India’s Auto Industry- A Showpiece in Manufacturing Sector

Posted on March 27, 2007 by indra

In February, France’s Renault and its Japanese affiliate, Nissan, announced plans to team up with Mahindra & Mahindra to build the passenger car manufacturing plant. The Rs. 4,000 crore ($902 million) facility in Chennai will turn out 400,000 cars a year from mid-2009 on. If industry rumors are to be believed, eventually the number could double to 800,000.
Indian auto industry now produces about 1.1 million cars each year.

India’s auto industry has plans to invest some Rs. 35,000 crore ($8 billion) over the next 3-4 years in building manufacturing capacity in India for another two million cars each year, with half a million earmarked for exports.

About two-thirds of the planned investments of the industry — about Rs. 24,000 crore ($5.4 billion) — will come from Tata Motors, Maruti and Hyundai and other companies.

The Tatas are expected to invest Rs 10,000 crore ($2.2 billion), revised to Rs 15,000 now and this includes outlays for a new, low-cost car, a joint venture with Fiat and capacity for commercial vehicles.

Maruti plans to invest Rs. 4,000 crore ($900 million) in its plant in Manesar near New Delhi, after which its capacity will increase from 600,000 cars to 900,000 cars.
Hyundai is doubling its Indian capacity to 600,000 cars at a cost of Rs. 5,000 crore ($1.12 billion).

Honda Motors will spend Rs. 1,800 crore ($400 million) to triple capacity to 150,000 units by 2010 with a new manufacturing plant in Rajasthan.

General Motors is investing about Rs. 1,300 crore ($280 million) in its second Indian plant in Pune, near Mumbai, where its capacity could more than double to 140,000 cars in a year. Industry watchers expect it to produce its economy car, Chevrolet Spark, at the facility.

Nine of the world’s top 10 automobile companies are manufacturing today in India. Some other global automakers have also lined up impressive investment plans for India in recent times. Volkswagen is setting up a manufacturing facility at Chakan near Pune. Daimler Chrysler has also acquired 100 acres nearby at Chakan to set up a assembly line by end of 2008. BMW Group is set to roll out its first cars from the Indian plant set up in the Mahindra City near Chennai early 2007.

India’s capacity by 2010 could triple to 3.1 million cars a year, making it the same size as China’s market today. (In the U.S., automakers sold 7.6 million cars in 2005, according to data updated in January by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Services.)

India’s auto sector has certain obvious advantages: low manufacturing costs compared to developed countries, a robust and growing vendor base for components, large skilled manpower including that for R&D, and fairly big domestic market of 250-million-strong middle class. India potentially could emerge as a global hub, at least for small cars.

Many opine, India is an attractive base from which to export cars to third country markets. Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Renault and Nissan, has been quoted as saying that sourcing cars from India for the world markets is 35% cheaper than Europe. However, many think, China could still be cheaper by about 12% to 15% today. So China remains the first choice for global investors. It’s a little early to tell if global auto majors will switch to India as their first choice to manufacture small cars for export markets.

However, some think the point in the rise of per capita income of Indian middle class when fast ‘motorization’ happens is coming nearer. Vehicle financing in India is also helping, as it accounts for 85% to 90% of all cars bought (typically up to 80% of the car’s value is financed). By contrast, the penetration of vehicle financing in China is considerably lower, even as it boasts nearly three times India’s passenger car volumes. (In the U.S., about 56% of consumers and 41% of businesses financed their vehicle purchases in 2005.)

But the people eagerly waiting the arrival of Tata Motors’ car priced at Rs. 100,000 ($2,200) in 2008 that may change the rules of the game. It’s targeting at least one-fifth of seven million two-wheeler buyers who may want to graduate. This will mean 1.4 million cars, more than the current size of the domestic car market. Tata Motors has already a history of similar success. It profitably sells its Ace, a light commercial vehicle, for Rs. 130,000 ($2,920), and it is 80% outsourced. Tata Motors will be a company to watch. Some still believes, ” Tata Motors would be a frontrunner here.” And one can imagine the things to happen, if this can make cash rich and highly young CEOs of Bajaj Auto to take the challenge.

Bravo! Let auto sector lead the manufacturing. If the industry leaders integrate R&D capability and strength of IT sector with innovative designs and after sales services that provide delight to the customers, the Indian auto industry is on the right track with global ambitions.

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Cars to drool over
Speed Bumps For Automakers In China, India
The incredible story of Tata Motors and the Rs 1-lakh car

Posted in industry, management, manufacturing | Leave a comment

Commercial Jet vs. Bullock Cart

Posted on March 24, 2007 by indra

As reported in media, China wants to build its own commercial jet by 2020. Ambitious? Sure. Realistic? Maybe. No one disputes China’s ability to produce a credible airliner. The country has been a parts supplier to Western aircraft makers for decades and is building its own 70-80 seat regional jet, the ARJ-21.

However, the Western media is skeptical about its success, and it has its logic. Boeing, Airbus, and General Electric have developed advancedaerospace technologies such as new, lighter materials that have helped to make air travel faster, safer, and cheaper. If the Chinese intend to use lower labor costs to undercut Boeing and Airbus on price, airline CEOs will probably just yawn.

