Indian growth unexpectedly strong

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The Indian economy is still one of the fastest-growing in the world India's economy grew 5.8% in the first three months of the year compared with the same period last year, which was better than had been expected. The official gross domestic product figure was down from 8.6% annual growth seen in the first quarter of 2008. Although growth has slowed from last year, the economy is still expanding faster than most other countries. It grew 6.7% in the full financial year, which was down from a rate of 9% in the year to the end of March 2008. 'Growth bottomed out' "The GDP growth number justifies the claim that India is dealing with the global crisis from a position of strength," said Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist at Bank of Baroda in Mumbai. "This means that growth has bottomed out, or at least the deceleration has stopped." The figures are good news for the newly-elected Congress-led government, which has made reviving growth its top priority. Among the sectors showing an improvement was farm output, which grew at an annualised rate of 2.7% in the first three months of 2009 having contracted 0.8% in the previous quarter. Construction grew 6.8% in the period compared with 4.2% in the previous quarter. But the manufacturing sector contracted an annual 1.4%, having grown 0.9% in the previous three months.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

China bigger threat than Pakistan: India

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NEW DELHI: India faces a greater threat from China than Pakistan because New Delhi knows little about Beijing’s combat capabilities, India’s air force chief told a newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

The world’s two most populous nations fought a brief but brutal war over their 3,500 km (Himalayan border in 1962, and both sides claim the other is occupying big but largely uninhabited chunks of their territory.

India has also been pursuing closer relations with the United States, something that worries China.

China has a standing army almost three times the size of Pakistan’s, according to official figures and defence industry estimates, but it is the lack of knowledge about China’s military that concerned Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major.

‘We know very little about the actual capabilities of China, their combat edge or how professional their military is,’ Major told the Hindustan Times newspaper.

‘They are certainly a greater threat.’

Although India and China have signed a treaty to maintain ‘peace and tranquillity’ along their disputed frontier and agreed to find a political solution to the row, talks have hardly made progress even as their business ties boom.

India blames the lack of progress on China’s claim over the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, in particular over its Buddhist enclave of Tawang. New Delhi says it cannot part with populated areas to settle the border dispute.

Major said the Indian air force was upgrading about five airbases, of which two would operate Russian Su-30 MKI fighters.

Who is Enemy : Taliban or India or US?

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Over 600 Pakistani civilians have died this year in suicide bombings carried out by the terrorists in FATA/Swat and the Drone Attacks carried out by the United States and by the militants in Balochistan who are backed and funded by India.

The only people who are being killed and harmed are the Pakistanis. They are being attacked from many sides and yet they are still very much unsure about who their enemy is. Overwhelming majority of Pakistanis still don’t consider Taliban terrorists. Many still follow the chain of reasoning that the on going war against terror still only belongs to United States and Pakistan has nothing to do with it. There are almost all the people in Punjab and Sindh who doesn’t understand the gravity of restive situation in the Balochistan. They shrug it off as mere temporary skirmish fanned by Indians and the Karzai administration.

We are right now a confused nation, who doesn’t know it’s objectives, its priorities and it’s vision. There is no clear way for us to go forward. To cure the patient the diagnosis has to be accurate, otherwise the wrong medicine can sometimes kill the patient. In order to find the cure, we have to have the clear road map as where actually we want to go from here. Do we Talibanize the whole country, or do we become a total secular state. Do we give complete provincial autonomy to the provinces or do we become a one unit. Do we declare it as a national policy to tow the American line or do we go against them.

Whatever we do, we cannot do it in the bizzare fasion, which we are doing now. We cannot put the matters on pending for too long now. We have to make decision as nation and make it fast and then stick to it. Because when we set this objective, we would be clearly knowning who our enemy is and then we would be able to fight it conclusively. Because right now we are being hit by from everywhere, retaliating to none.

http://www.pakspectator.com/who-is-enemy-taliban-or-india-or-us/