Chhath in US: An Unique Experience

Posted on November 5, 2008 by indra

It was Sunday morning. When I started browsing Times of India in the early morning, I found Chhath already started in Patna. It was due to the time difference. We decided to follow the local time instead of that of India. Yamuna had wished a Chhath in US where all my sons are based today. It is difficult for all to participate, but Alpana, the eldest daughter-in-law does it. I consulted her to carry out the task here in US. For ‘nahai khai’, she got me the vegetable of louki and channa dal lintel prepared at her place with all the precautions on Sunday.

I went for fast for Monday’s kharana with fruits and milk in evening. On Tuesday Nov 4, I along with Anand offered my first ‘arghya’ with fruits only to the setting Sun God by 5PM as directed by Alpana. Yamuna created a water body in a plastic tub. Though this long fasting becomes torturous, but I could carry on well. And the second and final ‘arghya’ to the rising Sun God is at 6.30AM on Nov 5. Naturally this happens after almost 12 hours or more when all in India would have enjoyed the rich meal after the fast.


I remember of homologation of a foreign designed car, so it happened with Chhath too. I am sure the Sun God will forgive me for all the shortcomings that were not intentional. A religion as well as society can remain dynamic with only necessary changes. However, I can never forget the scenes of ghats of Hoghly in Uttarpara near Hind Motor, its crowd of simple men and women, young and old, children of all ages, flowing river with famous Dakhineswar temple facing us while offering of arghya, and the sweet folk songs in praise of Sun God. I missed all that here, but I did perform my fast religiously and that is important for me.

While answering to Anand, I expressed my views about Chhath as festival: Chhath must have origin in prehistoric period, when human beings worshipped Gods that represented the natural powers like rivers, trees, wind, fire, and planets. Later on the thinkers would have found Sun as the origin of this earth. As all the living beings evolved out of this earth with all the natural powers around, the Sun became the earliest and highest, and so most respectful for mankind. The rural people kept this oldest thinking alive. Chhath is only the manifestation of a strong faith. Fast is for physical purification and testing oneself for physical capability to keep away from the worldly attraction in which good food has become primary thing today.

I may be wrong and I am ready to get corrected. But there is no malice in my views.

Let Sun God bestow on this nation and mine, my all known near ones, and my siblings all the peace and prosperity against the penance of mine.

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Nov 4, 2008 Americans Create History

Posted on November 5, 2008 by indra

Nov 4, Pleasanton, USA: Around 12.30 PM, I went to see Shannon, the lone voter in family, voting along with Anand and Krish. The polling station was a public middle school, which Emma and Krish would attend if Anand and Shannon live in Pleasanton. Though media had been reporting long queue in front of the polling station in different part of USA, this polling station had hardly few voters. Surprisingly, there was no police at all. Anand couldn’t enter the station as he had put on an Obama-printed T-Shirt. Shannon could manage with my jacket. The election officer had suggested reversing the T-shirt. Shannon was a little agitated as a citizen of a country that provides all freedom.



Inside everything went on without any fuss. The station was tidy and manned by some five persons. Shannon got her ballot paper that was pretty lengthy, as the voter is to not only select the president/ vice president combination, but also the senator from the state, mayor and other members of the county such as education board. He is to express his choices on various resolutions of the state and county as well. The station had booths to mark the choices, a touch screen type electronic voting machine, and a scanner for paper ballot. Interestingly, while Indians all over the country use electronics voting, I hardly saw any one using the most advanced equipment. Most used the paper ballot and handed over to the election officer. The election officer put it into the scanner and gave back the receipt of voting, a portion torn off from the ballot paper. Surprisingly, there was no restriction on photographing. I could take many photographs.

And by 8.30 PM, it became clear that Americans had created history by electing Obama with overwhelming majority. That was the most delightful moment of this great democracy. There can never be any better example of integrity and solidarity of people in majority of the nation.

However, I liked the speeches of the winner and the vanquished as the best that were the mature expression of politics of the greatest democracy of the world. It got me overwhelmed. One gets that experience only rarely in lifetime. I wish India and Indians, particularly politicians, could learn this magnanimity and nation building as purpose and priority of politics from USA by going through these speeches. Unfortunately, the quality of debates and speeches hardly gets encouraged in Indian political system.

