US vows to isolate Taliban if they take power by force

A U.S. peace envoy brought a warning to the Taliban on Tuesday that any government that comes to power through force in Afghanistan won’t be recognized internationally after a series of cities fell to the insurgent group in stunningly quick succession

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy, traveled to Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office, to tell the group that there was no point in pursuing victory on the battlefield because a military takeover of Kabul would guarantee they will be global pariahs. He and others hope to persuade Taliban leaders to return to peace talks with the Afghan government as American and NATO forces finish their pullout from the country

The insurgents have captured five out of 34 provincial capitals in the country in less than a week. They are now battling the Western-backed government for control of several others, including Lashkar Gah in Helmand, and Kandahar and Farah in provinces of the same names.

Moderna to start local production of Covid-19 mRNA vaccine in Canada

Moderna Inc said on Tuesday it had agreed with the Canadian government to start domestic production of mRNA vaccines as the country looks to boost supplies to fight respiratory viruses, including Covid-19 and seasonal influenza.

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Under the memorandum of understanding, Moderna will set up an mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in Canada and also give access to its mRNA development engine.

Scientists believe mRNA has the potential to target diseases that cannot be reached by conventional drugs. Such vaccines, which have shown high efficacy in preventing Covid-19 disease, contain no actual virus, instead providing instructions for human cells to make proteins that mimic part of the coronavirus.

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Last week, Moderna said its Covid-19 shot was about 93% effective through six months after the second dose, showing hardly any change from the 94% efficacy reported in its original clinical trial.

The manufacturing facility is expected to be activated on an urgent basis to support Canada with direct access to rapid pandemic response capabilities, Moderna said on Tuesday, adding that it is in talks with other governments about potential collaborations.

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To take on China, rely on diplomacy, military resolve and strong counter-measures...

The agreement for mutual disengagement of troops by China and India at the friction point of Gogra in eastern Ladakh is a step forward for restoring the status quo ante of April 2020, when Chinese forces made a series of preplanned intrusions across the Line of Actual Control (LAC)

Including Gogra, Galwan and Pangong Tso, the two sides have now stepped back at three contested points, while the standoff continues at other strategic locations and is unlikely to be speedily resolved.

Nonetheless, there are lessons to be learnt from the three areas where China and India have disengaged. The first is that sustained diplomacy yields dividends. Thanks to several rounds of talks, the two Asian giants have avoided an intensified conflict that seemed a possibility after the Galwan clash. The joint poring over of maps of each military’s perceptional lines and claims at LAC, and interactions, have conveyed in direct terms what each side wants and prefers, and shown where the potential for mutual pullbacks lies. The subtle involvement of Russia as a creative go-between to lower the heat has also helped.

While China and India nurse long-term suspicions of each other’s intentions, goals and international alignments — and these will not dissipate anytime soon — the LAC crisis diplomacy has focused on tactical specifics at the friction points. The message is that the two neighbours will not stop competing for power and influence in Asia and beyond, but they can manage the disputed border situation from sliding into war.

China has withdrawn from three encroached portions only after witnessing India’s willingness to use countervailing force, do mirror deployment or outnumber the Chinese military at some points, and mount counter-offensives across what China claims to be its side of LAC. The reality is that India redeemed itself after the Chinese offensive in April-May 2020 by displaying no hesitation to spill blood or pay China back in its own coin. The concept of “offensive defence” has guided India’s strategic infrastructure-building and force projection at LAC throughout this crisis, and this has compelled China to recalculate the costs and benefits of its expansionism.

The third lesson is that since diplomatic resolution of the crisis is dependent on military operations and show of strategic determination, India must persist on the path of “peace through strength”.

The Narendra Modi government has to keep bringing bargaining chips to the dialogue like it did in 2020 by occupying the strategic heights of the Kailash range of mountains, and letting the Chinese know that India can neutralise China’s bilateral asymmetry in military and economic power through other cards. This may include activating and operationalising Quad to apply multilateral counterbalancing pressure in the Indo-Pacific; imposing greater barriers to Chinese goods, technology and investments; and reopening the sensitive issues of the status of Tibet and Taiwan

A difficult path lies ahead in India-China relations, especially as the India-United States (US) strategic partnership is maturing and China-US ties are plumbing the depths. With approximately 50,000 troops on each side remaining at LAC, the potential for fresh violence cannot be ruled out. While Indian military proactiveness has proven to be an imperative to get China to make limited concessions, this kind of equilibrium is unstable and risks unwarranted escalation.

