दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

AAP must be a nationally accountable and responsible party, if it wishes to be a party with difference with sole vision of serving the common people. AAP must also be more democratic and inclusive in real sense.

The differing statements on formation of government in Delhi made by Prashant Bhushan and Kejriwal is confusing and may make Kejriwal look authoritarian to the people pretty soon.

Kejriwal on one hand, appeals to good people of all organisations to join his party, on the other hand he is not ready to take support of eight MLAs of Congress Party. If he is a strong leader, he must accept them and be able to change those eight individuals as true followers of his philosophy and policies. These eight individuals are hardly interested in Congress and its policies. They are just people leaders who have won on their own merits.

If Kejriwal wishes to be a political force, he will have to be realistic and decisive. He will have to be ready to join coalition. He must be confident enough to change the mindset of the MLAs or the political party who wish to join him or whom he joins. Further, Kejriwal and his colleagues must show their administrative capability. People want to see that. When he is not ready to support BJP or accept Congress support to form government, he is not showing the responsibility that the people of Delhi wish him to take. Further, has he taken a feedback from those who voted about his decision to not form government with support from the two major national parties?

On national level, Kejriwal must not confuse the younger generation, if he is not sure of winning outright majority in parliament and if he is not ready to take part in a coalition government. Let him also understand that many of his voters were to vote for BJP. And he should not be so sure that the reelection will make him win with clean sweep. Voters of the country are very much unpredictable. His own leaders were not sure about the numbers of winning candidates even a day before the result.

Indian manufacturing is at its lowest point in the last 10 years, but top executives think its long-term prospects are robust, according to a report released by lobby group Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with Boston Consulting Group (BCG).The share of manufacturing in the gross domestic product was 15.1% in the 2013 fiscal year, the lowest in a decade. The UPA government had started well with setting up of National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, and the last year came out its manufacturing policy with many good ideas to boost manufacturing sector. However, it didn’t pursue it the way it would have been done.One hardly notice any significant trends that can make this country a manufacturing power. India is far behind in manufacturing even in comparison with countries such as Thailand and Malaysia.

However, 70% of top executives surveyed by BCG still expect manufacturing to grow faster in the next five years as compared with the last five. Companies are also more confident about exports. There has been a 16% increase in exports compared to 2012, adds the report, titled ‘Powering Past Headwinds- Indian Manufacturing: Winning in an era of Shocks, Swings and Shortages’. The country targets to achieve its export target of $325 billion in the current financial year.

It is good that in the present slowdown, many companies are initiating strategies to export. As a good balancing practice, 30 percent of revenue should come from export.Some companies are on the way to do that. For example, more than two-fifths of Crompton Greaves’ consolidated sales come from the international business.

MNCs in India are also gradually realising the need of making India its export base. US-based auto maker Ford Motor is looking to make India its global manufacturing hub for small cars and low displacement engines. Ford India will export to 50 countries from the present 37 once the Sanand facility is ready. Ford is investing $1 billion at Sanand in Gujarat.

Swedish commercial vehicle giant Volvo plans to sell Eicher-branded trucks across various markets in south-east Asia and Africa using its sales network and has made India a global hub for sourcing medium-duty engines for trucks and buses. Volkswagen India is also exporting Ventos to Mexico.

Renault exported 6,358 units of its compact SUVs Duster to eight countries between April and September, and Ford exported 4,500 EcoSport units, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam).

Even small Indian companies are getting into global market through acquisition route. In the year 2008, Symphony Ltd acquired Mexico based Impco Air Coolers, a cooler manufacturing company that patented the cooling technology called ‘evaporative cooling’ and one of the largest global manufacturers of industrial and commercial air coolers.

Some foreign manufacturing companies are also setting up or expanding their manufacturing facilities in India.