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Belated Happy Halloween

Posted on November 3, 2008 by indra

It was one of the great Fridays. I did my pumpkin carving all by myself. It was my first attempt to do some creative through crude artwork after my entrance examination for IIT, Kharagpur in 1957in which I had attempted to draw a crow like bird freehand perhaps ten times of the given size. Both attempts came out well.

But still I couldn’t appreciate my work on pumpkin till I saw a candle lighted inside making it interesting though without creating any horror. It became a real happy evening when I saw the hordes of kids of all ages in wonderful Halloween specific dresses coming for collecting their share of candies. It was Shannon who clarified the ‘Halloween Trick and Treat‘ and helped me to appreciate its significance better. But then I found 3,950,000 entries in Google.

For Halloween, I saw the number of entries at 189,000,000. Halloween seems to carry varying religious and social significances. Yamuna was happy that even in US people talk of witches. Perhaps every society has conceived of the witches to create fear in its earliest ages. I get reminded of my childhood when my grandmother will tell me to be at distance from some lady as she was a witch (dayan). My grandmother used to tell many stories of the witches. Even today witch-hunt goes on in villages and less affluent society, many times resulting in horrible end. Interestingly, Anvita, the eldest of the granddaughters of the family came to meet us dressed up as a vampire. Yamuna could appreciate it more when I explained that vampire is a blood-sucking witch.

Shannon as great host kept on offering the candies. With the number of children visiting us, it appeared that the community around appeared to be very participative. Richrd Florida in his new book, ‘Who’s Your City?‘ has mentioned about the number of Halloween visitors as index of livability of the community. Yamuna and myself enjoyed the dresses and makeup along with their brimming enthusiasm.


Around 60 kids would have visited us. All these kids must be collecting quite a lot of the candies, may be good enough for few weeks. When I asked my grandson Keshav and Anvita, I found their score as 135 and 100 respectively. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, the market of Halloween related consumer goods and commodities must be in billion in US, and China gets the maximum out of this consumerism.

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Can Indian Cars Enter US Market?

Posted on November 3, 2008 by indra

Fareed Zakaria in an article in Newsweek talked of some bad habits that US has developed over the past few decades, and they must kick those habits. I feel one of those habits is for keep on purchasing many things and keeping the racks full, be it food items or household accessories. However, the vehicles are the costliest item in every household. It creates the major hole in monthly expense budget. For that matter with the habit of credit cards use entrenched deep, I doubt if the couples ever seriously think of balancing the earning and expense. Money is easy, and innovative financial products are tempting. Anyone can borrow any amount of money for any purpose. Even with all the data of credit records online, the banks hardly makes any endeavour to use it at least for spendthrifts. And so even a bankrupt gets money and credit.

As I observed this time, most of the Americans have at least two cars, and at least one is big powerful utility category that burns more gas. And if one carefully observes, it is the bigger car that goes in use even for nearby pancake or grocery shop. Walking up to such destinations for such purchases that could have certainly improved physique is beyond imagination.
However, I am only talking about household cars. Americans can easily replace the car in addition to the huge one with them by a small vehicle, may be mini or fuel efficient compact. Americans don’t do that, neither lobby dominated government policy encourages for that.

As reported, “During the oil crisis of the 1970s, mini-compacts, such as the Mini Cooper – then the smallest auto available in the U.S. – achieved their highest market share in 1978, when gasoline prices were high. But mini-compacts never really caught on, and their market share declined even as gas prices rose further. The slightly larger subcompacts, such as the Volkswagen Beetle, grew market share only when prices were rising, and lost share from 1982 onward…Compact cars, however, like the Ford Escort and Honda Civic, have become widely popular over the years. And the compact class has held the single greatest market share of any segment for nearly every year since 1980.”

