दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

ushmita Choudhury in Anniversary Issue of ‘India Today’ recently listed 30 events that changed our lives. I thought of selecting some as a technocrat. Each of the events has made a big impact. Those who had experienced the days before the events can only appreciate the change. I still remember 1966 and the food shortage in Kolkata. My wife was pregnant with my eldest son. I sent someone to procure rice that is our main meal. The man returned empty-handed. I do also remember the purchase of the first black and white TV on the birthday of my second son, and the amount of maintenance it required. And then when we returned from UK and the Europe’s trip, Yamuna who was with me insisted to bring the first colour TV in 1982, as the colour transmission had started by the year because of ASIAD. Here are the other events:

1967, Green Revolution
Food shortage in the 1960s had led Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to appeal to the nation to skip a meal every week. In 1966-67, India had to import 20 mt of foodgrain. The Green Revolution saw the output grow by 70 per cent.

1982, Colour TV
On November 19, 1982, viewers saw life in colour for the first time, and the events at the Asian Games. One lakh CTV sets were imported.

1983, Sachet Revolution
It began with shampoo in sachets. Now everything from toothpaste to hair oil is available in sachets.

1968, Jaipur Foot
The artificial limb developed in Jaipur is known for transforming lives of the handicapped. The prosthesis was upgraded in 1985.

1977, Mark II Pump
To a drought-scarred India, Mark II was more than a cheap durable water pump. From 600 units a month in 1977, one lakh units were being manufactured by 1984. It’s among the best hand pumps in the world today.

1983, Maruti 800
The car, ridiculed at conception, not only became a middle-class necessity but also put more women behind wheels.

1986, Equity Cult
When companies like Reliance Industries-which raised an army of 12 million shareholders in eight years-came out with public issues, ordinary Indians took the expressway to lakhpati-dom.

1995, Cyber Café
When India’s first cyber café opened in Bangalore, little did people realise how quickly and fundamentally, dotcom would change India. Today 60 per cent of India’s Net users access the web through cyber cafés.

2000, BPO industry
It represented a new paradigm for international trade in services. Call centres were a Mecca for fresh graduates looking for decent pay packets.

1991, Cable and Satellite TV
Thanks to the surfing frenzy of cable TV, the average Indian watches two hours of TV every day and there are 300 channels fighting for mindshare. The latest to beam is direct-to-home TV.

1997, Multiplex
The number stands at 250 today, while 1,000 more are expected to start withing the next five years.

2000, Reality TV
Be it KBC, Nach Baliye or The Great Laughter Challenge, everyone wanted his/her 15 minutes of TV fame.

1999, Easy Credit:
Life-on-EMI became the mantra as banks fought with each other to offer more attractive loans, making life easier for people.

2006, Cheap Mobile Phones
July 2006 alone saw 5.28 million new mobile subscribers. Be it in the dunes of Rajasthan or the delta of Bengal, this is the most potent weapon available to the country to bridge the digital divide.

Indian automobile manufacturing has left behind the days of Ambassadors and Padmini in the pages of its history. Today India is selling more than a million passenger cars and as estimated by a number of agencies, by the end of the decade the car sales in India could double to 2 million units. I don’t have a doubt about it. With metalled roads reaching the rural India, all the used Maruti 800 will certainly go to villages along with some new and bigger cars too. And the domestic demand will persists, but the manufacturers are working for the exports with equal zeal to meet the contingencies.

However, today there is only one Indian player- Tata Motors, in car manufacturing with over 16% market share; and Mahindra and Mahindra with its Renault’s Logan will soon join as the second one. Maruti Udyog that is now a Suzuki company is at the top in car manufacturing with over 44% share. Hyundai is another volume car manufacturer with more than 15% of the market share; and is serious one with its major investment plans in India.