The recentsuccess of Boeing’s carbon fiber 787 Dreamliner will carry 250 passengers in a composite fuselage that, along with new advanced engines, will improve fuel efficiency by 20% over similar-sized rivals, and cut maintenance costs by more than 30%. Over the life of a wide body aircraft flying the longest routes, fuel will cost more than four times the sticker price of the airplane, according to brokerage Merrill Lynch.

China wants to make its own planes. And there’s certainly a domestic market for them. Chinese airlines are expected to buy 2,650 new passenger aircraft over the next 20 years, worth $289 billion, according to commercial-airplane experts. Still, the risks are enormous. Even veteran manufacturers have stumbled badly at times, with Airbus’ troubles in building its A380 super jumbo just the latest example of how unforgiving the industry can be.

Sure, China can make toys, steel, ships, and even cars. And it’s getting better at all of them. Airplanes, though, may be a stretch, even for a nation as ambitious as China.

Indias Bullock Cart

India set up its Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. with much fanfare to produce its own planes both for civic aviation as well as for air force of the country. Its investment is huge with lot of manufacturing and R&D facilities in different location. Unfortunately, HAL has hardly any product that makes India globally recognized as aircraft manufacturer.

However, my interest was with some ambitions manifested in an Indian PSUs innovation. News appeared in The Times of India on Thursday March 22,2007- Govt to give steel bullock carts to villagers. That runs further. In a bid to promote consumption of steel in the countrys rural areas, the steel ministry has decided to distribute bullock carts made of steel to villagers, particularly among the weaker sections. As a pilot project, 70-odd steel bullock carts made by the Vishakhapatnam-based Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) are ready for distribution among villagers in the vicinity of RINL.

Further, improving upon the great work done by the ministry, the report continues. A steel ministry official said that these bullock carts were sturdier and longer lasting than those made of bamboo and othertypes of wood. If the experiment succeeds and the product becomes popular and is found to be cost-effective, then the government could even go in for large-scale production of such steel bullock carts through a public sector undertaking. I dont know how the steel bullock cart compares with the weight of traditional ones and who shall use them. With whatever I have seen, both the bullocks and carts are disappearing from the rural India with tractors replacing them.

What should one think about the fertility and innovativeness of the minds of both the politicians and bureaucrats leading the nation? How should these great political ideas be ranked?

I dont mean that good application based researches are totally absent. In the area of steel making itself, BESU (Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, Kolkata of our days) has come out with sturdier yet lighter steel that can have a commercialpotential in automotive and other sectors. Even the students of some of the engineering colleges have developed good automotive products. But the politicians even in the 21st century cant think anything beyond the bullock carts and rickshaw.

Posted in governance, manufacturing | Leave a comment

Three Women, Three Ways of Livelihoods

Posted on March 24, 2007 by indra

Today I shall like to tell the stories in brief of three individuals: Lal Muni, Kiran, and Sarvatia. The common link between them is that all the three are from near around Patna. You are to draw your own conclusions from them.

Bihar may be the poorest state till date, but its people are wonderfully talented since ages. Some of the stories of individual successes perplex one raising obvious question, ‘why is then the state so poorly placed on the development index?’

Lal Muni Devi: Lal Muni Devi the poor, uneducated woman from Azad Nagar village in Patna district used her dank, thatched house to grow mushrooms. A photograph of Lal Muni and the story of her achievement have been put on the website of CIMMYT, a well-known Mexican institute engaged in research for improvement of maize and wheat crop. Lal Muni Devi finds mention as an inspirational farmer among 25 from seven Asian countries. Till four years back, Lal Muni used to work for other farmers as a daily labourer. It so happened that the instructors from Indian Institute for Agricultural Research (ICAR) brought together 25 women from the village and taught them how to grow mushrooms. Lal Muni took the initiative with zeal. She did not need any land to grow mushrooms, a plant she had never even heard of till the ICRA training. Fortunately, market was easily available for the produce in nearby Patna city. Today, Lal Muni is entrepreneur and pretty well off. Others can emulate her.

Kiran Devi: Kiran is another woman with the manly guts. She came from a poor background. Kiran started with a teashop, but today Kiran is in business of junk selling in Patna. As usual, the profession requires guts to deal with the people with whom she is to deal. The business flourished and now Kiran also owns a number of rickshaws too and get them plied on rental. This business also requires tough handling, but Kiran has plenty of that. Kiran has now found a place in the new Class IV maths textbook from National Council of Educational Research and training (NCERT) that is all about maths and real life.

But let this feature end with the anticlimax- the story of Sarvatia Devi.

Sarvatia Devi: Sarvatia Devi, in her early 40s, has been a beggar ever since she became a widow about 25 years ago. But she is no small-time beggar. Sarvatia is neither destitute nor homeless. As Sarvatia confesses, “On Tuesdays and Saturdays when people throng the Kalibari, I earn between Rs 300 and Rs 400. Other beggars of the locality do not generally encroach on my territory.” On other weekdays, however, Sarvatia sells vegetables both in the morning and evening. Sarvatia boasts of having a ”comfortable home” behind Ashok Cinema besides a well-settled married daughter.
According to her insurance agent, Sarvatia has purchased two short-term policies worth Rs 3 lakh and Rs 1 lakh for which she pays an annual premium of Rs 31,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively. She also has a bank account with a hefty amount to boot. Interestingly, she has traveled across the country and even been on pilgrimage to many holy places – all while begging. According to her, she does it free, ”It’s fun traveling on trains free of cost. I board any train and beg till I reach my destination.”