With American crave for power and speed, automakers and the country’s R&D experts will have to work hard to get the desired emission standard with the fuel consumption of 100miles a gallon.
Hybrid compact car such as Toyota’s Prius is another success story in US. However, US have not given Prius any concession to make up the high initial price. It’s Toyota’s unique system that has made it so popular with all commercial disadvantages. And perhaps that is the reason that other big automakers have not come out with any competitive product with success. GM is trying to come out of its mess with Volt, the plug-in electric vehicle. ‘GM executives need the Volt to become an iconic product, like Apple’s 1998 iMac’.

Unfortunately, the two Indian automakers- Tata Motors and M&M don’t have any compact car good enough to compete with the present products available in US market from Europe, Japan, and Korea. With US still retaining its top position as a market, any auto making country and its manufacturers will always wish to enter in US. Time and again, I see the news of the attempts by Indian manufacturers to enter the American market. Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) may think of launching its new multi-utility vehicle Xylo, that has been its most ambitious project after Scorpio in US market. The Xylo, as claimed, will ‘give the ruggedness of the SUV, space of a MPV and luxury of a sedan.’ Tata Motors’ Nano though is ambitious to get into US, but Tatas are to work hard to make it acceptable to the American buyers because of their habits. Tata Motors instead can improve upon Land Rovers from its newly acquired UK plant.

Indian automakers will have to come out with some global class products that get attractive enough because of its overall cost to American consumers. For that it must get into some breakthrough innovations. The effort is on with building up of the engineering and research strength by both the companies on almost war footing through collaborations as well as acquisitions. With easy money on credit, Americans perhaps may perhaps not bother about the price for a long time to come unless the habits get changed.

Conclusion: Let Indian manufacturers work on world best compact cars and SUVs with latest technologies such as Hydrogen, battery, or any other breakthrough innovations, it they wish to enter US auto market. Chinese carmakers are already working overtime to get into this lucrative market. Will Indians put the right energy at the right place to win?

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Another India

Posted on November 2, 2008 by indra

While a young arrogant son of a political family of Maharashtra is becoming dangerous to India’s integrity, terrorists’ attacks have become so frequent with no visible action plan from a spineless government, a party supreme asks to support a person just as the culprit comes from his community and while some trade associations irresponsibly announce the possibility of job cut, the dedicated groups of scientists, many companies, technocrats as well as individuals are working hard and moving ahead in various field in innovative ways to make India strong and prosperous.

The successful launch of Chandrayaan-I show-pieced the capability of the Indian scientists and raised ISRO’s brand image to a higher level. India has joined the club of the US, Russia, China and Europe. India must go to exploit the space business commercially. It can be the launch business or the supply of high-resolution images in various bands (remote sensing). As some one suggests, the space business can not only be good business but also help India project its “soft power”. New developments at CSIR, DRDO, and other research laboratories have a lot of commercial potentials. I wish the industry takes lesson from the US and improves upon its interactions with these labs and institutes of national importance.

Indian automakers– Tata Motors as well as Mahindra and Mahindra are consolidating its research and development strength with expansion and acquisitions abroad. Can one imagine even that an 8000 strong team of automotive engineers and designers in Tata group- JLR, Tata Motors, TCS and INCAT- is busy in automobile engineering and research work? An integration of the top-notch automotive technology and development skills of JLR and INCAT, low-cost and innovative product development and manufacturing expertise with Tata Motors and TACO, and the offshoring and project management abilities of TCS can take the world automotive industry by storm.

Mahindra & Mahindra also plans to invade global markets with its products and building up its strength of its in-house engineering and design services. It started in January 2006 with acquisition of Plexion Technologies (whose clientele included Honda and DaimlerChrysler) followed by Italian auto designing and body engineering company GR Grafica Ricerca Design and another Italian auto design studio, Engines Engineering (which specializes in smaller engines primarily for two wheelers) this year. M&M is still on lookout for acquisitions to build up its R&D capabilities. The $34 million Mahindra Engineering now has a headcount of 1,041 engineers. As claimed, Mahindra Engineering is growing at 40% per annum and its businesses range from design to delivery of auto parts.

Tata Motors has finally found a place for its Nano in Gujarat. However, as some suggest Tata Motors ideally would have produced Nano in Argentina or Brazil where its close collaborator Fiat has spare manufacturing capacity. Are the Indian politicians listening? They can only obstruct, delay, but can’t kill the entrepreneurial zeal of Indians.

