दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

जिदंगी कब कहाँ किस हालात में दगा दे मालूम नहीं ? अमरीका प्रवास में यह प्रश्न बार बार सताया । यह एक अनावश्यक चिन्ता थी , पर निदान मेरे वश के बाहर था । दो बार ऐसा हुअ। ।

बहुत सारी तकलीफें हैं, पर बारह साल पहले हुआ हार्ट आपरेशन और घाव के सिलाइ के ऊपर के कोलवायड की खुजली बहुत तकलीफ देती है । बहुत रातों को डराती भी है।आपरेशन भारत प्रसिद्ध डाक्टर के हाथों Escorts Heat Centre में हुइ थी ।हर साल उनके कहने अनुसार अच्छी फीस दे जांच भी करवाता रहा हूँ ।पर डाक्टर मेरी खुजली का कोई उपचार नहीं बताये । अत: डाक्टर के पास जाने की इच्छा नहीं होती , शायद डर भी लगता है ।

पर अगर मैं अपने को समझदार मानता हूँ तो ऐसा नहीं होना चाहिये। शायद डॉक्टरी सलाह जरूरी है।उम्र तो अपना कारनामा दिखाएँगी ही ।

उम्र के ऊपरांत भी सामने से दिखनेवाले दाँत साथ हैं, खानेवाले कुछ अपने निकल गये, कुछ तकलीफ की शिकायत पर डॉक्टरों ने निकाल दिये । पर खानेवाले दाँत की जरूरत महशुश होती है । कबतक दाँत की कमजोरी के बहाने मन मारा जाये खाने की टेबल पर । कल जब यमुना की मांग पर चिक्‍की लाया तो अपने दाँत की कमजोरी को देखते हुए अपने लिये गज्जक लाया । खाने की चीजों का चुनाव बड़ी सावधानी से करता हूँ जिससे दांतों का सहारा न लेना पड़े । साथ ही खाने में कमी भी आ गयी है, जो सेहत के लिये उचित ही है ।

यही हाल आखों का भी है । पढ़ने में तकलीफ होती है, पर काम चला रहा हूँ । आपरेशन आसान होता है आजकल पर फिर भी डर लगता है और टाले जा रहा हूँ ।समाचार पत्र खरीदना बंद कर दिया क्योंकि पढ़ना मुश्किल हो रहा था । ऐपल का भला हो और आनंद द्वारा दिये आइ-पैड का । उसी की सहायता से सब अखबार और ई-बुक में उपलब्ध किताबें पढ़ लेता हूँ । हां, एक बात और, मंद दृष्टि हो जाने के कारण सभी चीजें ज़्यादा सुंदर दिखतीं हैं ।

डॉक्टरों से डर लगता है ।बड़ी फीस, सब तरह के महंगे लैब टेस्ट, और दामी दवाइयों की लम्बी फैहरीस्त । लोग कहते हैं, पाकेटमार भांप जाते हैं की शिकार के पास कितना माल है । डाक्टर भी समझ जाते हैं आसामी कितना मालदार है ।मैं बटुआ कभी नहीं रखा । पर डाक्टर के पास जाने पर हजार, दो हजार जरूर रख लेता हूँ पाकेट में ।सच कहता हूँ – दो बार ऐसा हूआ, डाक्टर ने मेरे पास का सभी पैसा अपनी बिल के एवज में ले लिया । पहला डाक्टर आयुर्वेद के थे और काफी नामी, राष्ट्रपति के डाक्टर होने का बिल्ला था उनके पास ।दूसरा वाक़या नोयडा के एक प्राइवेट अस्पताल का है जहां के मालिक डाक्टर को पहले मैं मिला चुका था ।दोनों ही बार गनीमत था कि पैसे पूरे पड़ गये, नहीं तो लज्जा जनक बात होती ।
आश्चर्य हुआ और प्रश्न आया दिमाग में कैसे डॉक्टरों को मालूम हो गया मेरे पास की धनराशि की बात ।