One in the developed country may doubt about India becoming a powerful automobile manufacturing country. It is more so when one looks at how UK and other European countries couldn’t do that in the wake of the rise of Japan and then to a limited extent South Korea as the major automobile manufacturing countries. China is coming up fast to become another Asian country in automobile manufacturing very soon. With its ambitions to become world leader in every sector of industry, no one could have any doubt about its place. However, it never means that Indian manufacturers can’t do it. Both- Tata Motors as well as Mahindra and Mahindra, as a company can make its presence important enough in the sector.

Tata Motors entry in car manufacturing with ‘Indica’ and its success was the proof of its internal strength. If Tata Motors could do the same with its Rs1-lakh car, that could be a game changer. However, Maruti Udyog of Suzuki now, will try to do its best to maintain its entry-level monopoly. As reported, it would be positioning Maruti 800 against Rs 1-lakh car, and that’s why it is not dropping it from its product line. By offering Swift with diesel engine from its new plant at Manesar, Suzuki will cut into ‘Indica’ market too. Tata Motors will have to upgrade its engine as well as the overall quality to a much higher level; and simultaneously come out with something new and more delighting to car crazy customers.

Mahindra and Mahindra couldn’t learn the tricks of car business with its Ford collaboration as Tata Motors did from its Mercedes one. May be Renault-Nissan’s tie-up for ‘Logan’ will provide that chance, and it could go for similar success as it did with Scorpio in SUV. Mahindra with Ingenio, the new platform of the SUV can prove to the market its engineering prowess. I wish one of them could have built a uniquely innovative and popular vehicle such as Mitsubishi’s mini-Pajero on one of their platform, say ‘Indica’.

Unlike China, not many Indian entrepreneurs are willing to enter automotive sector. Bajaj Auto and Ashok Leyland could do that, but it seems both the companies wish to keep sticking to its core competence unlike Tata Motors. However, with increasing market both Suzuki and Hyundai can make India its manufacturing base for models meant for export to geographically advantageous countries, and even Toyota and Honda at later stage may get into models requiring mass production in India for export. It can happen if India exhibits certain manufacturing advantages over China through better-priced and superior quality auto components.

Every auto company in India is investing in big way for increasing its capacity- Tata Motors Rs 10,000 crore; Maruti Udyog Rs 9,000 crore; Hyundai Motors Rs 5,000 crore; Mahindra &Mahiindra Rs 1,000 crore; General Motors India Rs 13,80 crore; Honda Siel Rs 920 crore, and even Ford Motor India Rs 345 crore. The industry’s investment figures totting up to more than Rs. 30,000 crore are good enough a signal for boom in the sector and its continuance. And even the newer ones such as VW, Nissan and BMW are trying to get into manufacturing of its vehicles in India.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi has come out with a statement about Mohammad Yunush, the Nobel ‘for Peace’ Prize winner of 2006. “India recognised Mohammad Yunus and the pioneering work of his Grameen Bank in popularising the concept of micro credit in Bangladesh with the Indira Gandhi Award for Peace, Disarmament and Development in 1998.” Does he wish to associate Yunus with Congress Party or the philosophy of the party to work for poorest of poor and recognize those who work in that field?

A feature in ‘Sunday Times of India’, New Delhi found Kiran Desai, the coveted Man Booker prizewinner’s link with Kalimpong. Kiran Desai’s ‘The Inheritance of Loss’ has a reference to Kanchenjunga in the first paragraph itself. In Kalimpong, in the company of her aunt, Kiran wrote parts of her book. Dr Indira Bhattacharya, a pediatrician who has lived in Kalimpong for the past 20 years, is Kiran’s aunt and the sister of author Anita Desai. She’s recounted the story, ”She came to stay with me when she was writing the book. She was here in Kalimpong for about two months in the mid-nineties.” Kiran has had an abiding connection with this hill town close to Darjeeling since her childhood. Whenever she would visit India, she would make it a point to come down and see her aunt. Kiran had briefly been a student of St Joseph’s Convent. Kiran was particularly close to her maid Doma, who, too, is mentioned in the book. Why should the aunt not associate herself with the prizewinner, when it means suddenly becoming important as a source of masala materials for media?

