Africa's low-key Drone war

Last week the New York Times reported that the US is planning to establish a new base for its drones in north-west Africa. While the base is to be used initially to fly unarmed surveillance drones, according to the article the US does not rule out the possibility of using the base to launch strikes in the future. One day after the NYT piece, Reuters reported that a base would be established in Niger. According to “a senior government source” says Reuters, “the U.S. ambassador to Niger, Bisa Williams, made the request at a meeting on Monday with President Mahamadou Issoufou, who immediately accepted it.”

Mali will no-doubt be one of the initial targets of the US drones, bordering as it does on Niger. The deployment of French surveillance drones in Mali was reported last October and there has been speculation that British drones could be deployed as part of its military support to French forces in Mali. However, British Defence Minister, Philip Hammond, said recently that he had decided against sending drones as they are needed in Afghanistan.

While drones have mainly been used in South Asia, unmanned drones have flown in African skies for many years.

According to David Axe’s must read article, America’s Secret drone War in Africa, the first known US attack in Africa involving a drone took place on January 7, 2007 when a US Predator drone tracked a convoy near the southern Somali town of Ras Kamboni and guided in an attack by a US gunship. Since that first attack, US drones have operated more or less continuously over African soil.

Despite President George Bush telling reporters in 2008 “I want to dispel the notion that all of a sudden America is, you know, bringing all kinds of military to Africa. It’s just simply not true,” many US bases have been established including bases for unmanned drones. The most well-known of them is in Djibouti, but bases exist in Ethiopia and the Seychelles.


Asked about the presence of US drones at press event in the Seychelles in 2009 US diplomat Craig White said: “The government of Seychelles invited us here to fight against piracy, and that is its mission…. however, these aircraft have a great deal of capabilities and could be used for other missions.”

In addition to theses bases, informed analysts say that a base in Congo is being expanded and could be used to for drone raids. Other US military bases have also been established in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Uganda and there are plans to open a base in south Sudan to carry out intelligence gathering and surveillance flights using other aircraft.

Somalia continues to be one of the main focuses of US drone operations in Africa (see Bureau of Investigative Journalism – US Covert War in Somalia). Although most of the US military activity in Somalia is covert, occasionally their officials confirm the use of armed drones. According to Chris Woods of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), there have been around 23 US airstrikes in Somalia since 2007, many of which have involved US drones.

In July 2012, UN officials released a report complaining that the presence of unmanned drones in Somalia posed a danger to air-traffic and risked violating the long-standing arms embargo on the country. The report detailed three specific events – a drone crash into a refu­gee camp, the flight of a drone dangerously close to a fuel dump and the near collision of a drone with a large passenger plane over Mogadishu – calling them near disasters.

Last year, a British citizen was killed in a US drone strike in Somalia. Bilal el-Berjawi was travelling in a car just outside Mogadishu when a drone launched three missiles, killing him and others travelling in the car. According to the Guardian, el-Berjawi may have given his location away when he talked on the phone to his wife who had just given birth a few hours before. It should perhaps be noted that the UK does not count el-Berjawi as a British citizen as it unilaterally stripped him of citizenship in 2011.

In June 2012, a “mystery air-strike” on a convoy of trucks was reported in Northern Mali. The original report from the Magharebia website (which it should be noted is sponsored by United States Africa Command) stated that seven “terrorists” of a brigade linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) were killed while several others were injured. US intelligence officials contacted by the Long War Journal would neither confirm nor deny US involvement in the strike.
In Libya too, there have been persistent reports from officials that drones continue to fly despite the official end of the conflict in October 2011. US officials initially refused to comment but later acknowledged their presence for “surveillance purposes”. There have been disputed reports about whether a drone was in the area during the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in September 2011.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

"Unfortunately, my dream remains unfulfilled"

Please tell us about your educational background and your scientific achievements.
 I completed a Masters in Botany from the Punjab University in 1957 and bagged a gold medal. Then I taught for two years at the Emerson College, Multan. After that, I joined the Government College, Lahore, and taught Botany there until 1962. Thereafter, I went to the Edinburgh University, Scotland, and did a PhD in biochemical genetics in 1966. After completing my doctorate, I moved to Canada and stayed there until 1989. During my career in Canada, I was simultaneously involved in research in Germany and the United States. From 1989 to 1993, I was associated with the King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I was there for four years. Then I returned to Pakistan where I worked as the executive secretary of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences for two years, and between 1996-2011, I was the science adviser for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation. The most recent development is that I have been elected as Secretary General of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. This is a non-governmental organisation. I was also chairman of the Natural Commission on Biotechnology under the Science and Technology Ministry. Unfortunately, the commission was wrapped up by the government in 2009.

