Booming and Bubbling India-XXVIII

Posted on January 18, 2008 by indra

India’s forex reserves at $281.729 bn: India’s foreign exchange reserves rose to a record $281.729 billion on Jan. 11 from $276.255 billion a week earlier. The Indian diaspora seems to be taking a long-term view on India. They are shunning NRI deposit schemes and are sending higher amounts instead to relatives back home.

Rel Power IPO subscribed 69 times: The Rs 11,700 crore initial public offering (IPO) of Reliance Power, which closed today, has been subscribed 69 times and has generated demand for Rs 7,00,000 crore – a new record as per data available till 5 p.m.

Indian tech workforce is two million strong: Technology workforce in India is set to cross the magical two million mark, with the march from one million to two million happening in just about three years. A Crisil report suggested for every job created in the technology sector, there is a ripple effect of four indirect jobs.

ADAG buys 250 cinema houses in US: Over the last one year, Reliance Entertainment (REL), a company promoted by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), has acquired 250 cinema houses in the US.

Indian employees to get highest salary hike in 2008: Indians working with MNCs are slated to get the highest salary hike of about 14 per cent on an average across the world in 2008.

Vedanta chalks out $12.5-b investment plan: The metals and mining company Vedanta Resources plans to invest about $12.5 billion to accelerate its business growth.

India may escape world slowdown: A slowdown among developed economies may not have a significant impact on India but pressures from high oil and food prices would make managing inflation a challenge in 2008/09.

Investors Shun Shanghai, Woo Mumbai: An increasing number of fund managers are turning bullish on India, which is among their strongest overweight positions in Asia. In some cases, this newfound confidence is directly at the expense of China.

Tata Unveils the World’s Cheapest Car: Nano, for its high technology and small size is cute, compact, and contemporary. It’s a complete four-door car with a 623-cc gas engine, gets 50 miles to the gallon, and seats up to five. It meets domestic emissions norms and will soon comply with European standards. It’s 8% smaller in outer length than its closest rival, Suzuki’s Maruti 800, but has 21% more volume inside. And at $2,500, it is the most inexpensive car in the world. The Nano, also known as the People’s Car, is Ratan Tata’s dream come true, and is India’s contribution to changing the global auto industry.

Sensex to touch 24k by 2008-end:Indian stock market will continue its bull-run next year with its benchmark index Sensex likely to touch the 24,000-mark by the end of 2008 on strong performances of blue-chip companies, according to Australian banking major Macquarie.

India’s E-com business to cross $100 bn in ’08: E-commerce transactions in India are expected to reach $100 billion in the year 2008 as companies increase use of Internet to cut costs and improve speed and efficiency, a top industry official said here.

Jamshedpur plant to be largest in world: When the 10-mtpa capacity expansion of Tata Steel completes in 2010, Jamshedpur plant will become the single largest unit and one of the most modern plants in the world.

Realty roars despite interest rate hikes: The real estate sector continued to grow at an average rate of over 25% in 2007. Despite prices of residential real estate dipped in suburbs of metros and in other small cities due to rise in interest rates, the construction activities remained bullish.

Exports rise 27%: Merchandise exports from India during November 2007 rose a healthy 26.82 per cent (in dollar terms) to $12.42 billion from $9.79 billion a year ago. Analysts have been attributing robust exports to the performance of petroleum, engineering goods as well as gems and jewellery sectors.

India is new hub for industrial robots: India is emerging as a hub for production of industrial robots – many American, Korean and even Japanese firms are using them. But some companies are also developing consumer robots that can clean homes and keep an eye on intruders.

Biotech industry revenue doubles to $2 bn in a year: The biotech industry is going great guns with the industry’s revenue hitting the $2-billion mark during 2006-07, up from $1 billion in 2004-05. The industry is now aiming to garner revenue of $5 billion before 2010.

Durables sector MNCs eye India as manufacturing hub: Several multinationals with operations here are firming up their plans to make India a manufacturing hub for their global operations. While Samsung India’s $30-million facility in Sriperumbudur near Chennai is being readied for substantial exports, LG India has been making steady investments at its Noida and Pune facilities to harness its export potential.

India December manufacturing growth at 33-month high: Indian manufacturing activity expanded in December at its fastest pace in almost three years, indicating the economy was growing at a strong clip despite a series of policy tightenings.

