
Ask HN: Is there a “technological solution” to the Kashmir problem? - ahussain
Yesterday midnight marked the 70th anniversary of the independence of India and Pakistan from the British Raj.<p>Key features of the problem [1]:
- In 1947 British India is partitioned into India and Pakistan. The rulers of ‘princely states’ are to choose whether to accede to India or Pakistan. The Maharaja Hari Singh is the Hindu ruler of Muslim-majority Kashmir.
- The Maharaja accedes control to India. The case is referred to the UN which recommends holding a referendum&#x2F;plebiscite in the region, after a ceasefire has been reached. 
- The plebiscite was never held. India maintains this is because Pakistan did not withdraw its troops from the region, as the UN resolution required. Pakistan believes that India&#x27;s claim to the land is invalid and a plebiscite should be held.
- There are three main wars that form the conflict (1947, 1965, and 1999) and estimates of the death toll sit at around 80,000+.
- Read more in the Wikipedia article: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Kashmir_conflict<p>In tech, we often lament about how many start ups seem to be working on trivial problems (e.g. on-demand food delivery apps, web scraper&#x2F;aggregators), rather than difficult, long-standing, real world problems. I&#x27;ve also heard people implicitly or explicitly express the idea that technological innovation will be able to solve almost any problem on the planet.<p>Given these two premises I was wondering if we could here collectively brainstorm possible ways in which the kinds of technological progress made over the past few decades could make a difference in a present, concrete, real-world problem that exists in the world today - peace between India and Pakistan.<p>Of course, this is a highly complex, diplomatic problem that doesn&#x27;t have a &quot;solution&quot;, but given the kind of access we have to &quot;disruptive&quot;, &quot;ground-breaking&quot; technology, is this something we can make progress on, and if so how?<p>References:
[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Kashmir-Case-Freedom-Arundhati-Roy&#x2F;dp&#x2F;1844677354
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sfrailsdev
I guess the real question is, why does india want this land? I mean if it was
all empty sand dunes, I assume there would be no problem.

One answer seems to be water. Both India and Pakistan face issues with limited
supply, and there is a treaty dealing with the rivers that supply Pakistan
that it is worried India would break if water shortages became serious.

You want a technological solution? Massive desalinization efforts on the
Arabian Sea for Pakistan, and a system that piped water inland for storage
against possible drought, as well as improvements in existing water
utilization for agriculture and other uses, would probably render a lot of the
tension over the area moot from the Pakistani side. Pakistan should invest
funds to develop it's own system of desalinization plants, and expertise and
research into water desalinization and water conservation, possibly by working
with MEDRC in the Sultanate of Oman, which is centered in Muscat, about a 2
hour plane ride from Karachi.

But I'm just spitballing, and this seems like one of those deeply complex
issues driven by emotions that a purely technical solution won't work for.

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drl42
Paradoxically, water is one area where there is agreement between the two
countries. I wish it were just an issue of water or agriculture!

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samblr
Before we see Indians bashup Pakistan and vice-versa in this forum. I come
across this question as very naive which would not result healthy discussion.
Before going to solve an issue at nation level - can we solve the next hurdles
in cities across the world ? quality health-and-education ? racial-segregation
? economic equality ? equal rights to women ? stopping gun violence ? stopping
pollution ? moving on from medieval-barbaric laws ? drug abuse ? and many more
which I may not know.

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zenincognito
Let me ask you this question from a different angle.

Who are the customers of this problem ? Are the two countries involved in this
problem the customers ? Are the people involved in this conflict the customers
?

If the countries are the customers then this problem will be mired with
bureaucracies. Information that you need to solve the problem won't be
accessible easily. Working on two sides of the fences will be a nightmare.
Your customers are also more likely to change their mind when the political
state changes. For an example election of a new prime minister.

If the people stuck in that conflict region are the customers then do they
really wield that power to make things happen ?

The problem I think is a little ill-defined. I think your's is an excellent
thought of trying to solve this but I wonder if we are asking the correct
question.

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drl42
You can find a good analysis of this problem from a Game Theory perspective by
listening to Professor C. Christine Fair. She has written a couple of books,
and you can find her talks on Youtube.

