June 11, 2008
In an interview to Karan Thapar back in February, 2008 Gen Kapoor had put his faith in detecting any Chinese troop buildup in the Tibetan plateau on satellite surveillance.
Karan Thapar: Just a moment ago you mentioned that their infrastructure allows them to move troops very quickly. Recently the Indian Express reported that with the result of roads and railways, the Chinese can move two divisions amounting to 10,000 troops within a space of 20-25 days. Earlier it would have taken three-six months. Does that worry you a little?
General Deepak Kapoor Well that is a matter of concern, but the fact is that if and when they move, there are also images available through the means of satellite when any such movements take place. So there is ample opportunity for sufficient notice to meet such a challenge, if and when it does arise.
Karan Thapar: So with satellites, you mean that every time China moves troops substantially, you know in advance and you can take counter measures.
General Deepak Kapoor The ability to look deeper across the Line of Actual Control is much greater.[link]
But the fly in the ointment was ofcourse that the Chinese had recently successfully conducted an Anti-Satellite Test by shooting down one of their own aging satellites in orbit and there is now an additional risk that during a period of crisis the Chinese might attempt to shoot down any Indian satellites which they deem might give away their troop buildup on the Tibetan plateau or elsewhere.
Now to arm itself against such a scenario the India defence ministry has in a timely manner decided to establish a Space cell to guard India’s space assets.
NEW DELHI: In view of the looming Chinese threat to its communication network and other space assets, India on Tuesday announced the setting up of its Integrated Space Cell (ISC).
The cell is designed to counter the Chinese Military Space Systems that comprises anti-satellite weaponry and a new class of heavy-lift and small boosters acting as catalyst in the next generation satellite warfare system.
The Space Cell will be put under the command of the Integrated Defence Services Headquarters and will act as a single window for integration among the armed forces, the department of space and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Announcing this after inaugurating the two-day Unified Commanders’ Conference in the Capital, defence minister A K Antony on Tuesday expressed concern at the “offensive counter space systems and an improved array of military space systems emerging in our neighbourhood”.[link]
While this is a step in the right direction, India should also seriously consider conducting its own ASAT test as quickly as practicable. That would be a strong deterrent to any adversary against taking potshots at India’s space based assets.
April 7, 2007
Today is the 39th Birthday of the Internet.
April 7, 1969: Birth of that thing we call the Internet
1969: The publication of the first “request for comments,” or RFC, documents paves the way for the birth of the internet.
April 7 is often cited as a symbolic birth date of the net because the RFC memoranda contain research, proposals and methodologies applicable to internet technology were first published on this day. RFC documents provide a way for engineers and others to kick around new ideas in a public forum; sometimes, these ideas are adopted as new standards by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
One interesting aspect of the RFC is that each document is issued a unique serial number. An individual paper cannot be overwritten; rather, updates or corrections are submitted on a separate RFC. The result is an ongoing historical record of the evolution of internet standards.
When it comes to the birth of the net, Jan. 1, 1983, also has its supporters. On that date, the National Science Foundation’s university network backbone, a precursor to the World Wide Web, became operational.
April 6, 2007
He actually called the CPI(M) as ‘thugs and murderers’ for the massacre of innocents in Nandigram and infact he goes on to draw parallels with Mao and Stalin and the finest traditions of ‘global communism’.
One wonders how long it is before Vir Sanghvi is denounced as a “counter-revolutionary” and a “closet communalist” by his leftist media colleagues and “intellectuals”.
The Bengal Paradox
It is now over a decade since I moved out of Calcutta. But watching the news last week, I felt I was back. As I saw those terrible shots of policemen beating up women in Nandigram, as I read about the massacre of innocent villagers, and as I noted the cold, commissar-like response of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to the killings, I remembered what it was like to live in West Bengal.
Like the rest of us, the people of West Bengal get the politicians they deserve. They get the thugs and murderers of the CPM and they get the hysterical, self-destructive opposition of Mamata Banerjee. Small wonder then that while Bengalis prosper all over the world (and in the rest of India), Bengal remains a backwater, always at least a decade behind the rest of the country.
April 4, 2007
Pakistan has implemented Mobile number portability across all carriers. While at the same time DoT in India under pressure from the Cellphone companies has virtually shelved the plan which would have benefited hundreds of millions of subscribers across the country.
Number portability allows a customer to move from one mobile service to another within GSM, and also between GSM and CDMA, while retaining the same number. It gives flexibility to customers and keeps operators on their toes lest their service quality falls.
According to an IDC survey, over 30 per cent of mobile subscribers would change their operators if they had number portability.