As it seems, except for the shocks from political leaders, Indians have learnt to do a great job wherever they are.

Posted in economy | Leave a comment

India Must Stand to China

Posted on January 16, 2008 by indra

Anand gave me Harvard Business Review’s December, 2007 issue that he brought. It has an article by Tarun Khanna– ‘China+India: The Power of Two’. Tarun Khanna has been writing on these two Asian countries for long. He says in the paper, ‘Like it or not, the world’s future is tied to China and India… They have too much to lose by not working together.’ Khanna has three success stories- Mahindra’s tractor company in China, Huawei’s Indian company, and China’s Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corporation and India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to prove his thesis. I don’t know if HBR published the article keeping the forthcoming visit of India’s Prime Minister to China. Manmohan Singh has emphasized the bilateral relation of the two countries to grow on Khanna’s line.

Beijing certainly provided a warm red carpet welcome to the Indian Prime Minister and his delegation that constitutes the who’s who of India Inc. even in sub-zero temperatures, but will it be warm enough to meet the Indian requirements and aspirations?

No doubt, China has jumped to second position from the ninth position as India’s trading partner since 2001 and is destined to overtake the US. India’s trade with China went through a dramatic increase from $2.5 billion in 2000-01 to a whopping $25 billion in 2006-07. However, the rising trade deficit in favour of China is worrisome for India. India’s trade deficit with China climbed to $9.2 billion in 2006-07. Surprisingly with US India had a surplus of $7.1 billion. The trade deficit with China during the first six months of this financial year has already mounted to $8.7 billion that may end up with a $12 to $14 billion deficit by the end of the financial year. Equally worrying is the near-monopoly of Chinese exports to India in certain critical sectors.

The share of Chinese imports in India’s global import has risen from 4 per cent in 2001-02 to 9.4 percent in 2006-07. China’s industrial goods exports to India today amount to 10 per cent of India’s entire industrial GDP. From a mere 0.7 per cent in 2001-02, today the imports of tubes and pipes from China account for 74.7 per cent. Similarly, in the area of transmission apparatus for radio and telephony, imports from China have jumped from 11.5 to 49.4 per cent in a few years. In the case of automatic data processing machines, China’s share in India’s imports has risen from 12.4 per cent to 35 per cent.” Chinese goods are flooding the Indian market with all kinds of products, be it kites for Makar Sankranti, or Ganesh Lakshmi for Diwali or room heaters or electric meters in every home. The manufacturing sectors are finding it difficult to compete.

On the other hand, India occupies a minuscule 1.3 per cent of China’s global imports. New Delhi is concerned over ever-burgeoning trade deficit in Beijing’s favour. It will further accentuate with the new target of trade of $60 billion by 2010 unless China agrees to import additional nontraditional items such as fruits and vegetables or provides the access to Indian software and pharmaceutical companies. Manmohan Singh and his team wishes to get those concessions against China’s aggressive mercantile practices such as removal of non-tariff barriers. It is interesting that India is exporting iron ores to China at an export duty realization of only 1%, whereas China decided to levy a huge cess of 25% on coking coal that India imports that was not there even in 2005. I am sure China will yield to certain extent. Manmohan Singh and Kamalnath must try to allure the Chinese companies to come and set up plants in India. Indian manufacturers must not depend on the government’s tax subsidy for facing competition and must come out with business models and products to compete. With extraordinary talents in design and marketing management, India must try to excel over China by its strength.

India must learn China’s trick of cost innovation. Indian manufacturers must emulate the three faces of cost innovation as mentioned in ‘ Dragons at your door’ by Ming Zeng and Peter J Williamson:

1. Chinese companies are starting to offer customers high technology at low cost. Computer maker Dawning has put supercomputer technology into the low-cost servers that are the every day workhorses of the world’s IT networks. This novel strategy is demolishing the conventional wisdom that high technology is restricted to high-end products and segments. And it interrupting the game whereby established global competitors maximize their profits along the product life cycle by only slowly migrating new technology from high-priced segments toward the mass market.

2. The emerging Chinese competitors are presenting customers with an unmatched choice of products in what used be considered standardized, mass-market segments. Goodbaby offers a product line of over sixteen hundred type of strollers, car seats, bassinets, and playpens- four times the range of its nearest competitor- all at mass-market prices, thus challenging the idea that if customers want variety and customization, they have to pay a price premium.

