India as Economic Power

Posted on April 5, 2012 by indra

As early as October 2007, McKinsey Quarterly stated, ‘India is moving quickly to capture its place on the world stage’. India has arrived and it is getting visible at all the international platforms of some consequences,

India is still cost effective and labor intensive economy. It has its educated talented mass too. IT sector has established and upgraded itself to carry out all sorts value added outsourcing of work from developed countries. Even with competition and various other challenges, India continues to drive leadership in the global sourcing market with a 58 per cent share. Indian companies are building a hub of centres across 70 countries that create a seamless solution for the clients. Indian companies are also investing and providing employment in the developed countries. IT exports from India totalled about $69.7 billion during financial year 2011-12.

India has also created a strong manufacturing and export oriented industrial framework. All global automobile makers worth name are having manufacturing facilities as well as product development centres. Some such as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Ford and even Toyota along with trying to take the maximum advantage of the large domestic market are also making the country an export hub for at least some platforms of their cars. Indian manufacturers such Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra are busy in fulfilling their dreams of becoming a global company with acquisitions abroad and have developed world class products through their Indian and overseas R&D centres. In motor cycles, Hero and Bajaj are already among the top few in the world, while for tractors, Indians are the largest manufacturers. In heavy engineering industry too, L&T, Crompton Greaves, BHEL have earned their place. http://www.economywatch.com/indianeconomy/india-and-global-economy.

The Tata Group is the largest manufacturing employer in the UK.

Ireland’s richest person — Pallonji Mistry — is an Indian.

Coal India is the single largest coal producer in the world.

India is the largest whisky manufacturer in the world.

Indian management has established itself globally by turning around the acquired companies such as Corus and JLR. While Ford failed, Tata Motors could make it profitable as jewel in its crown.

Globally known brand names such as Citigroup, Pepsi and Motorola are associated with an Indian CEO. And in US, as per one estimate, over 50% of total patents filed for industrial innovations in the US have Indian brains behind them. Similar may be the number for new startup entrepreneurs in US. (I got reminded of the stories of persons such as Dr. Suhash Patil that I came across in ‘The Game Changers’.)

Indian academicians have achieved distinctive place with many Business Schools of American universities having deans of Indian origin. Soumitra Dutta, the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University; Nitin Nohria, dean of the Harvard Business School; Sunil Kumar, dean of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business; Dipak C. Jain, the current dean of INSEAD ( French business school), was the dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management until 2010; Jaishankar Ganesh at the Rutgers School of Business-Camden and G. (Anand) Anandalingam at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.

Through frugal innovations that includes, Nano, the cheapest car in the world from Tata Motors; Aakash, the cheapest tablet PC in the world, priced at $46; and other cheap tablets; Chhotukool from Godrej Appliances provided a cooling solution, at nearly half the cost of an entry-level refrigerator. India today has earned respect for its designing talent.

And that is the reason that companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Intel, etc especially in IT that generates maximum value from innovation, rely on resources from India. It might have started with Texas Instruments and GE but today almost every globally established company has or is in the process of setting up its R&D centres on India. According to an estimate, the number of foreign R&Ds operating in India till December 2011 was about 900.

With 100 companies of over a billion dollar market cap, India has established its position globally.

Indian bankers have established themselves all around the world for efficient financial management. Indian banks have significantly less bad loans versus pretty high in China.

Bangalore has more Grade-A offices than Singapore
India is the largest diamond cutting and polishing centre in the world.
India is the largest sugar consumer in the world.
Parle-G is the world’s largest selling biscuit brand
KEC is global leader in tower production capacity

There is no dearth of IT entrepreneurs in India today. Infosys N R Narayana Murthy has become the icon of Indian IT industry and was recently selected as one of the 12 “greatest entrepreneurs of our time” according to a Fortune magazine list that was topped by Apple’s late chief Steve Jobs.

But Indians are exploring many fields other than IT, ITeS or pharma sector. For example, Ram Karuturi, CEO of Karuturi Global, had already made his company the world’s largest cut flower exporter. And Ram is not the only Indian looking to African countries for setting up farming enterprises with a huge potential to meet the India’s shortage of edible oil and pulses.

India is the largest exporter of rice this year and can do the same with sugar too. It will have 90 million tons of wheat this season. India feeds 17 per cent of the world population with barely 2.4 per cent of the arable area, 4.2 per cent water and 11 per cent livestock. A young farmer of Darveshpura village in Nalanda district has set a world record in potato production through organic farming. Few months ago, a group of farmers in the same village had created a “world record” producing 224 quintals of paddy per hectare. I get reminded of the time when India was dependent on foreign grains.

And when it comes to compare India with China, I get reminded of the size of media. India has the largest number of newspapers/publications any country in the world has. There are over 72,000 publications currently registered with the Registrar of Newspapers of India. And over 700 TV channels have been permitted to uplink or downlink from the country; over half these claim to be ‘news and current affairs’ channels. The number of FM radio stations has zoomed and will go up further – from over 250 now to around 1,200 in the next five years.

India is pushing ahead in its own unique way, perhaps, in spite of the mediocre political leadership.

