Sears to build a huge SAN for CRM

Sears is building an EMC SAN for an NCR TeraData data warehouse with 95TB of storage at a single data centre.  The hardware alone is likely to cost $15 million with millions more in services.

Review of  "Options for Kashmir".

Anurag Agrawal reviewed (on 24-Jan) the options I had presented.  Here's his feedback :

Option 1 is a day dreaming by Indians  and you can hear the very same from military strategist of any hue.

Option 2 a and b are same as last ten years so no need for any comment.

Option 2c is the best (surprise) of all but I doubt if you will find any takers for it among the Indians or for that matter in Pakistanis. Kashmiri yes but other than that I would be surprise if anyone goes that far.

Anurag and I have been having an "email conversation" on Kashmir and what India should or should not be doing. 

I am again quoting from his latest email :

"In the immediate aftermath of independence movement
i.e. near 1947 in Kashmir we have Sheikh Abdullah who
has a majority following who although being a Muslim
does not like the politics of Muslim League
represented by Jinnah & company. He respects secular
ideals of Congress and is drawn to them. This being
the case Nehru was confident that India would win the
accession of J&K into India by referendum. At this time
the insecure party is Pakistan which will lose its
claim to PoK which it has captured. India (Nehru)
being confident approaches UN and gets a resolution to
that effect and with a clause that all invaders
(meaning people not of J&K origin) will have to vacate
before a referendum is held. This is to ensure that Pak
iriregulars (Pathans) are not allowed to participate
in it and Pak army withdraws from its portion of
Kashmir.
Now, definitely Pakistan is not going to let things go
by so easily so Liaquat Ali says that they are not
going to vacate PoK anytime soon and thats that for
the referendum. It is to be noted that demonstrations
in Sri Nagar in early fifties used to shout "Pakistan
Murdabad" as their slogan.
Now in 1953 Sheikh Abdullah and Nehru fall apart as
Nehru becomes suspicious of Abdullah and the slide in
the relations between Kashmiris and Indian starts.
Till 1965 India keeps on adding centers rule in
Kashmir.
With 1965 Indo-Pak war and its aftermath Pakistan is
made to realise the futility of war to gain Kashmir
(Kashmiri don't support Pakistan even in 1965).
Now there is a major change in India with Indira
Gandhi's rise to power as she is definite believer in
a strong central Govt and does away with Nehru's
federalism and soft approach.
After the 1971 war when Pakistan was at its lowest
point in its history we sign Simla agreement which was
considered a victory of sorts by Pakistan as India has
agreed that Pakistan has a locus standi on Kashmir
when we could have got anything we wanted! But the
only casualty is Kashmiri people's aspiration as they
are nowhere in the agreement.
Next we have 18 years of botched rule by India and
then Kashmiri separatists movement first indigenous
and later on a covert war with Pak army.

This is one aspect of problem. Second is much broader
in nature and that goes to heart of identity of each
nation India and Pakistan. Pakistan was formed on the
basis of belief that religion provides a glue to keep
community together while India adopted a much utopian
concept of secularism, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic
community forming a nation because they have common
cultural and geographic heritage. At that time i.e. in
circa 1947 most outsiders did not give India much of
chance and expected Pakistan to succeed as they
thought (true till that point in time) that India will
not survive in its present form. But 50 years on the
results are upside down with India being a stronger
nation due to democratic institutions (thanks to the
Gandhi-Nehru-Patel era leaders) while Pakistan now
divided into two is lurching from one crisis to
another.

For Indians and Pakistanis the ideological split is as
wide say as was between communism and capitalism
during Cold war. So the result can never be win all
but its a zero sum game where there will be only one
winner.
In this aspect Kashmiri's themselves don't have a
voice and are proverbial grain between two crushers.

So now to the solution while keeping in mind this
background.
So let start by ruling out whats not possible:
1) Independent Kashmir (Pok & J&K combined) as this
can't be acceptable to India and Pakistan.
2) Kashmir fully being part of India or Pakistan (same
reason as above plus its strategic location where
China and Afghanistan border also reach)

So now we have to work in providing the best among
whats left which could be:
1) LoC to be recognized as international border.
2) Both the Pok and Kashmir being provided full
autonomy by Pakistan and India except for defense and
Foreign affairs (that is to say to say something less
than complete statehood)allowing the divided families
to maintain relationship (allowing physical movement)

I guess this is less than the referendum so might not
be liked by Kashmiris but definitely is better to
allow us  (India , Pakistan & Kashmir) have normal
relations."