India, People’s Republic of China and other countries have made enormous progress in biotechnology and benefited immensely. Why has Pakistan lagged behind?
This is because the policies of the government in Pakistan are such that there is little emphasis on advances in science and technology, which is so crucial for economic development. What I wish to convey is that my passion has always been science and I have emphasised it in several of my earlier interviews. Unfortunately, this dream remains unfulfilled. Once again, in my capacity as the Secretary General of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with my colleagues, we shall try our best to explore avenues for strengthening science and technology in the country. In genetic engineering, I have authored eight books and monographs. In addition to science, I also have a keen interest in Urdu literature. I have a collection of short stories in Urdu and a collection of humourous writings as well.

Why have we not been able to compete in science with India?
 This is because science and technology has never been a national priority in Pakistan except for a few years when Professor Ataur Rahman was the Science and Technology minister.

Prof. Dr Anwar Nasim, Don’t you agree that primary and secondary education is much more important in countries like Pakistan rather than producing PhDs?
Primary and secondary education is equally important because elementary education provides the foundation for higher education. There can be no higher education without sound elementary education. There are many examples of self-made people in Pakistan who emerged from very poor backgrounds such as Professor Abdus Salam. I, too, hail from a poor village in Jhelum.

What about our science budget? Don’t you agree it’s very nominal?
Our science budget is dismal! It’s only 0.5 per cent of our budget allocations. It should be at least 2 per cent.

You have been working in the domain of biochemical genetics. What is your opinion about genetically modified organisms (GMOs)?
After devolution, there is no adequate infrastructure to provide regulatory guidelines for the release of GMOs.
The Environmental Protection Agency is still looking for some degree of stability and continuity.

And how do you view organics? There is a trend across the world to go for organics in preference to GMOs, despite the fact that the former are relatively expensive.
Options such as organics should be critically examined, and if found appropriate from the human health point of view, should be practiced. But to answer any of these questions, one needs a rich source of scientific expertise.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM Global Exposure
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BBA Institute

Saving a crippled telecom infrastructure. Tough task.

With demand for high-speed Internet on the rise, optical fibres appear the only medium that can provide relief. But there are bottlenecks. Worse, the failure to execute a pan-India fiber optic installation plan can lead to a disastrous outcome

Another comparison with China. And a parameter that would be of interest to netizens – speed of broadband Internet. According to a 2012 ‘State of the Internet’ report by Akamai Technologies, the average broadband speed of Internet in India is 0.95 Mbps, while that in China is 2.1 Mbps. Even Philippines, Vietnam and a host of other countries that you would term “Third World” record Internet speeds far greater than in India. And since we are already talking comparisons, Asian countries like Japan and South Korea are years ahead of India with 10.5 Mbps and 14.7 Mbps of average Internet speeds respectively. What is interesting about these numbers is that ISPs in China, Japan and South Korea have been delivering over 2 Mbps of connectivity speed for over a decade now! And India? Thanks to 40 million copper loops (last mile connectivity count as per TRAI) spread across India and owned mostly by State-run telcos MTNL or BSNL (of which only 50% can support even 1 Mbps of Internet transfer), except for rare glimpses of real broadband connectivity, Internet users (on various devices including tablets and mobiles) in the country are still feeding on “pseudo-broadband” connections! The advent of fiber optics can however improve the situation. But given the current ecosystem, fiber optics in India appears a thing of the future.

The Delhi metro rail is an example of how optical fibers can infuse efficiency into a process. To ensure on-schedule running of trains and minimum waiting time for millions of users every day, the system works on a high speed optical fibre network that was set up at an initial cost of Rs.200 million a decade back (the network connects all the spoke servers at various stations to the central server at Shastri Park station). What if such a highly efficient fiber optic-enabled communication network was made available to everyday mobile phone or Internet users sitting at work or home? Greater voice clarity, better TV viewing experience and faster data transfer would change the experiences of millions of users of telecommunication devices in the country.