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Between Efficiency and Honesty

Posted on April 2, 2012 by indra

Recent revelations of the Army Chief through print and digital media are cause of serious concern for the nation, The way the controversy is getting handled by the defence minister, the parliamentarians, and the experts is still worse. The word C has touched and affected every activity in every field. However, the question that bothers many like me is ”Should the country ‘s leadership be left to just so called honest persons in politics and army, or the country must search for efficiency from its leaders, be it in defence forces or government?”

Here is a story that has appeared in an article of Business Standard by a reputed columnist.

Defence Minister A K Antony was on a visit to the north east in February last year. At the 3 Corps headquarters in Rangapahar in Nagaland, Antony asked jawans if they needed anything. They said hesitantly if they could get a new pair of shoes every year instead of every 26 months that is the current practice…and if the shoes could be better quality..
. .
Everyone in headquarters agreed that this was imperative; the Indian jawan deserved better and put up a proposal that canvas shoes be replaced with smart Reebok, Adidas or Fila shoes that were at once smart and light but rugged.

In addition, a proposal was made that combat boots be replaced as well, with all-weather durable and lighter boots.

The proposal reached Antonys desk. The outgo was an additional Rs 140 crore that the defence minister had the authority to clear without referring it to anyone else.

Barely had it landed there that hegot another missive. A member of the BJP who is also an animal rights activist wrote to the minister that she had heard there was a proposal to replace these shoes with leather ones. She claimed to have information that the outer and back flap of the new type of shoes would be made with cows leather (favoured because it is soft and malleable). She said 4,000 cows would be slaughtered to make these shoes that would require 200,000 meters of leather. This was unacceptable and the proposal must be re-examined. The next day the minister returned the file with the noting that he was not yet ready to take this decision. The army is now looking for a firm that will make the same shoes with buffalo leather, a process that will take at least three years.Defence Minister A K Antony was on a visit to the north east in February last year. At the 3 Corps headquarters in Rangapahar in Nagaland, Antony asked jawans if they needed anything. They said hesitantly if they could get a new pair of shoes every year instead of every 26 months that is the current practice…and if the shoes could be better quality… .

Everyone in headquarters agreed that this was imperative; the Indian jawan deserved better and put up a proposal that canvas shoes be replaced with smart Reebok, Adidas or Fila shoes that were at once smart and light but rugged.In addition, a proposal was made that combat boots be replaced as well, with all-weather durable and lighter boots.

The proposal reached Antonys desk. The outgo was an additional Rs 140 crore that the defence minister had the authority to clear without referring it to anyone else.

Barely had it landed there that hegot another missive. A member of the BJP who is also an animal rights activist wrote to the minister that she had heard there was a proposal to replace these shoes with leather ones. She claimed to have information that the outer and back flap of the newtype of shoes would be made with cows leather (favoured because it is soft and malleable). She said 4,000 cows would be slaughtered to make these shoes that would require 200,000 meters of leather. This was unacceptable and the proposal must be re-examined.

The next day the minister returned the file with the noting that he was not yet ready to take this decision. The army is now looking for a firm that will make the same shoes with buffalo leather, a process that will take at least three years.


Can the country’s defence be safe with such person as cabinet minister? The Chief of Army is no different. Can the country’s well being be expected by just allowing a still more honest prime minister? Why could not a prime minister get procured the essential defence equipment and essentials when two of the neighbours are so hostile? Why can’t the defence minister make the babus work giving a time limit for each step in decision making? Why could not the economist prime minister used private sector in the manufacturing of defence items that is around Rs 50,000 crore a year? Why could the country manufacture many of the essential items locally when all other countries have done it? When a country like Brazil can produce indigenous aeroplane, why can’t India do that? Why can’t the domestically India can’t produce even a reliable helicopter? Why HAL with so huge an investment can be even Embraer (the Brazilian aviation giant), of not anything else? Why can’t the government protected PSUs, research institutions, and defence production units be made more efficient and productive?

With inefficient leadership the country can’t think of becoming a superpower. Even if it happens it will be in spite of it.

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Love for Alumni and Alma Mater

Posted on March 31, 2012 by indra

I don’t know why I am so much emotionally attached with my alma mater, IIT, Kharagpur. It could have been understandable if it would have been only with IIT, Kharagpur, where I spent my most valuable four years of my life. But strangely I get happiness with good news coming out of any of the so many IITs now in operation and IITians from all corners of the country, while the bad news morose me.

Today I happen to go through a news report about one ‘Ravi Rishi, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi who went on to own the London-headquartered consortium Vectra — a multinational conglomerate with interests in everything from private aviation to luxury apartments.’

It was in the context of the explosive interview of Chief of the Army Staff General V.K. Singh that got published in the Hindu. He referred to the substandard quality of Tatra Truck. And Tatra is in India because of Ravi Rishi. I had felt almost miserable when I read about illustrious former MCKinsey’s head, Rajat Gupta’s misery because of his closeness with Rajratnam. I was then in USA with my son, Anand and I had come across the article in Fortune in a Barnes and Nobles book shop. I wrote about my views then.

Perhaps, the Alumni Meet of our 1961 batch last year in Bangaluru further aggravated my weakness.