Dileep Padgaonkar never wanted to be left behind and so wrote a feature in TOI October 15, 2006 telling how ORHAN PAMUK, Nobel Laureate watched ‘Awara’ as a boy, and his next book even mentions Indian cinema. Is it not some news that is bound to bring cheer to Indians? As Dilip found through one of his conversation, Pamuk visited India some three years ago, which was barely noticed in the Indian media. Pamuk carried vivid memories about it- about many words he had heard, which were minor variations of Turkish words but which carried the same meaning; about the similarities he found between the Crawford Market in Bombay and the Grand Bazar in his native Istanbul; about the ‘glorious abundance of humanity’ he had seen in Madurai. And he recollected the time his parents took him to watch Hindi films and how Raj Kapoor’s Awara in particular had held all of Turkey in absolute thrall.

If we do some research, some one from RSS or BJP background may soon find the ancient family link of Orhan Pamuk with India?

Last week, the name of the four economists, Jagdish Bhagwati, Amartya Sen, Manmohan Singh, and Muhammad Yunus of the subcontinent, appeared one way or the other in media. Jagdidh Bhagawati, the professor in Columbia University got in news as a probable candidate for the Nobel Prize for economy. He has been the best-known advocate of globalisation. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make it this year too. Amartya Sen is another economist and already Nobel laureate. Manmohan Singh, the economist Prime Minister of India dazzled the luminaries at Cambridge University, his alma mater with humility and simplicity and proposed the breaking of barriers between the developed and developing for the sake of the millions of farmers in developing countries. He was conferred with the honorary degree of ‘Doctor of Law’ by the university at a special function. And then came the wonderful news of the Noble for peace going to Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank of Bangladesh.

Bangladeshi microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus with his Grameen Bank was cited for the efforts to help ”create economic and social development from below” in Bangladesh. Their work advanced economic and social opportunities for the poor, particularly women. They have been instrumental in helping millions of poor people improve their standard of living by letting them borrow small sums to start businesses.

Yunus’ pathbreaking method of credit delivery to the poorest has emerged as one of the most effective tools to fight chronic poverty. Microfinance is the giving of very small amounts of credit and financial services and assistance to the poor to help them raise their income levels and living standards. A study by the World Bank found that 40% of the entire reduction in poverty in rural Bangladesh was directly attributable to microfinance. Yunus’ Grameen Bank lends about $30 million a month to 1.8 million needy borrowers.

”Poverty alleviation is peace,” Yunus told reporters at his home in Dhaka. Yunus, as reported would use part of his share of the 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) award money to create a company that would make low-cost, high-nutrition food for the poor. The rest of his share would go towards setting up an eye hospital for the poor in Bangladesh. I was in Bangladesh many years ago. The rural Bangladesh, as I saw while moving out to different factories in the country that we were to study, presented a dismal story. Even the outskirt of Dacca presented the similar situation.

Yunus has certainly innovated a new way of alleviating the poverty. And as Ela Bhatt of Sewa fame said, “Yunus is an economist in action. The Nobel Peace Prize for Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank is also a recognition of the women of Bangladesh, the small savers, the small borrowers, the loan re-payers and their integrity and discipline.”

Sometimes, a query crops up in my mind. Who should among the four of these economists be rated at the top? Jagdish Bhagwati and Amartya Sen have remained professors and will be known for their contribution to academics. Jagdish Bhagwati may get Nobel next year. For many, Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister of India may certainly be at the top. But could he get his opportunities exploited to the best in the interest of the people of India? Couldn’t he do better by getting all his dream projects implemented better? Who failed him- his bureaucrats or his head of the party, who appointed him? Can’t Manmohan perform better in the rest of his tenure as the Prime Minister of India to get his Bharat Nirman implemented effectively in the time frame it promised?

