Was Indian membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) worth the time and money expended in promoting it? There was a swell of important figures, including the nuclear scientist M.R. Srinivasan, the former Chairman of India’s Atomic Energy Commission, who argued with that the Indo-US nuclear accord of 2008, having granted India exception status from signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), thus guaranteeing continuing supplies of uranium ore from Kazakhstan, Russia and Australia membership of the NSG was big deal since sales of Indian nuclear reactors abroad for the production of power was far from being a national priority. Perhaps NSG membership became an issue of prestige. After much work, cascading words and over-hyped expectations that China, resolutely opposed to India’s NSG, would come round to supporting India. Men and women policymakers in Delhi have yet to pierce the Chinese puzzle, if puzzle it is. Why make a mountain out of a mole hill? Beijing has made it clear time and again that its ‘all-weather friendship’ with Pakistan is cast in stone on the soil of abiding hatred of India. This conforms to the spirit and grammar of the Sino-Pakistan Treaty of Friendship. To believe that the Inter Services Directorate of Pakistan does not work in tandem with likeminded Chinese body is utter naivety. It most assuredly does, and it will continue to do so. Once this is fully understood the road ahead will be less strewn with obstacles and anxieties. Terrorist attacks on Indian sites emanating from Pakistan have China’s full support. China’s footprint in Pakistan is minimally driven commercial goals; its goal in South Asia is the containment of India within the prescribed limits of the subcontinent, and to keep it distracted, weak and confused.
The Global Times, the mouthpiece of China’s govern published a stern, condescending lecture to India, in the lofty, disdain the Middle Kingdom has traditionally adopted towards its tributaries down the ages. The Global Times advised India to grow up and display the maturity of China. China had taken its failure to become a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in its stride, while India has gained admission to the group, despite its economy being five times the size of India’s, sneered The Global Times. The West had apparently turned India’s head with its perceived indulgence towards India. India could expect no advantage from such patronage..
Beijing would help its cause with better manners when international leaders and celebrities chose to meet with the Dalai Lama show him the courtesy his moral and spiritual stature merits. Respect will earn through emollient behavior, not by intimidation. What say the modern Confucians?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going about constructing a foreign policy platform that puts down markers on the ground that will yield appropriate dividends in the fullness of time. For instance, on his return home from his successful visit to the United States, Mr Modi was on the phone to President Vladimir Putin explaining the goals of the demarche and reaffirming India’s time-tested bonding with Russia. He subsequently met Mr Putin in Tashkent on 24 June, where both leaders agreed to take the Indo-Russian relationship forward with expanded cooperation in space, petrochemicals, nuclear power and defence.
As part of India’s strategic regional architecture, India has handed over to Vietnam supplies of advanced Varunastra electric powered torpedoes, patrol boats for the Vietnamese navy, in addition to the mooted supersonic BrahMos cruise missiles which India has jointly designed and manufactured with Russia. India is also training Vietnamese pilots on the Sukhoi 30MKI aircraft. Vietnam’s defence capabilities are being beefed up with active Indian assistance. In February 1979, when China invaded Vietnam it was repelled in a fortnight. The Vietnamese army decimated a Chinese force in Cambodia propping up the genocidal Pol Pot regime. There is talk also of selling the BrahMos to Indonesia and the Philippines, all of whom are increasingly concerned at China’s aggressive posturing on disputes pertaining to the rites of passage in the South China Sea. India is Vietnam’s ‘all-weather friend.’ The 21st century Great Game has been well and truly joined.
India-UK free trade deal may follow Brexit
The captains of Indian industry are hopeful that, following Brexit the way may be opened for a free trade alignment with India. As both countries share complementary features in their economies, India has fewer sensitivities in reaching a fair trade agreement (FTA) with Britain than it does with the European Union with whom talks have bore no fruit. ‘Sectors such as automobiles will not be as sensitive in an FTA with the UK as with the EU because the UK is not into manufacturing too many small cars,’ said Naushad Forbes, President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CIII).
He favoured India continuing talks with the EU as the region was significant for the future growth of Indian industry. Whatever the economic cross-currents and crossovers between the EU and the UK this was a ‘very small portion of India’s business with either party.
Mr Forbes welcomed the recent changes in India’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regime, saying this will attract more investments into the country, and that the only still needed to be done was to make the flow automatic in areas where it was mandated through the government approval route. In rest such as legal services, the government needed to open up and allow FDI to come in.
There were two other developments to which India Inc has responded positively. The first is the significant hike in government pay and pensions by the Seventh Pay Commission. The housing sector expects a major boost from increasing purchases of properties leading to a quantum jump in home loans.
The second development that has sent business into a buzz is the executive decree permitting malls, cinema multiplexes, shops, convenient stores and restaurants to remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Retail jobs may rise by 40 per cent as a result of these measures.‘Retail and hospitality are the key sectors that will benefit from this kind of flexibility directly and immediately,’ said Moorthy Uppaluri, Managing Director and CEO, Randstad India. Kumar Rajagopalachari CEO, Retailers Association of India, said that the number of people employed in the retail sector could increase 50 per cent by 2020. Most encouraging.
Dalit girl conquers adversity
Being a Dalit girl in a poverty stricken Dalit family is to understand the true meaning of despair. Narasama is such a girl. Her parents are illiterate construction labours barely eking a living through back breaking toil. She managed to gain admission into a school in Telangana and live in one of the hostels run by the Telangana state government. Having excelled at school, Narasama entered the prestigious Azam Premji University in Bangaluru, where she will be studying for a degree in Physics. She won a place for one of the university’s 30 free seats for deserving students unable to afford the fees.
‘The competitive spirit in my school and college helped me. I want to pursue higher education and take up teaching,’ she explains in fluent English. Narasama’s achievement has been extraordinary, more so as she lost her father when a mere nine years old in a contruction accident in Mumbai. Her mother went through an arduous struggle to bring up Narasama and her two school-going brothers. The family lived in a village named Dharmalipera in Adilabad district. ‘There was a buzz about the social welfare residential schools, so we all wanted to study,’ she says. She was unable to afford the trip to Bangaluru for the felicitations of the varsity alumni. She didn’t have the clothes either. They raised the money for both – the door to a future of promise finally opened.
‘She is going to be our role model for other children in our institutions as she has secured admission into the Azim Premji University. Through ‘Swaroes’ we have formed a common education fund to support students like Narasama,’said R.S. Praveen Kumar, Secretary,Telangana Social Welfare Resident Schools (TSWRS).This is an uplifting story. While poverty alleviation, including social disadvantage in India has made considerable strides, albeit unevenly, the pace can surely be quickened to a leap forward. The thirst for education appears insatiable. More jobs, higher pay, harder work have combined to make India’s transformation a living reality. The engine is now unstoppable.