Lack of infrastructure is the reason why such experiences would be hard to come by for the average Indian, for at least the next decade. Some refer to coaxial fibers or wireless technologies as alternatives. At present, coaxial fibers used by cable operators (serving 80 million households across India) are not capable of carrying high bandwidth digital signals. There is much data loss and disturbance during signal transfers on coaxial fibers. Of the thousands of operators of cable TV across India, less than 7% have the expertise or pockets to make coaxial fibers ready for two-way data transfer (a necessity for high-speed transfers). As for wireless technology, 3G or 4G wireless technologies are an option. However, experiences in the past two years have made clear that additional spectrum (needed by telecom operators to serve the broadband needs of millions of customers) isn’t an asset that can be bought for a song. As per TRAI, in Delhi alone, on average, ‘each’ wireless operator would need about 300 MHz of spectrum to meet broadband connectivity demands – 1400% more than the ‘total’ spectrum allocated in the 2010 auctions. Therefore wireless mode is not a practical alternative to fiber optics. It is also important to note that when compared on the basis of loss of data, fibre optics is the best medium. Copper or coaxial cables are not reliable when transmitting data over long distances. These mediums require repeaters at regular intervals to ensure data reaches the intended destination, adding to the cost of equipment required to install a reliable system. On the contrary, fibre cables can transmit data over very long distances without the aid of repeaters.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM Global Exposure
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The Separation and the Quran

Why an Oscar-winning Iranian movie needs to be positioned shrewdly by the US to gain back the ground they lost after the recent act of burning of the Quran

America witnessed a surge in hate crimes against Muslims post 9/11. A report by the Journal of Applied Social Psychology explored that the number of anti-Muslim attacks in America in 2001 increased exponentially from 354 to 1,501 following 9/11. At the same time, US simultaneously invaded two Islamic nations – Afghanistan and Iraq – to fulfil their interests. Consequently, Muslim nations largely consider US as an anti-Muslim country.

In the last few years, the US government and elite intellectual class has attempted to change their cultural moorings and accept Muslims as part of their country. But the Quran burning incident in Afghanistan involving five American servicemen, and the more recent killing of 16 Afghan civilians by an American army man have not helped matters at all.

But where politics and military have failed, the arts might have a solution. In the 84th Academy Awards, an Iranian movie titled ‘A Separation’, directed by Asghar Farhadi, bagged an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category. No Iranian movie had ever won an Oscar previously. In addition, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy became the first Pakistani ever to win an Oscar Award for her documentary ‘Saving Face’. But really, it’s not that these two did not deserve the Oscar – the outstanding and brilliant quality of these two Oscar winning packages puts that suspicion away – the more important point is that the Academy could have so easily outmaneuvered its members’ votes to deny the Oscars to both – what with the abysmally low level of relations that US has managed to engineer with Iran, Pakistan and the Muslim world in general.

The fact that the Academy awarded these two productions is a largesse, especially considering that not just does the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have members of Jewish decent but also that its President, Tom Sherak, is a Jew.

The news of two “Iranian and Pakistani Muslims” winning an “American” award from an academy with “Jewish” members should have been carpet bombed by the US administration through paid media to promote the rigmarole goodwill message to the Muslim world. Such a PR move over two months would have allowed America to gain back much of the ground it lost post the past few anti-Muslim incidents. While Obama was busy churning out apology notes for the Quran burning, there was no note of congratulations from the state department to either the award winners or to Iran and Pakistan as a whole.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year

BBA Management Education

The fading magic of Nitish Kumar

The Bihar CM’s second term has been nothing short of turbulent. However, he refuses to accept that the people of the state are angry. With promises on investments and an improved power scenario not delivered, will Nitish’s arrogance prove costly?

The magic of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seems to have started fading gradually in the second term of his regime. Against tall claims of the ruling government, the ground realities don’t augur well for the state. The poor law and order situation and the red-tape that has marked his present term has had an adverse impact to the extent that investors have already started rethinking on their proposals to set up industrial units in Bihar. The recent spate of unnecessary violence in Madhubani district is a glaring example of the shambles that law and order in the state is currently in.

In the first phase of NDA rule in the state, Bihar had acquired considerable attention throughout the country and even abroad for its remarkable performance in the improvement of law and order and other successful experiments like speedy trials, fast-track courts and prompt action against criminal activities. But the situation has changed faster than expected. Take the example of the much-touted Adhikar Yatra that was recently undertaken by Nitish. The escalating resentment of the people has become so evident that the CM was greeted with slippers, black flags, stone-pelting and anti-government slogans. The people’s anger forced Nitish to give up the Yatra and he has also refrained from participating in meetings in Ara and Buxar. No other prominent leader has hitherto faced such resentment in the state. Skeptics point out that his arrogance and absolute disregard for popular sentiment lie at the root of the quandary.

