Black comedy and farce appear to be way of life for a class of Indian politician whose sole purpose for engaging in public life is to grab media headlines, whatever the cost to their image. Congress President Rahul Gandhi was recently on board an Air India plane that was forced to make an emergence landing shortly after takeoff from New Delhi airport when a weather balloon was sucked into one of its engines. It was no big deal, and attracted barely a paragraph in the dailies next day (Times of India April 30) Most papers ignored the story.
The hallowed Rahul Gandhi sensing an opportunity to make a splash, was quickly off the mark with a statement that he had feared his end was nigh, and that having survived the life threatening crisis unscathed, he would be making a pilgrimage to Lake Manasarwar in Tibet, within easy distance of Indian border, with hundreds of Hindu and Buddhist devotees who consider the site sacred. Godman Rahul? Whatever next?
Biplab Deb at it again
The other farcical instance came from BJP Tripura Chief Minister, Biplab Deb, who produces a gaffe a day as the country’s unlicensed national jester. A Hindu newspaper editorial writes (May 1): ‘Mr Deb has held the spotlight on himself for one gaffe after another,’ starting with the claim that the internet and satellite communications were known and used during the period of the epic Mahabharata two millennia ago, then took issue with the judges of a Miss Universe beauty contest for not choosing a well known Bollywood megastar, whose looks apparently were in closer accord with those of the female deities of the Hindu pantheon. Mr Deb perceives himself to be a champion of Indian civilization. Many of his fellow citizens may consider registering as certified barbarians!
India electrified
Time was in much of India, when rural communities far-off corners and nearer corners, too, relied on candle power, barely a hundredth of the illumination of a single 100 watt bulb. A little over a week ago, Leising, a village in Manipur, in India’s farthest North East, received its electricity connection – a milestone in the national electrification programme to light up the entire country. The next challenge is to bring affordable electric power to every household. Roads, railways, airways, electricity, television, mobile telephones bring better market and consumer access and ensure rises in living standards for one and all (Times of India, April 30, May 1).
Three-wheeler boom for Indian industry
Three-wheeler vehicle sales have surged to an unprecedented annual one million units and herald a boon for Indian industry at home and in exports to foreign markets. According to data released by the Indian Automobile Manufacturers total production of three-wheeler vehicles, passenger and commercial, for the financial year 2017-18 [ending March 31]. The former category grew 24 per cent, the latter 8 per cent. Exports in the passenger segment increased 40 per cent, while the goods carrying segment grew over 45 per cent. The export segment to Africa and South East is expected to remain at its high level because of significant infrastructure development in these regions. The Bajaj Auto company is leading the surge with 70 per cent of overall export sales (Times of India May 1).
Son to invest $10bn in Indian start-ups
Masayoshi Son, CEO of Japanese SoftBank, the world’s most influential technology investor with a $100 billion fund, is to invest $10 billion in Indian start-up ventures, saying: ‘There are some examples of young Indian entrepreneurs creating new or original models ahead of the world, such as Oy [ Rooms]…. Young entrepreneurs in India are creating unique models that can scale, which is exciting.’ SoftBank has invested in Flipkart and Ola (Economic Times April 30).
Red Fort upkeep for private sector
Tourism Minister K.J. Alphons said that the adoption of major sites in Delhi such as Red Fort had been given to the private companies for infrastructure development. This meant that its surrounds such as cafeterias, transport exhibition halls and lecture theatres would be constructed and maintained to the highest possible level etc to attract tourists in greater numbers. The measure is pure common sense, one would have thought, but it fail to take into account the cussedness of the Congress party or the Communists and left-wing populists who have criticized the measure as an alleged sellout to capitalists. When the state monopolies with licences and permits were empowered to manufacture cars the outcomes was little short of disastrous, as the defunct Hindustan model proved over barren decades: shoddy products which cost a king’s ransom. The case of Air India is a more potent example, bleeding the exchequer to the bone and inefficient to boot. Like the Bourbon monarchy in France, Congress satraps have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing; their unsullied foolishness endures (Economic Times April 30).
India, Pakistan in Russia war drills
India and Pakistan are to take part in a multi-power counter terror military exercise in Russia under the aegis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Russia and China, and the Central Asian states such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will also participate in the exercise scheduled for September. India’s engagement was confirmed by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during a recent SCO meeting of Defence Ministers in Beijing (Hindu April 30).
It will be the first time since Independence that India and Pakistan join in a military exercise of any dimension, let alone of such strategic and diplomatic significance. Recent analyses in Asian Voice were thus well calibrated and point to emerging ground realities that have left most Indian broadsheets drawing oxygen from the imported wisdom of Washington or the BBC in London, gasping for air. This event will surely be an offshoot of the Modi-Xijinping Wuhan summit.
India labs key to IBM’s AI endeavors
At a time when US giant IBM is undergoing a remarkable makeover, the company’s India research laboratories are playing a seminal role through their critical contributions on Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain technologies and quantum computing, said Dr Michael Karasdick, Vice President, Global Labs, IBM Research. Recognized as ‘IBM Master Inventor,’ he said the applications innovation coming out of its India labs ranged from helping farmers to increase crop yields, solving food spillage to detecting gender biases in the Bollywood cinema industry (Hindu April 30).
Rental drones for Kerala farmers
Indian entrepreneurs in Kerala have designed drones for rent to local farmers for such activities as spraying fertilizers and checking the health of crops. Apart from being time saving these machines make farming more profitable. ‘Besides these drones for sowing seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, the in-built spectrum camera helps monitor crop health, detect water deficiency,’ said Swathin Siddharth, CEO of Trekonik venture of young engineers, who have approached the Kerala Startup Mission for funds to further develop and market their product (Business Line May 3).
Rural demand in Hero Motor surge
Strong rural demand has driven Hero Motor fourth quarter (ending March 31) sales, resulting in a net profit of 35 per cent amounting to Rs 967 crore on 24 per cent year-on-year growth. Hero MotoCorp is India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer. Company Managing Director and CEO Pawan Munjal said: ‘Another big leap, catering to popular customer demand, Hero MotoCorp marked its entry into the premium motorcycle segment as it unveiled India’s first 200cc motorcycle - ’XPulse’ and ‘Xtreme200K’ – at the Auto EXPO 2018 in New Delhi (Business Line May 3).
Taiwanese firms eye India
With US-China trade war a disruption, with the economic impact of China’s rising debt of around 250 per cent of the country’s GDP, Taiwanese companies on China’s coastal region are moving to South East Asia, some are now eyeing India as a good bet for investment. James Hwang, Chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council has said that the earlier interest in South East Asia is now supplemented by interest in India ‘as a constructive partner in the next 20 to 30 years,’ spelling out India’s smart cities , electric vehicles and petrochemicals industry as areas of interest. Taiwan businessmen will be attending the trade expo in New Delhi. Taiwan’s bilateral trade with India amounted to $3.7 billion in 2017, with Taiwan importing $3 billion Indian products from India. Taiwanese investments in India are worth $5 billion. (Business Line May 3).
India critical market for Apple: Tim Cook
Apple CEO Tim Cook accepted that the company’s low base in India’s smartphone market, when noting record revenue growth in the country in the first six months of the fiscal year ending in September. The rapid growth of India’s middle class and its movement into 4G represented a major opportunity for Apple, which planned to focus its entire range of initiatives on the Indian market including retail. Cook has figures on his side to prove the point: Apple’s revenues in India grew 30 per cent to $61 billion in the January-March quarter, driven by iphones. Chinese and Korean companies dominate the Indian market but Apple is determined to catch up and head the pack (Economic Times May 3).