Peace through strength is a delicate tightrope walk. But the gauntlet China has thrown is such that India does not have the option of shying away from matching Chinese moves on the ground and in world capitals. Only a combination of bravery and wisdom can succeed in this long-drawn-out crisis..

Shri Radhey Shri Radhey Shri Radhey Shri Radhey Shri Radhey.

Those who study the Vedas and drink the some juice ,seeking the heavenly planets,worship me indirectly.Purified of sinful reactions they take birth on the pious, heavenly planet of Indra,where they enjoy godly delights.

The word trai vidyah refers to the three Vedas sama yajur and Rh.A brahmana who has studied these three Vedas is called a Trivedi.

Anyone who is very much attached to knowledge derived from these three Vedas is respected in society.

Unfortunately three are many great scholars of the Vedas who do not know the ultimate be the ultimate goal for the trie cedis.

Are voters delivering more decisive mandates?.Namo Shivai..

Are Indian voters empowering governments with more decisive mandates? This is the emerging wisdom among many experts and observers of Indian politics. 

Hare Krishna.

For instance, pollster Pradeep Gupta, in his book, How India Votes: And What It Means, has argued that new forms of technology are enabling increased communication between voters during the rough and tumble of the campaign period. This, in turn, is enabling voters to consolidate their opinions about a given candidate or party’s odds of winning, leading to a shift of support away from likely losers. Voters, the argument goes, are learning how to rally behind election winners, giving them supersized mandates.

This thesis seems eminently plausible. A cursory glance at recent assembly elections suggests that landslides abound. The Aam Aadmi Party’s sweep in 2015 and 2020 in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s 2017 victory in Uttar Pradesh, and the Left Front’s and Trinamool Congress’s decisive wins in Kerala and West Bengal, respectively, in 2021 — all point in the same direction. Yet anecdotes can be misleading. In fact, our analysis of historical data on Indian elections suggests that this popular wisdom may well be misguided..

This thesis seems eminently plausible. A cursory glance at recent assembly elections suggests that landslides abound. The Aam Aadmi Party’s sweep in 2015 and 2020 in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s 2017 victory in Uttar Pradesh, and the Left Front’s and Trinamool Congress’s decisive wins in Kerala and West Bengal, respectively, in 2021 — all point in the same direction. Yet anecdotes can be misleading. In fact, our analysis of historical data on Indian elections suggests that this popular wisdom may well be misguided..

We looked at data from 249 assembly elections, taking care to code all parties and pre-poll coalitions in state polls going back to 1980. Because some parties that claimed to be in alliance did not actually adopt robust seat-sharing arrangements, we considered parties to be in a “true” coalition only if they did not run against each other in more than a handful of races.

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The unusual etymology of five simple words...Shri Radhey Shri Radhey....

Hare Krishna hare Krishna

This Sunday, I want to share my fascination for the English language. I’ve done it before, of course, but when third waves, winged horses, limping economies and less-than-thrilling Olympics are depressing our spirits, this could be the little boost you need. What I intend is not fiercely cerebral or complicatedly grammatical. Nor does it have anything to do with the illogical pronunciation of the language. It’s about five simple words we probably use every single day: Pretty, tall, silly, naughty, and sad. But it is about their etymology.

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Now, it’s not surprising to find that words change their meanings over time. For instance, to be gay today is very different to what that adjective meant in the 1920s. Mummy, as a 90-year-old, would often introduce generals with the line, “We first met when he was a gay young man”. For her, gay was always merry and carefree.

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A recent article by Simon Horobin, a professor of English at Oxford, reveals that, when they first came to be popularly used, each of the five words I’ve chosen meant something very different to what it does today. It’s a bit like “disinterested”. We use it to mean not interested. Originally, it meant impartial. Or “fulsome”. Historically, it meant insincere. Today, fulsome praise is taken as a compliment.