I believe, the contribution of Yunus as economist for the people at the bottom of the pyramid of his country, takes him to the top among the four economists.

Read ‘What the Nobel Means for Microcredit’
Nobel Winner Yunus: Microcredit Missionary
Can Technology Eliminate Poverty?
Losing its lustre
Peace Prize to Pioneer of Loans to Poor No Bank Would Touch by By CELIA W. DUGGER
Excerpts From Nobel Peace Prize Citation
Nobel winner Yunus pledges to help end poverty
Nobel award gives impetus to poverty battle: Yunus

As economists say India must excel in manufacturing to provide employment to its teeming millions. And fortunately for India, it has proved almost in every industry its capability to become world class. Both public and private sectors have done wonderfully excellent to grow even after all political constraints.

Some big names in public sector manufacturing units include BHEL (power generation and distribution equipment), BMEL (earthmoving machines), HMT (machine tools of all types), and HAL (aircrafts, helicopters). Many more have gone sick because of the problem because the ownership with the government. However, each one had the capability, human resources with technical talent and could have become world-class manufacturers, if the government would have granted the autonomy and encouraged sound governance.

The Indian manufacturing companies in private sector are doing fine and today quite a number of the enterprises are globally competitive. The names in this category include Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, L&T, Hero Honda, Suzlon (wind mills manufacturer), Videocon and Ashok Leyland. But many smaller companies such as Bharat Forge, Amtek Auto, Crompton Greaves, Shanthi Gears, Carborundum Universal (grinding wheels), and Kirloskar Oil Engines are also having potential to get into the list of global companies. And there are even companies like Essel Propack (manufacturing laminated tubes) and Moser Baer (manufacturing digital data storage discs) that are already global though many mayn’t be knowing about them.

I personally feel some big companies such as HMT, Hindustan Motors and even Tata Motors could have helped spreading the manufacturing wider and deeper if the companies would have encouraged its employees to be entrepreneurs at the right time. Many technocrats could have become the suppliers of components, subassemblies, and services. The companies sold out its equipment such automatic machines, and presses, when it decide to go for farming out as policy. The companies could have offered the machines and equipment to the employees on verge of retirement and could have developed them as sources that could have served the industry as well as the society.

The public sector units as well as the defense and railway manufacturing enterprise have still not gone for outsourcing the components and subassemblies in big way retaining huge number of employees. And that it must to bring better productivity and that will create a lot of new entrepreneurs too in manufacturing.

This is a time when India could attract the manufacturing companies with the contemporary technologies in West Germany and Japan to come and set up its plants in India, even if necessary with special concessions. I think India must not allow anyone and everyone to come and start its shop. They must be some with outstanding background of technological excellence from whom the country can get benefited on long term. What can India learn from Salim Group and its motorcycle plant?

Chinese miracles in manufacturing sector are credited to its superb world-class infrastructure. How can manufacturing have a competitive transaction and transportation costs without fast lane roads, fast handling ports and airports, and power without outages? Can India match its infrastructure construction for bringing in manufacturing sector to a respectable percentage?

Now almost for sometime, India is averaging an annual growth in excess of 8%. The growth rate must touch 9-10% ‘to make a decisive impact on poverty and to provide productive employment for millions of unemployed young population’. Many experts believe that to be achievable for India. But India will have to improve upon its agricultural and manufacturing growth. While there is limitation for the growth of agriculture, manufacturing can grow faster easily.

Manufacturing today constitutes barely 17 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Indian manufacturing must grow at the rate higher than 12%. Manufacturing in India must become competitive to attract investment. The job creation for over 40 million registered unemployed will languish without the investments for many green-field projects as well as expansions from both, the domestic manufacturers as well as foreign ones. Manufacturing can be the only bridge to draw away at least some of the 56 per cent of the populace dependent on agriculture that are highly unproductively employed.

