Just as the images of billowing smoke from the twin towers of New York are seared in the memories of people all television visuals of the raging fire in the ornate façade of Mumbai's iconic Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel will be recalled whenever the deadly terrorist attack on India's financial capital Nov 26-29 is mentioned. The booming sound of gunfire as the security forces engaged the jehadis will also become a part of the nation's collective memory.
Although Mumbai is no stranger to such outrages - the Taj itself experienced a car bomb attack in 2003 - the latest tragedy stands out from the rest for the simple reason that it was an evidently commando-style raid by suicide bombers with the express purpose of inflicting as much damage as possible on some of the city's landmarks and targets of its prosperity and progress.
While in the earlier attacks, the terrorists planted bombs in market places or trains and then left the scene, this time they stayed on to battle the security forces and die or be captured in the process. Since they were all heavily armed and were able to take hostages, they could carry on the confrontation with the police for prolonged periods, which could not but have a hugely demoralising effect on the city and the country. Since India had not seen such war-like scenes before, the impact was devastating and it would take some time before its political fallout could be measured.
It is possible that the terror groups had realised the diminishing effect of their earlier tactics of planting bombs in crowded places and vehicles. In spite of the initial shock and revulsion in those instances, the effect tended to wear off, leaving only the victims to mourn their losses. But gunbattles lasting for hours and the wheeling out of bodies covered in white sheets from five-star hotels can have a numbing effect.
Source: IANS
Showing posts with label Mumbai 9/11. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mumbai 9/11. Show all posts
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Social Networking sites surface from Mumbai ashes
Bloggers across Mumbai fed live updates of the unfolding action after terrorists launched waves of attacks in the heart of India's financial capital, bringing the emergence of citizen journalism in news coverage to the fore in India.
Social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, were instantly updated with on-the-scene information by people. Minute-by-minute updates on social networking and micro-blogging sites not just satiated the writers’ hunger for expressing themselves, but also gave people more diverse news.
In fact, instead of switching on the television, many followed the action live on microblogging Twitter by searching the site for Bombay and Mumbai. In certain cases, Twitter updates reportedly appeared hours before the first TV stories.
The minute the news of the terrorist attacks broke out, sites like Twitter were inundated with a huge volume of messages. Twitter seemed to be the most popular choice among other social media sites. Just minutes after the first shots were fired; Tweeters (Twitter users) in Mumbai gave instant eyewitness accounts of the unfolding drama.
Messages, known as `tweets', were being posted to the site at a rate of around 80 tweets every five seconds when the news of the tragedy first broke, according to some estimates. Some bloggers provided running descriptions and commentaries from near the action, while others gave vent to their emotions.
"I've been tweeting almost all night from Mumbai. Upset and angry and bereft," said businesswoman Dina Mehta on her blog, http://www.dinamehta.com/blog.
Images of the attacks also surfaced on photo-sharing website Flickr. The site proved a useful source of haunting images chronicling the aftermath of the attacks.
Photographer Vinukumar Ranganathan has attracted hundreds of thousands of visits to his Flickr photo page where he has published a chilling slideshow depicting the aftermath of the attacks.
Twitter came in for some criticism as well in the blogosphere for divulging too many details that could prove helpful to the gunmen holed up in the hotels with their hostages and who may have been monitoring blog sites.
"It's a terrorist strike. Not entertainment. So tweeters, please be responsible with your tweets," said one blogger identified as primaveron@mumbai.
Unfortunately, the site also contained misleading threads, some of it purporting to be from intelligence services. In fact, many of the posts on Twitter amounted to unsubstantiated rumours and wild inaccuracies.
According to CNN, a rumour that the Indian government was asking Tweeters to stop live updates to avoid compromising its security efforts was published and republished on the site.
This was reportedly fueled by certain news websites, which posted the Tweet on their live update. It read: "Indian government asks for live Twitter updates from Mumbai to cease immediately. ALL LIVE UPDATES - PLEASE STOP TWEETING."
Several local Indian news channels were reported to have carried a live feed of the Twitter updates on the Mumbai attacks.
Twitter's contributors also questioned the veracity of certain TV news reports, pointing out contradictions and errors. When Indian reporters announced an end to Taj hotel siege time and again, Tweeters contended that gunfights were continuing. "Locals say gunfire still happening at Taj," said one feed, hours after fighting was said to have finished.
Many social network users also sent pleas for blood donors to make their way to specific hospitals in Mumbai where doctors were faced with blood shortage and rising casualties. Throughout the night, bloggers were active compiling news reports and contact information and information on blogging sites like mumbaihelp.blogspot.com.