I don’t know how we rate Sarvatia’s accomplishments in life. She might have gone for a profession that may not be a respected one, but many go that route, as they all can’t be Lal Muni or Kiran.

Alas! There are more of Sarvatias. Can’t we all help to create an ambience that produces more of Lal Munis and Kirans?

Posted in economy | Leave a comment

China Invades India’s Manufacturing Sectors

Posted on March 23, 2007 by indra

Last Sunday, I had to go to buy fruits and vegetables from the weekly bazaar that comes up near our house in Noida on the road, as Yamuna was sick. I was stunned to find apples from China along with those from Australia and the local sources, all selling at Rs 100 a kg. Let me confess, the Chinese ones looked more attractive because of their uniform pinkish colour and size. I kept on enquiring from the vendor and all others who also had them, ‘are they sure that these are from China?’ Let me confess, I bought only two of ‘Australian ones for Rs 40, as I never even imagined that the apples will be that costly and there will be so many buyers even in this weekly bazaar.

While I was talking with the fruit vendors, an elderly bearded man selling locks and knifes on his bicycle mounted mobile shop that doubles as repair shop too, came from behind and confirmed that he also now sells all Chinese products.

I read and wrote earlier about the Chinese kirpans used by Sikhs that are now all Chinese-make. The Chinese have captured the export market of kirpans too that was earlier held by Punjabi manufacturers. It made me blog on the subject. I had earlier written about the other items such as lamps and decorative pieces including Ganesh and Lakshmi statues that appeared in market during Diwali. I also read about the Chinese Banarasi and Kanchivaram silk sarees that are so much sought after by the Indian brides in North and South India for marriage displacing the original ones woven by the local weavers. All these items from China are certainly hurting the poor craftsmen and workers, and now fruit growers in Kashmir, Himachal, and Uttarakhand.

It serves the unscrupulous traders well who get these popularly demanded items from torchlight’s to table tennis racquets or badminton gears or crockery and regularly required electrical items such as transformers, capacitors, inductors, ICs or fluorescent lamps from the Chinese sources, as it gives them better margin. Chinese imports have wiped out almost 80% of the ‘gift segment of the domestic ceramic industry and forced the 60 out of the 70 units around Delhi to close down.

Are these the benefits of globalisation that all reputed economists such as Jagdish Bhagwati of Columbia University and prospective candidate of Nobel Prize talk of so loudly? How do these small manufacturers and poor craftsmen fight this unethical invasion?

‘Business Today’, March 24 issue has published a feature ‘The China Effect’ dealing how ‘in a variety of industries, cheap imports from China are killing local manufacturers. How much of it is due to China’s competitiveness and how much due to dumpings?’ It reports on sectors such auto components, silk and textiles, toys, ceramic tiles, bulk drugs, automotive tyres, and gifts and household goods that are reeling under the Chinese Price menace. But I got a shock when I read a news report that small shops of a town in Gujarat came out on roads to complain against the so called invasion of biggies of organized retail sector in big malls coming up fast that are selling cheap and unbranded produces of China and killing their business and livelihood. I was for organized sector in retails. But if these outlets go for importing the items of China, as claimed by the protesters, that are rejected by the European and Americans at very cheap price and sell to ignorant Indian customers, it is just simple cheating. China is having the first move advantage. The manufacturers in China developed the household items such as one for gifts for the developed market, and flooded the developed markets at cheaper price compared to what was available in those market from the local manufacturers because of the higher labour cost in those countries. Many big retail stores such as Wal-Mart got the items developed and manufactured by the China for the price advantage. Chinese created a huge manufacturing capacity for those items. Many of them were fakes of the branded items of the Western countries. For Indian manufacturers, it is difficult to compete in price if Indian traders bring the rejected lots that are basically seconds or scraps, and sell at cheaper prices. Again, the importers are resorting to many other unscrupulous means too such as importing kirpans that might attract more duty as toys that is charged lower duties.

In some cases as automotive tyres, the Indian manufacturers allege traders of undervoicing imports. Fuels account for about 30-60% of the manufacturing costs in case of crockery and pottery items, and the Chinese fuel costs almost one-third of that in India. Naturally, the question is ‘How can the Chinese fuels be that cheap?” Is the fuel cost subsidized by the Chinese government?

I am much more shocked with some news from the auto component sector that I am more acquainted with. While India exported Rs 69.3 crore of auto components to China in 2002-03 and imported only Rs 47.4 crore, ACMA predicts that by the close of the 2006-07, Chinese imports will touch Rs 1,127.6 crore. How can the Chinese offer cost advantages of 30-40% to OEMs? As reported, recently an Indian supplier of auto component was outbid by 55%. Indian manufacturers sarcastically call it Chinese black magic of pricing to outbid competition. One Indian manufacturer asked, “How can the Chinese quote below the price of the steel going into the component?”