Manufacturing very lately is doing fine touching a figure of 10-12%, but the growth is to be sustained and further improved. Better infrastructure is a necessity for the growth of manufacturing. It means some effective implementation drive to the infrastructure projects that are in pipeline. The country must think of some out-of-the box solution to sort out the problem of power availability and rural electrification. Manufacturing can neither accelerate nor add in its contribution share without power. Rural India can’t participate in manufacturing without rural electrification.

On both the fronts, the work is already in progress. Plans for building huge generation capacities with gas or coal based mega power projects, hydroelectric projects, and nuclear ones, are in hands. Rural electrification is moving fast under Bharat Nirman initiatives. However, as even the Prime Minister of the country confessed if India could control the losses. A ruthless even though unpopular initiative can reduce drastically the high transmission and distribution losses that account for almost 40% of the electricity produced.

Recently, the Prime Minister talked about the investment in infrastructure:

Infrastructure – defined broadly to include road, rail, air and water transport, electric power, telecommunications, water supply and irrigation – will need about Rs. 14,50,000 crore or US$ 320 billion in the next five years.

In the roads sector, the four-laning of the Golden Quadrilateral though delayed is getting nearly completed by the year-end. And a program for six-laning the entire Golden Quadrilateral on a BOT basis has already been approved along with another program for developing 1,000 km of expressways.

Railways with strong bottom line are preparing an ambitious investment program- private container trains, dedicated freight corridors, development and modernization of stations, setting up logistics parks and warehousing.

In addition to upgrading and modernizing Delhi and Mumbai airports and setting up airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad through private developers, a plan for the development of 35 non-metro airports by AAI has been approved.

The government is planning to develop 76 new berths by 2012 of which 53 are to be undertaken through PPPs.

Mukesh Ambani recently promised to build a port in Navi Mumbai. Car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki is planning to team up with multinational automobile major Nissan Motor Company for developing a dedicated port to ship out vehicles. Infrastructure sector is becoming attractive enough to draw many similar proposals.

The growth story of the telecom sector is inspirational to believe all these to happen fast. ‘The target of 15% teledensity set for the year 2010 will be realised this year itself and that also with another big achievement of its cost of service today being lower than that in any other country in the world.’

All these will facilitate manufacturing sector to be attractive too.

As the Prime minister tells, “A fascinating story is unfolding and the entire world is watching with wonder the emergence of India as a major economic force.”

Read: Power theft short-circuiting growth

How are things in China?

For many years, I never had chance to hear and read so many good news about the achievements of Indian men and women on a single day. Do you agree with me?

France to honour Amitabh with civilian distinction Amitabh Bachchan received the perfect birthday present as he turned 64 on Wednesday, October 11, when the French government announced it would honour him with its highest civilian award, the Officer of the Legion of Honour. “France has decided to honour Mr Amitabh Bachchan with the honour for his contibution to Indian and international cultural life,” a spokesperson of the French Embassy said.

Kiran Desai wins Booker Prize LONDON: Indian-origin writer Kiran Desai has scooped the 50,000 pound Man Booker Prize with her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss’ , a story rich with sadness about globalisation and with joy at the small surviving intimacies of Indian village life. The 35-year-old author, daughter of well-known Indian novelist Anita Desai — to whom The Inheritance of Loss is dedicated — is the youngest woman to win the award, eclipsing the works of five other short-listed authors.

India’s power puff girls rule Fortune list LONDON: Three Indian women — ICICI Bank Deputy Managing Director Chanda Kochhar, HSBC India CEO Naina Lal Kidwai and Biocon head Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw — have been named among the world’s 50 most powerful businesswomen by the Fortune magazine. The global recognition for the country’s three businesswomen comes close on the heels of Indra Nooyi, the India-born head of global soft drink giant PepsiCo, being named as the most powerful business women in the US by the same magazine. Her name does not figure in this global list of 50 published in the magazine’s latest European edition as she has been named in the American list.

