Asian Lite News Archive

Category: Lite Blogs

  • Why China delays border deal with India?

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    Ranjit Singh Kalha, a former Secretary, India’s Ministry of External Affairs, who has dealt with border negotiations with China and authored the recently published book, “India-China Boundary Issues: Quest for Settlement,” looks into the Indo-China border issues Recent transgressions by Chinese troops in the northern border areas of India and the protest note by the Chinese…

  • Deed must match word

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    By C. Uday Bhaskar Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to the Siachen Glacier on the festive occasion of Diwali  to spend time with the Indian military units that are deployed at altitudes of 22,000 feet in what is often described as the highest battlefield in the world. From the base camp located…

  • THE TROUBLE WITH TELESPEAK

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    DAILY DOSE BY Bikram Vohra They came from London to this terrific job in the Gulf and the first day he went to work and his wife called his office and was told by the operator that he wasn’t in his cabin. “Not in his cabin,” she said, ” Not in his cabin, but that’s…

  • A GOOD NEWS! Exercise is bad for your health…

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    Nury Vittachi in his column Funny Side analyses the other side of exercise  Your narrator met an old friend while practising for a triathlon the other day. That is, he was practising for a triathlon: I’d just taken a taxi to the shop for a second box of donuts. NOT that that means this writer…

  • MY DIWALI DELIGHT

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    Happy Diwali to all readers of Asian Lite ….BIKRAM VOHRA I have received 23 I-cards or E-cards on the net with diyas in them and you’ll be surprised how quickly the novelty of exulting over the same flickering electronic flame wears off. After you have ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ over the first two or three and…

  • ALL I WANT TO DO TO IS RELAX!

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    DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra However, in recent years, I noticed a marked craving for relaxation. It’s almost a fetish. Visualise the hurried executive at work. He looks at his watch, “I’m off”, he says, leaping up. “I have 90 minutes relaxation period now”. “Come on”, he exhorts body, “ree-lax, hurry up”. “I’ve got to…

  • THE LAMENT OF THE LONELY BACHELOR

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    Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra Have you noticed how newlyweds suddenly having discovered true marital bliss (where was she hiding all this time) now believe it is their mission in life to get all their bachelor friends stampede down the same bridal path? the won’t leave them alone. It becomes a mission like you have…

  • Plight of Palestine refugees

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    Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU, looks into the plight of Palestinian Refugees During the donor conference held in Cairo a few days ago, the US, EU, and other countries pledged $2.7 billion for reconstruction in Gaza. It is undoubtedly necessary to make such a humanitarian effort…

  • SPIK INGLIS OLL RONG!

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    DAILY DOSE BY Bikram Vohra Many of us speak English with a forked tongue. Say that in a nice way. Like we mess about with the language, mangling it like laundry without realising we are doing that. Yesterday I heard a high profile executive say he has to ‘cope up’ with the situation, whatever the…

  • LOYALTY AND THE RAW CARROT

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    DAILY DOSE BY Bikram Vohra                                  LOYALTY AND THE RAW CARROT So common these laments. I treated him like a son and taught him everything and he just walked out on me for a fistful of dollars. He was raw as…

  • Fair, Slim and Tall…

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    Sabina Ahmed looks into the matrimonial adverts which specify that the girl should be “fair, slim and tall                                                   Fair, Slim and Tall… It seems in this day and age, considering that…

  • Tackle the twin digital divides

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    At UN, India calls for action on twin digital divides …reports Arul Louis  India has called on the international community to tackle the twin digital divides — that between developed and developing nations and that between men and women in developing countries. While “growth of information and communications technologies (ICT) over the past decade has exceeded…

  • Special Report: India’s ties with Morocco

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    Tarun Basu recently toured Morocco at the invitation of the Moroccan government. He is saying India should engage more with Morocco Two vignettes stand out from a recent trip to Morocco — one, a smartly-dressed woman police officer flags down an errant male driver at a busy Rabat intersection and ticks him off for a traffic violation;…

  • HOW RICH IS THE WRECKAGE?

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    Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra The two elements needed to indict any motorist in India is to have him own a foreign made luxury car and live in a posh area. If he then finds himself in an accident he is nailed to the cross with glee and malice flowing like lava from the those…

  • Indian States Beckons Investments

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    States as magnets for investment – Column: Active Voice by  Amit Kapoor and Sankalp Sharma0 The theory that developing countries should attract investments is based on the fact that investments, especially FDIs have immense ability to raise the standard of living of the people. FD’s continued to be the most significant foreign inflows to developing countries in 2014. If…

  • Global stock market faces correction

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    Central banks will not be able to avert next global crash…says Vatsal Srivastava in his weekly column Currency Corner Last week marked the inflection point many market pundits have been waiting for. The stage is set for the deepest global stock market correction since the rally began in March, 2009. As can be seen in the price action,…

  • Haunted houses

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    The haunted houses of Halloween Horror Nights Everyone knows that haunted houses in theme parks are make-believe and fake, but still spectators get excited and frightened. This year, the Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Singapore returns with brand new concepts and techniques. And Seah Wee Thye, director of entertainment at Resorts World Sentosa, narrated…

  • Bad Karma and Good Karma

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    Kill a pest and karma’s going to get you…writes Nury Vittachi  in his weekly column The Funny Side A tiny lizard has been clinging to the wall behind me for two hours. I want to change the TV channel but I feel I ought to at least ask him, right? Yeah, I know it’s irrational but…

  • THE COLOUR OF PREJUDICE

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    Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra Foreign based Indians coming home, generously bruised after their varied bouts with racism around the world discover a certain domestic reflection of the prejudice, cheerfully forgetting they might well have been willing contributors to its flourishing before they left Indian shores. This fact was brought home to me rather powerfully…

  • HOW NOBLE IS THE NOBEL PRIZE?