Recently, I came across a review of a book- ‘The Game Changers’ in Business Standard by the former director of IIT, Delhi. I purchased on line and got the book. Two students of IIT, Kharagpur, with an alumnus of the instittute have written the book that contains the profiles of 20 distinguished alumni of IIT, Kharagpur: Suhas Patil, Vijay Kumar, Vinod Gupta, Sam Dalal, Sridhar Mitta, Arjun Malhotra, Kiran Seth, Prabhakant Sinha, Ranbir Singh Gupta, Bikram Dasgupta, founder of Globsyn, Praful Kulkarni, Sunil Gaitonde, Anand Deshpande, Arvind Kejriwal, Harish Hande, Anuradha Acharya, Venkata Subramanian, Bikash Barai, Vikram Kumar, and Krishna Mehra..

I am going through it and the success story of each of them is giving me immense happiness. I did not know that the present governor of Reserve Bank, D. Subbarao is also from IIT, Kharagpur. He is one of those who go for IAS after studying Physics. I am sure Subbarao would have also excelled if he could have pursued physics and might have become a distinguished physicists.

The ‘The Game Changers’ has Arvind Kejriwal also as one of the distinguished IITians. Kejriwal has become a household name today in India after Anna’s protest movement against corruption. Arvind after IIT had also preferred to get into the union public services as career and perhaps very soon got disenchanted. Interestingly, he was the batch mate of Rakesh, my eldest son who is now in USA and having his own enterprise.

For the writers of ‘The Game Changers’, the selection of the twenty out of a huge number of the alumni IITians must have been very arduous and stressful also. I get reminded of Prof Braj Bhushan Pandey who received the Distinguished Alumnus Award at Diamond Jubilee function last year. Prof Pandey still attached with the institute. Another distinguished alumnus that the writers would have covered is Lord Bhattacharya. Purnendu Chatterji was also equally deserving. There must be many more equally or more distinguished. The writers would have their own reasons or reservations.

I wish some researchers one day would work on finding out some of the IITians who failed in life. Will it not be a unique and noble research?

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Indian Scientists & Technocrats: MIT Technological Review

Posted on March 29, 2012 by indra

(Continued)
Every young student seeking higher degree in engineering dreams of getting into Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. I also did once some fifty plus years ago. However, only few are lucky. It is interesting to learn about the way the institute through different initiatives is assisting many countries by pick up its young innovators under TR35 such as India TR35.

And now MIT’s India TR35 2012 has also been announced. As usual there are three innovators that are recognized a little differently. Their innovations are significant in some way:

Anirudh Sharma of Ducere Technologies, Bangalore, has invented Le Chal, which is an unobtrusive navigation aid for the visually impaired. Sharma was declared the 2012 Innovator of the Year.

Somnath Ray, of Dplay, Delhi, designed a new tricycle that was designed to be more stable, safer, easier to power and steer, more convenient for ingress and egress, and specifically designed around a secure load carrying with display unit functionality. Ray has been selected as the 2012 Humanitarian of the Year.

Venkatesan Oosur Vinayagam of Hexolabs Interactive Technologies, Chennai, has created Mobile Antaksharifor providing easy entertainment. He is the 2012 Social Innovator of the Year.

And the rest

VSK Murthy Balijepalli from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, developed a novel method to forecast electricity price, grid frequency and load which can assist in making power grids smarter.

Anthony Vipin Das from LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, designed eyeSmart, a Web-based application for retrieval of patient records comes in.

Sachin Dev Duggal from Nivio Technologies, Gurgaon, developed a platform that could let users access latest versions of software from their personal computer, delivered over the Internet, as and when they need it, on any device. It moves a desktop computer into the cloud.

Shirish Goyal, LinkSmart Technologies, Bangalore, has developed smartDNA technology, a tamper detection and originality verification system that can address the security threats.

Abhijeet Joshi from National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Ahmedabad, has developed a multifunctional implantable platform that can incorporate several components at the nanoscale to perform multiple functions, such as diagnosis and drug delivery, simultaneously.

Nitin Joshi from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, has developed dual compartment nanostructures which can encapsulate two anticancer drugs, paclitaxel and curcumin, and deliver them in combination to lung cancer patients. It makes chemotherapy non-invasive.

Shaunak Khire of Camber Tech, Pune, has developed a location based advertising platform called Adlibrium that enables small and medium businesses to create advertisements in five simple steps.

Unni Koroth of Foradian Technologies, Kasaragod, has developed an open source student information system built on Ruby on Rails web development framework which now has more than 7 million users in over 100 countries.

Abhijit Majumder from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, has created a microfluidic adhesive that can stick to the surface as tightly as a wall lizard does.

Vikas Malpani of MaxHeap Technologies, Bangalore, addresses a user’s complete residential requirements such as searching for an apartment, facilitating interactions within an apartment community, and connecting to relevant service providers.

Jay Meattle of Shareaholic.com, Delhi, has created a powerful platform to deliver targetable data and audiences to these advertisers, a demand side platform (DSP) for selling ad inventories.

Vivek Nair of Damascus Fortune, Mumbai, has found an innovative way to convert carbon emissions into industry grade carbon nanotubes.

Animesh Nandiof Bell Labs India, Alcatel-Lucent, Bangalore, has innovated a Personalized Privacy Platform (P3).

Vanteru Mahendra Reddy from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, worked on the development of a laboratory scale flameless combustor.

