Category Archives: india

The MPs get a pay rise

For those still in the dark, the MPs or Members of Parliament (in the US, their counterparts are called senators and congressmen) in India have given themselves a whopping 300% pay rise! Wait, it gets even better: they are claiming that 300% is too less, and have held up proceedings in the lower house! The

Hijacking Elections I.T.-Style

India is no stranger to stolen and fraudulent elections. The claim was that paper ballots were vulnerable to such fraud and theft, so the Election Commission announced use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). As it turns out, looks like the primary motivation for the switch to EVMs was the exact opposite. It was steal elections,

We are like this only, but why? A lesson from Haiti

I have often wondered why we Indians wait on the government for everything that involves common goods. We complain about not having irrigation canals for the farmers, we complain about insufficient electricity, we complain about urban congestion, and we expect the government to fix all of it for us. When the government fails in providing

Military-Industrial Complex as a force for good? Since when?

Josy Joseph argues in the Times of India (ToI) article “Farewell to foreign arms?” that India would benefit from a Military-Industrial Complex (MIC) as a “force for good”. Joseph’s argument is that our reliance on foreign powers for adequate military fire power is hurting us in two ways: (a) its draining our economy, and (b)