Shanghai Hitachi, a JV between China-based Highly Group and Japanese firm Hitachi AP, leading air-conditioner (AC) compressor manufacturers commissioned India’s largest air-conditioning compressor plant in Ahmedabad which has been set up at an investment of $72 million (Rs 450 crore).

American conglomerate General Electric Company (GE) is planning to make India a manufacturing hub, “but for the world.” India can be the best manufacturing destination in the world, especially in hitech items like aviation, gas and steam turbines. GE is setting up a manufacturing facility at Chakan near Pune with an investment of $200 million. The plant will locally manufacture a host of different aviation and turbo machinery components and wind turbines.

The Auto component industry has a lot of potential to expand its exports. It must diversify and focus on high value added items such as electronics component. Exports in 2012-13 were at $10 billion while imports were higher at around $13 billion. However, almost 80 per cent of the exports was to the global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

The companies in auto components are working hard for keeping itself competitive and building its basic strengths. Rane Brake Lining Ltd won the Deming Grand Prize 2013, the highest award in Total Quality Management. Seven from India to have won this prize.

One can easily see the future of manufacturing sector improving significantly with the Industrial Corridors such the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor that is already under implementation. A proposal to set up the Amritsar-Kolkata industrial corridor is also under consideration.

The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) “plans” to develop seven greenfield future cities in six states and integrate them with the Indian Railways’ dedicated freight corridor. By 2017, the 1,483-km dedicated freight corridor is expected to transport goods from the north to the ports on the western coast within 12-13 hours, a task which currently takes 12-13 days.

Bajaj Auto and Hero Motocorp are examples of success of Indian manufacturing sector. They keep on surprising the market with new policies and products.

The world’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero Motocorp shocked the market by announcing a five-year warranty across its motorcycles/scooters purchase (five years or 70,000 km in case of motorcycles and five years or 50,000 km for scooters) against the norm of offering a year or two of warranty on a two-wheeler. Rajiv Bajaj has kept Bajaj Auto on right track with blessings from his father legendary Rahul Bajaj.

While the launch of Manglayan and its successful progress towards Mars has been a moment of pride for India, it also tells a story of the strength of India’s manufacturing sector. A number of private and public manufacturing companies provided its parts.

Pune based Walchandnagar Industries Ltd (WIL) had manufactured the rocket motor casings and nozzles for the 44.4 meter Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that carried the spacecraft Mangalyaan into the space. Many other critical components and hardware, nozzles as well as PS0XL motor cases were also manufactured at WIL.

A new generation of manufacturing companies creates hope in the future of manufacturing sector.
NTL is today the largest maker of electronic drivers and ballasts that run modern lights. It has around 5,000 employees. NTL also contract manufactures CFLs for Indian lighting brands.

Some Indian mobile phone manufacturers are working on the business model of Apple of US. Micromax is one that one day may be a top player for Indian consumers.

Interestingly, some Indian manufacturing companies are trying to get into China too.

CRI Pumps would manufacture and also market its select range of products in China and aim for a considerable market share backed by its strong manufacturing and advanced technology. CRI is the first pump manufacturer from India to have its 100% wholly owned subsidiary company in China intended for manufacturing and marketing specific products. CRI will manufacture few select ranges of High end energy efficient pumps in its China Facility.

And one can and must really appreciate the amount of wealth that comes to even poor due to industrialisation and manufacturing that creates employment.

Manufacturing must be the main stay of the country’s growth.

Finally, Indian manufacturers must appreciate the necessity of innovations and invest prudently for it. That only can make it compete with global players effectively.

I wrote in one of the earlier entries how I could lay hand on only a small note book the Anand’s house in Cary, NC that had a tag of ‘Made in India’. While in Austin, one day during my morning walk I discovered a good number of manhole covers that have been sourced from India with ‘Made in India’ tag.