How do Indian manufacturers, particularly the smaller ones with limited resources, face this unethical competition from China? Will NMCC (National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council), CII and Assocham have a cell of experts to study all these cases and suggest some means to compete to the manufacturers and the government? Can some NGOs such as Mr. Arvind Kejriwal of RTI fame and with a background of mechanical engineering help on the issue of this Chinese invasion in pretext of free trade and globalisation? Can the students and faculty of IIMs and IITs take up this challenge to study the challenges posed by the Chinese and come out with suggestions? While the bigger manufacturers as in past will have to focus on innovative approaches to compete through superior design and R&D and better management practices, the smaller manufacturers, craftsmen, and weavers need help of all sorts including the removal of anomalies of taxations such as higher import duties for raw materials than for the finished products and even subsidies of some sorts.

Indian manufacturers must face the competition and grow in scale to compete, but all who can, including the employees, must provide the input for that. Otherwise the consequences will be severe so far the employment potential of the sectors are concerned. Moreover, the new entrepreneurs will hesitate to enter in manufacturing sector.

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Germans shifting choice to India from China

Posted in industry, manufacturing | Leave a comment

Corporate India’s Rural Strategies

Posted on March 21, 2007 by indra

Many bigger business houses in India are taking rural initiatives for getting into enormously large market of CK Prahalad’s ‘the bottom of the pyramid’ as well as to carry out their social responsibility.

Rural India is having more than 742 million people (or about 65 per cent of India) with rising incomes and aspirations. According to IRS data, over half of the 145 million rural homes in India earn between Rs 1,000-Rs 5,000 per month. Estimates put the rural market in India at Rs 80,000 crore.

It will be interesting to know about some of the Corporate India endeavours for rural India.

New Delhi-based DCM Shriram started the Shriram Krishi Vikas Centres in 1997 to do some value-additions to its primary business of selling urea, fertilisers and sugar manufacturing – all dealing with farmers. The centres offer the services of agronomists to local farmers across 100 villages in India. These centres are hooked to a regional centre in Alwar (Rajasthan), which, in turn, can plug into Delhi and several rural research institutes. The average number of queries the centre gets could run into thousands. For instance, in Punjab, farmers were not using potash as a fertiliser because of a three-year-old government advisory that stated that there was enough potash in the soil. Tests showed that this was not true any longer, and, therefore, productivity was dropping.

The first Hariyali Kisan Bazaar was born in July 2003. That meant stocking all brands of urea and fertiliser (besides its own) and tying up with fuel companies such as BPCL. As consumers started demanding more, the whole product range kept expanding to several non-agri products. These could be anything from apparel to schoolbags, Tata-Sky’s DTH service or insurance (ICICI-Lombard for weather and ICICI-Prudential for life insurance). There is currently a huge demand for banking services, but licensing issues hold the group back. Soon it will be rolling out the National Commodities Exchange (NCDEX) services to make future trading available to farmers. It has today a 54-outlet strong chain of rural supermarkets that offer everything the people there may need on a farm, and more. By the end of two years, the target is to have 250 Hariyali Kissan Bazaars nationally – each servicing an area within a radius of 15-20 km.

Godrej Aadhar oulets are also working on the same line. Farmers can get their soil tested for Rs 50 or pick up fertilizers or soil nutrients, in addition to buying groceries. Today some 31 Aadhar centers in India service 15-25 villages each. The plan is to take the numbers of the outlets to 1,000 in five years to service 20,000 villages. ITC’s Choupal Sagar outlets are extension of the same idea. Almost all these corporate houses are trying to eliminate the intermediaries to provide the best value to the farmers directly and avoid risk of cheating the rural illiterate lot. I wish they didn’t become too greedy soon.

As reported, Hindustan Petroleum has set up 589 common community kitchens (rasoighars) in 30 villages across India over the past two years to bring clean fuel and save time in gathering firewood. Now the girls go to school in many of these villages instead of going to collect firewood. HPCL makes losses on the rural rasoighars in addition to a loss of Rs 150 on every cylinder sold, but sustains for a cause.

Along with the Department of IT and Microsoft (and in some places, Hughes), the Indian government is setting up 100,000 (CSCs) common service centers across India. The kiosk is a computer center. A trained local runs it. These e-kiosks will offer everything from crop prices and insurance to tele-medicine and education. It will give the villagers daily inputs about the weather, prices, etc. The idea is to have one centre for six villages, so the government plans to reach all of India’s 600,000 villages by March 2008. Microsoft is working at tying in banks, financial institutions and other companies that might want to offer their products and services through these kiosks.Kisan Call Centres are another similar initiative.

The FMCG majors HLL with Shakti, and ITC with e-Choupal have already made its presence felt in rural India. Kodak, Shell, Reliance Industries, Microsoft, Dhanuka Sugars, Hughes, HDFC, ICICI, HPCL, Nokia and Tata Teleservices are plugging into rural India in their quest for growth.

Nokia has commissioned the Bangalore-based Centre for Knowledge Societies to look at how their new mobility could be used by villagers to jump over the social and digital divide between rural and urban India. As the 60 per cent of all growth in subscribers is now going to come from rural areas, almost every major operator – Reliance, Airtel, BSNL – has adopted a village to revolutionise communication. Tata Teleservices (TTSL) has started training programmes for teachers from villages to help them teach locals about telecommunication in UP. A few months back, TTSL launched the parivar offer (family plan), in Punjab. It allows one family, of 3-10 people, to connect to each other through a common network at a minimum cost of 10 paise per minute.

