OUTER SPACE EXPLORATION

 Once in a time the stars in the sky,the sun and the moon exploring outer space capture the imagination of people.Such an exploration was viewed with pride and satisfaction.Today it has become new normal and outer space no longer captures our mind space.Why,because major countries of the world are opening new avenues to the private firms and countries which were once not active like UAE are engaging in activity of outer space.Earlier space was forte of government body,But today it has private organization like Space X ,Blue Origin,Virgin Galactia which has pioneered in outer space exploration.Countries like China are also starting there programs like Beidou,which  happens to be satellite navigation system and Russia recently conducted a non destructive test of space based anti Satellite weapon.See, what we are witnessing right now is that the government organization are not only the one,it is the private organization and countries which were earlier not active have also  involved in space exploration.Let's talk about reasons-

*Space mining-Man has everything in the planet,but man's greed is so much that infact Mahatma Gandhi went on to saying there is everything for a man's need but not for man's greed.One such theory about space exploration is there are some metals and some minerals which we can explore in outer space.

One such example is according to USA,asteroid named 16 psyche has some heavy metals which is worth around 10,000 quadrillion dollar.This is the amount of heavy metal which is present in outer space only with respect to one asteroid.So,extraction of valuable mineral has lead to what is called space mining as an objective and this is the primary reason why countries are exploring the outer space. There are many agency who are now studying about asteroids that includes NASA,European space Agency,that is because they want to know how how asteroids have impacted earth previously and in case there is threat emanating from these asteroid we would be able to control them if there is possibility.The asteroid impact is about 3800 times more energetic then a magnitude 8 of earthquake.So,we would be able to control its impact,and this is why countries are investing in asteroid study.

Erstwhile the cost of reaching Low Earth orbit was extremely huge,the prices were too high,but this has been reduced,has been declined by a factor of 20 times in less than a decade.All the stats reveal that more and more countries exploring outer space has lead to decline in cost of space exploration.Today,if we look back at the space market according to bank of America it is about 350 billion dollar worth industry and it will touch about 2.7 trillion dollar by the year 2050.It can lead to creation of jobs,investment and we will have more satellite which are minuscule and small in nature and ultimately all these industries will provide internet connectivity to rural areas as well.    

QUEST FOR POWER

Recently,the newly elected government in Sri Lanka drafted a new constitution which will abandon the nineteenth schedule of Sri lankan constitution passed in year 2015.It diluted the eighteenth amendment which gives power to the president of Sri Lanka.The nineteenth amendment diluted the power of president,set up a constitutional council and this constitutional council monitors the functioning and working of the important commission.It also strengthen the  parliament of Sri Lanka.That means eighteenth amendment has given wide powers to the parliament and council but these powers were  snatched by the dilution of nineteenth amendment moreover the tenure which was fixed to  be twice for a presidential candidate  has also been increased to indefinite period of time.

Russian president Vladimir Putin passed a referendum which was unopposed passed in their parliament and that made him president till 2034. Alexei Navalny who was the only opposition leader in Russia since 2001 although he never won the election because the elections are rigged in Russia, has recently been poisoned by some anonymous group.

Chinese President Xi Jinping(General Secretary of Communist Party of China) has labelled himself president for lifetime.But a communist nation taking this decision does not look scandalized at all because there is no such thing called freedom which exist.Moreover it snatched the freedom of Hong Kong by passing the national security law and making the Chief executive officer Carry Lam a puppet of People Liberation Army(PLA)

.Alexander Lukashenko,president of Belarus has declared himself president for continuously five terms.Despite having a strong opposition,peoples support,exit polls in favor for the opposition leader,he again turned out to be victorious.Despite being member of the European Union and NATO,it is said that he got support from Russian President as it shares boundary with Russia and also erstwhile part of Soviet Union.This has resulted in dissent of people for present government resulting in demonstration during this crisis.

