Political and Current Affairs

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Rassegna della stampa internazionale sull’India

15-31 dicembre 2010

A cura di Giulio Carminati

[email protected]

Summary

Political and Current Affairs

KASHMIR

Screams from the Valley pag 8

WikiLeaks disclosures on torture in Kashmir have fuelled fresh demands

for repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act

BABA UMAR

29 December 2010 Tehelka

Flashy Office Space, Advertising India’s Allure pag 12

The new campus of Tata Consultancy Services in Chennai.

The company is spending $200 million on the futuristic complex.

VIKAS BAJAJ

December 27, 2010 The New York Times

Opinion

The Changing Matrix pag 14

Affluence is no longer a sin and no one wants to be left behind.

Sudhir Mishra

29 dec 2010 Outlookindia

It Worked For Us pag 15

India Shining, a story of accidents, from policy to crony capitalism.

R. Jagannathan


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Essay

The Blurred Horizon pag 20

Our basics are in place. But are we braced for handling uncertainty?

Sunil Khilnani

Dec 29 2010, Outlookindia

India Sentences Doctor to Life for Aiding Rebels pag 24

HARI KUMAR


India Leader Offers to Testify in Scandal Inquiry pag 24

JIM YARDLEY

:December 20, 2010 The New York Times

In India, Chinese Leader Pushes Trade pag 26

JIM YARDLEY


India and China

Pushing back pag 28 As China’s prime minister visits India,

the host’s attitude towards its bigger neighbour is hardening

Dec 16th 2010 | DELHI | The Economist

Banyan

Great disorder under heaven pag 29

China’s disastrous diplomacy betrays the

government’s insecurity at home

Dec 16th 2010 The Economist

India's languishing countryside

A village in a million pag 30

Shahabpur, a village on the Gangetic plain,

is caste-addled and somehow cohesive.

But modernity, fast encroaching, is changing its ancient ways

Dec 16th 2010 | The Economist

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Wine and tulips in Kabul pag 37 Foreign invaders have always had a difficult relationship

with Afghanistan. The diary of Babur, the first Moghul emperor,

offers some lessons in how to manage—and to enjoy—the place

Dec 16th 2010 | The Economist

India's taint of corruption spreads as sacked minister faces questioning pag 41

Jason Burke

23 December 2010 The Guardian

Education

KAMAL PARMAR,64 pag 43

Street Educator

ANUMEHA YADAV


ISB to lend helping hand to research institutions pag 43 Hyderabad: The Indian School of Business is expanding its network across the country’s booming entrepreneurial landscape.

December21, 2010 The Economic Times

Enviroment

New green regulator won’t save our forests pag 45 KANCHI KOHLI & MANJU MENON


Now, Mamata faces protests over land for rail projects pag 46

PARTHA DASGUPTA


Climate change affecting Assam tea growers pag 47

Rising temperatures are reducing yields and altering

the distinctive flavour of a popular beverage.

Amarjyoti Borah

Dec 29, 2010 The Hindu

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Andhra Pradesh: mining

Diamond Scare pag 48

De Beers survey sets off fears among tribals

Madhavi Tata


Economic news

NHAI to award projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore before March pag 49 December 30, 2010 Business Standard

German firm wins Himachal road consultancy project pag 50

December 30, 2010 IBEF

US pharma cos show interest in setting up units in Guj pag 51 Mumbai/ Ahmedabad: Guj could attract Rs 10k cr investments in pharma.

December 30, 2010 Business Standard

Chennai gets first major investment from Turkey pag 52

December 29, 2010 The Economic Times

China Radio wants India to tune in pag 53 December 29, 2010 The Economic Times

Manufacturing shows high growth in April-Dec: CII-ASCON survey pag 53 December 27, 2010 IBEF

Food retail giant coming to North India pag 54

December 27, 2010 Business Standard:

New telecom gear norms by Feb: DoT pag 55

December 28, 2010 The Times of India

Global retail majors may come to India in '11 pag 56 December 28, 2010 The Economic Times

.

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Hyundai to spend 400 cr on diesel engine plant pag 57


Reliance MediaWorks signs MoU with RWS and OGK pag 58

December 24, 2010 livemint.com

Pipavav Shipyard signs MoU with Swedish firm pag 59 December 24, 2010 Business Standard

KNR Constructions establishes subsidiary in Ras Al Khaimah pag 59 December 24, 2010 livemint.com

Cloud computing: India beats Malaysia, Singapore pag 59

December, 2010 The Times of India

Airtel to activate Indo-China cable this week pag 62 December 23, 2010 The Economic Times

Dr Reddy's signs pact with Russia's R-Pharm pag 63

December 22, 2010 Business Standrad

Delhi gets 1-Mw solar energy generator pag 64


India, Singapore bilateral trade to touch US$ 22.89 billion in 2010 pag 64


Fitch revises India's growth to 8.7 per cent for 2010-11 pag 65


Domestic air traffic records 25 per cent y-o-y growth pag 66 December 21, 2010 IBEF

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India-Russia set $20 billion trade target in 5 years pag 67


Indian firms grab 34% of SA govt's AIDS drug order pag 67 December 21, 2010 Business Standard

Tata Chemicals' UK subsidiary to take over British Salt pag 68

December 21, 2010 livemint.com

.

NuLight Corporation to invest Rs 900 crore on LED unit in state pag 69 December21, 2010 Business Standard

Global companies may buy more Indian FMCG firms in '11 pag 70 December 20, 2010 The Economic Times

Russia to invest $670 mn in Sistema Shyam this week pag 71


Retail to grow, number of malls to reach 280 pag 72 December 20, 2010 IBEF

Kobe Steel's multi-pronged strategy for Indian market pag 72 December 20, 2010 The Economic Times

Organised sector generated 1.13 mn jobs in 2010, says survey pag 73


Infrastructure investment to reach US$ 1,025 billion pag 75 December 17, 2010 IBEF

Global pharma companies' research widens scope for entrepreneurs pag 75


India, China ink 48 deals worth over $16 b pag 76

December 16, 2010 The Hindu Business Line

Rosneft, Lukoil keen to explore oil, gas in India pag 77 December 16, 2010 The Economic Times

.Direct selling industry to cross US$ 1.54 billion by 2012-13 pag 78 December 16, 2010 IBEF

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Indians may invest over $1bn abroad this fiscal pag78 December 15, 2010 The Economic Times

.

TCS signs 10-year core banking deal with Deutsche Bank pag 79


Report

Cement pag 80 Last Updated: July 2010 IBEF

States of India Delhi pag 82

Last Updated: July 2010 IBEF

Conference

India Maritime Technology Conference 2011 pag 86

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Political and Current Affairs

KASHMIR

Screams from the Valley

WikiLeaks disclosures on torture in Kashmir have fuelled fresh demands for repeal of the

Armed Forces Special Powers Act

BABA UMAR


THE WIKILEAKS exposé of the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) telling US diplomats in 2005 about “torture of civilians” in Kashmiri jails comes at a time when Union Home Minister P Chidambaram says a proposal to amend the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is being studied and the next few months will bring the “contours of a political solution” to the Kashmir problem.

Although the Centre has long been denying torture in Kashmir, separatists say the leaks vindicated complaints about “rampant torture” in Kashmir’s jails even as Chief Minister Omar Abdullah further offended coalition partner Congress by saying the leaks pertain to the year 2005 when the Congress and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ruled jointly. However, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti was quick to rebut Abdullah’s remarks, saying, “The PDP government inherited a tormented legacy. If WikiLeaks looks into the abuses during the NC regime, there will be horror stories.”

One such story is that of Nazir Ahmad Sheikh, 40, who is still haunted by memories of the single tungsten light bulb that hung from the cell ceiling and the heavy bamboo stick that repeatedly hit him. And behind the tattered blanket, an army officer, known to locals as Major Maltani, sipping tea and saying, “You will break soon.”

Picked up from a narrow path through a snow-bound orchard in December 1994, the newly-wed farmer of Yehama in north Kashmir’s Handwara district had no militancy or criminal record. Yet his left hand was pushed into a charcoal oven, his legs rolled over with a steel rod — standard torture to get youths to ‘confess’: “I’m a militant and have a gun to surrender.”

Sheikh didn’t just lose four fingers and both legs due to botched treatment. He also lost a precious piece of ancestral paddy land that he sold to buy artificial limbs. And then, “my wife Halima divorced me a year later for being handicapped,” Sheikh told TEHELKA. His brother-in-law Muhammad Ramzaan, a daily wager, took over the responsibility of looking after the family.

Sheikh had pinned his hopes on the case (FIR 54/95 under Section 325, Ranbir Penal Code) registered at Sanzipora, Handwara, on 12 April 1995 against the 14 Dogra Regiment. But it was closed in the usual way, by declaring the accused “untraceable”.

If the case had stayed on track, Sheikh could have asked for sanction from the Central government for prosecuting his army tormentors in a civil court. But chances of such a sanction are slim as is obvious from the government’s own figures — on 5 June 2009, the state home department and joint secretary (defence), jointly submitted to the high court a list of 458 requests for redress, 46 of which relate to the army, for the period 1990-2007. In none of these was sanction given. Human rights groups attribute this to “non-seriousness” of the state government and “prejudiced approach” of the Central government.

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The list was submitted in response to court orders dated 22 December 2008 in the case of Javed Ahmad Magray vs Union of India. The PDP government set up an inquiry commission into Magray’s killing in May 2003 and named the key accused as Major Vastava, Lt Verma and Subedar S Sinha of the Assam Regiment. However, the state government was unable to initiate a criminal prosecution because it failed to secure the sanction for prosecution from the Central government, a necessary requirement under Section 7 of AFSPA.

“All this can tell you how atrocities have been ignored for years,” says Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) president Parvez Imroz. He says successive state governments have never been serious about pursuing these cases.

“In fact, when Magray’s parents went to the police station asking why their son’s murder case was not sent to New Delhi for sanction of prosecution against the armymen, they were told by the SHO to translate the FIR from Urdu to English,” he says.

NGOs say the state government is not serious about pursuing cases of abuse and the Centre is prejudiced

In Kashmir, there have been many accusations against army, paramilitary forces, and the police about custodial killings, disappearances, torture, rape and molestation. Killing of civilians and passing them off as ‘militants’ and ‘foreign terrorists’ for rewards and promotions is another trend.

IN MARCH 2000, when the Pathribal fake encounter was reported, the then Union home secretary Kamal Pandey and home minister LK Advani, within hours of the encounter, came on record to say the police and army had gunned down five Lashkare- Toiba militants responsible for the massacre of 36 Sikhs in Chittisinghpora when the then US President Bill Clinton was touring India. The mass public outcry led to the truth: the CBI not only concluded that the encounter was staged but also chargesheeted five army officers in a Srinagar court on 11 May 2006.

But in the Supreme Court, the counsels of the accused submitted that the CBI filed the chargesheet without obtaining mandatory sanction from the Central government under provisions of AFSPA. Meanwhile, the army officers got promotions.

That year, on 5 October, Showkat Ahmed, a cleric at a mosque in Alamgari Bazaar, Srinagar, went missing. Within four hours, the army’s 13 Rashtriya Rifles and the police’s Special Operation Group killed him in a fake encounter at Baazipora Ajas in Ganderbal district, according to the police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case. In the FIR, they had labelled Showkat as Abu Zahid of Karachi, claiming he was killed in ‘multiple ambushes’ at Baazipora and a huge arms recovery was made. His DNA, however, matched with his relatives proving that he was a local.

However, the army challenged the jurisdiction of the SIT on the grounds that it had not obtained sanction from New Delhi under one of the provisions of AFSPA.

And so the abuses continued unchecked. Kashmir skidded into shock in October 2009 after 11 teenaged boys, arrested for stone-pelting, deposed before a local court that the police forced them to “sodomise each other” in lock-up and filmed the act on a cell phone camera.

In the year just past, the army claimed to have killed the oldest rebel of Kashmir in Handwara district. However, Habibbulah, 70, later turned out to be a local beggar who was labelled a ‘foreign militant’ from whom the army claimed to have recovered an AK-47 rifle, Pakistani currency and ammunition.

And the list goes on.

The recent killings of over a hundred people, mostly youth, in paramilitary CRPF and police firing, together with the fake encounter of three youths in Machil sector of Kupwara near the Line of

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Control by the army has, however, become a rallying point for all those who have been demanding inquiry into such missing, killed or tortured cases of their family members.

DEMANDING AN end to the now 20- year-old ‘draconian’ AFSPA and other laws that offer impunity to the armed forces for arresting, detaining and shooting any person “acting in contravention of any law” is the head of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Parveena Ahanger of Srinagar.

Ahanger’s son, high-school student Javaid Ahmad, was picked up by soldiers on the night of 17 August 1990 when he was 16. She has not heard from him since then. The case was investigated by Jammu & Kashmir Police agencies and heard by the additional district judge, Srinagar. Three armymen were accused. The state government in 1997 sought sanction for launching prosecution; however, the Union home ministry refused sanction citing ‘improper investigation’ as the reason.

“AFSPA is draconian. It has to go,” Ahanger insists. “The Act has shielded and facilitated impunity not only to those who picked up my son but the armed forces responsible for hundreds of disappearances across the Valley in the past 21 years.”

In fact, the cables on torture released by WikiLeaks said that ICRC staff told US diplomats of 177 visits to detention centres in the state and elsewhere in the country between 2002 and 2004 in which ICRC staff met 1,491 detainees and managed to interview 1,296 privately.

According to the leaks, ICRC found that detainees were maltreated in 852 cases. A total of 171 described being beaten and 681 being subjected to six forms of torture. These included 498 on whom electricity had been used, 381 who had been suspended from the ceiling, 294 who had prison personnel sitting on a bar placed across their thighs, 181 whose legs had been stretched by being ‘split 180 degrees’, 234 tortured with water and 302 ‘sexual’ cases.

The Red Cross says 852 detainees were maltreated; 681 of them were subjected to six forms of torture

“The numbers add up to more than 681, as many detainees were subjected to more than one form of ill-treatment,” the cable said. The ICRC was reported to have told the American diplomats that all branches of the Indian security forces used these forms of ill-treatment and torture, adding: “The abuse always takes place in the presence of officers and detainees were rarely militants (they are routinely killed), but persons connected to or believed to have information about the insurgency.”

According to the leaks, ICRC told the American diplomats about 300 detention centres till 2000 and failure in gaining access to the ‘Cargo Building’, the most notorious detention centre, in Srinagar city.

Muhammad Yasin Malik (not the JKLF leader), is one such person who was subjected to all three forms of torture in the spring of 1994. Malik of Zandfaran, Baramullah in North Kashmir, was on his way to the capital to submit his admission form in KITE Polytechnic, Srinagar. However, in the city’s Batamaloo, armymen mistook him for the JKLF leader and immediately dragged him into a nearby army camp.

‘Kashmir is a big jail,’ says MLA Engineer Rashid. ‘But that doesn’t mean we stop seeking our rights’

“During the initial days, I was beaten up with sticks and kicked with jackboots,” Malik recalls. For 15 days, Malik was tortured at the notorious Papa 1 and Papa 2 interrogation centres, both tucked under the foothills of Zabarwan Mountains overlooking the picturesque Dal Lake.

“One morning, they (troops) inserted a thin rod into my penis. I fainted when they passed electricity through it,” he recalls. “After my lunch, they would often waterboard me. I would simply vomit it all out.”

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The staff of J&K’s home department is tight-lipped about the number of cases the state has forwarded to the Centre for sanctioning prosecution against the armed forces. “I don’t have the exact details,” Principal Secretary (Home) B R Sharma told TEHELKA. “But the private secretary keeps a record. You must talk to him.”

Private Secretary (Home) KL Anand said he doesn’t deal with the issue and instead Additional Secretary (Home) Dilshada should be approached. When contacted, she said she only keeps the record of those who are currently detained in jails across the state. She referred TEHELKA to Deputy Secretary (Home) Subash Chibber.

“I don’t deal with it. Talk to Senior Law Officer Iqbal Mir for the needful,” he said. Mir also denied having all the details. “Only the police can reveal the exact number of cases that have gone to the Centre,” he said.

Hitting out at those demanding dilution of AFSPA, army officials say they can’t operate in Kashmir without AFSPA.

“Fighting militancy and maintaining human rights is definitely a very difficult game. But one has to clearly understand the limitations under which soldiers operate and in the environment where there is no clear identification of anti-national elements,” Brigadier Staff General of Northern Command Sanjay Chawla told TEHELKA in an email interview.

ASKED ABOUT cases of human rights violation in which AFSPA has been used as a shield, he said, “The army carries on its shoulders the burden of ensuring that all its actions are done in good faith. But at the same time AFSPA is essential. Otherwise our personnel would get bogged down in handling frivolous accusations made against them in civil courts.”

Bloodshed Showkat was killed in a 2006 fake encounter in Srinagar

The officer said that state governments in the Northeast and Kashmir have sought sanction from the Central government for prosecution of army personnel under AFSPA in 44 cases (42 in J&K, 2 in NE) of which 40 cases (38 J&K, 2 NE) have been investigated and four cases are under investigation. “In all the 44 cases, 25 cases (24 in J&K, 1 in NE) were closed and sanction not granted by the central government. 15 cases (14 J&K, 1 NE) are under process at Command Headquarters, Army Headquarters and Ministry of Defence,” he said.

If victims like Nazir Ahmad Sheikh have any hope, it is because of people like independent MLA Engineer Rashid who has shot to fame for his derring-do. On 2 May this year, he took part in the funeral prayers of three militants killed in gunbattles with the army in Kupwara district.

Rashid has filed more than a dozen cases in the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) that pertain to torture, custodial killings, and fake encounters in north Kashmir. Only recently, Rashid also filed cases in the SHRC accusing the army of taking people of 24 villages for forced labour.

Later, a report submitted by the J&K Police’s CID wing to the SHRC read: “As per verification, the army camped in Handwara used to take along residents of Mawar for forced labour, night patrolling and other operations without paying any wages to them. This exercise remained enforced from 1990 to 2002. Since then, no such complaint has been received from any area of Handwara.”

“Kashmir is a big jail,” MLA Rashid told TEHELKA. “But that doesn’t mean that we stop trying to seek our rights. Come what may, I’ll never accept second-class treatment to my people.”

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Flashy Office Space, Advertising India’s Allure

The new campus of Tata Consultancy Services in Chennai. The company is spending $200

million on the futuristic complex.

VIKAS BAJAJ


SIRUSERI, India — A massive futuristic office complex is rising from a patch of spare, arid land here near the southern Indian city of Chennai. Six butterfly-shaped buildings dock like spacecraft to two long metal-latticed terminals.

When fully completed, the new campus for Tata Consultancy will accommodate 24,000 of its nearly 180,000 employees.

About 12,000 people already work at the campus, being built by India’s largest technology company, Tata Consultancy Services. It eventually will have space for 24,000 of Tata’s nearly 180,000 employees.

Meanwhile Infosys, one of Tata’s biggest competitors, has added a corporate campus for 15,000 employees with buildings that resemble the Parthenon, the Coliseum and the Louvre’s glass pyramid. Infosys plans to build an additional 10 million square feet of custom office space by mid-2012, at various sites, adding 25,000 workers to its current 122,000.

It is all part of a construction spree by India’s outsourcing companies, which are growing at a breakneck pace after the lull caused by the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.

But the building boom is about more than making room for more workers.

The outsourcing giants, which include Wipro and others, hope that architectural sizzle can help them compete for the nation’s top software programmers, while also burnishing their reputations with overseas clients and prospective customers.

In this nation where world-class high-tech companies co-exist with urban slums and rural poverty, employers like Tata, Infosys and Wipro have set out to create avant-garde, environmentally smart corporate sanctuaries.

And even if some architects and critics complain about the wisdom and taste of the efforts, the executives behind the building boom say their ambitious projects put a modern face on Indian business.

T. V. Mohandas Pai, a director at Infosys, which has 15 campuses around India, said his company’s eclectic mix of designs from all over the world reflected this nation’s inclusive sensibility. “One singular thing is monotonous,” he said. “In India, we are a colorful people.”

Like China a decade earlier, India appears to be at that phase of economic development where buildings are meant to help advertise the nation’s arrival on the world stage. But unlike China, where the government and state-owned corporations took the lead, private companies in India have headed the charge — not the government, which struggles to execute even basic construction projects.

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And within India’s business world, technology companies have been more adventurous than others, perhaps because of their outsize financial success and their need to hire tens of thousands of workers to write software for foreign clients. State and federal governments are aiding the effort by offering these companies generous tax incentives and choice pieces of real estate to build big campuses.

Competition for employees is intense, because while India produces about 500,000 engineers every year, most colleges provide such poor education that the industry says that just a quarter of graduates are employable. But among those most qualified — typically graduates of elite places like the Indian Institutes of Technology and Birla Institute of Technology and Science — as many as 18 percent leave for other jobs every year. The outsourcing companies see lavish, environmentally friendly campuses as a way to help attract and retain the best and brightest workers.

With their manicured lawns, power generators and lakes, the campuses are a noticeable improvement on most engineering colleges, which suffer from India’s standard infrastructure deficiencies — blackouts, water shortages and poor maintenance.

“I prefer a big campus,” said Aditya Mathur, a software engineer, 23, who joined Wipro a year ago, and now works at a four-year-old office in Gurgaon, south of New Delhi, as a software tester. “The facilities are better in a big campus.”

Tata Consultancy Services — or T.C.S., as the company is known — is spending $200 million on its Siruseri campus and has hired the Uruguayan-born Canadian architect Carlos A. Ott, who designed the opera house on the Place de la Bastille in Paris. The company is also building big campuses in Ahemdabad, Pune, Calcutta and Hyderabad.

But some critics say that too many of the industry’s new complexes are intended to make a big splash without much thought of how they will function and fit into the local surroundings.

“It is a haphazard reaching for something that will quickly make a statement about the place being

world class,” said Himanshu Burte, an architecture critic who writes frequently for Indian newspapers.

But Rahul Mehrotra, a prominent architect who has designed an office building for Hewlett-Packard in Bangalore, the city at the heart of India’s technology industry, argued that rather than being outré, too many Indian tech campuses had a hackneyed feel, evoking the sprawling suburban campuses of Silicon Valley or American companies like Google and Apple.

“The architecture in these cases symbolizes the fact that these are places of outsourcing, not cutting-edge research,” said Mr. Mehrotra, who lives in Mumbai and Boston.

Mr. Pai of Infosys said he was unconcerned about such criticism. He said the people who mattered to the company — employees and customers — raved about its buildings, particularly those that resembled landmarks like the Coliseum at its new campus in the city of Mysore. “They like the fact that it’s so diverse,” he said.

Infosys probably set the standard for ambitious corporate campuses in India more than a decade ago. Many other companies grew helter-skelter wherever they could find space. But Infosys started building large complexes, beginning with its first campus on the southern edge of Bangalore, its home city, in 1995, just a few years after India started to open its economy to the rest of the world.

That first campus, which, after many expansions, can now accommodate 24,000 people, was considered cutting-edge for creating an ordered oasis of lawns and lakes in the midst of the urban chaos that envelops most commercial areas in India. The complex also established the company’s quirky style — with a glass pyramid for an auditorium and a building that resembles a washing machine — and helped set a benchmark for big campuses in the technology industry.

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Mr. Pai, who determined the overall layout of the campuses with the company’s chairman, N. R. Narayana Murthy, said Infosys was determined to make every new campus “better than our last campus.”

Their rules include the tenet that no two buildings should look alike. Another audacious goal is that every campus should become a “carbon sink” in the next five years. In other words, trees, lakes and other natural features should absorb more carbon than is generated by the campus.

Some other firms, like Wipro, tend to be more understated, opting for standard-looking office buildings. But even these companies have trademark causes. Wipro prides itself on minimizing the use of power and, especially, water. It recycles water and creates lakes to harvest the rain. At one of its campuses in Bangalore, a training center appears to float on one of these reservoirs.

T.C.S., based in Mumbai, has long had significant operations in and around Chennai, the city formerly known as Madras, which is on the Bay of Bengal. But N. Chandrasekaran, chief executive of T.C.S., said the company previously had too many buildings arbitrarily sprinkled around that region.