Several agri-product companies such as Mahindra & Mahindra or Dhanuka Sugars – previously content to sell just urea, fertilisers or tractors – are working on the same line in different forms. Reliance was forced to look at rural markets because its license for petrol retail was granted on those grounds. Reliance has specially designed small sized fuel pumps costing about Rs 4 lakh-7 lakh against the usual Rs 40 lakh-1.5 crore in cities. Each was designed to service an area within the radius of 10 km. The first of 60 pumps, covering 720 villages, was set up in 2005 in Tanna (Gujarat).

In a significant move to help the farmers of Uttar Pradesh, the State Bank of India and Nabard have joined hands to establish a “Farmers’ Club”. The club aims at enhancing the bargaining power of the farmers and artisans besides reaching out to the rural masses.

As everything from self-help groups to banks and the government get together, a network of physical and other services is beginning to find its way into rural India. If the initiatives of all these agencies are coordinated properly, the rural India will transform in next five years.

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Google logs into rural India
RIL`s jatropha plant to create 12,000 jobs
And Bihar too

Posted in industry, management | Leave a comment

CM’s Janata Durbar Can Bring Necessary Social Changes Too

Posted on March 17, 2007 by indra

The news items emanating from the Janata Durbar of Nitish Kumar are sometimes exhilarating and heartening. Further, I heard Nitish Kumar is also visiting all the district headquarters as a means of routine contact with ‘aam aadami’ to have a feel of the problems and issues of the region. It is a great thing to do. I wish it could spread some necessary messages too. I wrote a letter to his e-mail.

Dear Nitish Kumarji,

It is nice to hear about your Janata durbar. I have some suggestions. I am sure you must be doing that, but still I wanted to express my views.

I wish the durbar or all such public interactions be also used to pass on certain urgent message to the aam aadami, as a total attitudinal change is required in the mindsets of the people of Bihar in particular.

One such message must be to appeal to all attending the durbar to send their children, all boys and girls, to the school. And the panchayats must ensure that. If necessary, some incentive or awards such as the ‘best panchayats with 100% children attending school’ can be instituted.

Another important message must go about the futility of the certificate of examinations obtained by unfair means at the examination centers, many times assisted by the guardians.

You have already taken initiative to stop lobbying (or pairabi) for transfer. But can you also pass a message that with huge number of state employees doing nothing, there is hardly any scope for employment in the state government, and the people must not look for the government jobs too much. Only solution to the unemployment of the youths is self-employment through small businesses after getting trained in skills that are in demand.

In three years time left with you, please do something so that Bihar improves its ranking considerably at least in education sector. Bihar and Biharis have only knowledge sector to prosper in the state or outside honourably.

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These durbars can serve the people in many ways. It can tell them how an ordinary woman named Lal Muni Devi earns her living honestly that can be emulated by others, particularly, as none in Bihar’s villages are without a house of some sort.

On one hand I get a shock of my life that Bihar doesn’t produce today even a single megawatt of electricity. On the other hand, to my surprise I found many households in Bihar’s remote villages are enjoying at least some connectivity with the world with solar plates on the rooftops, and are update with news of World Cup 2007 and entertainment from the 100s of private channels. I appeal to CM to provide special subsidy to underprivileged class to install solar energy sources. If DMK can go on distributing colour TV, can’t our CM help the poor get a light at home?

But my main worry is about the disinterest in almost all the people that I met about the education. Panchayats can play a big role with 50% women in it for everything including healthcare and education through effective ‘aanganwadi’ system. Schools must be reformed. Teachers must come out of political patronage and religiously take care of the children in the school. DMs must be given the responsibility to initiate and develop a good education hub in every headquarters with number of secondary and higher secondary schools, trade training centers, and an engineering and medical college. An innovative means must be found to get all the children above 14 years who can’t go for higher education with employability into some sort of skill building. Skill can be as basic as plumbing, carpentry, tailoring, haircutting, massaging, electrician and bricklaying. Teacher may be one who knows the skill and train the children. It hardly matters if Bihar can’t provide the jobs for them. If the government even with private agencies can train them, they can get better employment wherever they migrate be it Kashmir to Qatar.

He can also help in getting some social myths regarding caste-based professions broken. The farmers must diversify the cultivation pattern based on profitability, must breed more milking or meat producing birds and cattle of good quality as means of additional earning in the family. Many are doing that but the potential is huge with sure prosperity.

I wish CM took advantages of some of the rural initiatives such as one from Microsoft or ITC’s e-Choupal to digitally connect the rural Bihar to provide the necessary agriculture related services. As reported, “by March 2008, the Indian government hopes to set up 100,000 common service centres (CSCs) across India. These e-kiosks will offer everything from crop prices and insurance to tele-medicine and education. Footing the bill for half of them is Microsoft India.”

Bihar government is to be proactive to take the advantages of these initiatives rather than fighting here too the political battles. It will be anti-people.

Posted in bihar | Leave a comment

Rama and Krishna- Epic Characters or Historical Greats

Posted on March 15, 2007 by indra

Atul Sethi had a feature in Sunday Times of India last week- ‘True Legends?’ For many years, I faced the questions and asked too: Were Rama and Krishna just the legendary characters of the epics credited to Valmiki and Ved Vyas or historical figures?

Atul has come out with the opinions of known historians and writers on the subject. Did the events mentioned in the epics actually happen? Did the characters described in them actually exist? How much of the epics is fiction and how much history?

Some don’t believe about their historicity.