पिछले हफ्ते मैंने हृदय सम्‍बंधी सब जांच कराइ थी, पर बहुत दिनों तक किसी डाक्टर के पास नहीं गया ।सोचता रहा, कोइ सब रिपोर्ट ले जाता और एक अच्छे डाक्टर से दिखा इसबात की पुष्टि कर देता कि सब ठीक है । ऐसा कोइ नहीं मिला । अब न मैं कोइ इस शरीर पर आपरेशन कराना चाहता हूँ न बहुत सारी दवाइयों का सेवन । खाना कम और सादा कर दिया हूँ । और बस ऐसे ही जीना चाहता हूँ ।

पर आखिर मैं हार गया । पिछले हफ्ते मुझे एक दिन वही तकलीफ हुयी जो अमरीका में आनंद के साथ रहते हुए एक दिन हुयी थी ।सबेरे जब घूमने जाने के लिये तैयार हुआ तो मेरे पैर ठीक नहीं पड रहे थे । डाक्टर का आसरा लेना ही पड़ा, आखिरकार हर साधारण ब्यक्ति की तरह मैं भी डरपोक ही हूँ । तीन गोलियां पहले ही खाता था, चार और बढ़ गयीं ।

जितना ही डॉक्टरों से बचना चाहता हूँ उतना ही कठिन होता जा रहा है । किसी समर्थ सहायक का अभाव मेरी चिंता को और बढ़ा देता है । एेसे जीवन की कल्पना भी न थी ।

Railway Minister Bansal informed Lok Sabha few days back that the Indian Railways have thousands of projects that will require an investment Rs 4 lakh crore or perhaps more but are getting implemented in piecemeal manner. Because of the shortage of fund, some amount is allocated in each budget for each project to see it alive on paper to satisfy the MPs and their constituencies but not enough to get it implemented within a time frame. Is it not a mockery of the development planning?

Many opine the India’s extraordinary growth in the recent past coming in spite of the poor governance. And as one gets into specifics, it becomes clearer and stunning questioning the country’s governance…

All of us in our school learnt about the immense mineral wealth in the form of huge natural deposits in the country. Over the years, all the mining operations got nationalized. The government became the sole owner of the coal mines through companies such as Coal India and so the minister of mines became the big boss. The company went on working on the mines with coal available on the surface. It shunned going underground for mining coal using advanced technology. And let us see how the country suffers today for this shortsighted policy.

Earlier the country lacked generation capacity and the reason was, the government kept on depending only on one public sector company that manufactured the power equipment such as boilers and turbines etc. The policy got some change. The private sector came in for setting up the power plants. The government allowed the import of the power equipment. Even a number of private companies joined the manufacturing of the equipment. It resulted in significant addition of power generation. Now the power plants are not operating to the capacity because of the shortages of coal because of the inefficiency of Coal India and indian Railways, India is to import coal in huge quantity. Both public as well as private power companies are importing and even buying mining companies abroad to run the power plants.

Coal India has neglected underground coal mining. Indian coal seams have a vast Coal Bed Methane (CBM) potential in various coalfields but the government doesn’t wish to invest to bridge knowledge gap and non-availability of suitable technology.

And surprisingly, it is not only the coal that India will have to import. Even iron ores and bauxites or for that matter all the ores available in plenty in India will need to be imported, because of the poor policies of the government and the trouble faced in land acquisition and environmental clearances. The final draft of the proposed Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Bill is still under consideration and modification to suit political whims. The government and the politicians have hardly shown any concerns.

Recent curbs on mining of iron ore in many regions rich in this natural resource have prompted Indian firms to import this key input for the steel industry. The Goa-based Sesa Goa, which has a pig iron plant in the state, has already finalized an order to import 80,000 tonnes of iron ore. Essar Steel has recently imported half a million tonnes of ore for its steel plant located in Gujarat. Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL), which is facing a challenge to run its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh (Odisha) beyond December 5, hopes to get some bauxite from external sources.

Interestingly, India’s import of gold is only next to the crude oil that it lacks. However, its shortage is only because the country doesn’t wish to invest or collaborate on the latest technology to explore the present mines. Shockingly, it wanted to use the kolar mines to dump the nuclear wastes. A BBC report (Please read) is eye opener on this issue. India has explored only 7-9% of their mineral resources, while countries such as Australia have achieved almost 100% geophysical and geochemical surveys. India produces three tonnes of gold a year, while Australia mines 280 tonnes.