However, will one day Tata Motors and M&M sell its vehicles in US or China in big way as Japanese or Koreans or Europeans have done it? It is certainly a possibility with extreme pressure on US economy. But the Indian companies must produce vehicles with the best of technologies related to fuel-efficiency, emission control, and safety. It is only possible with some breakthrough innovations. As some one wrote in ‘Busisness Today‘, “By design or default, Tata’s business plan for the Rs 1-lakh car has made the Nano a perfect candidate for a Paul Krugman success story. The American economist and popular columnist won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2008 for his trade theory, which explains trade between countries endowed with similar resources. It also explains trade in similar products.”

Scarcity of electricity is the biggest hold up for industrialization down to rural hutment. India is blessed by being geographically in the latitudes where the sun shines for 250 to 300 days of the year. That is 5,000 trillion kilowatt hours of radiation for India. Moser Baer, a significant and serious player in the solar PV industry, is ramping up its core R&D and high-tech manufacturing competencies and aiming for a global presence with the overall objective to bring down PV electricity costs to match conventional energy price points. It is investing of $3.6 billion (about Rs 17,280 crore) in the solar photovoltaic business.

But for the great talent among its young engineers, scientists and technocrats, MNCs in hundreds would not opened its R&D centers in India. Through a Google alert, I find every day one or the other companies from abroad adding up its R&D centres in India.

Many Indians in many areas of activities are putting their best for adding to its growth and prosperity. While Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has developed fourth generation uranium enrichment gas centrifuges with an output of more than 10 times the earlier design, a promoter is working on weed cultivation and sells 15,000 tonnes of dry seaweed. Can one think of the initiative taken to have weed cultivation on thousands of the barges in Kerala and develop a business?

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India’s Most Innovative Companies-2008

Posted on November 1, 2008 by indra

“The Most Innovative Companies don’t do different things, they just do things differently. And that seems to make all the difference.” Innovation is the life-saving drug for any company today.

With costs soaring, the market place getting increasingly cluttered, and customers becoming more demanding, innovation is bound to become every company’s single-most important business. Barriers to innovation remain, but the most innovative companies have realised that “innovation” is not just about developing new products and services but, more fundamentally, about discovering new ways to create value. Here are the some that must be known to every Indian:

1.Mahindra & Mahindra: Be it a soft-top, 10-seater rural transport vehicle (Commander), an urban utility vehicle (Armada), or a stylish and contemporary sports utility vehicle (Scorpio), and very soon the new MUV, Mahindra Xylo that was codenamed Ingenio Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has been innovating its way up in the auto industry…

2.Jet Airways: For two years, the airline worked on its award-winning first-class cabin on its long-haul routes. Jet Airways’ Chairman Naresh Goyal. “I am rarely satisfied, but I think with this new first-class suite, we will have many satisfied customers.”

3.Tata Motors: “A promise is a promise”. Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata gave India its newest ‘people’s car’ and rewrote global automotive history…

4.Maruti-Suzuki India continuously innovates to stay ahead of the other carmakers, now making India, a main R&D base …

5.HDFC Bank is India’s best bank (for the fifth consecutive year, according to a BT-KPMG ranking of banks) for a simple reason: it hasn’t let its rapid growth affect the quality of its assets or its profitability…

6.ICICI Bank: is a story of evolution from being a lumbering development financial institution to a private sector market leader in a matter of six years? By making innovation one’s way of life…

7.ITC: A persecuted tobacco company is today a conglomerate with a booming FMCG business and uts famous e-Choupal initiative. It’s because of ITC’s ability to constantly reinvent itself…

8.Dabur India: No more a chyawanpras or lal dantmanjan company. Its future strategy rests on three pillars: Expansion, acquisition and innovation…

9.Marico: You are an FMCG company, and a manufacturer of laser hair removal equipment approaches you for distribution. You: a) laugh at the proposal and turn it down, b) strike a deal to distribute the machine, or c) spot an opportunity to create an entirely new line of business…

10.Apollo Hospitals: Where is one of the world’s biggest telemedicine hubs based? It is in Hyderabad, courtesy Apollo Health City, an integrated healthcare facility that offers “totality of wellness”…

