Anand's Blog

There is lot of controversy over the exclusion of all the Pakistani players in the IPL3 auction. Now, the Indian Government has blamed the IPL management in strong words. Mr. P. Chidambaram, Home Minister has remarked in an interview that the IPL has done "disservice to cricket" by not selecting any of the Pakistani players. The Indo-Pak diplomatic relations is an on-off affair. It will continue to remain so as Pakistan is an "adventurous" country. The Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr.Yousuf Raza Gilani has openly commented that the Pak Government can't assure that another 26/11-type attack will not happen again in India. That's true. When his own country is not in his control, it's absurd to expect such a guarantee from him. Even if he has the control, then too, it's absurd to expect such a guarantee as terrorism is a part & parcel of Pak's foreign policy. In such a scenario, how can anyone expect the franchisees to risk "buying"...

A FAQ on geography is the total number of countries in the world. I just got curious to know the exact count & googled to find it out. While searching for this, I stumbled upon many other interesting facts. Total number of countries: Totally, there are 195 countries in the world. But, this figure includes Taiwan. Eventhough, Taiwan functions like an independent country with a separate capital & currency, it is not recognised so by most of the countries due to Chinese pressure. China claims Taiwan as its province. U.N. members: Amongst the remaining 194 countries, 192 are U.N. members. Vatican City & Kosovo, two recognized independent countries, are not members of U.N. World's Newest Countries: Kosovo is the newest country of the world. It was formed from Serbia in the year 2008. Prior to that Serbia & Montenegro got independence in the year 2006 (both formed from Yugoslavia). 33 new countries have been created since 1990. Most of them were formed due t...

The Telengana issue has led to demands for smaller states across the country. Some politicians are following the same 'fast till death' strategy of KCR. These dramas are being made by the politicians to further their own interests rather than the region's interests. While some experts are for smaller states as it would lead to better governance, some opine that it would disintegrate the country. I don't understand as to why it should be difficult to manage bigger states as every state is divided into districts and we have a collector to administer every district. So, I don't agree with the argument that bigger states are difficult to administer. I list below some of the reasons as to why I am not for creation of smaller states: 1. It would fuel regionalism & politicians would try to milk the regionalism (as the Thackerays are doing in Maharashtra) 2. It would increase the inter-state disputes over border, water sharing, etc. 3. Needless expenditure ...