Indo-US N- deal: National Interest vs. Ideology

Posted on August 22, 2007 by indra

Manmohan Singh government is suddenly in crisis. Leftists have given its warning to stop going any further on nuclear deal with US or face the consequences. The lack of political consensus on nuclear deal with US has already done the damage. Many feel Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi would have been in better position if they had been in constant dialogue with BJP, shaking off their ego, on this issue. How can the other nation take India seriously when its government is facing such a crisis because of the ideology of leftists on whom Sonia depended to run the government and opportunistic maneuvers of the main opposition party that had initiated the breakthrough in Indo-US relations? Even a new government after election, if held, will find it almost impossible to go ahead with the deal unless the electorate brings back Congress and its allies in power in clear majority, which is doubtful. Manmohan and his team certainly did a creditable work to get the deal in place and they deserve credit too. The scientists’ community is for the deal agreed and so are the heads, present and past of Atomic Energy Agency.

The media are agog with the negativity of leftists with many self-explaining headlines: ‘The government appeals to the leftists for not taking any precipating action, but to hear to it on N-deal’. ‘Experts say, left is helping China, and Pakistan’. ‘China is already miffed as India goes ahead with strengthening ties with Japan, Australia, and US’. ‘Experts are against calling off deal as it will isolate India globally’, and if we go by them, ‘the deal is essential to counter China’s might in Asia’. ‘India’s credibility will take big hit if deal is nuked. Interlocutors will have no faith, knowing govt can’t defend pact at home.’ Many columnists have come out with the real story behind the leftists’ insistence to damage the deal. Many claim that the leftists are helping China and Pakistan who would be the happiest if the deal drowns in turbulent political water of India. Let us see what the lead articles of Hindustan Times and Times of India on August 21, 2007, says:

“It is not without significance that the vigorous campaign of the Left parties against the Indo-US agreement and against the growing strategic interactions between India and the US has coincided with the beginning of the Chinese campaign against the so-called ‘quadrilateral strategic interaction’ involving India, Japan, the US and Australia, and the naval exercise with the additional involvement of the Singapore Navy.”- From “The Manchurian candidates” by B.Raman in Hindustan Times

” Sections of the government believe that the Left’s campaign against the Indo-US nuclear deal is inspired by Beijing. China is reportedly unsettled by India’s growing strategic ties with the US and next month’s planned joint naval exercise with the US, Australia, Japan and Singapore in the Bay of Bengal. The Chinese sent a demarche to all participants wanting to know the nature of the exercises. When the Left raised the ante on the Indo-US pact, the Chinese media reported and commented on the events; this was considered a first because the Chinese media hardly ever focuses on India. – Chinese whispers by Rajiv Desai in Times of India

According to all the polls by media, more than 90% of the responses from the people are favouring the deal. How can the politicians or more correctly parliamentarians be so away from the people?
Leftists are anti-America since ages. To many, and me leftists today are nearer to China rather than India. They have been against many national movements in pre-independence era too. The biggest danger today to the nation is from Maoists or Naxals, who work on ideologies evolved from the one of the same leftists. In communists’ states, the Chinese are winning the projects and getting the foothold, even though their quality and efficiency of the equipment are under suspicion.

Let us decide about the first thing first. Between the ideology and national interest, what must come first? Naturally the national interest. But for the leftists, the single reason to oppose nuclear deal is that it will bring India nearer to US. Leftists don’t want that, China does not want that to happen. A close US-India relation will affect China’s bigger game plan to rule the world.

Is there any other alternative today but to go nearer to US through this deal, when all the developed nations including Russia and China are doing that? Will the other nuclear nations be of any significant assistance to India in nuclear programme if US doesn’t sponsor India’s case? Is India strong enough as China is, to stand on its own? Do leftist want India to move nearer to China? Will it be in national interest when we know that China is already surrounding India with its unethical friendship moves and gestures with India’s neighbours? China has all along been supporting and encouraging Pakistan. It is even facilitating the anti-Indian feelings to spread in Myanmar, Bangla Desh and Nepal. It is dumping its goods in the Asian market. It is alluring all the Asian countries by increasing bilateral trades and African countries by aids. It is going after procuring all the energy resources all over the world.

Congress would have understood Leftists before it formed the government with its support. However, as it seems the honeymoon is over. If leftists are equally concerned about the interest of the nation, I and many like me, will not be able to appreciate the leftists move to press for abandoning the nuclear deal that provides an opportunity to remove many years of isolation from the scientific community of the advanced nations. I am sure beside the political aspect of the deal an in-depth study of the legal, scientific and long-term foreign policy aspects require the help from the experts on the subject. Why can’t leftists agree to go by the advices of such a group instead of getting the future of the country decided by a group of people who are essentially politicians who are considered people of below average intelligence by many studies?

As it appear the country is going to have another mid-term poll. The composition of the parliament even after the election will produce only an equally vulnerable government. But will the two national political parties be united in unmasking the real face of leftists who are holding the nation away from becoming a developed nation faster? Leftists as well as regional political parties with local agenda are to go out of the scene or transform significantly. The sooner the people of India realize this, the better it will be for the nation.