Hemanth Kumar Satyanarayana of Imaginate Software Labs, Hyderabad, innovated Trialar, a digital interactive platform that helps shoppers try out clothes and accessories instantaneously, virtually, and seamlessly

Priyanka Sharma of Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarhm is the only woman in the list. Her innovation relates to the design and development of a plastic biochip electrochemical sensor to be used for immunosensing applications. The work presents a low-cost disposable electrochemical immunosensor kit capable of detecting environmental pollutants as well as clinical diagnostics.

Sumeet Yamdagni of Instrumentation Scientific Technologies, Bangalore, has developed instruments based on optical fiber sensing technology for structural health monitoring.

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Indian Scientists & Technocrats: MIT Technological Review

Posted on March 27, 2012 by indra

MIT Technological Review is now having an Indian edition, and its contribution in encouraging innovators in India is significant to observe.

Here are some of the top Indian innovators selected by the MIT Technology Review India. The best part is that they are all under the age of 35! An in-depth study and the presence of IITians provide hope for future. And to my surprise, some of the best brains still remain stuck with the knowledge sector without getting allured by the management glamour.

The India TR 35 programme started in 2010 and in the last two years, has identified 37 young innovators.

MIT’s India TR35 2011

Alefia Merchant, University of Montreal, Montreal named as Humanitarian of the Year for developing a novel way of screening children as part of community pediatric ophthalmology project at Narayana Nethralaya.

Sameer Jain, MGV Dental College, Nashik for creating an innovative root canal machine

Ajit Narayanan, Invention Labs Engineering, Chennai named Innovator of the Year for creating Voice device for people with speech disabilities

Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan, Microsoft Research, Bangalore for creating a hybrid paper, pen, and digital slate solution for a low-cost digital record management system.

Fahad Azad, Robosoft Systems, Mumbai for bridling a duct cleaning robot to improve quality of the air we breathe.

Gautam Kumar, RoboticWares, Bhubaneswar named Social Innovator of the year for developing system to detect gas leakages .

Pulkit Gaur, Gridbots, Ahmedabad for inventing underwater robot to clean tanks and reduce water wastage.

Srinivasan Jayaraman, Tata Consultancy Services, Bangalore for devising a secure system using human ECG to authenticate, identify and diagnose.

Harit Soni, Ecolibrium Energy, Ahmedabad for creating smart grid technology to optimize the use of electricity in India.

Sanjoy Ghosh, Logica India, Bangalore for building a device that wirelessly monitors and reports vehicular emission in real-time.

Manav Bhatia, Alcatel-Lucent, Bangalore for securing the Internet service provider’s routing network.

Sushant Sinha, Indian Kanoon, Bangalore for developing a search engine for Indian laws and court judgments.

Krishna Gopal Singh, EnNatura Technology Ventures, Delhi for creating ecofriendly printing ink that reduces harmful emissions by almost 99 percent.

Mayur M. Sadawana, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai for inventing point-of-care multi-analyte sensor.

Akash Lal, Microsoft Research, Bangalore for improving software quality using automated verification.

Akshay Shah, Hexolabs Interactive Technologies, Chennai, for process management generator which can create applications on the fly.

Deepak Ravindran, Innoz Technologies, Gurgaon, for creating a mobile based search engine to deliver information on any topic.

Sagar Bedmutha, Optinno Mobitech, Pune, for developing an intelligent anti-spamming software for mobile phones.

=To be continued

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An Indian Scientist’s Dream

Posted on March 25, 2012 by indra

I adore R. A. Mashlekar, the former Director General of CSIR. He is a scientist. He is a good writer too, on the subject of general interest. Recently, a book of his writings and speeches- ‘Reinventing India’ got published. I tried to get a copy from the bookshops here in Noida, but couldn’t succeed. One bookshop asked me about the publisher’s name. I found out the publisher was not the popular one such as Penguin or some big foreign name, but one from Pune who publishes mainly the books in vernacular. I couldn’t obtain the book. Perhaps, it is out of stock at the moment. I couldn’t understand why Mashlekar selected the Pone publisher and not one of the better known one.

During my stay in US in 2010, I had gone through the article on innovation written by Mashlekar with Late CK Prahalad in HBR where I came across the concept of Gandhian Innovation. RA Mashlekar always inspires.

I have also a dream to see India as a super power through innovations. I wish to see a day when all working persons from the paddy fields to the R&D centres understand and contribute with some innovations. At least some will be real breakthroughs that will make India visible in global arena. And for that I would have liked the inclusion of an easy-to-understand course material on entrepreneurship and innovation for school final stage.

But let me provide here the dream of R.A. Mashlekar that appeared in one of his writings.

What would be my dream for Indian Science and India in the early part of the new millennium, say for the twenty first century?Obviously, it is of an India, where the basic needs of the teeming millions will be fulfilled and we will move on to the top ladder of the World Human Development Index.

What would be the possiblethat Indian Science & India will get in the next century? In my dream,I surfedthe net and landed at the India.com portal.

I clicked on ‘ Nobel Awards’, and I saw
‘Indians won three Nobel prizes this year. The first one in physics is for the grand unified theory of matter and their interactions. The second one is in Physiology and medicine, for providing the first definitive neuro-biological basis ofthe humancognitive phenomena. The third Nobel Prize in economics was sharedby an Indian Scientist and Indian economist working in India, a country, which has already assumed the position of a knowledge super power by capturing 30% share of the global output of the global knowledge industry. They won the Nobel Prizefor their work in Economics of Traditional knowledge, which beautifully blended economics, science, philosophy and ethics.

