Mumbai Attacks - Observations

IB and RAW claim to have send intelligence reports warning of a sea attack on Mumbai to the Navy and Maharashtra government. They denied having received it. It is clear that there is no secure system to communicate such information. Any such system must be confidential (only the intended recipient must be able to see the message), authenticated (identity of sender must be verifiable), have integrity (the receiver must be capable of identifying whether the message was modified in transit), and be nonrepudiable (the sender must not be able to falsely deny that he send it; the receiver must not be able to falsely claim that he did not receive it). It seems that Indian does not have such a system to communicate between various actors responsible for securing our nation.

Lathi-wielding pot-bellied constables specializing in abusing citizens guilty of minor offences cannot defend our country. We need to replace these constables with a highly paid leaner force trained in urban warfare, handling crisis situations, and in the use of sophisticated weapons.

Larger community participation in policing with the use of volunteers to guide traffic and even fire-fighting. Voluntary participation in police, fire-fighting creates a larger tappable pool in a crisis.

Mandatory military training and participation for two years for all 18 year olds. It will create a readiness in our civil infrastructure that will make any terror attack difficult to undertake.

Crack down on black money -- the life line of terror funding. The first target must be property transactions where most transactions involve a cash component. Money laundering must be made a jailable offense and must be aggressively prosecuted.

Membership in banned organizations must be considered treason. Laws must be modified to reflect that. People guilty of membership in organizations guilty of anti-national activities must mandatorily be executed without exception.

Clampdown on political violence by aggressive prosecution. All violent incidents must be prosecuted in the same way whether it is political or not. Violence as a means to achieve social equality or attracting attention must not be encouraged. All political parties indulge in this.

All this needs an independent police force. Police chiefs must be elected by the people, or at least by local bodies like the panchayats. No political party must directly or indirectly campaign for this. People with IPS, or top retired military personnel may run for this position.

Air pollution

Automobile companies are on the verge of creating a revolution. Electric cars -- they have zero emissions -- can put an end to air pollution in our cities. People might argue that electricity production will result in pollution.

My argument is as follows. Let us assume that oil companies invest in diesel generators to produce the excess electricity needed. These diesel generators will be much more efficient and can use more advanced technology than an IC engine in a cheap car. I believe that for the same distance travelled, electric cars will result in much less fuel consumption. But, not all new electricity will come from hydocarbons. Solar, wind, nuclear, geo thermal, hydro electric, bio-gas from organic waste etc. will share the load.

Inland transporting of oil will also be replaced by a higher capacity grid. This will have a small influence on traffic reduction and fuel burning. I believe that grid losses can be lower than fuel transportation charges.

Financial troubles and the silver lining

The past few years saw tremendous rise in prices of almost everything under the sun. In most places, it was difficult to afford a home for reasonably well-employed people. Food prices were up, oil was up. The wizards kept telling us that the rise in prices were attributed to growth. But, now it seems that the price rise  was due to cheap money made available by the central banks and lend out without adequate checks on the credit-worthiness of the borrower, or invested in dubious and complex financial instruments.

There is a rapid correction going on with money being sucked out of the system. Banks are paying back money that they borrowed to invest. It is predicted that this process will be long and painful. Painful more for the developing economies because there is a flight of capital into the developed economies to fund their loan paybacks.

The silver lining is sanity in pricing. The price rise of the past few years will be turned back. This will make everything more affordable for the common man. Governments must resist the urge to prop up companies. Companies that took undue risks must take losses or even go bankrupt. A better and more responsible way of doing business will emerge.