11.Aravind Eye Care: Despite treating seven out of 10 patients for free or at minimal charges (it screens 2 million patients and performs 2.7 lakh surgeries a year), Aravind Eye Care System operates on a 40 per cent profit margin. Thanks to big and small innovations…

12.Narayana Hrudayalaya: The Dr Dev Shetty-founded hospital performs 23-25 heart surgeries a day–one of the largest in Asia–simply because it has restricted the surgeon’s job only to surgery and not the entire patient process…

13.SRL Ranbaxy: God forbid, should the bird flu ever strike Delhi, the capital’s best chance of detecting and responding to it may start from the testing labs of SRL Ranbaxy…

14.Infosys Technologies: Innovation and improvement are constantly at work at India’s best-known IT services company Infosys, right from designs for its new buildings at its 80-acre HQ in Bangalore to new solutions meant to enhance employee efficiency…

15.Wipro Technologies: Successful innovative ideas at Wipro are usually spun off into centres of excellence. Wipro also has a mash-up portal, iGrid (innovation grid), to create a collaborative environment for innovation…

16.TCS: It’s a company that virtually invented the IT services industry in India and continues to be its flag-bearer…

17.Dr Reddy’s Laboratories: Our business is innovation, be it NCES (new drugs) or generics (copy-cat drugs),” declares G.V. Prasad, Vice Chairman and MD. “To create value in the generics business, you also need to be innovative, else you cannot do it,” he adds…

18.Sun Pharmaceutical: It’s not the biggest, but it is the industry’s most valuable. That in short explains how the Dilip Shanghvi-promoted Sun Pharmaceutical has been able to stand out and create superior value in a crowded industry.

19.Airtel: Bharti Airtel’s “least-cost business model”, where just about every activity from network operation to IT is outsourced, has got the global cellular phone operators sitting up and taking note..

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China Masterly Surprises World

Posted on October 29, 2008 by indra

Be it Lenovo’s takeover of IBMs PC business, Huwaei’s competing and winning business from Cisco, magnificent and flawless management Beijing Olympics Games, or the space walk, the Chinese has kept the world surprising. With the global financial meltdown with epicenter in US, today the whole world is seeing China with awe and respect. “At the moment China can only save itself and thus be a certain stabilizing factor in Asia,” said Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China.

McKinsey has listed seven ways China might surprise the world in 2009. Each might make us see China and its future in a new light. However, I have selected three of them that every one can appreciate.

China announces that by 2020, half of the cars in the country will be electric. It invests tens of billions of dollars in R&D toward achieving that goal. And thus China becomes the leader in the automotive technology of the future. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) or newcomer BYD Auto have potential to become the Ford Motor of the 21st century, propelled with technology-much as Ford did with the internal-combustion engine at the start of the 20th century.

The Chinese government buys a 50-year lease on an entire geographic region of Mexico, enabling Chinese companies to build factories there to supply the North American market more easily. Chinese companies would then become the undisputed leaders in outsourced production. No longer constrained by geography, they could bring their expertise in low-cost manufacturing to Mexico, greatly expanding their reach and overcoming obstacles-such as maintaining supply chains across the Pacific-that still hinder their growth.

A leading Chinese company tries to buy an iconic US technology firm (or two). A major deal could be worth 10 or 100 times Lenovo’s $1.35 billion purchase of IBM’s PC division. If the US government blocked the sale, the acquisition’s failure could herald an era of renewed corporate nationalism in China. One could expect an aggressive increase in domestic R&D spending as the country focused on homegrown technology. A successful deal, by contrast, could create a truly global company, unlike anything seen before, with a multinational culture superseding any sense of national origins.

All the three surprises or similar ones are possible and if the Chinese leadership picks up the clue from the globally reputed consultancy firm, it can happen sooner than predicted. Let me assure that the Chinese have built their technical, financial and managerial strengths on a foundation that may not be sustainable as per western thinkers, but the Chinese may surprise West even in that. Today many thinkers have started to believe that China can attain whatever it wishes. The news of China’s plan to avert rain during Olympics was a show of its willpower. China could also go ahead successfully against the doubt about pollution level to make Olympics happen. Thomas Friedman’s latest book ‘Hot, Flat, and Wired’ has a chapter ‘Can Red China Become Green China?’ And with all its problems, it is perhaps only China that can reasonably attain a green status.

