May 2010
The Archives
-
Infrastructure Systems, Naxalite, Railways
Who Pulled the Jalebi?
Naxals use the code jalebi (traditionally an orange spiral sweet with a gooey middle) to describe the pandrol clips that were pulled two days ago, resulting in the death of at least one hundred people. Here’s a diagram: Michael thinks this was not the work of the Naxals: The more I think about it, the [...]
-
Infrastructure Systems, Railways, Resiliency
Preventing Cascading Failure
Every day, the Indian Railways sends inspection engines to navigate its network, looking for any at-risk or failing infrastructure or problems. These engines move either when the passenger or good trains aren’t scheduled or accompany them (more and more likely given how tightly coupled the system is) and radio back if there are any problems. [...]
-
Infrastructure Systems, Railways, Resiliency
Cascading Railways Failure
Some thoughts on what little is required to disrupt a complex transportation network. Roads. More resilient given that roads are designed to streamline travel, but not necessarily replace driving on dirt. The exception is unnavigable terrain – such as bodies of water or densely packed forest. Naxals rely on IEDs (to hit the vehicle, not [...]
-
Infrastructure Systems, Roads
Overloaded Road Transportation System
Currently, the Indian road transportation system is being overloaded. New armies of rich motorists are driving heavier, bigger cars, faster. This is to the detriment of the 50% of the people in major cities that commute via foot or bike. The Delhi Metro, (while breathlessly reported by the New York Times as a testament to [...]
-
Collaborative Security, Railways, Security Establishment
More Rapid Reaction Forces
05.16.10 | Permalink | 5 CommentsThe last decade has seen a huge rise in the number of paramilitary police forces operating around the world. This is in response to increasing levels of uncertainty, as well as the ubiquitous nature of powerful communications equipment and firearms. It’s interesting to see India’s activity in this space -in contrast to other countries, there’s [...]
-
Infrastructure Systems, Mining Industry, Naxalite
Update on Mining Industry Security
As readers of this site know, Naxals have targeted critical infrastructure to great effect for years. In addition to transportation, energy, and resource systems, this includes the mining industry. (India is rich in mineral resources.) Friend Eric Rudolph has a new article (behind a paywall) in Janes discussing the investment environment for mineral extraction in [...]
-
Indicators, Security Establishment
Indicator: Women and Central Police Jobs
One of 24 females from the red corridor selected by the CRPF for a training slot. “A job with the central government is a huge achievement. It means they don’t just provide for you, but also the family. At least now we will be able to have some savings as well. Plus we will get [...]
-
Security Establishment
Inside Election Security
For the May 8 elections in Udupi: As many as 1,473 police personnel would be on duty on May 8, including two deputy superintendents of police (DySPs), seven circle police inspectors, 66 sub-inspectors/assistant sub-inspectors, 165 head constables, 449 constables, 397 Home Guards, 22 armed head constables and 132 armed constables. As many as 995 police [...]
-
Security Establishment
West Bengal’s Hunter Killers
In an effort to further militarize the conflict, West Bengal is standing up its own hunter-killer unit in the tradition of the Greyhounds from Andhra Pradesh. The unit will have its own jungle warfare training school and will be comprised of 1,000 troops. Bookmark It
-
Escalating Threat, Roads, Weapons
Embedded IEDs
In addition to extorting huge hums from the contractors charged with building the first modern roads in their area of operations, the Naxals also leveraged their on-the-ground ‘relationships’ to embed IEDs deep underground. Operatives can just connect detonators to embedded leads to cause an undetectable explosion. “The kind of device used by the ultras on [...]
India’s Naxalite Rage
Shlok Vaidya analyzes the far-flung implications of a shifting Indian security environment with a focus on the globally-connected Naxalite insurgency.recent entries
- Firing Los Federales
- Estimated Cost per Naxal? ~$5,000
- Indicator: Madhya Pradesh’s Missing Explosives Convoy
- The Business of Terrorism
- India’s Hidden Innovation Engine and its $35 Tablet
recent comments
- Shlok Vaidya: Hmm. I’ll check my huge backlog of files to see if I can pull anything up. I had read a couple...
- Eric Randolph: I very much agree with this view, reliant as the Naxals are on the willing participation of...
- neil: Atleast they are helping the poor people God will bless them, were in india all politicians making money.
- siman: Dear Friends, Please Share your basic view regarding the naxlite increasing in india,bcoz we all know the...
- Zuo Qing: Thanks. It wasn’t really apparent in the article itself.