I clicked on‘Community Health’, and I saw
India became the first country in the world to completely eradicate Tuberculosis.

One more click on‘Indian Pharma Industry’ showed
‘The anti-ulcer drug, whichwas basedon a molecule derived from the clues from India’s traditional knowledge, maintained its leading global position andposted global sales exceeding five billion dollars.‘

I clicked on ‘Water’, and I saw
‘ Through a sustained effort of Indian scientists, engineers and technocrats, India has succeeded in creating a unique ‘Indian Water Network’, which connects all the Indian rivers and through innovative methods of water capture, recharge of aquifers etc., Indiabecame the first country in the world to reach perpetual ‘Water Security’.

A further click on ‘Disaster Management’ showed
‘ The recent earthquake on eightRichter scale in Assam had zero loss oflife, thanksto the advanced warning systems developed by Indian scientists and immaculate disaster management systems set up by the Indian government.’

One more click on ‘Energy‘ showed‘ The Prime Minister ofIndia, during the inaugural session of the 100th ‘ Indian Knowledge Congress’, formerly known as ‘ Indian Science Congress’ formally released the Indian technology to harness the massive gas hydrates in the Indian oceans, which will cater to the Indian energy needs for the next two hundred years’.

And the final click on ‘Research Opportunities’ showed ‘Indian brain drain has been completely reversed this year. In fact India is in an enviable position of having a queue American and European scholars to join its unique global knowledge production centres in India’.

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Ashoka Lives through his Edicts

Posted on March 23, 2012 by indra

2012-03-23
12:46:38 pm

A Tribute to Ashoka on Bihar Divas

FlipKart has become my favourite e-shop for books. Recently after getting first Chanakya Chant, I got Ashoka, and then Mudrarakhash, a Hindi translation of Bishakhadutt drama on the historical story of Chanakya.

I have finished reading Ashoka by Charles Allen today. Allen Turner very rightly propounds, “Ashoka may be said to be India’s founding father, being the first ruler to forge India into a single nation state. Emperor Ashoka espoused non-violence and the utterly novel concept of conquest by moral force alone-and he was very probably the first ruler in history to establish a welfare state.”

The main characters of the books, Chanakya, Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka have been my heroes for years. The source materials for Chandragupta Maurya are Puranas, Megasthanes’ Indica, Kautilya’s Arthshastra and ‘Mudraraksha’. Megasthenes, the ambassador of Seleucus I in the court of Chandragupta Maurya authored Indica. Later writers such as Arrian, Strabo, Diodorus, and Pliny refer to Indica in their works. To Greeks, Chandragupta is known as Sandrokyptos, Sandrokottos or Androcottus.

Allen’s ‘Ashoka’ is a superbly written story how the hardworking British officers of East India Company dug out the historical personalities of Ashoka, Chandragupta and Chanakya that got lost in Indian history from the debris.

The missionary zeal of the British officers along with their official assignments took interest in revealing the puzzles of the Indian history too through excavations. Allen has covered the archeological discoveries of every object related to Ashoka from all over India and even Sri Lanka.

The source materials for Ashoka’s story are the early Buddhist scriptures and historical literature from Shri Lanka and Ashoka’s edicts on rocks and pillars that he himself got inscribed during his reign almost all over his empire.
A Map of Ashoka Empire

Megasthenes, the ambassador of Seleucus I in the court of Chandragupta Maurya authored Indica. Later writers such as Arrian, Strabo, Diodorus, and Pliny refer to Indica in their works. To Greeks, Chandragupta is known as Sandrokyptos, Sandrokottos or Androcottus

But Allen has covered the discovery of each of the major pillars and rock edicts-major as well as minor more than thirty or so and how the written content was deciphered and finally they did also come across the name of the person who got them inscribed.

“In Pillar Edict 2 Ashoka even asks rhetorically, ‘what constitutes Dharma?’ and sums it up as ‘little evil, much good, kindness, generosity, truthfulness and purity’=to which he adds from Rock Edict 1,’much self0examination, much respect, much fear (of evil) and much enthusiasm’. Not so much as a word about prayers, offerings, sacrifices, rituals or gods.”

And on Ashoka’s secular approach, Allen refers to Pillar Edict 6, ‘I have honoured all religions with various honours’, and Pillar Edict 7, ‘My DharmaMahamatras too are occupied with various good works among the ascetics and householders of all religions’.
Ashoka ends Pillar Edict 7 with closing words:

“Beloved-of-Gods says: Wherever there are stone pillars or some slabs, there this Dharam edict is to be engraved so that it may long endure. It has been engraved so that it may endure as long as my sons and great grandsons live and as long as the sun and the moon shine, and so that people may practice it as instructed. For by practicing it happiness will be attained in this world and the next.”

Allen has also written a chapter on the burning of the Nalanda library. Nalanda had exhaustive repository of Buddhist knowledge in the world, housed in three multi-storied libraries: the Ratnasagara, the Ratnadadhi and the Ratnaranjaka. “Muhammad Bakhtaiyar sent a messenger to enquire if Nalanda’s libraries contained a copy of the Quran. On learning that they did not, he ordered the destruction and put the entire site, extending over many acres, to the torch. The task of burning the library took several months.”

