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Showing posts from 2024

Mass Exodus: Why Are Millions of Indians Leaving India?

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"Leave India! It's High Time!!" screams out a recent Reddit post that has gone viral! The poster who claims to be an Indian entrepreneur warns of impending "terrible economic collapse" with a "massive depreciation of the Indian rupee".   The now-deleted post, written by a user named ‘u/anonymous_batm_an,’ urges high-earning professionals, especially innovators, to leave  India  for countries with better opportunities and governance, as reported by the  Times of India .  It recommends the UAE or Thailand as alternative destinations . The sentiments expressed in the post are already resonating with a large number of Indians.  The non-resident Indians now constitute the world's largest overseas diaspora. Every year, 2.5 million Indians leave their country of birth, making India the nation with the highest annual number of emigrants in the world.  New Company Registrations in Dubai. Source: Khaleej Times Indian investors continued to top the list...

US Missile Sanctions: Are Pakistanis Really Developing ICBMs?

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The outgoing Biden Administration has announced additional new sanctions against Pakistani entities working on the nation's missile program. The latest round of sanctions includes the Islamabad-based National Development Complex (NDC) and three Karachi-based organizations: Akhtar and Sons Private Limited, Affiliates International and Rockside Enterprise. Explaining the decision, US Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer accused Islamabad of having developed "increasingly sophisticated missile technology, from long-range ballistic missile systems to equipment that would enable the testing of significantly larger rocket motors.”  “Candidly, it’s hard for us to see Pakistan’s actions as anything other than an emerging threat to the United States,” Finer added, as reported by  Reuters news agency . "They don't acknowledge our concerns. They tell us we are biased," said the second U.S. official, adding that Pakistani officials have wrongly implied that U.S. sancti...

Canada Gets Tough on Foreign Students Amid Mounting Tensions With India

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The Canadian government has recently taken a series of steps to cut the number of international students studying in Canada. This is believed to be related to the extremely hostile Indian government response to Canadian allegations that the Indian officials ordered assassinations of Sikh activists in Canada. There are now new reports that Ottawa has asked Indian students to resubmit their documents for review. Earlier,  Canada made a decision to end the fast-track visa process, known as Student Direct Stream (SDS), for students coming from India, Pakistan and a few other developing countries. Meanwhile, US F-1 visas granted to Indian students fell 38% between January and September of 2024.  Sikh Activist Assassinations:  The United States and Canadian governments are alleging that Indian government agents plotted assassinations of Sikh dissidents on their soils. Their investigations paint a shocking picture of how recklessly Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government opera...

Russian Hackers Steal Indian Military Secrets From Pakistani Cyber Spies

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Hackers linked to Russian intelligence have stolen Indian military data from cyber spies believed to be working on behalf of the Pakistani state, according to an assessment by Microsoft researchers. All those involved are part of what are known as "advanced persistent threat" (APT) organizations in their respective countries.   TechTarget  defines "Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) as "a prolonged, targeted cyber attack that involves an attacker gaining and maintaining unauthorized access to a network for an extended period". The goal of an APT is to steal sensitive data, rather than cause damage to the network or infect systems with malware. It is harder to defend against such intrusions than to attack.  In a recent  blog post , Microsoft researchers have discussed how Russian FSB's Secret Blizzard APT has breached a Pakistan-based threat activity cluster called Storm-0156 ATP to steal India's military secrets gathered by Pakistani intelligence. Since t...

IDEAS 2024: Pakistan Defense Industry's New Drones, Missiles and Loitering Munitions

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The recently concluded IDEAS 2024, Pakistan's Biennial International Arms Expo in Karachi, featured the latest products offered by Pakistan's defense industry. These new products reflect new capabilities required by the Pakistani military for modern war-fighting to deter external enemies. The event hosted 550 exhibitors, including 340 international defense companies, as well as 350 civilian and military officials from 55 countries.  Pakistani defense manufacturers highlighted their latest products, including armed UAVs, air-launched cruise missiles, smart munitions and main battle tanks. A Pakistani defense official said a large number of memoranda of understanding (MOUs) were signed with foreign military officials which could potentially lead to $36 billion in future sales.  Pakistan Shahpar III UAV. Source: @ZARRAR3D Pakistan's state-owned defense conglomerate Global Industrial & Defense Solutions (GIDS) displayed a new medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned a...