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    Bikram Vohra comments on Kailash Satyarthi’s Nobel winning noble cause I have to admit I have never heard of Kailash Satyarthi. Not even indirectly. That the Nobel prize committee has heard of him and thought it fit to give him the award is a testament to my ignorance… definitely… and the general muted response in…

  • Leaving No Escape Route For ISIS

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    Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU, says ISIS is a movement driven by religious fanaticism that rejects any other brand of Islam and defies any limits or constraints to achieve their perverse objective to establish a Caliphate encompassing Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and…

  • Death of a Good Samaritan

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    Muslims in Great Britain have been united in their condemnation of Mr Henning’s murder…writes Kaliph Anaz It happened on an Arafa Day. The day is just before Eid.ul-Adha aka Bakrid. When the entire Muslim world celebrates Bakrid, which marks the submission of man to God, a family in Salford near Manchester was grieving. Many set…

  • UPSTAGED BY SONS IN LAWS

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    Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra My son in law has just bought an iPhone Plus, something that does everything his old phone used to do but only better. It is a sleek piece of silver steel or titanium, (not that I would know), and after I hide my 99 dirham Nokia so the difference is…

  • Do we care?

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    Sabina Ahmed: I think we need to say it loud and clear, those of us who follow the true spirit of Islam, that it is not right to kill innocent people and put them on the video                             Do we care? The…

  • Gold prices will go southwards

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    International gold price should bottom around $,1050-$1,100/ounce writes Vatsal Srivastava in his weekly column Currency Corner Gold has lost its year to date gains post Friday’s blockbuster US jobs data. The headline US unemployment rate came in at 5.9 percent—the last time the unemployment rate was below 6 percent was in July 2008. The US economy added…

  • REVIEW: Modi’s US visit

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    Saroj Mohanty says Modi co-opts US business in remaking India  One thing that singularly defined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high voltage US visit was the open courting of American capital and his efforts to alter the narrative about India as an investment destination. In his individual and collective meetings with business leaders in New York…

  • ‘India’s zoos need reforms’

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     The recent incident of a youth being killed by a white tiger at the Delhi zoo highlighted the need to restructure and revamp Indian zoological parks, while raising questions over the security of animals and visitors. While some experts say it’s time private organisations were given a role in their management, others question the very…

  • SPECIAL REPORT: Jodhpur Fest

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    Over the years, rustic folk music has often found space within Bollywood space, but the organisers of Jodhpur’s Rajasthan International Folk Festival(RIFF) aim to go a step beyond by nurturing a platform that creates a demand for bucolic music by retaining traditional ethos and flavours. “There is no demand for folk music in the cities…

  • SPECIAL REPORT: Maharashtra Elections

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    Amulya Ganguli says bitter battle on the cards in Maharashtra  This month’s assembly elections in Maharashtra may well prove to be one of the most acrimonious contests in recent memory.Since the parting of close associates invariably arouses considerable antagonism, there is nothing surprising about the present hostility between the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata…

  • Clean India: Mindsets need to change

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    Rupesh Dutta says mindsets need to change if India wants to clean the country from filth Mindsets need to change if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India Mission to make the country litter and squalor free in the next five years is to succeed, diplomats and foreign tourists say. “I believe…

  • SPECIAL: India’s richest woman on campaign trail

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    Savitri Jindal, India’s richest woman, campaigns like a commoner… reports Jaideep Sarin   She lords over a multi-billion rupee industrial empire. She is the mother of nine children, including a leading corporate tycoon-cum-politician son, Naveen Jindal. She has been tagged the country’s richest woman, yet she is no more than a commoner when she takes to the…

  • Saeed Naqvi on Modi’s dry Hindi

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    Saeed Naqvi is asking Indian Prime Minister to use more Hindustani than Sanskritized Hindi to wider audience  I did not understand a word of what our prime minister said at the United Nations General Assembly. Well, except for words like “taaqatwar”, “rozgar” and “zahir”, all other words were beyond my comprehension. I had to fall back on translation.…

  • Self-control to stay alive

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    Nury Vittachi advising you to practice self-control to stay alive  This writer saved at least five people from being physically attacked yesterday. How? By exercising self-control. “Idiots have a right to live,” is the wonderfully calming secret mantra recommended for anyone who feels stressed by life in the modern world. Your columnist first realized how difficult self-control…

  • Is Didi Going the Amma way?