India does also surprise world in more than one way since Winston Churchill expressed his doubt if the country will last to be recognized by the world. We keep on celebrating our win in cricket; be it over Kenya, Bangladesh, or champion Australia. We celebrate the sole gold medal in 300 plus events in Olympics sports. Unfortunately, in the name of democracy we keep on trying to conceal all our inefficiencies and non-performance. No one doubts about the potential of India. But who will get over its disruptive way of achieving in some areas, and remaining at the bottom in poverty or other parameters of human development. It can’t be but the lack of political leadership that can take it to the summit of global power game.

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Halloween and Pumpkin

Posted on October 27, 2008 by indra

Since the time we are in US, the pumpkins have been the most visible drawing our attention. It is so, as it is Halloween time. On Saturday, October 25 Shannon took us to one Halloween Patch in nearby fairground. Patch is something like a mini-fair. The main purpose of the patch is to sell pumpkins and along with that, some fun rides make it more attractive for the kids. Family visits it for fun and to see the kids enjoying it. With Rajesh joining us with Svanik, Emma enjoyed the rides and we got the experience of a small ‘mela’ (fair) in this distant place, Pleasanton.




Every family in US buys one or more pumpkins to add to the decoration of the Halloween. Each pumpkin costing anything between $ 2 to $18 is a good business for the farmers with million of pumpkins getting sold in pumpkin patches or roadside showrooms that come up in this time of Halloween. I don’t know how much of the money must be going straight to farmers.
Pumpkin carving is a routine exercise for Halloween. The most recognizable and popular symbol of Halloween is a pumpkin carved into a jack-o-lantern. When I tried to find entries on Pumpkin and Halloween on web, I got 10,700,000 entries. Images were 1,290,000. (I request readers to glance through the links.)

One of the entries says, “Halloween is a night for dressing up, telling ghost stories, having spooky parties, trick-or-treating. Pumpkin carving is an essential part of Halloween. Halloween is actually based on an ancient Celtic holiday known as Samhain (pronounced “sow wan”), which means “summer’s end”. It was the end of the Celtic year, starting at sundown on October 31st and going through to sundown November 1st.” l Malls and shops are full with Halloween specific items. And most of items are from China. It is an experience to appreciate how the Chinese have penetrated and taken advantages from the American consumerism for creating the work for their manufacturing sector. Why can’t Indian manufacturers get into it?

In India, pumpkin is a cheap vegetable. My grandfather considered it bad for health, whereas my mother grew it and liked it too. A single plant can produce a ton or more of crop. She used to plant some seeds in courtyard that would grow on the roof of the house. I remember my mother gifting it to many families, particularly for making vegetables in marriages.

Interestingly, the same website provides some more information about pumpkin in US too: “Pumpkins have been grown in America for over 5,000 years. Native Americans called pumpkins “isquotersquash.” And “pumpkins are not a vegetable – they are a fruit! Pumpkins, like gourds, and other varieties of squash are all members of the Cucurbitacae family, which also includes cucumbers, gherkins, and melons.”

I think some well-wishers of farmers would have promoted Pumpkin Patches and its popularity has grown with the prosperity of the country. It may appear funny, but it is a part of consumerism.
While I was discussing about the pumpkin- vegetable or fruit, Yamuna reminded me the love of my mother for this vegetable. Even in Hind Motor, whenever the servant or I myself would be going for buying vegetables, my mother would ask us in her own typical manner to bring a small portion of the pumpkin (called kumhara) too.

Will Indian society create similar farmer oriented festivals that becomes a national one? Surprisingly, Halloween has not become popular like many other festivals of western origins in Ind

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NUMMI Auto Plant in Fremont

Posted on October 25, 2008 by indra

It is almost after a decade that I visited an auto plant on Friday, October 24 and that also in Silicon Valley. When we were here in 2005, we had seen the plant from a distance and perhaps I had wished to visit the plant. Anand would have mentioned that to Shannon, when our programme to come to US got finalized. And knowing my automobile background and interest, Shannon arranged and fixed up the date for the NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.) plant tour.