Recently,Poland came up with a law to punish the judges who try to amend the laws passed by the parliament.See Russia and China we all know about these communist nation so, when they come up with such laws,it does not surprise us much.But in the recent times there had been many democratic countries who had been moving on the path of being autocratic.This can be labelled as quest for power which is thriving now in democratic country as well.

   

FAULTS IN OUR PAST

 See,when the Bombay plan was proposed we came to a agreement that the core sector investment will be made by public sector and in non core sector investment by private sector with the support of the government.But,India failed to capitalize because in 1970 and 1980,India's PSU,failed to modernize.The failure of Indian R&D to innovate to modernize can be traced back to Bombay Plan.

Because of Bombay plan,private sector has established a monopoly in non core sector and it was maintaining a monopoly in these non core sectors,and hence,private sector was not interested in making any investment in core sectors and on the other hand public sector suffered due to lack of autonomy,lack of manpower,lack of modernization by the government,which was result of inadequate investment which the government has made in education and health care.

So,due to deficiency of public sector and lack of interest of private sectors to invest in public sector(R&D),Indian innovation suffered in 1970 & 1980,and as a result the productivity and quality of Indian industry took a major hit.So,during this time India saw a time of low innovation and low productivity during this time.So,this was the time of third industrial revolution which India completely missed out.It was the time of Electronics,computers,mobiles,processors and we lost out entirely to other Asian economies due to the failure to invest in public sector investment(R&D)wing.Then came the era of LPG,and India's focus shifted to buying technology from rest of the world and this made India excessively reliant on external supply,especially critical technology.

The introduction of LPG reforms failed to modernize our PSU,and instead making them self reliant it made them dependent.As a result indigenous research and development suffered.So,post LPG reforms we saw that very few PSU invested in research and development , innovate and develop their own technology.The LPG reforms did allow the foreign companies to set foot in India and bring in much needed FDI,but there investment in R&D,does not account for indigenisation. As a result of these flawed policy in past,India has minimum investment in R&D,that is 1% of GDP.

If we compare with other Asian economies,such as Japan,South Korea,Hongkong,Taiwan and Singapore.They are completely self reliant with regard to critical technologies.So,back in 1970-80,these countries made sufficient investment in Public sector lead Research and Development.Over the years,these public sector have not only increased Public investment in Research and Development but they have also extended support to private R&D,and made them capable of relying on indigenous products.

China in 1970-80,when India was lagging behind,China followed the approach of countries such as Thailand,Malaysia and Indonesia as a hub for low end manufacturing,but late 1990,China clearly established itself as manufacturing power house and in this few years,China invested its focus and it has began making massive development,especially in critical area such as 5g,internet of things,AI,machine learning,Super computing etc.So,these things places China in comfortable position to lead the world towards fourth industrial revolution.    

NAGALAND PEACE ACCORD AND RECENT DEVELOPMENT

 NSCN was established in 1980 and divided in two NSCN(IM),NSCN(K) due to difference in ideology.But,due to India's effective counter insurgency program and constant pressure exerted on insurgent outfit by Indian security forces.The NSCN(IM) was forced to sign a ceasefire agreement with India back in 1997 and later the other fraction of NSCN including the khaplang also signed a ceasefire agreement with Indian government.So,over the last two decade Indian government has been looking to initiate Naga peace process in order to settle the age old political crisis that date back to pre Independence.

Finally in 2015 a historic agreement was signed between Indian government and Naga representative including the NSCN(IN) and various Naga political group but this framework agreement was not acceptable to NSCN(K) fraction and hence it broke the ceasefire and it continued its insurgency against Indian government by establishing a strong base in Myanmar.But,however as per the terms of 2015 agreement talks between Indian government , NSCN(IM) and Naga political group progressed with governor of Nagaland RN Ravi playing a key role of interlocutor but over the last few weeks major differences have emerged between RN Ravi and NSCN(IM) and it threatened to derail the ongoing Naga peace process.See,a couple of months ago governor has written a open letter to Indian government labeling NSCN(IM) as a armed gang and openly challenging the legitimacy of state government and Indian constitution.Than recently Indian security forces had even targeted few cadres of NSCN(IM).So,as a result NSCN(IM) has started demanding the Indian government to remove RN Ravi as interlocutor and due to hurdle being placed by the peace process the naga decided to make the confidential agreement of 2015 public and details of the agreement has raised concerns in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh.

