_________________Defense:

>> Nuclear Necessity?

in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan s leadership, combined with immense anti-nuc
lear demonstrations, led to negotiations with the Soviet Union that drastically
reduced the size of the two superpowers nuclear arsenals.
President George W. Bush exploited anxieties over nuclear weapons to justify the
2003 invasion of Iraq; most Republican presidential candidates last year said t
hey would fight a war with Iran rather than allow it to get the bomb.
The first is the myth that nuclear weapons altered the course of World War II.
new research by the historian Tsuyoshi Hasegawa and other scholars shows that Ja
pan surrendered not because of the atom bomb but because the Soviets renounced n
eutrality and joined the war. Sixty-six Japanese cities had already been destroy
ed by conventional weapons two more did not make the difference.
Second is the myth of decisive destruction. Mass destruction doesn t win wars; killi
ng soldiers does.
Third is the myth of reliable nuclear deterrence. Originally it was claimed that
nuclear weapons would assure success in negotiations, prevent any sort of attac
k conventional or nuclear
and allow countries to protect their friends with a nu
clear umbrella. When the Yom Kippur War and the Falkland Islands War showed tha
t fighting against nuclear-armed countries was possible, the prevention of conve
ntional war claim was dropped. Britain couldn t deter an attack on its own far-flu
ng islands, how could deterrence prevent attacks on other countries?
Fourth is the myth of the long peace: the argument that the absence of nuclear w
ar since 1945 means nuclear weapons have kept the peace. But we don t accept proof b
y absence in any circumstance where there is real risk.
The last and most stubborn myth is that of irreversibility. It s true that no tech
nology is ever disinvented, but technology does fall out of use all the time.
12 countries have either abandoned nuclear programs, dismantled existing weapons
, as South Africa did in the early 1990s, or handed them over, as Kazakhstan did
after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. By contrast, only nine have nukes t
oday (the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Israel, Pakistan
and North Korea).
France, not Israel, would most likely be the last country to give up nuclear wea
pons, which help preserve its image as a world power. In a nuclear-free world, F
rance would just be another middle-size power with great cuisine. The real value
of nuclear bombs is as status symbols, not as practical weapons.
Nuclear weapons were born out of fear, nurtured in fear and sustained by fear. T
hey are dinosaurs an evolutionary dead end. The trend in warfare today is toward
smaller, smarter, more effective precision-guided weapons. Nuclear weapons
extr
emely dangerous and not very useful are the wave of the past.
>> Lie detector tests are illegal
The Supreme Court declared in May 2010 that narco-analysis(injecting three grams
of sodium pentothal dissolved in water, designed to push the suspect towards a
hypnotic twilight state ), brain-mapping, and polygraph tests are illegal withou
t the subject's explicit consent.
these methods violate the right against self-incrimination provided in Article 2
0(3) and the right to privacy.
One, the claim that results obtained from these techniques will help in extraord
inary situations was questionable.
Two, one form of improper behaviour could not replace another.
Three, the claim that the use of these techniques will be restricted to heinous
offences rings hollow since there was no basis for restricting it once investiga
tors were given the discretion to do so.
>> Naxalism ??

>>Results of Obama's republic day visit

The most significant achievement was the progress made in military and defence c
ooperation. The renewal of the 10-year framework for the U.S.-India Defence Rela
tionship; the announcement of joint projects, including the co-production of unm
anned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and specialised equipment for military transport ai
rcraft; the establishment of contact groups to explore co-development of jet eng
ine technology and aircraft carrier systems, and the decision to upgrade bilater
al, annual naval exercises represent substantive steps that will deepen the defe
nce partnership. + civil nuclear deal
Mr. Modi has reportedly raised the idea of reviving the Quad (security collabora
tion between Australia, India, Japan and the U.S.). the Washington-based Heritag
e Foundation will join the Delhi-based Vivekananda International Foundation, the
Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the Tokyo Foundation, and the Jakarta-ba
sed Habibie Center in Bali, Indonesia, next week for a Track II Quad-Plus dialog
ue to discuss ways to enhance cooperation in defence, regional security and coun
terterrorism.
The two sides advanced their counterterrorism dialogue and recommitted to cooper
ating against Pakistan-based groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Washingto
n has not adequately leveraged its aid and influence in Pakistan to convince the
authorities to crack down on terrorist groups that focus on attacking India, bu
t also pose an international threat. Until Washington makes clear that it places
the threat from LeT on a par with that from al-Qaeda, Pakistani military and in
telligence services will continue to allow the LeT and the JuD to operate relati
vely freely.
**Mr. Modi has stayed away from communal politicking and has signalled that he i
s more interested in focussing on his economic agenda, rather than in pursuing H
indutva policies. He has taken steps to reach out to the Muslim community. For i
nstance, during his first speech to Parliament last June, he said it was unaccep
table that the Muslim minority often lagged behind the rest of the country in so
cio-economic terms
>> Corporates, rather than govt, can help eradicate corruption.
There is a fundamental flaw in the popular expectation that government will have
an interest in controlling corruption. The business community as a whole has st
ronger incentives to counter corruption. The winning firm profits, but the effor
ts and expenses of all the losers more than offset this gain. Worse, to the exte
nt that corruption acts like a tax and therefore deters future investment, it hu
rts profits and growth for all business.
Successful community institutions for collective action have existed for at leas
t a millennium. the community needs an efficient method to detect and punish che
ating, e.g. good communication both formal and informal (gossip), ensuring that
insiders quickly come to know any incidents of bribery, high-quality investigat
ive journalists. Next, the institution needs large and prominent launch members . I
f they step up to start an institution, inviting others to join in a no-bribery
pledge, they can succeed because others will find it a matter of shame to stay o
ut.
>> India not a socialist country.
India moved away from socialism a long time ago. The economy today is dominated
by the private sector. The dismantling of socialism began in 1980, four years a
fter the word socialist was added to the preamble, when Indira Gandhi began libe
ralizing the economy.
under the amendment to the Representation of the People Act of 1951 by the Rajiv
Gandhi government, demanding allegiance to socialism on part of all political p
arties before they could be registered by the Election Commission. This is incon
gruous: if a party professes in free markets, why should it take an oath of alle
giance for socialism?
B.R. Ambedkar. On 15 November 1948, an amendment was moved in the Constituent A

ssembly to add the words secular and socialist in the Constitution. He dismissed
it as superfluous. The Constitution, he said, was merely a mechanism for the pur
pose of regulating the work of the various organs of the State...If you state in
the Constitution that the social organisation of the State shall take a particu
lar form, you are, in my judgment, taking away the liberty of the people to deci
de what should be the social organisation in which they wish to live .
>> Greece bankruptcy problem ??
>>https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/china-2015-five-year-plan-by-just
in-yifu-lin-2015-01
>> how olympics is used for political and financial gains
winter olympics 2014 in sochi, russia
well over $50 billion. Critics say that half of this was either stolen or paid a
s kickbacks to President Vladimir Putin s cronies, who just happened to win the bi
ggest contracts.
Russia, for its part, has adopted a ban on homosexual propaganda
a Putin-sponsored
law that is both ludicrous and so loose that it could be used to arrest anyone
deemed to be inconvenient to the authorities. Putin, missing the point of his cr
itics objections entirely, has reassured the world that gay athletes and visitors
to the Winter Games will be absolutely safe, as long as they leave the children
alone.
the IOC still wraps itself in the lofty mantle of apolitical Olympic idiocy, whi
le Putin uses the Winter Games to try to add luster to his increasingly autocrat
ic, and failing, Russian state.