Let God save India from leftists, as they don’t believe in God.

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Retail Sector and Inclusive Growth

Posted on August 22, 2007 by indra

It is universally agreed that the agriculture and manufacturing sectors must improve upon its contributions to the country’s GDP. Recently, Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor of Infosys, speaking at a meeting organised jointly by All India Association of Industries and Young Entrepreneurs’ Society, said, ‘India could use low level of technology in the manufacturing sector to provide job opportunities to a large number of illiterate and semi- literate people in the country as in China.’

How can these low-tech manufacturing enterprises be created in large number? One way out can certainly be if the big business enterprises or MNCs go for procuring components for its plants spread over globally. It can happen if Indian manufacturers compete in cost and quality. Maruti Udyog has shown the way and assisted the setting up of many auto components manufacturers that are today globally competitive and are exporting to many countries now. It can happen in many other sectors too.

The big business houses such as ITC, Reliance, Birla, Tata, Bharati, and 20 others getting into retail sector can help low-tech manufacturing in a big way. The outlets will sell fruit and vegetables, staple foods, stationery, clothing, consumer electronics and other general merchandise. There is a big hope of surge in local manufacturing with entry of these big business houses as well as MNCs such as Wal-Mart in retail business. As Raj Jain, Wal-Mart India Chief said at the launch of the joint venture with Bharati, ‘Wal-Mart sources almost 90% products from local sources.’ China opened FDI in its retail sector. Today Wal-Mart sources $18-25 billion worth of their global requirements from China, it does only about $600 million from India. The joint venture of Wal-Mart with Bharati will certainly expand the Wal-Mart sourcing from India for its global outlets, if local entrepreneurs take initiatives to enter the global market with their products better in quality and price.

If all the big houses joining the bandwagon of retail business decide to develop local sources and assist them to develop and upgrade its products in technology, quality, and cost reduction, the country can have a big surge in manufacturing sector. It is very much possible for Indian manufacturers to compete any country if assisted in right way. I recently came across a story about some toy makers in India who are fighting out well with Chinese and with perhaps better quality. Similar success stories can come for many other commodities such as porcelain and crockery, furniture and fittings or other household accessories. If Wal-Mart declares to source 90% from India, why can’t India big business houses do that to a larger extent? Naturally, they will have to keep a brake on easy import of cheap items from China or other countries without exploring and encouraging the local manufacturers. If they follow this route, it will result in hug growth off low-tech manufacturing and a lot of employment generation.

Farmers will be the other beneficiaries. The retail sector promises to buy fruits, and vegetables directly from the farmers. It may even encourage and assist the farmers with some minimal investments for value additions removing all the middlemen. If the organized sector is serious to help farmers, it shall be paying a better price to the farmers for their produces improving their living standard. Main thrust of the organized sector must be to profit from improving the supply chain efficiency such as the transport cost, waste reduction (presently 35-40% of vegetables and fruits get wasted) through high-tech warehouses, air-conditioned transporting vehicles and better packaging, and self-life improvement through technology input. At least some reports such as one from Bharati’s Field Fresh enterprises in Punjab are very encouraging and raise hope for better days for Indian farmers collaborating with these big houses coming in retail. As reported, retail majors are seeking out direct tie-ups with farmers to source food produce for their outlets at better prices and are also willing to offer services like quality seeds and fertilisers to farmers. Many state governments have agreed for changing policies to allow contract farming to help farmers for getting a better price for their produce. The big business houses getting in retails must also try to come in big way in setting up food processing enterprises that can cut down the huge national waste and help farmers and fruit growers.

Organized retail accounts for only 3% today in India. With its growth, the closer relations of the sector with farmers will further grow. If we go by the industry’s estimate reports, by 2010 the organized business in India will grow to $23-$50 billion, as it is growing at a rate of 26-30% annually. And naturally, it may mean a good share for the local manufacturers as well as farmers, unless the people controlling the sector get unscrupulously greedy and forget about their promise of corporate social responsibilities.

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Powering India-4: Alternative energy- Wind

Posted on August 21, 2007 by indra

India is now the world’s fourth-largest generator of wind energy with an installed capacity of 7,093 MW. In October 2005, India surpassed Denmark to rank fourth in installed wind power capacity after Germany, Spain, and US. In 2006, India installed 1,840 MW of additional capacity. It is also way ahead of China, which will add 5,000 MW only by 2010. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy pegs India’s potential for harnessing wind energy at 45,000 MW. It targets an addition of close to 2,000 MW per year for the next four to five years.

