India’s financial capital, Mumbai, experienced yet another terrorist attack today that initial estimates say killed at least 20. Terrorists detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in three separate locations of the city almost simultaneously. The first two blasts occurred at around 6:55 pm, one in a jewelry market and one in a business district in southern Mumbai. The third blast occurred around 7:05 pm in a crowded neighborhood in central Mumbai. This is the most significant terrorist attack in India since the three-day Mumbai shooting attacks in November 2008 that killed …
Heritage hosts a discussion this morning featuring Indian Brigadier General Amrit Pal Singh, James J. Carafano and Frank Cilluffo on how India is transforming its internal security architecture in a way that mirrors the U.S. response to 9/11. The event, Reforming India’s Homeland Security Architecture: Learning from U.S. Experience, starts at 10:00 a.m. ET. Watch the webcast. Meanwhile, debt-limit talks continue today as President Obama vows to “meet every day” until Republicans and Democrats come to an agreement. Obama is now reportedly open to raising the eligibility age for Medicare — a subject that …
It’s a big day in Washington for domestic and foreign news. This morning the Congressional Budget Office releases its annual Long-Term Budget Outlook. Then in the evening President Obama outlines his Afghanistan withdrawal plan in a primetime address beginning at 8. There are two noteworthy events happening at Heritage today: Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) visits at 9 a.m. to talk about making REAL ID a reality. Then at 10:30 a.m. we’ll host Arun Jaitley, leader of the Indian opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Jaitley (center in photo) will discuss how …
You might be surprised to find out where sex-selective abortion in China and other Asian countries began. A new book on sex-selection abortions, a practice The Economist magazine memorably labeled “gendercide,” examines the astonishing worldwide dimensions of this problem. What’s more, the book, written by a feminist author, demonstrates how a generation of Western population activists helped to create the sex-selection tragedy by advocating unlimited abortion and the targeting of female fetuses in the womb. Fueled by new and often beneficial technologies like ultrasound, the ability to identify sex before …
According to the latest news, India has successfully tested two nuclear-capable short-range ballistic missiles. New Delhi is developing a range of missiles to improve its strategic capabilities against neighboring Pakistan (with whom it has fought three wars) and China (with whom it fought a brief border war in 1962). Pakistan was quick to follow suit and tested its own short-range missiles shortly thereafter. South Asia is a nuclear tinder box, and U.S. policymakers should do everything possible to keep regional tensions in check. But the heightened missile activity in South …
The U.S. on Monday officially removed export controls on several Indian space and defense-related organizations, signaling a new era in U.S.–India nonproliferation cooperation. By removing several subsidiaries of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization and the Indian Space Research Organization from the Department of Commerce’s so-called “Entities List” barring export of certain dual-use technologies, Washington followed through on a key pledge that President Barack Obama made during his historic visit to India last November. The U.S. took the additional step of removing India from several other export control lists that …
Compared to the U.S.–China joint statement in 2009, this year’s joint statement issued at the summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao contains no mention of improving U.S.–China “communication, dialogue, and cooperation on issues related to South Asia.” India objected strenuously to the language in the 2009 joint statement, and the U.S. has apparently taken on board New Delhi’s concerns. In any case, China’s actions over the last two years have demonstrated that China’s interests in South Asia don’t significantly match up with the Obama Administration’s goals or U.S. …
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India have been taking a serious beating recently. The threats and actions of politicians are so bad that they threaten the future of the industry in the country, and the primary reason is microfinance’s success. MFIs are working wonders to help people pull themselves out of poverty. Foreign aid has a bad track record over the past decades of being largely unsuccessful in alleviating poverty. MFIs have shown that there are alternatives to government-driven aid and that the private sector can—and under the right circumstances will—play …
Republicans and Democrats can always agree on spending more money. Their default position is usually not to cover costs. But if they must, there’s one sure-fire political no-brainer: make foreigners pay. After all, they can’t vote. Next year, as Congress begins to take a closer – perhaps serious – look at the budget deficit, foreigners are going to be very tempting targets. Increased visa fees for high-skilled Indian workers were the way to pay for border security this year. And yesterday, admittedly after threatening far more damage, Congress extended the …
A recent Reuters article on Chinese health care points to a problem endemic in much of the developing world: a massive shortage of trained health care workers. China’s problem is unique in that it has the money for equipment, and is supplying top-notch tools and clinics, but as it considers spreading health care coverage to its rural areas, it does not have enough skilled technicians and doctors to work the equipment and run the clinics. A man whose company trains rural doctors says, “The single biggest issue today is still …
