All Blog Posts (1,988)

Mission R&AW: Ex Indian Intelligence Officer on RAW's Successes in Pakistan

Are Pakistan's allegations against RAW mere conspiracy theories? Are all of Pakistan's problems today entirely of its own making?  Is RAW just a dis-interested spectator of the…

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Added by Riaz Haq on May 21, 2015 at 11:00pm — 41 Comments

Jibran Nasir in Silicon Valley

Young Pakistani activist Mohammad Jibran Nasir was a big draw at a Silicon Valley lunch organized Saturday May 16 by iKolachi Policy Research Institute under Talk4Pak banner. …





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Added by Riaz Haq on May 17, 2015 at 9:30am — 4 Comments

Are Things Looking Up For Modi?

Things are not looking so rosy at home for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he continues his world tour with the latest stop in Beijing, China.

Is Modi…

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Added by Riaz Haq on May 14, 2015 at 7:30pm — 23 Comments

Malaysia's Ex Prime Minister Mahathir's Controversial Speech on Hadith

Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, the ex-prime minister of Malaysia who is credited with transforming his country into an Asian Tiger economy,  recently made a controversial speech about the Hadith, the sayings of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).…

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Added by Riaz Haq on May 12, 2015 at 10:00pm — 3 Comments

Pakistan 2.0: Technology to Drive Productivity and GDP

Introduction of green revolution technologies drove Pakistan's rapid GDP growth in 1960s and 1970s when it was essentially an agricultural economy. The decade of 1980s saw livestock revolution that helped increase farm productivity. Will rapid absorption of information and communication technology (ICT) do the same in coming…

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Added by Riaz Haq on May 11, 2015 at 10:24pm — 24 Comments

India Tops Mexico: Illegal Immigration to United States

India left Mexico behind as the top country sending illegal immigrants into the United States as of 2012, according to several media reports.…

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Added by Riaz Haq on May 8, 2015 at 10:42am — 14 Comments

Textbooks in Pakistan Finally Acknowledge Minorities' Role

Pakistani history books for middle and high school students now describe the role played by Christians, Hindus and Sikhs in building the country after independence, according to Pakistan Christian Post.

Professor Anjum James Paul,…

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Added by Riaz Haq on May 6, 2015 at 9:30pm — 3 Comments

Impact of Money as Free Speech in America and the World

Are corporations people?  Do constitutional guarantees of free speech apply to corporations spending money to shape public policy? The United States Supreme Court has answered both of these questions in the affirmative in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission case.…



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Added by Riaz Haq on May 5, 2015 at 10:49am — 8 Comments

From Ijtihad to Taqlid: Decline of Islamic Science

Where did star names like Ain ( عين),  Betelgeuse (إبط الجوزاء ) and Cursa ( الكرسي…

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Added by Riaz Haq on May 2, 2015 at 11:00pm — 12 Comments

Gwadar as Hong Kong West?

The port city of Hong Kong has played a pivotal role in China's economic and trade expansion on the Chinese East Coast in the Pacific region. Meanwhile, China's Western region has remained relatively underdeveloped.

China's West Coast:

Is China looking to build and use Gwadar in Pakistan as Hong Kong West to…

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Added by Riaz Haq on May 1, 2015 at 11:30pm — 15 Comments

Stephen Hawking On British-Pakistani Singer Zayn Javed Malik

“My advice to any heartbroken young girl is to pay close attention to the study of theoretical physics. Because one day there may well be proof of multiple universes. It would not be beyond the realms of possibility that somewhere outside of our own universe lies another different universe. And in that universe, Zayn is still in One Direction.”  British Physicist Stephen Hawking…



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Added by Riaz Haq on April 28, 2015 at 8:00pm — 2 Comments

Fiber Bandwidth Growth in Pakistan

A $44 million 820 kilometer fiber optic cable being laid between Pakistan and China will be the 6th high-speed connection to add redundancy and to cater to rapidly growing Internet traffic from-to Pakistan. It is part of the $46 billion Pak-China Economic Corridor project recently agreed between the two neighbors.…

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Added by Riaz Haq on April 28, 2015 at 9:30am — 47 Comments

Who Killed Sabeen Mahmud?