Tulsi Tanti has become an icon. Today Tulsi Tanti’s Suzlon Energy is the world’s fourth-largest wind turbine maker. With its overseas acquisitions- Hansen and recently Repower, Pune-based Suzlon is growing at a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 103% with revenues of Rs 2,500 crore. The Rs 1,530 crore Suzlon Energy, the India’s largest has a 52 per cent market share in the country. Suzlon is sitting on an Rs 13,500 crore order – out of which Rs 1,710 crore is from India alone. The company aims to scale up its equipment output capacity from 2,700 MW to 4,200 MW by 2008. The $4.2 billion (Rs 16,800 crore) Danish major Vestas and Enercon from Germany together make up another 30 per cent.

Many other companies are trying to get into the green energy movement to save mother earth.

US’s GE Energy Financial Services is looking to break into the Indian market. The company’s goal is a $3-billion (Rs 12,000-crore) renewable energy portfolio by 2008 in partnership with experienced Indian wind farm developers. Smaller players such as Pioneer Wincon Systems are also scaling up. New entrants such as Southern Wind Farms and Shriram EPC from Chennai are also putting up manufacturing facilities.

Sterling Infotech has acquired Finnish turbine maker WinWind Oy.

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Capital has picked up stake in wind turbine maker NEPC for Rs 96 crore in 2006.

As reported recently, Nalco plans to enter wind power with Suzlon and will set up the windmills on the Panchpatmali Hills near Damanjodi, from where it currently mines bauxite. The location at a high altitude enhances the chances of getting better volume and velocity of wind. Nalco’s alumina refinery currently requires about 60 mw of power daily, which is being met through in-house generation using coal and waste heat. The proposed wind power project can meet the electricity requirement of the refinery in part or full.

CLP Holdings, Hong Kong’s biggest power utility, will build a $125 million wind farm in Gujarat with a capacity of 100.8 mw in association with Enercon (India).

Roaring 40s Renewable Energy Pty, CLP’s joint venture with Hydro Tasmania, already had signed an agreement with Enercon, a wind turbine manufacturer, to build another wind farm project in Khandke (Maharashtra). The 50.4 mw plant costing $80 million is scheduled to start operating in December.

Interestingly, the early movers such as Bajaj Auto, Ajanta Clocks, and Madras Cement are having wind power at a fixed cost of 50 paise per unit and will continue doing that till the life of the windmills. Can anything be cheaper?

Bajaj Auto’s wind power generation system, installed in 2000 with an investment of Rs 300 crore caters to around 90% of the energy needs of the three of its factories and saves around Rs 25 crore in power costs per year.

Many of India’s power-intensive and polluting industries like cement, textiles and oil refineries use windmills to save on power costs and to earn green points by generating carbon credits. Power majors such as National Thermal Power Corporation in Delhi and Tata Power in Mumbai are also setting up mega projects.

Wind Technology incorporating many innovations has advanced significantly and in some locations, wind becomes competitive without subsidies.

Today wind energy is competitive with coal and gas, and is cheaper than nuclear power. With land available in right locations, one can install and begin operations within three to six months.

Comparing to solar energy, wind power costs Rs 4-5 crore per MW to generate whereas the solar energy generation costs about Rs 30 crore per MW.

Windmills currently generate roughly 1 per cent of total global energy consumption.

Wind energy accounts for 20 per cent of the electricity in Denmark, 9 per cent in Spain and 7 per cent in Germany.

Wind Mills if suitably located can also attract a lot of tourists. India is moving on the right track to use the nature wherever t is possible for harnessing energy.

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Booming and Bubbling India- XIV

Posted on August 20, 2007 by indra

Delhi is bubbling. Leftists are trying to get their pound of flesh. Political maneuvers may save the situation. The government may stay in power. One feels bad, but this is the price of democracy. However, when we went for the movie: ‘Chak De India’ or ‘Gandhi-the father’, the two multiplexes and malls were having house full indicating the economy booming. Forbes in the report ‘India at 60’ lists more billionaires in India than in any other Asian nation.

Indian IT troika fit for Buffett’s portfolio: Standard and Poor’s has included three of the biggest names in the Indian IT space in its latest biannual compilation of the stocks that meet the legendary investor’s portfolio. The American Depositary Receipts of these three IT behemoths have been named alongside global giants Microsoft, Oracle, Ericsson, Cisco Systems, Diageo, China Mobile and SAP.

For 8 of 10 people in Valley, ‘conditions have improved’: The first-ever Indo-Pak poll sponsored by The Indian Express, Dawn News and CNN-IBN and designed by CSDS, public opinion offers greater room for peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute than is usually believed.

Rural twist to BPO story: Sai Seva in Andhra village offers solution to cost and attrition worries of firms such as Royal Sundaram, HDFC. The venture was built around the notion that “around 80 lakh educated rural youths are still unemployed and Gartner (a research outfit) said that India could lose 70% of the BPO opportunities to more cost-effective countries by 2010.”

Indians predated Newton ‘discovery’ by 250 years: A little-known school of scholars in South India discovered one of the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before Sir Isaac Newton, to whom the finding is currently attributed.