The new Siruseri campus, 18 miles south of Chennai, is meant to help consolidate some of those outposts and give employees a sense of place and pride of ownership. “We had multiple buildings and we felt that we should have a campus where employees will feel empowerment, will feel good about working,” he said “and at the same time we have a place to host clients.”

For at least some employees, the plan seems to be succeeding.

Deenathajalan Sugumar, who works in production support, recently moved to the new T.C.S. campus in Siruseri from a smaller building in Chennai. He gushed about the campus, even though he now commutes by a company bus for more than an hour every day, more than double his previous travel time.

“It’s my home,” Mr. Sugumar, 24, said. “It’s my company.”

Opinion

The Changing Matrix

Affluence is no longer a sin and no one wants to be left behind.

Sudhir Mishra


The word ‘Indian’ is too broad and too vague, so I’m talking about the middle-class Indian male. There was one kind of Indian 20 years ago, straitjacketed by his social, political and economic world. In that world, power was the way to economic comfort. For that Indian, it was merely a matter of holding on to that power, which was his by virtue of birth (read caste). He already had it.

So while he merrily sold himself for dowry, got jobs because he had usurped the education system and deprived the majority of access to its benefits, he sold a set of values that saw money as evil and we were all living a vague “Indianess”, where love and peace prevailed. Of course, it goes without saying some sold it, some bought into it and some disagreed, but only mildly. They had, between the three of them, already snuffed out the aspirations of the majority by intellectual subterfuge and brute force.

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Without resorting to statistics, one can safely state that in the India of 20 years ago, there was a set of established leaders—economic, political and social. The rest of us—upper caste, middle caste —were servants. The line, or value system, sold was that affluence was akin to depravity, therefore, the majority should not aspire to it. Everyone should wait for the nobility to save their souls. However, 20 years ago, the cracks had started to appear because the rest of “India” had already seen through the con.

“Those left behind by the reforms aspire to what Middle India has today. They can’t be ignored.”

And then a seminal event happened. The western world realised that its markets were not enough and it needed our markets to keep its economies going. And suddenly the population of India—which was its biggest problem—became its biggest asset. And the value systems changed—or, shall we say, another set of values was floated as being “ideal”. So the Indian middle-class male was given American baseball caps in all sizes, which he promptly put on his kids’ heads as he walked with his manicured wife with her hair coloured blonde into shopping malls, waving his credit cards as if they were a gift from Alladin.

Now, this prosperous Indian male has begun to think he is special, therefore, “upper” (caste again). So everyone lower than him is a servant without the right to dissent. Because he has denied himself that right, he then thinks nobody else has that right as well. However, the newly affluent Indian has a strange kind of schism in his head. He says he believes in free competition but does not recognise that it is not enough to open the gates of prosperity for all. You have to first make them capable of walking through these gates. Some minor reservations in government jobs freak him out and he lashes out at the beneficiaries of handouts with a kind of vicious paranoid anger.

But what gives him actual nightmares are women. I don’t know if I am right, but I think they are the real beneficiaries of liberalisation even though some may say that it is an “unintended consequence”. The logic of the marketplace is such that the rights of half the consumers can no longer be denied. And a whole edifice of values lies shattered. The woman can not only give birth and nurture his babies, she can replace him in the workplace as well. He has discovered that if he can betray her, so can she. If he can leave her, so can she! Her value system has changed and is sometimes in opposition to his.

But there is another revolt brewing—some have sensed it and some haven’t. When you create needs and flaunt objects of aspiration, the desires are created in everyone (and not just the target audience). A substantial part of the great Indian mass that has been left out of the economic juggernaut now desires the same things and is turning red with anger at the joke being played at them. The system will have to change its values and allow more of them to enter the mainstream or else the whole fabric will be rent. In the next 20 years, another set of values will collapse!

It Worked For Us

India Shining, a story of accidents, from policy to crony capitalism.

R. Jagannathan


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The story of India’s economic reforms is usually mistold. It begins with 1991 and Manmohan Singh as lead actor. This is a bit off. The real story revolves around two personalities and a population weary of politicians’ excuses for non-performance. The two personalities were Indira Gandhi and Dhirubhai Ambani.

The irony of India’s reforms saga is that it began around the same time as China’s in the early 1980s. But India’s wayward democracy mandated us to stumble along the way repeatedly while China’s autocratic leadership ploughed on with reforms, unmindful of political consequences. The huge gap between China’s turbo-charged growth in the last 30 years and India’s transition from a slow, secular rate of growth to a faster Hindu rate can primarily be explained by the democracy premium.

I have deliberately reversed the meaning of ‘secular’ and ‘Hindu’ rates of growth because the 3-4 per cent we were achieving before the 1980s was driven by socialist-secular policies of a dirigiste Congress-CPI thought alliance. The post-’80s acceleration reflects a truer ‘Hindu’ rate of growth—an indisciplined dash driven by extreme entrepreneurship, graft, caste assertion and political pandering to votebanks. It worked for us.

Indira Gandhi realised that if she had to meet rising popular expectations, economic liberalisation was a must. To turn right, she created a diversionary distraction to the left by nationalising six banks soon after she returned to power in 1980. Her socialist credentials re-established, she began loosening the rigours of the licence-permit raj by adopting a policy called broadbanding that allowed companies to produce more or different products with the same licence. Tariff walls were also selectively lowered to allow for economic modernisation and scale economics to kick in.

Dhirubhai freed capital from the babu’s clutches, raising money from the people directly.

Harnessing this process through behind-the-scenes policy nudges and pushes was Dhirubhai Ambani, the prime beneficiary of this early phase of liberalisation. His mission was achieving global scales through local action. He saw that no Indian company could be globally competitive without lowering the cost of capital; he ensured that his cost of capital was reduced to near-zero by assiduously seeding the capital market and creating the equity cult. He raised high-cost debt and converted it to equity at a huge premium, thereby cutting the real cost of capital. If Indira Gandhi was freeing business from the shackles of babudom, Dhirubhai freed capital from their clutches by raising money directly from the people. He democratised the capital market. He scripted the end of a species called the development financial institution, cutting public sector financial oligarchs down to size. Other entrepreneurs learnt his tricks soon enough.

But politics did India in. As the 1980s progressed, Indira Gandhi was increasingly distracted by the murderous militancy in Punjab, to which she ultimately fell victim. Her two successors—son Rajiv Gandhi and V.P. Singh—began their terms with liberalising instincts, but corruption and politics overwhelmed them. Bofors immobilised Rajiv Gandhi and Mandal-mandir politics consumed V.P. Singh. Both let the economy slide towards bankruptcy, leaving the field clear for Manmohan Singh and Narasimha Rao to do the rescue act.

It is customary to credit Manmohan for the economic reforms of the early ’90s, and we need not be churlish about that. He was the right man in the right place at the right time. Yashwant Sinha, his predecessor, came up with many reformist ideas in his ill-fated 1991-92 budget. But his government, headed by Chandra Shekhar, fell before he could present it. Sinha went down in history as the man who mortgaged the country’s gold reserves, Manmohan as the man who brought it back. The worst things that happened to India have ultimately turned out to be the best. If we had not been close to external bankruptcy in 1990-91, we’d never have accepted the need to reform. It is not without reason that Manmohan Singh’s record as an economic reformer stops in the mid-’90s. The real reforms between 1994-2004 happened during the United Front and NDA regimes.

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The Mandal-mandir fracas at the turn of the 1980s was another period of national trauma—but it created the right conditions for India’s next growth push. As caste and communal tensions flared up, reaching its nadir in the razing of Babri Masjid in 1992, two things happened. First, the OBCs suddenly bubbled up to the top, demanding a share in economic power. The country’s growth aspirations were broadbased, laying the foundations for today’s consumption-led economy that gives us an edge over China’s investment-led growth.

Second, the communal fallout of Ayodhya led to big changes in the way Muslims perceived all mainstream parties, the Congress included. The community realised that the Congress was essentially running a protection racket in their name by assiduously fanning fears about majority communalism. Digvijay Singh’s latest nonsense about Hemant Karkare’s tragic death during the 26/11 terror attacks shows nothing has changed.

Fiscal irresponsibility in UPA-I brought its own advantages for India—and for the wrong reasons.

Muslims, who constitute close to 14 per cent of our population, know this. In 1992, they came to the conclusion that they could not depend on the Congress’s secularism to help them seek the benefits of education and jobs. In the decade between 1991 and 2001, ordinary Muslims quietly went on to invest in their own future by sending their sons and daughters to school. The 2001 census shows that Muslim literacy rates are higher than average in 10 states. The community’s backwardness is largely confined to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal and Assam—the last two being skewed by population inflows from neighbouring Bangladesh. While Muslims still lag behind upper-caste Hindus, what is clear is that the base of India’s middle class is being expanded once again. Muslims are slowly, but surely, being conscripted into the India growth story, though politicians like Digvijay Singh would like to slow this down.

Our next major crisis—which once again gave a push to reforms—came during NDA rule, when the Vajpayee government conducted its Pokhran blasts and courted global sanctions. Two things happened because of this. First, since there was no knowing whether the sanctions would bite, the NDA speeded up reforms to ensure the availability of global capital. This was when disinvestment went into overdrive under Arun Shourie, and the telecom mess was sorted out. Reforms happened with a vengeance.

The second thing that happened was Kargil—and this too played a part in globalising India. Having achieved nuclear parity with India, Gen Pervez Musharraf decided to go for broke on Kashmir with his Kargil incursions. His calculation: by threatening nuclear escalation, the world would panic and force India to negotiate on Kashmir. His plan backfired because the world had seen the other side of India by then: a potential technology superpower that helped avert catastrophe on Y2K. The world’s dotcom boom was significantly powered by Indians. And since American satellites had seen what the Kargil intruders were up to, Bill Clinton knew it was Pakistan’s provocation. He refused to help prime minister Nawaz Sharif unless he de-escalated Kargil. The Kargil opening provided the right backdrop for the US and India to re-engage, and 9/11 helped escalate the relationship under George Bush to something more strategic. India had arrived on the global stage.

The story of India’s rise as an IT superpower is also worth restating. It was less a product of strategic thinking and more the result of a foreign exchange shortage mentality. The government allowed Indian tech companies to go untaxed on their external earnings, enabling the Infosyses and Wipros to grow unencumbered by the restraints that held back brick-and-mortar companies.

Way in Dhirubhai and sons at the Patalganga petrochem complex inaugural in the ’80s. (Photograph by Jayanta Saha)

India’s IT prowess was built on four legs: an official hands-off policy, a supportive fiscal regime, a huge talent pool created by Nehru’s investments in the iits and iims, and the policies of social empowerment in states like Tamil Nadu which forced the upper castes to look to the rest of India and North America for employment. The upper-caste diaspora created the initial Indian IT brand;

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the newly empowered OBCs and other socially disadvantaged groups will widen the reach of the brand in all knowledge-intensive businesses.

Fiscal irresponsibility in the UPA years created its own advantages for India—and for the wrong reasons. Huge fuel and fertiliser subsidies and social giveaways (NREGA, farm loan waivers) brought the fiscal deficit almost back to the levels Manmohan Singh encountered in 1991-92. But India benefited from wrong policies because the rest of world was doing worse. The Hindi phrase ‘andhon mein kaana raja’ (one-eyed in the land of the blind) summarises India’s global situation well. When North America, Europe and Japan goofed up on regulation and let their economies collapse, India’s overcautious policies protected us from banking chaos. Hot money had nowhere to go but India, China and other emerging economies. The over-expansionary fiscal policies of 2004-09 widened the consumption market back home. Today, the hike in overall wages and prices due to NREGA spending has created new consumers among the poor at the cost of higher inflation.

The Wonder Years

1991

•Import restrictions removed on day one

•Rupee devalued by 18-19%

•Trade policy changed

•Dual exchange rate regime established

•New industrial policy announced

•Disinvestment of PSUs to raise resources

•India Development Bonds rake in $1.6 bn; GDP growth rate 2.5%

1992

•SEBI given statutory powers

•Private satellite television begins

•Rangarajan panel asks for 49% divestment in public sector industries

•Harshad Mehta scandal rocks India

1994

•NSE starts operations

•Current account convertibility

•National telecom policy announced

1995

•49% FDI in telecom services

•First mobile phone call made

1996

•Schemes like DEPB, EOU, EPZ and advance licence announced

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•First telecom scam involving Sukh Ram

•Disinvestment Commission set up

•GVK is first private power producer

1997

•Telecom watchdog TRAI operational

•Tarapore panel on rupee convertibility

1999

•New telecom policy announced

•Insurance sector opened up

2000

•FERA replaced with a gentler FEMA

2004

•Broadband policy announced

2005

•RTI announced

2006

•51% FDI in single-brand retail

•Goods & Services Tax (gst) mooted

2009

•Direct Tax Code

2010

•Minimum public shareholding in listed firms raised to 25%; revised to 10%

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Essay

The Blurred Horizon

Our basics are in place. But are we braced for handling uncertainty?

Sunil Khilnani

Director, South Asia Studies, Johns Hopkins University. His book, The Idea of India, will be soon published in a new

edition.

Dec 29 2010, Outlookindia

It’s now 20 years—a generational epoch—since the 1991 economic reforms that have helped spur the fastest economic growth in our country’s history, and that have embedded us in an ever-more-complicated world. That 1991 also brought another pivot point, the fall of the Soviet Union, and seemed to signal a profound global switch: the victory of market capitalism and liberal democracy. But 20 years later, the meaning of 1991 looks more blurry.

Authoritarian China controls the world’s most dynamic economy, while the beacon of liberal democracy—the United States—finds its legitimacy chastened and its economic momentum checked, with no clear idea of how to renew that impetus. The neoliberal dream embodied in the ‘Washington Consensus’ has evaporated and, while China increasingly asserts itself as a powerful sovereign actor, the idea that there could emerge an attractive model that is styled around a ‘Beijing Consensus’ seems delusive.

Where, in this transformed, undecided world does India—itself changing profoundly, and ambivalent about its options and desires—stand? How is economic expansion altering our own society—and our place in the world? What is India’s post-liberalisation story, and how does it fit both with our own account of what we wish to be, and with a new global story?

We have now an entire post-1991 generation of adult Indians for whom the ambiguities of coalition politics, a volatile Hindu nationalism and intense caste politics are simply parts of the landscape—as are the market economy, dynamic growth rates, traffic hell and the electronic media. They have been reared in the age of economics. If in the 20th century India’s search was for political freedom, today most Indians are in search of wealth—and power.

Yet, in that search for wealth, it’s worth remembering that economic advantages are not always best achieved by economistic means. Achieving them requires a more complex view of human beings, and of the world, than the dismal science can ever allow. The greatest economists are not the whizkid ‘quants’ trying to model and predict the future in numerical terms. The greatest have been those—Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes—with insight into human psychology and how the nature of uncertainty itself shapes human actions. Keynes, in 1937, wrote: “We assume that the present is a much more serviceable guide to the future than a candid examination of past experience would show it to have been hitherto. In other words we largely ignore the prospect of future changes about the actual character of which we know nothing.”

As Indians seek now to expand and consolidate the opportunities opened by the reforms of 1991, we need more than ever to think systematically about such uncertainties. Republics that endure and prosper are those that balance optimism about the future with a sense of the threats that may spring.

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In our exuberance, we forget we cannot stay insulated from a dysfunctional neighbourhood.

“India is firmly on the growth expressway,” Goldman Sachs declared a few years ago, but the future is seldom reached by a through-route, nor can we foresee it in an economist’s graph or forecast. And only in the rhetoric of politicians do we reach out to grasp the future—more often, it hits us in the face, from unnoticed angles and with unexpected force. “The paradigmatic moment of political awareness”, the political theorist John Dunn reminds us, is Julius Caesar’s greeting his least-expected assassin, “Et tu Brute?”

It is clear that structurally, the fundamentals are now aligned to sustain India’s economic expansion. The country’s demographics, its levels of savings and investment, and its entrepreneurial talents could indeed enable significant growth to continue for another generation and more.

But the world consists not just of structures and trends—it is made up also of agency, and of actors. And how we cope with our own actions and their unforeseen results, as well as the often unpredictable actions of others, will be decisive for whether India’s economic potential is realised or squandered.

Twenty years on, the most important legacy of 1991 is that it has given us real choices to make, for better or worse. In making those choices—political judgements—two facts are crucial. The first is that we now have a very limited window of opportunity during which to get things right with respect to our productive capacities and competitive abilities—five years at most, perhaps ten. The second is that the decisions we take will have long-term effects, and will set us on paths that will be hard to alter. In that sense, the real turning point in our economic prospects will lie just ahead—and not back in 1991.

One of the most striking transformations since 1991 has been in our psychological outlook. Changes in the material world produced by economic growth—directly or vicariously experienced—have sparked extraordinary optimism about the future. Whether measured by levels of the stockmarket, investment, policy forecasts, it’s an optimism that seems insulated against political uncertainties, terrorism and the corruption that marks so much of what passes for everyday life in India.

Similar optimism pervades popular views. In 2009, when the effects of the financial crisis were cascading across the world, the Pew Global Attitudes group surveyed opinion in G-20 countries and found Indians to be the most positive in their attitudes towards market capitalism. Ninety-one per cent of Indians could describe their economic situation as good; 96 per cent were positive about trade with other countries; and 81 per cent agreed that people were better off in a market economy despite the inequalities. Such survey figures often do demand a dose of salt—but still they indicate the enthusiasm of the new convert, for whom the tests of experience lie ahead.

It used to be said that Indians didn’t bother to pursue wealth because of their belief in karma, a fatalistic determinism that held back economic development. Now, as we hear repeatedly—whether it is from caste groups or from national leaders—that “our turn has come”, there’s equally the danger of an inverted complacency: a deterministic faith in our upward economic surge. There is no way of knowing how history works, but it certainly does not work like a game of musical chairs.

The new optimism that fills young India is undoubtedly a good thing. Economic growth, despite being uneven (in fact, precisely when uneven), does have the initial psychological effect of encouraging hope and optimism. This in turn shapes behaviour. People may become initially less risk-averse, more willing to borrow, to invest—and to believe in the future. But setbacks can have equally powerful reverse effects. Think of Japan: once the paragon of consumerism, today shops there implore people, not very successfully, to buy.

It would be a mistake to imagine our future on the basis of extrapolating economic trend numbers. The core problems we face—questions of social justice, of ecology and natural resources, social

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conflict, an insecure neighbourhood—are not merely external constraints on our search for wealth, matters to be addressed in due course. They will have to be tackled all at once, and this will often generate contradictory choices. But working to sustain multiple commitments, often in tension with one another, is a lesson our founders taught us.

Three tensions—domestic, international and global—are intrinsic to our economic possibilities and will frame the choices we make.

We should by now be well aware of the accumulating domestic strains accentuated by our post-1991 growth pattern—a pattern economic analysts like Michael Walton have called ‘disequalising’. It results in fantastic over-concentrations of wealth, ‘Antilian’ islands teetering above impoverished oceans. Walton notes that the private wealth of India’s billionaires has surged dramatically in recent years (from less than one per cent of GDP in 1997 to a peak of over 23 per cent in 2008), and as a share of GDP, it’s now close to that of Russia and Saudi Arabia, even while India’s level of per capita income is much lower than in those countries—and it is a democracy.

The rich, we have learned to recognise, are a necessary public good for every society. But there are also times one has to ask the question: What exactly is the social utility of such levels of wealth concentration?

Precisely because we are a democracy, there will be pressures for redistribution. Yet, unsurprisingly, these have been couched in terms that seek preferential treatment for groups defined by social identities—which, in many cases, do indeed correlate with deprivation. But the correlations are increasingly contentious, not least because identifying them calls for a fair number of discretionary judgements—and the disputes as well as the attempts to smooth them over (“Let’s extend quotas”) run the risk of jamming our economic progress. We need to move away from notions of social justice based on redistribution, and towards an Indian social democracy based on expanding participation and giving the citizenry universal access to the dynamic parts of the economy.

That can only be done by a steroidal enhancement of our human capital. Spreading education and improving skills have to be the one central task to which we commit, now, our accumulating wealth. Azim Premji’s judgement about where to invest his wealth is exactly right—and it will need many more to clamber off their Antilias and Anandams and follow his example, as well as more sensible government efforts, if we are going to scale up to the levels we need.

Twenty years on, it’s time to broaden attention from economic liberalisation, toward achieving knowledge and skill liberalisation—so that Indians can participate in the growth economy. Rapid experiment and innovation will be needed as we search for effective ways to educate and train millions of Indians in quick march. We are talking, in effect, about an educational revolution: revolutionary in methods, scope, speed—above all, in will.

We have so far relied on 19th century models of education. It cries out for radical change.

Government will have to open up space for new ideas and approaches to building India’s human capital. Until now, we have relied on models developed in the 19th century—elite institutions and universities, supposedly fed by schools and colleges lower down the food chain—and on the amazing autodidactic capacities of Indians. Given the magnitude of the problem—one million Indians entering the workforce every month for the next 20 years—neither self-help nor lumbering governmental institutions can offer a strategy to educate citizens and make them socially mobile.

Lines of tension also loom in the international domain, in both our regional neighbourhood and the international economy.

Since 1991, the paths and prospects of India and Pakistan have dramatically diverged: if it is optimism that prevails in India, in Pakistan the dominant sentiments are resentment, victimhood and despair. Pakistan’s problems are severe. The country’s population is rapidly expanding, and it will

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likely be the world’s third most populous country by 2050. It has dismal social and human indicators, and its rate of growth is declining. Combined with the predicament of Afghanistan and the brittle veneer of order in Burma, the dysfunctionalities of our immediate region will hold back India’s progress: distracting attention and resources, extracting opportunity costs and hindering the economic integration of the subcontinent. The crises of these societies are deep; we are in no position to intervene to try to resolve them. Yet, neither will we be able to keep out. It will need considerable political skill to manage our economic development in this geopolitical terrain.

Beginning in 1991, we embraced an economic model based on the liberal premise of benign global integration—which for many years the western economies pressed on India. Yet, in today’s world of structural imbalances, the developed economies grow ambivalent about the liberal premise. They sense a threat in Asian economic growth—yet, also for their own purposes, need the economies of China and India to grow. The western economies, struggling to cope with the effects of trade imbalances, are likely to meander between efforts to protect their acquired gains, to intervene in and seek to regulate markets, and to push for greater access to growing markets.

The leaders of western economies recognise that India can be one of the main drivers of global economic growth. But, the more India succeeds in integrating, the more it may face pushback, as its growth collides with a sense in western economies that this threatens their prosperity. Already among western electorates there is a popular reaction against open markets—and their governments will be compelled to be more politically active in the management of their economies.

India, for its part, needs to be careful and shrewdly strategic as it deals both with global markets and competitor states. The fact that India appears frequently now on the business pages of the New York Times and in the Financial Times is driven by western self-interest in India’s growth. This is perfectly reasonable. India’s likely demands for consumer goods, for major infrastructure projects and for defence wares—makes it the last great economic frontier. Given India’s scale, if it maintains its current growth rates and profile, that will be sufficient to keep western economies in business. The latter only really need the revenue-rich Indian state—the buyer of armaments, and of major infrastructure— and a relatively small part of India’s society, the part that can hang out at DLF Emporio in Delhi or the Palladium in Lower Parel, Mumbai, to provide the necessary markets.

NREGA is fine, but when will we address the problems that made it necessary in the first place?

But is that the sort of growth we should be interested in? The standard leftist response, of course, is to abhor with full moral fervour any growth linked to the global economy—while remaining unable to offer a viable account of how to improve the lives of the majority of Indians. A more intelligent response, though one requiring greater political skill, is to figure how to leverage the current western interest in Indian growth to the advantage of those parts of the society that really need to benefit.

The third paradox is a truly global one—one that escapes and encompasses state boundaries. India’s post-1991 globalisation has not only increasingly connected it to international flows of goods, services, capital and ideas, it has also inserted India into a universal history of nature, a history in which all humans, whatever state they happen to live in, have a stake. It’s a history that is making humans, even as they have imagined themselves nature’s master, become its ever more abject supplicant.