Historian K M Shrimali: ”Historically speaking, I have apprehensions about subscribing to the view that Rama was a historical figure. The scale of the event described as the Mahabharata war and its historicity is also suspect.”

R S Sharma, professor emeritus of the department of history at Patna University: ”Although Krishna plays an important role in the Mahabharata, inscriptions and sculptural pieces found in Mathura dating back to 200 BC and 300 AD do not attest to his presence. Because of this, ideas of an epic age based on the Ramayana and Mahabharata have to be discarded.”

But many others believe they are historical figures.

N S Rajaram, author of ‘Search for the Historical Krishna‘: ”There is sufficient evidence available now to suggest that Krishna was indeed a historical figure, who lived about 5000 years ago. This evidence is not just literary but also archaeological, geographical as well as astronomical.”

Pushkar Bhatnagar, author of ‘Dating the era of Lord Ram‘: ”Valmiki, who wrote the Ramayana, was a contemporary of Rama. While narrating the events of the epic, he has mentioned the position of planets in the sky at several places. Using recent planetary software, it has been possible to verify that these planetary positions actually took place precisely as specified in the Ramayana. Not just a stray event but also the entire sequence of the planetary positions as described by Valmiki at various stages of Rama’s life can be verified today as having taken place. This information is significant, since these configurations do not repeat for lakhs of years and cannot be manipulated or imagined so accurately, without the help of sophisticated software. The inference that one can draw is that someone was present there to witness the actual happening of these configurations, which got recorded in the story of Rama.”

According Rajaram, ancient authors have taken enormous pains to preserve accounts of Krishna’s life, times and philosophy. ”If we look beyond the myths accumulated over millennia, Krishna actually emerges as a human figure – a practical philosopher par excellence – who moved away from the ritualistic practices of the Vedic religion of his time to the action-oriented Sankhya philosophy, embodied in his philosophy of karma yoga – of the Bhagavad Gita, which till date remains his transcendent legacy. Contrary to popular imagination, which portrays him as a romantic hero, the image of Krishna that we get from ancient sources is that of an impeccable statesman. He was an austere and studious man, whose main concerns were political stability and ethical and religious reform.”

A number of non-sectarian, secular works like Panini’s grammar and the Chandogya Upanishad mention Krishna and provide independent support for his historicity.

Interestingly, the contemporary Buddhist works like Sutrapitaka and Lalitavistara refer Krishna as an asura. The Buddhists of the time viewed Krishna’s teachings of nishkama karma (detached action) as inimical to their own teachings, emphasising renunciation, and found it necessary to try to discredit him by referring to him as an asura.

Many geographical references like Rameshwaram, Kishkindha, Kurukshetra, Hastinapura etc connected with Rama and Krishna has survived over the centuries and still exist. How could for thousands of years, the authors kept the same locations for their story?

Rajaram puts forward his argument about the period of the epics. ”In all probability, the society described in the Mahabharata corresponded to the early Harappan period, before 3000 BC, since this period was a rich one with numerous urban centres, while the society described in the Ramayana was less urbanised and more agrarian. Most scholars today place the Mahabharata war around 3100 BC. According to Mahabharata, Arjuna’s son, Abhimanyu, killed Brihadbala, 32nd in descent from Rama. So we may tentatively place Rama 650 to 750 years before the war.”

However, Bhatnagar thinks, a period of at least 2000 years separates the two personalities. ”This is because on the basis of astronomical dating, we can now say that Rama lived during the 5th century BC, while Krishna is believed by scholars like Aryabhatta to have belonged to the 3rd century BC.”

But, why is there not much archaeological evidence that points towards their existence? It is perhaps because systematic excavations have never been carried out, says historian Nandita Krishnan. ”Nobody believed that Homer’s Iliad was a true story till Troy was discovered after extensive archaeology. Unfortunately, the sites of the Ramayana and Mahabharata have now been built over many times and it may never be possible to excavate extensively either at Ayodhya or Mathura.”

We don’t have much of the archeological proofs of even Buddha and Mahavir era. Even the palaces of Chandra Gupta Maurya and Ashok are nonexistent today in any form. We have not kept the historical evidences of even Kalidas and Tulsidas. Perhaps, Indians are very poor in preparing, and preserving their history. After few years, we shall be saying the same for Gandhiji too.

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Organized Retail Sector And Manufacturing

Posted on March 15, 2007 by indra

It was shocking and sometimes, humiliatingly depressing to read a news item such as ‘Forget batteries & toys, it’s now Chinese kirpan’ that was put in by Alokparna Das in ‘The Times of India’ of March 13.

Immaculate in its shape, in a neat packet, and fetching sheath, the kirpans (one of Sikhism’s five symbols) in the market of Amritsar, are mostly ‘Made-in-China’ stock today.

China is invading India’s market of traditionally indigenous items too. As reported, Mintai, a Chinese brand from is doing particularly well. Local kirpan manufacturers are worried. Amritsar’s kirpan market, estimated at Rs 50 crore is slipping in Chinese hands. The Chinese kirpans are also denting the overseas market served till date by Amritsar manufacturers. One reputed exporter is reported to have said, “Our exports have come down by 80%-90%.”

