It’s a Simple Matter of Investment

A Synchrotron is Welcome, But India still needs a Thriving R&D Culture

There is a plan to set up a ‘synchrotron’ in West Bengal with an investment estimate of Rs.60 billion to be made by the Indian government and private players, a concept that exists only in four countries – US, France, Japan and Germany. It is being hailed as India’s arrival into the Big Boys club in R&D. A synchrotron is a cyclical particle accelerator (like the one at the most famed CERN) that has its application in various streams of sciences. Truly, in the scientific industry, it’s equivalent to sending a man to the moon. For India, it’s not only a matter of pride, but a step towards rebranding itself as an upmarket research and development hub.

But keep this synchrotron instance to one side, and one starts viewing huge gaps in our R&D efforts. As per the latest data from the Ministry of Science and Technology, there were 3960 R&D institutions as of 2006, of which 707 were by the Central Government, 834 by State Governments and 2020 by private sectors. Total investment during 2002-03 was $3.91 billion, which was just 0.8% of the GNP. However, that increased to 2% of GDP in 2008.

But these numbers shrink when one compares the same to benchmark countries. OECD commented that even in 2006, China was apparently investing $136 billion in R&D. As of 2008, India had 1.5 lakh researchers compared to China’s 10 lakh plus. Even the US had a total R&D expenditure in 2006 of $340 billion. Global expenditure on R&D has dramatically increased from $525 billion in 1999 to $1.1 trillion in 2007. Positively looking, the patents granted in India had increased from 1078 during 2002-03 to 15220 during 2006-07. But in the same year, the European patent office issued 62,780 patents; and the US, 173,771 patents.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 

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Iran’s WMD hype; Iraq redux?

Be it through murders, Kidnapping, Virus attacks or sanctions, a careful and well coordinated stealth Programme is on to Jeopardise years of nuclear capability building by Iran. Is the US, along with its allies, drawing itself into another long drawn misdirected war? Is the hype being built about Iran’s supposed nuke ambitions even real?

The importance of nuclear scientists can hardly be undermined by a country harbouring nuclear ambitions. Iran is one of those nations that acquire centre stage. The country has not only built several nuclear reactors but has also, since the last few decades, set up a number of nuclear research centres and universities. The government also encouraged its youth to take up courses in science & technology and consequently created a huge array of nuclear physicists and scientists. Of course, sanctions from the US also came in tow. But if recent revelations are looked at, a slew of covert attempts are being made to jeopardise Iran’s nuclear programme.

The recent murder of Darioush Rezaeinejad, on July 23, 2011 in Tehran has raised concerns about the security of nuclear scientists and physicists in Iran and how it also affects the country’s nuclear ambitions. If one goes by reports, many such incidents have taken place in the past as well. In January 2007, Iranian nuclear scientist Ardeshir Hosseinpour was found dead under mysterious circumstances. A private American intelligence firm Stratfor claimed that Mossad was behind the ‘radioactive poisoning’ execution. In another incident, Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, quantum physicist working as a professor at Tehran University, was killed in Tehran in January 2010. Similarly, Majid Shahriyari, working at Iran’s Atomic Energy Commission, a prominent figure in Iran’s nuclear program and a specialist in neutron transport, was murdered (in a car bomb attack) on November 2010. On the same day, another scientist Fereydoon Abbasi (currently head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation), escaped death by a whisker. Besides the above, a number of important physicists have also been kidnapped in the last three years. In one example, in June 2009, Shahram Amiri – an Iranian nuclear expert of radioactive isotopes at Malek-Ashtar University of Technology (MUT) and also working with Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation – was kidnapped from Saudi Arabia and was reportedly extradited to US; the scientist strangely resurfaced in July 2010.

Concurrently, there have been a series of attacks on the computers in Iran’s nuclear facilities, including one major hit by a malware named Stuxnet (supposedly developed by Israel with the help of America’s intelligence). Stuxnet destroyed almost 20% of Iran’s centrifuge systems in their nuclear facility. Early 2011 saw another such attack, which has apparently pushed back Iran’s nuclear progress by two years. A WikiLeaks cable commenting on Stuxnet revealed that US was “advised to perform ‘covert sabotage’ of Iran’s nuclear facilities, including computer hacking” by an influential German think tank. In fact, it is alleged that George Bush approved $300 million for this joint covert project before leaving office in 2009. Condoleezza Rice, Volker Perthes (Director of the Institute for Security & International Affairs & an expert on Iran) and Philip Murphy (US ambassador to Germany) were all involved in this project, as revealed by WikiLeaks.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Scrutiny-TIANANMEN SQUARE MASSACRE: A MYTHICAL EVENT?