Allen’s book in his note provides another story: “The last known eyewitness of the fate of Nalanda was a Tibetan monk named Dharamaswamin. Arriving at Nalanda in the year 1235, he found just one survivor, a ninety-year-old monk named Rahul Sribhadra who was teaching a small class of acolytes from a Sanskrit grammar- the only manuscript to have survived the great fire. Dharamaswamin stayed on to study, only for the class to break up in panic when it was reported that Turk raiders were heading their way. Dharamaswamin carried his elderly teacher into hiding, and when the two returned to Nalanda they found the rest of the class had fled. Having taught Dharamaswamin all he knew, the aged monk handed him his copy of the Sanskrit grammar and told him to return to Tibet.”

How can any religion preach heinous task of burning books with various types of knowledge and literature, or sculpture, and architectural wonders that causes irreparable damage?

Perhaps Mauryas were the most secular of the kings. Chandragupta Maurya started with Brahmin Chanakya, but later on followed Jain Guru. Ashoka too started with Brahmin, the grandson of Chanakya, Radhagupta but ended with Buddhism.
What could have been a better subject to write on Bihar Divas?

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Why is Bihar a state with most poor?

Posted on March 22, 2012 by indra

In rural Bihar, nearly two out of three people from the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are poor. According to Planning Commission data, poverty among casual labourers in urban areas of Bihar is 86%. Poverty has declined only marginally in Bihar, while according to data released Monday by India’s Planning Commission, the number of people living in absolute poverty in India decreased by 12.5% between 2004-2005 and 2009-2010.

Bihar government under Nitish Kumar has earned or managed a good media reporting about the significant developments in the state. Nitish Kumar also claims reduction in migration of Bihari labour to other states. I couldn’t appreciate Nitish asserting in a recent Delhi’s rally to celebrate the centenary of Bihar: “Delhi will come to halt if Biharis stop work.” Every Bihari who lives and works outside Bihar has an additional responsibility of not doing anything that undermines the image of the state in any way. Nitish Kumar must help in making Biharis a little more responsible. Why should the locals in metros look at Biharis the way the Britishers used to see the immigrant Indians in UK.

It is unfortunate that Bihar and its government do neither educate sufficiently nor train its employable population to get an honourable job. They go out as raw human resource to work as menial worker or for higher education to become employable. I don’t know in such a condition how the government or its chief should take credit for those working outside. Why can’t the government train a large number of its poor even as drivers so that they don’t start as cleaner or khalasi and wait for years to get trained as drivers at the mercy of their employers or co-working drivers?

The government has hardly taken any initiative to create productive jobs in the villages, when in reality a large number of jobs have vanished because of the use of machines in farming such as tractors and even harvesters. And interestingly, the operators of these machines come from outside the village that owns them. Why are the young men and women not interested in taking up the milk business in the villages of Bihar even with all types of assistance?

The government would have started vocational training for the boys and girls in every school or every panchayat to make the rural human resources skilled and encourage grassroots entrepreneurs to become vendors organizing the skilled women in working groups for the traders and marketers of the state as well as for those of other states.

Why wheat should is ground or paddy is dehusked only in big mills in towns? Why should some village men not get trained in repairing of the agricultural machinery or other appliances in used in plenty these days in the villages? Why should not the pickles or fluffed rice be produced and sourced from rural regions?

The state ministry of rural development must work for creating work for all those able bodied men and women in the villages instead of thinking about engaging some in only MNREGA projects.

The state has neglected the higher education, both in quality and quality, which makes the educated youth employable inside the state and outside. When all other states such as Andhra Pradesh and very recently UP have created huge capacity with large number of professional colleges of engineering, medicines, and law, Bihar has not made any attempt in that direction. And that was the reason of the growth of IT industry in those states and today that is the reason that Bihar can’t employ the professionally educated youths even after their education.

Bihar will remain poor and the poverty will not reduce, if the government doesn’t change it way of looking at the problem in very innovative way. The migrated labour will keep on remitting money for the sustenance of their family members, and the other members in family will keep on living at the mercy of middle men and getting some government doles.

With the farmers of Bihar working hard to reach the global yield benchmarks of paddy and potato, it is the government and entrepreneurs must come out with ideas to add value to these outputs and create employment right in the villages. Food processing must reach every village for value addition.

I don’t think Bihar will ever be able to reduce its poverty figure with MNREGA mentality and if the chief minister keeps on raising the figures of the poor families in the state to get more aids from the centre.

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Indian American Scientists: 2012 Sloan Research Fellows

Posted on March 19, 2012 by indra

2012-03-19

With 11 of a total family of 13 members in US and five going in American schools, I always wish that some of them will be pursuing R&D after higher education. With such dreams, naturally I get excited with the news of the achievements of Indian American scientists.

“Today’s Sloan Research Fellows are tomorrow’s Nobel Prize winners,” said Sloan Foundation president Paul L. Joskow.

Awarded annually since 1955, the fellowships, which include a $50,000 grant to be used to further a recipient’s research, have traditionally recognized those working in chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, evolutionary and computational molecular biology, neuroscience, and physics.