Infosys, TCS top corporate reputation index: IT majors Infosys Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have emerged as the most reputed corporate houses in India while Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Hindustan Unilever were tied at the second place, according to the latest Corporate Reputation Index released by global consultancy firm TNS. Maruti Udyog, the largest carmaker in the country, got the third highest number of votes on the index.

IT giants increase overseas hiring: The non-Indian workforce comprised 9.6 per cent of the IT majors’ total workforce in 2006-07, and the number is set to rise. Wipro Technologies hired over 200 college/ business school graduates from the US and Europe in 2006-07. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as its long-term strategy is looking at having 15-20 per cent of their workforce from foreign countries. Infosys already has 3 per cent of its workforce made up of foreign nationals, and has seen their numbers grow 28 per cent from fiscal ’05-’06 to ’06-’07.

N-deal opens up investment possibilities worth $40 bn: The Indo-US civil nuclear deal has opened up the possibility of investments worth $40 billion over the next 15 years to step up nuclear power generation, with leading firms like White Westinghouse, General Electric, Rosatom and Siemens unveiling plans to do business with the country.

L&T for megapower: L&T has entered into a joint venture with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd to set up an Rs750 crore manufacturing facility for super-critical boilers, which will have an annual production capacity of 3,000-4,000MW. L&T is also close to inking a deal with Japan’s leading power-generation equipment manufacturer, Toshiba Corp., to set up a facility for manufacturing super-critical technology turbines in India. The deal may entail an investment of $80 million by the engineering major.

Tata Motors at Pantnagar: Tata Motors Ltd, India’s largest truck maker had received the go-ahead from the Uttarakhand government to start commercial production at its Pantnagar factory. The Pantnagar factory has the capacity to produce 225,000 units a year, and will make both the Ace cargo carrier and its passenger vehicle version, Magic.

Allocation for higher, tech education to treble: The Budget allocation for higher and technical education in the country is set to treble in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-2012) with the Planning Commission expected to allocate over Rs 26,000 crore, compared to Rs 8,876 crore in the 10th Five-Year Plan. The commission is targeting a gross enrolment ratio (GER) of 15 per cent by 2015 as against that of 10% in the 10th Five-Year Plan, thus enrolling an additional 8-9 million students in higher education by 2015. The GER in most developed economies is between 40 per cent and 50 per cent. Look at the potential.

Volvo for Engine manufacturing in India: India is one of the locations that Volvo is considering for setting up an engine and transmission plant for the Asian market.

Indian outsourcing heads abroad: Indian information technology and outsourcing firms, which have a reputation for cheap operations, are diverting new orders to places like the Philippines, East Europe and Latin America that offer better pricing and skill sets.

Govt plans four national pharma institutes: The government has decided to set up four national institutes of pharmaceutical education and research (NIPER) to offer masters and doctoral degrees in specialized areas connected with cutting-edge technologies to serve a booming healthcare industry that is facing a severe shortage of human resources at Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Hajipur (Bihar) and Kolkata that would produce about 1000 post-graduate and doctoral graduates every year.

100% jump in domestic investments: A Reserve Bank of India report has estimated that banks and financial institutions sanctioned 1,054 projects worth Rs 2.83 lakh crore ($70 billion) in 2006-07, more than double the Rs 1.31 lakh crore or $34 billion sanctioned for 812 projects in the previous year. Add the $15 billion that India received as foreign direct investment (FDI) last year; and another $6.6 billion that came in as net foreign institutional investment (FII) during 2006-07. The Rs 2.83 lakh crore would be invested in creating or expanding production facilities till 2011-12. Two-thirds of the investment will go for setting up new capacity, while 27.5% will go into expansion and modernisation of existing facilities.

Auto industry zooms to become small-car hub: In the last five years, annual growth in the passenger vehicle segment has been by 15 per cent, commercial vehicles 26 per cent, two wheelers 13 per cent and three wheelers 15 per cent. The industry expected to attract investment worth $35-40 billion by 2016.

Reliance Retail to create half a million jobs: Reliance Retail Ltd (RRL) would create half-a-million jobs and provide indirect employment to another one million over the next three years.

IBM launches Hindi speech recognition technology: A speech recognition technology for Hindi has been developed by software major IBM which would help less literate and physically challenged persons among the speakers of the language, access information through a variety of applications.

HAL-Canada’s CAE to set up pilot school in B’lore: Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has forged a joint venture with Canada’s CAE to set up a $55 million pilot training school in Bangalore and drawn up plans to establish a facility to manufacture multi-role combat jets.

Wi-Fi system at 50 railway stations: RailTel, a subsidiary of the railways is planning to instal Wi-Fi systems at 50 stations as a pilot scheme; and passengers at these stations can access broadband internet facility using laptops and other Wi-Fi enabled devices.

30,000 MW to be added using imported N-fuel: The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) plans to add 30,000 MW of power based on imported nuclear fuel in the near future.

Reva gears up for global electric-car market: Some 2,000 of these zero-polluting city commuters have been put on the roads in India and Europe, including 600 in London, in the six years since Reva Electric Car Co. turned commercial.