3. Chinese companies are using their low costs to offer specialty products at dramatically lower prices, turning them into volume businesses. Consumer appliance maker Haier has transformed the market for wine-storage refrigerators from the preserve of a few wine connoisseurs into a mainstream category sold through America’s Sam’s Club at less than half the then-prevailing price. The end result: Haier has a 60% market share, while yesterday’s niche players have been left floundering. This new Chinese competition is challenging the notion that specialty products must forever remain low-volume and high-priced.

Indian manufacturers must have a change in its mindset to face the Chinese challenge of cost innovations. Ratan Tata with Nano (Lakhtakia car) has made the beginning. Others must follow. As predicted, Nano will be trendsetter in manufacturing sector in India. HCL Infosystems has launched with laptops, MiLeap sporting a starting price tag of Rs 13,990. Tatas are planning an Rs 250 water filter. Many must follow. IITs and other institutes of excellence must help this brand of innovations.

Posted in industry, manufacturing | Leave a comment

Bharat Ratna for Ratan Tata

Posted on January 15, 2008 by indra

I think the countrymen must express their opinion about the raping of the system by politicians to have their selfish motives met. None of the politicians deserve to be awarded the highest recognition for the service to the nation. How can persons such as Devilal, NT RamaRao, Jyoti Basu, and of all Prakash Singh Badal be even considered for the award? It is unfortunate that Advani whom I don’t rate very high for opening the hornet’s nest by recommending the name of Atal Bihari Bajpai for the award. As reported, BJD is writing to the Centre for conferring the highest civilian honour on Biju Patnaik. RJD demanded the award for former Bihar CM and socialist leader Karpoori Thakur and Ramvilas Paswan wants it for Jagjivan Ram, Mohammed Rafi and Marathi thinker Jyotiba Phule. And how can Mayawati remain behind in the race? She demands Kansiram’s name for the award. I am sure some of the sycophants of these political leaders will demand the award for these leaders too. More unfortunate is that Atalji has not snubbed Advani for this act. With that perhaps these demands would have stopped and his image would have got a boost. I wish he had done that.

I don’t like Shiv Sena as political party with so narrow band of nationality rather I hate it. However, I am with it for its suggestion to award Bharat Ratna to Ratan Tata, as reported in Metro Today.

It is not only Ratan Tata’s dream car Nano that has created a stir all over the world about the capability of India to revolutionize the auto sector. Can one imagine of the day when ‘Nano‘ goes global and becomes the darling in all the middle-class households of the so-called poor countries of the world that may be in billions? That will be the biggest challenge and opportunity for the managers of Tata Motors. Ratan Tata’s way of dreaming and executing the dreams started with ‘Indica’, the first real Indian car, ACE and now Nano has turned Tata Motors into a globally watched company,

Ratan Tata through his other companies can bring similar revolutions in those sectors. TCS and Tata Steel are already globally well placed. TCS is reaching in almost all the known countries. Tata Teleservices will soon have a valuation of about $20 billion. Tata AutoComp Systems (soon to be just Tata Auto Components) popularly known as TACO makes $1 billion (Rs 4,000 crore) in revenues making auto components at its 24 plants. TACO would like to be an end-to-end service contract player, from design through manufacturing to delivery. And who knows very soon one day Tata Motors with TCS and its other manufacturing units become the leading consulting and engineering service provider of automobile plants of the world.

Tata has done and is doing some real great philanthropic works too for the society.

Ratan Tata is a real Bharat Ratna whether India government and its system recognizes him or not. I don’t know why media and judiciary don’t take up such issues. But why should Ratan Tata bother about the award? Let the politicians keep on fighting on the issue. However, the system of the award must make it apolitical to get the respectability.

Posted in industry, management | Leave a comment

Emma- The Special

Posted on January 14, 2008 by indra

By now most of my readers must have come to know why my blogs are short, and on many days, it doesn’t appear even.

I have my sweet little angel to play with for just few days. We are meeting after 6 months of her appearance on the mother earth. An old man like me can’t dream for anything more and better. She is sweet and soft. She is like a live beautiful doll. Though very little in size but has filled the home fully all right. She keeps on smiling to everyone. She hardly bothers anyone unless she is hungry. We are having our quality time with her. She is Emma. She attracts everyone wherever we go. She pleases everyone with her divine smiles and giggles. She is the best. She is in the age that is the best. I play with her and bless her. This is the unique experience that I couldn’t get ever.