Was the Tiananmen Square incident more of a Western Media Propaganda to damage China’s image? Was the uprising in fact dismantled peacefully without a drop of blood being shed? Did US diplomatic officials already know of this new truism? If WikiLeaks is to be believed... yes!

A book written by Madrid’s then ambassador to Beijing, Eugenio Bregolat, talks about the myth of the massacre and states, “Spain’s TVE channel had a television crew in the square at the time, and if there had been a massacre, they would have been the first to see it and record it.” Even a Reuters Correspondent Graham Earnshaw wrote in his memoir that the students left peacefully. However, a week after the incident on June 12, 1989, NYT sensationalised the issue by quoting usage of machine guns and tankers.

Another documentary named The Gate of Heavenly Peace by Long Bow Group, Inc. contains video evidences of actual incidents and fortifies the WikiLeaks’ cables. Similarly, books like Black Hands of Beijing: Lives of Defiance in China’s Democracy Movement, Columbia Journalism Review (The Myth of Tiananmen & the Price of a Passive Press) and many more talk about how there was no bloodshed. These documents point out how no exit points were blocked during the incident, no detentions were done and the Chinese army was only asked to clear the area.

Most of such reports were either never picked up by mainstream (and Western) media, or were ruthlessly buried after being tagged as a “conspiracy.” In spite of Chinese officials and government agencies challenging the facts and perspectives crafted by BBC, CNN and likes, not much heed was paid and the entire incident was marked as one of the biggest human rights abuses in history. This is not an isolated case. As per a report published by Chinadaily.com titled, Lhasa riot reports show media bias in West, authored by Ye Jun in March, 2008, many western media like CNN and BBC published fabricated reports about Lhasa (Tibet) riots and went to the extent of misinterpreting a photo of a Red Cross ambulance to deceive readers.

Such fabrication of truth and deliberate tweaking of facts has deluded an entire generation and spread venom in Sino-US relations. Besides, it has painted a negative perception of the Chinese government globally. Also, with its largely inhibited media back home, even mighty China finds itself hard pressed to fight this propaganda war. From that perspective, the US has indeed chosen its attack strategy well. But with WikiLeaks bringing out the truth so prominently, it could now be Uncle Sam’s turn to face really grilling questions.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Blood Billionaires

Privatization of Natural Resources is an Anti-People Policy and would do far more Harm than Good to India

Privatisation of natural resources in India is an old debate. But it has become more relevant these days as the government is considering privatisation an imperative for resource exploration and mobilisation. But a critical analysis exemplifies the ineffectiveness of such privatisation in fulfilling policy objectives.

As an extremely diverse and unique country, India is blessed with a bounty of natural resources. With around 267 billion tonnes of coal and around 13010 million tones of iron reserves, it has its distinct position. As per the US Geological Survey (USGS), the value of India’s mineral output in the 2007-08 was $25.3 billion, (3% of GDP). State-run corporations controlled 83% of the total mining output. But with economic growth and industrial growth, demand for resources is rising exponentially. In 2006, India produced 648,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of crude oil. However, the estimated demand that year was around 2.63 million bbl/d.

In November 2008, the High Court of Karnataka gave a verdict to stop transferring four lakes to private parties for development and maintenance as they were charging high prices and appropriating supernormal profits. In Gujarat, the state government acquired 1,777 acres of land for public purposes to construct the famous Sardar Sarovar Dam. Shockingly, 1400 acres of land, which belonged to adivasis, remained unused. The state promised to return back the unused land but the land is being used by the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited to build nature parks, gardens, woodlands, nature trails, and an eco-museum to attract tourists.

The Supreme Court has often taken a justifiable stand over the privatisation issue. It took a strong position in the RNRL vs RIL case where it asserted, “The State as a trustee is under a legal duty to protect natural resources. These resources meant for public use cannot be converted into private ownership.” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has also created some notable precedents in cases like Posco and Vedanta, which sent a signal to companies that they cannot have a free run.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas imposed the New Exploration License Policy (NELP) in 2000 to encourage foreign and private players to take a stake in exploration domestically. But only a handful have joined including Reliance, Vedanta, Tata, Essar, et al. On another end, superlative profit opportunities in coal mining have encouraged the mafia and illegal mining, which together have destroyed the sector. Karnataka is losing Rs.150 billion annually due to illegal mining. Similarly, privatization of water and electricity distribution sans auctions and transparency has created monopoly players.