How can this sort of governance be tolerated?

In early 90s while working for my company’s truck project with Isuzu Motors, I frequently visited Vadodara. It was not having even a good hotel. While traveling from the city to Halol, where the plant was coming up, it used to be always dry even the so called water bodies on the way. Today, Gujarat is one of the best state but with a slur of 2002.

Modi is ruling Gujarat for almost two terms and facing electorate for the third time. Gujarat has become a model of development under Modi who wishes to compete with China in growth rate and in all fields of activities too. With many blaming Modi to be responsible for 2002 massacre, Gujarat story becomes difficult to understand. Particularly, the major minority community is not ready to forgive Modi and unlike other politicians Modi is not ready to seek public apology. Why can’t the country or a state move ahead forgetting and forgiving few? Why can’t all Indians celebrate the unique and incredible India that is a showcase of secularism? More and more development that Modi preaches will make India more secular. Development only can make the secularism sustainable for all the times to come..

The democratic India is exemplarily secular with all its drawbacks. It is only country with a staunch Hindu Brahmin as President, a person of minority Sikh community as Prime Minister, a Christian as the head of the major ruling political party, a dalit as the country’s speaker, and chief justice of the Supreme Court, vice-president and the foreign minister of the country belonging to Muslim community. Still Muslims vote in block to make the party of their choice win. It has made almost all political parties including the ruling and regional ones doing everything to keep the Muslims on their sides. Today and tomorrow, that may cause serious social problems. Modi, as it appears, hardly worries about it and may be sure of his win because of good governance and rapid development of the state.

Intellectuals and thinkers are also divided in two camps rather they are complicating the issue for the people like me and many like me.

Hindustan Times carried a story, ‘That date in history: Gujarat and 2002’ by Ashok Malik, whom I keep on seeing on various news TV channels and consider as a good thinker. I don’t think that Malik or Hindustan Times have any special love for Modi or BJP. And I wish to share his views that need serious consideration by the major minority community of Gujarat:

“The 10-year period since the violence of 2002 has been the longest phase in contemporary Gujarati history that has not seen a major religious riot… Narendra Modi’s role in this has been under-recognized, largely because his critics and much of the national media don’t want to admit there has been any sort of transformation at all…. Gujarat topped the list of states that got back to the Union home ministry with a numerical count of religious minorities in its police…. Gujarat is far less likely to have a riot today (or tomorrow) than ever earlier in free India. Like it or not, acknowledge it or not, that is also an element of Narendra Modi’s legacy.’

Recently, Bibek Debray, an economist by profession, has published a book on Gujarat and Modi’s role in it. Modi’s Gujarat story is unique in another way. It has given priority to manufacturing and agriculture. Gujarat has come from behind and become a big player in auto mobile manufacturing. I shall like to give one example. “Maruti plans to invest about Rs 8,000 crore in Gujarat for building a 1,110-acre production facility. At full capacity, this facility is expected to churn out 1.5 million cars a year.”

However, every one doesn’t think in the same way. Another article today ’No talisman anymore’ by Harsh Mander in Hindustan Times is almost against Modi and his Gujarat story.“The soil of Gujarat once nurtured the inclusive, ethical, non-violent politics of Mahatma Gandhi. Today it is in the grip of another entirely different kind of politics, aptly described by commentator Tridip Suhrud as ‘hyper-masculine’: divisive, pugnacious, authoritarian and surgically efficient.”

I don’t know when the opposition of Modi will end. What will happen in case Modi somehow becomes Prime Minister, if the majority so decides, as all opinion polls have indicated?