1988
2008-01-12 23:07:44
Hindustan Motors: A Ghost Township

Hindustan Motors as company is still alive. And its main plant at Hind Motors tells the story. Last Saturday, I with Anand and Shannon was again in HM, the campus that one time used to be one of the most contemporary automobile manufacturing plant. As one of the totally integrated plant, it had all facilities from foundry, forging, stamping, machining and assembly of vehicles- cars, utility and commercial vehicles with latest technology. It brought in transfer machining system for the first time in India. It was an attraction for all the students of manufacturing engineering of the country. It had a design and development facility with engineers trained in USA, UK, Germany and Japan.

Today, HM’s share in automobiles is miniscule. Though the famous Ambassadors are still in production, HM is gradually becoming a ghost town. I was shocked to see the places where we spent the best part of our life. Here are some photographs that itself whispered and predicted the time to come.

Anand went around decaying Hind Motor Colony- New Flat 15, his school, TH, temple, hospital, auditorium, and flat 4 where we spent many years before leaving Hindustan Motors HM. Most flats are lying vacant.





I was surprised that some people still know me. The whole place is in bad shape. HM is an example of family enterprise the way it grows, flourishes, and dies. As I am told, most of the manufacturing divisions are closed, the machineries have been sold or shifted, and most of the land has shifted hand for building real estate or Software Park (?). The place also tells the story how leftist unions can doom an industrial plant that was once one of the best in the country. However, HM is just that elephant that is still valuable for many. Surprisingly, CITU, the CPM union that took over the reign of this industrial establishment many years ago has lost it to some splinter group and presently fighting to take back the control. That’s what people there told me. At one time, the plant had about 15,000 workmen and engineers at one time. Today the number must be hardly couple of thousands.

And who were responsible for this condition of HM? CITU, the trade union of CPM played the major role. Neither the Birla management had the guts and wills to make it a great automobile plant of the country, nor the government helped it out. Surprisingly HM never gave any dividends to its shareholders.

I felt bad but this is perhaps the destiny of HM.

Posted in personal | Leave a comment

‘Nano’mania

Posted on January 11, 2008 by indra

January 10, 2008 was a special day for the Indian manufacturing industry. It had never happened. A new product has covered the front pages of all newspapers in India. Media all over the globe covered the news of a small car designed, developed and manufactured in India. It will certainly be trendsetter. It is certainly a historic comeback of India in manufacturing. Nano, known till now as Tata’s Rs 1-lakh car got unveiled at Auto Expo at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

I have been writing about this ‘nanhi pari’ of India that was going to be unveiled at the Auto Expo 2008 since long. Rattan Tata’s men have created what he dreamt. If we go by the first report, Nano is the third unique product from Tata Motors after Indica, and Ace that has made a splash in the industry, but none had this much of coverage. It’s story to prove ‘where there is will, there is a way’. I am sure all the apprehensions of the global oldies have vanished in air.

I only wish it happens in all consumer products. Indian engineers must steer ahead this revolution for the products such as tractors, TVs, refrigerators and housings for the majority of its population that are aspiring lot and that works hard. The mission is to make products beautiful and small as well as cheap.

I know Tata Motors will have to go a long way to get it commercially profitable and acceptable world over. But I am sure Rattan would not retire before he does that.

Let Indian manufacturers take lessons and emulate. Let India not succumb to Chinese in manufacturing.
—
Read some by regular columnists
India driving by Barkha Dutt and ‘Nano is beautiful.’ by Gautam Chikermane.

Posted in industry, management, manufacturing | Leave a comment

Kolkata – City of Joy from Shannon’s Eyes

Posted on January 10, 2008 by indra

We were in Kolkata as Anand wanted to go around the places he was born and grew. One always gets a nostalgic pleasure going down the memory lane. It is more so when there is someone to share the feelings. Anand is in good company of Shannon and Emma. Yamuna and myself were also there accompanying them. We had been witness to those golden days when our trio grew in Kolkata, rather to be specific at Hind Motor. I requested Shannon to pen down her experiences of India visit mentioning specifically what she had expected and what she really found. Here is her first one:

When traveling to another country, you must always have a sense of humor and know that things will not be the same. For instance, eating in a food court in a mall and not finding a trashcan anywhere or being forced to buy a food card in order to buy a drink that is a fraction of the cost of the card. On top of that, you have to pay a surcharge for the card. Really? Or perhaps trying to get an ATM card, called an Instant Card, only to find that once you finally get it, it won’t work for a couple of days. What’s so instant about that?