Who killed Sabeen Mahmud? Why did she have to die? Is she just another casualty of multiple wars raging in Pakistan today?  Did her assassins try to kill two birds with one stone? Amplify the Baloch insurgency coverage and demonize the ISI? These and other questions are being asked by many who loved and supported her and miss her badly. Will these questions ever be answered? I wouldn't hold my breath given Pakistan's history of high-profile assassinations since its birth. I'll still try and…

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Added by Riaz Haq on April 25, 2015 at 8:00pm — 17 Comments

Pakistan ETF PAK Launched in New York

A new country Exchange Traded Fund (symbol PAK) started trading on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) this week. The ETF will track the price and yield performance of the MSCI (Morgan Stanley Composite Index) All Pakistan Select 25/50 Index.

Pakistan ETF: 

The new Pakistan…

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Added by Riaz Haq on April 24, 2015 at 4:30pm — 14 Comments

Indian Farmer Suicides Continue Unabated

Yet another farmer suicide reported in Delhi today. This suicide did not go unnoticed by the Indian media because it happened in front of the cameras covering the Aam Aadmi Party rally. AAP rules the Indian capital New Delhi. It occurred only a stone throw away from Lok Sabha, the Indian parliament.



About 60% of India's population is…

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Added by Riaz Haq on April 22, 2015 at 10:00am — 13 Comments

More Investors to Follow China's Lead in Pakistan

This (China's $46 billion investment in Pakistan) can not be purely politically driven. Beijing is commercial: CEO’s, not think tank intellectuals, travel with politicians. Barron's Asia

Spurred by …

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Added by Riaz Haq on April 21, 2015 at 9:30pm — 16 Comments

Post Cold War Geopolitics Keeps Indian Economy Afloat

India runs massive current account deficits. Its imports far outstrip exports year after year. According to the Reserve Bank (RBI) data, in the April-December 2014 period of last fiscal, India's current account deficit stood at $31.1 billion or 2.3% of …

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Added by Riaz Haq on April 20, 2015 at 8:30pm — 12 Comments

Xi Jinping in Pakistan: Shifting Alliances in South Asia

“America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.” Henry Kissinger

Rapidly unfolding events confirm shifting post-cold-war alliances in South Asia. Chinese President Xi Jinping is starting his first state visit to Pakistan to commit investment of over $45 billion in Pakistan, representing the single largest Chinese investment in a foreign country to date.

This investment is part of China's “One Belt, One Road” initiative, which is a global project in…

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Added by Riaz Haq on April 19, 2015 at 8:30pm — 143 Comments

Animal Droppings Boost India's GDP

"The estimated “evacuation (defecation) rates” are 0.3 kilograms per day for goats and 0.8 kilograms per day for sheep. The study, titled “Positive Environmental Externalities of Livestock in Mixed Farming Systems of India,” was conducted jointly by the Central Institute for Research on Goats, in Makhdoom, Uttar Pradesh, and the National Center for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research in New Delhi. With all those “droplets” added in, the value of India’s…

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Added by Riaz Haq on April 17, 2015 at 8:30pm — 11 Comments

Are Pakistan's Illiterate Mobile Phone Users Really Illiterate?

Pakistan's teledensity of 76.65% significantly exceeds the country's reported literacy rate of just 60%. This data raises the following questions:

1. Are the 16.65% of Pakistani cell phone users classified as "illiterate" really illiterate? 

2. If they are "illiterate", then how are they able to use the mobile phones?

3. Isn't there …

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Added by Riaz Haq on April 15, 2015 at 9:30pm — 4 Comments

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    Blog Posts

    Trump's Tariffs on India: Can China or Russia Make Up For Lost Exports to US?

    The United States is the biggest export market for India. Among its top 5 trading partners, the US is also the only country with which India runs a trade surplus. This surplus is now at risk with the 50% tariff recently imposed by President Donald Trump on imports from India. Can Prime Minister Narendra make up for it by cozying up to China and Russia? Recent trade data shows he…

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    Posted by Riaz Haq on September 8, 2025 at 7:00pm

    US-India Ties: Does Trump Have a Grand Strategy?

    Since the dawn of the 21st century, the US strategy has been to woo India and to build it up as a counterweight to rising China in the Indo-Pacific region. Most beltway analysts agree with this policy. However, the current Trump administration has taken significant actions, such as the imposition of 50% tariffs on India's exports to the US, that appear to defy this conventional wisdom widely shared in the West. Does President Trump have a grand strategy guiding these actions?  George…

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    Posted by Riaz Haq on August 31, 2025 at 6:30pm — 11 Comments

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