Global hotels to mushroom in India: A dozen global chains – including the Hilton, Accor, Marriott International, Berggruen Hotels, Cabana Hotels, Premier Travel Inn (PTI) and InterContinental Hotels group – has announced plans to set up over 350 five-star, four-star and budget hotels and 50 villas that would roughly translate into 65,000 additional hotel rooms. Foreign tourist arrivals rose to 4.43 million last year from 3.92 million in 2005.

VIP to make hard luggage for Delsey: VIP Industries has signed an agreement with the world’s second largest luggage company Delsey making the Indian company the sole manufacturer for the French major’s global hard luggage range.

Delhi-Mumbai corridor involving $90 bn: The government today approved the first phase of the ambitious Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project, which envisages a total investment of over $90 billion during the next decade, with assistance from Japan.

Transport sector is shifting to the fast lane: At over 33 lakh km, India has the second largest road network in the world. Its 63,000 km long railway network is the most extensive in Asia, the second largest under a single management in the world. Aircraft manufacturers say it has a potential to add 1,100 more jets worth over $105 billion over the next 20 years.

Move for 8 more IITs, 7 IIMs: Planning Commission has proposed a seven-year special plan (2007-14) which includes setting up eight new IITs, seven new IIMs, 20 NITs, 20 IIITs and 50 centres for training and research in frontier areas. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised on August 15 that 1,600 new industrial training institutes, 10,000 vocational schools and 50,000 skill development centres would be set up under the mission to supply trained workforce.

99 TV channels, 175 FM stations more in 2007: Ninty-nine new television channels and 175 FM radio stations are expected to be launched this year. Ninety-three private satellite television channels have been permitted to uplink from India so far.

TCS close to bagging $1.5b outsourcing contract: India’s leading IT services provider, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is closer to getting an approximately $1.5 billion (around Rs 6,000 crore) outsourcing contract with the UK-based Prudential Insurance.

Undersea restaurant: The Hyderabad-based Oceanpark Group, which is into real estate and entertainment business, plans to set up an undersea restaurant near Visakhapatnam.

Timken to expand: Timken India plans to expand its operations in the country by increasing its capacities at its plant in Jamshedpur, creating new capacity at a greenfield facility in the Chennai special economic zone (SEZ). The company’s $27 million investment in the Chennai plant will mainly support the demand for high-end bearings from Timken’s global clients.

Dabbawalas eye consultancy biz: The Mumbai-based dabbawalas (literally “box-men”), best known for a high six sigma performance rating by management guru C K Prahalad, now are all set to offer consultancy services on logistics management as a separate revenue stream.

FDI inflows to treble to $11.4 bn: Foreign Direct Investment inflows into India more than trebled to $11.4 billion in the first six months of 2007 as companies such as UK’s Vodafone poured funds to tap the world’s second-fastest growing economy.

Indian toys to breathe fire at Chinese dragon: At the peak of the dragon onslaught – 1999-2003 – India was importing almost 1.2 million (12 lakh) of these from China every week. Today, it’s down to zero; they are all made in India now. Whre there is a will,there is a way. It is happening when the Chineses toys are in news for bad reasons.

And the boom story goes on.

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Enchantment Of Riches

Posted on August 19, 2007 by indra

William Dalrymple the author of ‘The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857’ has just been awarded the Duff Cooper Prize for History. Dalrymple has contributed an enthralling article in India Today’s Independence Day Special with the main theme “What Unites India”. Dalryple talks of the perception of India’s wealth in the good old days. Why do our so-called leftist historians hesitate to write about it? Why can’t we as Indians take pride in that prosperous past of the country?

The idea of India as a place of fabulous wealth was already a cliché by the time of Megasthenes. In Roman times, there was a dramatic drain of Western gold to India. This is something that Strabo comments on with great anxiety in his writings-and an image graphically confirmed by the recent finding of several huge Roman coin hoards around Madurai in Tamil Nadu, and the discovery of a large Roman coastal trading post near Pondicherry. At the peak of the trade, during the reign of Nero, the south Indian Pandyan kings even sent an Embassy to Rome to discuss the latter’s balance of payments problems.

The great Pallava kings who made Kanchipuram their capital, and whose fabulous and witty sculptures still delight so many at their great port of Mamallapuram, were one of a number of South Indian dynasties which became rich and powerful from their control of the spice and silk trade and the wider maritime world this opened up. From their great port, the Pallavas sent naval expeditions to Sri Lanka, Thailand and to South-East Asia, where inscriptions survive as witness to the scale of this first great Indian diaspora. An eighth century Tamil poem speaks of the port where “ships rode at anchor, bent to the point of breaking, laden as they were with wealth, with big-trunked elephants, and with mountains of gems of nine varieties.”

The Cholas who succeeded the Pallavas continued this tradition: Rajarajan I conquered Sri Lanka, and on making Tanjore his capital, erected what was then the most magnificent temple in the peninsula to commemorate his glory. On its completion in 1010, he donated to the new structure no less than 500 tonne of gold, jewels and silver looted from Sri Lanka.

