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26.(Part IV - Stimulus Series) Obama Hails Stimulus (www.nytimes.com)
President Obama on Saturday called the $787 billion stimulus bill passed by Congress a “major milestone” and signaled that he planned to move forward quickly on the next phases of his economic recovery plan.
“This historic step won’t be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but rather the beginning,” -
27.(Part II - The Stimulus Series) Stimulus Watch: Government Responses to the Financial & Economic Crisis (www.usbudgetwatch.org)
US Budget Watch has created an interactive “Stimulus Watch” table that provides a detailed description of government actions taken to deal with the recent financial and economic turmoil.
All actions are clickable, sortable, and filterable. They also invite user questions.
This is a site that one could visit over time to figure out how the Stimulus Package is going.
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28.(Part I - The Stimulus Series) From the horse's mouth (www.whitehouse.gov)
The White House outlines what the Obama administration has in mind as far as the stimulus package is concerned.
"The American economy is in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime. The economy lost 2.6 million jobs in 2008, the most of any year since World War II. Manufacturing activity is at its lowest level in twenty-eight years. Consumer spending is declining and confidence is at historic lows. Many experts believe unemployment could reach double digits if no action is taken..."
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29.The deadly mix of short termism, unbridled greed and lax oversight (www.equitymaster.com)
The global financial crisis is really the consequence of an excessively short term outlook, propelled by greed and unstopped by regulation. The short termism is due to several factors, not least of which is the enormous growth, in the past 3 decades, o...
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30.Country Briefings: Iran (www.economist.com)
Data about Iran. This article also contains links to
Economic data, History in brief, the Political structure. These links are present on the Left of the article. -
31.Our citizens did it, Pakistan finally admits (www.hindustantimes.com)
For the first time ever, Pakistan has arrested six people for a terror attack on the basis of information supplied by India. Islamabad has announced that six people — including “mastermind and leader” of the 26/11 terror strikes, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi — were in its custody; the attackers had sailed from Karachi; and part of the Mumbai conspiracy had been hatched in Pakistan.
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32.(Part V - Afghanistan Series) Surging into a perfect storm? (warincontext.org)
Does the US led war in Afghanistan have the potential to make the debacle in Iraq pale in comparison?
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33.High forex reserves can worsen recession (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
High foreign exchange reserves have, in the current global recession, saved Asian countries (including India) from the travails they suffered in the Asian financial crisis of 1997-2000. So, they must aim for rising forex reserves in future too, right? Wrong.
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34.India ready for war? Forces grapple with delays, red tape (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
For all its aspirations about becoming a superpower, India continues to fumble in formulating strategic plans to systematically build the country's military "capabilities" in tune with its geopolitical objectives.
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35.Time for India to think of carrots too, not just sticks (www.hindu.com)
Now that the Mumbai terror probe has crossed the hurdle of Pakistani denial, India must shed its distrust.
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36.(Part IV - Afghanistan Series) Lessons learned for Afghanistan (www.politico.com)
Afghanistan is a honeycomb of ethnic groups and tribes. About half its people are Pashtuns, from more than 30 different tribes; an additional 25 percent are Tajiks; 18 percent, Hazaras; 6 percent, Uzbeks; 3 percent, Turkmen; 1 percent, Qizilbash; and about 7 percent are Aimaq, Arab, Kirghiz, Wakhi, Farsiwan, Nuristani, Baluch, Brahui, Qizilbash, Kabuli or Jat.
Wow. In this context is the Obama troop surge of 30,000 going to be enough. -
37.(Part III - Afghanistan Series) Afghan Views and the Race Against Time (www.vetvoice.com)
This piece takes into account Afghan public attitudes in determining what the real issue is there. A slightly different take to conventional wisdom about Afghanistan.
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38.(Part II - Afghanistan Series) Obama's War - Fearing Another Quagmire in Afghanistan (www.nytimes.com)
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains
And the women come out to cut up what remains
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
—Rudyard Kipling, “The Young British Soldier,” 1892Can President Obama succeed in that long-lamented “graveyard of empires” — a place that has crushed foreign occupiers for more than 2,000 years?