स्कूल फ़ाइनल की परीक्षा के बाद मेरे नज़दीकी दोस्त पूछते थे, कहाँ पढ़ना है आगे, कुछ जानकारी न रहते भी बड़े बिश्वास से कहता था, प्रेसीडेंसी कॉलेज  में । सच कहता हूँ मुझे कुछ पता नहीं था प्रेसीडेंसी के बारे में । बाद में कलकत्ता के प्रेसीडेंसी कॉलेज के अभूतपूर्व इतिहास के बारे में जाना और उसका आशिक हो गया ।बंगाल की सारी महान बिभुतियाँ वहीं से पढ़ कर निकलीं थीं ।

मार्च १९५५में स्कूल फाइनल के बाद मैं गांव चला गया था और मेरे सभी बिरोध के बावजूद भी मेरी शादी यमुना से कर दी गयी थी । हम जब वापस आये बिरलापुर तबतक रिज् लट निकल गया था। मार्क्स  सीट आने पर मैं  दादा जी के साथ कलकत्ता के कॉलेजों में भर्ती के लिये गया । सेंट जेवियर और Scottish Church फार्म दे दिये और प्रवेश परीक्षा की तिथि बता दिये । हम प्रेसीडेंसी पहुंचे ।काउंटर पर बैठा ब्यक्ति पूछा, ‘मार्क सीट लाये हो’। मैंने दे दिया । “फीस का पैसा भी”। दादाजी ने पैसे बढ़ा दिये, भर्ती हो गयी उस कॉलेज में जहां देश के पहले राष्ट्रपति डॉ राजेंद्र प्रसाद भी पढ़े थे । वहाँ से निकल हम कॉलेज के छात्रावास इडेन हिन्दु हॉस्टेल गये । बिरलापुर से रोज़ कॉलेज आना जाना तो सम्भव नहीं था अच्छी तरह पढ़ाइ के लिये ।वहाँ भी कुछ थोड़ी फीस दे प्रवेश मिल गया । यहीं डॉं राजेन्द्र प्रसाद भी रहते थे । हॉस्टल के बाहर दरवाजे पर ही एक संगमरमर की पट्टिका इस सूचना के साथ लगी थी । हम बड़े प्रसन्न थे और शाम तक बिरलापुर लौट आये । हमारे शिक्षकों को बड़ी ख़ुशी हुइ । संस्कृत के अध्यापक, जो  ‘पंडित मोशाइ’ कहे जाते थे, के अनुसार मुझे आर्ट स्ट्रीम लेना चाहिये था ।पर मैंने विज्ञान लिया था, क्योंकि इंजीनियरिंग में जाने के लिये वही जरूरी था ।

कॉलेज और हॉस्टल की जिंदगी कुल ६ साल की रही: प्रेसीडेंसी कॉलेज के लिये दो साल की, इंटरमेडियेट करने के लिये; आइ.आइ.टी, खड़गपुर  के लिये चार साल । दोनों ही जगहों में खाने की बड़ी तकलीफ रही ।हिन्दु हॉस्टल में रसोइयों को मालूम ही नहीं था कि कुछ लोग शुद्ध शाकाहारी होते हैं ।वे दाल, सब्जी सभी में छोटी छोटी चिंगड़ी मछली डाल देते थे ।बंगाल के लोग उसना चावल खाते हैं, जो मैं खा ही नहीं सकता था । कभी कभी हैरिसन ( आज का महात्मा गांधी) रोड के राजपूत ब्रदर्स में जा चार आने की पूड़ी सब्जी खा अपनी भूख मिटाता था । पैसे की भी कमी थी । खडगपुर में समस्या अलग थी । वहाँ के रसोइये सभी तेलांगाना के थे । तबतक  मैं इडली डोसा सॉम्भर देखा भी नहीं था । और उस समय कहीं बाहर भी कुछ नहीं मिलता था ।

एक समस्या हिन्दी माध्यम की मेरी शिक्षा के कारण थी, मैं शायद ही किसी बिषय वस्तु  की बारीकियों को समझ पाता था , क्योंकि सभी शिक्षक अंग्रेजी माध्यम से पढ़ाते थे । आज भी यही हालात है उन सभी लड़कों की जो हिंदी माध्यम से पढ़ उच्च शिक्षा के लिये जाते है ।अंग्रेजी की शिक्षा का स्कूल स्तर पर बहुत अच्छा होना जरूरी है ।अगर यह नहीं हुआ ,तो हम उच्च शिक्षा में पीछे पड़ते जायेंगे।