It was rumours of India’s extraordinary wealth that drew the merchant adventurers of the East India Company to India 600 years later. They came to India not as part of some Tudor aid project, or on behalf of some charitable Elizabethan NGO, but instead as part of a desperate effort to cash in on the vast riches of the fabled Mughal Empire, then one of the two wealthiest polities in the world.
The Mughal Empire was far larger, more powerful and infinitely richer than its two would-be competitors to the West-the Ottomans and the Saffavids of Isfahan. Only the Ming Emperors in Peking could begin to compete with them. At their peak, the Mughals ruled over some 100 million subjects-five times the number ruled by the Ottomans. What the Poles and East Europeans are to modern Britain-economic migrants in search of better lives-the Jacobeans were to Mughal India.

By the 17th century, Agra was a vast megalopolis, while Lahore had grown larger even than Constantinople, and with its two million inhabitants, dwarfed both London and Paris. From the ramparts of the Fort, the Great Mughal ruled over most of India, all of Pakistan and great chunks of Afghanistan. His army was all but invincible; his palaces unparalleled; the domes of his many mosques quite literally glittered with gold. “The city is second to none either in Asia or in Europe,” thought the Portuguese Jesuit, Fr Antonio Monserrate, “with regards either to size, population, or wealth. It is crowded with merchants, who foregather there from all over Asia.”

History inspires a nation. And if it happens to be one of the best in the world inspires the younger generation to get to the top in contemporary global competition. Those with expertise in this subject must write and inspire this generation to get rid of the inferiority complex that goes deep in our day-to-day behaviour. Let our historians not remain shy to tell the younger generation about the inspiring past. It is their national responsibly. The country looks to them for getting the stories told in correct perspective instead of quarreling over petty things. If Dalrymple can do that, why not so many of them in reputed institutes of India?

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A Condolence for an Ordinarily Great Person

Posted on August 18, 2007 by indra

I wrote about Dasarath Manjhi of Bihar who became an icon in Bihar. A group of young men from Bihar published a book ‘Bihar ka Gaurav’ that has a large number of the great sons of Bihar. The book started with an essay on Dasarath Manjhi.

Dashrath Manjhi suffering septicemia or blood poisoning died at 4.30pm on Friday at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. As reported in TOI, Dasarth had said, “When I became chief minister of Bihar for one day on July 24, 2006, Nitish Kumar asked me what my wishes were. I asked for my road to be made pukka. I also wished a hospital to be built beside this road, along the Gehlor Ghat, for my people. Both are almost ready. I will inaugurate it as soon as I am out of hospital.” Unfortunately Manjhi couldn’t inaugurate that himself.

Manjhi single-handedly carved out a 360-feet-long, 25-feet high and 30-feet-wide road by cutting a mountain for 22 years. But Majhi was these days battling his incurable cancer. Manjhi, the more popularly known as ‘sadhu baba’ was by no means a super hero. As the story goes “In 1967, his wife Phaguni Devi was crossing the mountain carrying his lunch, when she slipped and hurt herself. Agonised, Majhi decided overnight to create a metal road through the hill. Armed with a hammer and chisel, he didn’t stop for 22 years. Today the road is used by 1,000 people everyday, as it has reduced the distance between Atri and Vazirganj from 50 km to 8 km.”

I wish Nitish Kumar got built a model school in his name in his village, and the pass created by him is named Dasarath Manjhi.

Let me express my sincerest condolence for this ordinary person. I wish the young men of the state emulated his single-mindedness for a cause.

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Indian scholars predated Newton find by 250 yrs

Posted on August 17, 2007 by indra

Here is a story that appeared in many newspapers. I thought it would have created some stir in media busy with the story of ghosts and miracles.

The research carried out by Dr George Gheverghese Joseph, Honourary Reader, School of Education at The University of Manchester and Dennis Almeida, Teaching Fellow at the School of Education, The University of Exeter has revealed that the ‘Kerala School’ identified the ‘infinite series’ – one of the basic components of calculus – in about 1350. Scholars in south India discovered one of the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz (the end of the 17th centuries), to whom the finding is currently attributed. The researchers further reveal that the Kerala School also discovered what amounted to the Pi series and used it to calculate Pi correct to 9, 10 and later 17 decimal places. And there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Indians passed on their discoveries to mathematically knowledgeable Jesuit missionaries who visited India during the 15th century. That knowledge, the researchers argue, may have eventually been passed on to Newton himself. “The beginnings of modern maths is usually seen as a European achievement but the discoveries in medieval India between the 14th and 16th centuries have been ignored or forgotten,” Joseph said. Joseph made the revelations while trawling through obscure Indian papers for a yet to be published third edition of his best selling book The Crest of the Peacock: the Non-European Roots of Mathematics.’