For Indians, this has a particularly sharp edge, because, just when they feel that they are gaining some control over their material conditions, those material conditions are proving unsustainable in ecological terms. The growth pattern we’ve fallen into essentially replicates the high natural resource and energy use that the earlier growth economies followed. But for latecomers, it’s unlikely to be a repeatable ploy—especially not for an economy of India’s scale. What should India do? The answers remain in dispute. Alter growth models; trust in the market; or place hope in

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technical solutions. Frugality, price, science—individually, none seems adequate, but perhaps there is a winning combination.

Crisis prompted the economic reforms of 1991. It’s ironic, then, that the most recent global economic crisis has produced virtually no further reforms or policy ambition—at a time when much remains to be done. The one significant initiative in social and economic policy in recent years, NREGA, is an attempt to mitigate the failures of the Indian agrarian economy. The real question to ask is not whether NREGA is working or not, but: When are we going to address the causes which made NREGA necessary in the first place? There will be more crises and surprises ahead—and we’ll need to make better use of them, as we did in 1991.

India Sentences Doctor to Life for Aiding Sentences Doctor to Life for Aiding Rebels

HARI KUMAR

December 24, 2010 The New York Times NEW DELHI — In a ruling that outraged human rights advocates, an Indian court on Friday sentenced a doctor to life imprisonment on charges that he committed sedition by aiding Maoist rebels in rural India. The case of Binayak Sen, 60, had attracted international attention when a group of Nobel laureates wrote to Indian leaders asking that he be released from jail as he awaited trial. The court in the state of Chhattisgarh convicted him on Friday on two counts of sedition and conspiracy while finding him innocent of a third charge of waging war against the state. Dr. Sen, a well known figure in Chattisgarh, had provided treatment to poor people in the state since 1981. “This is completely irresponsible,” said his wife, Elina Sen, during an interview on NDTV, a news channel. “There was not a single piece of evidence against him.” The prosecution accused Dr. Sen of acting as a courier for jailed Maoist rebels and said it had recovered some letters written by militants that were in his possession. Dr. Sen visited jailed rebels on several occasions. He was arrested in 2007 and was not granted bail for two years. Human rights activists condemned the verdict. “This is completely outrageous and unjustified,” said Rajendra Kumar Sail of the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties, who is also a former colleague of Dr. Sen. “We will definitely go for appeal against the judgment.” Maoist rebels, who claim to fight for poor people, want to capture political power through armed struggle. They are active in broad swathes of remote regions of rural India and have been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the biggest threat to India’s internal security. India’s Home Ministry has said that Maoists killed 591 civilians in 2009

India Leader Offers to Testify in Scandal Inquiry

JIM YARDLEY

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:December 20, 2010 The New York Times

NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered Monday to appear before a

committee investigating a telecommunications scandal that has rocked India’s political

establishment. He rejected claims by opposition parties that he had been trying to avoid any

questioning.

“I wish to state categorically that I have nothing to hide from the public at large,” Mr. Singh

said on the final day of a plenary session of the Indian National Congress Party. “As proof of

my bona fides,” he said, he would appear before a government committee examining the

scandal “if it chooses to ask me to do so.”

The scandal has become a political crisis for the coalition government led by the Congress

Party. Last week, the Supreme Court announced that it would monitor an investigation into the

scandal by the leading law enforcement agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation. In recent

days, the bureau’s officers have conducted raids across the country, and government agents are

investigating allegations of money laundering and tax evasion.

The scandal centers on the 2008 allocation of cellphone spectrum — the electromagnetic waves

required to carry cellphone service — to private operators. Investigators are examining

whether the telecommunications minister, who has since resigned, favored certain applicants

and whether bribes and fiscal improprieties took place.

A report by the government’s auditor general found many irregularities and concluded that the

telecom ministry had sold the spectrum at deflated prices that cost the treasury as much as $39

billion. Many analysts say that estimate is probably too high.

Mr. Singh has not been accused of any wrongdoing or involvement in the spectrum allocation.

But leaders with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., have focused on the

government’s refusal to call a special parliamentary committee of leaders from all parties to

investigate the scandal. B.J.P. leaders say Mr. Singh is trying to avoid questioning from such a

committee about whether his office failed to investigate complaints about corruption in the

telecom ministry.

In protest, opposition leaders effectively blocked normal business during the recently

completed winter session of Parliament. On Monday, B.J.P. leaders responded to Mr. Singh’s

speech by accusing the Congress Party of operating with a siege mentality.

“It is a matter of national concern when the prime minister is pushed to a situation where he

has to say, ‘I have nothing to hide,’ ” said Arun Jaitley, the B.J.P. leader in Parliament’s upper

house.

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Mr. Singh and other Congress Party leaders have argued that a special parliamentary

committee would only create a political witch hunt and noted that, in addition to the tax and

criminal investigations, a permanent parliamentary committee is already looking into the

auditor general’s report. Mr. Singh is offering to appear before this committee.

“I have tried to serve my country to the best of my ability,” Mr. Singh said Monday. He said he

was offering to appear before the existing committee because “I sincerely believe that like

Caesar’s wife, the prime minister should be above suspicion.”

On Sunday, the Congress Party president, Sonia Gandhi, tried to take the offensive on the

corruption issue by accusing the B.J.P. of hypocrisy and outlining a proposal to fight official

graft. Mrs. Gandhi called for fast-tracking legal cases involving official corruption; ensuring

transparency in public procurement contracts; reining in the discretionary powers of political

leaders, especially in allocating land; and instituting an open, competitive system for allocating

natural resources.

In India, Chinese Leader Pushes Trade

JIM YARDLEY


NEW DELHI — China and India set ambitious new economic targets on Thursday by pledging

to nearly double their trade in the next five years to $100 billion annually. But the two Asian

giants appeared to make little progress on tough geopolitical differences over Pakistan,

terrorism and their disputed border.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China, who is visiting India this week for the first time since

2005, spoke warmly about Indo-Chinese relations and how the two nations could mutually

prosper without encroaching upon each other. “We are friends, not rivals,” Mr. Wen said

during an afternoon speech at the Indian Council of World Affairs. “We will always be friends

and will never be rivals. This should be the firm conviction of every Chinese and every Indian.”

Mr. Wen’s agenda in New Delhi has been twofold: expanding trade and trying to open India’s

markets to Chinese companies, while also offering reassurances that China does not represent

a threat to India’s own rise. It is a message that comes as growing Chinese assertiveness in the

region has worried India and many other Asian nations. And it comes as the United States and

India pledged to create a deeper partnership after last month’s visit by President Obama.

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Mr. Wen, who has cultivated an avuncular public image rare among Chinese leaders, has

waged a charm campaign in India. He visited an international school in New Delhi, where he

encouraged the students to call him Grandpa Wen and offered a lesson in Chinese calligraphy

by writing the characters for China-India friendship.

During his speech on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Wen spoke of the great Indian poet

Rabindranath Tagore, whose poetry is widely taught in Chinese schools, describing him as a

“household name” in China. He also described his morning visit to the memorial of Mohandas

K. Gandhi, the father of modern India and exemplar of Indian democracy, as a deeply

emotional moment, saying that Gandhi “has always lived in my heart.”

Despite such sentiments, Mr. Wen did not appear to offer any breakthroughs on the hardest

issues. The two countries agreed to open a hot line between the two prime ministers and

schedule regular visits between top leaders. Yet India had hoped that Mr. Wen might offer a

clear endorsement of India’s ambitions for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security

Council, as Mr. Obama did last month. Instead, Mr. Wen spoke in more vague language that

fell short of an endorsement.

India also has been concerned about China’s support of Pakistan and its reluctance to apply

pressure on combating the terrorist groups operating on Pakistani soil. India’s foreign

secretary, Nirupama Rao, said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Indian leaders

presented their concerns that Pakistan should do more to eradicate terrorist groups during

high-level meetings on Thursday.

“We were able to express our concerns quite clearly,” Ms. Rao told reporters in an afternoon

briefing. “The Chinese premier was given a very clear understanding.” Asked if Mr. Wen’s visit

had essentially accomplished little except maintain the status quo, Ms. Rao said the

relationship was slowly moving forward. “I would say this is a gradual process,” she said.

Mr. Wen arrived Wednesday with about 300 Chinese executives. The two countries cut

business deals worth about $16 billion and signed agreements on Thursday that, among other

things, would allow Chinese banks to open branches in India for the first time. Trade between

the two countries has risen sharply in recent years and could approach $60 billion in 2010.

“The rapid expansion of our economic cooperation has been one of the major achievements of

the last five years,” Ms. Rao said. “We are now creating an enabling environment to reach the

next economic frontier.”

Yet it remains unclear if this optimism will be enough to ease other sharp differences.

India protested when Chinese officials began stapling a separate paper visa — rather than the

usual stamp — for anyone from the state of Jammu and Kashmir applying to travel to China.

To India, this was a deliberate challenge to Indian sovereignty over Kashmir, the Himalayan

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region long the subject of a territorial dispute between India and China’s ally Pakistan. Ms. Rao

said that Mr. Wen raised the stapled visa issue without prompting and recommended that the

two sides establish an “in-depth” consultation to find a solution.

China’s friendship with Pakistan is a source of growing discontent in New Delhi. Indian

officials have criticized Chinese plans to build two nuclear reactors in Pakistan, fearing that

nuclear materials could fall into the hands of terrorists who want to attack India. India also

wants Beijing to join the United States and other nations in condemning the November 2008

terrorist attacks in Mumbai. “This is a damage-limitation exercise,” said a retired Indian

diplomat, Lalit Mansingh. “Wen Jiabao is coming to reassure India that all is well, that we are

good friends and economic partners.”

Mr. Wen’s 2005 visit was credited with improving relations as he and Mr. Singh agreed on a

broad framework to address the two countries’ longstanding border disputes. Yet five years

later, little progress has been made, even as China has become more assertive in regard to the

contested Indian border state of Arunachal Pradesh.

At the same time, water is another contentious issue, amid reports that China is undertaking

hydro projects in Tibet that could affect water flow on the Brahmaputra River in India.

In his speech, Mr. Wen offered assurances that China would be responsible in any hydro

projects in the Himalayas to ensure that downstream nations would not be affected. He also

cited the border dispute and asked for patience, saying more time and more mutual trust were

needed.

“The most important thing to do is press ahead along the right road, and narrow differences,” he said. .

Pushing back As China’s prime minister visits India, the host’s attitude towards its bigger neighbour is

hardening

India and China

Dec 16th 2010 | DELHI | The Economist .COUNT the ways in which India’s handling of China is quietly growing firmer. Relations have been bad for years, with the two countries glaring at each other over a long, disputed border. But India, which in the past has mostly sought to placate its more powerful neighbour, is now stiffening its spine. Manmohan Singh, India’s usually mild-mannered prime minister, set the tone with a blunt warning in September. He spoke of a “new assertiveness” in China, which he said was seeking a “foothold in South Asia”. Subsequently he shuttled about Asia, promoting a “look east” policy of warmer ties with fellow democracies that fret, like India, about a more nationalistic China.

29

In October Mr Singh signed a trade deal with Japan and pushed for rapid implementation of an existing one with south-east Asian allies. On December 10th he waved two undiplomatic fingers at insistent Chinese demands that India join a boycott of the Nobel peace-prize ceremony for a jailed Chinese human-rights activist (see article). Ramming home the point on December 13th, India’s foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao, chided China’s ambassador at a public meeting in Delhi. She said her “Chinese friends” should get used to dealing with the “vibrant…noisy, nature of our democracy”.

Banyan

Great disorder under heaven

China’s disastrous diplomacy betrays the government’s insecurity at home

Dec 16th 2010 The Economist Ms Rao was responding to the ambassador’s dark warning that criticism of China during a rare visit by Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, to India between December 15th and 17th, could threaten “fragile” bilateral ties. He added that these would be “difficult to repair” if broken. India’s leaders are not in a mood to listen. In Delhi a few hundred Tibetans were left to demonstrate against Mr Wen as he arrived. More striking, the Dalai Lama, their spiritual leader, embarked at the same time on an eight-day trip to Sikkim, a north-eastern state on the border with Chinese-run Tibet. That excursion, like one last year to Arunachal Pradesh—Indian territory claimed by China as “south Tibet”—seemed designed to arouse Chinese ire. China has certainly been doing its bit to provoke the ire of the Indians. It reportedly sent several thousand soldiers to parts of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir this year, to build roads for its “all-weather” ally. It has denied visas (other than ones stapled to passports) to Indian Kashmiris and to a general responsible for Kashmir, a hint that it might not respect Indian control of the territory. India has responded by suspending regular bilateral defence meetings. But Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, suggests going further. “Why should India have a one-China policy, when China doesn’t have a one-India policy?” he asks. “What if we started stapling passports from Tibet?” Though this is never likely to be adopted as policy by the government in Delhi, the very suggestion would make China furious. The Indians’ increasingly strong ties with America are bolstering their confidence in dealing with China. President Barack Obama visited Delhi a month ago and earned much goodwill by offering hearty support for India’s bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council (China is distinctly lukewarm). This cosying up between India and America makes China all the more prickly. The two countries laud their booming bilateral trade, which should reach $60 billion this year. But Indian officials fret openly about China’s trade surplus of some $20 billion. They complain that barriers to China’s domestic market mean that India is mostly shipping unrefined minerals and primary goods, getting finished products in return. Mr Wen, accompanied by some 400 businessmen, announced new loans, investment deals and the sale of 36 coal-powered generators to India. But little of this was likely to lead to higher-value exports to China. Chinese talk of a free-trade deal that would expose India’s inefficient manufacturers to fierce competition has been given short shrift.

30

Other headaches persist. India worries that China is throwing up huge dams in Tibet that might divert water from rivers flowing over the border. It frets about cyber-attacks from China. Ever resentful of China’s invasion in 1962, it shudders at hawkish talk in the Chinese press. This week a Chinese newspaper, Global Times, published an essay by a member of the country’s Academy of Military Science. In it the author lamented, perhaps with India in mind, “we have not recovered the land looted by our neighbours, so how can we boast of being a strong nation?” Many Indians feel much the same way about China.

India's languishing countryside

A village in a million Shahabpur, a village on the Gangetic plain, is caste-addled and somehow

cohesive. But modernity, fast encroaching, is changing its ancient ways

Dec 16th 2010 | SHAHABPUR | The Economist

AFTER a night of civil war, the feral dogs that live around Sarju Prasad’s mud hut in

Shahabpur, a village in eastern Uttar Pradesh (UP), have, at last, gone quiet. It is 5am. From a

charpoy—a bed of sticks and string—set outside the hut, the boughs of the overhanging trees

are dimly visible. Then a clumsy-footed crow awakes in them, stirring the branches and

croaking mournfully. And with a creaking of its rickety string-bound frame, Sarju rises from

the adjacent charpoy, steps between a dozen curled-up canine forms, and begins his working-

day.

It starts early because he has two jobs. Sarju, who is around 45, mends shoes in Shahabpur’s

bazaar, a rutted street lined with around 30 shops. Hence his nickname: “Mochi”, or “cobbler”

in Hindi. He also disposes of dead buffaloes, cattle and goats. Using a small bicycle cart, now

tucked securely between the hut and its flimsy stockade of thorn-branches, he fetches the

carcasses, skins them and leaves what remains for the dogs. He roughly cures the skins and

sells them and the bones to a local trader. This earns him somewhere between 500 rupees

($11) and 1,500 rupees a month, and no friends.

Working leather has been Sarju’s family profession for centuries. Hinduism has ordained it. The

family is of the chamar, or tanning, caste, one of dozens traditionally dedicated to menial or

31

“unclean” occupations, and therefore considered “untouchable”. This discrimination, suffered

by around one in five Hindus, was banned shortly after India won independence in 1947. Yet it

is to varying degrees still apparent in the countryside, especially here on north India’s vast and

teeming Gangetic plain.

An inviolate wasteland, littered with human and animal turds, surrounds Sarju’s two-room hut,

which he shares with his wife, Sushila, and their three children. As the village midwife she

performs another unclean task; it may seem odd, but conservative Hindus despise the woman

who delivers their babies, because she comes into contact with the afterbirth. Making matters

worse for the couple, they are considered outsiders, having migrated to Shahabpur two

decades ago, from the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh. They are not invited to village

weddings. Sarju says he lives in fear that his hut will be torched by a resentful neighbour. And

he has never previously entertained a guest.

That a British correspondent invited himself to stay, during a weeklong sojourn in Shahabpur

to see how village India ticked, was remarkable to Sarju. That the journalist’s translator, a

young, middle-class brahmin—a member of Hinduism’s priestly caste—also broke bread with

the family was perhaps stranger still. “I could never have imagined”, Sarju says, “that I would

see such people in my home.”

The autumn sun has now risen, burning wisps of mist off the green paddy-fields that are

everywhere in Shahabpur. From a nearby hamlet, half a mile away, comes a happy clanking of

cooking-pots and children’s shrieks. In the wasteland outside Sarju’s stockade, two men,

squatting a modest 20 yards apart, are chatting companionably as they take their morning

purge.

Sarju: shoemender, tanner, merchant of bones and your correspondent’s host

A cyclist, wearing a chequered-blue sarong and T-shirt, the attire of many village men, pulls

up outside the hut. In silence, he shins up a neem tree near the hut, breaks a twig from it, and

slithers down again. Lounging in the gateway, he peels back the twig’s grey skin and begins

chiselling it against his front teeth, softening the end into a fibrous brush, which he then works

around his back teeth and gums. Neem contains a mild antiseptic and provides such

toothbrushes for millions of poor Indians; even middle-class ones use toothpaste made from it.

Staring by turn at Sarju and at his guests, the man splits the twig down the middle and gives

his tongue a good scrape with its green inner parts. Then he tosses it aside and pedals away,

with no word spoken.

This seemed uncivil, but perhaps wasn’t. Neem trees are considered fair game in the village.

And Shahabpuris greet each other sparingly. Yet the thought occurs because, underlying the

village’s bucolic charm, there is a lot of rudeness about. The 10,000-odd villagers—who make

Shahabpur a medium-sized settlement in crowded north India—are arranged largely on the

basis of caste. They live in caste-based ghettos; rarely socialise across caste lines, and never

inter-marry. And the village dalits, as the former untouchables are now called, are often

abused.

For a few rupees or a handful of rice higher-caste men demand, and get, sex with dalit women

32

The chamars, the biggest of Shahabpur’s half-dozen dalit caste-groups get the worst of it.

They are, not coincidentally, the village’s poorest people. And several villagers—including from

Shahabpur’s small Muslim community, well-informed observers of Hindu wiles—say they are

routinely bullied and beaten. The worst dalit-bashers are said to be the patels, Shahabpur’s

biggest community, which is about 3,000-strong. They are typical bullies: of a low-caste

peasant order, the patels are just a rung or two higher up the caste ladder, which makes them

jealous guardians of their perceived superiority.

There is an exception to the caste divide in Shahabpur, which many Muslim and Hindu men

enjoy. For a few rupees or handfuls of rice, they are said to demand and get sex with dalit

women, typically just after sundown, when the villagers troop out to the fields to ablute. At an

informal gathering of Muslim men outside the house of Anwar Ali—an upstanding clerk, who

also housed your correspondent—it was estimated that perhaps 40% of the village’s non-dalit

men upheld this ancient tradition. According to Sarju, until Sushila lost her youthful good

looks, he suffered near-nightly terrors from drunken patel youths, who came clamouring for

her outside his hut.

This practice recalls a famous condemnation of village India by one of the country’s founding

fathers, B.R. Ambedkar. The architect of the country’s 1949 constitution and a dalit, Ambedkar

asked: “What is the village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow-mindedness and

communalism?” (Mohandas Gandhi, by contrast, considered the villages to be India’s ideal

social units.)

In economic terms the countryside, where two-thirds of Indians reside, is also languishing.

Agricultural yields are stagnant and landholdings shrinking. Longstanding efforts to halt this

decline, with massive subsidies on fertilisers and public procurement of grains, have proved

corrupt and inefficient. Yet on the basis of this short stay in Shahabpur more change is afoot in

India’s villages than is commonly supposed. And much is positive.

Like much of east India, Shahabpur has rich alluvial soil, a gift of the Ganges, which flows

three miles to the south. Its agricultural productivity is nonetheless stunted; the number of

families living off farming is shrinking. Yet the village is only 30km from the city of Allahabad

and has decent road and rail connections to the fast-growing cities of west India, like Pune and

Mumbai. This has encouraged the village men to go looking for work there, on construction

sites and in factories. Around 1,500 of them, almost a third of the able-bodied workforce, now

regularly migrate, and the local economy is benefiting from the cash they send home.

The number of shops in Shahabpur bazaar has doubled in five years; three private schools

have also sprouted there. This growth, along with other changes, is starting to transform the

village. Not everyone will profit: its effects will be seismic. For example, many village men

currently pursue their traditional caste occupation, yet do not expect their sons to follow them.

That is either because they want better for their children, or because their hereditary skills are

becoming redundant.

To the bungalow born

The verdant paddy-fields, watered by a British-built canal system and now sparkling in the

morning sun, give no clue to Shahabpur’s agricultural malaise. But the fecundity of east India

33

is part of the problem: having allowed massive over-population. Since 1951, when land

reforms began that would settle almost every family in Shahabpur on its own plot, the village

population has quadrupled. The resulting sub-division has left very few holdings big enough for

commercial use. Shahabpur’s biggest farm under cultivation is around 15 acres; only a couple

of hundred families possess as much as an acre. And consolidation of landholdings is hard,

because of the thicket of family and legal disputes that invariably surrounds them. As a clue to

this, land prices are high in Shahabpur, at around 1.5m rupees an acre, but land transactions

are rare.

“It’s completely unviable to buy land and farm it commercially here,” says the area’s biggest

landowner, Amresh Pratap Singh, seated beneath the ramparts of his elegant British-built

mansion on Shahabpur’s edge. This bungalow, as he calls it, first belonged to a British officer,

Captain Chapman, who bought the local estate after it was forfeited by one Sanghram Singh, a

leading light in the great mutiny of 1857. The Britisher established an indigo plantation in

Shahabpur, but soon sold the property to Mr Singh’s great-grandfather, who ruled a vast

neighbouring estate, consisting of over 700 villages. Mr Singh’s family lost most of its land in

the land reforms: it retains only 90 acres of orchard in Shahabpur. Yet the villagers still refer

to his aged father as the “raja”, or “king”, and stand to one side during his occasional saunters

through the village.

Captain Chapman is remembered by the ruins of his indigo warehouse in a hamlet named after

it, Godown. It is one of a dozen caste-based clusters in Shahabpur, roughly half a mile apart.

Most residents of Godown, a huddle of mud and brick huts, are dalit, especially chamars and

dhobis, of the Hindu washer caste. Similarly, the nearby hamlet of Inara is entirely for patels—

living in two-storey houses, well-spaced between their fields of ripening rice-paddy.

Another order of dalits, of the pasi community, is even more set apart. By tradition, they are

swineherds; dalits, unlike higher-order Hindus, being meat-eaters. They also brew liquor from

the flowers of the mahua tree and, because of this and a reputation for banditry, were deemed

a “criminal caste” by the British. That brought harsh sanctions on the pasis; yet crime can pay.

The pasi ghetto, Pasiyapur, is set a mile apart. Yet its brick houses, on the banks of a large

fishpond, are as lofty as the patels’. Small black pigs root around them, and hidden in the

pond, though the pasis deny it, there are barrels of fermenting mahua flowers.

Shahabpur’s smaller caste-groups are more intermingled, though discreetly separated by

walkways and ditches. For example, the village’s three brahmin families—an unusually small

complement in northern India—have three low-caste neighbours: some patels, chamars and

yadavs, of a Hindu herder caste. Surya Narayan Pandey, a 52-year-old brahmin with a ritual

dab of scarlet vermilion on his forehead and a holy thread around his naked torso, says that he

would gladly share a meal with any of them—“even the chamars, why not, so long as they’re

clean?” But that hasn’t happened yet.

The Muslims, or Turks, as they are known locally, in many ways mirror their Hindu neighbours.

