Start your weekend with Bruce Gilley and why the challenge to China will not come from US or Europe but from a somewhat suprising coalition of India, Brazil and South Africa
Move on to an ongoing-debate in the NY Times on whether US needs foreign technology workers. 
Next, have a read through a long article on Dubai by Johann Hari - which will make you pause if you are thinking of moving there for a job – or going on a holiday (Hat Tip: Sanjay).  By the way, Johann Hari is the same reporter whose article got the editor …

Alert reader Naren* brought this snippet of news from the “Sakaal” newspaper in Maharashtra to my attention…It is slightly unsettling.
Titled, “Border areas Kashmiris in Nagpur” (Feb 19 ’09, report by Naresh Dongre), it talks about a large number of migrants from Jammu & Kashmir who have set camp in the city.
Excerpts:
A large number of Kashmiri families living along Pakistan border have set up camps in Nagpur. They have been saying that they have moved to this area because they are scared of terrorists. They have names, addresses and phone numbers of many respectable persons of this …

Excerpts from a paper by B Raman written just days befpre the Mumbai blasts:
The manner of the current investigation by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Mumbai Police into an explosion at Malegaon in Maharashtra on September 30,2008, which mainly targeted and killed some local Muslims should be a matter of concern to all right-thinking Indians.
2. Large sections of the Muslims,the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) political class and the so-called secular elements in the Hindu community, which lose no opportunity to demonise the Hindu nationalists and the BJP in order to …

Start your weekend by reading Sh Modi’s interview in The Indian Express…which re-emphasises why development ought to be priority #1 for any political party today.
Then read what drives young, articulate leaders like Prakash Sharma to bat for Bajrang Dal (Just in case, you are wondering, there are numerous points in his interview which I disagree with – Shantanu)
…and finally, here is why Lalit Koul believes Syed Ali Shah Geelani should be given a one-way ticket to Pakistan.
Bonus: Have a look at the new depth being plumbed by mainstream media while reporting on current affairs.
Excerpts from …

…aka “The Great Joke that is Indian Media – Part VIII” or…one standard for Sadhvi Pragya and another for Mohammed Shakeel & Zia-ur-Rehman.
On Oct 23, NDTV reported that
The Maharashtra ATS “…claim that they have evidence that Hindu groups were involved in the blast” in Malegaon
Note that although there was only one (single) blast, the headline of the story says: “Police claim to crack Malegaon blasts case” (notice the plural?)
The NDTV report also mentioned that
Evidence of a Hindu group’s involvement was found while tracing the origins of a scooter found in Malegaon.
The …

Last week, I was alerted to two excellent initiatives: Jaago Re! and ADR.
Jaago Re!’s focus is to get India’s one billion voters to register and participate in the electoral process.
Its uniqueness lies in exploiting technology “…to make registering to vote online a possibility. It also serves as a one-stop-shop solution to all your voting needs.”
On top of that, “…it gives you the opportunity to run your own voter registration drive and be a part of the movement to get the entire country registered!”  I whole-heartedly support this initiative and recommend everyone …

This is a dark story* in many ways befitting tonight’s ”Amavasya” (eve before the new moon).  It comes from Bengaluru which – one believed - had managed to raise itself from the mire of corruption, crime and dirty politics that pervades Bharat.  Unfortunately this story could have come from any big city in India…
But as hopeless as the situation looks to be, we cannot let this dampen our spirits.  As Anil Chawla wrote in a comment on this blog:  “…We have to keep the lamp of faith and hope alive….May we be filled with …

Courtesy Lokmanch*, the popular Hindi blog, I picked up this worrying bit of information:

Between Jan – Jul 2008, almost 30% of Pakistani citizens who travelled to India did not go back after the expiry of their visas
The actual number is 9635 people (until July ’08 alone)
In 2007, 7404 Pakistani citizens did not go back on expiry of their visas
Of those who arrived in 2006, 7650 overstayed and are not traceable 
Of the ones that came in 2005, the number is 7043

…which means that more than 30,000 Pakistani citizens are now officially untraceable in India…and …

…in which I get annoyed by Praful Bidwai‘s gratuitous reference to “ethnic cleansing” and “communal clashes” while conveniently forgetting Assam where these words have taken on an entirely different meaning…and the scale of human misery has well surpassed the killings and attacks in Orissa, Karnataka etc..
Related Post:
The not so “communal” clashes in Assam 

Many of you must have, read about the controversial move by the Maharashtra state government to amend the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC) Sec. 125  with a view to legalising “live-in relationships”.  I spent a few hours today gathering links in favour of and against the debate.
The arguments that have been made “for” this move are:
It will protect the interests and rights of the so-called ‘mistress’ or ‘other woman’. We may not admit it but we all know that these women are the worst sufferers in the current system in spite of giving up years …