See,Nagas are willing to accept India's sovereignty but demanding greater autonomy for nagas inhabited areas and they are probably expecting the Indian government to grant their constitution of their own.One of the strongest demand of Naga group especially that of NSCN(IM) is to keep all Naga inhabited areas of North East united under the so called "Greater Nagaland" or "Nagaland".This demand of NSCN (IM) has raised lot of concerns in NSCN(IM) and Arunachal Pradesh. The representatives of Arunachal Pradesh have reasons to fear because the Naga peace process might affect the territorial integrity of the state.

See,since the NSCN was established its primary objective was to unify all the Naga inhabited areas in the North East areas of India and to establish this region as separate state or country by gaining independence from India and constitution.This demand of NSCN arises from the fact that Naga tribe are not just limited to state of Nagaland but they can be also found neighbouring Manipur,parts of Assam,Arunachal Pradesh and as well as in parts of Myanmar.So,the stated objective of NSCN has always been to unify the Nagaland inhabited areas and establish the so called "Nagalyam" or "Greater Nagaland".Over the last four decades NSCN has rejected the Indian constitution and today since the insurgent movement has been weekend even though they are willing to accept Indian sovereignty they are still unwilling to accept the supremacy of Indian constitution.       

DAUGHTER REMAINS A DAUGHTER BUT SON IS A SON UNTIL HE GETS WIFE

" Daughter remains a daughter and son remains a son until he gets a wife",this beautiful line said by Supreme Court in the landmark judgement given on Hindu succession act of 1956.See,the question was whether the daughters have rights over the ancestral property?The Supreme Court gave the answer by these beautiful lines.This is so ironical,on one side women are fighting for getting permanent post in combat,equal rights,feminism and here we are again back to the scratch. 

See,the Hindu succession act 1956,which provides for succession and inheritance of ancestral property states that in a Hindu joint family only the male child being recognized as a legal heir to ancestral property whereas the female sibling of the male child has no claim and this discretionary law of succession and inheritance found in Mitakshara School of Hindu law was codified in Hindu succession act.This law applies to Hindu,Brahmans,Sikhs,Jains as well as the follower of Arya Samaj and Brahmo Samaj.This discretionary provision against the female child is extension of orthodox patriarchal rule found in religious law.But even though the HSA does not apply for Muslims,Christian,Parsis and Jews such discretionary laws of patriarchal and succession can be found in other religion as well but in different form and differnt variation e.g. in Islam there is no such distinction created between female and male child when it comes to succession both the male and female child are recognized as legal heirs to ancestral property but in practice the female child is given only half of the shares as compared to male child.

So, in order to address this discriminatory nature of Hindu Succession act,this law was amended in 2005 and under section 6 oh HSA 2005,the daughters were also recognized as coparcener and equal rights to ancestral property was recognized by birth.In legal terms coparcener basically refers to birth right to ancestral property.The amendment introduced to HSA was in line to recommendation of 174 law commission and it was designed to address the gender based discrimination with regard to succession and inheritance of ancestral property.But this gender based discrimination does not end even after the introduction of amendment by 2005 because of the confusion surrounding interpretation of section 6 of HSA.