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    Anurag Dey says legal battles are Mamata’s Achilles’ heel?  The legal woes of West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee government seem to be unending. Constantly embroiled in legal battles, it has now been reprimanded by the courts, prompting the opposition to question the existence of rule of law in the state. In a blow to the ruling Trinamool…

  • Abbas’ dismal failure at the UN

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    Dr. Alon Ben-Meir says instead of using the occasion to provide constructive proposals and use reconciliatory language to advance the cause of peace, he engaged in acrimonious and discordant statements against Israel that did nothing but further embitter and alienate the Israeli public, whose support he needs the most to realize Palestinian aspirations As someone…

  • ASIAN GAMES: THE BIG FAT CHEATS

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    Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra Cheating is just that. Cheating. Sarita Devi was not a sore loser when she refused her medal. She was a sore winner and rightfully so. Even her opponent agreed she had been thrashed by Sarita. That no Indian official came to make the protest is also par for the course.…

  • SPECIAL COLUMN: Keeping us safe

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     Sabina Ahmed looks into the Home Secretary’s move to curtail rights in the name of safety and national security                     Keeping us safe The Home Secretary gave a rousing speech to the Conservative conference. We need to, she said, give extra powers to the security services, to…

  • Cricket de tour at Lords

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    The early start did nothing to dampen the boys’ enthusiasm for the trip, and it was about two hours in before we heard “Are we there yet?” Alas! Not, despite the half five start and collecting Kingsway Primary by 6, we had still encountered a bit of traffic slowing us down by the time we…

  • Emerging issues in the regional race

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    Amit Kapoor in his weekly column Active Voice looks into the issues affecting regional competitiveness An emerging theme in the area of competitiveness is the importance of regional competitiveness as the right unit of analysis. It includes not just the endowments one has like natural resources but also how one is able to utilize endowments and…

  • SPECIAL: Dubai ruler on ISIS & Jihadism

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     HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, calls for united front against Jihadists like ISIS.  Only one thing can stop a suicidal youth who is ready to die for ISIS: a stronger ideology that guides him onto the right path and convinces…

  • NHS deserves a better treatment

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    I marched 300 miles recently because I believe in the NHS and which is the best system in the developed world. In the coming few months I hope there will be more clarity from the Labour Party on how they plan to save the NHS. They must not count on the blind faith just because…

  • MODI ON THE MIKE

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    Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra The UN General Assembly is one of the worst places to give a speech. The atmosphere is dull and dreary, the podium is small and apologetic, there is scarcely anyone in the vast cavern and no one is really listening. You ignite little passion and are often one of a…

  • NAMASTE! Modi wows youth in Central Park

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    Arul Louis reports that Modi wows 65,000 youth in Central Park, with message of sanitation, peace  Who would have thought of Narenda Modi as a rock star? But Saturday evening, the Indian Prime Minister shared the stage with top music stars like JayZ, Beyonce, Carrie Underwood, Sting and Alicia Keys and himself received rockstar treatment…

  • The Anti-Social Society

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      The Funny Side by Nury Vittachi ponders “Why men only like foods which can kill them” I’m starting a group called The Anti-Social Society, with meetings at a restaurant every Friday. If you turn up, you’re disqualified. These days it’s too much trouble to go out, anyway. A reader sent me a report about a man…

  • Special Report: An alternate for sand

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    Can discarded plastic replace sand in concrete…writes Mayabhushan Nagvenkar   Plagued by chronic sand shortage following a ban on its indiscriminate mining, a scientific project undertaken by Goa’s structural experts and Britain’s University of Bath involving plastic may well bring cheer to the beleaguered real estate industry in the state. Academics in government engineering and polytechnics in…

  • SPECIAL REPORT: Modi-Obama summit

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    Amidst crises galore, Modi, Obama to focus on defence, security…writes Arun Kumar  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s summit meeting with President Barack Obama will have a strong focus on defence and security issues taking place as it does in the midst of a number of international crises, US officials say. The Sep 29-30 summit comes at…

  • Special Report: India’s ties with Vietnam

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    Vikas Datta looks into the strategic importance of Vietnam to India  September was a busy month for Indian diplomacy with a slew of high-level visits – both outgoing and incoming. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Japan and now is headed to the US, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj made a number of visits around the…

  • Requiem for River Yamuna

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    World Rivers Day – Yamuna to be focus of World Rivers Day functions in Braj …writes Brij Khandelwal The problems of the Yamuna and other Indian rivers will again be in focus on the the annual World Rivers Day as the people of Braj Mandal join millions around the world in the 10th edition of the…

  • THE MADNESS OF MOTIVATION

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    Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra You have to be a professional moron to fall for such drivel. I have this friend who is into psycho-executive analysis which sounds very heavy but what it means is that people are not happy in their work and he makes them feel better about the situation. For this he…

  • ISIS:  Illusions Vs Reality

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    Dr. Alon Ben-Meir looks in to the rise of ISIS as a global threat and the US strategy to destroy it Much has been said about President Obama’s strategy to degrade and eventually “destroy” the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Regardless of the soundness of the President’s strategy, to ensure greater success in…