Indian TV audiences were agog by the new channel fronted by the enfant terrible Arnab Goswami. True to his robust no-nonsense style, he squared up to his quarry, the smooth talking, man-about-man and unemployable Congress politician, Shashi Tharoor. Tharoor’s makeover as a born again, hot gospelling patriot demanding that Britain pay India an indemnity for the damage of two iniquitous centuries rule is the desperate attempt to resurrect a fading political areer.
Goswami raised the seemingly dormant mysterious death of the estranged Mrs Tharoor and wheels of justice that grind exceeding small and frequently not too well - in other words, he asked why the investigative agencies were so lack lustre in unearthing the truth. It was already established that the late Mrs Tharoor didn’t take too kindly to rumours of her husband’s fling with a Pakistani female journalist. Mr Tharoor in high dudgeon fired a broadside at Goswami’s penchant for scurrilous scandal. The duel between these verbal pugilists is set to continue in the public sphere. Not an uplifting sight perhaps, but entertainment of a sort.
Market surge
To matters more serious. The Met Office has forecast a bountiful monsoon in the coming months, better even than last year’s good monsoon. Markets surged at the news, led by consumer-packaged goods and fertilizer firms. Rural demand is one of the principal drivers of industrial growth, stimulates economic expansion, upends prosperity which, in turn, lead to bigger Indian pockets. (Business Line, Mint May 10, 11).
Bengal’s changing rural hinterland
Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, in their different ways, spent much time and energy cogitating the futture of rural India. Professor Samantak Das of Jadavpur University’s Department of Comparative Literature and an active member of an NGO, recently visited to the Birbhum district of Bengal. He summed up his experiences in a well thought out edit-page article in the Telegraph (May 10).
Significant changes
Das was struck by three elements of an ongoing socio-econmic transformation, led by (a) the extensive improvement in mass transport, thanks largely to the availability of relatively cheap two-wheelers, motorbikes, scooters, mopeds and bicycles.; (b) the exponential spread of television, which had brought the world beyond to the doorstep rural society; and (c) mobile telephony has given 180 million Indians in the countryside access to the internet. Professor spoke to a young girl in a village with a smartphone reading a Bengali newspaper on its screen. She said she couldn’t do without it even for a day, such were her needs. Das wondered whether Gandhi would have approved. Science and industrialization were not in accord with his idea of pastoral bliss. Nor did a new industrial order gel with the Luddites who denounced the satanic mills for destroying England’s green and pleasant land. The forces changing the face of rural India have reduced more poverty in a decade than was achieved in a century and more of moral exhortation.
More Pinaka systems for Army
Adding fire power to its artillery, the Indian Army is looking to induct eight indigenously developed multi-barrel rocket launcher systems. These have been developed by two private companies: Larsen & Toubro and Tata in association with the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). All three entities have planned upgrades of the system, as and when required (Business Line April 20).
FGFA India-Russia deal ready
India and Russia are set to sign the clinching multi-billion agreement for the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) following protracted negotiations on all issues concerning the parties. An Indian official privy to these talks said: ‘We are co-developers. There is nothing called technology transfer in this project. India has equal rights. We will have the wherewithal to continue production. We are equal partners in this project.’ Be that as it may, there were a multitude of significant issues such work share, transfer of Russian codes to India for upgrades as and when required. These and the sum of the contributions of the parties are now settled (Press Trust of India, May 7).
India-Australia expand defence ties
Indian warships will exercise with Australia’s off Australia’s west coast. In 2015, a similar naval exercise took place on India’s east coast in the Bay of Bengal. Both sides agree that the time has come for their bilateral defence ties to deepen within a broader Asia-Pacific security architecture. Hence plans are afoot to invite Australia to join the US and Japan in the prized Malabar naval exercise in the Indian Ocean. This alignment reflects their growing unease at China’s muscle-flexing attitude on contentious issues with littoral states in the South China Sea. (Telegraph May 10).