See,the amendment act came into effect from 9 September,2005 so it was not clear whether the amendment provision of section 6 would be applicable from 9 September,2005 onward or would it have a retrospective application that is amended provision apply for previous cases or not that is before the amended act came into effect.So,while interpreting the this confusion of section 6 of amended act the Supreme Court and High Court took a different views in multiple cases .In 2005 case SC declare that the amended provision of section 6 would apply only if the daughter and father are living as of 9 September,2005.So,basically this ruling of SC does not involve retrospective application of law and with respect to cases arising before 9 September,2005 gender based discrimination continued under HSA. Then in 2018 SC had ruled that section 6 of HSA also applied retrospectively.So,through the latest judgement SC has clarified its position and it has settled the confusion surrounding the interpretation of section 6.The SC had ruled that daughters have equal right to inherit the property and this position lies retrospectively.        

ASSAM NOT OPPOSED ILLEGAL FOREIGNERS ON RELIGIOUS LINES

Over the year the state of Assam has received the influx of refugees and illegal migrants from neighbouring  East Pakistan and Bangladesh following the partition of 1947.There was huge influx of refugees from East Pakistan into Assam than later in late 1960 the atrocities committed by Pakistani Army in East Pakistan against Bengali minority pushed number of refugees in India between 1961 and 1971.Then after East Pakistan was liberated with India's assistance and after Bangladesh was established as independent country in 1971 there has been constant inflow of illegal migrant across border into Assam and this large scale migration of illegal foreigners pose a threat to their unique culture,language,their faith,political rights,their opportunity and their resources.So,this opposition by native Assamese against the large scale entry of illegal foreigner from East Pakistan and Bangladesh has lead to socio ethnic tension and even communal violence.

This lead to Assam agitation which was primarily lead by student organization such as All Assam Union and the agitation lasted between 1979 and 1985.This movement in Assam also lead the foundation of insurgency in Assam and it lead to establishment of several insurgency outfit such as ULFA in 1979.Following this violent protest and insurgency the government of India finally began negotiating with protester and this resulted in signing of the Assam accord in 1985.Through the Assam accord government of India made a commitment to the protesters and as per the accord government committed to prevent illegal migrant from Bangladesh by erecting physical barrier.Under the Assam Accord the government also recognizes citizenship cutoff date and 24 march 1971 was selected as cutoff date in order to identify the genuine Indian Citizens in state of Assam and distinguish them from illegal foreigners.

So,this date also became the basis for updating the NRC(national registrar of citizen).Under the Assam accord the government promised to update the NRC which was last updated in 1951 in order to distinguish between genuine Indian citizen and illegal foreigners based on this citizenship cutoff date.So,as per the NRC exercise those who could prove that they have resided in Assam prior to this cutoff date,they would be provided with Indian citizenship and the others would be recognized as illegal migrants.The promised NRC exercise was not held for three decades and it was taken up by the government only after recent intervention of the Supreme Court.Last year the NRC exercise was completed and the final list was also published as per the direction of SC.Under the final list of NRC around 4 million people have been left out and they face the risk of being declared as illegal migrants.

Under the Assam accord clause 6,under which government committed to provide for constitutional,legislative and administrative safe guard,also supported by provision of reservation for native Assamese with regards to seat in State assembly,local bodies as well as regard to government jobs.In order to implement these commitment under clause 6 of Assam accord the government of India was supposed to setup expert committee but the implementation of clause 6 was delayed by several decades and final trigger came up with enactment of CAA.

See,the opposition of native Assamese was against all illegal foreigners from Bangladesh and East Pakistan.There opposition was not on religious line ,they were equally opposed to Hindu migrant as well as Muslim illegal migrant.But,the citizenship amendment act of India created a distinction between these illegal migrant and hence the CAA has triggered massive protest in Assam last year because its provision go against the commitment made in Assam Accord.So,in order to pacify these protesters the ministry of home affairs decided to set up a committee headed by a retired judge Biplab Kumar Sharmaand as per the given term of reference the committee submitted the confidential report to the government but it has been nearly six months after committee submitted the report but unfortunately government is yet to act on it.So,as a result few members were frustrated by governments inaction and they have decided to make public their recommendation which were part of confidential report.                     

