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When I see such questions I realized the level of depravity we have descended into. There is absolutely no connection between Shiv Sena and Google. Google is not interested in investing in a political party. It is investing in the future of India. When I read the news that Sundar Pichai announced a ₹75,000 crore investment in India for next 5 to 7 years, I felt happy and energised.Firstly, it not only shows that Google is confident about India's digital future, but also ready to bet on it. This will help India's digital economy and provide some hope to younger generation. This will also prompt other multinational companies to invest in India and create more opportunities for common Indians.Secondly, I read the transcript of the Google event. The way Sundar spoke about India shows that his love for India goes beyond capitalism. Of course, it is a business decision and Google will make tonnes of money from that investment. However, if you watch the event or even read the transcript, you will instantly connect to Sundar Pichai at a very personal level.I can probably relate to him more than a 20-year-old because we belong to the same generation.This mission is deeply personal to me. Growing up, technology provided a window to a world outside my own. It also brought us closer together as a family. Every evening we were drawn to the television by Doordarshan’s special rendition of “Sare Jahan Se Accha.” I tried to explain this to my colleagues the other day, but I eventually gave up and just showed it to them on YouTube. [1][1][1][1]I would probably sound stupid and irrational but I get nostalgic about those days whenever somebody talks about Doordarshan. The rendition of its logo and the background score is itched deeply in mind. My favourite song, I would even call it an anthem, is Mile Sure Mera Tumhara. It was magical. It reminded me in its own way what India really is. Different people speaking different language. But one mother tongue: the language of love and unity. In those days, patriotism was so cool. No pressure. No compulsion. Just a lingering feeling of love and unity. I used to feel very psyched up and proud to be Indian. I am not so sure these days.Anyway, I am drifting. This investment might not be much in terms of our population, but it feels good to know that Indians abroad haven't forgotten about the country and its people.That makes me happy and optimistic about our future. Hope other companies follow suit.Footnotes[1] Investing in India's digital future[1] Investing in India's digital future[1] Investing in India's digital future[1] Investing in India's digital future

Totalitarianism is an impossibility for President Putin.Unlike authoritarianism, totalitarianism requires a coherent ideology, like radical Islam for ISIS, or Marxism for the USSR, or Juche for North Korea, or Nazism for Hitler’s Germany. President Putin has never adhered to any particular ideology, and neither has he pretended to.There are two reasons for that.1. Political flexibilityPresident Putin and the core group of his political allies at the top are alumni from the Soviet secret services. They are conditioned to think that any declared set of rules, values and behavioral pattern makes them too predictable. In their line of business, predictability equals weakness. Enemies can see their next steps and trip them up.2. Personal convictionIn his MO, President Putin is following the deep wisdom born and honed in the vagaries of Russia’s history. The most precious thing we have in life is the close circle of family and friends who save our sorry hides through thick and thin, and stick with us no matter what.If you agree with that, you must also agree that any ideology challenging it is either systematized hypocrisy or a stillborn figment of intellectual daydreaming. President Putin never indulged himself in either of these.PatriotismWhich is why the only ideology President Putin is willing to embrace is patriotism. He pronounced it as “Russia’s national idea”.In our tradition, patriotism is government-endorsed nationalism. However, this makes it very ill-suited for totalitarianism.Totalitarianism requires a very rigid set of external rules that stay consistent over time. Soul salvation, racial purity, following all the Quranic rules in daily lives, abolition of private property, things like that. Patriotism, however, is whatever the top ruler defines as patriotic—and this tends to change from day to day.Anti-totalitarianDeep down inside, our patriotism is nothing else than personal loyalty going all the way from bottom to top through the network of oligarchical clans. “Russians never abandon their own” is a quote from a cult movie from the early Putinist era. It has now become a nationalist mantra. This is indeed a powerful time-honored approach, which successful criminal networks and vulnerable ethnic communities enforce with great vigor. However, personal loyalty above everything else is poison to totalitarian ideologies. You can’t profess both. This is why God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, to prove the measure of his faith. Or, in a Soviet rendition, “Who do you love more, your dad or Soviet rule?”It’s fully possible that at a moment of some mortal threat to his rule, President Putin might require an ultimate sacrifice from the mass of Russian commoners. But from what we know about the man, he’ll never sacrifice himself or anyone close to him in the name of some abstract blood-thirsty ideology.Below, Vladimir Putin in the company of his boss Anatoly Sobchak, the leading anti-Soviet politician of the early 1990s and later Mayor of St Petersburg (center), side by side with the dark knight of oligarchical privatization, now Putin’s close aide, Anatoly Chubais (left). There’s no way these men who heralded the era of unbridled self-enrichment and became some of the richest men on the planet would sacrifice their baby at the altar of some highfalutin set of ideas.

Short answer:The Varangian-Slavic tribes of Rus and Volga Bulgars shared the business of trading slaves, furs and other colonial wares. The main market of Rus was Constantinople, while Bulgars serviced mainly Iranian and Arab markets.It made sense for both to adopt their customers’ religion. Better taxation terms was an evident advantage. It also enhanced the traders’ personal safety during the business trips: only God-awful criminal minds were thought to rob and kill travelers praying to the same God as themselves.Long answer:Our chronicles don’t show any particular interest in ecclesiastical matters or personal salvation on the part of Vladimir the Great (the king who baptized Russia) prior to his adoption of Christianity. His underlying logic appears to mirror the superb political acumen of Vladimir the President in our days: back then, he did it for securing his personal power.Baptizing himself and marrying a Roman royal, Vladimir got his back covered in the troubles in he seemed to have at home at the time.Christianity was the religion of choice among many Varangians in Vladimir’s guard. Sharing the faith would cement their loyalty.The baptism was an entry ticket to the exclusive club of Roman, Bulgarian and other Christian royals—a useful network for anyone involving himself in European politics.Vladimir’s grandma Olga was Christian, a strong successful woman, so the conversion was much blessed by her legacyBaptizing Kiev seemed to give Vladimir an ideological excuse to eradicate the tribal Slav aristocracy. Russia is unique in that even our first chronicles have no mention of any native tribal aristocracy. Our oldest nobility hails either from Rurikids (i.e. Varangians), or from their court, or from Orthodox Volga Turks.The tale of Christianization of Kievan Rus' looks like a Medieval rendition of how President Putin’s brought to heel our oligarchs at the start of his presidency: he provoked the tribal nobility in Kiev by desecrating their pagan deities, and then let his guardsmen to slaughter those who showed signs of dissent.Painting below: Vladimir the Great is breaking the news to the residents of Kiev that Jesus Christ has claimed the highest spiritual authority over their land, and tasked him with enforcing the new order.