प्रेसीडेंसी कॉलेज और हिन्दु हॉस्टल का दो साल  १९५५-५७ जिंदगी में बहुत सम्मान दिया । सॉल्ट लेक की म्यूनिस्पेलिटि के सभापति दीलिप गुप्ता जो  मेरे हीं ब्लॉक में रहते बराबर कहते, ‘ शर्मा जी, मैं तो प्रेसीडेंसी के दो लोगों को जानता हूँ एक आप और दूसरे डॉ राजेंद्र प्रसाद’ । उन दो सालों में बहुत सी महान  हस्तियों के दर्शन का सौभाग्य मिला, कुछ से बातचीत भी सम्भव हो सका । डॉ राजेंद्र प्रसाद भी आये, हॉस्टल में भी, वहीं उनसे बात करने का सौभाग्य मिला ।उस समय वे देश के राष्ट्रपति थे ।प्रसिद्ध इतिहासकार सर यदुनाथ सरकार भी एक सरस्वती पूजा के समारोह में हॉस्टल में आये । हॉस्टल के वार्डेन प्रो० अमिय कुमार मजूमदार एक नामी दारशनिक थे ।उन्ही दिनों बंगाल के मुख्य मंत्री डॉ० बिधानचंद्र राय और अशोक सेन को उस क्षेत्र से चुनाव के लिये प्रचार करते देखा ।

मेरा चौथा बिषय जीव विज्ञान था । इसका चुनाव इसलिये किया गया था कि इंजीनियरिंग में दाखिला न मिलने की हालत में  मैं डाक्टर बन सकूं ।इस कक्षा में हिन्दी भाषी केवल एक शुक्ला थे, अन्य हिंदीभाषी मारवाडी थे,उनमें कुछ बहुत हीं धनी थे। उसी समय अहसास हुआ लक्ष्मी के कृपा पात्र सरस्वती के उपासक भी हो सकते हैं ।

कलकत्ता विश्वबिद्यालय की इंटरमिडियट की फाइनल परीक्षा की एक बात सदा याद आती रही है। पहले दिन की पहली परीक्षा केमिस्ट्री की थी, सवाल कठिन आये थे, मन उदाश था, सोच रहा था बाकी परीक्षा दी जाये या नहीं ।कुछ लड़के छोड़ रहे हैं, की अफवाह थी । ठीक उसी समय दादाजी आ गये थे अचानक बिरलापुर से । उन्होने समझाया, मैं पूरी परीक्षा दिया और फल निकलने पर पाया कि अंक भी ठीक हीं मिले । मैं बेकार ही चिंता कर रहा था ।

हिन्दु हॉस्टल में रहते हुए ही मैंने IIT, खड़गपुर का फार्म भरा और BECollege में प्रवेश परीक्षा के लिये बैठा ।ISM, धनबाद के लिये भी Scottish Church College में इंतहान हुआ । दोनों जगह ही दाखिला मिल गया था । दादाजी मुझे कोयला की खानों में मुझे फस्ट क्लास मैनेजर के रूप में देखना चाहते थे, जिससे रुतबा मिले और तनख्वाह भी अच्छी मिले। घर की सम्पन्नता उनकी चाह थी और मेरी भी ।पर धनबाद से भर्ती का न्योता देर से आया और तबतक खडगपुर में पैसा भरा जा चुका था । मैं इंजीनियर बन गया ।

I don’t know if the present political rumblings about the issue of FDI in multi-brand retail that had kept the government worrying and all the TV channels engaged for quite some time now will end soon.

I would have loved to be supporting FDI in multi-brands retail sector. I don’t think that it will mean much of a loss to the small retailers or the kirana shops But I have some apprehensions as some other distinguished persons are also having.

I will like to have any system in place including the FDi that must improve the earnings of the farmers of the low self- life produce such as vegetables and fruits which is very poor today, while the middlemen are flourishing with almost no value addition from them.

As reported, according to the research of Professors Jagdish Bhagwati and Rajeev Kohli, ‘Indian farmers earn typically a third — instead of the international norm of two-thirds — of the final price of their produce because of the greater waste and less efficient distribution.” Further, according to the 40 years long research of Shreekant Sambrani, ‘the farm-gate vegetable price is only about 20 per cent of the final consumer or 25 per cent of the semi-wholesale price.’

