The Peninsula Foundation

Category: External Articles

  • Exploitation Across Borders Indian migrant workers fight for their right to get paid in Serbia

    Exploitation Across Borders Indian migrant workers fight for their right to get paid in Serbia

    Indian migrant workers have been targeted to work at mega construction projects in EU-candidate state Serbia. A group of workers is not willing to give up fighting for their salary, despite the legal loopholes that a company registered in America has used to contract them for work in Serbia

    When Boobalan Dhanapal, 41, arrived in Serbia in July 2019, he was eager to work and send money back home. He was joined by fellow construction workers from Chennai, a coastal city in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Boobalan, who has a degree in civil engineering, was recruited to work as a construction foreman for a monthly salary of Є 440 (approx. 38,500 Indian rupees), inclusive of food and housing. At the time, it sounded like a good deal.

    In 2019, over 150 men from various Indian states began working for GP Nikolić, a Serbian construction company, on a number of infrastructure projects across the Balkan country.


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  • Re-Emergence of Global Terror

    Re-Emergence of Global Terror

    That Terrorism is the scourge of the world is a harsh truism of the times is beyond dispute since the last few decades. That global challenges necessitate global solutions requires no elaboration is also a universally accepted imperative—yet only in lip service and hardly ever adopted in practice. Why else would then the world, with inexplicable insensitivity and inaction, accept the most tragic happenings and the grave humanitarian crisis in intensely fratricidal violence driven AfghanistanFailing to heed to the lessons of history,  US President Joe Biden has committed a monumental  strategic  blunder in  the undue hasty  and unplanned exit  of American troops from Afghanistan is now more than apparent beckoning dismay and condemnation  from even US allies and sympathizers across the world especially by the hapless Afghans.

    Failing to heed to the lessons of history, US President Joe Biden has a monumental strategic blunder in the undue hasty and unplanned exit of American troops from Afghanistan is now more than apparent beckoning dismay and condemnation from even US allies and sympathisers across the world especially by the hapless Afghans.


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  • The Taliban Occupation of Afghanistan: Impact on India

    The Taliban Occupation of Afghanistan: Impact on India

    The swift and relatively unopposed takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, in a matter of just days and not months as expected,has caught the United States and its Allies,as well as the international community, completely off-guard.It has led to a serious humanitarian crisis as countries scramble to get their own citizens, stranded in-country, out of harm’s way. An effort greatly complicated and impeded by the frenzy and sheer desperation of the tens of thousands of Afghans, who had worked with the Coalition, and are also attempting to flee to avoid retribution.


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  • Olympics | To win medals, sports needs to be part of India’s health culture

    Olympics | To win medals, sports needs to be part of India’s health culture

    India’s approach to sports is flawed because the accent is on winning a medal here and there, in some discipline or the other. There has to be mass participation in sports right from the earliest stage in the life of an individual.

    No doubt it is quite creditable that India was at her best at the Olympics Games Tokyo 2020 in terms of the medals won (1 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze). But the most remarkable feature has been the first ever athletics gold in 121 years of participation in the Olympics through the efforts of Neeraj Chopra in javelin throw. Incidentally, India fielded its largest ever contingent (127 sportspersons) in Tokyo.

    While saluting those who have won medals, what is called for is introspection as to why a country that is poised to overtake the population of China by the time the 2024 Paris Olympics comes around, ranks in the late 40s in medals tally. At the same time, China is way ahead and almost tops the medals register. Another Asian country, Japan, is close behind China.


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  • Deeply religious we may be but honest we are not! Why are Indians dishonest?

    Deeply religious we may be but honest we are not! Why are Indians dishonest?

    We Indians wear religion on our sleeves. Why are we then so dishonest?

    One of the more disconcerting trends during the current pandemic has been the hoarding of medicines and oxygen cylinders, black-marketing of drugs and sale of spurious “life-saving” drugs, not to speak of overcharging by hospitals.

