaction occurs. One can’t see it or feel it in any form apart from seeing some numbers in their account statements provided they trust the account statements from the banks.

It is directly guaranteed by the government. I guess everyone who has read the clause “I promise to pay the bearer the sum of ten rupees” undersigned by Governor of RBI on a ten rupee note understands that. Money that is guaranteed by the bank/provider of the payment service who has a license to operate such a service from the government. The government isn’t directly guaranteeing it.

Well summarising what cash brings onto the table –

  • Acceptability
  • No frills
  • Physical feel
  • Guarantee

Well there is the point of security and trust/comfort factor but that comes as a derivative of the above ones itself.

Now when it comes to digital payments we really need to encapsulate these aspects of cash transactions within individual digital transactions. Not quite an easy task!!!!!

 

Rags → Riches that inspire

11 Dec 2016
Stories
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I have always admired and looked up to people who have put forth hard work & madness one together to achieve something great. One such story I have come across in recent time is that of Mannam Madhusudhan Rao better known as MMR – the founder & owner of MMR Group of Companies. There is a lot of stuff about this man written across.

  • Born to agricultural labourers
  • His parents and entire family work day in & out and starve to ensure he studies
  • Couldn’t find a job post studies and becomes a construction worker
  • Grabs an opportunity to deliver a telecom wire laying job in a short time and becomes a civil contractor to telecom companies
  • Sets up & grows business with his partner
  • Partner cheats and is back to square 0.
  • Promises his wife that he will stay away from business and takes up a job
  • Entrepreneurial blood’s abstinence from entrepreneurship? Not possible!
  • Starts working behind his wife’s back to set up his own venture, this time all by himself
  • Finally his wife & family support him with morally & financially and he is all set
  • Does the same business of laying telecom cables on contract at much larger scale this time
  • Steadily grows his business to a multi 100 crore now diversified into power projects and entire township construction

Well for someone who want to read more about him, read out a full featured story at http://j.mp/2gO13jV.

But the kind of open thought that education can bring in a common man is amazing. Wasn’t he educated, I doubt if he could even think in those lines. Come where from we may its our thoughts which take us where shall we stay. That’s his story of Village Hut to Jubilees Hills.

Working with AOSP source within Android Studio

11 Dec 2016
Technology
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I regularly come across this requirement from my team members in particular those who happen to envy the fancy click-clicks of people working on standard Android app development. Most of my team actually works on the AOSP based sources itself. Well personally I still prefer editing in a simple text editor which provides just the basics required for the language of choice like Vim, Emacs or their GUI equivalents like Sublime.

For those who really want to explore the power of Android Studio on AOSP without it messing with the actual AOSP structure, just the run the following commands on the root directory of your AOSP setup.


. build/envsetup.sh (the regular environment set up stuff)
lunch (or pick your favorite lunch target)
make -j8 idegen (note the target here - idegen)
development/tools/idegen/idegen.sh (run a development script)

The final script run will generate a file named android.ipr file in main AOSP directory. Just open this file using Android Studio and voila!!

Statutory Warning at this junction: Android Studio will take quite some time in loading up this file as it is essentially a single project for the entire AOSP. As usual Android Studio will begin hogging up the entire system memory with the entire AOSP code index.

Most Important: This doesn’t get you anywhere in building entire Android using Studio. Its just a fancy IDE editing tool. Age old make is still your best friend.

Are Dreams reflections of our thoughts

10 Dec 2016
Random
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The word reflections reminds me that ‘dreams’ are reflections of my thought. I generally don’t have dreams or rather I don’t quite remember the dreams I get. But the few ones I remember are definitely reflections of my own life and thought. I would like to share one.

It was the night before an exam during my IIT days around Novenber 2007. My performance in that particular course wasn’t that bad but lately I haven’t been concentrating on that course. Lack of interest probably had caused me to be alienated fom everything associated with the course. Moreover the instructor was a pretty stringent man whom you can’t forget even in your dreams probably. I had decided on a night-out to study for the exam. Well as always in a tussle between body and the mind the body always wins and so I fell asleep. Thats when I had this dream. The dream wasn’t quite special but it kind of reflects the fact that dreams bear a direct relation with one’s thoughts. In the dream, I went to have my lunch at our hostel mess as always. But this time the food in the mess was awesome. It felt like home food. This reflects my longetivity for good food and my unending series of curses towards our hostel mess. In the mess I saw one of my classmates. He wasn’t quite a close friend of mine in the batch neither was he from my hostel. But yeah he did bear one thing that caused him to be there in my dream. He had fared pretty bad during the semester in the course whose exam was scheduled the following day. And he did tell me that he would fail in he course if he did not perform the end-sem well just a couple of days back. And in the dream he said to me “I will pass through the course, Sudhir. Why won’t you?” Though my resolve had given up to my body in the real world, it was with me in my dream world. What a strong resolve I had ! The exam was scheduled during the afternoon on next day. So based on that I later on concluded that it was probably the lunch time just prior to the exam, in the dream. Time was actually never relevant in the dream.

Well, dreams are always a result of causality of one’s own life and thought.