Robots drive Maruti’s Manesar plant
It is an arresting spectacle: a man is looking intently at the screen before him. He presses a button at the precise moment and a robot picks up the panel of car door and welds it to the body. The slightest delay on his part would have aborted the outcome. This is the interface of men and machines where a car panel is produced every 10 seconds. The men are highly trained. Welcome to the 600-acre Manesar site in Haryana, where Maruti Suzuki, India’s top automobile manufacturer is making its acclaimed Dzire model for the market. The facility has three plants. Behind the scenes there are 4,200 pieces of equipment and 2,400 robots (Business Line May 9)
Passenger vehicles up 15 per cent
Sales of passenger vehicles rose by 15 per cent in April overlast year’s figure for the same month. These sales grew to 277,000 units in April compared to 242,000 units in April of the previous year. Growth was driven by small cars such as Maruti Suzuki’s Balero and Tata Motors Tiago. The trend is set to continue through the current fiscal (Mint May 10).
IndiGo spreads its wings
Air carrier IndiGo’s profits for the full financial year 2016-17 registered its nine consecutive yearly profit. The airline, India’s largest by 40 per cent of market share, has announced its intention of purchasing 50 ATR 72-500 aircraft at $1.3 billion. The airline’s move to induct smaller turboprop aircraft to cut fuel costs and expand its reach into domestic regional routes. The company’s has thus far serviced its operation with the narrow-bodied Airbus A-320 jet aircraft (May 10).
Indian protest to Canada
India has protested to Canada at the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s presence at a Khalsa Day celebration in Toronto, which included Khalistani leaders. ‘We have taken up such issues in the past with the government of Canada, and in this particular instance, I can tell you, practice has not been discontinued,’ said Gopal Reddy, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.
Honouring terrorists
On April 30, the Khalsa Day parade included floats glorifying Khalistani terrorists Jarnail Singh Bindranwale, Amreek Singh and former General Shahbeg Singh. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh refused to meet the visiting Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan for his Khalistani links (Hindu May 11)
One may recall the Air India plane from Canada crashed off the Irish coast in June 1985, killing 328 passengers and crew, was the result of Khalistani explosives placed in the aircraft. To this day, nobody has been arrested, let alone brought to court for trial. The bombers were trained in the US by ex-CIA operatives. A US Senator at the time cited this as an example of free enterprise. Know your supposed friends, would be the wisest advice.
Beware serpent’s tongue
Retired Indian official from the UN and other such bodies are a toxic species much given to tendering advice to Indian ministers in the saddle. Sitting on a nest egg themselves after long years as filing clerks serving a multitude of masters, their purported sage counsel to those in the corridors of power in Delhi is that India must heed the ‘core interests’ of every contending power and renounce its own in the interests of peace and stability. Arun Jaitley, India’s concurrent Finance and Defence Minister doesn’t sees it this way, having turned down Beijing’s invitation to participate in China’s ‘One Belt, One Road project.
One Mukul Sanwal on the edit-page of the Hindu newspaper (May11) advised India to fall in with China’s One Belt, One Road project in India’s long-term interest and put aside short-term interests. Much the same counsel was offered to Czech leaders by British and French ministers in October 1938 when Hitler’s was constructing his New Order in Europe and preparing to invade Czech territory.
The German autobahns facilitated the movement of mechanized Nazi formations in blitzkrieg operations. China’s One Belt, One Road might well be used for similar ends. For India, talking with China makes eminent sense, obeying Chinese diktat does not.
US Democrats visit Dalai Lama
Meanwhile China has asked the US Democratic legislators not to meddle in its internal affairs by meeting with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. Undaunted, the US delegation pressed on regardless, discussing with His Holiness Human Rights abuses in Chinese-occupied Tibet. Period (Hindu May 11).
Does Mr Sanwal suggest that India handover the Dalai Lama to China, or expel him from India at China’s behest in its long-term interest? Perish the thought.