They have their own hierarchy—even though Islam rejects caste divisions—in which the

qureshis, who claim origins in Arabia, are the clear winners. Mostly traders, the qureshis

include some of Shahabpur’s richest residents, and they are cashing in on the economic boom.

In the village bazaar Muhammad Afsar, a 26-year-old qureshi and graduate of Allahabad

34

university, has opened two mobile-handset shops and says business is good. In the past three

years most families have acquired at least one mobile connection.

The bazaar is also home to members of two poorer Muslim groups, who are said to be

descended from low-caste former Hindus. They are dafalis, drum-makers and minstrels, and

churiharan, peddlers of bangles. Members of the three Muslim groups worship together in the

village mosque, but never inter-marry.

Peace comes dropping slow

Hindu-Muslim relations are good. On a stroll through Shahabpur bazaar, Mr Ali hails his Hindu

friends in the name of their god—“Ram! Ram!”—and his Muslim friends with “Salaam aleikum!”

This was at a sensitive moment in India’s inter-communal history. Later that day a legal ruling

was expected, from the Allahabad high court to settle a longstanding and bloody Hindu-Muslim

dispute. It concerned ownership of a medieval mosque-site in Ayodhya, in eastern UP, and in

1992 had prompted Hindu-Muslim rioting across north India in which at least 2,000 died.

Anticipating trouble, police across UP—a state of 180m people—were on high alert. Text-

messaging services had been suspended. But no one in Shahabpur, Hindu or Muslim, seemed

concerned. “We have no problem with each other, so what is there to worry about?” said Mr

Afsar. India’s Hindu-Muslim violence is largely an urban phenomenon. In this regard, Gandhi’s

paean to the village was spot-on.

Nor, casteism aside, is there much crime in the village. That is lucky, given that the nearest

police station is nearly 20 miles away, and its dozen fully fledged officers are responsible for

90 villages and over a million people. Shahabpur receives only occasional visits from the

station’s semi-trained constables, who are principally shake-down merchants. In fact, the

Indian state, which can seem vast and throttling in the cities, is hardly present in the village. It

has two government schools, but no health-care facilities, aside from a few quack doctors in

the bazaar. The government is mostly evident in several welfare schemes, controlled by the

village’s elected leader, or pradhan. These are hopelessly corrupted.

Most of the poorest villagers seem to get alms of some sort. But so do many richer ones. And,

on the basis of interviews with several dozen villagers, there is no second-guessing who gets

what. Sarju and other paupers have been issued with “above the poverty line”, or APL, ration

cards, entitling them to some subsidised kerosene. Luckier villagers, from all the main caste-

groups, have got their names down for another scheme, Antodaya Anna Yojana, which

provides 35kg of cut-price rice a month. Seemingly at random, a few have hit the jackpot by

getting “below the poverty line”, or BPL, cards, which entitle them to a basket of subsidised

food and fuel.

There is a political logic to this. For the local politicos who control them, these entitlements are

a source of campaign funds. Almost every interviewee said he had paid a bribe for his. They

are also the main currency of political patronage. According to Pyara Lal, the manager of

Shahabpur’s government ration shop, around a quarter of the village’s BPL card-holders are

relatively prosperous patels—a consequence of the last two pradhans having come from that

caste-group.

35

Mr Lal, who is popularly considered to have the best job in Shahabpur, also admits to

skimming off a share of the loot. He puts his pilferage at a modest 2kg of rice for every 52kg-

sack he handles. “I’m only paid 900 rupees a month, so of course I have to steal!” he explains.

The patels’ time at the trough was coming to a close, however. Local elections were due, in

which, as an affirmative-action measure, Shahabpur was to be reserved for a dalit pradhan.

Resplendent in an ancient Maruti jeep, Doodhnath Pasi, a local contractor, former pradhan and

favourite in the poll, passed your correspondent on his way to register his candidacy. Stopping

to chat, he said: “All the village is with me, caste is unimportant!” And behind him, his army of

motorbike-riding attendants loudly cheered—every one a pasi.

All UP’s politics is caste-based. Over the past two decades it has been defined by the rise of

low-caste outfits, including the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which is led by a dalit

woman, Mayawati. In a patronage-based democracy, where caste represents the prevailing

identity, this was inevitable. Yet it was hastened by the poor performance of the Congress

party, India’s biggest, UP’s former ruler and the dalits’ original champion. Shahabpur falls

within the first parliamentary constituency of Jawaharlal Nehru, Congress’s tallest leader and

India’s first prime minister. Yet there is little love in the village for India’s grand old party.

Ram Din, a 70-year-old chamar in Godown, says that he and his relatives all switched their

vote from Congress to the BSP in the 1990s, and like many dalits, he speaks of Ms Mayawati

with reverence. During the 1950s his grandfather served as Nehru’s bugler, announcing the

prime minister at rallies across India. Disillusioned, according to Mr Din, he threw his bugle

into the Ganges shortly before he died.

Viewed from Delhi, India’s capital, caste-based parties like the BSP are more or less

deplorable. They have run dreadful governments in India’s most populous state and are

prodigiously corrupt. Ms Mayawati, a former primary-school teacher, is known for her love of

diamonds and dalit-sized garlands of banknotes. Considered from the village, however, these

excesses seemed easier to overlook. No other party has done much for Shahabpur’s

downtrodden, after all. And the inspiration many dalits find in Ms Mayawati is impressive. Sarju

has travelled to several of her rallies, and speaks of the dalit queen, as Ms Mayawati is

sometimes called, with awe. Her government has done nothing for him, yet it represents a

precious promise of protection.

An anecdote illustrates this. Two months ago, while Sarju was visiting his parents in Madhya

Pradesh, his 13-year-old son Ravendra was beaten senseless by two patel neighbours. The boy

had skinned and dumped a buffalo carcass, from which a dog took a meaty bone into their

field. Ravendra, who carries scars from this beating, was discovered by the local skin

merchant, who informed the local BSP partyman, who reported the matter to the police. They

took no action. Yet this flicker of official interest in their plight represents significant progress

for Sarju and his family.

Go west, young man

The relative prosperity of the pasis is partly their leader’s doing: as pradhan, Doodhnath Pasi

naturally favoured his outcast confrères in the welfare racket. Yet it owes more to the alacrity

with which they, before any other community, seized on the opportunities of migrant labour.

36

Lounging on a charpoy in Pasiyapur, the former pradhan says that all its 60 pasi families have

at least one son working away.

Over the past decade or so other caste-groups have followed the pasis’ lead, especially the

chamars. Sunil Kumar, a 32-year-old in Godown, was on leave from a textiles hub near

Mumbai, Bhiwandi, where he operates a power-loom. Earning 220 rupees a day—more than

twice an agricultural wage in Shahabpur—he works for eight months, then returns home for

two months with around 10,000 rupees in his pocket. It is a tough life. Yet it is leavened by a

reasonable hope of something better for his two young children. Mr Kumar, who had only a

few years in primary school, says that educating them properly is his main ambition.

Returning migrants like Mr Kumar, who wears a dandyish embroidered shirt alongside his

bare-chested neighbours, are driving social as well as economic change. The local women

prefer them. They also bring back fancy ideas, such as a dislike of pond-washed clothes, to the

dhobis’ dismay, and a preference for toilets over squatting in the open. This second form of

newfangledness has been slow to catch on, however. It is second nature in Shahabpur to walk

along the middle of roads—to avoid stepping on the turds lying thickly either side.

New migrant wealth also threatens to shake up the ancestral balance of power. While the

outcast pasis are flourishing, in relative terms, many in Shahabpur’s peasant castes, including

the patels, are struggling to stay still. They are more reluctant to migrate because their

landholdings are bigger—but not big enough to prevent them sinking towards poverty. Lalta

Prasad, a patel farmer in Inara, says that he inherited barely half an acre of his father’s six

acres. He therefore sent his son, Hori, to work in Mumbai, but the youth failed to get on there

and came home. This has left the family in a bad way.

The failure of less powerful caste-groups to adapt is more pathetic. Consider the kumhars,

Shahabpur’s potters. With the mass introduction of cheap plastic receptacles over the past

decade or so, their livelihood has collapsed. Jokho Lal, who is 40 and heads one of the village’s

35 kumhar families, says he stopped making clay pots for storing food and water ten years

ago. The village potters now make only small disposable cups for the tea-stalls in the village

bazaar. They sell these for 12 rupees per 100, which adds up to a day-wage of around 40

rupees—less than a quarter what a good potter earned a decade back.

But Mr Lal has not lost his skill. Invited to display it, he lifts a heavy stone slab onto a metal

spike in the ground and spins it to a blur with a bamboo stick. With wonderful dexterity he

then throws a handful of wet clay onto it and, before the stone slows and falls to the ground,

shapes it into a rotund pot. Mr Lal is teaching this skill, which he considers “useless”, to none

of his children. Yet the kumhars have found no alternative employment. For lack of the

necessary connections, Mr Lal says, none has yet migrated for work.

The withering of ancient skills was a doleful theme in Shahabpur. Metal-workers, of the johar

caste, are increasingly switching to carpentry, as machine-tooled implements become more

common in agriculture. And in the bazaar, Gulle Abbas, a dafali aged around 65, also said he

would be the last of his kind. Accompanying himself on a hand-made drum, a tube of mango-

wood covered with goat-skin at both ends, Mr Abbas sings Hindu, Muslim and folk songs in

pukka Hindi and its local dialect. In June, when the rice is sown, he sings for farmers in their

fields, as he says his forebears have done “for a thousand generations”. None of his three sons

37

has learned this skill; two are working on construction sites in Pune and Mumbai. “After me, it

will be over: people no longer love drumming,” he says. Then he, too, shows off his skill.

Working up a rhythm on his drum, he softly sings a Muslim hymn.

There is no typical Indian village. India is too vast and its cultures and ecology too diverse.

Much that is true of Shahabpur will be irrelevant elsewhere. Yet the socio-economic pressures

evident here are being felt across much of the country. Agriculture is in the doldrums, so

millions of peasants are leaving the land, to find alternative work at home or in distant cities.

Many are struggling: India’s services-led economic growth is creating too few semi-skilled

jobs. Yet, if Shahabpur is any guide at all, the boom may be more far-reaching than is often

supposed. And with the country expected to sustain high growth rates for many years, it will in

the end bring about massive changes.

Millions of poor Indians will rise out of poverty—a glorious thought. Yet it is hard not to mourn

much that will fall victim to this transformation. Artisan skills will be lost; so will local cultures;

and perhaps, too, some of the stability, vile discrimination withal, in India’s traditional Hindu

society.

But these seem distant prospects, from a charpoy outside Sarju’s mud hut, as night falls on

Shahabpur. Fireflies sparkle in the gloom. The dogs, snarling theatrically, are beginning their

night-time tear-up. And inside the hut a clanking of steel plates signals that the poor host is

about to serve up a meal of spicy dal, rice and home-grown curried vegetables.

It has been cooked by Sarju’s ten-year-old daughter Kavita. Hugging her knees, she stares

anxiously at her father’s guests, who sit cross-legged around a smoky kerosene lamp on the

smooth mud-floor. Assured that the food is delicious—which it is—she smiles shyly and starts

clearing plates. Then, prompted by her father, she reaches into the darkness and produces

pudding. It is a single gulab jamun, a syrupy, plum-sized sweet, fetched with tremendous care

that day from Shahabpur bazaar.

Wine and tulips in Kabul Foreign invaders have always had a difficult relationship with Afghanistan. The diary of

Babur, the first Moghul emperor, offers some lessons in how to manage—and to enjoy—the

place Dec 16th 2010 | The Economist ON A bright winter’s morning lines of plane trees and immaculately tended rose bushes fall away down terraces where men crash out on carpets and sheepish young couples sit as close together as they dare. The plants are fed by a central water channel, the signature feature of a Moghul garden. Below is the brown smog of Kabul; beyond, snowy mountains. The tomb of Babur, the first Moghul emperor, blasted and pock marked during the civil war of the 1990s, has been lovingly restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Some visitors come because it is now Kabul’s most tranquil public space; some because Babur is emerging as an unlikely national hero in a country short of leaders worth admiring. People pray at the foot of his low, simple grave.

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One enthusiast sacrifices a buffalo to him every year, and distributes the meat to the gardeners who tend the place. Born far to the north of modern Afghanistan, Babur went to Kabul only because he had failed in Central Asia. It was Samarkand he dreamed of capturing. Yet when the demands of building an empire drove him south, he yearned to return to Kabul. Related topics For a man who achieved so much, he is strangely unknown outside Afghanistan. Not only did he create a dynasty whose empire stretched from Afghanistan to southern India and which gave the world some of its greatest cultural riches, but he also wrote an autobiography which, though half a millennium old, is a far better read than most of the political and business memoirs churned out today. The Baburnama recounts the barbarity and hardship of a princeling’s life in a chaotic world; but it is also full of delight and humanity. Sometimes self-aggrandising, sometimes self-critical, Babur emerges from his autobiography as a real person, in a way no other great leader except Churchill does. And because the author is so open, and the style so clear, the book offers an intimate view of a world the reader would otherwise struggle to imagine. “Rarely can such a sophisticated mind”, says Bamber Gascoigne in “The Great Moghuls”, “have recorded so wild an existence which combined to an extraordinary degree the romantic and the sordid.” It was first translated into English in 1922 by Annette Beveridge, mother of William Beveridge, architect of Britain’s welfare state; “The Garden of the Eight Paradises”, a recent biography of Babur by Stephen Dale, has done it more than justice; yet it still lacks the fame it deserves. Babur’s pedigree primed him for greatness. On his father’s side he was descended from Timur-i-lang (Tamburlaine), whose empire stretched from the Caucasus to Delhi, and on his mother’s side from Genghis Khan, who conquered Asia from the Black Sea to Beijing. But by the time Babur was born, in 1483, the empires had crumbled and the emperors’ descendants had multiplied into a horde of princelings fighting for loot and territory. The problem was not unique to Central Asia. As E.M. Forster put it, “At the time that Machiavelli was collecting materials for ‘The Prince’, a robber boy, sorely in need of advice, was scuttling over the highlands of Central Asia. His problem had already engaged the attention and sympathy of the Florentine; there were too many kings about and not enough kingdoms.”

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They got going early in those days. Babur’s father died when he was 11, while tending pigeons in an ill-constructed dovecote that toppled into the ravine below the palace, leaving his son in charge of a small province, Fergana. At 13, Babur headed off to capture Samarkand—the former imperial capital, a jewel built by craftsmen Timur had kidnapped from raids into India, Persia and Arabia. When he got there, he found a couple of young cousins already besieging the place (though one was more interested in the daughter of a local noble than in the city). The lover got the girl, but Babur did not get Samarkand. He tried again the next year, succeeded briefly and was ejected three months later. In the meantime, a Mongol enemy put his 12-year-old brother on the throne in Fergana. So Babur was homeless; most of his followers had left him; treacherous relations had murdered his tutor. “It was very hard for me. I could not help crying a good deal.” He was, after all, only 14. Babur struggled on in Central Asia for a while, but was crushed between Uzbeks, Mongols and Timurid princes. His lowest moment came when he was chased into the hills and caught by enemies, who were careful with their valuable prize. “It was winter. It was very cold. They found an old sheepskin coat; I put it on. They found a cup of millet soup; I drank it. I was greatly comforted.” How he got out of that particular pickle is unclear; but soon he decided to try his luck elsewhere. He considered going east to the lands of his Mongol relations, but regarded them as savages (and would have been horrified to learn that the Persian word for Mongol stuck to his dynasty). Hearing that Kabul was vulnerable, he set off southwards. Though homeless, he was not alone. In this formerly nomadic society, which had only recently acquired the habit of settlement, princes moved around with soldiers, retainers and relations. But Babur’s entourage was not grand. He had 200-300 people with him, “mostly on foot, holding staves, wearing rough boots and poor cloaks”, and two tents, one of which his mother occupied. Then, in an astonishing reversal of fortune inconceivable in the modern world but commonplace in those uncertain times, Babur gained an army. It happened because of the collapse of a noble who, amid tough competition, was an outstandingly nasty man. Khusrau Shah, formerly a retainer of one of Babur’s relations, had taken Kunduz, murdered one of Babur’s cousins (Baysunghur Mirza, a famous poet) and blinded another (the lover from Samarkand, his ward). He was unpopular even among his own people, many thousands of whom, faced with sustained attacks from Uzbeks, defected from him to an ambitious princeling with a decent reputation and a lineage that gave him a claim to Kabul. Khusrau Shah was beheaded by the Uzbeks; Babur, with his new following in tow, virtually walked into Kabul. He was not impressed by his new dominion. It was, he said, a “trifling place”; but, with Uzbeks and Timurids threatening all around, it had its advantages. Surrounded by mountains that were impassable for most of the year, it was “a fastness hard for a foreign foe to make his way into.” To cement his power, Babur needed to see off rivals. He attacked Kandahar, where Kabul’s previous occupants hailed from, and beat them soundly. He was distinctly pleased with his generalship: “I prepared an excellent order of battle. Never before had I arranged things so well.” He also needed to give his subjects security—especially from his own troops. When one of the defectors from Khusrau Shah—an undisciplined lot—stole some cooking oil from a local, he had the man beaten to death. “His example kept the rest down.” But early on he made a serious mistake. To feed and reward his huge retinue, he took 30,000 donkey-loads of grain from Kabul and Ghazni. He soon regretted it. “The tax was excessive, and under it the country suffered very badly”. That a new ruler bled the land he had conquered was not surprising; that he had the honesty to admit it, and the wit to learn from it, is. Though Kabul was not rich in grain, it was a cosmopolitan city—Babur reckoned that 11 or 12 languages were spoken—on the trade route between Central Asia and India. “Up from Hindustan come ten, fifteen, twenty thousand caravans bringing slaves, cotton cloth, refined and unrefined sugar and aromatic roots. Many merchants are not satisfied with 300% or 400% profit.” Mr Dale reckons that merchants provided most of the revenues for Babur’s remarkably sophisticated taxation system. They were taxed at 5% on gold coins and 2.5% on silver. There was also a tariff on foreign

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trade (of 5% or 10%, depending on whether the merchants were Muslim or not) an income tax on harvests (a third to a half) and a progressive wealth tax on flocks (one sheep from a herd of 40-120, and two from herds of 120 and up). But Babur’s orderly state-building could not solve a problem that has troubled Afghanistan’s rulers through the ages: the tribes. They not only failed to pay their taxes, but also, by holding up caravans, threatened the prosperity of the merchants who did. And the mountains that protected Babur from foreign invaders also protected the tribes from Babur. He had no sympathy for them. Although he had spent much of his youth wandering around Central Asia with a tent, he was at heart a city boy. He prized the civilised pursuits—literature, science and music—that flourished in an urban environment and regarded tribesmen as “stupid peasants”. Babur’s approach to the problem was not constrained by modern notions of human rights. Shortly after his arrival in Kabul, he attacked Kohat and killed hundreds of tribesmen. Some of the survivors put grass into their mouths—a way, locals explained to him, of saying “I am your cow.” But he had them killed anyway, and a tower built of the victims’ heads. Many similar raids followed, and similar towers were built, to encourage submission to Babur’s authority. But it was not all fiscal policy and decapitation. Babur enjoyed himself too. He loved nature, and describes the local flora and fauna in exquisite detail. “The flying squirrel is found in these mountains, an animal larger than a bat, with a curtain, like a bat’s wing, between its arms and legs…Tulips of many colours cover these foothills: I myself counted 32 or 33 different sorts.” He developed a lifelong passion for gardening. He bought some land at Istalif, north of Kabul. He loved the place: “Few villages match Istalif, with vineyards and orchards on either side of its torrent, its waters cold and pure”. But the zig-zagging stream offended his sense of order: “I had it made straight and regular, so the place was very beautiful.” His grandson Akbar had this scene illustrated for an edition of the Baburnama (see picture). Istalif is still beautiful; deodar trees still grow in the garden. But these days it overlooks Bagram airbase, where 40,000 American servicemen live on imported burgers and where locals have been beaten to death. In the management of recalcitrant tribesmen, brutality has not entirely gone out of fashion. Unlike the despised Mongols, the Timurids were cultured. Babur longed to be a great poet, writing admiringly of the fame of his unfortunate cousin Baysunghur Mirza. His diary is scattered with poems, his own and others’. His poems are not, unfortunately, much good, but his advice on prose style is. In a letter to his son Humayun, he complains about the obscurity of the young man’s vocabulary: “In future write without elaboration; use plain, clear words. It will be less trouble for you and for the reader.” Poetry went with another taste Babur developed in Kabul: for wine. As a young man, he did not drink. When on a visit to Herat his cosmopolitan cousins encouraged him to: “Up to then, I had not committed the sin of wine-drinking or known the cheering sensation of comfortable drunkenness.” He would have tried it, but his prime minister, who was travelling with him, told the cousins to lay off. During an 11-year gap in the narrative (his son seems to have lost that bit of the diary), he took to the bottle with an enthusiasm that in the modern age would have seen him shipped off to rehab before he could say “Cheers”. It was not just alcohol that he enjoyed: he also munched on ma’jun, the Afghan equivalent of hash brownies. Babur’s life became a long series of parties interspersed with brief interludes of warfare and administration. There was music, poetry, beauty—and vast quantities of alcohol. In October 1519, for instance, Babur rode out to Istalif with friends: “Its lawns were one sheet of trefoil; its pomegranate trees yellowed to autumn splendour, their fruit full red.” They drank, off and on, for several days. At one point one man said some “disturbing” things, fell down drunk and was carried away. Another could not mount his horse. At that moment some Afghans approached. Somebody suggested that, rather than leave the drunk to the tribesmen, they should chop his head off and take

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that home. That was, Babur points out, a (rather 16th-century) joke; eventually they got the man back in the saddle and headed for home. Once Babur was so drunk that he was sick and could not remember riding home the night before. Oddly, his grandson had that episode illustrated too (see picture). Babur struggled with his habit—though not very hard. He wrote that he was planning to give up in his 40th year, so “I was drinking to excess, now that there was less than a year left.” At one party Babur saw a very surprising sight: a woman drinking. She made a pass at him: “I got rid of her by pretending to be drunk.” Babur was not much interested in women. He explains that he had married early, and neglected the girl. He uses that to introduce the subject of his passion for a boy called Baburi whom he sees in the bazaar. Until then, he says, he had “no inclination for anybody, and no knowledge of love or desire”. His passion for Baburi drives him to distraction. Shyness prevents him from approaching the boy. He quotes a Persian couplet: “I am ashamed when I see my friend; My companions look at me; I look the other way.” Whether he got anywhere with Baburi is not clear. But poetry and parties were not enough. Babur was ambitious, and his dominion in Kabul was limited by the Afghans’ insubordination. He needed to expand elsewhere. He tried again to take Samarkand, and was again beaten back. So he raided what is now Pakistan, found the people of the plains easier meat than the mountain tribes, and by 1523 pretty much controlled Lahore. Delhi was in his sights. Because it had been part of Timur’s domains, Babur maintained that it was legitimately his, and wrote to the ruler (a Lodi, originally from Afghanistan) to stake his claim. Sultan Ibrahim, understandably, ignored him, so Babur marched south and defeated him at the battle of Panipat. The sultan was killed, along with 15,000-16,000 of his troops. Babur stayed in Delhi to consolidate his power, but he hated India. His list of complaints offers a good indication of the things that mattered to a 16th-century emperor: Hindustan is a country of few charms. There are no good-looking people, there is no social intercourse, no receiving or paying of visits, no genius or manners. In its handicrafts there is no form or symmetry, method or quality. There are no good horses, no good dogs, no grapes, musk-melons or first-rate fruits, no ice or cold water, no good bread or food cooked in the bazaars, no hot baths, no colleges, no candles, torches or candlesticks. The only things Babur liked about India were the abundance of gold and silver and the weather after the monsoon. He built gardens to remind him of Kabul, but flowers do not do as well in India as in the crisp Afghan air. His friends could not stand the heat, and went back to Kabul. As ruler, he was stuck there, pining for the jollity of the old days. In 1528 he wrote to one of his oldest friends, Khwajah Kalan, “With whom do you spend time? With whom do you drink wine?” It was not just the friends that Babur missed. He had given up drinking because of his health, and admits that “the craving for a wine-party has been infinite and endless for two years, so much so sometimes that it has brought me close to tears.” The knowledge that wine was forbidden sharpened his yearning for “the permitted flavours of melons and grapes” that flourished in Kabul. When he cut open a melon, he wept. “How can one forget the pleasures of those lands?” Once he had got his affairs sorted in India, he wrote, he would “set out immediately”. He never did. His health failed, and two years later he was dead, at 47. He was buried at Agra, disinterred sometime between 1539 and 1544 and buried again on a green hillside with a stream running through it. An inscription placed there by his great-great-grandson Shah Jahan, creator of the Taj Mahal, describes it as “this light garden of an angel king”.

