India

According to a report in Foreign Policy, sales of the Nano automobile in India have been disappointing.  Launched with great fanfare just two years ago and billed as the “world's cheapest car”, the Nano has been equal parts savvy marketing campaign and act of social responsibility on the part of its creator, Tata Motors.  A marked transition has been underway in Indian society as the population becomes more affluent and more urban.  Unfortunately, the infrastructure of most Indian cities has not been able to keep up;

Since 1947, Kashmir has been subjected to three full scale wars between India and Pakistan. The last one occurred as the two nations were poised to become nuclear powers. Until the late 80s, the nature of tension in the valley between these full scale battles can be viewed as latent violence. This period was dogged by rigged elections, corruption, dissent, and awry political coalitions, which led to shaky governments. It was in 1989 that the armed militancy broke out. Since then a burgeoning Indian military presence has been engaged in counterinsurgency policies.

by Samantha Chu. Originally published by our partner site, World Policy Blog.

Recently, six of us Mantle bloggers were asked to discuss the one story we were going to keep an eye on for 2011. Because of space restrictions I could not fully explain the reason for my choice, that is, Arundhati Roy's stance toward Kashmir. Here then, is that explanation.

My first thought when I think about feeling peace goes to a time walking around the Dal Lake (Dal means a lake in Kashmiri language). A young girl sauntering around this simply named rippling swathe of water, looking at the silent shikaras (wooden boats) glide in a mute distance, the sun going down - hushing everyone, I would savor the peace that I thought existed around me. The silence and the whispers hung like molasses in the air, as I watched the saffron sky, blue mountains, and the sparkling water enter into a pact of darkness. Turned out, this idyllic time was an illusion (as all life is I agree).

Hi everyone, or people who found this link by mistake, I’m back – my thesis is finally finished, completed, over. I hope to make South Asia-ish as active a blog as those of my fellow bloggers here at The Mantle, whose dynamism I aspire to emulate. I know the “ish” in South Asia-ish gives me a lot of freedom (as does Shaun Randol, founder of The Mantle), but that probably doesn’t extend to me writing about me – so enough about me. Or, as French playwright Sacha Guitry famously said, “enough about me.

Increasingly, NGOs are drawing on marketing techniques, such as paid advertising, branding, celebrity endorsement programmes, and audience profiling, to project their messages and to attempt to influence policy. Whilst this trend has been widely accepted in countries like the United States and the UK, many Indian NGOs engaged in advocacy work are, on the basis of political ideology, questioning its suitability in India.

This picture above is of the zero currency rupees designed by a anti-corruption organization in India called 5th pillar. The group has invented the rupees in hopes that they will be passed on to wrong doers as a sort of tangible scarlett letter against those searching for a bribe or operating under fraudlent pretences.  

"The zero currency note in your country's currency is a tool to help you achive the goal of zero corruption. The note is a way for any human being to say NO to corruption without the fear of facing an encounter with persons in authority.

Next time someone asks you for a bribe, just take your country's zero currency note and hand it to them. This will let the other person know that you refuse to give or take any money in order to perform services required by law or to give or take money to do something illegal"

Props to Designboom