Do we associate with Silicon India?

[Sanjeev Sabhlok<sabhlok@almaak.usc.edu>]

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Dear folks,

I must welcome new members into this list first of all. Our 'hairline' had
receded to 56 in the past few days after the mixups that led to the
introduction of moderation (of which precious little has been done anyway)
but we have grown some more hair and we have 63 members now. New grass is
sprouting and new active members are joining. Go India_Policy! Its been a
long time since I cheered everyone since I have restrained my ebulliance
due to repeated misunderstanding of my antics. 

Well, now to the new business at hand. I was thinking of a way to expand
the discussions, and got in touch with the editor of Silicon India. He
wrote to me today saying he is quite impressed with the work that has been
started and has offered to take up this list to Silicon India as an online
forum and continue the same way as before (that is what I gathered)  and
also to mention it in the print media.

He particularly liked the idea of our writing a new "Operating System" for
India - an idea he says will appeal to the NRIs in USA who are largely
computer whiz kids. 

I think that it is a privilege to become associated with the premier
Indian magazine in USA. I will get in touch with Harvi Sachar for further
details of how he wants to organize this 'transfer' (he said I could
continue as moderator so I hope to ensure that we continue to write a good
manifesto with an open mind). I hope all members of this group would like
to continue with IndiaPolicy in its new avtaar (whichever way it turns
out). Please don't abandon ship. There is much more to come and you have a
great role to play in writing this new OS.

But obviously I don't want to do this thing on my own. We must debate
this, too. 

Speaking for myself, I don't see any 'cons' to this. Only 'pros' - but you
know I tend to get blown away or swayed very quickly, as Charu and others
keep complaining.  Like I also said sometime ago, I usually jump first and
then think. This is one more case of that type. But I see no other way -
at this stage - given our individual limitations of time, energy, and
resources - to expand the effort to reach millions of Indians everywhere. 
The target:  10,000 active and debating members of IndiaPolicy within a
year. Give me an alternative method and we will all discuss.

For those who have never heard of Silicon India (there was this guy on
this list, you remember, who had never heard of Investor's Business Daily?
[Hint: his name begins with a "C"]), please check out

	www.siliconindia.com/ (I think).

To the best of my reading of this journal, I do not see evidence of biased
reporting or propaganda (as one member - the same old friend of ours who
did not know IBD - saw in the case of Reader's Digest). But I am too
gullible (I even asked my son to read the Readers's Digest the other day).
So speak out if you think we are going to in any way compromise our right
to independent thinking this way.

I think joining hands with Silicon India will help us leapfrog into a
higher plane of debate and get more and more brains into this group, to
enable us to write an even better manifesto. Improve the source code for
India, as they say in computer lingo.

So shall we go for it folks? What sayeth thou?

SS