Puchchu and I are in India staying with his parents. To say it’s a special time would be an understatement. I’ve been to India before, but now I see I really hadn’t been to India. In order to properly experience something, you must stay with family or friends and really “live the life”. Staying with my parent-in-laws has been wonderful…I really love them. They have taken me as their daughter and I really feel I am.

India is working hard on improving life, but for someone who grew up in the west, India is a different world. Right next to beautiful homes are people living in tents or structures of wood that look like playing cards leaning on each other. Trash and dust is everywhere and there is a strong smell of smoke in the air. Your nose hairs feel singed by the end of each day. And yet, no one looks unhappy. Have they found something most of us haven’t figured out? I think so. Happiness comes from inside, not from material wealth. So coming here helps adjust one’s perspective on life and what’s important.

I say all of this and yet there is a charm and beauty about India. The people here are beautiful as they smile and laugh or simply look peaceful. The chaos that abounds on the streets has rhyme and reason to it. You just have to understand the rhythm and be able to engage in the same dance.

We are now in Calcutta and I especially love it. It’s not as modernized as Delhi but I seem to feel more at home. Some of the roads are in horrible condition and trying to drive on them leaves you with sore muscles and frazzled nerves, but you really appreciate your destination once you get there.

The sounds of India are honking horns. That’s the mode of communication on the road. Even on the back of most trucks it says “Horn Please”. The honking is not meant in a negative way, just a friendly way of saying “you are in my way and I’m going to go around you in whatever way I can”. It feels like you are taking your life in your hands when on the road, and yet I’ve never seen an accident. Again, you just need to know the dance.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Eminenet Scientists-Then Why not Now?

Posted on January 4, 2008 by indra

I do consider myself a well-read person, but I don’t know anyone else but Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT, Madras and Anil K Gupta of IIM- Ahmedabad. I am afraid, most of the people in our country are hardly aware about many reputed scientists, technocrats, and managers from the academic field who have been regularly contributing in different fields of science and technology. Perhaps it is because media don’t cover our academic institutions very much. It was interesting to read the former president, Abdul Kalam writing about the three scientists, D. S. Kothari, Homi Jehangir Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai, who were founders of the three greatest scientific institutions in the country.

D. S. Kothari was an outstanding physicist-cum-astrophysicist and is well known for his theory on ionisation of matter by pressure in cold and compact objects like planets.

Kothari was made Scientific Advisor to the defence minister in 1948. Kothari realised early on that the main purpose of Defence Science Organisation was to serve the immediate and long-term needs of the armed forces.

As Scientific Advisor, he identified the disciplines such as Operational Research & Ballistics, Explosives & Armaments, Rockets & Missiles, Naval Technology, Engineering, Food & Life Sciences and problems posed by adverse environment on men and material, for development that is relevant and functioning even today. Kothari also established the Defence Science Centre for conducting research in electronic materials, nuclear medicine and ballistic science. He is, therefore, considered the architect of defence science in India.

The second giant was Homi Jehangir Bhabha. Before coming to India, he was a research student in theoretical physics in University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, where he did outstanding original research on cosmic radiation. He discovered that electron pairs were produced when cosmic radiation interacted with matter; he also identified muons, particles produced by cosmic rays. The latter discovery won him the prestigious fellowship of Royal Society.

On his return in 1939, Bhabha joined Sir Raman at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore. In 1945, he started the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), where he focused on nuclear and mathematical science. After Independence, he established the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948. Bhabha is acknowledged as the founder of India’s atomic energy programme. His vision gave birth to centres of excellence in nuclear technology, nuclear power, nuclear devices and nuclear medicine.

Vikram Sarabhai was the youngest of the three and worked with Sir Raman in the study of experimental cosmic rays. He established the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad with space research as focus. Later on, he became the director of Space Science & Technology Centre (SSTC), which set off in 1963 by launching sounding rockets to conduct atmospheric research.