It was my first tour of an auto plant in USA that was of interest to Anand too, as he grew up in the residential facilities of Hindustan Motors, where I worked for almost 37 years. Around 20 persons had come to see NUMMI plant that started at around 8.30AM. The middle-aged lady who conducted the group was a real typical American. She had humour in every sentence and gesture of her. She devoted quite sometime to explain why she would not be showing paint shop. Cleanliness is of prime importance in the area and even any deodorant and spray on the body of the visitors may affect quality. Let me impress on the readers; that is a fact and not a joke.

I had known NUMMI, as a model of collaboration between the two auto giants of the two countries- General Motors of USA and Toyota Motors of Japan: both were and are still number one in its country. Perhaps American wished to learn the Japanese manufacturing system or more specifically Toyota Production System. In the small hall where the video on NUMMI plant was shown had at least four distinct posters of MUDA, KANBAN, JIDOKA, and KAIZEN. The lady tour operator kept on referring to these tools during the conducted plant visit too. I firmly believe, the knowledge and practice of all the tools and techniques of TPS can find application in every sector including our day-to-day living, and must become part of the curricula in education starting from school.

I was amazed when the lady informed that the wages for production and maintenance workmen were respectively $ 20 and $ 30 an hour. Perhaps it happened, as United Auto Workers was also a partner in the agreement. Other wise as much as I know the wages in GM and Ford are very high and that is cited as reason for their becoming uncompetitive. As claimed in website, “NUMMI has worked hard to create a unique corporate culture that borrows from Toyota, General Motors and the nearby Silicon Valley environment. NUMMI’s collaborative partnership with the United Auto Workers has been the topic of numerous labor relations studies.”

The plant is pretty old starting in mid-80s. .php However, the cleanliness is superb. It manufactures select models of passenger cars and small trucks of both GM and Toyota brands such as Toyota Corolla, Toyota Tacoma and Pontiac Vibe on its two flexible assembly line. The manufacturing facility includes plastic molding, stamping, body weld, paint, and assembly and the plant is on the property of approximately 380 acres with an annual production capacity of approximately 250,000 cars and 170,000 trucks. It gets mechanicals such as power units from other plants in US. NUMMI gets parts from 3,600 North American suppliers along with 1,000+ California suppliers (total number of jobs supported by NUMMI, approximately 50,000). So California is not only Silicon Valley with IT. And perhaps that is the reason that Fremont is known for maximum ‘desi’ (Indians) population. To me the population at NUMMI appeared to be of pretty mixed nationalities.

I again wonder why Tata Motors needed 1000 acres of fertile land in Singur, West Bengal or now in Sanand in Gujarat for a volume of 3,00,000 of ‘Nano’ that is a much smaller car. Is it is the lust of owning huge land property at cheap price?

As expected, the visit didn’t add much to my knowledge, but it was interesting. I wish before deciding the layouts, the plant designers incorporate the consideration of plant tour for people too. Though I have visited Tata Motors, Pune and Maruti Udyog also, but I wonder if the companies conduct plant tour for general visitors.

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Smart Farming And Educational Institutions

Posted on October 24, 2008 by indra

I am not an agricultural engineer, a farmer or a scientist. However, I have my root in the villages of India that appears at this age pulling my mind to think about it. I keep on writing about my viewpoints of rural India and farming that interest me.

Surprisingly, some of the totally urban-centric magazines have started taking interest in rural India and farming. Farming is even getting discussed in the big conference halls of Metros and becoming the subject matter of the panel discussion such as one on “Smart Farming-The Promise and the Problems” organized by the Business Today-DuPont Sustainability Forum in New Delhi. With 60% or more population of the country dependent or living in rural India, it deserves more attention rather mandatory coverage from media.