On a recent visit to the state, Markandey Katju, Chairperson of the Press Council of India, attacked the Chief Minister for the poor law and order situation in the state. In a programme organised by the Director General of Police (DGP) in Patna, Katju, a man known for not mincing his words, said while referring to public angst during the Adhikar Yatra, “He (Nitish) is shying away from facing his own people. The CM had been living in an illusion and is not doing any introspection for things gone wrong.” The reactions that followed warrant even more attention. After listening to the attack on the government made by Katju; the DGP, along with several other bureaucrats, chose to leave the function midway. The organisers disowned Katju’s speech later on and tagged it as ‘unwarranted’.

Moreover, political analysts feel that Nitish’s prime ministerial ambitions and his engagement in national politics have taken prominence at a time when the state is in dire need of Nitish, the administrator. After all, Nitish’s first term was marked by a show of guts and courage and a solemn promise to deliver on the administrative front. However, he now chooses to stay busy in yatras rather than delivering on promises of economic upliftment.

There was a time when industrialists were making a beeline for investing in Bihar. But the manner in which companies like Adani Power & Essar have given up on their proposed plans in the state is not very encouraging. Investors are realising, for instance, that chances of improvement in the power scenario are quite bleak and wonder how industry would function in this milieu. Recently, State Bank of India Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri also insisted that the Bihar Government must cater to outstanding land and power issues to encourage investors.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
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IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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Can Samsung keep its edge in smartphones?

The South Korean player enjoys a clear lead over its Finnish rival in the smartphone sweepstakes currently but there are quite a few curveballs to come in the hyperactive mobile phone market before a clear winner can emerge.

Until as recently as 2008, Nokia had an invincible lock on the mobile phone market in India. The Finnish giant was by far the strongest Richmond in the field, controlling a humongous 75% of the Indian mobile handset market by volume. But over the next couple of years, even as the handset market was going through a watershed technological change and churn, Nokia made the mistake of taking its eyes off the emerging market trends and has had to pay a heavy price for the lapse.

By the time it realised its mistake, the South Korean major Samsung had already taken the market by storm, introducing a whole new dynamic to the Indian mobile phone market: smartphones, which have operating systems just like PCs (with Android being the most popular). The past two years have seen Samsung make hay and sunshine of the Indian handphone market while Nokia has been left to nurse a bloody nose in the smartphone sweepstakes.

From the staggering peak of its market leadership four years ago, it has seen a heartbreaking fall with its current market share declining to 31%. In comparison, Samsung’s share in the volume game has moved up from 5% to 28% over the past two years alone, according to a research report by Cyber Media.

The cardinal sin Nokia made was to forget that technology is ephemeral in nature. So when smarphones became the hottest flavour in the handset business, Nokia was caught napping. So far it had played the market on the strength of its feature phones and had nothing equivalent to offer in the sizzling smartphone category. Its Symbian platform looked antediluvian and anachronistic in comparison to Samsung’s offerings on Google’s Android.

Unlike Nokia, Samsung had abandoned the Symbian OS early on and succeeded in developing leading-edge handsets using multiple operating systems. At the same time, it developed its own operating system – called Bada – to push smartphones into the mid-market and cannibalize the feature-phone segment. It was also quick to launch several attractive models on Google’s Android platform, which helped it gain global market leadership in the smartphone segment.

The Korean tech giant with an estimated revenue of roughly $200 billion globally started its tech world ascendancy in late 1980s and ’90s as a component manufacturer and supplier of DRAMs, and other flash memory chips for companies like GE and (its love/hate partner/foe) Apple Inc. In the ’90s, once it got the hang of basics like DRAMs, and LCD displays, it quickly scaled its electronics business, investing big sums to create economies of scale and outprice the competition.

On the strength of its broad product portfolio, differentiated retail and multiplatform strategy Samsung has, in recent years, gone about breaking Nokia’s hegemony and its premium brand perception. Nokia’s fortunes have been in reverse gear as it’s two biggest markets – China and India – have gone on to lap up the feeding frenzy over smartphones.

Today, Samsung has a clearly established lead in the lucrative and rapidly growing smartphone category with 43% market share as compared to Nokia’s 23%, according to a CyberMedia Research report. The saving grace for Nokia is that it’s still the overall market leader in the Indian mobile handset market with Rs.119.25 billion revenue and a 38% overall handset market share, compared to Samsung’s 25.3% share and Rs.78.90 billion in revenue. But there is no denying the fact that the tide has clearly turned Samsung’s way, as there’s no good alternative yet to its smartphone dominance in the Rs.312.15 billion Indian mobile handset market (some other industry estimates put it around Rs.550 billion).
 

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face