Gunners Shot

1.             The increase of COVID 19 cases and deaths are indicative of exponential rise of COVID 19 in India. But is it a situation to become pessimistic? I am afraid not. There are dangers but if tackled properly we can ride the dragon and get the Indian elephant to outclass it. For this we must seize the opportunity that the world is presenting before others grab it. Amongst all the nations in the world that are affected, if we look at the total cases and deaths per million people India with figures of 51 cases per million (10 lakhs) and 3 deaths per million fares way down. The detractors quote low testing for these figures but for their information even in other countries testing is done of cases that report to hospital or are suspected of being infected with corona. In fact even the routine deaths in India have come down. So technically if India was badly infected we should have seen rise in number of deaths, which has not happened. 2.             But is everything

The Pandemic Effect The Pandemic is a watershed event of 21 st Century. The eventual normal is more than 4-5 years away. In between there will be many false normals. Major upheavals in geopolitics, economies and lifestyles on the cards. While the Indian economy is under the pump, this period also represents a period of economic opportunity for India as we seek ‘Atma Nirbhartha’. Armed Forces must protect this transition from severe economic disruption to relative stability and prosperity while achieving their own ‘Atma Nirbharta’. However economic disruption will further hammer the already contracted defense budget. Hence modernization under drastically shrunk budgets is the norm. The defense establishment is aware of this harsh reality. The consensus is that the only option is indigenization. Relook at GSQRs, increasing age of servicemen, 3-year tour of duty are incremental ideas. There is a requirement of a visionary restructuring. This is an attempt to put things in per

                                     Superpowers do not fight on their doorsteps. They fight far away.   Whenever superpowers started fighting on their doorsteps, they tend to collapse.   That is history. The Report A South China Morning Post report [1]   says that some retired Chinese military leaders have suggested the United States is not in a position to defend Taiwan at present because all four of its aircraft carriers in the Indo-Pacific have been hit by Covid-19 outbreaks. There is a rising nationalistic sentiment, with calls for Beijing to act on the self-ruled island. Qiao Liang, the coauthor of the book Unrestricted Warfare Chinas Master Plan to Destroy America sounds a note of caution. As per him “ China’s goal is not the reunification of Taiwan, but to achieve the dream of national rejuvenation – so that all 1.4 billion Chinese can have a good life. Could it be achieved by taking Taiwan back? Of course not. So we should not make this the top priorit