I shall be the happiest when I get assured that with FDI reform the farmers get significantly benefited. It has not come even after the entry of organized retail companies owned by Ambani, Goenka and even Mother Dairy. For example let us look at the price the consumers pay for the wheat flour (Atta) of Ashirbaad brand distributed by ITC Ltd. The MRP for 5 kgs is Rs 145- it means Rs 29 for a kilogram. How much does the ITC pay to the farmers? It must not be anything more than Rs 1299 a quintal or 100 kgs.

My second concern is about the Chinese invasion through these global retail MNCs. MNCs entering in FDI in multi-brands must not promote the import of cheap Chinese goods of low technology and household use. US may afford it but not India that must have its own manufacturing sector to cater to these low priority items.

Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz , the Columbia University professor, one of the few economists who predicted the financial crisis of 2008, and who also credited with starting the “1% versus 99%” debate, was recently in India also had the same fear: “The advocates of FDI have probably put too much emphasis on it. India is in a different position than a small, developing country. You have a large pool of entrepreneurs. They are globally savvy, have access to global technology and they have a lot of wealth. So, if there were large returns to large-scale supermarkets, the domestic industry would have supplied it. Not having access to FDI is not an impediment in India. Wal-Mart is able to procure many goods at lower prices than others because of the huge buying power they have and will use that power to bring Chinese goods to India to displace Indian production. So the worry is not so much about the displacement of the small retail store but displacement further down the supply chain.”

Why shouldn’t Wal-Mart and other MNCs enter India retail markets with Indian products and produces only? Did they not start in the same way at the initial stage of the business, as China had not emerged by that time as the global factory? Why shouldn’t they develop Indian source as they did from China?

Further, while thinking about the employment creation by these MNCs in retails, I got reminded of my sons comment in 2005 while I was trying to study some case studies on Wal-Mart. They said the same thing what American intellectuals had expressed and what Arun Jaitley repeated: India will become a nation of ‘salesboys and salesgirls’.

One more point relates to their investment by construction of cold storages, warehouses and other facilities to cut down the wastages in the areas where the vegetables and fruits are grown. I don’t think it to come up without the availability of grid electricity. Running a cold storage based on diesel generators will hardly be viable…

Can the government of India ensure against the maladies in working of the MNCs in retails in India?

If the answer is yes, please go ahead.

In capitalist system a company works for profit and that too for very few of those working for it. However, it is is a poor and short-term strategy. Most of the big companies and business houses in good old days focused on developing human resources in many ways by establishing schools in the residential complexes of their factories, by having a separate and well-equipped training centres. Many such as Birlas used to provide full and free education for the children and even relatives of the employees at Pilani and employ them too if they so wished. Over the years, the new management found it unnecessary burden and cost affecting the profit and thus margin. Newers one joining the business community didn’t appreciate that expenditure and gradually even the old ones found it logical to go out of that.

I can only say that the management of the manufacturing company where I worked or that of Tata’s TELCO, Jamshedpur of our days that I knew we’ll, could have created tens if not hundreds of entrepreneurs in manufacturing as well as service sector that would have benefitted both those companies as well as other companies in the sector as well as the country in general.

Both the factories -one near Kolkata and the other in Jamshedpur, used to manufacture almost all small and big components. Later on they outsourced many of its components discarding or cutting down many manufacturing sections and units and sold its manufacturing equipment. It would have encouraged its willing, skilled and capable employees to buy these equipment on book value. It would have made many entrepreneurs who could have supplied to the parent companies and used the excess capacity to supply to other auto manufacturers.

Both these factories had a lot of very highly skilled persons in various service departments. Many could have set up companies to provide those services such as production engineering, plant services, industrial engineering, etc to the industry. Unfortunately, the management lacked that farsightedness.

Even today, the CEOs hardly take pride in encouraging even those who can’t be accommodated in the organisation and can easily be released for getting into business with the experiences earned.

One of the task of the CEO must also be to find out the talent and encourage them for entrepreneurship. Every big company can produce many entrepreneurs in the same sector or related ones, if the management widens the horizon of the mission of the business without any material loss to the company.