Tweeters were also mobilised to help with transcribing a list of the dead and injured from hospitals, which were quickly posted online. mumbaihelp.blogspot.com also offered advice to those with friends and family in the city. "Suggest you avoid calling. Lines are bound to be jammed."
Other websites also quickly filled up with information: Wikipedia had a page up on the attacks by early Thursday morning. A Google map was created just hours after the explosions to mark the locations that had been hit.
Dozens of videos of the attacks have flooded the YouTube too. Gauravanomics has an exhaustive list of online coverage of the attacks. Slained Anti-Terrosism Squad (ATS) chief, Hemant Karkare, was reportedly the most searched topic on Google for nearly an hour after his death was declared.
Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address to the nation on Thursday was highly viewed, followed by angry comments.
Source: Indiatimes Infotech
Social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, were instantly updated with on-the-scene information by people. Minute-by-minute updates on social networking and micro-blogging sites not just satiated the writers’ hunger for expressing themselves, but also gave people more diverse news.
In fact, instead of switching on the television, many followed the action live on microblogging Twitter by searching the site for Bombay and Mumbai. In certain cases, Twitter updates reportedly appeared hours before the first TV stories.
The minute the news of the terrorist attacks broke out, sites like Twitter were inundated with a huge volume of messages. Twitter seemed to be the most popular choice among other social media sites. Just minutes after the first shots were fired; Tweeters (Twitter users) in Mumbai gave instant eyewitness accounts of the unfolding drama.
Messages, known as `tweets', were being posted to the site at a rate of around 80 tweets every five seconds when the news of the tragedy first broke, according to some estimates. Some bloggers provided running descriptions and commentaries from near the action, while others gave vent to their emotions.
"I've been tweeting almost all night from Mumbai. Upset and angry and bereft," said businesswoman Dina Mehta on her blog, http://www.dinamehta.com/blog.
Images of the attacks also surfaced on photo-sharing website Flickr. The site proved a useful source of haunting images chronicling the aftermath of the attacks.
Photographer Vinukumar Ranganathan has attracted hundreds of thousands of visits to his Flickr photo page where he has published a chilling slideshow depicting the aftermath of the attacks.
Twitter came in for some criticism as well in the blogosphere for divulging too many details that could prove helpful to the gunmen holed up in the hotels with their hostages and who may have been monitoring blog sites.
"It's a terrorist strike. Not entertainment. So tweeters, please be responsible with your tweets," said one blogger identified as primaveron@mumbai.
Unfortunately, the site also contained misleading threads, some of it purporting to be from intelligence services. In fact, many of the posts on Twitter amounted to unsubstantiated rumours and wild inaccuracies.
According to CNN, a rumour that the Indian government was asking Tweeters to stop live updates to avoid compromising its security efforts was published and republished on the site.
This was reportedly fueled by certain news websites, which posted the Tweet on their live update. It read: "Indian government asks for live Twitter updates from Mumbai to cease immediately. ALL LIVE UPDATES - PLEASE STOP TWEETING."
Several local Indian news channels were reported to have carried a live feed of the Twitter updates on the Mumbai attacks.
Twitter's contributors also questioned the veracity of certain TV news reports, pointing out contradictions and errors. When Indian reporters announced an end to Taj hotel siege time and again, Tweeters contended that gunfights were continuing. "Locals say gunfire still happening at Taj," said one feed, hours after fighting was said to have finished.
Many social network users also sent pleas for blood donors to make their way to specific hospitals in Mumbai where doctors were faced with blood shortage and rising casualties. Throughout the night, bloggers were active compiling news reports and contact information and information on blogging sites like mumbaihelp.blogspot.com.
Tweeters were also mobilised to help with transcribing a list of the dead and injured from hospitals, which were quickly posted online. mumbaihelp.blogspot.com also offered advice to those with friends and family in the city. "Suggest you avoid calling. Lines are bound to be jammed."
Other websites also quickly filled up with information: Wikipedia had a page up on the attacks by early Thursday morning. A Google map was created just hours after the explosions to mark the locations that had been hit.
Dozens of videos of the attacks have flooded the YouTube too. Gauravanomics has an exhaustive list of online coverage of the attacks. Slained Anti-Terrosism Squad (ATS) chief, Hemant Karkare, was reportedly the most searched topic on Google for nearly an hour after his death was declared.
Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address to the nation on Thursday was highly viewed, followed by angry comments.
Source: Indiatimes Infotech
Mumbai 9/11 add woes to global IT industry
India's $52 billion outsourcing industry, battered by a global financial crisis that is squeezing its business clients, faces more Mumbai terror attack short-term challenges in the wake of attacks on Mumbai that killed more than 100 people.
