Half of terror toll due to Islamist extremism-India-The Times of India
Half of terror toll due to Islamist extremism
27 Aug 2007, 0313 hrs IST,Shankar Raghuraman,TNN
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While India has lost 3,674 lives to terrorism-related incidents over three years and three months, the toll more than all of North America, South America, Central America, Europe and Eurasia put together, the number of those injured or taken hostage is no respite.
Apart from those killed, 8,430 were injured and 2,070 taken hostage in India, taking the total number of direct victims of terror to over 14,000 in a little over 3,000 incidents.
The list of the top 10 terrorist-stricken countries, in terms of the number of people killed, has some predictable names but a few that might come as a surprise to many. Thailand, for instance, figures at No. 5 with over 1,300 deaths and Chad (in Africa) at No. 8 with almost 1,100 killed.
Surprisingly, as many as 103 countries have not lost a single life to terror in the period for which information is available from WITS which has data for 193 countries.
The NCTC defines terrorist incidents as follows: Terrorism occurs when groups or individuals acting on political motivation deliberately or recklessly attack civilians/non-combatants or their property and the attack does not fall into another special category of political violence, such as crime, rioting, or tribal violence.
Among the most affected countries are those with a significant presence in the international drug trade, either as major producing areas or as key transit points.
Thus Colombia, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Thailand all figure in the top dozen.
There's a fairly widespread impression that the bulk of terrorism and terrorist-related deaths across the world can be traced back to Islamist radicalism. What do the numbers say? WITS break-ups available for the period January 2004 to December 2006 show that of the 29,000-odd incidents in the period, in over 18,000 the perpetrators are not known.
Of the nearly 11,000 for which the identity of the perpetrators is known, over 7,500 were by what WITS calls secular political/anarchist groups, while Islamic extremist groups further sub-categorised into Shia, Sunni and unknown were responsible for less than 3,000. That's a large number and a large share, but not as large as its often made out to be.
But look at deaths for which responsibility can be pinned and the picture looks grim: Islamist extremists account for about 11,400 of the 24,614 deaths caused in incidents where the perpetrators can be identified, that's almost half of all people killed by terrorism.
Christian extremists too have played their deadly part — causing 686 deaths, and before you think Ireland and the UK, pause.
The fact is that Ireland is one of 103 countries where no lives have been lost to terrorism since 2004, while the UK has lost 55. Most of the 686 deaths caused by Christian extremists are in places like Uganda.
How many lives have countries that are part of the coalition forces in Iraq lost to terrorism on their own soil? The UK, as we just mentioned, has lost 55 lives and the US none. Of the 20 other countries that are US allies in Iraq, 14 have not had a single death due to terrorism on their soil in this period. The other six — Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Albania, Estonia and Macedonia — have together lost 40 lives.
In fact, seven of the coalition countries, all except Australia and eastern Europe, have not had to deal with a single terrorist incident between January 2004 and March 2007.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
I love my AMERICA
I love my AMERICAI love my AMERICA
By: Santoshee Mishra
August 16, 2007
BPO boys say they celebrate the US Independence Day only because that’s the country, and not India, that values, clothes and feeds them
Yankee doodle dandies
They are Indians who unabashedly say they would rather celebrate the US Independence Day on July 4, than India’s independence.
Meet India’s new generation of India ignorers — the BPO worker.
“I do not see any reason to celebrate India’s independence. I am paid by a US-based company, so I celebrate their Independence Day,” said Vikram Rathor, from Malad.
He added it was ironic that I-Day and republic day were dry days in India, but it was an open secret that alcohol was available at a price. “Why do Indians hide things? In the US, everybody takes joy in raising a toast to the nation.”
Ani Fernandez, from an Andheri BPO, added, “Why should I celebrate India’s independence? It’s so noisy.” In the days that follow August 15 and January 26, the streets are littered with national flags, he said.
“I have seen people trample on them and walk away. In the US, the celebrations are held at home with dignity and style,” he added.
“I struggled for two years to get a job and finally I joined this BPO.
Obviously, I am very thankful to the UK-based company that allowed me to land this job,” said Pam Kaur, who works in a Malad call center.
An HR executive from Sitel, Andheri said nobody in the company wants a holiday on August 15.
“They are happy celebrating the US Independence Day. In the last two years, I have never had an employee asking for a holiday on August 15.”
Indians never valued me, so why should I value the independence of this country?