In 1970, Sarabhai unveiled the country’s space mission with its vision of building satellite launch vehicle capability for putting our communication satellites in the geo-synchronous orbit and remote sensing satellites in the polar orbit. He also envisioned that launch vehicles built in India should be launched from Indian soil. All this led to intensive research in multiple fields of science and space technology.

Today, with its 14,000 scientific, technological and support staff in multiple space research centres, supported by about 300 industries and academic institutions, India has the capability to build satellite launch vehicles for placing remote sensing, communication and meteorology satellites in different orbits. In fact, space application has become a part of our daily life

.
Why can’t India have more of such scientists who emulate these visionaries, dream and work for transforming India into a developed nation the way these stalwarts did? Why shouldn’t the media help in task of promoting Indian technological marches and technologists and scientists? An extensive effort is essential to make the role of science and technology popular among the people at large.

Kalam suggests:
  Science and technology has to be made attractive to the political leaders.
  Technologies that give immediate benefits to the people directly or indirectly should be packaged and successfully offered to the political leadership.

It is absolutely essential for the country to compete with the developed nations.

Posted in education, governance | Leave a comment

Innovating India-1

Posted on January 2, 2008 by indra

Much before Ratan Tata announced his project of Rs 1 lakh car, I used to have discussions with my friends about an Rs 1lakh tractor. I wrote too. Few months ago, I heard of one company that had started offering Rs 1 lakh tractor. I wonder if the company is doing that with commercial success. But it is a shame that none of the many big companies in India that manufacture tractors took up the challenge to produce a reliable tractor that could be affordable too for the millions of farmers having pitiably small holdings and money to spare. Unfortunately banks also hardly provide the credit to small farmers to get the credit at lower interest for buying the tractors. If Tata can think of a car for the people, why can’t Mahindra do the same for a tractor?

One of the earliest projects of Mechanical Engineering Research Institute at Durgapur related to the design of an Indian tractor, perhaps named as Swaraj that was commercially produced too. However, it can still take up the task to make one with a target price of Rs 1 lakh or less. Unfortunately, even the power tiller today costs more than a lakh. Mindset of manufacturers in the country must change towards real innovation that can cut cost of the tractors for the users.

It was a pleasure to read about two rural innovators who have done some pioneering work to develop two farm equipment: mini-tractor and motorcycle plough, that will go a long way to help the small farmer.

Bhanjibhai Mathukia, 65, of village Kalavad in Junagarh has finally signed a technology transfer agreement with an Anand-based company for his 10 HP farmer friendly tractor that he developed out of available components and parts such as a gearbox of an Mahindra Jeep, the front tyre of Padmini car and rear wheels of jeep, and a fixed-speed stationary engine. However, it is Prof Anil K Gupta of IIM, Ahmedabad, already reputed for his GIAN, Grassroots Innovations Augmentation Network who got Bhanjibhai’s innovation transformed into a marketable product using all his resources. Department of scientific and industrial research funded Rs 6 lakh for prototype development and fine tuning the product. The tractor got a customized transmission, a power take off system and a contemporary industrial external design, and the mandatory acceptance from Central Farm Machinery Testing Institute at Budni (MP)

Mansukhbhai Jagani, 42, of Mota Devalia village in Amreli has converted a Bullet motorcycle into an efficient mechanical plough. Jagani has managed to sell 150 bike-cum-tractors. Jagani developed an attachment that could be fitted by replacing the rear wheel of any powerful motorcycle. The device can perform many farming operations such as ploughing, sowing, inter-culturing, and spraying in fruit crops. The machine can cover four hectares in an hour for groundnut cultivation and consumes a litre of oil an hour.

Beside GIAN, Anil Gupta has other initiatives too to help the grass-root innovations working such as Society for Research and initiatives for sustainable Technologies and Institutions SRISTI and SRISTI Sadbhav Sanshodhan, a lab that helps the grass root innovators in commercialization of the product. However it is pity that Indian Council for Agriculture Research with all facilities hardly helps the farmers. The same is true for many technical institutes that could have help the rural entrepreneurs in fine tuning the design and processes to make the products compete with China instead of finding excuses for not doing that.

All the professional institutes and agriculture universities must work with the farmers to find out the assistances necessary for them to remove the bottlenecks and make the farming profitable.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Booming and Blooming India-XXXIII

Posted on December 31, 2007 by indra

Sensex hovering around 20K and India Inc scaling up in almost all sectors, the boom appears to continue even in 2008. Investors’ wealth on the Indian bourses has crossed Rs 70,00,000-crore milestone for the first time in history, with an average increase of over Rs 40 crore in every minute of trading during 2007.