Manmohan dazzles Cambridge CAMBRIDGE: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the man who presides over the destiny of a billion people on Wednesday assumed the form of an obedient pupil as he returned to his alma mater five decades after his graduation to receive an honorary degree with a stirring speech outlining his vision for a more egalitarian world.

Veeru and Veena Nagpal have a nice way of socializing. Every Monday at 4.30PM, few old and retired gentlemen and mostly ladies get together at his residence, and sing religious songs (bhajans and kirtans). We reached today a little early. Veeru and me were two males sitting in one corner. And as usual, some conversation started. Veeru enquired about my views on the large-scale suicides of the farmers in the country. (Veeru runs a NGO also for waste management in Noida.) I have my own opinion about these suicides that I shared with him:

Farmers are of two categories- the landless ones taking land from the land holding farmers to till on rent against certain cash or percentage of the produce and the others with land of their own. The list of deceased constitutes farmers of the both categories. We are to differentiate between the two categories. The landless tillers never consider the land as their own and don’t bother much to get the best out of the land. They just wish to have yield good enough to pay the rent and get some extra to carry on. However, those with land of their own are ambitious, take to new ways of farming, and do take risks sometimes a little more than what they should.

However, the main issue is the profitability of farming. Can it give earning (output price-input cost) good enough to sustain the family that own the land or till the land at rent?

It is either the government through minimum support price or the buyer generally the traders in business in the open market decide the farmer produce’s unit price. Open market traders normally try to pay the minimum that they can manage taking advantage of the prevailing situation (both of the market and personal urgency of the farmer) when the crops get ready for sale. With no other source of income to run the day-to-day expenses and under the pressure to return the loans taken for the inputs in farming, the farmers are not in position to store the produce to sell it when the price is the best that he can get. Sometimes, even they lack the facilities to store.

The biggest reason of farmers’ miseries is the poor price that they get for their produce. Normally the farmers receive too tiny a proportion of the price their produce gets when eventually sold at to the direct consumers. The more are the middlemen, the lesser is the proportion. Can the proportion be improved by cutting down the middlemen? If the government can find a practical way for that, it can be a win-win situation for both the consumers and the producer farmers. Farmers can get better price through contract farming, when there is a reliable corporate buyer is to lift the produce as soon as it is ready. ITC procurement through e-Choupal is a success story and so are the PepsiCo and other MNCs initiatives for contract farming. However, the interest of farmers must be monitored through some independent agencies so that the buyers of the farmers’ produce don’t exploit them. Farmers may also be trained and helped to do some value addition to their produce to get a better price, if possible. It will also mean some more employment opportunities in rural areas of the country.

Naturally, the second biggest problem is about the financing of the inputs for the farming. Most of the farmers don’t maintain a fund for the farming inputs. Neither do they keep a bank account. Less than a third of India’s population is connected to the banking system. In rural India, the proportion will be even worse. The farmers are among them. Most of them are to depend on private moneylenders, who charge huge interest that keeps on accumulating with a little lapse, and it is many times more than the regular banks charge. Why can’t here be a special drive to bring all the farmers in some tie up with the banking system that can separate out the credibility of individual farmers based on the past records and provide credits as and when required by the farmers?

Many things can be done to improve the conditions of the farmers, but they must understand today that cultivation or farming is also a management and it requires the desired skill to succeed. It can’t be any more done in adhoc manner, as was the practice many years ago when the landholdings used to be substantial. Moreover, the extra effort for some additional earning through horticulture, fisheries and livestock farming will also be essential, where all the family members must work physically forgetting the social restrictions and practices.

I am not convinced that the suicides of farmers relate only to failures of crops. As I understand the reasons for indebtedness for the farmers used to be four: family functions such as son/daughter’s marriage or even for the ritual after the death of the family member; legal expenses; child education; and emergency medical expenses. We never heard of indebtedness because of the excessive expenditure in farming. A detail study by some institution with expertise is necessary to understand the real causes and take preventive steps. No amount of adhoc payment as charity to the deceased family can be of any help for the solution of the social problems.