- Pam Kaur, works in a Malad call centre
Main jiska namak khata hoon usi ke geet gata hoon
- Vikram Rathor also works in a Malad BPO
By: Santoshee Mishra
August 16, 2007
BPO boys say they celebrate the US Independence Day only because that’s the country, and not India, that values, clothes and feeds them
Yankee doodle dandies
They are Indians who unabashedly say they would rather celebrate the US Independence Day on July 4, than India’s independence.
Meet India’s new generation of India ignorers — the BPO worker.
“I do not see any reason to celebrate India’s independence. I am paid by a US-based company, so I celebrate their Independence Day,” said Vikram Rathor, from Malad.
He added it was ironic that I-Day and republic day were dry days in India, but it was an open secret that alcohol was available at a price. “Why do Indians hide things? In the US, everybody takes joy in raising a toast to the nation.”
Ani Fernandez, from an Andheri BPO, added, “Why should I celebrate India’s independence? It’s so noisy.” In the days that follow August 15 and January 26, the streets are littered with national flags, he said.
“I have seen people trample on them and walk away. In the US, the celebrations are held at home with dignity and style,” he added.
“I struggled for two years to get a job and finally I joined this BPO.
Obviously, I am very thankful to the UK-based company that allowed me to land this job,” said Pam Kaur, who works in a Malad call center.
An HR executive from Sitel, Andheri said nobody in the company wants a holiday on August 15.
“They are happy celebrating the US Independence Day. In the last two years, I have never had an employee asking for a holiday on August 15.”
Indians never valued me, so why should I value the independence of this country?
- Pam Kaur, works in a Malad call centre
Main jiska namak khata hoon usi ke geet gata hoon
- Vikram Rathor also works in a Malad BPO
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Innovate for India's Poor - WSJ.com
Innovate for India's Poor - WSJ.com
Innovate for India's Poor
By RAVI VENKATESAN
July 18, 2007
BANGALORE -- When the Korean steelmaker Posco decided to invest $11 billion in the bleak hinterland of eastern India, it might have expected to be greeted with flowers. Instead, two Posco executives were recently kidnapped, but later released unharmed, in a protest over government policies to transfer land from struggling farmers to the mega-corporations driving India's modernization.
It is only the latest evidence of gathering rage among the hundreds of millions who remain mute spectators to the Indian economic miracle. In recent months, peasant revolts have been flaring up across the country, protesting against industrialization and the land grabs that accompany it. Harnessing the anger of rural poor, Maoist-inspired insurgents roam freely across much of central India, causing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call them the largest threat to India's security.
We business leaders for the most part tend to believe that growth will cure most sins and that our responsibility stops at creating competitive enterprises and paying taxes. Eradicating poverty is the government's job, not ours. Right?
Wrong. The consequences of abdicating this issue will be grave. There are already signs of growing lawlessness as disaffected young people turn to crime, insurgency and terrorism. But even more ominously, inequity inevitably generates a political response that can thwart the ambitions of the affluent. Last year, political parties, vying to tap the discontent created by inequity, enacted legislation reserving half the seats in India's educational institutions for lower-caste students. It is not hard to see how the extension of such quotas to jobs in the private sector can well bring the economic miracle to a halt.
This policy, and the controversy surrounding the creation of special economic zones, should serve as an early warning of what majorities can lawfully do when we elites ignore them. Furthermore, unless we educate hundreds of millions of people at the bottom of the pyramid and create jobs for them, we will starve our businesses of the skilled talent and the consuming middle class we need to buy our products and keep growing. So eliminating poverty is very much in our self interest.
However, even when business leaders agree that poverty is our problem, the approach is often confused. Two methods in particular have dominated recent thinking on the subject, and, in my view, both are well-intentioned but futile against so vast a problem.
Lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty cannot happen through "corporate social responsibility." Important as these initiatives are, they are neither sustainable nor scalable, and therefore achieve limited impact. Nor will poverty be overcome through the "bottom of the pyramid" initiatives that seek to make the poor into bigger consumers of shampoos and televisions by enabling them to pay per use.
We need a new approach driven by innovation. We need to focus less on doing small, nice deeds for the poor, and less on selling them affordable versions of what rich people consume. Instead, we must marshal the best resources of big, innovative corporations to think freshly about the shackles that keep people poor and invent solutions that break these shackles.
India is filled with efforts of this kind. For instance, the biggest hope for the next agricultural productivity revolution in India lies in the rural business initiatives of companies like conglomerate Reliance Industries, telecom operator Bharti Airtel and tobacco company ITC, which are investing billions of dollars to create an efficient agricultural supply chain bypassing scores of middlemen. Look, too, to the rural banking initiatives of companies like SBI and ICICI that will deliver affordable credit and insurance to half a billion people, helping them finally break a historic cycle of poverty.