India's taint of corruption spreads as sacked minister faces questioning

Jason Burke

23 December 2010 Guardian.

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New Delhi Press surround sacked Indian telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja at New Delhi airport. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

A former government minister linked to India's biggest corruption scam is to be questioned by government investigators tomorrow in the latest twist in the scandal gripping the nation.

Questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation of Andimuthu Raja, the former telecoms minister dismissed for his role in allocating 2G mobile phone technology licenses nearly three years ago, is unlikely to bring relief to the beleaguered ruling United Progressive Alliance coalition, led by the Congress party.

Opposition parties have blocked parliament and brought tens of thousands of protesters on to the streets, sensing that the government, in the second year of a five-year term, has been seriously weakened by the scandals revealed in recent months.

The so-called 2G scam, which may have cost the exchequer up to £25bn, is one of half a dozen corruption allegations currently laid against senior government figures.

Now the leadership of prime minister Manmohan Singh, a 77-year-old economist with a reputation for financial competence, is being questioned.

Other scandals involving senior Congress party figures included the appropriation of flats meant for war widows by senior soldiers and bureaucrats in Mumbai and suspected wrongdoing concerning allocation of contracts for the Commonwealth Games, held in Delhi in October. Also dominating headlines are apparent efforts by a lobbyist working for business interests to influence ministerial appointments – revealed through leaked phone taps.

Scores of other scams, ranging from schemes to embezzle subsidies for the destitute to corruption in bodies licensing pilots who go on to work for domestic airlines, have also been revealed in recent weeks.

Though often unrelated to government figures – one scandal in Karnataka state allegedly involves politicians from the opposition Bharatiya Janata party – they have added to the perception that corruption has become rife in public life. Brahma Chellaney, a respected analyst and academic, wrote in The Hindu newspaper that though India confronts several pressing national security threats "only one of them – political corruption – poses an existential threat to the state".

Surging food prices are also a problem for the government, particularly with a series of state elections due from the late spring.

At demonstrations this week many participants, including women and children, wore onion garlands in protest after retail onion prices more than doubled in the past week to 80 rupees (£1.15) a kg. "This is the exhibition of public anger, the beginning of a large nationwide protest against corruption and inflation," BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar told reporters.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, a Congress spokesman, said the party had taken "path-breaking steps to combat misconduct and corruption".

The opposition has threatened to close the spring session of parliament if the government does not agree to a joint parliamentary inquiry, which has wide power to summon officials, into the 2G scam.

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Deadlock in parliament has meant a range of key economic measures scheduled have been delayed, undermining the credibility of a government voted in with a powerful mandate to push through reform. The opposition is hoping to be able to sustain the political momentum with two months of countrywide protest

Education

KAMAL PARMAR,64

Street Educator

ANUMEHA YADAV


Twelve years ago, Kamal Parmar, an auto mechanic, started a one-of-a-kind concept in Budhepura, Ahmedabad. Kamal dada, as he is affectionately known, welded benches on the sidewalk outside his garage and started a ‘school’. The idea of an organised place to teach struck Parmar when in the course of a casual conversation, four young girls of his neighbourhood studying in the municipal school complained that very little of what they were being taught in class made sense. The four-hour evening classroom sessions emphasise on quality of teaching and on patience with those who need more attention. The school also provides a free meal to the students. “Those from our socio-economic class cannot survive in cities if we don’t learn the basics, whether it is to calculate our daily wage as labourers or to catch a bus,” says Parmar, who had to drop out of school after grade VII to supplement his daily-wager parents’ income. Parmar has raised resources for his initiative thoughtfully, encouraging those who stop by to donate grains for the kids’ evening meals, or to finance the older children’s education. These older children in turn volunteer to help the younger kids.

ISB to lend helping hand to research institutions

Hyderabad: The Indian School of Business is expanding its network across the country’s booming entrepreneurial landscape.

dicembre 21, 2010 The Economic Times:

The B-School will collaborate with other research institutes such as Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology , International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics and IIT’s to help commercialise their technology and innovations.

ISB will offer incubation facilities to off-campus entrepreneurs at its in-house incubation centre — Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development.

“These scientists are developing stacks of products and new IPs for years, but only 15%-20% of them see the light of day while the rest of the innovations are hidden diamonds,” said Dr Krishna Tanuku, executive director WCED, ISB.

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The new initiative aims to translate more R&D ideas available in the pipeline for future entrepreneurial ventures. Besides providing a business model and supporting its ecosystem, the initiative will offer mentoring and connectivity for viable ventures.

“We have a vision to create an ecosystem like in the Silicon Valley in the US. Initially, the incubation facility was limited to only ISB graduates, but now we are moving up the value chain and going to offer these facilities to upcoming entrepreneurs outside the campus,” added Tanuku.

This is a trend first established at other premier business schools such as the IIMs at Ahmedabad and Bangalore.

The ISB has already helped its students to partner with international funding providers — the Soros Economic Development Fund, the Omidyar Network and Google — to create a fund called Song to finance small companies that have a positive socio-economic impact.

Sequoia Capital and Song Advisors recently invested $15million in K12 Techno Services, a school management company focused on providing affordable schooling in south India. Song’s other major investment has been in Eye Q Vision, a chain of low-cost eyecare hospitals in north India.

“We have produced over 200 entrepreneurs in the past nine years”, said Aruna Reddy, assistant director at WECD, ISB.

Last week, ISB conducted Propero, that provided a platform for alumni and students who have either started a venture or have ideated one to interact with investors for prospective fund raising. Around 20 investors reviewed the business plans of some 60 alumni who have turned entrepreneurs.

“We got our idea validated from investors who had come here,” said Sriram Krishnamoorthy, a former TCS employee who along with his ISB classmate Shruti Narayan incubated Wizda Solutions, which makes simulation games for

B-Schools and corporates.

“There is a need for more such initiatives at other B-schools and research institutes, as the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India is at a very nascent stage. More than financial support, there is a need for support from large companies to leverage the capabilities of the startups”, says Prof. S Bhagavatula of NSRCEL incubation cell at IIM-Bangalore.

Other firms incubated at ISB ranging from pre-schools to high-technology ventures have started bagging various projects. For instance Nurturing Nest a pre-school venture catering to all the developmental needs of a child. MoveInSync’s vision is to reduce the cost of transportation. Its products enable web and mobile service for ‘Sharing a Cab’ with a trusted co-passenger of your choice. It has over 500 registered users who are actively using the service to save money and fuel to commute.

Ventures such as Green India Building Systems and Services offers energy solutions to help buildings reduce costs, has received a few pilot orders from leading five star hotels in Mumbai. Another venture, Dhruvstar Infra Solutions, which provides tools to bring efficiency in the construction industry has bagged projects from a premier Andhra Pradesh Government Agency.

Copyright © 2010, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Enviroment

New green regulator won’t save our forests

KANCHI KOHLI & MANJU MENON

Members, Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group


THE MINISTRY of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has admitted it does not have the capacity to grant environmental approvals and monitor them thereafter. There’s a proposal to hand over this function to a new entity: the National Environment Assessment and Monitoring Authority (NEAMA), which the MoEF claims will be a body of scientific rigour.

The grant of clearances under the Environment Impact Assessment notification, 2006, is an important requirement for industrial and infrastructure projects. It requires carrying out impact assessments, public consultation and going through an expert appraisal. Over the years, its implementation has been marred by controversies related to facilitating approvals rather than upholding green concerns. There have also been demands for a review of the regulation so that it can plug the gaps at hand.

The ministry will still grant the final clearances, defeating the need for an new regulator

While that has not happened, the PM had committed to setting up a National Environment Protection Authority (NEPA) in August 2009. This was further fostered three months later when a press release of the US Senate and the PMO stated that the US Environment Protection Authority will help India set up the NEPA as part of the larger green partnership. The MoEF put out NEPA discussion papers on 25 May 2010. Six months later, the NEAMA was proposed on 26 November.

Even though the NEAMA note acknowledges that rapid industrialisation, infrastructure development and population growth has led to immense pressure on the environment, it yet again stops short of addressing the core reasons of regulatory infirmities. The note locates the solution within the ambit of institutional reform. Similar efforts in the past have not been able to address issues related to biases in assessments, lack of monitoring and compliance and conflicts during final appraisal. The constant increase in the number and faulty process of clearances has continued to put ecological landscapes and people’s livelihoods under threat.

Even though the MoEF continues to claim that the NEAMA is autonomous, the MoEF indicates that the new institution will remain intricately linked with the ministry for jurisdiction, mandate, funding and reporting. The MoEF will grant the final clearances, defeating the need for an independent regulator. The premise on conditional clearances is also problematic.

Quoting minister Jairam Ramesh, the note states that conditions levied at the time of clearance should be objective, measurable, fair and consistent, and should not impose inordinate costs on the developers. This framework turns a blind eye to the several instances when conditions are almost forced out of appraisal bodies and approvals are granted with as many as 121 conditions. When implemented after approval, the findings render themselves to fait accompli situations, as the project is already built or halfway there.

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The manner in which ‘conflict of interest’ is addressed is limiting. It fails to visit instances of conflict that arise when expert appraisal committee members have had direct stake in promoting a specific project. The NEAMA note presents no way out of this scenario.

There remains little confidence that the NEAMA will be able to break out of the legacy of faulty regulation and implementation. Instead of acknowledging that this structure is flawed, the MoEF continues to hail it, saying it’s better than the previous avatar. It is not surprising then that revamp of the environment clearance process remains low on the list of priorities

Now, Mamata faces protests over land for rail projects

PARTHA DASGUPTA


AS THE West Bengal Assembly election draws near, Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s political plank — forcible land acquisition — is being thrown back at her. That too, relating to railway projects that have been in the incubator for decades.

Villagers are opposing a railway project on 630 acres of farmland in Sankrail, Howrah district, acquired from 400-odd families in the early 1980s. On the morning of 7 December, when railway contractors tried to start landfill work at Bhagabatipur between Sankrail and Abada railway stations, they were driven away by villagers cutting across party lines. This is where a Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) coach factory is to be built with Rs. 263 crore sanctioned in the last rail budget.

Although the Trinamool chief blamed the stir on ‘outsiders’, clearly hinting at the CPM, the 300-odd men who stalled the landfill were brought together by the Sankrail Block Krishijomi Rokkha Committee led by local TMC leaders Ashis Malik, Pradip Bhuniya and Bonhisikha Das.

But local MLA Sheetal Sardar, also of the TMC, disagrees: “The CPM has conspired to stall the work for the factory. We are in close touch with the authorities regarding the demands of the local people and hope to restore construction work in a couple of days.”

Asked for her reaction, Mamata waxed philosophical: “It is for the locals to decide whether they want the factory. I meant well and got sanction for the project as the land was unutilised for 25 years.”

When the land was acquired by the state government in 1981-84 at the behest of the then Union minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, the going rate for compensation was Rs. 3,200 a bigha.

The then Railway Minister Madhavrao Scindia offered a job to one member of every family that parted with its land. However, after a couple of years, the railways discontinued the project of shifting the Shalimar yard to Sankrail, thereby jeopardising the livelihood of a couple of thousand people.

Ironically, the TMC-led Singur land agitation raised farmers’ expectations and they are now demanding a ‘fresh and just’ compensation for their land, which at present market rates is a whopping Rs. 60 lakh per bigha.

The CPM is clearly using the land card just as the TMC did in the past. Debu Malik, member of the Sankrail-1 local committee of the CPM, who lost his land to the project, said, “We have four demands. We need to know exactly what is going to come up here. The railways must stick to its

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promise of one job for every family. The farmers must be paid compensation at the going market rates and locals must be engaged in any construction work that happens here.”

The TMC chief, referring to the case filed for higher compensation, retorted, “We are not Tata or Birla. It is going to be a railway project. I am sympathetic to the cause of the locals and will go by the verdict of the court.”

But it’s not just Sankrail. There are local protests also in the north Bengal commercial town of Siliguri, a left bastion ruled by Municipal Affairs and Urban Development and Town Planning Minister and CPM strongman Ashok Bhattacharya. The construction of the northeastern head office of the Railway Recruitment Board on a popular tennis ground has run into rough weather following protests by the SFI, the students wing of the CPM. Bhattacharya wrote to Mamata on 15 December urging her to halt work.

THE LETTER says this ground has ‘transcended’ beyond a mere playground to a ‘heritage’ ground hosting big cultural meets, and is the ‘green heart’ of the town. It also expresses concern about the possible eviction of the slum dwellers on its periphery, referring to a representation from the Siliguri Safaai Mazdoor (Scavengers) Welfare Association.

Ironically, it is the TMC-led Singur agitation that raised farmers’ expectations

Bhattacharya, the selfstyled ‘chief minister of north Bengal’ has urged the railway minister to “refrain” from constructing the building on humanitarian grounds.

However, the biggest land tussle is at Dankuni, 15 km west of Kolkata, where the department of fisheries filed an FIR against the railways on 16 December for allegedly filling up three fishing ponds measuring 75 acres to build its dedicated freight corridor (DFC). The corridor runs through 39,000 acres.

Now, Fisheries Minister Kiranmoy Nanda of the Socialist Party is in Mamata’s line of fire. She has accused him of pleading with her for an election ticket. “It is all a part of a bigger conspiracy being hatched by the CPM to scuttle development projects for the state,” she said.

It will be interesting to see how Mamata handles the boomeranging of her strongest political weapon — forcible land acquisition — in the run-up to the polls.

Climate change affecting Assam tea growers

Rising temperatures are reducing yields and altering the distinctive flavour of a popular

beverage.

Amarjyoti Borah

Dec 29, 2010 The Hindu

ISSUE: The changing taste of Assam tea is something that concerns growers. Women workers in a garden near Guwahati, Assam.–

Climate change is affecting the cultivation of Assam tea, with rising temperatures reducing yields and altering the distinctive flavour of India's most popular drink, researchers say.

High hills and abundant rainfall make the north-eastern state of Assam an ideal place to grow tea, with 850 gardens over 3,20,000 hectares (5,93,000 acres) producing the majority of the country's harvest. But in the last 60 years, rainfall has fallen by more than a fifth and minimum temperature has risen by a degree to 19.5°C.

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“This is clearly climate change, and it is bound to have major impact on the tea industry,” said Debakanta Handique, a climate scientist in Assam.

The Tea Board of India said it had recorded a steady decline in tea production in recent years. In 2007, Assam produced 5,12,000 tonnes of tea. By 2008 this had declined to 4,87,000 tonnes, with estimated production in 2009 down again to 4,45,000 tonnes. A further decrease is expected this year.

‘Serious threat'

Mridul Hazarika, director of Tocklai Tea Research, the oldest tea research station in the world, said rainfall and minimum temperature were two of the most important factors affecting both quality and quantity of harvests.

“The decline has been taking place although there has been an increase in the area of tea cultivation as new gardens have come up, and many gardens have added new areas for tea plantation. This is an indication of the seriousness of the threat,” said Hazarika. Efficient rainwater harvesting and new breeds of tea plants were needed to reverse the trend.

“Changes have already been observed in the flavour, but it is not possible to blame only climate change for this,” he said. “Other factors like the fertilisers used and cultivation methods might also be partly responsible.”

The changing taste of Assam tea is a serious concern for growers. Sudipta Nayan Goswami, an Assam-based planter, said subtle changes had already been observed: “The flavour has changed from what it was before. The creamy and strong flavour is no more. There is a huge demand for Assam tea abroad, and this is due to its strong, bright flavour. The changes will sharply hamper the demand for this variety of tea abroad.

Andhra Pradesh: mining

Diamond Scare

De Beers survey sets off fears among tribals

Madhavi Tata


Rush For Riches?

•De Beers has obtained permits to look for diamonds over 6,000 sq km in Mahabubnagar district

•Tribals fear they will be displaced ,forests damaged

•Opposition parties up in arms

De Beers, the diamonds giant, is exploring the Mahabubnagar district, setting off once again the Man vs Mining debate. Tribals of the Nallamala forest zone in the district, led by some rights groups, are voicing fears that they might be displaced and the area irreparably damaged. In November 2009, De Beers obtained a reconnaissance permit to prospect for gold, precious stones, copper, lead and zinc across 6,000 sq km of the district, valid for three years. It allows the company to conduct aerial surveys and collect samples from the ground and from streams. Earlier, De Beers had surveyed for diamonds in the Anantapur and Kurnool districts but given up. Its sights are now set on Mahabubnagar’s kimberlite pipes. These ingrowths of igneous rock are often rich in diamonds.

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De Beers has paid Rs 20 in permit fee and another Rs 20 in security deposit per sq km, obtaining three government orders dated November 16-24, 2009. With nothing more invested than that, rights groups allege, De Beers has over the last one year been pressurising the Chenchu tribals of the forested areas which fall in the permit area to relocate to new places. While the state government’s mines and geology department denies aerial surveys have been conducted so far, the Chenchus say they have spotted low-flying choppers.

What has alarmed people in the district is digging operations in the Mallapur tanda of the Gattu mandal of the district. “Private farm lands are being explored by De Beers. A farmer in Mallapur tanda was told that a borewell was being dug for his convenience. Soon enough, they had dug more than 10 such ‘borewells’, to the farmer’s horror. What right does the government have to give away farmers’ lands to De Beers?” asks K. Kavitha Rao, president of Telangana Jagruthi, and daughter of TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao. The government orders have not listed the names of mandals where De Beers is exploring; only latitudes and longitudes demarcating the area have been given. “This itself is misleading,” says CPI state secretary K. Narayana. Kavitha, too, cites the same point. One spot De Beers is exploring is right next to the Krishna; another patch lies at the tip of Nallamala forests.

De Beers technical manager K.V. Suryanarayana Rao and senior geophysicist Manish Kumar say that of the 6,000 sq km the company is allowed to survey, “only 130 sq km comes under reserve forest areas”. They say reconnaissance permits are only the very first step; it will take 8-10 years to move on to mining.

In the first phase, De Beers had conducted extensive aerial surveys in Anantapur and Kurnool districts. But in Mahabubngar, it is armed with data said to have been purchased from the Geological Survey of India. There are three stages in diamond mining: the reconnaissance permit stage; the prospecting licence stage, where exploration is narrowed down to areas of 500 sq km or less; and finally, the mining licence stage, after which mining begins. What is angering Opposition parties and ngos is that the government orders clearly state that the company must stay within the bounds of forest conservation laws. “But it is being violated here. We have all seen how the Bellary brothers, with just 130 sq km of mining permit, managed to wipe off the boundaries between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,” says Kavitha. The fear is that a giant like De Beers could do much

worse than that.

Economic news

NHAI to award projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore before March December 30, 2010 Business Standard New Delhi: After a lull, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is in the process of awarding 100 projects in the fourth quarter of this financial year. The projects are in various phases of award and will be given out before March.

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“Around 14,000 km of road projects, worth around Rs 1 lakh crore, are in various stages of award process and will be awarded in the last quarter of this financial year. This will help us clear a lot of backlog,” said a senior NHAI official, who did not want to be identified. Award of road projects had been dismal under former minister T R Baalu, which prompted the government to bring in Kamal Nath at the helm. After joining, Nath set a target to build roads at 20 km a day, increasing it from the earlier pace of around 3 km a day. He also came up with work plans for two financial years, setting a target of awarding over 200 projects with a value of over Rs 2 lakh crore in the two financial years ending March 2011. In contrast, NHAI has been able to award only 65 projects till now. According to a recent report by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, NHAI widened or upgraded only 859.93 km of roads, against a target of 1,168.97 km. The progress was 33 per cent lower than 1,283 km achieved during the corresponding period last year. A review in August by the Planning Commission also presented bleak picture of infrastructure ministries. The road transport and highways ministry has been given a target to spend Rs 35,680 crore in 2010-11 to construct 2,500 km of highways. Overall, the infrastructure ministries could spend only 61.27 per cent of the total allocation of Rs 29,934.67 crore in the first quarter. Various reasons like absence of a permanent chairman and allegations of bungling in the award of road projects, leading to raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation, have been given for the performance. The highways authority, which was awarding projects at a rate of around 12 projects every month,

did not award any projects after the CBI raids on May 26.

German firm wins Himachal road consultancy project

December 30, 2010 IBEF New Delhi: Germany-based multinational company, Bernard Ingenieure has won the consultancy contract for designing and preparing a detailed project report for three major road tunnels in Himachal Pradesh, according to officials. The company bidded the lowest at US$ 1.39 million edging out the Austrian joint venture (JV) Geoconsult Seon & Euro Studio and the US company AECOM. The company has been given a period of one year for preparing the three projects. The Infrastructure Development Board is the nodal agency for public-private partnership (PPP) of the three tunnels which will be constructed at a cost of US$ 144.69 million. The completion of these tunnels will facilitate in reducing distance between several destinations. Amongst the three, the longest tunnel will be bored through the Dhauladhar mountain ranges in the Kangra valley till the Chamba valley. The length of this tunnel is almost five kilometres (kms). Similiarily, the second tunnel is proposed to be built in the Mandi district, this will reduce the distance between Jogindernagar and Kullu by almost 70 kms and another tunnel measuring 1.2 kms long will reduce the distance by 7 kms in the area.

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US pharma cos show interest in setting up units in Guj

December 30, 2010 Business Standard Mumbai/ Ahmedabad: Guj could attract Rs 10k cr investments in pharma. If one goes by the number of enquiries that Gujarat Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA) is getting everyday, pharmaceutical sector is likely to shine in this year's Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit (VGGIS). Two US based companies, Amneal Pharmaceuticals and Apicore LLC have sent proposals to the Gujarat FDCA to set up units in the state. FDCA is hoping that investments this year could nearly be around four times that of 2009 VGGIS which had seen investments worth Rs 2,700 crore. H G Koshia, commissioner, FDCA said "We are expecting investments worth Rs 10,000 crore in the sector this year" He confirmed that Amneal and Apicore have evinced interest in setting up units here. "Amneal has sent a proposal to set up a formulations unit and a research and development center here, while Apicore plans to set up an active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) unit in the state", Koshia said adding that Amneal is one among the ten largest generic companies in the US. Apicore is a limited liability company incorporated in New Jersey, US that is a developer and manufacturer of specialty Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and cGMP advanced intermediates. Amneal, on the other hand is a manufacturer of generic pharmaceuticals that works on the entire product lifecycle-from the early stages of R&D and API development through FDA approval. Both the companies already have presence in India. Koshia said "Roughly around Rs 50 crore investment can be expected from these two US based companies, who would require small land parcels of around 10,000-20,000 square yards. The memorandums of understanding can be signed during the VGGIS." Among the other proposals the FDCA is receiving, there is a mix of both domestic companies and export oriented units (EOU) in special economic zones (SEZ). "We have received 70 proposals in all so far, and it includes a mix of both domestic companies and EOUs. Most proposals are for formualtions and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturing units, besides research and development (R&D) outfits", Koshia said. In 2009, the Gujarat government had signed 26 MoUs with pharma companies for investments worth Rs 2,700 crore. Of the 26, around eight projects have taken off, with plants that are already operational, and the others are in various stages of implementation, Koshia informed. Gujarat currently enjoys a 42 per cent share in India's pharmaceutical production, while its share in the medical devices segment is around 50 cent. The state has over 2,300 pharma manufacturing units, and 115 medical devices manufacturing units. Koshia clarified that the 70 proposals that it has on its table are all pharma manufacturing units, adding that this year there is a slight dip in the applications for clinical research organisations (CRO). As for the medical devices sector, the state government is working closely with the Centre to develop a medical devices cluster over 100 acres in the area that has shot to fame after the Tata Nano project parked in. The state government has committed around Rs 30 crore investment in the

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project that can house 30-40 small and medium sized companies making syringes, intra-venous (IV) packs, cardiac stents among other devices. National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research (NIPER) is going to co-execute the project. Gujarat has around 150 medical device manufacturing units, of which around 30 odd have the European Union CE Certification.