Local manufacturers blame it to the cheap labour of China, and are leaving the turf to be easily own by the Chinese. It is certainly not the cheap labour only. The Chinese labour cost today is higher than that of India. It must be investigated. Are the Chinese manufacturers using the same material? Are our manufacturers not wasting too much in the process or taking too much time to complete the task?

Who are behind this invasion of Chinese products in Indian market? It can be the initiative of our traders or the Chinese business groups visiting India to explore and identify the items that they can make and sell. It is mostly the former.

Our big traders visit China, knowing that they can get the supply from the Chinese manufacturers at the price they ask them because of many reasons- even the government subsidy for all exports.

This is the effect of globalisation. Unfortunately, our big retailers even in organized retail sector are not helping rather guiding the local small manufacturers and craftsmen to cut down the cost and improve the quality to compete with the Chinese manufacturers. With single point agenda of making quick money, the traders are following the route to approach the Chinese to get the items in demand in India.

And our manufacturers are too small without required resources to compete with the Chinese, and so they leave turf for the Chinese, and switch over to some other business. As reported, one of the manufacturers said, ” with kirpan exports facing a slump, I decided to venture into the hotel business.”

Outside all gurdwaras, even in smaller places, shacks selling kirpans and other religious symbols are stacked up with the foreign daggers.

Indians preference for the cheapness in purchases is another reason for the Chinese win in all these items. One manufacturers laments, ”A well-crafted medium sized Chinese kirpan costs Rs 50-100. A similar local kirpan is priced at Rs 150-300. Also, youngsters prefer the foreign variety.” But why can’t he benchmark the Chinese kirpans and try to manufacture at their cost?

As reported, many of the Chinese kirpan brands find their way into the country via importers based in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk. The importers bring them under the ‘toys’ and ‘decorative items’ categories, without paying the duty for a kirpan that will be higher. Importers pay ”better commission” to wholesalers than those dealing in local kirpans to ensure Chinese kirpans reaching all Sikh centers in nooks and corners of the country.

Once a Swiss knife-making company failed to get a foothold in kirpan market, but Chinese are taking over from the local manufacturers.

Can something be done about it? Can the unscrupulous importers be punished heavily? Can the local manufacturers be made competitive? Can the NMCC come out with some intelligent business solutions? Perhaps, one way to compete will be if the big retailers coming in market support the local manufacturers technically to cut the cost, and help them to make the innovations to differentiate the products from the Chinese ones. It shall be true for all the household items on the racks of the big shopping complexes.

If the big retailers don’t develop and support local manufacturers and producers, India will never be able to compete on low-tech mass consumption items that can create a lot of employment and bring prosperity to many of the craftsmen and small manufacturers that are from rural India.

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Ministers Promise, Bureaucrats Obstruct, Media Collaborate

Posted on March 13, 2007 by indra

The finance promised to upgrade ITIs. He also promised to repair and renovate all the water bodies spread all over the country in his first budget in 2004. He promises again for the same two items in this budget without telling the people of India how many of the promised water bodies have already been renovated or how many of ITIs have been upgraded in last three years. Why can’t he appreciate that the country need 5,000 or perhaps 20,000 ITIs to cater to all the students who after class XII don’t go for higher education in specific subjects? He also promised to cut down the time delays in procedures for doing business to make India attractive for businessmen from abroad. He never gives what he and his government have been able to achieve. The finance minister keeps on promising on outcome against outlay such as Rs 10,671 crore for Sarva Shiksha Aviyan, Rs 288 or more for teacher training, or Rs 7,324 crore for mid-day meals, but never practise it himself. He has, however, promised this year to give employment to two lakh more teachers, to build five lakh additional classrooms, and to provide 1,00,000 new annual National Means-cum-Merit scholarships. Will it ensure that the over 1.3 crore children who are still out of school will attend school, 31,468 habitations that do not have a school will have one, and 6,647 schools that have no teachers will get at least one teacher? Will he report on the achievements against this year promises while presenting the next year budget?

And let us see how the railway and its minister, who has mastered the management tricks to become expert to deliver advices to the students of IIM-A and IIT-KGP as well as those from Wharton and Harvard, keep on coming in media with promises. According to the media report, the railway signed some agreement with ICICI Bank to issue tickets from the branches of the bank and also talked of providing ticketing facilities at all the petrol pumps and post offices. Nothing has come till date. This year he promises to have 6,000 automatic ticket vending machines in metros, and to provide lower births for senior citizens and women above 45 years of age. Why doesn’t the on-line e-ticketing faculty of the railway function properly? Why can’t the software system be more robust and fast? Just last week, after failing to get my ticket booked through broadband Internet even after getting the ticket money debited from my account, I had to go to Brahmaputra to get the tickets for Varanasi for a date in April. Being senior citizen, I asked for lower birth, but couldn’t get it. One can go to the reservation center at Brahamaputra market complex in Noida and see the teeming crowd at the counters fighting to each other. Why can’t this work be outsourced to a private agency? Why should any person wait for more than 15 minutes for his ticketing? Can’t the system be put in place in a month time? And the same minister promises to transform 200 railway stations to world class standard. Why has he not been able to bring that transformation to railway stations in Delhi or in his hometown Patna?

And now look at the most critical of the infrastructures, power situation of the country without which no progress is possible, particularly in manufacturing sector. Energy-hungry India will become an electricity surplus country in next four-five years, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde promises Rajya Sabha on Monday. Can any one take this seriously?

