Documenting 21st Century - India and the World

Pegasus Spygate is the big story in India and the world these days. In India, its one of the greatest scandals of all time. Illegal surveillance of opposition politicians, journalists, activists, businessmen and all kinds of people has created a storm in India. But there is another dimension to the story which remains untouched so far. To give a very brief summary of Pegasus scandal. Pegasus is a Cyber weapon sold by Israeli company NSO to Governments of "vetted" nations. Entities like NSO are not like ordinary corporations doing usual commercial business with nations, selling their services to anybody & everybody. Companies like NSO are connected to Israeli military establishment & intelligence and only certain specific parties/foreign Governments can avail their services. These vetted parties/foreign Governments are approved by Israeli establishment and Israeli political leadership for commercial businesses.  That means a state like Pakistan cannot do business with ...

  India's Defense minister with Rafale Jet   Rafale Jet scandal is in the news again, this time because of developments in France. France's PNF, prosecutor office dealing with serious financial/economic offenses, has launched an inquiry to look into corruption surrounding Rafale Jet Deal between Indian Government and French company Dassault aviation. Rafale Jet was a 4th Generation fighter plane which India bought in a 2016 deal with Dassault aviation.  The Rafale Jet deal, signed in 2016, smelt of high corruption due to many discrepancies, violations of India's Defense procurement protocols and last minute changes in the deal. I won't go into all the details and only give a brief summary on this. For more details, the following articles are good read (read 1 , 2 & 3 ) . Since 2005, India was negotiating with various global Defense companies for purchase and development of modern fighter Jets. After various deliberations and negotiations, it was decided by Indian G...

India is going through disasters, one after another, without any recovery under the leadership of Modi's BJP regime. The disasters are of many kinds - Economic depression that began even before the pandemic induced slowdown. The pandemic public health crisis itself which has created tremendous humanitarian tragedy in the country. The defense & foreign policy crisis with China & other countries. And underlying everything is the collapse of middle class, massive rise in poverty and sharp decline in living standards of people. The Modi Govt exercised power disregarding constitution, norms, legality and political traditions. It was 'my way or the highway' style of governance. It crushed political opposition, overthrew State Governments of opposition political parties, fired critical civil servants, jailed opposition politicians, independent journalists, activists, students etc. Modi Govt was practically an elected dictatorship. Underlying Modi's dictatorship, there ...

In my last article , i wrote about the situation with India's Covid-19 vaccine policy and national vaccination program and how Modi Govt has thrown it into chaos & paralysis. The "Liberalized" vaccine policy announced by the Govt in April was unconstitutional but most importantly it was a highly destructive to our vaccination program.   Yesterday, the sun rose from the west, the Earth started spinning in opposite direction and Modi walked back from his policy mistake. On 5 PM, Modi came on national TV and announced critical changes to Govt vaccine policy. The central Govt had earlier put major responsibilities of vaccine procurement on States and made them to bear financial burden. Now Modi is repealing this policy and Central Govt will procure 75% of all national vaccine production on its own finances, and distribute vaccine to states. Earlier, Govt policy was giving free vaccination to 45 years and above age population at central Govt vaccination centers while vacci...

Last month, Indian Govt announced major changes to its Covid-19 vaccine policy and national vaccination program.  The new policy is unique in entire world. Until last month, India's vaccination program was just like any other country. The vaccines were given based on preference scale. Healthcare & frontline workers were on top priority and this was followed by age groups, senior citizens and people with preexisting conditions etc. The younger people were at the lowest scale of priority to be vaccinated last. Earlier, only central government purchased vaccines from companies at negotiated prices, channel the vaccines into central Govt healthcare system for dispensation as well as distribute it to state governments to do the same at local levels. Private hospitals were also deputed in vaccination drive under a strictly regulated price regime.  The prices of vaccines were strictly regulated by Central Govt which was negotiated with companies and procured at Rs 150-200 ...

US Govt recently said that its in favor of TRIPS waiver, that is temporary suspension of IPs on vaccine technology during this pandemic. The opponents of TRIPS waiver includes big Pharma companies and several nations, most prominently the European Union Bloc. I won't comment on all the objections raised by these opponents but lets look into some of the critics of TRIPS waiver proposal. They say that vaccines produced by Big Pharma companies are highly sophisticated technology & cannot be implemented by developing nations. This argument is flawed. Basic thing about technology is that its hard to develop but its easier to replicate. The developed nations like US & UK are ahead of developing states like India in research & development of vaccines. But once the technology is developed, it doesn't take a great effort in replicating the technology provided that the original developers assist in transfer of technology & all the know how of their manufacturing process. ...

    We have habit of projecting our failures as achievements. Recently our political Govt has ordered our Military & DRDO to supplement our health system because existing civilian health system is losing the battle against the pandemic. While its a national duty of military to follow orders from political government & do everything necessary to help save people's lives, but i see there is a big problem. Our Defense minister full of nationalism hails our military for running hospitals, building oxygen plants, delivering medical supplies across the country.  But i have very straight & simple question - Why civilian institutions & departments are not working?  Every country in the world knows that Covid-19 pandemic has come in several waves with come countries seeing as much as 3 waves, with latter more deadlier than preceding ones. I know that virus came from China & India had little time to prepare for pandemic last year. But what has our Govt done...

India has been requesting US for lifting Export restrictions on certain raw materials needed for vaccine production. Yesterday US State Deptt gave a scathing response regarding export restrictions - "US has special responsibility towards American people". These words are more than sufficient to gauge America's take on the situation. Recall that US has banned exports of raw materials after invoking defense production act in February. The goal was to mobilize all resources for American national vaccination program which now is going quite well. But this has created problems for India and globally. SII, Indian company which is the largest vaccine maker in the world is facing difficulty in ramping its vaccine production due to shortage of raw materials. SII is responsible for manufacturing vaccines for use in India as well as dozens of other countries. The vaccines are provided to foreign countries on commercial basis, humanitarian grants as well as Covax initiative.  Americ...