The award of 2012 Sloan Research Fellows was one such news with a number of Indian American young scientists.:

Tulika Bose, assistant professor at Boston University, received her Ph.D. in experimental high energy physics from Columbia University in 2006. Her post-doctoral research at Brown University focused on direct searches for new phenomena at the DO experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron and at the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

Neal K Dalal, assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Illinois, received his doctorate in astronomy from the University of California, San Diego, in 2002. He received a Hubble Fellowship from the Space Telescope Science Institute and was a senior research associate at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics before he joined the faculty at the U of I in 2011.

Neil K. Garg, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCLA, received his Ph.D. in 2005 from the California Institute of Technology. He completed his training as an NIH postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Irvine, and later joined UCLA in 2007. His research program at UCLA focuses on the development of synthetic strategies and methods as well as the synthesis of bioactive molecules.

Shwetak N Patel, an assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering and electrical engineering at the University of Washington, received his Ph.D. in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008. His most recent research focuses on building low-cost sensing systems for the home.

Parag Pathak, associate professor of economics at MIT and research associate in the NBER’s pro¬grams on Education, Public Economics and Industrial Organization, received his A.B., S.M. and Ph.D. in 2007 from Harvard University. His research focuses on evaluating student assignment systems and has helped with New York City and Boston school assignment mechanisms.

Prasad Raghavendra, assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, received his Ph.D. from the computer science and engineering department at University of Washington, Seattle. He received his dual degree in computer science from IIT Madras. His research interests include approximation algorithms, hardness of approximation, complexity, and coding theory.

Srinivas Raghu, assistant professor of the department of physics at Stanford University, received his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 2006. His research interests include theoretical condensed matter physics, unconventional superconductivity, correlated electron systems, and topological phases of matter.

Sohini Ramachandran, assistant professor of biology, ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University, received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in biological sciences in 2007. There, she worked on human population genetics. Ramachandran was elected to the Harvard Society of Fellows in 2007 and did postdoctoral work while studying coalescent theory.

Sylvia Ratnasamy, assistant professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, received her Ph.D. in computer science from UC Berkeley in 2002. As a second-year Ph.D. student, she was appointed to the ICSI Center for Internet Research, in Berkeley.

With a population of Indian Americans constantly increasing, more and more of its next generation will get into the domain of expanding the Human Knowledge for the interest of human race,

Let us congratulate the winners of 2012 Sloan Research Fellowship..

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Indian Scientists and Technocrats- Winners of Infosys Prize

Posted on March 16, 2012 by indra

I recently came across a special listing of the most powerful Indians in 2012 by Indian Express. Surprisingly, it also carried the name of top ten Indians in different fields such as administrators, opinion makers, sports persons, economists, ad gurus, entertainers, fund managers, legal luminaries, activists, doctors, philanthropists. However, I could find a list of top ten scientists, technocrats, or mathematicians in the issue.

Infosys however, had initiated Infosys Prizes since 2008. Infosys Prizes are given every year for the scientists and technocrats for their outstanding contributions and carry a gold medal, a citation and a purse of Rs 50 Lakh. Those award winners are certainly the best and icons in their fields.

1.Prof. Kalyanmoy Deb, winner of 2011 in Engineering and Computer Sciences category, a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1985: Deb got his award for for his contributions to the emerging field of Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization (EMO) that has led to advances in non-linear constraints, decision uncertainty, programming and numerical methods, computational efficiency of large-scale problems and optimization algorithms. (Infographic to understand it a little more)

2.Prof. Sriram Ramaswamy, winner of 2011 in Physical sciences category, had his schooling at the Modern School, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi. He is currently Professor of Physics at the Center for Condensed Matter Theory in the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science.His award was for his pioneering work in the field of active matter that enables a detailed exploration into several aspects of the collective behavior of living systems as interacting mechanical entities with distributed input and dissipation of energy. (Infographic)

3.Dr. Imran Siddiqi, winner of 2011 in Life science category, M.Sc. in Chemistry by the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in 1981 is a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences. His award was for his breakthrough contributions to the basic understanding of clonal seed formation in plants which can be applied to revolutionize agriculture, especially in the developing world. (infographic)

4.Prof. Kannan Soundararajan, winner of 2011 in mathematical sciences category, for his path breaking work in analytic number theory and development of new techniques to study critical values of general zeta functions to prove the Quantum Unique Ergodicity Conjecture for classical holomorphic forms.(Infogrphic)

5.Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, winner of 2010 in Engineering and Computer Science category, of Chemical Engineering Department,Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur It was in recognition of his fundamental contributions to the fields of surfaces and interfaces, adhesion, pattern formation, nanocomposites, materials science, and hydrodynamics, which have practical applications in such areas as energy storage, filtration, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and optoelectronics.

6.Prof. Sandip Trivedi, winner of 2010 in Physical Sciences category, of Theoretical Physics Department, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. got the Infosys Prize for finding an ingenious way to solve two of the most outstanding puzzles of Superstring Theory simultaneously: What is the origin of dark energy of the Universe? Why is there no massless scalar particle?

7.Dr. Chetan E. Chitnis, winner of 2010 in Life Sciences category, of Master of Science degree in Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Principal Leader Malaria Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), Delhi He was awarded for his pioneering work in understanding the interactions of the malarial parasite and its host, leading to the development of a viable malaria vaccine.