Chennai gets first major investment from Turkey December 29, 2010 The Economic Times

Chennai: Galipoglu Hidromas from Turkey, a leading manufacturer of hydraulic telescopic cylinders , pumps, valves, power take off and other kits for commercial vehicles, has come to close to launch its facility at Mahindra world city SEZ at Maramalai nagar near Chennai . It is the first major investment from Turkey and the company's first facility outside the country. Galipoglu Hidromas’ promoter and chairman , Mehmet Yasar GUL and his only son and director, Talip GUL told ET, while it was looking at setting up the facility at Pune, it chose the site near Chennai because of its proximity to the two major ports ( Chennai and Ennore) and better infrastructure. The company, which has taken two acres at the SEZ is keen to get three more acres for expansion.It is set to commission the plantin February 2011 with an initial investment of Rs 16 crore funded fully through equity. It will have a capacity to produce 2000 hydraulic telescopic cylinders per month in one shift. It will start with producing 400 cylinders per month. At full capacity in the first year, the plant is expected to achieve a turnover of Rs 24 to Rs 25 crore. Initial import content will be 70% as it has to source steel tubes with correct dia meters from Italy and South Korea. Mr Talip GUL, who is steering the Indian operations, said the entry of global auto majors and the robust growth of tippers and trailers' segment have opened up a big market for hydraulic cylinders, piston pumps, valves, oil tanks, gear pumps and other hydraulic tool kits. In India, for the last two years, Hidromas has been supplying hydraulic systems to Asia Motor works ,the latest entrant to the CV industry and having its facility at Bhuj in Maharashtra. Besides AWM, Hidromas is targeting other major OEMs like Tata Motors , Ashok Leyland , Daimler ( which is setting up its truck facility near Chennai), Volvo, Mahindra & Mahindra, Man Force Truck and Kamaz Trucks, Russia which has assembly plant at Hosur. It will have service points at six major cities to cover the Indian market. He said it will be competing in the market with Netherlands-based Hyva, the world's largest producer of hydraulic tipping cylinders and the complete range of power take off ( POT). It has three plants in India ( Kolkata and Pune and near Bangalore) with an annual capacity to produce one lakh kits. Hidromas hopes to penetrate the market with its competitive pricing and offering a complete range of kits to customers. Mr GUL said it will also use the Indian plant for exporting 30% of production to countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Italy, South Korea and other markets. The company also wants to

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contribute to community development and is scouting for land promote a school for the under privileged. Copyright © 2010, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

China Radio wants India to tune in

December 29, 2010 The Economic Times Beijing: The state-run China Radio International is trying to buy frequencies to launch services in India in a move to widen its influence in the country. It currently broadcasts in four Indian languages - Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and Tamil - from Beijing. Seen to be building a web of influence across the neighbourhood, Beijing runs AM and FM stations in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and seven other countries. It has also been building ports across the region and boosting connectivity. "We've been trying to buy frequencies in India and are talking to some Indian companies who would like to work with us," CRI's deputy editor-in-chief Weigong Ma told TOI. "We help build bridges, open up new windows and tell the world about the real China, the true China. We attract tourists to China and also tell Chinese about the places they can visit abroad. We recently launched a special service to promote Chinese tourism." He said FM stations are crucial in expanding listenership in the changing media scenario. CRI broadcasts programmes in 61 languages and propagates the Chinese foreign ministry's point of view on international affairs. CRI also beams programmes for Tibetans in China, Nepal and India. CRI director-general Wang Gengnian said the radio service recently attracted more than 5 million foreign voters in an online poll to choose 10 most attractive tourist destinations in China. Indian diplomat Arun Sahoo was among the diplomats who gave prizes to the municipal heads of these cities at Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Tuesday. The destinations included Luoyang, which has an Indian temple. "Some of these cities are unable to communicate with foreign tourists directly. This is where we come in,'' said CRI director Peng Li. CRI has also ventured into Internet radio service to widen its reach. ``It's also a low cost option and easy to establish," said Peng. Copyright © 2010, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Manufacturing shows high growth in April-Dec: CII-ASCON survey

December 27, 2010 IBEF New Delhi: Around 50 segments in the manufacturing sector grew by 39 per cent, entering the 'excellent growth' category, during April-December 2010-11, according to a survey by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and ASCON. The survey covered 127 segments. Sectors that showed over 20 per cent growth were categorised under the ‘excellent category’, while those registering 10-20 per cent expansion are considered the ‘high’ performance category.

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Segments in the excellent category included air conditioners, natural gas, tractors, nitrogen fertilisers, ball bearings, electrical and cable wires, auto components, construction equipment, electric fans and tyre industry. Further, 22 segments made it to the ‘high growth’ category, registering a growth of 17.3 per cent during the first nine months of the current fiscal. Industries such as utility vehicles, crude oil, power transformers, energy meters, alcoholic beverages and textile machinery have registered around 10-20 per cent growth. “The performance of the industry confirms improvement during April-December 2010 compared to the corresponding period of the previous year,” the chamber said.

Food retail giant coming to North India

December 27, 2010 Business Standard New Delhi: Spar-Max to invest Rs 550 cr in 3 yrs in expansion; targets cities Spar, the world’s largest food retail chain, is to open its first office in North India in Delhi on January 19. This would inaugurate operations in the northern region, after having set up five stores in southern cities such as Bangalore, Mangalore and Hyderabad. Spar hypermarkets and supermarkets operate in India as a result of a licence agreement between Dubai-based Landmark Group’s Max Hypermarkets Pvt Ltd and Spar International. While Max is responsible for the entire business operation and management control, Spar is the knowledge partner and transfers technical expertise and best practices in international retailing. Spar International is a UK-based retail chain, operating in 35 countries. With an aim of opening 15 stores by next year and 30 stores by 2013, Viney Singh, MD, Max Hypermarket, says, “Our focus is to deliver an international shopping experience and take care of the finer details in the layout, design, merchandise, operations, service, safety and hygiene in our stores. Our tag line, ‘Live Life Better’, emerges from this philosophy. We ensure we are delivering our Indian customers the same quality and standards as in developed countries.” These details would be keeping sufficient aisle space to facilitate movements of two trolleys simultaneously, customising bakery offerings to the local catchment area, profiling customers’ habits and creating concepts suited to their needs, big malls ensuring ample car-parking space, developing specialised customer experience zones, the largest number of payment counters to save time, standard ceiling height and provision of eateries near the bakery, and restaurants where people can take a break from their shopping and munch on their takeaways. Singh says, “We have developed special zones called ‘worlds’, depending on the people’s shopping habits. These ‘worlds’ are ‘Kitchen’, ‘Fresh Food’, ‘Children’, ‘Electronics’, ‘Clothes’, etc. Also, the positioning of the items on the shelf would be according to the priority in shopping. Our whole effort is to provide convenience and organised shopping experience to our customers.” The upcoming malls in line would be at the Pacific Mall in Rajouri Garden in Delhi, one in the MGF Metropolitan mega mall in Gurgaon and others in cities like Pune, Coimbatore and

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Hyderabad. These five stores would be set up by the end of March. Max is to invest around Rs 550 crore over the next three years, with an average investment of Rs 10 crore on each store. Middle class upwards Singh adds, “We are really inspired by the Future Group, the largest retail chain in India, and look up to the kind of scaling they have done within a short time span. We are focusing on metros, Tier-I and Tier-II cities as of now and targeting the middle and upper-middle class.” Spar has also come up with a value for money offer to its customers, including an ‘every day low price’ concept, a ‘lowest retail price’ on certain fast moving consumer goods every day, best deals every fortnight offering bargains up to 75 per cent, and a customer loyalty programme that can be used not only in Spar retail but also in other brands of the Landmark group. Singh adds: “A consumer can earn and burn his loyalty points on his card anywhere within various brands of the group, unlike other retail chains.” The company claims to take care of everything and not to outsource any product or service from outside, to maintain its quality and discourage mishandling. It promises to provide the widest range of brands possible in India under one roof. The highlights would be offering loose cereals as per the consumer’s needs, importing certain fruits and vegetables, sourcing fruits and vegetables directly from farmers, maintaining at controlled temperatures till these reach stores within an 18-hour timeframe and quality assurance in the non-vegetarian section. Adds Singh, “The food section is our forte — fresh food, street food, continental dishes. We deliver 200 varieties of fresh fishes under the ‘Daily Fresh Catch’ section. Our people ensure these fishes are bought from various ports early in the morning and flown to our stores in a few hours. We have the biggest tandoor and meat section, wherein we ensure everything, right from the sourcing, buying of carcass, chopping of flesh, marinating, tracing, adding spices, preparing and supervising, all done by us.” The company finds a great opportunity for modern retail in India, saying penetration is just four-five per cent. Food and grocery retail penetration is even lower, at less than three per cent. “We see this as an opportunity and are planning to promote our brand through word of mouth referrals, print and radio advertisements, distributing leaflets in the nearby areas and in-store promotional

activities,” says Singh.

New telecom gear norms by Feb: DoT

December 28, 2010 The Times of India New Delhi: The Department of Telecommunications, or DoT, has decided to extend the existing dual process being followed for security clearance of telecom equipment while promising closure on the contentious telecom equipment security issue by February. DoT will firm up and announce its position within the next two weeks. "We will then have a consultation with security agencies after which the new template will replace the existing dispensation ," said DoT secretary R Chandrashekhar. "We will revisit those portions of the security template that companies find difficult to comply with, are not in keeping with global norms and which don't contribute to better security," Chandrashekhar said.

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It is likely that the final verdict on this will emerge by the end of February after engaging in some limited consultation , internally between DoT and security agencies/ MEA and externally with key associations. The process of reconciliation of views may not be smooth. Even today there are wide ranging differences between those who wish to work on an improved version of the template and those who believe that a fresh start should be made to address specific concerns of the Indian government. The matter is further complicated by the fact that a vast majority, if not all affected parties, are international firms who are required to follow a standard protocol not just in India but in over 100 countries around the world. It's said they fear that what India does will become a precedent for other countries. The government had inducted new procedures for purchase of telecom equipment in January 2010. While the aim was to secure networks and enhance national security, the manner in which it was implemented left most equipment/software providers and service providers in despair. Widespread opposition followed. The rules were called archaic, overly burdensome and at variance with international best practices . Companies also alleged discriminatory treatment between Chinese firms vis-à-vis other vendors. By the middle of the year, after some limited consultation , the government started incorporating the views of some of the largest service providers and equipment manufacturers. Unfortunately the industry was deeply divided across GSM and dual technology operators on one hand and across Chinese, European and American equipment providers on the other. A further divide emerged between core telecom equipment providers like Nokia-Siemens and Ericsson, on one hand, and American companies Cisco, IBM, Intel and Microsoft , on the other. The result was the use of two different methods-selfcertification or the use of signing of a security template for the purpose of telecom equipment purchase. Copyright © 2010, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Global retail majors may come to India in '11


Mumbai: If consolidation was the buzzword for the retail sector in 2010, the coming year is expected to see some big-bang entries of global retail majors as the sector looks forward to a positive outcome on the relaxation of FDI norms in retail. Even while India added around 5 million sq ft of retail space in 2010, some stores were relocated and some unviable ones faced closure. Once-lucrative businesses were bought out. While Vishal Retail was acquired partly by Shriram Group and partly by private equity fund Texas Pacific Group , Indiabulls, which had acquired Piramal’s Piramyd Retail in 2007, put its retail expansion plans on hold to focus on its main businesses of financial services and real estate . Yet, with the lessons learnt from the past few years, prudent modern retailers managed to clock double-digit growth rates. Same store growth was well above 15%.

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According to Thomas Varghese , CEO, Aditya Birla Retail , 2010 can rightly be called a revival year as “starting from the budget announcements to modifying income tax slabs, good salary increase across sectors and a fairly good monsoon—all aided in driving consumption across categories” . The revival though, had to overcome hurdles such as high rentals , attrition, higher cost of compliance and low investments flowing into the sector. According to Varghese, the recession was a blessing in disguise for the retail industry. Though it slowed down the pace of growth, it helped retailers to introspect and revisit their business models. As a result , strong business fundamentals took over ambitious expansion plans, which warranted restructuring exercises , relocation of stores and renegotiating rentals. These initiatives helped improve the profitability and viability of different retail formats and also enabled retailers to innovate , adopt best practices and bring in efficiencies in their operations. “I am confident that rich learning from the last couple of years will enable them to expand and build a sustainable business,” said Varghese. What’s in store for ’11 In 2011, consulting major PwC expects more focus on the issue of FDI. This should facilitate the much-awaited entry of French retail giant Carrefour , possibly in a tie-up with Kishore Biyani’s Future Group . According to N V Sivakumar , leader retail and consumer practice, PwC India, “It is only a matter of time before the retail sector is fully liberalized .” FDI will ensure necessary capital inflows to steer the retail industry ahead. Shopping experience the key APwC thought leadership report entitled ‘The Benefits of Modern Trade to Transitional Economies’ indicates that modern trade positively benefits consumers , producers/farmers as well as the exchequer. Since growth is the result of high footfalls in stores, enhancing the consumer’s shopping experience will continue to be an important factor . “It is interesting to note that most of our population is young and have high aspirations. To understand the psyche of this evolving Indian consumer and ensuring his needs are taken care of will be key driver for growth,” said Thomas. Till now, Indian consumers had access to private label products in food and beverage, apparel, footwear and FMCG products. An enhanced focus on workforce management would also be critical. Copyright © 2010, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Hyundai to spend 400 cr on diesel engine plant

December 28, 2010 The Economic Times New Delhi: Hyundai Motor India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the world's fourth-largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor Company ( HMC )), will set up a greenfield plant.

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The company will spend Rs 400 crore to build the 1.5 lakh diesel engine plant, hoping to cater to the rising requirements from domestic market. The plant's location, however, is not finalised. The company's two car manufacturing plants are located in Chennai. "While we are channelising more production to India and cutting down exports, the new diesel engines would be fitted into our existing and future cars as local customers are gradually preferring diesel over petrol ," said HW Park, MD, Hyundai Motor India . The company, which sells diesel models for its i20 hatchback and other bigger cars, currently imports the engines from South Korea. Hyundai Motors is also looking for a third car plant in India to meet the growing demand. It is awaiting final nod from its parent . The company has already increased the allocation to the domestic market to 65% for calendar year 2011, up from the 3.56 lakh cars it sold in India, aggregating 60% of its total year production . "We have witnessed 24% growth in the Indian market even as exports at 2.47 lakh cars were down by 8.5% in 2010 calendar year," Hyundai's director (marketing & sales) Arvind Saxena said. It also plans to roll out its new small car (which will be smaller than its current compact model Santro) from the Chennai plant. "The small car will be the smallest model from Hyundai's global line-up and India would be one of its lead markets," Mr Park said. Copyright © 2010, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Reliance MediaWorks signs MoU with RWS and OGK

December 24, 2010 livemint.com Mumbai: Reliance MediaWorks, India’s fastest growing film and entertainment services company and a member of the Reliance ADA group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Russian World Studios (RWS) and Obyedinennaya Gosudarstvennaya Kinokollektsia (OGK). RWS is one of the largest private film companies in the Russian market existing since 1998. It is a part of JSFC ‘Sistema’, the largest diversified financial corporation in Russia and the CIS serving more than 100 million customers in such industries as telecommunications, high technology, fuel-energy complex and petrochemistry, radar and space, banking, real estate, retail, mass-media, tourism and healthcare. Obyedinennaya Gosudarstvennaya Kinokollektsia (United State Film Collection) is Russia's federal state unitary enterprise that preserves and manages the Russian film archives. RWS and Reliance MediaWorks have associated to outsource work related to Film Restoration, Image Processing and Enhancement and HD Conversion from Russia to Reliance MediaWorks facilities in Mumbai (India) and Burbank (California). Depending on Russia’s requirement and developing business potential, Reliance MediaWorks and Russian World Studios will also explore the possibility of jointly selling up a dedicated restoration and digitization facility within RWS Studio complex at St Petersburg for image processing and touch-ups. The restoration and digitization services would be provided by Reliance MediaWorks to RWS and OGK through its Media BPO, which is one of the world’s largest dedicated film and video

restoration facility.

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Pipavav Shipyard signs MoU with Swedish firm

December 24, 2010 Business Standard Mumbai: Pipavav Shipyard on Thursday said it has signed a memorendum of understanding (MoU) with SAAB Dynamics AB, part of Sweden's Wallenberg Group, for developing products in the defence and aerospace sectors. "This partnership offers access to the Wallenberg Group’s cutting edge technology for products in the defence and aerospace sectors. With this engagement, we would now be able to cater to the entire gamut of the defense services sector which we expect should augment performance going forward," said Nikhil Gandhi, chairman of Pipavav Shipyard. Shares of Pipavav Shipyard were trading up about 2 per cent at Rs 79.60 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) at 1:47 EST.

KNR Constructions establishes subsidiary in Ras Al Khaimah

24 December, 2010 livemint.com Mumbai: KNR Constructions has established a wholly owned subsidiary in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE under the name -- KNRCL FZE -- and all necessary statutory formalities in this regard have been complied. KNRCL FZE is engaged in general trading activities. KNR Constructions is an infrastructure development company providing engineering, procurement and construction services across various fast growing sectors, namely, roads and highways, irrigation and urban water infrastructure management.

Cloud computing: India beats Malaysia, Singapore December 23, 2010 The Times of India

The proportion of Asia Pacific enterprises viewing cloud computing as relevant to their businesses has doubled to 83 percent over the last 18 months, reveals a survey by VMware Inc. According to the survey results, 76% in India want to virtualize and adopt cloud computing in the next 18 months, which is the highest percentage as compared to other cloud positive countries in the region like Japan and Australia. India scored higher than both Singapore and Malaysia in current Cloud understanding levels. The September survey of 6,953 respondents, conducted by Springboard Research under VMware's sponsorship, also indicated that cloud adoption has accelerated across seven Asia Pacific markets over the last 18 months, particularly among larger firms. Today, 59 percent of regional firms are either using or planning cloud computing initiatives compared to 45 percent six months ago and 22 percent in 2009. India and China lead the region in terms of adoption plans, with 43 percent and 39 percent of organisations respectively planning to

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implement cloud computing. Organisations in Japan and Australia lead in cloud adoption, with 36 percent and 31 percent respectively already running a cloud-related initiative. India had 693 respondents across various sectors. Highest adoption is anticipated from the IT/ITES infrastructure manufacturing sectors. The survey reveals that India's understanding of virtualization and cloud computing has risen dramatically over the last couple of months and VMware has a 50 percent perceived mindshare when it comes to cloud computing in India. Dynamic provisioning / capacity on demand, automated management, pay-per-use model, and applications that can scale on demand were considered the essential building blocks for Cloud Computing as far as the Indian audience is concerned. Cloud associated with IT as a Service The highest proportion of organizations in Japan (86 percent), Singapore (84 percent) and Thailand (74 percent) associate cloud computing primarily with IT as a Service, while in Australia, Malaysia and India, most firms (80 percent, 78 percent and 75 percent respectively) associate cloud mainly with applications-on-demand. In China, 80 percent of respondents look to cloud for on-demand provision of storage and network. Sanchit Vir Gogia,Associate Research Manager, Software Springboard Research, said: "For most survey respondents in Asia Pacific, IT as a Service is the biggest theme of the day. These companies are looking for vendors and consultants that can help them enjoy serviced-based IT, particularly in the areas of cloud infrastructure and management." Most organizations (60 percent) want to adopt cloud for scalability-on-demand to meet business needs, followed by drivers such as reduced hardware infrastructure costs and simplified resource/server provisioning. Cost saving Saving cost is the immediate incentive for adopting cloud computing for 57 percent of Asia Pacific firms. Only 37 percent, many of which are large firms with more than 10,000 employees, adopted or planned to adopt cloud as a long-term strategic investment. Some 66% considered scalability on demand to meet business needs while 67% considered reduced hardware infrastructure and 43% considered simplified resource/server provisioning as some of the key factors that drive cloud adoption. 83 % said that they expect cloud investments to reduce hardware their spending while 74% would like reduction in their software spend. Hybrid clouds on the rise Companies wanting to deploy both public and private clouds were represented by the 38 percent of respondents, while a roughly equal amount - 37 percent - said they will only consider a private cloud. Preference for private cloud is more prevalent in banking and government sectors, with public cloud continuing to meet with the greatest resistance. Preference for hybrid cloud is higher in ASEAN, at more than four percentage points above the Asia Pacific average. In fact, even Japan – the most cloud-positive country in the survey – gave rise to survey findings suggesting that no more than 15 percent of organizations want to use public clouds. The mind set in India is changing and private cloud is slowly overtaking public cloud.

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Storage (58 percent) represents the region's No.1 workload for private clouds, with Japan (62 percent) and China (61 percent) most likely to deploy storage in a private cloud. Cloud-based enterprise applications are the second most identified category across Asia Pacific at 49 percent.

In terms of deployment plans, 93 percent of respondents said their upcoming cloud deployments will revolve round web conferencing, IM, collaboration and email. Andrew Dutton, SVP and GM, VMware Asia Pacific Japan, said: "It is clear that industry has great interest in the hybrid cloud model. The ability for enterprises to obtain a common cloud infrastructure platform, as well as a common management model and application services that bridge private and public clouds to deliver interoperable clouds allowing data and application portability, will be critical." Integration concerns now match security worries as obstacles to cloud adoption Integration with existing systems has caught up with traditional security concerns as a barrier to cloud adoption, with 46 percent of respondents identifying them equally as obstructions. In emerging markets, the key factor holding back cloud adoption is lack of understanding among enterprises, according to 44 percent of respondents in China, 40 percent in Malaysia and 40 percent in Thailand, compared with a regional average of 36 percent. These results strongly suggest that use of standards-based cloud solutions and education remain as significant cloud adoption drivers across Asia Pacific. Virtualization seen as the foundation of cloud computing Organizations across Asia Pacific (59 percent) consistently cited virtualization infrastructure as a primary building block for cloud computing. Awareness about virtualization is widespread in India, with 94% of the respondents either leveraging or planning to adopt virtualization technology. Explaining the link between the two technologies, Dutton said: "Virtualization lets organizations decouple critical business applications and information from underlying physical hardware, and in turn, provides a fast and cost effective way to the cloud. More and more Asia Pacific organizations are realizing this and are moving to unlock more value from their virtualization investments." Virtualization adoption in Asia Pacific is highest in Australia (87 percent) and Japan (82 percent). Among verticals, virtualization adoption is highest in insurance (82 percent) and banking/financial services (76 percent). Thailand (67 percent), Singapore (65 percent) and Malaysia (65 percent) all lag Australia and Japan in current adoption, while virtualization penetration stands at about 30 percent across ASEAN. Most Asia Pacific firms use virtualization for servers and data centres, with many organisations focused on leveraging virtualization to drive business continuity/disaster recovery initiatives. In India, server virtualization has grown in importance, compared to 12 months ago, as it is the bedrock to cloud. The biggest growth opportunity for virtualization in Asia Pacific is in the end-user computing space, although most organisations rank desktop virtualization as low in their list of priorities.

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However, significant advantages can be gained from a new approach to end-user computing that virtualizes the desktop by de-coupling the operating system, user persona and applications, thereby enabling great flexibility in delivering applications and data to end-users when and where they need them and regardless of access device. There is more focus in India on Desktop Virtualization at 68% when compared to China and Japan Dutton said, "By enabling large-scale end-user self-service, desktop virtualization is really the final piece of the puzzle in making the modern enterprise flexible, scalable and ultimately responsive to

business needs."


