How Can We Matter

I am a great fan of US President Donald Trump , who entered politics just ten years back and announced his candidature for the 2016 presidential race. On the eve of his swearing in as the 47th president of the United States , I shared my excitement with this Facebook post on January 20, 2025: Image Credit: The Web   "The world is about to experience a series of tectonic shifts that will reshape the global landscape starting tonight. The policy changes at the White House will affect every country in the world , including the US itself, impacting their governments, economies, migrant populations, and national security . Starting tomorrow, the world will enter a new era , fundamentally different from what we know today ." And this is exactly what we are witnessing today! Reshaping the Global Landscape It is undeniable that Trump is significantly transforming America and reshaping the global landscape at the speed of light. He has halted substantial USAID donations that were of...

Presently, Trump administration has announced sweeping changes to USAID, by ordering a near-total freeze on all foreign aid. Elon Musk, head of DOGE, announced the intention of shutting down USAID.  US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the acting head of USAID under  Trump 2.0. Rubio has authorized Peter Marocco, the director of foreign assistance at the State Department, to also serve as Deputy Administrator at USAID — giving him the authority to “begin the process of engaging in a review and potential reorganization of USAID’s activities.”   What is USAID? The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the US government that is responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance in over 100 countries. With an annual budget of over $50 billion, USAID is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world and accounts for more than half of all US foreign assistance – the highest in the world in a...

The world is stepping into a new era, one that will be fundamentally different from what we know today. The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and a mandate for change. Trump's "America First" doctrine signals a departure from traditional US diplomatic practices. Historically, the US has maintained a dominant position in global politics, economics, and military affairs. Trump's new policies suggest a potential decline in US dominance, which will reshape the global political landscape. The Intelligence And Security Team The  Office of the Director of National Intelligence  (ODNI) is an independent agency that integrates intelligence to protect the United States. The ODNI's goal is to defend the country's interests abroad and homeland. The ODNI role is more supervisory, overseeing all 18 of the nation's intelligence services. Unlike the CIA, it does not deal in direct intelligence collection. ODNI assembles the intel from the var...

The NavIC System This morning (29-01-2025) ISRO successfully launched their GSLV-F15 rocket  precisely injecting the NVS-02 navigation satellite into the required orbit. This launch marked ISRO's 100th rocket mission, with the first big rocket liftoff, 46 years ago, on 10th August 1979. Image Credit: Indian Aerospace & Defence Bulletin On this occasion, I am proud to recall that during 1976-1985 I was working at the Space Applications Center (ISRO), Ahmedabad on satellite remote sensing and prior to that, during 1972-1976, I was part of the team at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (ISRO), Trivandrum, involved in the structural analysis of SLV rockets. See the past blog of May 22, 2017 titled Vintage Computer Programming of 1970s .  NVS-02 is the second in the series of the NavIC system ( Navigation with Indian Constellation ), which is India's independent regional navigation satellite system, previously known as the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). NVS...

Preamble MT Vasudevan Nair's literary masterpiece ' Randamoozham ' (Second Turn), a Malayalam-language novel, retells the Mahabharata epic through the eyes of Bhima. This innovative approach has garnered critical acclaim and widespread readership, solidifying MT's status as a literary giant in Malayalam literature. In this blog, I have attempted to re-envision a single episode from the Mahabharata, drawing parallels between the epic's characters and events with the current political landscape of India. This retelling of the Indraprastha episode in the Mahabharata epic chronicles the transformation of our nation since 2014, evolving from its comparatively barren state under the Congress party's rule for more than 54 years since Independence, into a modern state and an economic superpower. Indraprastha Image copyright © 2025 wisdomlib In the Indraprastha episode, a pivotal moment showcasing the contrasting values and personalities of the Pandavas and Kauravas, th...