Bharti Infratel sells $1 b stake to global investors: Bharti Infratel, the wholly owned telecom infrastructure subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd, will sell off about 10 per cent stake to international investors for $1 billion. The investors who have agreed to invest are Temasek Holdings, The Investment Corporation of Dubai, Goldman Sachs, Macquarie, AIF Capital, Citigroup and India Equity Partners (IEP), with Temasek Holdings being the largest investor.

Cisco chooses Bangalore for first business unit outside US: Cisco Systems, the world’s biggest maker of data networking equipment, plans to launch a business group, based in Bangalore, India, that will wire new buildings and even entirely new cities with state-of-the-art networking technology. The group would be Cisco’s first business unit to have its headquarters based outside the US.

Indian chip design firms acquiring for scale, R&D: Indian information technology companies, such as Wipro Ltd, Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd and MindTree Consulting Ltd, which offer chip-design services, are in an acquisitive mode to consolidate their position in the global market. In the last two years, these firms have together made five acquisitions totalling Rs502 crore, mainly to broaden their customer base and intellectual property (IP) assets.

B’lore, H’bad high-speed airport link: Paving way for Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to going ahead with the construction of high-speed metro links to connect their capitals with airports, Delhi Metro Rail Corp. has submitted its detailed project report (DPR) to the states.

Tatas bid $1.5 bn for Liberian mines: Tata Steel is looking for raw material security at a frenetic pace and the world’s sixth largest steel maker is now eyeing the Western Cluster Iron Ore deposits in Liberia, that consist of several deposits spread over 207.58 sq km and the investment is likely to be around $1.5 billion. A bid has already been submitted.

Gujarat NRE wraps up Australian acquisition: Gujarat NRE Coke has completed the acquisition of Australia-based Elouera mine from BHP Billiton, a part of the Australia-based Illawarra Coal Business.

Maruti to export 2.5 lakh cars: Maruti Suzuki India may export around 2.5 lakh cars per annum from the Mundra port, operated by the Ahmedabad-based Adani group.

Kerala declared ‘Total Banking State’: Kerala was declared “Total Banking State” providing at least one bank account for every household. Kerala is the third state to achieve the status after Himachal Pradesh and Goa.

India top investor in US govt securities among BRIC nations: India increased its exposure to the American treasury bills by more than four billion dollars in the month of October, which is higher than Brazil, Russia and China, according to the latest data available with the US Department of Treasury.

E-tendering to check mafia: The Uttar Pradesh government decided to implement e-procurement scheme under the national e-governance plan to check mafia and criminal elements in tender and contract activities.

India cellphone base to cross US in New Year: From all indications, India’s mobile phone market in terms of number of subscribers is set to overtake the United States and take its spot as the biggest after China.

Telecos add 8.3 million wireless users in November: India added 8.3 million wireless users, a record in November, taking the total subscriber base to 225.5 million. Including fixed-line users, total telephone subscriber base grew to 264.8 million by November. India’s total telephone user base is expected to top 500 million by 2010.

Health hub on Bypass stretch: Seven private hospitals, with over 2,000 beds, are set to come up on a 2.5-km stretch of the EM Bypass, from Ruby General Hospital to the Garia connector, by 2008, involving an investment of around Rs 500 crore.

Nagpur set to become `bin-free`: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation has cleared a proposal to award the work of collecting trash from the doorsteps of citizens to Infrastructure Leasing & Finance Services (IL&FS), New Delhi, and the Centre for Development Communication (CDC), Nagpur, for a period of ten years to make Nagpur a ‘bin-free’ city.

60 car launches are planned through 2008. In 2008, air travellers will be able to use mobile phones in flight. A new technology that creates micro cellular sites called `picocells’, within an aircraft, without interfering with the airplanes communication or other systems will make this possible.

Microfinance firm from Bengal makes it to Forbes’ list: Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, founder and chief executive officer of Bandhan, has made it to the Forbes magazine’s first-ever listing of the world’s top 50 Microfinance Institutions, next to only ASA of Bangladesh and way above Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus’ Grameen Bank.India tops list of top microfinance institutions. Forbes has named seven such entities in the list of world’s top 50 – highest for a country. Bangalore- based Bandhan at the second position.