Industry officials said prospective overseas clients were likely to put off planned visits to India because of the attacks, even though most software and back-office services firms were operating normally.
"This will surely introduce some sort of concern among clients," said Krishnakumar Natarajan, CEO of mid-sized software and R&D services provider MindTree Ltd.
"There was some expectation clients would start visiting India from January after the end of the annual holiday season. That will now get pushed away for some more time."
The software and back-office services sector, which earns billions of dollars from exports, is reeling from a global slowdown and turmoil in the financial sector, one of its major markets.
The chief financial officer at Wipro Ltd, India's No.3 software services exporter, told a Reuters India Investment Summit this week he expected a pickup in growth in the first quarter as companies firm up outsourcing plans, though many businesses will likely delay decisions and tighten costs.
India's large pool of English-speaking engineering workers and cheaper wages have helped attract outsourcing from western firms ranging from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs to Cisco Systems Inc and Nortel.
India's outsourcers compete against larger IT services firms such as IBM and Accenture.
"We have to wait for things to settle. This is a temporary aberration," said T V Mohandas Pai, a board member at Infosys Technologies, India's No.2 software services exporter.
"If countries issue advisories, it means some travel will be deferred. I think people will use technology or we'll go and visit our clients. Business will go on," he said.
"We have seen terrorist attacks happen in different parts of the world. It's unfortunate it has happened in Mumbai and I think business is confident the government and authorities will get to the bottom of it," he added. Bruce McIndoe, a travel security expert and president of iJET Intelligent Risk Systems, a private intelligence firm, said he had already advised his Mumbai terror attack corporate clients to postpone travel to Mumbai, and warned there would be "ripple effects".
Som Mittal, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, India's premier software industry lobby group, said companies were likely to be more cautious, but business would continue.
"We will not let the show stop as a result of the attacks," he said.
In July, eight small bombs hit the city of Bangalore, which is home to more than 1,500 Indian and multinational software and back-office firms. They increased security as a result.
"I think now more and more customers will be looking at what the Indian companies are doing to manage risk. They will ask what their disaster recovery and business continuity plans are," said Avinash Vashistha, chief executive of consultancy Tholons Inc.
"In the short-term, companies will see an impact as their clients stay away from travelling to India."
Industry officials said prospective overseas clients were likely to put off planned visits to India because of the attacks, even though most software and back-office services firms were operating normally.
"This will surely introduce some sort of concern among clients," said Krishnakumar Natarajan, CEO of mid-sized software and R&D services provider MindTree Ltd.
"There was some expectation clients would start visiting India from January after the end of the annual holiday season. That will now get pushed away for some more time."
The software and back-office services sector, which earns billions of dollars from exports, is reeling from a global slowdown and turmoil in the financial sector, one of its major markets.
The chief financial officer at Wipro Ltd, India's No.3 software services exporter, told a Reuters India Investment Summit this week he expected a pickup in growth in the first quarter as companies firm up outsourcing plans, though many businesses will likely delay decisions and tighten costs.
India's large pool of English-speaking engineering workers and cheaper wages have helped attract outsourcing from western firms ranging from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs to Cisco Systems Inc and Nortel.
India's outsourcers compete against larger IT services firms such as IBM and Accenture.
"We have to wait for things to settle. This is a temporary aberration," said T V Mohandas Pai, a board member at Infosys Technologies, India's No.2 software services exporter.
"If countries issue advisories, it means some travel will be deferred. I think people will use technology or we'll go and visit our clients. Business will go on," he said.
"We have seen terrorist attacks happen in different parts of the world. It's unfortunate it has happened in Mumbai and I think business is confident the government and authorities will get to the bottom of it," he added. Bruce McIndoe, a travel security expert and president of iJET Intelligent Risk Systems, a private intelligence firm, said he had already advised his Mumbai terror attack corporate clients to postpone travel to Mumbai, and warned there would be "ripple effects".
Som Mittal, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, India's premier software industry lobby group, said companies were likely to be more cautious, but business would continue.
"We will not let the show stop as a result of the attacks," he said.
In July, eight small bombs hit the city of Bangalore, which is home to more than 1,500 Indian and multinational software and back-office firms. They increased security as a result.
"I think now more and more customers will be looking at what the Indian companies are doing to manage risk. They will ask what their disaster recovery and business continuity plans are," said Avinash Vashistha, chief executive of consultancy Tholons Inc.
"In the short-term, companies will see an impact as their clients stay away from travelling to India."
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