I saw a number of paintings and furniture items coming to to the house of Rajesh. Both have developed good tastes for decorating the residence. Rajesh surprisingly, revealed that one set of side tables are having ‘Made in India’ tags. ( on the left side of the photograph below, the stool, the two steel side stands)

And while writing this, I came another item with a ‘Made in India’ tag. The cover shown below of an Yamaha flute bears the tag of ‘Made in India’ for the cover.

Wherever I have gone for shopping with Anand in Cary or with Rajesh in Austin, or earlier in New York or places in California earlier, be it big retail shops of Walmart, Target, Macy’s or the seasonal shops selling items for Halloween, or outlets of Home Depot or Bath, Bed and Beyond, I find the overwhelming presence of household products sourced not only from China but also from many developing countries including Southeast Asian countries and South American or African countries. The presence of ‘Made in India’ has been just rare. Why are Indian manufacturers so visibly absent from American market?

Though only few in India dares to enter in manufacturing enterprises, but there are exceptions too. Many have succeeded in making a breakthrough.Mithun Chittilappilly had taken V-Guard Industries, an electrical appliances manufacturing company founded by his father Kochouseph Chittilappilly in 1977, to a new height.

Some though small have gone even global. Even big business houses are diversifying in high tech manufacturing and even in defence production, though the PSUs such as HAL are not gearing itself to its user requirements.

It is really interesting read a news report. “Several containers of packaged food products carrying imported chocolates, crispies, gourmet cheese, olive oil, biscuits, noodles, pasta, jams, honey, oats and sauces, etc, have been recently blocked at various ports and airports across the country, in the absence of a clearance from FSSAI. About 50-55 per cent of packaged food imports in India happen during the festive season, since it is utilised mainly for gifting, apart from consumption.Government sources indicate packaged foods worth Rs 750-1,000 crore was stuck at various ports and airports across the country.” With a critical CAD (Current Account Deficit), are such imports justified? Unfortunately, in the name of free market the government has become so liberal for importing almost everything and has forgotten the old policy of phased local manufacturing policy that the Chinese pursued to get into manufacturing sector in big way.

Let India take lessons from Germany and Japan and focus on the manufacturing sector rather than emulating wrongly England and US:
“Germany possesses a strong and well-developed mechanical-engineering industry with a solid tradition and foundation and enjoys a leading status in technology development, again with strong support from the government.”

India needs more and more industrialists and entrepreneurs of the breed of Brijmohan Lall Munjal and Anand Mahindra.

After retirement, my only past time has been reading a lot and a very little writing too, including this entry too. But whenever I am in US, it is more intensive and purposeful.

During my almost six-months stay in 2005, I regularly spent about four-five hours of afternoon in ‘Borders’, the bookshop in San Jose. Anand used to leave there after my lunch and pick me while coming back from his office. Later on Borders got closed. In Cary, where Anand shifted in 2010, the location of Barnes and Noble is not convenient. However, I did go for few days. I preferred these bookstores rather than the local libraries, as I could access the latest books and particularly magazines and journals, and thus keep on tracking the latest views on the subjects of my interest.

This year with almost perfect eyesight after the cataract operations of both the eyes, I focused on few books that were available with Anand in Cary and Rajesh in Austin. In Cary, I went through two of John Keay’s history books- ‘India: A History’, that I had brought here in 2010. I got his another very revealing book, ‘India Discovered’ that I purchased through Amazon this time. The book reveals how the history of ancient India was written after various revelations by the officers of East India Company and other Europeans through deep archeological studies, explorations and excavations. None but just one Indian archeologist, and historian, Rakhal Das Banerji had any mention in the book.

“Alexander Cunnigham, the Archeological Surveyor, while touring the Punjab in the winter of 1872-3 investigated Harappa ruins (now in Pakistan). But by that time, more than a hundred miles of track had been ballasted with bricks from Harappa by the railway contractors of Lahore-Multan line.”