I only wonder why this sort of researches doesn’t come from a university in UK and not from India. Even after the news appeared in media, why have some of the reputed historians of the country not reacted about it? Is it because of the inferiority complex, complacency or lack of dedicated application among our researchers?
PS:
‘Times of India’ has reported this development:
The recent claim by two UK-based researchers that south Indian scholars predated Sir Isaac Newton by hundreds of years in discovering the ‘infinite series’ has run into controversy with another mathematician alleging that the study findings were not new and originally done by him.

C K Raju, Editorial Fellow at the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture, claims he first started the research on transmission of calculus from India to Europe under the National Science Academy in 1998. Almeida later collaborated with Raju. Almeida and Joseph gained access to Raju’s unpublished work in course of the proposed collaboration.

Raju recently published book ‘Cultural Foundations of Mathematics: The Nature of Mathematical Proof and the Transmission of Calculus from India to Europe in the 16th Century’ deals exclusively with the development of calculus in India and its transmission to Europe.

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China vs. India- an independent assessment

Posted on August 17, 2007 by indra

Unfortunately most of the writings on the China present one-sided picture of China growth story while comparing it with India. Some writers appear to be totally mesmerized by the infrastructure growth of China. Some again keep on talking about the darker aspects of human rights, environmental damages, and excesses of the lone ruling party and it cadres.

Paul Danahar has contributed an article in Outlook’s Independence day Issue,‘Snake In Monkey’s Shadow’ that has some very logical analysis of the differences between the working of China and India.

China hates being spoken of in the same breath as India. It sees itself not as an emerging Great Power but as a re-emerging Great Power.

There is much more of a sense of entitlement to Great Power status from Chinese officials when you meet them privately than there is from their Indian counterparts, who still can’t quite believe the world is finally taking them seriously.

In reality, the Chinese don’t consider India an equal now and can’t comprehend the idea of it being one in the future. At best, they see New Delhi as an emerging political power that needs to be contained in South Asia rather than a potential global partner in a new Asian century.

India built its economic boom top down with technology-based industries that did not require a decent road or ports system.Indian entrepreneurs find a way out for succeeding inspite of the government. China worked from the bottom up, building on cheap labour and low margins to bulk-sell to the world.

China will probably soon overtake the US as India’s primary trading nation. That’s going to mean more cheap goods flooding Indian markets, undermining already inefficient industries. China has already begun investing heavily to create a hi-tech industrial base in a bid to offset losses in its own manufacturing sector, which is being nibbled at by Southeast Asian neighbours like Vietnam. Many expects India may start losing jobs to China even in IT and ITeS sectors. Left to politicians they will start making protectionist noises just like those coming from American Congressmen now. That will make diplomacy with China even harder.

Beijing’s gleaming skyscrapers, busy roads and can-do attitude are in stark contrast to the embarrassment that is the Indian capital. Beijing works in a way that Delhi simply doesn’t. There are no power cuts or water shortages. The roads are not broken, Beijing doesn’t grind to a halt when it rains! It does reflect the incompetence and corruption that rots away at the heart of India’s political establishment. China has, in many ways, got where it is today because of its government. India, with a few notable exceptions, is on the threshold of greatness despite its politicians.

China is going to win the sprint. India may win the marathon but it’ll probably require China to stumble. Economic bubbles burst, and when they do, things get messy. India would cope with that better. It has safety valves-like the ballot box, a free media and the right to get together with a bunch of like-minded people and march down the street hurling abuse at the government-which are enormously stabilising. China simply doesn’t. India also supports its entrepreneurs with things like the protection of property rights, something China is still only edging towards. China’s desperation to keep its economy going at breakneck speed is based on the need to create millions of new jobs every year.

The country’s physical infrastructure is breathtaking, but the foundations for a new social infrastructure have hardly been touched. Communism has been replaced by unbridled capitalism-making money at any cost, even if that means producing deadly baby food, poisonous toothpaste or toxic toys. ‘Made in China’ on the side of the box has recently begun to give people around the world pause for thought. China’s answer to too many problems is to quickly execute a few people and hope that’s enough. It isn’t.

So what makes India chaotic, unpredictable and frustrating may also be its saving grace.

Should Indians be content or compete? One thing is but sure. Indians must be more innovative to find the right solutions of their basic problems- power, water, education, inefficiency, indiscipline, and corruption. And sooner they come out with it, the better it will be for the nation.

Two recent news reports from China will be eye-opener: First, the CEO of the toy making company of China killed himself, as in the US toys manufactured by the company were considered health-hazards and were called back in millions. Second, Chinese are learning cricket in thousands and hope to be cricketing nation in a year or two. Perhaps these are the Chinese way of facing the challenge.

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Educational Explosions

Posted on August 16, 2007 by indra

As I remember, I never missed the Independence Day speech of India’s Prime Minister, whenever I was in India. Nowadays, there is one more advantage. One can store the total speech available from the Prime Minister’s website. So I decided to drop my morning walk yesterday. As it appears after seeing the crowd at Red Fort on TV, the whole India perhaps gets up very early on this day. And that is a unique feature that can integrate the nation.