8.Prof. Chandrashekhar Khare, winner of 2010 in Mathematical Sciences category, Mathematics Department,University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in recognition of his fundamental contributions to Number Theory, particularly his solution of the Serre conjecture.

9.Prof. Thanu Padmanabhan, winner in 2009 in Physical Sciences category, Distinguished Professor at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, India.

10.Prof. K VijayRaghavan, winner in 2009 in Life Sciences category, Senior Professor in Developmental Genetics and Director of National Centre of Biological Sciences, Bangalore India.

11.Prof. Ashoke Sen, winner in 2009 in mathematical sciences category, currently a Professor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad. His area of research is String Theory and was recognized for his important contributions to String Theory, which is a vital part of Mathematical Physics today.

12.Prof. Manindra Agrawal, winner in 2008 in Mathematical sciences category, his outstanding contribution in the field of complexity theory, a branch of mathematics and computer science concerned with the study of algorithms for solving mathematical and related scientific problems, and especially their efficiency and running times.

Can these distinguished scientists and technocrats be the icons to the students’ community going for higher education in reputed institutions such as IITs, NITs or BITS to allure them to the business of R&D and contribute to make India a knowledge economy? Let me assure them that most of them will not be disappointed about their achievements from the career.

I recently came across a special listing of the most powerful Indians in 2012 by Indian Express. Surprisingly, it also carried the name of top ten Indians in different fields such as administrators, opinion makers, sports persons, economists, ad gurus, entertainers, fund managers, legal luminaries, activists, doctors, philanthropists. However, I could find a list of top ten scientists, technocrats, or mathematicians in the issue.

Infosys however, had initiated Infosys Prizes since 2008. Infosys Prizes are given every year for the scientists and technocrats for their outstanding contributions and carry a gold medal, a citation and a purse of Rs 50 Lakh. Those award winners are certainly the best and icons in their fields.

1.Prof. Kalyanmoy Deb, winner of 2011 in Engineering and Computer Sciences category, a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1985: Deb got his award for for his contributions to the emerging field of Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization (EMO) that has led to advances in non-linear constraints, decision uncertainty, programming and numerical methods, computational efficiency of large-scale problems and optimization algorithms. (Infographic to understand it a little more)

2.Prof. Sriram Ramaswamy, winner of 2011 in Physical sciences category, had his schooling at the Modern School, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi. He is currently Professor of Physics at the Center for Condensed Matter Theory in the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science.His award was for his pioneering work in the field of active matter that enables a detailed exploration into several aspects of the collective behavior of living systems as interacting mechanical entities with distributed input and dissipation of energy. (Infographic)

3.Dr. Imran Siddiqi, winner of 2011 in Life science category, M.Sc. in Chemistry by the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in 1981 is a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences. His award was for his breakthrough contributions to the basic understanding of clonal seed formation in plants which can be applied to revolutionize agriculture, especially in the developing world. (infographic)

4.Prof. Kannan Soundararajan, winner of 2011 in mathematical sciences category, for his path breaking work in analytic number theory and development of new techniques to study critical values of general zeta functions to prove the Quantum Unique Ergodicity Conjecture for classical holomorphic forms.(Infogrphic)

5.Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, winner of 2010 in Engineering and Computer Science category, of Chemical Engineering Department,Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur It was in recognition of his fundamental contributions to the fields of surfaces and interfaces, adhesion, pattern formation, nanocomposites, materials science, and hydrodynamics, which have practical applications in such areas as energy storage, filtration, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and optoelectronics.

6.Prof. Sandip Trivedi, winner of 2010 in Physical Sciences category, of Theoretical Physics Department, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. got the Infosys Prize for finding an ingenious way to solve two of the most outstanding puzzles of Superstring Theory simultaneously: What is the origin of dark energy of the Universe? Why is there no massless scalar particle?

7.Dr. Chetan E. Chitnis, winner of 2010 in Life Sciences category, of Master of Science degree in Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Principal Leader Malaria Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), Delhi He was awarded for his pioneering work in understanding the interactions of the malarial parasite and its host, leading to the development of a viable malaria vaccine.

8.Prof. Chandrashekhar Khare, winner of 2010 in Mathematical Sciences category, Mathematics Department,University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in recognition of his fundamental contributions to Number Theory, particularly his solution of the Serre conjecture.

9.Prof. Thanu Padmanabhan, winner in 2009 in Physical Sciences category, Distinguished Professor at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, India.

10.Prof. K VijayRaghavan, winner in 2009 in Life Sciences category, Senior Professor in Developmental Genetics and Director of National Centre of Biological Sciences, Bangalore India.

11.Prof. Ashoke Sen, winner in 2009 in mathematical sciences category, currently a Professor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad. His area of research is String Theory and was recognized for his important contributions to String Theory, which is a vital part of Mathematical Physics today.

12.Prof. Manindra Agrawal, winner in 2008 in Mathematical sciences category, his outstanding contribution in the field of complexity theory, a branch of mathematics and computer science concerned with the study of algorithms for solving mathematical and related scientific problems, and especially their efficiency and running times.

Can these distinguished scientists and technocrats be the icons to the students’ community going for higher education in reputed institutions such as IITs, NITs or BITS to allure them to the business of R&D and contribute to make India a knowledge economy? Let me assure them that most of them will not be disappointed about their achievements from the career.

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