Barrick Gold CEO "Super-Excited" About Reko Diq Copper-Gold Mine Development in Pakistan

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Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow says he’s “super excited” about the company’s Reko Diq copper-gold development in Pakistan. Speaking about the Pakistani mining project at a conference in the US State of Colorado, the South Africa-born Bristow said “This is like the early days in Chile, the Escondida discoveries and so on”, according to  Mining.com , a leading industry publication. "It has enormous upside potential". He was referring to Pakistan’s untapped discovery potential. Escondida was the first discovery of copper in Chile which is now the world's largest producer and exporter of copper. Last year, the South American country exported nearly $20 billion worth of copper.  Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow in Balochistan, Pakistan. Source: Quetta Voice “Copper has no substitutes,” Bristow continued. “It is as strategic as gold is precious, and we’re bringing new copper projects online just as the supply squeeze hits.” Comparing Reko Diq to Escondida, he said "walking acr...

What Can Pakistan Do to Cut Toxic Smog in Lahore?

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Citizens of Lahore have been choking from dangerous levels of toxic smog for weeks now. Schools have been closed and outdoor activities, including travel and transport, severely curtailed to reduce the burden on the healthcare system.  Although toxic levels of smog have been happening at this time of the year for more than a decade, this year appears to be particularly bad with hundreds of people hospitalized to treat breathing problems. Millions of Lahoris have seen their city's air quality index (AQI) cross the 1,000 mark several times this month - anything above 300 is considered dangerous.  What can Pakistan do to cut this level of air toxicity? Is there a silver bullet here? Let's try and understand the root causes of this problem to answer these questions.  NASA Satellite Images of Fires and Smog Taken on Nov 6, 2024. Source: NASA South Asia is particularly susceptible to pollutants that hang in the air for extended periods of time. The US National Aeronautics and S...

Pakistan to Develop Urdu LLM for Generative AI

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National University of Science and Technology (NUST), National Information Technology Board (NITB) and Telecom network operator Jazz have signed a  Memorandum of Understanding  (MOU) to develop Pakistan’s first indigenous Large Language Model (LLM) with focus on Urdu, including datasets for Pashto and Punjabi languages. It is aimed at empowering individuals, businesses, and organizations with advanced AI tools in their native languages. The envisioned LLM is expected to drive innovation in Generative AI applications, boosting productivity and accessibility in critical sectors like healthcare, education, and agriculture. GPT-4 Accuracy Scores. Source: The Economist Generative AI tools such as  ChatGPT  are powered by large language models, or LLMs. These models need to be trained on vast amounts of data in specific languages to be useful. Unfortunately, the Urdu content of the Internet is less than  0.1% . This will present a challenge for the developers of ...

Will India Grow Old Before it Gets Rich?

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India's population has aged faster than expected while its economic growth has slowed over the last decade. This raises the obvious questions: Will India get old before it gets rich? Is India getting poorer relative to its peers in the emerging markets?  India's Population Aging. Source: Semafor As India's birth rate declines rapidly, the proportion of people age 60 and over is rising in the general population. This is particularly true of the southern states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, the expected demographic dividend from the youth bulge in the country has yet to materialize. High youth  unemployment  is threatening to cause serious social instability in the world's most populous country. It is also causing a massive  brain drain .   India's GDP Per Capita Compared to Emerging Markets Average. Source: IMF India is losing its best and brightest to the West, particularly to the United States, at an increasingly rapid pace. A 2023 study of the 1,...

India: A Rogue State Ruled By Gangsters?

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The United States and Canadian governments are alleging that Indian government agents plotted assassinations of Sikh dissidents on their soils. Their investigations paint a shocking picture of how recklessly Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government operates.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and Home Minister Amit Shah The criminal charges announced by Washington and Ottawa are backed by Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the remaining three countries that make up the 5-nation intelligence sharing alliance known as the Five Eyes. Revelations made by the US Justice Department and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) indicate that the authorization for  Sikh assassinations  came directly from the top Indian government officials, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-hand man Amit Shah. International criminal gang leader Lawrence Bishnoi is listed among the people tasked with carrying out the murders. These allegations are based on intel...