While listening to the Prime Minster, sometimes my attention got on to the prounciation of the Hindi words from Manmohan Singh that was very typical to the region he comes from. And I kept on thinking if technology might solve the problem one day. However for a person who could bear with Devgowda’s Hindi, Manmohan Singh was really good. I don’t think Pandit Jawaharlal or even Indira Gandhi reading the speech. For some years, I find that being read by the Prime Minister. Perhaps, the Prime Minister must try to make it extempore as the president of US does. The speech overall was a traditional one with lot of promises, but when it came to the projects on expanding the education, it appeared there is going to be explosive growth. The salient features were as follows:

Our Government has decided to invest in setting up good quality schools across the country. We will support 6,000 new high quality schools — one in every block of the country. Each such school will set standards of excellence for other schools in the area.

We will also ensure that adequate numbers of colleges are set up across the country, especially in districts where enrolment levels are low. We will help States set up colleges in 370 such districts.

We will set up thirty new Central Universities. Every state that does not have a central university will now have one.

In order to promote science and professional education, we are setting up five new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, eight new Indian Institutes of Technology, seven new Indian Institutes of Management, and twenty new Indian Institutes of Information Technology. At least a fifth of our children go to college as compared to one-tenth now.

We will soon launch a Mission on Vocational Education and Skill Development, through which we will open 1600 new industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics, 10,000 new vocational schools and 50,000 new Skill Development Centres.

We will ensure that annually, over 100 lakh students get vocational training – which is a four-fold increase from today’s level.

Can there be anything better for the country? It is only the education and good education with built in feature to transform young men into employable persons that can make the country prosperous and competitive.

However, I wish the PM had given the time frame too for each. I remember our Finance minister talking of upgradations of existing Industrial Training Institutes since 2004 budget and CII agreeing to collaborate in doing that. I am sure with a will to do that, it would have happened by now. I don’t think that has happened. Our government remains very slow in implementing the plans.

I wish, it didn’t repeat its performance record for the educational projects.

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India at 60

Posted on August 15, 2007 by indra

Media both print as well as small screen have been presenting some real good materials on occasion of India getting 60 (old or young?) on August 15, 2007. With so many channels vying with each other, it is impossible for anyone to track down all good programmes.

So far print media is concerned, I have come across at least four magazines with special issues on the occasion that has kept me engaged for last few days. I shall like to share some in a little detail.

Outlook’s I-day special- ‘India at 60’ is majestic. It has many features, but the former president, APJ Abdul Kalam’s article ‘Three homilies and a lesson’ and Munir Kadri’s eyewitness feature, ‘There were a million revelers that night’ just thrilled me. Other important contributors are Edward Luce, Pankaj Mishra, Ian Jack, and the oldman Khuswant Singh

‘India Today’ theme, What Unites India, for the special Independence Day issue is worth pondering and exciting for every citizen of this most populous democracy of the world. What is that makes India a model to be emulated? Patrick French, the author of Liberty or Death; India’s journey to Independence and Division; Mark Tully, former BBC bureau chief; Manil Suri, a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimre County; Dipankar Gupta, professor at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, JNU; Fali S. Nariman, Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India; and a galaxy of prominent personalities have tried to come to some inferences based on history, tolerance, democracy, constitution, nationalism, culture, and even cricket and cinema. And ultimately, I conclude that it is just divine will that India has remained united.

Outlook Business’s special issue has carried out a stocktaking of the last 60 years with business leaders, and their vision for the next 10 years in India Inc (1947-2017).

Business World’s ‘State Of The Nation’ has covered different sectors of booming economy. I loved a portion from A Place In The Sun that is as follows:
“Today, this country stands a stronger, richer, fairer, healthier, more accomplished nation. For the first time in centuries, if not ever, Indians believe they can really change their lives for the better. Domestic companies that were minnows are now global giants. Executives who once struggled with whether they would be able to afford an apartment after retirement now make enough money every year to house a village. Domestic helpers who once struggled to wear hand-me-downs with dignity now prefer to buy clothes off the shelf. And illiterate farmers who toiled in barren fields by moonlight now live off remittances their children send them from Stockholm, San Francisco and Sharjah.”

Hindustan Times has number of informative compilations for the younger readers:

  Sixty successful men and women of India
  Sixty Indians who keep us culturally sound, grounded and proud.

Some good reading materials that appeared on I-day
  India at 60 is a country of the young people
  Just the write stuff: a list of India’s 60 best since Independence
  Cruising to the future on Highway 60
  Get Set For The Big League
  India at 60: A swot analysis by Mint

I keep on waiting for this day to get the opportunity to get a hand on these reading materials and collect it for my library. I don’t know how long that goes on.Many a times,I ponder if Independence Day could be celebrated with Bharat Mata as the main deity as Indians do with Ganesh Puja and Durga Puja. But Bharat Mata can’t be immersed after the festivity. I discard the dream.

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