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Now, when “pretty” first entered the dictionary, as a derivative of a word from Old English, it meant cunning. By the 15th century, the word described something cleverly made or artful. Slowly, thereafter, it was used to call someone attractive or good-looking. But you still get hints of its origin when you remember it can be used ironically as in “pretty kettle of fish” and “pretty state of affairs”..

Tall” in Old English meant swift or active. By the 15th century, it came to mean handsome or elegant. Its usage relating to height began a century later. From there spring its metamorphic extensions to mean large as in “tall order” or exaggerated as in “tall story”.

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These changes in meaning may seem surprising but they’re really not. Professor Horobin says, “Several common adjectives that describe physical appearances began life referring to dexterity and pliancy”. “Handsome”, for example, originally meant easy to handle, while “clever” meant dexterous. Believe it or not, “buxom” meant obedient. That’s definitely no longer true!

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Let’s now come to “silly”. In Old English, it meant happy or fortunate. In due course, that became “pious” or “holy”. Then, says the professor, “because the innocent are easily taken advantage of it came to signal a person deemed weak or helpless”. Thereafter, it was used to suggest rustic or lacking sophistication. Its modern meaning of “foolish” was, I guess, the inevitable next step. But if you want to call me silly, I hope it’s in the original sense?.

In Old English, to be naughty was to be poor, literally to have naught or nothing. Perhaps this is why it was later used to describe someone as immoral and, in a weakened sense of that term, mischievous or disobedient. Today, the adjective is usually reserved for children. But its use to mean “indecent” survives. In the 1980s, Salman Rushdie used the word to coin a rather clever phrase “naughty but nice” to sell cream cakes. Monty Python created the term “naughty bits” to politely refer to genitals.

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“Sad” has, perhaps, the most strange etymology of all. In Old English, it meant “full”. These days, it’s been replaced in this sense by “satisfied” or “sated”. But in the 14th century, “sad” came to mean settled, firm or resolute. According to the prescient professor, the modern meaning sorrowful is, perhaps, a throwback to the Old English usage “where the word already carried a sense of being weary or tired of something, reflecting the way that satisfaction quickly shades into ennui.

Shri Radhey.shri radhey.

Finally, try and make sense of this. I’m using the five words in their Old English sense. He was tall and pretty, I was naughty but silly, and both of us were sad!.

Hare Krishna hare Krishna Krishna Krishna hare hare

Hare Rama hare Rama Rama Rama hare hare.

At UNSC, India’s values and interests converge Shri Radhey.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC), with a mandate to maintain international peace and security, is the centrepiece of global multilateralism. It selects the UN Secretary-General and plays a co-terminus role with the UN General Assembly in electing judges to the International Court of Justice. Its resolutions, adopted under chapter VII of the UN charter, are binding on all countries.

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However, the UNSC’s governance structure — which was designed at the end of World War II and has five permanent members with a veto — needs reforms to reflect contemporary realities. This is essential for the sake of multilateralism and an effective UN.

India was elected to the UNSC for the eighth time in 2020 and began its two-year term this January. It is the council’s president in August and is, rightly, using the pulpit to focus on areas of vital interest affecting international peace and security. The presidency also offers India an opportunity to underscore its credentials as the world’s largest democracy, an economic behemoth and underline its commitment to the UN, including as the largest contributor, over time, to UN Peacekeeping. This is a stellar record for a permanent place on the horseshoe table. 

In recent months, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has underlined the imperatives for UNSC reforms and India’s strong stakes. It is, therefore, in the fitness of things that he will become the first Indian PM to chair a UNSC meeting on August 9. He will preside over the meeting, virtually, on the issue of maritime security, a subject which will be on the UNSC table for the first time for a comprehensive debate.

Given the huge role of sea-borne trade in human wellbeing, ensuring freedom of navigation and safety on the seas is a global imperative. For India, maritime security is also important given its sea-facing geography and civilisational links developed over millennia through seafaring. It is, thus, once again in the fitness of things that India should push towards a comprehensive approach to maritime security.