Doing good is also good business: Scalable business models that help the poor access markets, or deliver essential services like education, health care or drinking water, represent huge economic opportunities waiting to be tapped. For example, at my company, Microsoft India, engineers are working on problems like how to learn English using a computer or cell phone, how to use the Web to deliver services to rural entrepreneurs, or how to help tiny businesses access global markets.
Microsoft is not doing this for charity. If we get it right, the poor will be happy to pay to get jobs they otherwise wouldn't have and we will have expanded the potential base of users for our software to 500 million from 100 million. It is very conceivable that the next big innovation could come from immersion in the problems of India's poor. They don't need our charity or single-use sachets of shampoo. They need us to innovate them out of their morass.
Mr. Venkatesan is Chairman of Microsoft India.
Innovate for India's Poor
By RAVI VENKATESAN
July 18, 2007
BANGALORE -- When the Korean steelmaker Posco decided to invest $11 billion in the bleak hinterland of eastern India, it might have expected to be greeted with flowers. Instead, two Posco executives were recently kidnapped, but later released unharmed, in a protest over government policies to transfer land from struggling farmers to the mega-corporations driving India's modernization.
It is only the latest evidence of gathering rage among the hundreds of millions who remain mute spectators to the Indian economic miracle. In recent months, peasant revolts have been flaring up across the country, protesting against industrialization and the land grabs that accompany it. Harnessing the anger of rural poor, Maoist-inspired insurgents roam freely across much of central India, causing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call them the largest threat to India's security.
We business leaders for the most part tend to believe that growth will cure most sins and that our responsibility stops at creating competitive enterprises and paying taxes. Eradicating poverty is the government's job, not ours. Right?
Wrong. The consequences of abdicating this issue will be grave. There are already signs of growing lawlessness as disaffected young people turn to crime, insurgency and terrorism. But even more ominously, inequity inevitably generates a political response that can thwart the ambitions of the affluent. Last year, political parties, vying to tap the discontent created by inequity, enacted legislation reserving half the seats in India's educational institutions for lower-caste students. It is not hard to see how the extension of such quotas to jobs in the private sector can well bring the economic miracle to a halt.
This policy, and the controversy surrounding the creation of special economic zones, should serve as an early warning of what majorities can lawfully do when we elites ignore them. Furthermore, unless we educate hundreds of millions of people at the bottom of the pyramid and create jobs for them, we will starve our businesses of the skilled talent and the consuming middle class we need to buy our products and keep growing. So eliminating poverty is very much in our self interest.
However, even when business leaders agree that poverty is our problem, the approach is often confused. Two methods in particular have dominated recent thinking on the subject, and, in my view, both are well-intentioned but futile against so vast a problem.
Lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty cannot happen through "corporate social responsibility." Important as these initiatives are, they are neither sustainable nor scalable, and therefore achieve limited impact. Nor will poverty be overcome through the "bottom of the pyramid" initiatives that seek to make the poor into bigger consumers of shampoos and televisions by enabling them to pay per use.
We need a new approach driven by innovation. We need to focus less on doing small, nice deeds for the poor, and less on selling them affordable versions of what rich people consume. Instead, we must marshal the best resources of big, innovative corporations to think freshly about the shackles that keep people poor and invent solutions that break these shackles.
India is filled with efforts of this kind. For instance, the biggest hope for the next agricultural productivity revolution in India lies in the rural business initiatives of companies like conglomerate Reliance Industries, telecom operator Bharti Airtel and tobacco company ITC, which are investing billions of dollars to create an efficient agricultural supply chain bypassing scores of middlemen. Look, too, to the rural banking initiatives of companies like SBI and ICICI that will deliver affordable credit and insurance to half a billion people, helping them finally break a historic cycle of poverty.
Doing good is also good business: Scalable business models that help the poor access markets, or deliver essential services like education, health care or drinking water, represent huge economic opportunities waiting to be tapped. For example, at my company, Microsoft India, engineers are working on problems like how to learn English using a computer or cell phone, how to use the Web to deliver services to rural entrepreneurs, or how to help tiny businesses access global markets.
Microsoft is not doing this for charity. If we get it right, the poor will be happy to pay to get jobs they otherwise wouldn't have and we will have expanded the potential base of users for our software to 500 million from 100 million. It is very conceivable that the next big innovation could come from immersion in the problems of India's poor. They don't need our charity or single-use sachets of shampoo. They need us to innovate them out of their morass.
Mr. Venkatesan is Chairman of Microsoft India.
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