Located as it is in a turbulent arc of crisis, every Independence Day for the past 70 years has been, is, and will continue to be well into the future, an occasion to rejoice but also to ponder on what hidden traps lie ahead for the country Indians. Looking back to the stroke of the midnight hour of August 15, 1947 when India that is Bharat awoke to a new life of freedom as a sovereign state, Partitioned and bleeding, yet secure and brimming with optimism of a better life under the rule of law irrespective of faith or ethnicity. The journey to modernity has been hard, with many reverses along the way but the gains achieved were once viewed as improbable by many and utterly impossible to not a few at home and abroad. In hindsight one must surely marvel at the scale of the country’s economic and social transformation against the odds.
There were doomsayers aplenty in the West and elsewhere who foretold India’s collapse into anarchy and oblivion. An English cricket tour in the 1990s was almost called off because Afghanistan was ablaze and the spreading flames, it was believed, would soon engulf India in Balkan-type chaos and thence to disintegration. This was matched by the alternative scenario of famine and endemic want as the endgame. The Anglo-American media choreographed the funeral dirge from to time. It was the fashion to do so.
That fraught period is behind us. Science and technology have have redefined Indian agriculture, industry and the services sector. Millions of Indians have emerged from dire poverty. Much still needs to be done before India can be described as a fully developed nation, but the platform created should witness the generational leap to abundance for all
However, there is no room for complacency. The willful negligence in Gorakhpur hospital, leading to the deaths of 60 children is a wake-up call, a tragic reminder of how far India has still to go to reach the sunlit uplands. Governance in States such Uttar Pradesh and Bihar remain a throwback to the Middle Ages, and hence remain the country’s enduring shame.
Externally, a troubled geography keeps throwing up fresh challenges. Tibet was invaded by a militarized, resurgent China in November 1950, the karmic consequences have cast a shadow on Indian security problems ever since.
The Great Powers for reasons of realpolitik had accepted the sanctity of the Old Manchu Empire, and hence withheld recognition of an independent Tibet and Mongolia, kin in religion and race. Russian power prized Mongolia from China’s imperial grasp; Tibet, alas, was not so fortunate, trampled underfoot by Han Chinese occupiers, transformed into an armed encampment for an expansionist China.
Vietnam is leading the charge against its overbearing, bullying neighbor to the north and looks to India to do likewise. The present Sino-Indian standoff at Doklam tri-junction of Sikkim, Tibet and Bhutan with its accompanying farrago of insults, threats and falsehoods must awaken India to reality of enduring Chinese hostility. Sino-Indian friendship was a myth seeded in fear and forlorn hope. It needs to be cast aside for the gutter.
The Sino-Indian treaty of April 1954 granting Indian recognition of Tibet as part of China must now be withdrawn as an unequal treaty from which India has lost much and gained nothing.. Tibet’s future should be decided by a UN plebiscite, as was the case with Mongolia’s in 1945 in the aftermath of the Second World War.
China has armed Pakistan with nuclear weapons and jihadi-exported terror into India has Beijing’s covert support. Ducking an unpleasant reality by burying one’s head in the sand is the mark of an ostrich. For any human to replicate the habit would be akin to euthanasia. Whatever happens at Doklam, Sino-Indian relations will be scarred for as long as the present regime in Beijing endures.
Narendra Modi’s mettle will be tested in the coming weeks and months (and possibly years), as was Indira Gandhi’s in 1971. It was to prove her finest hour as she faced down China, the Nixon administration in the United States and Pakistan. The failure of the Beijing-Washington axis to contain and cripple India was robustly exposed. Thus far, India has called Beijing’s bluff. But the game of chicken is far from over. Regional powers and the world beyond are watching the unfolding contest. It promises to be a long haul, calling for Indian resolution, courage and ingenuity. The barbarians shall not pass.
Indian startups creating waves
A startup conceived in the IIT-Madras Incubation cell has bagged a $1 million order from a Singapore firm to transfer technology used in its first two products. The two products – ‘Laparoscopy Surgical Simulator’ – are designed to change the way are trained to increase the safety of patients.
Touch Lab at the Applied Mechanics Department of IIT-Madras is India’s first lab working in touch sense; Merkel Haptics is a IIT-Madras startup transferred to IIT-Madras Research Park; the Laparoscopy Surgical Simulator with Haptics Feedback enable surgeons to hone their laparoscopic skills. The home grown technology was developed in the Touchlab at IIT-Madras in collaboration with CMC Vellore, and funded by the Department of Electronics & IIT resulting in two patents owned by IIIT-Madras:: In-Vitro Fertilization Training Simulation with Haptics Feedback enables clinicians to practice artificial insemination skills. This product is developed in-house in Merkel for the Singapore company. The transfer of technology to Innov4Sight health and Biomedical Systems Private Ltd cost $R1 million, with 10 per cent of sales to accrue to IIT-Madras.
Softbank has invested a staggering $1.1 billion in a biotech company founded by 32 year-old Vivek Ramaswamy. Roivant Sciences Group consists five subsidiaries cover a variety of areas, from neurology, women’s health, dermatology and urology.Ramaswamy, a graduate from Harvard and a doctorate from Yale University was the top student of his year and has gone places in a short career The best clearly is yet to come.
Tata Steel in UK pensions deal
Tata Steel has signed an agreement with the Trustees of the 15 billion pound sterling British Pension Scheme which will allow the company’s Pension Scheme to be independent of its business, thus reducing the company’s risks. That clears the way for a possible merger of Tata Steel’s European operations with Germany’s ThyssenKrupp.
‘Considering the continued challenges in the global steel industry as well as the uncertain global politico-economic environment Regulated Apportionment Arrangement presents the best possible structural outcome for the members of the British Steel Pension Scheme and for the Tata Steel UK business,’ said Koushik Chatterjee, Tata Steel’s Group Executive Director, referring to the mechanism that permits a company in the UK separation from its pension fund scheme to avoind insolvency under strictly defined criteria.‘
Now that this choice is being delivered, the company and the trustees must step up to provide the necessary information and guidance to enable every member to make an informed decision in their best interests, the Community Unite and GMB unions said in ajoint statement. A fraught chapter for all parties can now be closed.
UK for Indian realty investment
Britain is keen to secure Indian investment in th realty sector in order build more affordable housing across society. ‘We have a diverse set of opportunities for inward investment from India. We are particularly keen on getting investment beyond London – there are opportunities in real estate infrastructure, particularly energy infrastructure,’ said Greg Hands, Minister of State for Trade and Investment.
I think Indian investors could play a big role in our affordable housing agenda. With the exception of the Lodha Group, which is engaged in luxury residential projects in London but has expressed a desire to broaden his field, the Indian presence in the market, apart from hotels and private investment in housing has thus far been limited.
The UK Department for International Trade held a promotion event at the House of Lords for delegates of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India assembled in London for their annual conference, at which it highlighted infrastructure and property development opportunities cin northern England and the Midlands including Birmingham and its environs.
Real estate trends across the UK displayed continuing strength from London-based offices, according to Minister Greg Hands. ‘Investors from across the UK are seeing stable and profitable opportunities and we are determined to see businesses seize these opportunities as we move forward towards Brexit,’ he told the gathering.