TRUE INTEGRATION OF KASHMIR

 See,through revocation of article 370,government achieved constitutional integration of J&K but the emotional integration of Kashmir is still prevalent with idea and concept of India.If the government wishes true integration of Kashmir with Indian Union than it needs to reflect on its current strategy and it needs to focus on winning the hearts and minds of ordinary Kashmiris and it can do that by revisiting the past and drawing lessons from them.

See,during Operation Gulmarg 1947,which was code name given by Pakistani Army in an attempt of pushing tribal militia into Kashmir with the support of Pakistan Army,in order to topple the Raja Hari Singh government.See,After the Indian independence act was passed the Indian & Pakistani dominion was setup and princely states were given option of choosing either of the dominion or remain independent but the then monarch of J&K princely state Hari Singh chose to remain independent and with intention of toppling the government and taking over J&k region,Pakistan sponsored the infiltration of tribal militia with the support of Pakistani Army and this pushed Hari Singh to sign instrument of accession with India and integrate J&k in Indian Union and this became trigger of 1947 conflict.So,during this invasion by Pakistani forces and tribal militias local Kashmiri offered resistance until arrival of Indian Armed forces and this highlighted the faith of ordinary Kashmiris in the concept and idea of India.It highlighted their belief in secular and diverse India.

 Then Operation Gibraltar 1965,which was code name given by Pakistani Army for pushing infiltrator into Kashmir valley in order to trigger uprising in Kashmir Valley in order to topple the Indian government.So,the alert Kashmiri youths alerted the Indian Army in time about the infiltrator even at the great risk of their life and safety.It was this early intelligence provided by local Kashmiris helped the Indian Armed forces to tackle the Pakistani threat and this is how operation Gibraltar of Pakistan eventually lead to conflict of 1965 war.

During 1947 war Indian Army managed to push back Pakistani forces and managed to retake large part of J&k and in order to resolve the conflict,India took the matter to UN and through this mediation a ceasefire agreement was worked out and the UN mandated both India and Pakistan to hold a plebiscite in order to allow the people of J&k to decide whether they want to join Pakistan,India or remain independent.Even though a ceasefire line was drawn up as mandated by UN,both countries failed to hold the plebiscite and blame for this lies with Pakistan because Pakistan started to altering the demography of Kashmir region in order to ensure if plebiscite ever happened elections would swing in favor of Pakistan.

See,for complete integration of Kashmir ,government has taken certain measures which will give the fruits after certain period of time.The revocation of article 370 will create lot of opportunity for the people of J&k but also for the people of ladakh as well.Now,the government is focusing on Kashmir's agriculture and is looking to promote interest of Kashmir's farmers by focusing on key crops such as Apple,Walnuts,Saffrons etc.The center is planning to give greater push to National Saffron mission which is a key spice which fetches a very high price both in Indian market as well as in International market and its value in international market has gone up after acquiring GI tag.The revocation of article 370 has completely helped to integrate Kashmir's Panchayat Raj institution with grass root democracy.The government is planning to come up with two AIIMS and 5 medical colleges.These steps will completely integrate Kashmir and their youths not only constitutionally but also emotionally as well.                

MAUTAM AND MIZO INSURGENCY

 Mautam is a vary pessimistic word and using this as my title of the blog is very unfortunate for me as well.See,for the insurgency is Mizoram the primary cause can be attributed to "MAUTAM" and government failure in handling the North Eastern areas.See,Mautam is nothing but a cyclic ecological phenomenon which occurs once in nearly 50 years and it basically refers to simultaneous flowering of Bamboo.

