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Israel’s Air Strike on Iran: A Credible Threat or a Bluff?

Author / Source / Date: 

Prabir Purkayastha, Newsclick, Nov. 7, 2011

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The Iran nuclear weapons issue is once again in the news, this time prompted by leaks in Israel media of a possible Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. These leaks have been accompanied by unusual details that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has supplied about the long-range drills  that its air force is conducting in a NATO air base in Italy, long range missile tests, etc. Once winter sets in, it is difficult to conduct such air attacks due to thick clouds over the region. So if an attack has to be launched on Iran's nuclear facilities, the window of opportunity is at best a few more weeks.

AFSPA Withdrawal: A Real Controversy or Bailing Out Omar?

Author / Source / Date: 

Seema Mustafa, Newsclick, Nov. 5, 2011

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Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah says he wants the Armed Forces Powers Act revoked in some parts of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Looming Power Sector Crisis: Chickens of 2003 Coming Home to Roost

Author / Source / Date: 

Prabir Purkayastha, Newsclick, Nov. 4, 2011

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The power sector is rapidly going into a three-fold crisis – rising tariffs, lack of coal and a huge overhang of debt for the companies in the power sector. The chickens of the power sector reforms carried out in the last two decades, particularly through the 2003 Electricity Act is now coming home to roost.

Team Anna, Kiran Bedi and Hissar: Problematic Calls

Author / Source / Date: 

Prabir Purkayastha, Newsclick, Nov 1, 2011

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Team Anna has chosen to close ranks on the issues that have created some controversy in recent days. Part of this controversy related to its own action in Hissar where it opposed the Congress candidate in the bye-election. The second is members in its 'core group' exhibiting less than high standards of probity it demands of others in public life: Kiran Bedi, one of leading lights of Team Anna fudging air tickets to generate funds for her NGO.

NATO's Agenda for Libya Qaddafi, From Beginning to End

Author / Source / Date: 

Vijay Prashad, Counter Punch, Oct 23, 2011

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On the dusty reaches out of Sirte, a convoy flees a battlefield. A NATO aircraft fires and strikes the cars. The wounded struggle to escape. Armed trucks, with armed fighters, rush to the scene.

Prabhat Patnaik on "20 Years after Fall of USSR"

Author / Source / Date: 

Newsclick Presentation, Sept 24, 2011

After Gadhafi, the West eyes the Libyan prize

Author / Source / Date: 

Phyllis Bennis, Courtesy: www.salon.com, Oct. 21, 2011

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The death of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi will likely — though it’s too early to know anything for sure — mean the end of the current stage of Libya’s civil war.

NTP 2011: Yesterday's Scam as Policy Today

Author / Source / Date: 

Prabir Purkayastha, Newsclick, Oct. 20, 2011

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The brand new National Telecom Policy 2011 (NTP 2011) proposed with a lot of fan fare has the same objective as earlier such policies – NTP 1994 and NTP 1999 – how to create new scams or justify existing ones.Sibal, while paying lip service to various other policy objectives such as teledensity, self-reliance, etc., makes clear that this policy is primarily to help “.. ensuring continued viability of (private) service providers in a competitive environment.” Too many licenses have been given with not enough spectrum and not enough money for putting in infrastructure. Now the challenge is how to allow the existing license holders to either sell their licenses or provide services without building the necessary infrastructure.

Wars in the 21st Century: From Drones to Cyber Wars

Author / Source / Date: 

Prabir Purkayastha, Newsclick, Oct 12, 2011

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Wired has reported that a virus has hit the US drone fleet operating out of Creech Airbase in Nevada. This has not stopped the Predator and Reaper drones from operating in Afghanistan, West Asia and now also North Africa, the areas the US considers as “war zones” – a shadowy war in which the ratio of high valued targets to actual “kills” are now (2009-2010 figures) running at 1: 147.

Shyam Shrestha - "A very progressive Constitution in the offing in Nepal"

Author / Source / Date: 

Srinivasan Ramani, Newsclick, 11-October-2011

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First installment of a series of interviews on the political situation in Nepal presently. 

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