Airtel to activate Indo-China cable this week

December 23, 2010 The Economic Times New Delhi: Bharti Airtel will open its first underground terrestrial fibre optic cable built in alliance with China Telecom this week, which will allow faster internet connectivity for consumers in the two fastest growing telecom markets in the world, a company executive said. The direct terrestrial link between India and China, which took two years to build over a hostile terrain, will have an initial capacity of 40 Gbps going up to nearly 1 Tbps. This will offer an alternate and short route for data traffic alongside two existing undersea cables exiting from Chennai and Mumbai and will bring faster connectivity for Indian and Chinese internet customers, especially in the border areas. “Currently in terms of traffic (between India and China), it is very low. But the China internet market is growing very fast,” said Ajay Chitkara, chief executive officer of global data business at Bharti Airtel. The new network will address surging web traffic emerging from China and will be largely focused on enterprise businesses. It will connect India and China to the US and Europe. Bharti Airtel and China Telecom have constructed the network in their respective territories from Siliguri to Nathula border in India and Nathula border to Yadong in China. In India, the high-speed network spans from Siliguri gateway to Nathula via Pedong on one path and the second path will reach Siliguri from Nathula via Gangtok forming a ring. Bharti Airtel has invested more than $500 million in creating the two sub-sea and the new sub-terranean network. It has also signed an agreement with China Telecom to create interconnected network, network to network interconnect, where data, voice or internet traffic will be handed over from one player to another. The MoU for China Telecom handing over traffic to Bharti Airtel has been signed and a similar agreement for handing over our traffic to them will be signed within a few days, Chitkara said. Department of telecom has already given Bharti Airtel security clearances for the project, company executives said.


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Dr Reddy's signs pact with Russia's R-Pharm

December 22, 2010 Business Standrad

Hyderabad: Pharmaceutical company Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) has entered into a licensing, technology transfer, manufacturing and marketing agreement with R-Pharm of Russia. The collaboration will work on a profit sharing model and entail licensing of manufacturing know-how of products by DRL, local manufacturing of products in Russia, co-development of high technology products and knowledge sharing between both parties at regular intervals. The agreement was signed at the fourth India-Russia Forum on Trade and Investment in New Delhi on Monday. DRL Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer Satish Reddy said the collaboration would deepen its engagement with Russia, a key market for the company. “The agreement allows us to bring innovative medicines to the Russian people with active collaboration of a local pharmaceutical company — R-Pharm. It will also allow DRL to import and market R-Pharm products in India according to agreed terms,” he said. R-Pharm was founded in 2001 in Moscow and is involved in research and development, manufacturing, promotion and distribution of pharmaceuticals used in hospital and specialty care. Its chairman, Alexey Repik, said the agreement with DRL would help in addressing the unmet medical needs and make medicines more affordable in Russia. It would signal a change of approach from just imports of finished products to deep integration in technology, manufacturing, marketing and knowledge sharing, he said.

Delhi gets 1-Mw solar energy generator

December 22, 2010 Business Standard New Delhi: North Delhi Power Ltd (NDPL), a joint venture of Tata Power with the Delhi government, today commissioned a solar power plant installed by Tata BP Solar. It consists of more than 5,500 solar photovoltaic panels made of crystalline silicon. These would absorb sunlight and convert it into electricity, to be directly fed into NDPL’s main grid line. The panels are designed to work for 25 years. This 1-Mw unit is designed to produce 1.58 million units of electricity annually, sufficient to light more than 1,000 homes, said Tata BP. NDPL has planned a three-fold initiative to promote solar power generation over the next three to four years. This includes setting up grid-interactive solar PV systems on the roofs of 56 of its grid substations in its distribution network of North and & Northwest Delhi, with a cumulative capacity of 2.5-3 Mw. It is also pursuing the prospect of setting up a 100 Mw grid interactive solar power plant in Rajasthan.

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It will also facilitate grid interactive solar PV systems on the rooftops of individual households and commercial buildings. The CEO of Tata BP Solar, K Subramanya, said the company had pioneered grid-connected solar power systems in India and the latest 1-Mw plant was a logical extension of the several Kw-scale solar plants it had commissioned over the years. Tata BP Solar is a joint venture, since 1989, of BP Solar (51 per cent) and The Tata Power Company Ltd (49 per cent).

India, Singapore bilateral trade to touch US$ 22.89 billion in 2010 December 22, 2010 IBEF New Delhi: The bilateral trade between India and Singapore is expected to touch US$ 22.89 billion in 2010, according to Dr T C A Raghavan, Indian High Commissioner to Singapore. "Singapore is a very important partner of India," said Raghavan, while addressing Singapore press conference for 'The India Show 2011' to be held January 14-16, 2011 in the Singapore. He further added that "We have seen a very good recovery from 2008 and a good financial investment climate." Furthermore, Mr Anand Sharma, Commerce and Industry Minister would lead India’s high level ministerial and CEOs delegation to Singapore for ‘The India Show.’ The show is largest ever of its kind in Southeast Asia. About 80 Indian corporations will be exhibiting at the show, which would also have a symposium aimed at further nurturing the good relationship between the two countries. The January 14 'India Symposium' - themed 'Indovations: Ideas for the World', would highlight the innovation in the Indian manufacturing, services and infrastructure sectors. The show is part of the Indian government's 'Look East Policy,' and would familiarise business visitors with the latest in Indian products and technology, help them understand the trends and offer opportunities in various sectors of the Indian economy as well as have the corporate worlds of the two countries discuss business co-operations. The Indian businesses participating in the show would be seeking to establish partnership and strategic links with Singapore's small and medium enterprises (SME) as well as major corporations in the infrastructure sector, especially seeking out water-technology and urban development expertise, Raghavan added. Among others, ANTRIX, the Indian space research organisation (ISRO), would be participating in the show. It would launch Singapore's first commercial satellite in about a month, said Dr

Raghavan.

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Fitch revises India's growth to 8.7 per cent for 2010-11 December 22, 2010 IBEF

New Delhi: The forecast for the country’s economic expansion has been revised upwards to 8.7 per cent for 2010-11 from 8.5 per cent earlier by the leading global rating agency, Fitch Ratings. "We revise upwards our forecast for India's GDP growth to 8.7 per cent for the financial year ending March 2011 from 8.5 per cent, as economic activity has proved more buoyant than previously expected," said Fitch in its latest quarterly review 'Global Economic Outlook' released in London. The report further highlighted that a breakdown of gross domestic product (GDP) numbers by expenditure shows that India's economic activity remains broad-based, with both private and public sector consumption, fixed investment and exports all registering high single-digit growth. Furthermore, the economy registered a healthy 8.8 per cent growth in the first quarter of 2010-11 and fared still better in the second quarter, recording 8.9 per cent on the back of strong growth in manufacturing and a massive improvement in the farm sector.

Domestic air traffic records 25 per cent y-o-y growth December 21, 2 010 IBEF New Delhi: The Indian aviation industry has reported 25 per cent increase on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis in passengers flown in November 2010, according to the latest data released by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Seven domestic airlines flew 4,875,000 passengers in November 2010. It is the highest carriage recorded during a single month in 2010. The Delhi-based, IndiGo, recorded the best performance carrying 8,43,000 passengers in November 2010 and almost 3,00,000 more passengers than in the corresponding period in the 2009. Jet Airways and SpiceJet each carried 1,73,000 more passengers compared to November 2009

India-Russia set $20 billion trade target in 5 years December 21, 2010 The Economic Times New Delhi :India and Russia have set a target of more than quadrupling the bilateral trade to $20 billion in five years. The two countries identified pharmaceuticals, energy, IT & communication, chemicals & fertilisers and banking & finance as thrust areas in a protocol on trade and investment signed on Monday. An ambitious trade target and renewed focus on key sectors could help both countries increase presence in each other’s markets, which has fallen to low levels after disintegration of the USSR. “We need to make concerted efforts to reinvigorate our economic cooperation and integrate it with market forces,” commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma said at the fourth India-Russia forum on trade and investments organised by CII and Ficci.

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Russian deputy Prime Minister Sergei Invanov admitted that $20 billion was a difficult target to work on, but said that both countries were experiencing sustained development under strained circumstances of global economy and hence there was great potential. Bilateral trade in 2009-10 was at $4.7 billion, with India’s exports at less than $1 billion. Mr Ivanov is leading a high profile business team from his country and is part of the official delegation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who reached India Monday evening for a two-day visit. One-fourth of the world’s generics (off-patent pharma ) were produced in India, and there is scope of huge cooperation between India and Russia in the area, Mr Sharma said. A number of memorandum of understanding were signed between Indian and Russian pharmaceutical companies for joint production of medicines. Copyright © 2010, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Indian firms grab 34% of SA govt's AIDS drug order December 21, 2010 Business Standard New Delhi: Indian companies have bagged 34.3 per cent of the AIDS drugs supply contracts announced by the South African government last week. The anti-retroviral drug tender floated by South Africa is the largest of its kind in the world. Of the Rs 2,831 crore worth order for anti-retroviral drugs, about Rs 970 crore have come to four Indian companies primarily through the joint venture (JV) entities set up by Ranbaxy and Cipla, the South African Health Ministry has stated. While Ranbaxy’s South African JV Sonke Pharmaceuticals bagged a supply contract that comes to 21.9 per cent (over Rs 600 crore) of the total tender value, Cipla-Medpro cornered 5.1 per cent (about Rs 145 crore) share. The other two firms are Strides Acrolab (4.2 per cent or approximately Rs 118 crore) and Aurobindo Pharma (3.1 per cent or approximately Rs 90 crore). On the whole, 10 firms won the tenders, the supplies for which will begin from January 1, 2011 and go on till December 31, 2012. With 40 per cent share, South African firm Aspen Pharmacare claimed the highest pie. Ranbaxy’s JV is the second in the list. Ranbaxy will manufacture the medicines from its South African and Indian facilities, a company statement said. The institutional supplies in overseas countries are increasingly becoming a major business model for Indian medicine exporters as more countries, including UK and Europe, are looking at reducing their healthcare costs. South Africa had succeeded in bringing down the cost of its ARV drug procurement by 53.1 per cent by making the tenders more competitive.

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India-Russia set $20 billion trade target in 5 years December 21, 2010 The Economic Times New Delhi :India and Russia have set a target of more than quadrupling the bilateral trade to $20 billion in five years. The two countries identified pharmaceuticals, energy, IT & communication, chemicals & fertilisers and banking & finance as thrust areas in a protocol on trade and investment signed on Monday. An ambitious trade target and renewed focus on key sectors could help both countries increase presence in each other’s markets, which has fallen to low levels after disintegration of the USSR. “We need to make concerted efforts to reinvigorate our economic cooperation and integrate it with market forces,” commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma said at the fourth India-Russia forum on trade and investments organised by CII and Ficci. Russian deputy Prime Minister Sergei Invanov admitted that $20 billion was a difficult target to work on, but said that both countries were experiencing sustained development under strained circumstances of global economy and hence there was great potential. Bilateral trade in 2009-10 was at $4.7 billion, with India’s exports at less than $1 billion. Mr Ivanov is leading a high profile business team from his country and is part of the official delegation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who reached India Monday evening for a two-day visit. One-fourth of the world’s generics (off-patent pharma ) were produced in India, and there is scope of huge cooperation between India and Russia in the area, Mr Sharma said. A number of memorandum of understanding were signed between Indian and Russian pharmaceutical companies for joint production of medicines. Copyright © 2010, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Indian firms grab 34% of SA govt's AIDS drug order

December 21, 2010 Business Standard New Delhi: Indian companies have bagged 34.3 per cent of the AIDS drugs supply contracts announced by the South African government last week. The anti-retroviral drug tender floated by South Africa is the largest of its kind in the world. Of the Rs 2,831 crore worth order for anti-retroviral drugs, about Rs 970 crore have come to four Indian companies primarily through the joint venture (JV) entities set up by Ranbaxy and Cipla, the South African Health Ministry has stated. While Ranbaxy’s South African JV Sonke Pharmaceuticals bagged a supply contract that comes to 21.9 per cent (over Rs 600 crore) of the total tender value, Cipla-Medpro cornered 5.1 per cent (about Rs 145 crore) share. The other two firms are Strides Acrolab (4.2 per cent or approximately Rs 118 crore) and Aurobindo Pharma (3.1 per cent or approximately Rs 90 crore). On the whole, 10 firms won the tenders, the supplies for which will begin from January 1, 2011 and go on till December 31, 2012.

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With 40 per cent share, South African firm Aspen Pharmacare claimed the highest pie. Ranbaxy’s JV is the second in the list. Ranbaxy will manufacture the medicines from its South African and Indian facilities, a company statement said. The institutional supplies in overseas countries are increasingly becoming a major business model for Indian medicine exporters as more countries, including UK and Europe, are looking at reducing their healthcare costs. South Africa had succeeded in bringing down the cost of its ARV drug procurement by 53.1 per cent by making the tenders more competitive.

Tata Chemicals' UK subsidiary to take over British Salt

December 21, 2010 livemint.com Purchase to ensure steady source of raw materials and help firm ‘deepen presence in food and farm sectors’ New Delhi: Tata Chemicals Ltd’s UK subsidiary Brunner Mond group has signed a definite agreement to acquire 100% of British Salt Ltd, a leading salt manufacturer in the UK, for £93 million (roughly Rs.655 crore) in a deal that will ensure a steady source of raw material and also give it a toehold in the UK food and industrial salt market. Brunner Mond makes soda ash, widely used in several chemical industries, consumer products and food ingredients. British Salt has a 50% share in the UK’s pure dried vacuum salt products market, and it owns several brine (salt) wells in that country with a residual life of at least 50 years. R. Mukundan, managing director, Tata Chemicals, said: “The acquisition is in line with the strategy of Tata Chemicals to deepen its presence in the ‘food and farm sectors’ and will result in securitising raw material for Brunner Mond’s operations. This will help Brunner Mond maintain its low-cost manufacturing position in Europe and provides a great opportunity to optimise the costs further.” An analyst who tracks the sector said the deal was an advantageous one for Tata Chemicals. “British Salt is an unlisted firm with salt manufacturing capacity of more than 400,000 tonnes, comparable to Tata Chemicals’ domestic capacity of 600,000 tonnes. According to back-of-the-envelope calculations, the company can add Rs.400 crore to the consolidated revenues (3.5% of fiscal 2012 sales) and 5.6% to the consolidated profit for the fiscal 2012,” said Dikshit Mittal, a research analyst at Alchemy Share and Stock Brokers Pvt. Ltd. Tata Chemicals’ chief financial officer P.K. Ghose said the transaction is entirely financed by debt on a non-recourse basis to itself. This means that the debt raised to fund the acquisition, which was made through Tata Chemicals Europe Holdings Ltd, a holding company, will not directly create a liability for it. Mittal added that the deal is valued at around six times the operational profit of British Salt and that the transaction seems “fairly valued”.

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The Tata group, of which Tata Chemicals Ltd is a part, has had a successful track record of acquisitions in the UK. In the late 1990s, Tata Tea acquired Tetley. More recently, Tata Steel acquired Corus and Tata Motors, Jaguar Land Rover. Tata Chemicals is currently the world’s second largest producer of soda ash with manufacturing plants in India, the UK, Kenya and the US. On Monday, its shares rose 0.12% to close at Rs.371.60 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on a day when the exchange’s benchmark index, the Sensex, went up 0.12% to close at 19,888.88.

NuLight Corporation to invest Rs 900 crore on LED unit in state December 21, 2010 Business Standard Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar: Taiwan-based NuLight Corporation plans to invest $200 million (around Rs 900 crore) on setting up a light emitting diode (LED) manufacturing unit in the state. The unit will manufacture LED street lamps and household bulbs. “Initially, we will invest $10 million and later scale it up to $900 million on the LED manufacturing unit in the state. Orissa as well as India has a vast market for LED street lamps and household bulbs. It will be cost-effective and energy-efficient”, S S Lin, chairman of NuLight Corporation said at a press meet held on the occasion of 'Invest Bhubaneswar-Orissa Symposium'. The company also intends to set up an R&D (Research and Development) centre in the state on LED systems. Lin claimed that LED lighting systems can bring down power consumption by 70-80 per cent. Daniel Lin, director, NuLight Corporation said, “We also have plans to build a green township in the state but details have not been finalized.” USA-based Rushab Ship International has entered into talks with the state government to introduce a passenger-cum-cargo cruise from Puri to Kolkata in the next three to six months with an investment of Rs 100 crore. Rashmikant Kamdar, president, Rushab Ship International said “We are having one or two vessels for this purpose. We are in talks with the state government and expect to finalize the deal soon.” The cruise can be used for multi purpose ferrying-both passengers and cargo. There will also be an entertainment facility for the passengers. Kamdar announced that his company is planning a ship breaking facility in the state. “The Oriya labourers are working as ship breakers in Alang in Gujarat. They can be employed in the ship breaking facility in the state”, he stated. The dignitaries participating in the Invest Bhubaneswar-Orissa Symposium' also held talks with the state Chief Secretary B K Pattnaik and IT secretary today. It has been decided to form task force consisting of officials of the state government and IT Industry leaders on framing a new IT and Semiconductor policy for the state. This policy is set to be modeled on a similar policy formulated by the Karnataka government. The city-based C V Raman Group of Institutions has entered into an agreement with the Best Western Group to set up a hotel management college in Odisha. Best Western President and Chief

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Operating Officer, Sudhir Sinha said, Bhubaneswar is going to be a major destination for business activities in the near future. "There is a huge shortage of trained staff for the hotel industry. This new institute will train professionals for the hotel industry”, he said. The state minister for tourism & culture Debi Prasad Mishra said, a delegation of the Orissa government along with the professionals of Invest Bhubaneswar will visit Silicon Valley in May 2011. Similarly, the team will visit Dallas, Dubai, Sydney, Taipei, Israel and other parts of the world to attract investors. "More than 12 deals between Orissa's young entrepreneurs and global investors took place to set up new ventures in the state. The investors are from Silicon Valley USA, Spain, Japan, Taiwan, Israel and UK”, he added.

Global companies may buy more Indian FMCG firms in '11

December 20, 2010 The Economic Times Mumbai: As a crop of homegrown FMCG companies went shopping abroad for acquisitions in 2010, multinational firms warmed up to domestic buys. While globalization as a theme for Indian FMCG players would continue in 2011, another factor that will mark the year ahead is global consumer product groups eyeing inorganic growth opportunities in emerging markets like India. When groups like Godrej, Marico and Dabur were busy sealing deals in markets like Africa, South America and Indonesia, it was British consumer product group, Reckitt Benckiser, which walked away with the prized catch, Paras Pharma. With India becoming the largest and most lucrative consumer destinations in the world, the economic and consumption power shift is veering towards India. A clear indicator is the high valuation commanded by Paras (Rs 3,260 crore). “In view of the slowdown in developed markets, it is imperative for global players to focus on growths in emerging markets and increased investment dosage in these markets,” said Saugata Gupta , CEO (consumer products ), Marico. And why not? The Indian FMCG sector is the fourthlargest sector in the economy with a total market size in excess of $13.1 billion (Rs 58,950 crore). Indian FMCG companies , too, went for the kill to satiate their inorganic growth appetite with global buys. While Dabur India opened its account with two overseas acquisition—Hobi Kozmetik group of Turkey and the US-based Namasti Laboratories—during the year, Godrej acquired Issue and Argencos in Latin America, Tura in Africa and Megasari in Indonesia. “We will see many more Indian companies spreading their wings abroad seeking faster growth. But the key to success would be to tailormake products and solutions for the local audience and consumers in the overseas markets,” said Sunil Duggal, CEO, Dabur India.

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On the global landscape too, iconic chocolate company Cadbury was gobbled up by Kraft Foods , leading to consolidation in operations of the two companies in other markets as well. Peeping into 2011, Tanya Godrej, executive director & president (marketing), Godrej Industries , said that innovative brands from emerging markets in particular will shine in 2011. “India will increasingly look beyond its borders, especially to smaller, highgrowth economies in Africa, rest of Asia and Latin America for accelerated growth. I expect a lot more inorganic growth coming from acquisitions in these geographies. Addressing the needs and desires of billions of overlooked consumers and tapping the vast pool of talent and skills is the global opportunity in 2011,” Godrej said. According to Gupta, Africa and certain parts of Asia, like Indonesia and Vietnam, would be the next theatres of action. While acquisitions were the dominant feature for the FMCG industry during 2010, organic growth through a mix of pricing and volume drove categories like soaps, detergents, shampoos, skincare products, among others. Organic growth cannot be overlooked given high GDP growth, increased rural growths, accelerating urbanization and evolving consumer lifestyles. The food inflation did threaten to play spoilsport, but a surge in rural demand more than made up for loss from urban markets, which had softened a bit. “The year 2011 is likely to be a very positive year for the FMCG industry as a whole. Despite rising commodity prices, which will continue to put pressure on performance, I expect demand to continue to be robust especially from rural India which is seeing rising income levels and greater propensity to spend,” said Godrej. Gupta of Marico expects some inflationary pressure in the first half of the new year. What could possibly buttress this growth is the smooth implementation of the much-delayed Goods and

Services Tax (GST) — something the industry is looking forward to. Copyright © 2010, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Russia to invest $670 mn in Sistema Shyam this week December 20, 2010 The Economic Times New Delhi: The Russian government will complete its pending transaction to pick up a 20% stake for about $670 million in telecom firm Sistema Shyam this week, and the deal is likely to be announced by its deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov in Delhi on Monday. The finalisation of the deal comes even as Sistema Shyam faces cancellation of its mobile permits in 10 of the 22 telecom circles in the country for failure to rollout services in time. It may perhaps also indicate the Russian government’s confidence that Sistema Shyam may escape with a penalty, besides also sending a strong signal to the India . government that the telecoms company is a serious player in the 14-player mobile phone market in India. Sistema Shyam is amongst the nine companies that bagged pan-India telecom licences under controversial circumstances in early 2008. The telco is also under the scanner of India’s enforcement directorate, which is investigating whether Sistema Shyam through its subsidiaries and business partners situated in different countries, carried out what is described as several interlinked financial transactions to ‘camouflage the real beneficiaries of the spectrum scam’.

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At present, Russian operator Sistema owns 73.71% in Sistema Shyam Teleservices, while Shyam Group owns the rest in the Indian firm. The deal will result in unlisted Sistema Shyam issuing 662.75 million shares, representing about 20% stake in the company, on a preferred basis to the Russian Federal Property Agency at Rs 49.31 a share. Simultaneously, the company would issue up to 228.55 million shares to its Indian promoters at par, or Rs 10 per share. The deal would reduce the holding of Sistema in the Indian company to about 54%. The Russian government had planned to pick up the stake in the company last year but the deal was delayed as the country’s economy ministry did not approve the investment. It received all the necessary approvals in April this year.


Retail to grow, number of malls to reach 280

December 20, 2010 IBEF New Delhi: Global real estate firm CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) has said that the Indian retail sector is expected to continue on its growth path due to economic recovery, and the number of malls is likely to increase to 280 by 2012 from the current 190. The firm said that "India has added around five million sq ft of retail space in 2010 and approximately 15 million sq ft of space is lined-up to get operational in 2011-2012," Anshuman Magazine, CBRE’s South Asia Chairman and Managing Director stated that the overall real estate performance of India has been on an upward trend with increasing transaction volumes. He added that "In the coming year, prices will witness an upward trend in commercial and retail rentals in the CBD (Central Business Districts) and prime city districts. “ CBRE said that Mumbai, National Capital Region (NCR) and Bangalore will have an almost 70 per cent share in future supply. The firm also said that around three million sq ft of mall space is

expected in 2011 in Mumbai.

Kobe Steel's multi-pronged strategy for Indian market

December 20, 2010 The Economic Times Kolkata: Kobe Steel's decision to set up a greenfield plant in joint venture with Essar Steel is part of a larger multi-pronged strategy by the Japanese steelmaker to gain a foothold in India’s growing steel market. While Kobe is eyeing a significant presence in automotive steel, the company is also pursuing possible joint ventures with Sail and NMDC that will ensure its presence at the cutting edge of new generation, iron-making techniques that could be up to 15-20% more cost effective than present ones. Thus one part of Kobe’s strategy to make steel sheets used for making cars, is similar to what Sumitomo Industries , JFE Corp or Nippon Steel plan to do with Indian partners like Bhushan Steel

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, JSW Steel and Tata Steel respectively, gain a share of the rapidly growing automotive steels market by having a manufacturing presence here. As Malay Mukherjee, CEO, EssarSteel Business Group said: "The auto industry is expected to be a major driver for steel demand in the country in the years to come. This MoU will further strengthen Essar Steel's product portfolio to enable it to produce steel for high-end applications in the auto segment." However, what makes Kobe's strategy different from the other Japanese steel companies and even the likes of other global steel majors like ArcelorMittal or Posco, is that it is looking beyond high-value steel products at alliances that could adopt and make use of alternative iron-making technologies developed and owned by it. More specifically, Kobe is hawking ‘ITmk3’, its patented technology for making iron nuggets using iron ore fines and non-coking coal. At around $300 per tonne, this gives significant advantage in terms of investment cost of setting up a plant compared to the blast furnace method, according to findings published in research papers by the Joint Plant Commitee. "The cost advantage in terms of production of steel is difficult to estimate but it could be nearly 15-20%, which is substantial," Kosher Ostwald, chairman and managing director of CNI Research said. In the Indian perspective, this could serve as an answer to the domestic steel sector’s raw material needs to a large extent since it does not require more expensive inputs like iron ore lumps and coking coal. Kobe's talks with SAIL are at an advanced stage and the two had signed an MoU earlier this month for a strategic alliance while SAIL's plans include setting up of a Rs 5,000 core unit at the Alloy Steels Plant in Durgapur. The largest domestic iron ore company, NMDC, too is looking at using this technology for iron making. However, this technology is at a pilot stage and much would depend on the success of Kobe Steel’s first commercial plant using this technology, a 0.5 million tonne unit at Minessota in the US. Copyright © 2010, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Organised sector generated 1.13 mn jobs in 2010, says survey December 17, 2010 Business Standard Chennai: The organised sector in India has created 7,39,064 jobs between January-September 2010 and 3,94,700 more jobs are getting added in the current quarter,according to Ma Foi Randstad Employment Trends Survey (METS). According to Ma Foi Randstad, a leading integrated HR services provider in the country, latest projection for October-December 2010 shows that India is almost back in track with the high growth rate it had achieved before the economic crisis. At the beginning of this year METS predicted creation of 1 million new jobs in 2010. The latest METS survey reflects a more-than-anticipated growth in the hiring sector of India with a few

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sectors such as Healthcare, Real Estate & Construction; Hospitality and IT & ITES leading this momentum. The latest projection for the October-December 2010 period, and estimates of actual job creation from January-September 2010, for the organised sector was arrived at, after surveying the employment trends in 660 companies across 13 industry sectors in eight major cities — Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. These companies were queried about (a) hiring in the first nine months of the year and (b) hiring intentions over the next 3 months. The METS findings show that while advanced economies are still going through the process of recovery from global recession, the Indian economy has shown strong signs of comeback and has gained momentum during the first two quarters of the fiscal year. K Pandia Rajan, managing director, Ma Foi Randstad, said that “we see a strong positive growth in the overall picture of the organized employment in the country, as companies are recruiting more than what was anticipated during the beginning of this year. We see that the industries have regained their confidence and the increased momentum in the hiring process clearly signifies that the Indian economy and the sector players are preparing for further growth. We expect aggressive hiring in the coming months and also increase in salary levels.” According to the survey, the employment trend across all sectors — BFSI, IT & ITES, pharmaceuticals; healthcare, trade, including consumer, retail and services; energy; transport, storage and communication; real estate & construction; hospitality; media & entertainment; non-machinery manufacturing; manufacturing — machinery & equipment; education, training & consulting — are growing at a robust pace which is expected to continue in the next quarter. The sectors, covered under the survey include healthcare; real estate and construction; hospitality and IT & ITeS are among the top most sectors contributing to the country’s increasing employment base. Energy and Transport were relatively moderate performers as compared to other sectors of the economy. The healthcare sector reported the largest employment generation in 2010 by generating 260,052 jobs and it emerged as one of the most progressive and largest service sectors in the country with an expected GDP spend of 8 per cent by 2012 from 5.5 per cent in 2009. It is believed to be the next big sector. Sectors like hospitality, real estate and construction, IT and ITES have also joined the 100,000 plus jobs pack for 2010. Hospitality sector with a total number of 165,700 jobs in 2010 has grown tremendously during the last six months. This is due to a combination of factors like increase in foreign tourists arrival, massive investment in hotel infrastructure and open sky policies made by the government. A large number of approvals for new hotels is also likely to result in substantial job creation in the near future. In spite of being hit hard by recession, IT & ITES sector has bounced back and reported more job creation at 116,700 compared to 97,000 jobs forecast a earlier. Inter-industry shifting of skilled workforce has increased significantly, as a result of growing demand. The industry sectors like BFSI, Non-Machinery Manufacturing, Media & Entertainment and Education, Training & Consultancy have joined the 50,000 plus jobs pack.

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Amongst the cities surveyed, Delhi and NCR has reported the greatest employment generation by creating 1,13,897 jobs in the year 2010. This region has created 44,183 jobs during the period of October to December 2010, the highest in the year so far. Large scale hiring was in place during the third quarter 2010. Commonwealth Games 2010 was also a significant contributor for the region in terms of hiring activities in the third quarter of 2010. This was closely followed by Mumbai with 107,806 jobs in 2010. The hiring situation has improved significantly in the third quarter compared to the previous two quarters. BFSI, trade, real estate and hospitality have played a key role in this growth. In the current quarter, hiring situation is expected

to be almost stable, though the growth rate may be lower due to the base effect.

Infrastructure investment to reach US$ 1,025 billion

December 17, 2010 IBEF New Delhi: The projected investment in the infrastructure sector is expected to double to US$ 1,025 billion in the (2007-2012), wherein the private companies are likely to contribute around 50 per cent, according to the Planning Commission. Further, private companies are estimated to contribute 36 per cent or around US$ 186 billion to the infrastructure investment by the end of 2007-2012 Plan, registering an increase of 25 per cent from the 2002-2007 Plan. Several initiatives by the Indian government that created opportunities for the private players to invest into the infrastructure sector include provision of incentives and tax holidays, introduction of sector specific policies, permission of 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in infrastructure sector and public-private partnership (PPP) approach. The government has also announced various policies in core sectors providing a blueprint for the development of the sector. The county is expected to require investments worth around US$ 1 trillion in the sector during 2010-2019, with roads needing US$ 427 billion, power US$ 288 billion and railways US$ 281 billion, as per Goldman Sachs, a global investment banking and securities firm.

Global pharma companies' research widens scope for entrepreneurs

December 17, 2010 The Economic Times Ahmedabad: Global pharma companies developing new molecules are encouraging a new breed of entrepreneurs for testing laboratory products on patients. Site Management Organisations or SMOs are a sub-segment of the clinical research organisations or CROs that test drugs on volunteers before launching them into market. Unlike CROs, site managers do not have their own set-ups but are attached with hospitals and check a drug's efficacy through accurate data. The notings are then passed on to the CROs and subsequently for regulatory approval.

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India is a favourite clinical trials destination. The multi-racial population also consists of large numbers similar to the Caucasian race found mostly in Europe and fewer inter-community marriages ensures purity of the race. The CRO business grew 84% during 2006-2008 as against the global average of 12%. The number of clinical trial contracts has doubled in last six months thus assuring a promising business for SMOs growing at 50% in the country. The market size of SMOs is almost 30% of the Rs 500 crore clocked by the CRO segment. "Six months ago 800 clinical trials were carried out in India. Today, the number has risen to 1,560," says K Sashi Kiran , managing director of D2LSMO , a division of D2L Pharma Research Solutions. Earlier, CROs would approach doctors and hospitals themselves. Now, with more global companies coming in, the task is handed over to professionals . Some 25 SMOs function in India. SMO Clinica India , IRL, and Gokula Metropolis are a few established names. Cosmos Clinical Research, Investigator Forum and Aurum Clinical Research are the new entrants in the segment that is mostly concentrated in Southern India and now spreading to the country's western parts like Gujarat and Maharashtra. Sanjeev Sengar, 32, started his own in SMO service in Ahmedabad last year after spending five years with CROs like Quintile, SIRO Clinpharm , Kendle and Lambda Therapeutics. The new venture Cosmos Clinical Research clocked Rs 10 lakh turnover in the first year and Sengar says the growth will be rewarding. "Some of my friends working with CRO companies are thinking of starting their own SMOs," he said declining to give out names as many of them are still employed. Akash Bhavsar, a 29 years old management graduate with lifescience background also recently plunged into SMO business setting up Investigator Forum. Recently, his company entered into strategic alliance with Shanghai SLG, a Chinese CRO. "Pharmaceutical companies and CROs are demanding organised and well structured SMOs. They are no more satisfied with individual doctors or single location hospitals that double up as SMOs," Sengar said. "Doctors' primary responsibility is to treat patients and clinical trials are an add-on . They are not even equipped to handle trials and do not have the right attitude to conduct them," says A K Batham, executive director of ACEAS, a company engaged in CRO and clinical research training in Ahmedabad. Copyright © 2010, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

India, China ink 48 deals worth over $16 b December 16, 2010 The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Indian and Chinese companies have signed 48 deals worth over $16 billion in diverse sectors, including power, on the first day of the three-day visit of the Chinese Premier, Mr Wen Jiabao.

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While Shanghai Electric and China Development Bank inked a $4.63-billion deal with Reliance Power, Adani Power Dahej signed a $3.6- billion MoU with SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction and Shandong Tiejun Electric Power Engineering, an industry statement said. Besides, a $400-million agreement was signed between China Development Bank and ICICI Bank, while Cuddalore IL&FS Tamil Nadu signed an $800-million deal for 2x600 MW power projects and a $200-million MoU was signed for supply of wind turbine generators for KSK's wind farms in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Reliance Power said its 3960-MW Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project got final commitments of term loans of $1.1-billion from Bank of China, China Development Bank, Export Import Bank of China and Standard Chartered Bank. Other major MoUs include Reliance Communication, Exim Bank of India and Essar Group's separate agreements with China Development Bank; ICICI Bank's agreement with ICBC and SEC; Vedanta Aluminium with China Aluminium International Trading; IDBI with Bank of China and Lupin with China Meheco Traditional Medicines or Health Products. Addressing businesspersons, Mr Wen disagreed with the idea of China-India ties being a rivalry between `dragon' and `elephant' but termed it a partnership and pitched for an early launch of bilateral negotiations to boost twoway trade and investment. He said, "I will discuss with Prime Minister (Dr Manmohan) Singh, the ways to substantially increase our trade volume and set a new target." Mr Wen added, "China takes seriously the trade imbalance between our countries and stands ready to take further measures to facilitate the access of Indian IT products, pharmaceuticals and agro products to the Chinese market." He also called for more people-to-people ties, establishment of more bank branches to support trade and investment, cooperation in tourism and setting up of a CEOs' Forum. He further said, "By opening markets to each other, we will be the most dynamic economies and can support each other in economic development."

Rosneft, Lukoil keen to explore oil, gas in India


Russian energy majors Rosneft , Lukoil and Gazprom are interested in exploring oil and gas in India, a senior oil ministry official said. "The three companies took interest in Nelp-IX roadshow held in Moscow on Monday," minister of state for petroleum & natural gas, Jitin Prasada said. The interactive was attended by 127 delegates representing 65 companies. India is offering 34 exploration blocks in the ninth auction round of New Exploration Licensing Policy or Nelp-IX . The last date of submitting bids is March 18. Discoveries in the Krishna-Godavari basin and Rajasthan block have attracted investors' interest in the Indian basins.

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"India's refining capacity, which is set to increase from 184 million tonne per annum to about 255 million tonne per annum, will also attract investors," he said. India’s Nelp policy has already attracted investments worth $14 billion, he said. "We have invited Russian firms for active involvement in E&P (exploration & production) sector," he said. India is already involved in Russian oil and gas sector. Staterun ONGC Videsh has a minority stake in oil producing block Sakhalin-I . Copyright © 2010, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Direct selling industry to cross US$ 1.54 billion by 2012-13

December 16, 2010 IBEF New Delhi: The direct selling industry in India pegged at US$ 907.84 million is all set to exceed the US$ 1.54 billion mark by 2012-13. During the year 2009-10, health and personal care categories witnessed robust growth of 74 per cent and 66 per cent, respectively, over the previous year, according to a study by Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA), conducted in association with Ernst & Young (E&Y). Healthcare products lead the category in terms of value with almost 47 per cent share of the overall industry revenues. The category contributed 32 per cent in 2008-09. From an overall perspective, growth prospects of the direct selling industry in India remain robust, said Pinakiranjan Mishra, National Leader, Retail and Consumer Products, Ernst & Young, while releasing the annual survey findings. The key growth drivers on the demand side were attributed to an increase in consumption of consumer goods, coupled with the rising awareness of health and wellness among Indian households. The survey highlighted that the smaller towns have emerged as key markets for the industry contributing 38 per cent of overall industry value, an increase from 14 per cent last year. The study attributed the growth to increased rural focus and advertising. The growth in smaller towns and cities has led the portfolio to include products with a mass appeal and with smaller stock keeping units (SKUs). The use of sachets meant for product testing as a marketing method has perhaps been most effectively used in smaller towns to enable companies build trust with the clientele in these areas.

Indians may invest over $1bn abroad this fiscal December 15, 2010 The Economic Times New Delhi: Overseas investments by individuals appears set to cross the $1-billion mark during the current financial year as Indians are back to investing in equities and property, besides remitting more money as gifts and for maintenance of close relatives.

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During the first six months of the current financial year, overseas remittance by individuals went up by over 18% to around $565 million, compared to $477 million during April-September 2009. The money was remitted under the liberalized remittance scheme (LRS), which permits people to spend up to $200,000 annually without prior permission from the Reserve Bank of India . The trend for the first half of this year shows the dynamics of the economic environment following the global financial crisis . For instance, at a time when interest rates are lower in advanced economies, Indians have seen their investment in this instrument decline by around 20% to $12 million during April-September this year. And, probably taking advantage of the revival in stock market sentiments, they have increased their exposure to overseas debt and equity instruments by 44% to $112.7 million during the period. Similarly, there seems to be some value buying in the real estate segment with property purchases rising by over 47%. At the same time, there is a big jump in money sent abroad for maintenance of close relatives with the amount more than doubling from $63 million in the first half of the last financial year to around $146 million in April-September this year. Similarly, more money was sent in the form of gifts though there has been a decline in the amount remitted on overseas education and medical treatment.

TCS signs 10-year core banking deal with Deutsche Bank

dicembre 15, 2010 Business Standard

Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest information technology (IT) services provider, today said it had signed a 10-year deal with Deutsche Bank to replace its existing core banking solutions with TCS Bancs. The implementation will cover over 30 countries. While the financial details of the deal were not disclosed, TCS said it was a ‘large’ deal. TCS generally terms deals over $50 million large. The deal includes both product implementation and post-implementation services, including licence fee, annual maintenance fee and services fee, which would be higher than a typical IT services deal. For TCS Bancs, the financial product arm that accounts for four to five per cent of TCS’ revenues, with over 270 customers, the Deutsche Bank implementation is one of the largest in recent times. Close to 100 employees at TCS are working on this contract. “At present, Deutsche Bank has a core banking set-up that is a legacy-based system and uses multi-platforms. After this implementation, Deutsche Bank will have a single-uniform core banking system (CBS) across its various centres. We have gone live with our platform in Abu Dhabi and now, we will take this to other countries. Just the implementation of CBS will take anywhere between three and five years,” said N Ganapathy Subramaniam, president – TCS Financial Solutions. Subramaniam said with banking and financial services out of the slowdown, they were increasingly looking at such technology engagements as they renew focus on IT spending. “The emerging markets are growing faster than the developed markets. But we have seen that in the global markets,

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the spent on packaged software will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 10 per cent, much faster than the internal IT software development that is expected to grow by two-three per cent,” he said.

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Report(nelle rassegne precedenti sono stati pubblicati i reports su Automobiles Autocomponents , Aviation e Biotechnology)

Cement Last Updated: July 2010 IBEF

Sector structure/Market size

India is the world's second largest producer of cement with total capacity of 224 million tonnes (MT) as on April 30, 2010, according to the Cement Manufactuer's Association. During May 2010, the cement production touched 14.50 MT as compared to 13.28 MT in May 2009. The cement despaches quantity was 14.21 MT in May 2010 over 13.06 MT in the corresponding month in May 2009. Moreover, the government's continued thrust on infrastructure will help the key building material to maintain an annual growth of 9-10 per cent in 2010, according to India's largest cement company, ACC.

In January 2010, rating agency Fitch predicted that the country will add about 50 million tonne cement capacity in 2010, taking the total to around 300 million tonne. Further, speaking at the Green Cementech 2010, a seminar jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Cement Manufacturer's Association in Hyderabad in May 2010, G Jayaraman, Executive President, Birla Corporation Ltd, said that in 2009, 40 MT of capacity was added and he expects a similar trend to follow this year.

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New Investments

Cement and gypsum products have received cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) of US$ 1708.69 million between April 2000 and March 2010, according to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. Madras Cements Ltd is planning to invest US$ 178.4 million to increase the manufacturing capacity of its Ariyalur plant in Tamil Nadu to 4.5 MT from 2 MT by April 2011. Surya Group plans to invest US$ 873.3 million in a new 5 million MT cement plan to be set up in Gujarat. My Home Industries Limited (MHI), a 50:50 joint venture (JV) between the Hyderabad-based My Home Group and Ireland's building material major CRH Plc, plans to scale up its cement production capacity from the existing 5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 15 mtpa by 2016. The company would undertake this capacity expansion at a cost of US$ 1 billion. Shree Cement, plans to invest US$ 97.13 million this year to set up a 1.5 million MT clinker and grinding unit in Rajasthan. Moreover, in June 2010, Shree Cement signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Karnataka government to invest US$ 423.6 million for setting up a cement unit and a power plant. US$ 317.7 million will be used to set up a cement manufacturing unit with an annual capacity of 3 mtpa while the balance will be for the 100 mega watt power plant. Jaiprakash Associates plans to invest US$ 640 million to increase its cement capacity. Swiss cement company Holcim plans to invest US$ 1 billion in setting up 2-3 greenfield manufacturing plants in the country in the next five years to serve the rising domestic demand. Holcim is present in the country through ACC and Ambuja Cements and holds around 46 per cent stake in each company. While ACC operates 16 cement plants, Ambuja Cements controls five plants in India. The Aditya Birla group is the largest cement-making group by capacity in the country and controls Grasim Industries and Ultratech Cement. Mergers and Acquistion (M&A), PE deals KKR- Dalmia Cement signed a deal worth US$ 159.57 million in May 2010. French cement company Vicat acquired a 51 per cent stake in Bharathi Cement Company Ltd, promoted by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, Member of Parliament, to tap the southern markets, which represent 40 per cent of the total Indian cement market. Government Initiatives The cement industry is pushing for increased use of cement in highway and road construction. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has planned to invest US$ 354 billion in road infrastructure by 2012. Housing, infrastructure projects and the nascent trend of concrete roads would continue to accelerate the consumption of cement. Increased infrastructure spending has been a key focus area. In the Union Budget 2010-11, US$ 37.4 billion has been provided for infrastructure development. The government has also increased budgetary allocation for roads by 13 per cent to US$ 4.3 billion. Exchange rate used: 1 USD = 46.33 INR (as on June 2010)

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States of India (nelle rassegna di novembre è stato pubblicato il report sull’Andra Pradesh)

Delhi

Last Updated: luglio 2010 Source IBEF

Delhi is the capital of the Republic of India and also a state for administrative purposes. It forms the epicentre of international politics, trade, culture and literature in India. Delhi has become an important centre for trade and commerce with a number of key industry associations being present.

Delhi has well developed social, physical and industrial infrastructure and virtual connectivity. It has an international airport and well developed rail and road infrastructure. There has been significant infrastructure and environmental development in the state. In addition, it proposes a wide range of fiscal and policy incentives for businesses under the Industrial Policy, 2010. The state also attracts skilled and semi-skilled labourers from across the country. Furthermore, the state government has proposed to set-up a "Business Facilitation Council" (BFC) to facilitate single-window clearances from various departments for establishing industrial enterprises in a time-bound manner.

Moreover, the Government is also encouraging activities allied to industry, such as consultancy, training of skilled manpower through vocational training programmes and entrepreneurial development programmes. The State Government has also initiated a set of prestigious projects including those in industrial infrastructure for the specific sectors, through the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Corporation Limited (DSIIDC).

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Delhi is the capital of the Republic of India and also a state for administrative purposes. It forms the epicentre of international politics, trade, culture and literature in India. Delhi has become an important centre for trade and commerce with a number of key industry associations being present. Delhi has well developed social, physical and industrial infrastructure and virtual connectivity. It has an international airport and well developed rail and road infrastructure. There has been significant infrastructure and environmental development in the state. In addition, it proposes a wide range of fiscal and policy incentives for businesses under the Industrial Policy, 2010. The state also attracts skilled and semi-skilled labourers from across the country. Furthermore, the state government has proposed to set-up a "Business Facilitation Council" (BFC) to facilitate single-window clearances from various departments for establishing industrial enterprises in a time-bound manner. Moreover, the Government is also encouraging activities allied to industry, such as consultancy, training of skilled manpower through vocational training programmes and entrepreneurial development programmes. The State Government has also initiated a set of prestigious projects including those in industrial infrastructure for the specific sectors, through the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Corporation Limited (DSIIDC).

Delhi –State profile

•Delhi is the capital of the Republic of India and also a state for administrative purposes. It covers an area of 1,483 sq km and is one of the largest metropolis in the country.

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•It is home to the Union Government of the country and the state government offices. Delhi is the epicentre of international politics, trade, culture and literature in India. •The two prominent major topographical features of the city are the river Yamuna and (terminal part of) the Aravallihill ranges. •The Delhi state is divided into165 administrative villages under nine districts. The Union Government’s area is managed by the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC). •Delhi has a cosmopolitan culture with a mix of languages in use. English and Hindi are commonly spoken for everyday transactions. Punjabi, Bihariand Haryanvi, etc. are the other languages used.

Advantage Delhi

Trade and commerce hub Delhi has emerged as a key state with a immense scope for development of the services industry such as banks and financial services institutions (BFSI), IT and ITeS, consulting etc. It is a prominent agri-trade centre of the country as well as a preferred tourist destination. Many of the global corporations have offices in the state. The seat of Government Being the seat of the Central Government, Delhi has an important position in the country in terms of formulation of policies. It has also become an important centre for trade and commerce with a number of key industry associations being present. The state also hosts several trade conventions and fairs throughout the year. The state proposes a wide range of fiscal and policy incentives for businesses under the Industrial Policy, 2010. Additionally, the state has well drafted sector-specific policies. Policy and fiscal incentives Facilitating infrastructure Delhi has well developed social, physical and industrial infrastructure and virtual connectivity. It has an international airport and well developed rail and road infrastructure. There has been significant infrastructure and environmental development in Delhi over the last 20 years. Stable political environment Delhi has a stable political environment with a single-party government. The State Government has been committed towards creating a progressive business. Delhi attracts skilled and semi-skilled labourers from across the country. It has a large pool of semi-skilled and unskilled labour, especially, in the 15 to 49 age group who serve the requirements of

various industries.

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Socio-economic snapshot of DelhiParameters Delhi

Geographical area (sq km) 1,483

Administrative districts (No) 9

Population density (persons per sq km) 9,340

Total population (million) 13.80

Male population (million) 7.60

Female population (million) 6.20

Decadal population growth rate (%) 47.02

Sex ratio (females per 1,000 males) 821

Literacy rate (%) 81.67

Male (%) 87.33

Female (%) 74.71

Average life expectancy

Male (years) 67.40

Female (years) 71.10

Key industries with policy thrust and factor advantages*

IT and IteS Infrastructure development BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance). Telecommunication Tourism Agro and food processing **Factor advantages include benefits due to geographical location and availability of factors like talent pool, natural resources and capital

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