Bureaucrats sit complacent in their offices and keep on planning for perfecting the delaying tactics for the execution of the promises. And the result becomes devastating. Let us look at one example of the infrastructure that affects agriculture sector so critical for 60% of the population. “Cost overruns due to delayed irrigation projects have cost the Centre and states over Rs 1 lakh crore. A total of 205 irrigation projects, whose original estimated cost was Rs 20,000 crore, would now cost Rs 1,16,242 crore, according to the ministry of water resources data. The delays range from one to six years. The projects include 62 large and 49 medium scale projects. Many of these were started in the 5th and 6th Plan periods.” Will the proposed hike in the outlay for the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) in this year budget make any difference?

Bureaucrats themselves and the inter-ministerial and the center-state battles further delay the executions. The Dadri power project announced by the political bosses of UP as the largest single location power project that would have been on the way to completion by now, has not yet started construction. Why can’t the bureaucrats be paid and promoted based on the performance? Why can’t they move out of their offices to see what have they planned and why is it not getting implemented?

And then the media of the country is too happy with Nithari, Nitin, Jessica, and Matoo covering all details in pages after pages with coloutful photographs. Why should not it put its reporters in rural India where more than 60% of the people are toiling, and where the major allocation of the government is going in the name of inclusive growth? Why should not it reserve at least 10% coverage for the rural India, if not 50%? Why should it not cover the educational institutes for work being done in science and technology?

NewYork Times, Business Week, Newsweek, and The Economists may be covering the issues of India better. ‘Business Week’ has a special issue this week on the infrastructure of India- ‘The Trouble With India’ with an interesting cover page. It is revealing with number of features- ‘India’s Infrastructure Challenges’, ‘Building Opportunity in India‘, ‘Building The Future‘, ‘A Long And Winding Road’, ‘The Miracle-Worker of the Delhi Metro‘, and ‘India: Where Shipping Is Shaky‘.

It is strange that the media abroad can come out with such an analytical issue whereas our own media are shy of it.

Why should we require Ravi Bhatia to come out with his infrastructure prescription for the double-digit growth? It will be interesting to know what he said. Ravi Bhatia, Editor, Economist Intelligence Unit said while making a presentation on ‘India 2010: What the future holds,’ “The Indian plane is flying high, but one plane is flying even higher and that is the Chinese plane. Indian economic world is growing because the term ’emerging markets’ has become redundant. India, Japan and China have together overtaken the US economy. India and China are playing a big role. India ranks third after USA and China in the economic field. But this growth is held back by lack of infrastructure,”

Even Gajendra Haldea, an adviser to the federal Planning Commission, says, “Economic losses from congestion and poor roads alone are as high as $6 billion a year.” Jagdish N. Bhagwati, a professor at Columbia University, figures gross domestic product growth would run two percentage points higher if the country had decent roads, railways, and power.

Why can’t that be expedited when there is no crunch on financial resources at least for road? Why are the GQ and NSEW corridors running years behind the schedule? Why shouldn’t the electorate ask these questions? When will the electorate be enlightened enough to put these questions? Why can’t the bureaucrats responsible for the projects be sacked?

Alas! We are to live with and tolerate the ministers, bureaucrats, and media that we have.

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Champaner- The World Heritage

Posted on March 12, 2007 by indra

I was uncomfortable physically after returning to Vadodara from the planned pilgrimage. But with two days in waiting to return after Holi, I made it a point to accompany Yamuna, Bibha, and Ashok to Pavagadh. They were interested in Mahakalika temple, but my attraction was to see Champaner-Pavagadh after its enlisting on World heritage list by UNESCO. I wanted to see the change after the status upgradation.





As a small brochure says, ‘ the name, Champaner, is said to be derived from the Champak tree, while some sources assign it to Champa or Champraj, a minister of Vanaraja, the Chavada ruler of Anhilwada (746-806AD). However, few Maitraka coins discovered indicate that the place was under Maitraka rulers during 470-788AD. However, Mahmood Begda, the Sultan of Gujarat defeated the last Hindu Kichhi ruler, Patai Rawal in 1484AD. Begda made Champaner as his second capital and named it “Muhammadabad” and “Sahar-I-Mukkarram”. During his reign, Champaner was a prosperous city. But after the attack of Mughal Emperor Humayun in 1534AD, the capital shifted to Ahmedabad, and Champaner gradually declined.

In 90s, I had visited the most important monument here, the Jami Masjid with some foreign visitors to Hindustan Motors new Isuzu truck plant that was coming up at Halol. But I had no idea of the Kichhi Rajput hill fortress with three lines of defence with number of gates, palaces, and storehouses.

A smooth surface 4-lane tolled road from Vadodara to Halol has replaced the old single lane pot-holed road. We went up to the entrance of the ropeway built and managed by Usha Breco of Jhavar group of Kolkata. We were late but because of Ashok and his men there, we could manage go up for visiting Mahakalika. I didn’t dare to climb the 400 stairs to reach the temple. Yamuna stayed with me. From the top of the hill, we could get a wonderful view of the Champaner.

Going through the Champaner town in the precinct of the World Heritage Fort, one gets a poor impression of the people living there. It is filthy all over. But naturally, the history can’t make people prosperous unless they endeavour. For a heritage site, a lot of effort is required to involve the people to upgrade the overall living conditions.

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