Globally, countries are increasingly nationalizing natural resources. Bolivia has been growing at 3-6% after such nationalisation. Russia nationalised its Yukos Oil Company. In Latin America, Venezuela increased taxes on foreign oil producers and made them sign new contracts under a well documented nationalization drive. Nigeria, Kazakhstan and China are also giving more priority to state-owned players in natural resource exploration. Yes, some examples are extreme.

But privatization of basic services and resources should not become a common policy initiative in developing countries. In nations like US and UK, private organisations dominate natural resources successfully.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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it is time for us to look at other partners that could actually help India’s growth story

Contrary to the belief that BRIC would overtake the economic might of the West, the lack of progress of the bloc due to China’s hegemony and pessimism calls for a rethink of policies, especially for India. Perhaps, it is time for us to look at other partners that could actually help India’s growth story.

Even the ministers for Commerce, Finance and Foreign Affairs for India have all recognised the issues of trade imbalances as a major area of concern. However, the stand of the government in terms of strategic and territorial disputes, has not been particularly assertive in the past. The government needs to look into the aspects of the economic implications that India can face due to major trade imbalances as it is hurting the Indian industry in a big way. The rethinking should begin soon if it has not begun yet. In diplomacy, there is a concept of tit-for-tat strategy. Agreed that many would not call this correct in terms of the nature and character of India when it comes to international relations. However, the need arises based on the fact that China has been poking its nose in many domestic issues of India, be it in relation to Dalai Llama or with respect to human rights issues, or the Kashmir issue where China has maintained a very dubious stand with respect to the Indo-Pak dispute. Even when it comes to the issue of the expansion of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and India’s entry into it as a permanent member, the stand of China has been very mischievous. Certainly, the dragon’s pessimism over India has existed for long and this attitude dampens the chances of the fruitification of any important alliance between India and China, or any group or a bloc for that matter.

Ideally, BRIC has huge potential to emerge as a powerful bloc that can counter other powerful forces, provided it projects itself as a united group and internal issues within the bloc are handled in a proper manner. Of late, even the Indian leadership seems to have become a little pessimistic about the whole idea. Says international affairs expert Suvrokamal Dutta, “If the Chinese leadership does not mend its ways, it could well be in for complete isolation in the international world. Today, China has problems with almost every other country in the world. It has huge economic and strategic issues with the US. Then there are strategic issues with Russia, Japan, ASEAN and the European Union. These nations are important both in terms of international politics and trade.”

It is utterly unfortunate that the disputes between India and China have gained primacy whenever we get down to discuss the importance and feasibility of BRIC as a powerful antidote to the dominating West. So where is the solution? Perhaps India should start looking at options for partners that can act as an antidote to BRIC itself. Dutta too reminds of a concept of the formation of a quadrilateral that was first proposed by former Prime minister of Japan Abe Shinzo in 2006. This quadrilateral or ‘a concept of wider Asia’ as Dutta calls it, would include India, Japan, US, ASEAN, and countries of the Asia-pacific like Australia and New Zealand. “The beginning of the emergence of this formation was first seen with the Malabar joint naval exercise in the Arabian Sea, which in subsequent years also witnessed the participation of Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and South Korea. This, I believe, was a kind of a warning to China not to try and flex its muscles,” says Dutta adding that, “this naval exercise is what started emerging as a formation that came to be known as the quadrilateral.”

The building up of this quadrilateral bloc as a major antidote to BRIC can prove extremely beneficial for India. “The formation of new bloc would empower India to counter Chinese problems in BRIC through its, say, in the quadrilateral. Similarly, in case of a problem with the US, India can use BRIC to counter the quadrilateral,” says Dutta. In fact, there is an official confirmation now that the foreign ministers of Germany, Japan, Brazil, South Africa and India have already started meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in relation to the issues related to the UNSC and other common issues.

In a way, India has already started looking for alternatives to China for more sustainable and advantageous relations. The advantage here is that Germany, Japan or South Africa have no major issues with the US. Also, these nations do not have a problem with Russia as well. India enjoys good relations with both the US and Russia in the existing scenario. So, the contours with the US and Russia, the two major powerful nations, could prove very handy and positive for India as it would enable it to do business with both these countries without any major hiccups. This would also facilitate its connectivity with both the developed and emerging economies. This again could also be a major shifting power bloc through which India will stand to gain politically, strategically and economically. 

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri 
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles. 

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting