Has Indian democracy a secure future, or will it sink into some form of authoritarian rule presided over by a hand wringing strongman despairing of democratic norms and its attendant chaos. Democracy, it will be said, was unsuited to India’s myriad social and political complexities; a better and more workable alternative would big-stick government. This is the most appropriate time to address this vexatious question, because the Indian street, disenchanted by days of mayhem in Parliament, has started to pose the question, whither India? Television anchors have conducted random surveys of public opinion, especially of the young, many of whom will be voting for the first time in the next general election in mid-2019.
Naming and shaming guilty MPs, ejection from the House for unruly conduct and much else were discussed. One startling fact placed before these assemblies was disturbingly relevant: Rs 100,000 was lost for every minute of disruption. From March 5, when both houses of Parliament reassembled, to the time of writing not a single piece of legislation was discussed, let alone passed. Democracy, as it is perceived in much of present-day India, is yielding decreasing dividends for the ordinary Indian citizen.
Chickens coming home to roost
The rot had started during the second period of Congress rule, 2009-14, when the BJP, then in opposition disrupted parliamentary proceedings on every conceivable pretext, even joining hands with the Communists to bring down the government on the Indo-US accord on nuclear energy, which it was quick to endorse when it returned to power in 2014. The brazen cynicism undermined public trust in politicians. What we are witnessing today are the chickens coming home to roost. The print media have been issuing dire warnings on the current state of affairs (Times of India, Hindu et al March 20, 21).
IS kill 39 Indians in Mosul
The government somewhat belatedly revealed that 39 Indians reported earlier as missing in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul were killed by the notorious jihadi terror outfit Islamic State (IS). Their remains are now subject to DNA for purposes of identifying the victims. There is case to made on how the tragedy was handled by the government, but no use can justify the despicable behavior in the well of the Lok Sabha (Hindu, Times of India, March 21).
Telugu Desam splits from BJP
The ruling Andhra Pradesh government led by Chandrababu Naidu has severed its alliance with the BJP regime at the centre over its demand for a special status for the State. Its MPs in Delhi have been among the leading disrupters of parliamentary proceedings, and the outcomes from this breach will be watched with interest in the rest of the country (Hindu March 19).
Pune arrests point to new jihadi nexus
The arrests of three suspects earlier in the month, believed to belong to the Ansarullah Bangla Team - an al Qaeda affiliate - reveal the presence of Bangladeshi terrorist cells in India. Senior intelligence officials suggested there was a detectable shift in allegiance from al Qaeda to Islamic State, following the interrogation of the arrested men. They said that after the 2014 Burdwan bomb blasts in West Bengal and the bombing at Bodhgaya this January, were perpetrated by the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh The Ansaruullah Bangla Team arrests point to a wider problem entailing a possible shift in allegiance from al Qaeda to Islamic State (IS), said intelligence officers. The proximity of Afghanistan and Bangladesh are sources of infiltration into India.
Philippines
To these countries is now added the Philippines, where the government is battling an Islamic insurgency. As with the Middle East, many Indians travel to the Philippines, and hence close watch have to be kept on their movements and activities for possible radicalization (Hindu March 21).
Force Motors, Rolls-Royce in joint venture
Despite the political turbulence in Delhi, India’s economic activity presses on regardless. Rolls-Royce Power Systems, a part of BMW’s Rolls-Royce Group, has signed a contract with Pune-based Force Motors for the production and supply of of its high powered MTU 1600 series diesel engines in keeping with German company’s global expansion plans. The company will relocate its MTU 1600 manufacturing hub from Germany to Pune as a cost cutting measure. Force Motors will hold 51 per cent in the venture, to be named Force MTU Power Systems Pvt Limited and will produce MTU’s 10 and 12 cylinder Series 1600 with power output from 545 to 1050 horse power. The new company will employ 200 Indian engineers who are to proceed to Germany for training (Hindu March 21).
Export duties on sugar scrapped
The government has abolished export duties on sugar in a bid to help the country’s sugar industry and boost India’s sugar exports. Indian sugar mills will thus be able to handle the present glut of sugar Industry bodies like the Indian Sugar Mills Association and the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories have for long sought the scrapping of this onerous duty on the product. The sugar glut had resulted in a precipitous decline in sugar prices and making production costs abnormally high. The government’s abolition of the export duty has been warmly welcomed (Business Line March 21).
Nano unicorns sweep Odisha
Even as unicorn start-ups like Flipkart, Ula and Paytem hog media headlines, a midget-sized force of 57 unicorns have emerged in the heart of Odisha. These businesses include tailoring, electric repairing, fast food and plumbing, plastic manufactures, welding and much else. These nano unicorns were incubated in a pilot project launched by the Odisha Skill Development Authority under which skilled youth with exceptional entrepreneurial ideas are provided with donor capital of Rs 1 lakh [100,000] to start their ventures.
India’s priorities
India’s priorities
‘What India needs today are nano unicorns – small people who are skilled, who will start small businesses and within 12-18 months generate employment for one/three people each. Our goal is to create and support 100 100 entrepreneurs in 2017-18, 1,000 in 2018-19 and 3000 in 2019-20,’ said Subroto Bagchi, Chairman, Odisha Skill Development Association (Hindu March 21).
Vodafone’s global, India project
Britain’s Vodafone telecommunications giant, says it is planning to train 10 million people world-wide in career guidance and access to training content in the digital economy by 2021. Of these numbers, 5 million are to be Indian, ‘India has one of the youngest populations in the world. The vision of Digital India, to which we are all committed, requires an abundance of of digital skills… Over time, every workplace will go digital, creating new roles and accelerate the demand for a wide range of specialist technology skills relevant for a digital economy,’ said Sunil Sood, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone India (Business Line March 21).
Godrej Aerospace in Rolls-Royce deal
Godrej Aerospace has won a Rs 200 crore contract to manufacture and supply Rolls-Royce unisaon rings, complex fabrication and external brackets and 600 different parts to Rooll-Royce’s civil aerospace engine portfolio. The company will manufacture these parts in its new facility at Mumbai over the next five years. The company is to invest Rs 50 crore in what is to be named the Centre of Excellence to expand its footprint in the aerospace sector.
Fabrication of ISRO engines
Jamshyd Godrej, Chairman and Managing Director of Godrej & Boyce, said: ‘Fabrication has been a long-term area of excellence for us.’ The company supplied India’s space agency, ISRO, with the Vikas engines for its rockets. ‘Over the decades we have developed the knowledge that goes with making aerospace components.’ The Centre of Excellence will meet the diverse needs of aircraft manufacturers (Business Line March 22).
TVS Motor in two- wheeler surge
Tamil Nadu-based TVS Motor company has entered the ‘million’ club as its scooter sales have soared passed a million and more this fiscal (ending March 31). TVS is the second company to achieve this target in India after Japan’s Honda. TVS clocked 100,000 scooter sales every month of the current fiscal, a 35per cent rise over the previous year, and comfortably in excess of the industry’s annual growth of 21 per cent. (Business Line March 22).
India’s high flying women
Well, what do you know? Last December, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha, speaking at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Indian Women Pilots’ Association, said that India had more women aviators than any country, which must have come as a surprise to many in the country.
Cameos of three such pilots made interesting reading: Chennai-based Shivani Reddy works for SpiceJet and flies the Chennai-Port Blair (Andaman) route, with its unpredictable weather conditions; Delhi-based Nivedita Bhasin, captains Air India aircraft; she relates a fraught experience flying into Tripoli (Libya) during civil disturbances, with trapped Indians desperate for rescue. Finally, Avani Chaturvedi, an Indian Air force pilot inducted into service in 2016, when the government opened it for women. In the concluding stage of her training programme, Chaturvedi now flies solo in supersonic MIG fighters (Hindu March 10).