It was R. D. Banerji, ‘one of Sir John Marshall’s Indian recruits’, discovered Mohenjo-daro and the famous seal and recognised it as belonging to the same class as those on the Harappan seals. Marshall himself, descended on Mohenjo-daro for the 1925-6 season and was impressed by its drainage system. The houses, which were unexpectedly roomy, had each its own well and bathroom, from where a waste pipe connected with covered conduits which ran the length of every street and alley. They were built of finely chiselled brick ‘ laid with a precision that could hardly be improved upon’. This implied a ‘social condition of the people much in advance of what was then prevailing in Mesopotamia and Egypt’.”

Surprisingly, even now Noida where I live in India, most of the drains are open.

In Austin, I have gone through a book on World WarII that Rajesh would have bought for Svanik. Let me confess I hardly knew anything about the war that changed the face of the world. It is strange to even think how Japan could have gone for a war with US, and a man from Germany could massacre the whole of Europe and particularly the Jews.

Presently, I am going through DK’s ‘History‘ with Adam Hart Davis as editorial consultant. I shall like to share some of the things:

“Flint tipped dental drills, found in Indus Valley, date back as far as 7000 BCE. Teeth in remains found nearby showed signs of a skilful drilling to remove rotten dental tissue…….

Herbalism is also central to Ayurvedic medicine, which originated in the Vedic period of India shortly before 1000BCE……The Ayurvedic system is typical of the approach to science and technology that began to emerge in India during the 1st millennium BCE. People began to think rationally, organise their thoughts, discuss them with others, and derive theories. This approach led not only to an encyclopaedic knowledge of human anatomy and of a vast range of diseases, but also to well thought out systems of diagnosis and treatment- the basis of modern medicine. (Page 52)
The Ayurvedic system flourished across the Indian subcontinent. Its main exponent was Sushruta, whose 6th- century BCE work Sushruta Samhita describes more than 100 surgical procedures. Many historians of medicine refer to him as the ‘Father of Surgery’.”(page 53)

All these readings make me proud of our heritage and will also do that to many countrymen.

It is interesting that even today most of the research works about Harappa and Mahenjo-daro has shifted from the historians in UK to those in US.

This visit to US has been very exciting till now. We completed a stay of more than two months with Anand at Cary. We are now in Austin with Rajesh. In Cary, we met many parents from India and one couple from Pakistan too. Here below is a group photo.

In ‘Harmony’ community, Cary, the number of Indians owning the properties is pretty significant. Families from Andhra Pradesh are in majority. It was pleasant to see even the women from rural Andhra driving big utility vehicles. And it is because of these youngsters that so many parent are visiting US every year which they could not have dreamt otherwise.

Interestingly, these Indian young men and women have expertise and engagement in varied professions. I found one young Andhra woman running two pre-school centres. Some are working as doctors. But I was excited to meet the mechanical engineer from Andhra who works in the quality control of John Deere manufacturing facility here. However, the majority of young Indians are in big and small units in IT sector that are in TRP such as CISCO and IBM.

I can’t but write about the Pakistani couple- Mohamad Akbar and Suraiya. They are very simple ones from rural background and with very little formal education and knowledge. Suraiya got her eyes operated for cataracts here in Cary. They kept on talking about the very high cost of the operation. Lately, we used to go in evening to a meeting point created by the Housing association by fixing up two benches in one corner. I used to call Suraiya as Jodhabai. It was through Suraiya that we got acquainted with each other. Actually, Suraiya one day had lost her way to her daughter’s house. We had helped her to get back to the right place. She was almost crying and was helpless because of her inability to communicate in the languages the people here knew. (On left side in the photograph)

I met a family from Kolkata too. I used to meet Balay Chaudhry while going to drop Emma to her elementary school. One evening we visited the house of his daughter, Sukanya and her husband Surya.It was because Balay had invited us.We went for some adda, typical in Bangal and had tea too. Both Sukanya and Surya are from Indian Statistical Institute, Baranagar, Kolkata. Surya teaches in the university and Sukanya works for some consultant firm.

It was a great evening.