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39.(Part I - Afghanistan Series) Obama and Afganistan (www.thenation.com)
I have put together a 5 Part Series on the current situation in Afghanistan. This is so because the Obama administration believes that Afghanistan is where the action should lie. Not Iraq. It has also sent a special envoy Richard Holbrooke to the region. (And it is of quite some interest to us in India as well.)
However a lot people have their concerns about a war in Afghanistan. This set of articles looks at the Afghan issue from in this context.About this article: Obama's advisers say, a military surge is necessary not to "win" the war in Afghanistan but to stabilize the situation and to convince the Islamist insurgent leaders to come to the bargaining table. Is this a dangerously flawed strategy, one that could unravel Obama's presidency?
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40.Diamond, Kashyap, and Raghuram Rajan on the Geithner Plan (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
University of Chicago Professors Douglas Diamond and Anil Kashyap, whose description of the causes of the financial crisis is the most widely circulated post ever to appear on the Freakonomics blog, are back to explain the Geithner Plan in simple-to-understand terms, along with what they do and don’t like about it.
For this post, they’ve also drafted highly respected Chicago economist Raghuram Rajan, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.
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41.Country Briefings: China (www.economist.com)
The link will take you to the "Forecast" section of the article. However please note that there are a lot of other things that you can read up on. The links to the following are given on the left of the page. The Links are to: Factsheet, Economic data, History in brief, Political structure and Political forces.
This should give you enough info to speak authoritatively about China. -
42.Poznań Climate Conference (www.globalissues.org)
The 14th United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP 14, was held between December 1 – December 12, 2008.
Drawing over 11,500 participants, this conference continued from where the previous COP 13, the Bali Conference, left off; to discuss a post-Kyoto international agreement on climate change to take effect in 2013.
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43.The Indian stand (Sri Lanka - IV) (www.flonnet.com)
The Indian government has consistently called for a political solution to the ethnic problem.
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44.What next? (Sri Lanka - II) (www.flonnet.com)
WHAT next? That seems to be the question Sri Lanka watchers are asking as the defences of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) collapse like ninepins in the face of the aggressive military assault in the Wanni.
The answer is obvious: Once the war is over, President Mahinda Rajakapsa must evolve a political solution acceptable to all parties to the conflict. -
45.UPA’s dilemma: to be or not to be populist (www.livemint.com)
There is no bar on such measures before poll dates are announced, but the govt may need to weigh pros and cons
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46.The new normal in Pakistan (www.hindu.com)
Pakistanis can do little except deny that the violence exists, persecutes and targets them every single day, or stubbornly insist that even if it does, it means little and that life — simply if uncertainly — goes on just as before, with a new definition of normal.
An article about the price that ordinary Pakistanis are having to pay for their country's support to the radical elements. -
47.India: challenges in agriculture (www.hindu.com)
Is India facing a lasting crisis in agriculture and a serious threat to its food security? In a word, yes.
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48.Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares? (www.globalissues.org)
The variety of life on Earth, its biological diversity is commonly referred to as biodiversity. The number of species of plants, animals, and microorganisms, the enormous diversity of genes in these species, the different ecosystems on the planet, such as deserts, rainforests and coral reefs are all part of a biologically diverse Earth. Appropriate conservation and sustainable development strategies attempt to recognize this as being integral to any approach.
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49.
Economic Conditions Snapshot, February 2009: McKinsey Global Survey Results (rss.mckinseyquarterly.com)Registration (Free) required
Executives view their economies as bad but, in a change from recent months, do not see them getting much worse. Government actions have helped, many say. Companies are hanging on, and many are taking long-term actions to cope with economic turmoil. -
50.Turkey wades into Middle Eastern great game (www.hindu.com)
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ambitious policy in the Middle East should not be construed as abandoning the pursuit of European Union membership or alliance with Washington. An article on the situation in Turkey
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