I was amazed when someone suddenly asked me if I knew that it was only in Congress ruled states. I didn’t reply.

PS.Two farmers of Maharashtra -Vivek Mahajan and Maya Lambat-are, in their own little way, trying to ensure that the spate of suicides abates. Mahajan-a qualified architect who divides his time equally between his practice in Chennai and farming in Karanjalad village in the suicide belt of Vidarbha-is trying to bring small farmers together and work towards making agriculture more viable for them. Mahajan grows mangoes, custard apples, sweet lime and amla on his 25-acre orchard. Lambat has helped 24 farmers in her village set up vermiculture systems; and is also advising farmers to explore fruit cultivation and teaching them how to grow seeds at home so they can cut costs.

India is really sparkling. My reasons for getting this inference are simple.

The latest issue of ‘The Economist’ has published a survey on talent. I consider both- ‘The Economist’ and ‘The NewYork Times’ as not very congenial to India. I go by the amount of attention they give to China vs. India, perhaps that is also a business strategy. But the survey that is very extensive is having many favourable references for India; rather China appears along with India. There are eight articles-The battle for brainpower; Everybody’s doing it ; The world is our oyster; Opening the doors; Nightmare scenarios; Masters of the universe; The revenge of the bell curve; Meritocracy and its discontents. (subscription necessary)

I quote from the first article- “The battle for brainpower”:

‘

India and China are adding billions of new cheap workers and consumers to the world economy.’

‘Both India and China are suffering from acute skills shortages at the more sophisticated end of their economies. Wage inflation in Bangalore is close to 20%, and job turnover is double that (“Trespassers will be recruited” reads a sign in one office). The few elite institutions, such as India’s Institutes of Technology, cannot meet demand. India’s Licence Raj destroyed management skills, while China’s Confucian tradition still emphasises “face” over innovation.’

‘The training budget at Infosys, an Indian tech giant, is now well above $100m.’

‘How can India talk about its IT economy lifting the country out of poverty when 40% of its population cannot read?’

‘Over the past decade multinational companies have shipped back-office and IT operations to the developing world, particularly India and China.

‘India and China are trying to entice back some of their brightest people from abroad.’

The article “The world is our oyster” is mostly on India. The survey doesn’t have any such article on China. Some quotes from it are:

“

THE Infosys campus on the outskirts of Bangalore looks like a chunk of the rich world that has been reassembled amidst the dust and debris of India.”

“The software giant now has annual revenues of $2.2 billion and 58,000 employees. But it is just one of a hundred companies in Bangalore’s Electronics City. Bangalore is India’s software capital, with 140,000 software engineers (more than in Silicon Valley, the locals boast). The signs are a list of the world’s biggest IT companies, from multinationals such as Hewlett-Packard and Motorola to home-grown giants such as Infosys and Wipro.”

“Every year India produces around 2.5m university graduates, including 400,000 engineers and 200,000 IT professionals. India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) calculates that the country has 28% of the world’s IT offshore talent.”

“Almost 400 of the companies ranked highest by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University are in India. Now they want to become world-class and get into more sophisticated areas such as “integrated solutions” and consulting by adopting the latest productivity-boosting techniques, such as applying lean-manufacturing techniques to software development, a favourite strategy at Wipro.”

The article “Opening the doors” mentions as below:

“There are an estimated 20m Indians living abroad, generating an annual income equal to 35% of India’s gross domestic product.”

“NASSCOM estimates that in 2001-04 some 25,000 Indian techies returned home, and the number is rising rapidly. A survey of Indian executives living in America found that 68% were actively looking for opportunities to return home, and 12% had already decided to do so; and a survey of graduates of the elite All India Institute of Medical Sciences who were living abroad found that 40% were ready to go home.”