As reported, the new generation in farming community is getting disenchanted with this dirty arduous job. “Global estimates suggest that by 2020, we will have about 400 million people going out of farming.” Naturally, the main reason is the low earning out of farming. “For a farmer who is cultivating rice on one hectare of land, at the current minimum support prices, he gets about Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 per hectare. If one were to deduct the inputs costs that he incurs, then the farmer is left with barely Rs 4,000-5,000. This for an average family of 5-6 members is not sustainable.” Can science and technology reverse the trend and provide the solution to this disenchantment? Will the technology be able to drive increased productivity in a sustainable manner, and to meet the demands that the world has placed on agriculture?

Can a clear focus on working towards doubling or tripling productivity out from a specified amount of land with intelligent use of the same or less amount of inputs, energy and environmental impact yield the desired result? As the first requirement, every farmer and grower must be able to get and use the high quality seeds and the right inputs to realize its full genetic potential.
Unfortunately in present condition, most of the farmers who are generally marginal are not able to do that. Neither they have the necessary resources, nor have they been educationally prepared. Most of them even after 60 + years of Independence follow the agricultural practices inherited. Some so-called progressive ones try to copy some success story from neighbourhood coming through the words from mouths. They require some sort of handholding. The government, NGOs, hundreds of scientists and teachers in agriculture-related institutions and corporate India must come out in planned manner to improve the situation.

As reported, ITC’s paperboard division has improved the lot of some 75,000 farmers, mostly tribals, through plantations. ITC provides best samplings and all necessary input requirements. ITC is today not dependent on any forests for pulp. Is it not a real win-win story?

How do we ensure that the next generation remains attracted and retained in agriculture? Agriculture must get back the old social status ‘Uttam Kheti’ (Farming is the best). India Inc and the government are to work out a systematic strategy for that.

Technology and the best management practices along with the government support must be the core, making it challenging. Biotechnology and nano-technology must overcome yield fatigue. Schools in rural areas must cover the subject of basic agriculture: science involved, good practices for soil health, conservation of water and yield. How can the farming remain manned by people with absolutely no knowledge of the modern farming?

India has a large number of educational institutions teaching the subjects related to agriculture. Unfortunately, its interactions with the rural problems are minimal. All these institutes must evolve an integrated action plan to improve the lot of rural masses and agriculture in particular. Every institute worth name must adopt one or more villages.

Some of the higheragricultural research institutes must concentrate on agricultural fundamental researches such as need to stretch the life of plant nutrients and to produce organic manures and insecticides to replace the chemical and inorganic ones. Every farmer must be encouraged to keep a small area for experimenting the new seed, fertilizer or practice. Once the technology is known, the seeds and organic fertilizers and insecticides must get produced locally.

Some new developments* such as “conservation agriculture” must get into practice. The system involves basically the use of novel concepts: minimum or zero tillage; planting of crops on raised seedbeds; meticulous leveling of land with the use of laser technology; and improved methods of irrigation, such as drip and sprinkler irrigation.

*Some New Developments

Direct seeding of rice Unlike the traditional transplanting of saplings, paddy is directly seeded on to the field. Direct seeding cuts water usage by up to 35 per cent and reduces methane emissions by as much as 43 per cent. As claimed, direct seeding can help reduce global warming. PepsiCo is piloting and planning to introduce direct seeding across 1,000 acres in Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka this year. Rice growing techniques are undergoing major transformation.

Sulfonylurea Technology, a DuPont proprietary, is a low-use rate/ high-efficacy herbicide technology used to produce the herbicides that leave a minimal environment footprint-they are applied at rates as low as 8 gm per acre against the current industry use rate of 500-1,000 gm per acre of other herbicides for growing wheat, rice and soyabean across India.

New Breeding Technology: Molecular breeding and other advanced plant genetics tools like Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL), enable higher yield, higher disease and insect tolerance. An example is hybrid rice.Hybrid rice cultivation are now used in UP, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand. It can increase yield by 15 to 20 per cent, and means thus more production using same area of land and reduced use of water, chemicals and fertilizers.

More and more of the corporate sector need to work with the farmers on the line of ITC or in a better way. And India Inc must take up the responsibility without any further delay. Very soon they will realize that this is a good business proposition too.

Farming has remained the family profession. However, the farmers must change their mindsets to take agriculture as serious business. It needs dedicated workers and must attract the best talent to help it.

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