Indian entrepreneurship gets its due respect even in US. In India too, time and again, I come across many stories of successful start ups. However, one hardly find any story related to the entrepreneurs in manufacturing. India can get into manufacturing entrepreneurship if existing units both in private as well as public sectors take some initiative suggested above.

India could have got into manufacturing and excelled but for the big business houses failing it. After the liberalization in the policy in 90s, the big business houses with even significant manufacturing presence just walked out of the manufacturing to the greener and easier pastures of finance and services and followed US and the model of its business groups.

Both the business houses engaged in manufacturing of passenger cars left the game. Both Birlas and Tatas at one time were competing in manufacturing from electronics to heavy industries in 80s and 90s. With the huge resources available with them including great educational and research organizations, both could have become global players in electronics and even automobile. Tatas and M&M remained and grew in automobile manufacturing. M&M and Tata Motors are today third and fourth with almost every reputed automobile manufacturers, mostly on own, from all corners of the world are in the country. However, the Birla group manufacturing the famous Ambassadors and the Premier Group manufacturing in collaboration with Fiat are hardly of any significance today.

Perhaps the major contribution to India’s manufacturing sector comes from automobiles. India manufactures all types of it: two wheelers, passenger cars, commercial vehicles, tractors and naturally the auto parts. However, India is still no where an automobile power on its own. It has hardly the facilities to cope up with the new global class development. It lacks the building facilities for the toolings such die sets, capital goods of the manufacturing processes for the sector or the necessary R&D facilities.

Perhaps the new comers such as Ambani and Mittal didn’t have the zeal required for setting up manufacturing units, whereas both grew big in the industry that could have made them interested in manufacturing.

Is the demand base of 220 million tablets just for the students and the cell phones reaching a figure of almost 800 million not good enough to have its manufacturing in India? India does manufacture cellular phones but it is only those catering to the lower ends and most of the manufacturers are the MNCs. The electronics parts for the gadgets are almost all imported. Data wind, the vendor that has developed the low cost tablet, Aakash 2 claims to get it manufactured in India. Interestingly, even after a number of attempts India has not been able to get into the chip fabrication because of its very high investment, even though India is globally renowned for its semiconductor design. However, some entrepreneurs such as Saakhya labs, Cosmic circuits, Aura Semiconductor, Signalchip and Ineda Systems are also getting into the business of indigenous chips manufacturing

Few entrepreneurs such as Consure Medical, Forus Health, Bosense, or Diabetes are also trying their hands in manufacturing world-class medical equipment. It’s another big potential for the manufacturing sector. There are many other sectors that could have got into its share in manufacturing. If we look at the real estate sector from low end to the highest one with a flat costing few crores, there is huge potentials for manufacturing from high speed elevators to all those that go to a good living. However, with open economy, most like to import rather than getting it developed by domestic manufacturers. Can’t the associations of industries ponder over how Indians can get the most of the share?

And even the automobile manufacturing will have very soon a considerable portion of its cost in the electronics integrated in it. As per an estimate, ‘Electronics will account for 40 per cent of the vehicle costs globally in about four years (from 20 per cent today)’. Will India then only add the value of only assembling cost in vehicle manufacturing? Big business houses could have taken a lead in investing in the huge potential of the electronics industry because as per Assocham estimate India’s electronics market will grow from Rs 5trillion in 2012 to Rs20 trillion by 2020. For example, BITS Pilani, IITs and the huge R&D facilities of CSIR and DRDO could have assisted and encouraged entrepreneurs to set up facilities in the lucrative field of the electronics products and components.

One can hardly digest the capital and lack of talent as the excuses for the dismal performance of India in this sector. Surprisingly we keep on the credit for all the indigenous developments including the electronics when India built its satellites, missiles, rocket launching facilities and even the nuclear power plants with almost no import because of sanction against it for its nuclear test without signing a NPT?

If necessary, the country can have a separate ministry to develop the manufacturing sector in India as that only can sustain the growing working population and take the country out of poverty. It will also lead to innovation all along the supply line. If America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance, India badly needs to catch up in manufacturing on priority.

Let it be realized by all the policy makers that no amount of success in service sectors can alleviate India’s curse of poverty