So the question here is how come flowering of bamboo attributed to Mautam. See,the answer is very simple Mizo insurgency is rooted in the famine which they witnessed in the year 1959-60.So,the abundance of the bamboo flower produce huge quantity of seed which falls to the ground and becomes rapidly available as food for rodents such as rats.So the abundant availability of bamboo seeds in the ground resulted in an explosion of rat population and once these rats completely consume these seeds they turn their attention to agriculture crops which resulted  in occurrence of famine condition and severe shortage of food.

this cycological  ecological phenomenon known as "Mautam" is seen in Mizoram,Manipur,and parts of Myanmar.So,this severe famine seen in Mizoram in late 1959 and early 1960 lead to severe shortage of food and number of death ,the local Mizo tribe was severely affected and they blame government neglect for this.So,this lead the mizos to hold the dissatisfaction against the government of India and local administration and thus laying the foundation of Mizo National Front(MNF) which took up the armed insurgency against the government of India.

This violent insurgency movement was a separatist movement which was seeking to liberate Mizoram from Indian Union and it remained active for nearly two decade.Finally in 1986,through effective center insurgency operation and through negotiations,the MNF was brought to negotiation table by government of India and historic Mizo peace accord was signed which today has brought MNF to mainstream politics.Infact Mizoram happens to be first state in North East India where insurgency was brought to an end back in 1980's.Back then the MNF was sponsored by China as well as Pakistan by making safe heaven which was established in East Pakistan. .  

RADICALIZATION AND PAKISTAN

See,Pakistan has deliberately promoted radicalism and terrorism in its country as well as neighborhood as part of state policy.They embraced radicalism and terrorism as state policy in order to wage a proxy war against its enemy.Pakistan has supported radicalism of their country and nurtured so many terrorists in order to achieve its geopolitical goals.

It can be dated back immediately after 1947,Pakistan supported tribal militias in order to occupy parts in J&K as part of first proxy war against India.Than in 1960,Pakistan is known to be supported lot of India based outfits such as naxal,north east insurgents etc.

But,Pakistan first major entry in religion based proxy war was in Afghanistan in 1980.This was the period of cold war(bilateral world).This was the time when Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and occupied it.Since,this was the cold war era,USA decided to make use of this opportunity and in collaboration with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan,they created Mujaheddin,in order to challenge Soviet invasion.In this proxy war with USA,Pakistan played a key role,while money and weapon were coming from USA and Saudi Arabia.It was Pakistan which played a key role in training and arming the afghan Mujaheddin as a form of resistance against Soviet Union.

During this period Pakistan emerged as a key ally of major countries and started receiving huge sums of money as funding as well large supply of weapon.So,they started diverting part of money to wage a religion based proxy war against India by establishing lot of anti India terror outfit.Initially Pakistan experimented with supporting Khalistan movement.Later Pakistan Army and ISI played a key role in insurgency in Kashmir by establishing lot of Anti India terror outfit such as JEM,LET,HM.In order to create ready pool of recruitment for these terror outfit,Pakistan government deliberately supported the radicalization of its own society.

So,from 1970 till date,the support given by their government to radicalism has ended up in creating deep divide in their society.This has lead to rise of radical form of Islam,such as Salafism and Wahabism  and this has ended in affecting the minority community of Pakistan.This has lead to ethnic persecution in their own country such as Ahmadias,Sufis,Hazaras. 

Over the year Pakistan dependency on proxy war as its state policy and deliberately misinterpretation

of religion,in order to promote radicalization has ended up giving birth to number of terror outfit that are today targeting Pakistan state itself.

This has lead Pakistan to distinct between good terrorism and bad terrorism,the LET,HM,Haqqani network ,Taliban are considered by them as good terrorism as they have pushed them to achieve their geopolitical goals.The Taliban has made Pakistan relevant in Afghanistan and global Geo politics.So,for this reason Pakistan has not only tolerated them but also nurtured them.

\The flawed and dangerous strategy of Pakistan has also given birth to other terror outfit such as TTP(Tahreeke Taliban Pakistan) and considered by them as bad terrorism because the government has no longer been able to control them and they repeatedly target the Pakistan army ,government and minority.