Videocon to invest $5 billion on power projects: Consumer electronic maker Videocon Industries will set up thermal power projects aggregating 5,000 MW in Gujarat, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh along with a international player, investing about $5 billion on building three power plants.

XL Telecom building solar farms in Spain, Portugal: XL Telecom through its subsidiary Saptashva Solar Ltd has firmed up a forward integration project to establish grid connected ‘solar farms’ in Spain and Portugal with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore.

OVL to take 40% stake in Venezuelan oilfield: ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), will take a 40% stake in San Cristobal oilfield in Venezuela at a total investment of $355.738 million comprising signature bonus of $173.1 million for the stake.l ONGC will develop a war chest of $20 billion to acquire stakes in major oil and gas properties abroad.

India emerging as an attractive investment destination for US SMEs: Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are set to go global with opportunities flowing in from all corners. After SMEs from Germany and the UK, the US has expressed willingness to invest and explore possibilities of technology transfer to Indian SMEs.

India ranks 7th in IPO proceeds: E&Y According to data compiled by international consultancy firm Ernst and Young. India was the fifth largest market in terms of number of IPOs and seventh largest in terms of the proceeds for the year.

India-born Malik in Forbes` Web Celeb 25 list: India-born Om Malik has been named as one of the global web celebrities by the American magazine Forbes. A chemistry graduate from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, 41-year-old Malik is the brain behind the website ‘http://gigaom.com’ and has also served as a technology journalist for various publications.

Let us hope the boom in economy to continue in 2008. Wishing a prosperous New Year.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Virtual IIT Can Bring Revolution

Posted on December 28, 2007 by indra

Let me confess I did never get very much impressed by the quality of teaching at IIT at Kharagpur between 1957-1961, when I was there. As I can talk now, only few of the teachers were excellent. Most of them were just mediocre. I don’t remember if they followed any curricula and any specific book. Whatever they taught was not sufficient to understand the subject. They hardly provided any reading materials. I am sure things must be different now. For any course for a student after class XII, a specific book or a set of reading materials covering the curricula is a necessity. The teaching must make the student interested in reading additional books on the subject to further the knowledge. Unfortunately, I didn’t get anything like that from our teachers. And so I told one of my reputed teachers many years after passing out in a meeting that perhaps the students in a private school learnt more and knew better. IITians performed better in life as they were picked up from a huge number of brilliant students. Even without what they learnt at IIT they could have done excellent in life.

I am really happy that IITs are now talking of virtual courses. It will make the teaching transparent and bring in equity among the students.

A news report says, ‘Eighth IIT may be without a campus, a virtual one’.

As reported, steps are afoot to offer the technical excellence of the Indian Institutes of India to a larger population of students through a separate virtual IIT initiative rather than limiting it to only some 12,000 selected through the entrance examinations in which some 2.5 lakh participate.

Basically, all the existing IITs will be participating in this initiative.

The IIT faculty has already developed study materials for subjects such as mechanical, electrical, chemical, and computer engineering and these are available on line under its project NPTEL. While some content is expected to be in form of class notes, some lectures by the IIT faculty will be screened in video format.

IIT, Delhi is already working on creating virtual laboratories that can allow students to conduct experiments in a simulated mode. Simultaneously, the institutes can think of using the existing laboratories for the students of virtual IIT during the vacations or in another shifts.

To help clarify doubts and problems, the faculty could also interact with students occasionally.

The standard of courses offered by the virtual IIT will be of a standard comparable with the existing IITs. In order to maintain the high standards that are a hallmark of the IITs, the online IIT will follow strict admission criteria.

According to MS Ananth, Director IIT, Madras, “For this initiative to materialize what will be critical is bandwidth. One way out of the problem, at least initially, tying up with colleges having the required bandwidth for transmitting video programmes.

The best part of the virtual IIT will be that the services of the best teachers out of a big pool can be obtained to prepare the specific course. The course must be accessible to the students of all engineering colleges in India, if necessary at some fee to IITs. Local teachers will only be facilitators to students and devote time to upgrade their knowledge and/or get into research. The virtual institute will solve the problem of the shortage of good teachers to some extent also.
However, a group of experienced teachers and experts from the related industry must keep on updating the courses and making it more relevant and contemporary.

Posted in education | Leave a comment