“The brain drain is giving way to brain circulation, and returning émigrés are turning into economic dynamos. One example is Dr Prathap Reddy, a returnee from America, who established the Apollo Hospitals Group, one of Asia’s largest and the first to attract foreign investment.”

The article “Nightmare scenarios” starts with: “INDIA’S high-tech enclaves exude euphoria. Proud techies take their parents on tours of company campuses. Proud parents boast that their children earn more than the rest of the family combined. Mr Nilekani of Infosys says that his company’s greatest achievement is not its $2 billion turnover but the fact that it has taught Indians to redefine the possible.”

 Vir Sanghvi wrote an article- ‘The Indians Are Coming’ in ‘Hindustan Times’ on Sunday, October 8, about his impressions on the Frankfurt Book Fair, where India was the Guest of Honour this year. 700 literature/culture people from India were present there. Sanghvi writes, ” When they (Germans) asked me in Frankfurt if I thought that the power of India’s educated middle class represented a threat to them. I said, quite honestly, that it did. And when they asked if they should be frightened, I was as honest. Be scared, I said, be very scared. The Indians are coming.
 
 And then I read two news items one in Telegraph about Hollywood in India that reads as below:

Calcutta, Oct. 7: It’s raining Hollywood in India this year. After Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in autumn, it’s all set to be Nicole Kidman in winter.

The second one appeared in ‘Express India’ as well as Times of India of Sunday about a possibility of Jagdish Bhagawati getting the Nobel for economy this year. I wish he could do this. It is an overdue honour that must go to Bhagawati. How nice it would have been if the Western power had helped Shashi Tharoor to get to the top position of UN? India will have to attain supremacy in knowledge and convert its strength to become a real economic power as China has already done. Rest will automatically follow.

Is not India sparkling with achievements, and hopes for achieving the goal?

Latest
And, unfortunately like Shashi Taroor, Jagdish Bhagwati also could not make it to Nobel.

I could resist the temptation of writing on a subject so dear to my heart. I remember my love for fresh milk in childhood unlike the children of the present generation who like everything but milk. I also remember the comings of ‘Punjabi’ cows and buffalos from the cattle fairs in the village in later years and hordes of villagers coming from the nearby habitations to see them. Now all those desi cows have gone, and we get to see only ‘Jersi’ cows. It was only very late that I came to understand that they are named so after a state in US. When I saw today this table comparing organic and conventional cows in Business ‘Week’, I thought I share this with my readers. Some may get inspired to switch over to organic cows.

Organic and conventional cows have one thing in common: They produce milk. Rest of the features establishes the difference.

While the average life span of a conventional cow is 4-5 years that of organic cows are 10+ years.

Conventional cow produces 54 pounds as average daily milk output, while the organic cow produces only 43+ pounds. Organic output can be 20% less, in part because farmers often don’t push the animals as hard.

The conventional cow’s primary diet is silage, hay, and commercial feed that can include corn, barley, fish meal, and potato waste. For the organic cow the primary feed is grass from pastureland and hay with some organic feed.

And the additives/medicines for the conventional cow is bioengineered growth hormones, antibiotics, whereas that for the organic cow is occasional vitamins and herbs.

Conventional cows are kept in dairy “feed lots” or barns, sometimes in stalls where they are machine milked; the living quarters for organic cows spacious barns or stalls, lots of outdoor time. For conventional cows, the artificial inseminations are used for breeding. For organic cows, breeding is through mating with bulls.

Can India try exploring the huge organic food market of US, as it is the topmost milk producer of the world and can further increase, if like the attempt of second green revolution it goes for second white revolution too?

China has tried for entering the US market, and has been discarded till date. The critics say it’s simply hard to reconcile chemical-free farming with a nation that continues to make DDT and use pesticides on a mass scale. And China’s organic farms aren’t exactly the small, family-run enterprises many consumers expect.

I wish some Indian farm enthusiasts took the challenges to enter US organic market that is growing fast and succeed.