    In Tamil Nadu, the government temporarily delicensed a number of private hospitals for excessively overcharging patients. Maharashtra had to cap charges for the treatment of Covid in private medical facilities following reports of patients being charged exorbitantly while the Delhi Chief Minister had to warn private hospitals against “black marketing” in hospital beds.

    Are such displays of senselessness and insensitivity unique to India?


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  • Enjoy Enjaami | Did the message make the song go viral?

    Enjoy Enjaami | Did the message make the song go viral?

    Why and how do songs go viral on the social media? There are no clear or categorical answers, particularly because the languages in which the songs are originally sung touch and appeal to sections of populations across cultures and linguistic boundariesIt is pertinent to raise the issue of comprehensibility of the lyrics of the song.

    What seems to have made the song a humongous success is the stunning natural outdoors, constructed sets, and the fabulous costumes including the jewellery. But the intention of the production team in terms of the messages to be conveyed stand far from the visuals and remain embedded in the lyrics. That is where seems to be the rub

    While for Mahatma Gandhi the pronouncement of Krishna from the Bhagavat Gita: ‘Do your work, don’t expect the fruits of your labour’ would seem to be apposite, BR Ambedkar would certainly take up cudgels against such dictums, which can be propounded only by the elitist and advantaged sections of the society; sections that have just no perception or insight of what goes into manual labour. Hence, the stanza from the lyrics of Enjoy Enjaami.

    I planted five trees
    Nurtured a beautiful garden
    My garden is flourishing

    Yet my throat remains dry

    is not just profoundly revealing, but is also quite disturbing at one level.


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  • Calling Putin a ‘killer’ with ‘no soul’ is not exactly diplomatic finesse

    Calling Putin a ‘killer’ with ‘no soul’ is not exactly diplomatic finesse

    Category: External Article – ‘Responsible Statecraft’

    Title: Calling Putin “a killer” is not exactly diplomatic finesse

    Author: Anatol Lieven

    The Biden administration has created an completely unnecessary confrontation with Russia at a time when reasonable working relations with Moscow are extremely important for achieving two immediate and key administration goals: rejoining the nuclear agreement with Iran, and a peace settlement in Afghanistan facilitating U.S. military withdrawal from that country and an end to America’s longest war.


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  • Facing a long hot Summer

    Facing a long hot Summer

    Category: Governance, Civil-Military Relations, National Security

    Title: Facing a long hot summer

    Author: Deepak Sinha, Feb 10, 2021

    In a few short months, we are in for what is bound to be one long hot summer, global warming notwithstanding. Our enemies are at our gates and the prospect of conflict well within the realms of possibility. After all, the PLA must be keen to get on with its unfinished business, though what that might be, neither our military nor civil leadership have quite figured out!


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  • A third aircraft carrier for India: Budget versus necessity

    A third aircraft carrier for India: Budget versus necessity

    Category: Defence Policy, Military Power & Modernisation

    Title: A Third Aircraft Carrier for India: Budget vs necessity

    Author: M Matheswaran  02.06.2020

    The Indian military is undergoing what may be its most significant reorganisation since India’s independence, with considerable implications for its future strategic posture. One important issue that has been brought to the fore is the role of the Indian Navy as a regional power projection force built around three aircraft carriers. The government’s decision on this issue will have significant implications for the region.


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  • India-Australia Strategic Partnership: Leveraging Aerospace Capacity

    India-Australia Strategic Partnership: Leveraging Aerospace Capacity

    Category : India India’s, Military, India-Australia Relations
    Title : India-Australia strategic partnership: Leveraging aerospace capacity
    Author : M Matheswaran 02-06-2020

    The forthcoming virtual summit between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison assumes considerable significance for an India-Australia strategic partnership, particularly as it comes against the backdrop of heightened friction with China for both countries. Enhanced defence cooperation between the two countries could be an important signal to Beijing of the costs of overly assertive strategic behaviour – whether in the Himalaya or in trade. For some years, defence cooperation has largely focused on the naval relationship. Now is the time for enhanced air-power cooperation.

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